Post #718774 by EPCOTExplorer on Fri, May 30, 2014 6:17 PM

WONDERFUL, wonderful shots of my favorite resort.

And yes, Rolly Crump did the ORIGINAL Tiki Room sculpts that were replicated for the Polynesian. I've heard tell that Oceanic Arts replicated them on a smaller scale for the Florida property. Something interesting is that Uti was "flipped" in translation. The original version had her right arm aloft. Poly's version has it to the left. I've got a blog post on her:

http://bit.ly/1bkT4zX :)

As for the other carvings found around the resort: Oceanic Arts did a lot of the original work. The signs, the statues, the wall hangings are all done by them in the 70s. Dunno about the Boutiki stuff- I suspect that was done in house by WDI, as the they were added in 1999-2001.

The same goes for the Volcano Pool. That's not original, the first iteration was much more organic and flowing.

http://epcotexplorer.tumblr.com/post/39262327598/polynesian-pool-artwork-from-the-1969-walt

As for changes… I could see the carpet changing, yes, but the stonework will stay, according to the art. And I would suspect that the 'black hole' of the roof/ceiling will be brightly lit to show off the new japanese floaters they'll have up there.

It'll look great. A shame to lose history, but it'll be a nice new look. I'm sad, but excited.

[ Edited by: EPCOTExplorer 2014-05-30 18:18 ]