When it came time for my winter trip to Disney World, I was thrilled to have an excuse to check out the Island Tower at Polynesian. In this post, I’ll review my stay in a Duo Studio in the Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows. Let’s find out whether this compact option within walking distance of Magic Kingdom delivers!
Booking My Stay
My main goal for this visit was to visit Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. I was solo this trip (Zoe picked the Halloween party this year).
My preference for Magic Kingdom party nights these days is to be at a monorail resort (Polynesian, Contemporary, or Grand Floridian). I’ve had plenty of nights go just fine when I had to leave park by bus late at night, but I feel better knowing I’ll be able to walk to my hotel after the event. We tried Wilderness Lodge for a party a year or two ago, and I found the boat inconvenient in that situation.
I’ll often do a split stay in situations like this because I don’t want to pay deluxe prices for multiple nights when just care about getting home the one night of the party. This visit was a split stay with the Walt Disney World Swan (FWIW—the Swan bus to Magic Kingdom drops off at TTC, which is walkable to Polynesian without going through security. I moved my own luggage, so security would have been annoying.)
Since the Island Tower is pretty new and has the low-occupancy Duo Studios, it was the perfect option for this solo trip. I reached out to my choice travel advisor, Lauren Quick of Travel With Character LLC, and booked the single night in an Island Tower Duo Studio with Premium View for $660.60. This was an annual passholder offer rate, I believe the rack rate was around $824, so I got a 20% discount.
The Bamboo Forest Terrace in the Island Tower
Island Tower Basics
Stick with me here. The Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows is a new tower in Walt Disney World that debuted in December 2024. As the name says, it’s at “Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows”, which is the Disney Vacation Club companion to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.
Is you’re not a DVC member, that’s fine, neither am I. For our purposes, the rooms at Polynesian Villas—including the Island Tower—are just a different type of room at Polynesian. You share pools, restaurants, transportation, and everything else. You get all the perks of a Disney resort stay. When you go to Disney’s resort page, they just show up in the same big list of room types. Since they’re DVC rooms, you might consider renting DVC points to book them, something I won’t discuss here.
I’ll discuss more about the Island Tower specifically below. For right now, I just want to note that the Island Tower has its own entrance and lobby, which during some limited hours (more on this below) is staffed by its own team of valet, bell services, and guest services Cast Members.
I have a separate review of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, including the standard resort rooms and all the hotel’s amenities etc. The post you’re reading now focuses mostly on the Duo Studio at the Island Tower, with some discussion of the Island Tower more generally.
With that said, let’s just dive right into this room.
Polynesian Villas Island Tower Duo Studio
Note: Due to a late night arrival, daytime photos in this post were taken after I’d lightly used the room. Most notably, the bed in the daytime photos was made up by me, a non-professional.
It’s not uncommon for me to forget what room category I’ve booked heading into a trip. In this case, I remembered I was staying in the Island Tower, but I didn’t remember anything else (i.e. I didn’t remember I’d booked a Duo Studio). With that in mind, my very first impression was “whoa, this is small.”
Of course, that’s not a complaint, because I’d booked a Duo Studio—a small room. This room category only fits up to 2 adults in a single queen-size, pull-down bed. (Most sources suggest you could also have a kid under 3 years old in a crib, too, but I’d confirm at the time of booking.)
In any case, it’s a little jarring to walk in and immediately have the bathroom sink to your left.
That aside, let’s talk about the overall aesthetic of the room as we take a look around.
The rooms retain the Moana theme present in other parts of the resort, but it’s more subtle than the theming of the non-DVC rooms.
In particular, the core of the theming is the art that’s over the couch (daytime mode)
and the bed (nighttime mode).
The room is incredibly textured, which helps it avoid the “hospital room” pitfall that some Disney World rooms fell into some years back. (A problem with textured surfaces, like on the drawers and ottomans, is that they’ll wear and chip faster, but that’s a tomorrow problem.)
The color scheme is a little muted for my taste. Overall it is a very calm room, which on an often-chaotic Disney World vacation has a lot of value. This is particularly true for DVC members, for whom a “home away from home” vibe is more important.
But I’d like to see some warmer color makes it way into the room a little more.
The couch converts back and forth between a bed pretty easily—believe me, I wound up doing it like a dozen times getting these photos.
There was no readily accessible pillow when I got into the room, so I had to use the “Extra” pillow from the closet.
The kitchenette came equipped with all the usual DVC offerings, including cutlery and dishes. There’s also a Keurig, which I’ll remind you should be standard across all Disney World rooms, but no one listens to me.
I’m always a bit puzzled by the lack of disposable cups in the DVC rooms—do DVC members not take their coffee to go?
As I alluded to at the beginning of this room review, there’s no getting around the fact that the bathroom is oddly setup. When you enter the room, the bathroom sink and vanity area are immediately to your left.
Immediately to your right is the water closet plus shower.
If you’re not understanding the layout, the earlier wide shots of the room can probably help. For a small room intended for only two people, I think this layout is acceptable, even if a little awkward.
One thing I absolutely loved about the room was the shower. I’ve taken lots of hotel showers (though, to be fair, my one prior to this was in the Swan’s locker room), and I can’t recall ever being so happy with a hotel shower.
I had no issues operating it, quickly got it to the (warm) temperature I desired, and found the high pressure absolutely wonderful. I tend to be a pretty efficient showerer, but I was impressed this one gave clean feel—after a run—within only about 30 seconds.
Finally, let’s turn to the other aspect of the room I loved—the balcony. The views were just awesome, particularly at sunrise.
This was a “Premium View” room, which promises “Views of Seven Seas Lagoon.” And indeed, my direct view was onto the Seven Seas Lagoon, with the Polynesian Bungalows to the right side, Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower in the middle, and Space Mountain to the left.
The balcony is recessed a bit, due to the design of the tower. This didn’t bother me, and it’s honestly hard to grab a wide photo that doesn’t make it look worse than it was. But you can see the recess isn’t too deep.
If I put a bit of effort in, I was also able to get a view from the balcony that included Cinderella Castle. If you’re still reading, you deserve to know the room was 8306, however helpful that is in making a room request.
Notably, the tower also has “Theme Park View” rooms that promise “Views of Magic Kingdom Park and Seven Seas Lagoon”. This, again, was not a Theme Park View room, presumably because it didn’t have a direct enough angle at Magic Kingdom.
Practicalities of Staying In the Polynesian Island Tower
The Island Tower is at the far west end of the Polynesian resort. You’re about a 5-minute walk from the Great Ceremonial House (home to most restaurants, monorail, buses) and the main pool. You’re 10 minutes from the east end of the resort, which also includes a path to TTC (in case you want to walk right to the EPCOT monorail).
Crop of Polynesian Map - Island Tower boxed on left, Great Ceremonial House boxed center (Map Copyright Disney, Fair Use Claimed)
The positive of this location is that you’re closer to Magic Kingdom. Google puts it at a 25-minute walk from the Island Tower to Magic Kingdom, I did it in about 20. Or, put in another perspective, the Island Tower is about 5 minutes from Grand Floridian Resort, which you’ll walk through heading to Magic Kingdom.
If you don’t want to make the 5-minute journey to the Great Ceremonial House, there is a pool right outside the Island Tower, complete with a Moana boat splash area (not pictured).
The Island Tower also is home to its own restaurant, Wailulu Bar & Grill.
One other advantage to the Island Tower is that it is home to Polynesian’s brand new Fitness Center. It didn’t really dawn on me that Poly didn’t used to have a fitness center, but indeed, this is new for the resort.
Overall, running around Polynesian and Grand Floridian is fine for a few miles, but I opted for the treadmill to get in my morning 6-miler.
If you’re looking for non-lobby space to lounge, the Island Tower is also home to a collection of terraces. You can see a photo I took of the Bamboo Forest Terrace near the top of this post.
I’ve got one final note about the Island Tower location. I checked in at about 2PM and my room wasn’t ready (check-in isn’t until 4PM, no complaints here). I left my one piece of luggage with the bell services person at the tower and then headed to Magic Kingdom for the Christmas party.
Returning to the Island Tower around midnight, I was disappointed but unsurprised to find no Cast Members in the lobby. I could have gone to my room and called guest services or bell services, but that has its own pitfalls, so I just made the 5 minute walk to the Great Ceremonial House.
There, after a few minutes, I was able to chat with a Cast Member who—though he recognized this would require some steps on his team’s part—promised to get my bags to my room within 15 to 20 minutes. Indeed, the bag arrived within 20 minutes.
These are just the sort of small things that happen when you’re staying at a DVC tower at the far end of the property. Of course you’ll find someone who reports “I didn’t even need to visit the main building at all!”, but then it’s 12AM and you find yourself tracking down your luggage.
A Look at Pricing at Polynesian
Let’s take a look at a list of nightly rates for a random summer 2026 night at Polynesian, including the hotel, Island Tower, and non-Tower Villas:
Tower - Duo Studio - Resort View - $633
Tower - Duo Studio - Premium View - $790
Tower - Deluxe Studio - Resort View - $849
Hotel - Resort View - $849
Villas (Non-Tower) - Deluxe Studio - Resort View - $849
Tower - Deluxe Studio - Theme Park View - $1203
Hotel - Theme Park View - $1204
There are some interesting points in here. First, the Duo Studio is over $200 per night cheaper than the next-least expensive options in the hotel (which are all non-coincidentally identically priced at $849 for this example). Even with a “Premium View”, like the one I had, you’re coming in over $50 cheaper than the other options.
As I noted, my “Premium View” actually had some views of Magic Kingdom. Again, there’s no guarantee you’ll get such a view with a Premium View room, and I can’t say whether my Premium View was one of the best, worst, or somewhere in between. But still, it’s notable that these Premium View Duo Studios come in around $400 cheaper than official Theme Park View options.
It’s hard to call the Duo Studio pricing “a steal” because you’re still paying $600+ per night. But when you consider the pricing relative to the rest of Polynesian Village, there’s a ton to like.
Conclusion
I was very happy with my stay in Polynesian’s Island Tower Duo Studio, especially for that price around the monorail.
Overall my impression of the room is that it’s well designed for whom it’s catering to. As a solo traveler, I thought the room was great. And I suspect that Emily and I would feel the same on a couple-only trip.
The theming is a shade gentler than the deeper Moana hotel rooms, but that’s okay because these rooms are meant more for adults than for children (keeping in mind that yes, I know Disney/Moana geeks come in all shapes, sizes, and ages).
I’ve been a huge fan of most of Disney’s latest rooms, and this continues that trend. I think they go big theme when they need to, and I think when they pull back they make sure it’s not too much. Disney seems to have a strong sense that their hotel rooms need to feel like Disney rooms. That’s the mark this room hits well, aesthetically. It feels Disney without overdoing it.
Functionally, I don’t ask for much more than a good shower, a Keurig, and plenty of surface space so I can dump out my park bag between outings. The room gets good marks on those points, plus any other relevant points.
You might complain about the size and “only” having a pull-down bed, or about the quirky layout, but then you’ve kind of lost the plot. This is as close to a “budget” option as you find at a Disney deluxe hotel.
There’s no “objective” when it comes to analyzing Disney monorail hotel rooms, it’s all relative. If I consider another Poly room, at $849, and someone shows me this room and says “I can do $660, but it’ll be this,” then I’m giving a thumbs up every time.
This is a room that delivers on form, function, and—as much as you’ll find around the monorail—price. I hope to be back one day.
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