Following the demolition of the Spirit of Aloha building, Disney is constructing a new Disney Vacation Club wing at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. Foundation work has begun on the new building and dirt piles have been moved around the construction site.
Construction is taking place right next to another Polynesian building, with a tarp-covered fence separating the two.
Several trucks and two construction vehicles were parked at the far end of the construction site when we recently rode by on the Monorail.
Caution tape outlines trenches dug into the ground. A line of concrete barriers cuts into the site.
There are multiple diggers at the site carving out the trenches.
There are also several large piles of dirt.
We saw one digger working on a pile.
A steel archway has been installed where vehicles enter and exit the construction site.
A few blue dumpsters sit next to the dirt piles for extraneous rubble.
More concrete barriers are staged for later use.
This scaffolding archway has been on the construction site for several months.
This tall equipment is a pile driver for the installation of foundational pilings.
Pilings are often used for foundations, especially in areas where the water table is high. Florida’s water table is particularly high, so this is a common practice in construction here.
The yellow barriers just past the shoreline are known as turbidity curtains. They are typically weighted at the bottom to hinder sediments from entering the Seven Seas Lagoon.
A portion of the beach is closed during construction.
“It’s no secret that our Members and Guests love the monorail resorts at Walt Disney World,” said Bill Diercksen, senior vice president and general manager of Disney Vacation Club about the new building. “Expanding our Disney Vacation Club offerings at the Polynesian would give our Members and Guests yet another incredible option for staying close to the magic while making vacation memories that last a lifetime.”
The new building is inspired by the early concepts for Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, which was reminiscent of the luxury hotels on Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach. Projected to open in late 2024, the proposed vacation ownership property would complement the existing resort and evoke the spirit of the Pacific Islands.
The Spirit of Aloha dinner show closed in March 2020 alongside the rest of Walt Disney World Resort during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While most operations have returned to normal, the show was among those that never returned.
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