TikimanPages - The Unofficial Polynesian Resort Pages

The Polynesian Village was born in 1971. Construction started in February 1971 and was completed August 1971. It was supposed to be a 12- story high-rise hotel in the center of a lagoon where guests rooms were clustered around small streams, a pool fed by waterfalls, a helt club, high-ceiling "South Sea" dining room located atop the hotel and a skindiving lagoon. Many of these ideas changed and others made it to the opening in 1971 but were removed shortly after.

The hotel was planned by WED Enterprises, designed by Weldon Becket & Associates, and constructed by U.S. Steel to be leased back to Walt Disney Hotel Company to operate them. After Walt's death they changed the plans and decided to own the hotels instead of leasing them. As we know now the Polynesian never became the high-rise hotel it was designed to be. The original concept seen here on a post card that never made it to the stores and below in the rendering and below in the rendering shows the highrise surrounded by longhouses. There were always influences to make the resort more traditional to the island culture. One of the more recent influences on the design of the Polynesian was a resort in Maui called the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel. U.S. Steel Corp. came up with the idea to make the rooms lighter and to construct them offsite. Just about everything was built in the rooms down to the air system, wallpaper, carpet and all plumbing and electrical. All they had to do was slide the rooms into place and plug them in. This was so they could redesign rooms and have them ready to plug in by taking out the other rooms. Later it was discovered this was too difficult to do and the rooms are no longer able to be slid back out. The later construction at the Polyensian was done different and the rooms were not built like the original rooms were.

Here is a photo of Joseph Dembeck , president of USS , Chairman of the board Edwin Gott and Austin Paddock, administrative vice president-fabricating division of USS looking at a model for the rooms of the Contemporary and the Polynesian. The rooms were to measure 29 feet by 14 feet 4 inches. They were designed to be stacked three units high without additional structural support (which is why today’s Polynesian resort is no larger than 3 stories.

From the U.S. Steel Corp document dated Wednesday, April 30, 1969 (for release after 9:00 AM) is a description of the construction.

"The vertical steel supports will be covered on the inside of the room with gypsum board and a wall finish that will convey the motif of the respective theme hotel. The floor will utilize a light gauge steel deck with fill and then carpeted. Above the gypsum board ceiling, utility lines will connect room outlets that will be interconnected with other rooms after the units are set in place in the steel structural hotel frame. When set in place, the rooms are secured with a unique interlock system and the plumbing and utility lines are connected. As each room will have a two-hour fire rating, the exterior structural frame of the theme hotels will not require fireproofing. Each room can sleep five people, thereby allowing entire families to share one room. The oversized powder room, featuring twin wash basins, is designed larger than a standard hotel bathroom. The rooms will way 6 tons each – far less than the 30 ton modular hotel rooms that have been built using other construction materials."

The design of the Polynesian comes from many Pacific Island designs. The Disney designers spent time in places like Samoa,Tahiti,and Hawaii to come up with the designs. The design for the Great Ceremonial House (GCH) was inspired by the royal assembly lodges in Tahiti. The longhouses were designed after authentic Hawaiian longhouses and is the reason the original houses did not have balconies outside their rooms.

The picture to the right shows the construction site for the Polynesian in 1970. In the far distance you can see the Contemporary being constructed. The once peaceful lagoon will be no longer.

One of those things that did not last was the wave machine placed off the shore of Beachcomber Isle in the lagoon for guests to play in the waves. The waves were not quite large enough to surf on but they added the sound of the ocean to the beach area over near Luau Cove. After very short time in operation, they shut it down because of beach erosion. It was again tested in 1985 but it was decided to dismantle it and it was removed from the shore of Beachcomber Isle.

Some other things that have come and gone from the Polynesian were the 40 foot war canoe that guests could rent and travel out to the islands in the lagoon. This early postcard was created before WDW opened and is a photo of a model that shows all the original ideas for the resorts along the shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.

There were also "bob-a-round" boats (which had their own stereo system) and last but not least was the Eastern Winds. This was a 65-foot Chinese junk (right) used as a cocktail lounge. It included a deck and cabin lounge areas, stateroom and serving hostesses.

The Eastern Winds was even rumored to have gone out on the lagoon and over to the islands. I found some interesting information about the Eastern Winds on this site eastern-winds-lounge blog or go visit Dave and Bill's main page by Clicking here.

As shown in this 1975 rendering by Carlos Diniz, World Showcase was to be a separate park, located adjacent to the Seven Seas Lagoon. It would have been right next to the Polynesian where the TTC is today.

Much of the information on this page came from United States Steel Corp. documents, Widen Your World and The Story of Walt Disney World. For more great history of WDW please visit Widen Your World. Now lets go to the next page and see how the Polynesian has grown.