I just got back, and wow, the amount of construction is crazy!
Downtown Disney is a mess, of course. The road is torn up. There are scaffolds and barriers everywhere. During the day it is incredibly loud because of the heavy equipment and power tools being used. And on Friday nights the traffic funneling in stretched all the way back to the highway turnoff (thankfully I had no intentions of shoving my way into it!).
Animal Kingdom is infested by barriers. There's a big one around the front perimeter of the tree, and another around the entirety of the lake below Everest.
Epcot and Hollywood Studios are largely free of the barriers (except for a rather obtrusive one on the main street of DHS), but so much is closed that it's hard not to notice.
The Polynesian barely resembles a resort, much less a deluxe one. The lobby has been reduced to a small corridor with giant curtains on one side, and your breakfast at Kona is likely to be interrupted by power tools (we ate there twice, and both times it was). The volcano is covered with scaffolding, and there are barriers all over the resort, particularly on the eastern edges.
Now I want to say, I'm all for this. Though I might quibble with this change or that, updating and refurbishment is largely a plus in my book. But I have the luxury of being a repeat visitor, and at that, one who spends half of each visit working amidst the sounds of forklifts and power tools at the OCCC. I do feel bad for the once-in-a-lifetime folks, though. It's a shame that some people's only experience with WDW will be colored by so much construction. And I feel bad for those who didn't entirely appreciate the level of construction at the Polynesian, and booked there anyway. I can't imagine it would be all that pleasant to spend a trip there.
In any case, I would guess that in the run-up to the 50th anniversary construction is going to be more pervasive than usual, but man, it's difficult to imagine much more than this.....
