Poly boat noise

[4 mickey]

Hi
For those poly dvc owners truth be told I read so much bad stuff about boat noise any time of day
i have to say in the daytime I wouldnt carethat much
But is it true noises at night / earlymorning is bad ??

Since Grand floridian is so hard to buy in ( not even that much in resale ) I have friends who where thinking about poly .. But now have to say they are reconsidering
And thinking about waiting for a grand floridian contract
Thanks for your feedback / experiences

 

[dvc at last !]

I would like to know about the noise also .......

 

[DVC Doctor]

I can tell you that the boat horn noise is SIGNIFICANT depending on your location. If you are in the bungalows or lake view rooms close to the TTS and are a light sleeper - then this will suck. The noise seems to bounce off the water and amplify and like a rock concert and believe you me, you will hear it.

I can definitely state that the garden or standard view rooms have minimal or ZERO horn noise issues.

 

[VrBchJ]

I scoffed at initial reports about the boat horn noise. That is until I stayed at the Poly and heard it for myself. It really gets annoying. I'm an early sleeper and I felt as if I'd just fall asleep and the horn would blast me awake.

 

[suebeelin]

I scoffed at initial reports about the boat horn noise. That is until I stayed at the Poly and heard it for myself. It really gets annoying. I'm an early sleeper and I felt as if I'd just fall asleep and the horn would blast me awake.

Were you lake view or std room? We are thinking moorea std but it's sooooo close to the TT center!! Tokelau seems like a better bet even if there is construction during work hours. Any advice?

 

[dizfan]

Add us to the list that dealt with the PVB ferry horns. We were 3rd floor slightly off center away from the TTC in Moorea Lake view. IMHO, the resort boat horns are pleasant. The ferry horns were far worse than I remember. Admittedly, when I stayed at Poly in the 80's, the parks were not open nearly as late so the ferry horns would not have been nearly as bad then.

During our May stay, we heard ferry horns as late as 1am. They also started blasting anywhere from 5am-5:45am. The worst was when two ferry captains decided to toot their horns back and forth at each other before 6am.

I believe the rooms near TTC and the high floors have the worst amount of noise. Lower floors would at least have the bungalows and landscaping absorbing some of the noise. (If I remember correctly, horns blast when departing and when they pass each other in the middle of the lake). Additionally, some rooms may have received a reasonable amount of sound proofing, while others did not.

It is very likely some Tokelau rooms facing Moorea that hear the ferry horns. These rooms would face Moorea and be closer to the lake. I'm pretty sure there are a couple posts of people staying in Tokelua rooms in this area where they complained about the ferry boat noise.

Is the decibel level and duration of the horns determined by the size of the vessel? I know maritime law requires them to blast the horns when departing, passing, and maybe even when arriving. It would be nice if they could lower the decibels in half. It would still be plenty loud enough for the captains and anyone on the water to hear.

 

[BillPA]

To have nice quiet room, turn off your hearing aid, if you don't need one, stay somewhere else.

 

[VrBchJ]

Were you lake view or std room? We are thinking moorea std but it's sooooo close to the TT center!! Tokelau seems like a better bet even if there is construction during work hours. Any advice?

We were LV Morrea. Perfect view for Wishes but so far from GCH. Very near TTC. Hence the boat noise.

 

[DVC Doctor]

I personally think the boat captains LOVE to sound that LOUD horn, especially really early and really late at night as to alert everyone...yes dammit if I am awake, so must you

 

[DenLo]

Jersey gal, we are loving our Poly studio stay! Weather has been hot, and last evening real thunderstorms kept us in the room, so we missed our FP + for Illuminations viewing, no problem, we had great views of Wishes from our room. I need to get the music on my iPad.

The laundry app works and laundry baskets are provided.

We hear the boat horns and they do not diminish the experience at all.

On Sunday we will be meeting others who are going on DVC's Member Cruise. Today and tonight we have friends who live in FL coming. We got them a Lake View studio as well, I know they will love it as much as we do!

Bev ( coming tonight with her DH ) and I are born jersey gals as well! We have been friends since Kindergarten, 1952!

Bobbi

This post was made this past week by bobbiwoz who is now on the member cruise. It doesn't sound like everyone thinks the horns are too loud at PVB.

 

[YourEveryDayAdam]

I stayed 3rd Floor Lake View room at PVB in June. You could definitely hear the boat horns. I could also see them being a problem for people who are light sleepers. They went pretty late (after midnight) and started pretty early (before 6AM).

I consider myself to be an average sleeper. Not a particularly heavy sleeper, and not a particularly light sleeper. My experience was that I remember hearing the boat noises as I was falling asleep (that time after the lights are out, but before you lose consciousness), but once I was asleep, I didn't have any problem. Best way to put it is that it maybe took me another 5 minutes to fall asleep, but then once I was asleep they never woke me up.

If you are a light sleeper, then you will definitely have issues. The boat horns are definitely pretty audible about every 5-10 minutes.

If you are worried about the noise, then I would book a standard view room and request a low floor. My understanding from other posts and other people's experiences is that these rooms don't have the noise issue as they are isolated from the noise enough.

 

[MsTessP]

I've never stayed at Poly, but I have stayed Boardwalk view at BWV. Is everyone saying that the ferry horns are louder than the Friendship boats? I have found that the sound machine app on my phone does a fine job in filtering out any noise from outside the room. If the ferries are considerably louder than the Friendship boats, then there still may be an issue, especially if the room walls and windows lack soundproofing.

I'm actually more concerned about the inability to keep the room on the cooler side. I've seen folks say that they were not able to adjust the AC at Poly to lower than 72 deg. Does anyone have an update on that?

 

[YourEveryDayAdam]

I've never stayed at Poly, but I have stayed Boardwalk view at BWV. Is everyone saying that the ferry horns are louder than the Friendship boats? I have found that the sound machine app on my phone does a fine job in filtering out any noise from outside the room. If the ferries are considerably louder than the Friendship boats, then there still may be an issue, especially if the room walls and windows lack soundproofing.

I think the volume of the boat horns themselves is the same, I think it's just that the rooms in the Poly have inadequate sound proofing. Typically in other rooms on property, if you shut the door to the balcony, it's generally very silent from outside noise except for very loud noises (fireworks, the pool parties with the loud speakers, etc.).

The rooms in the Poly don't have the sound proofing typical at the other WDW resorts that if you close the balcony door you can't really hear anything.

 

[dizfan]

I've never stayed at Poly, but I have stayed Boardwalk view at BWV. Is everyone saying that the ferry horns are louder than the Friendship boats? I have found that the sound machine app on my phone does a fine job in filtering out any noise from outside the room. If the ferries are considerably louder than the Friendship boats, then there still may be an issue, especially if the room walls and windows lack soundproofing.

I'm actually more concerned about the inability to keep the room on the cooler side. I've seen folks say that they were not able to adjust the AC at Poly to lower than 72 deg. Does anyone have an update on that?

The ferry boat horns are significantly longer and deeper pitch than the Friendship boat horns. IMHO, Friendship boat horns are peaceful toot toots (maybe 1 second total duration). I forget how long the worst of the ferry boat horns was, but think it was around 4 seconds long. I believe each ferry boat is programmed with a different duration so they can tell which one by the sound.
I believe as we age, we start losing hearing of the higher pitch frequencies.
I read one very recent report where he was close to the TTC. He had multiple devices running white noise. He still had a lot of problems with the ferry noise.

As for the AC, I remember reading some instructions to override the temp. When we were there in early May, our room was fine.

 

[DenLo]

There are two different ferries involved at the Poly. The small ferry that goes to GF/Poly/MK and the large ferries that travel between MK/TTC. The ferries going to the TTC blow their horns a couple of times when coming around the island that is in front of the bungalows and again when it approaches the dock. Then they also blow the horn when getting ready to depart. It is true these large ferries have much louder horns. They are much louder than the Friendship Boat horns which are similar to the resort ferry's horn. I have not heard the horns inside a PVB villa, nor noticed them inside the buildings, but have heard them from the new Sunset Point with a view over the bungalows and it was very loud.

View of the rebuilt Sunset Point

IMO Disney needs to change the decibels on the large ferry's horns.

It sounds like if you are a light sleeper or cannot adapt to a different sounds that you do not have at home, it would be hard for you to sleep at PVB. Or bring ear plugs to sleep with.

 

[coastalhh]

Depends on the time of year. At Christmas MK can be open from 7am to 3am. Boats go about an hour before and hour after so you would have 4am to 6am without horns on those days.

Many times of the year the park is only open 9am to 9 or 10pm.

So it would be most annoying during the big holidays when it's open very long hours.

 

[dizfan]

...I think it's just that the rooms in the Poly have inadequate sound proofing. Typically in other rooms on property, if you shut the door to the balcony, it's generally very silent from outside noise except for very loud noises (fireworks, the pool parties with the loud speakers, etc.)

I agree with you. I believe they are not nearly as well sound proofed as they were prior to being converted to DVC.
My DM was in Moorea around 2011. We visited and watched the fireworks from here balcony. The ferry boats were not nearly as noticeable when the sliding doors were closed. I believe DW and I stayed 2 rooms away from the room my DM was in.

They completely gutted the PVB longhouses and supposedly replaced the sliding doors. I suspect some rooms have good soundproofing, while others did not receive the same amount of insulation. Quality can vary by worker, when they did the work, and many other variables.

 

[deedisneydream97]

We were in the very last room in Moorea, 34d floor, lake view, furthest away from the ferry, and DH heard them at 5:15 a.m. Sliding doors were closed. The little boats are no problem. Although I am hard of hearing. The friendship boats at BWV never disturb either of us.

 

[JWG]

I assume Poly buyers have stayed there as hotel guests in the past. There was such a desire to own there that I believed it to be based on prior experience and memories. How could the horn issue not have been known given there were hotel rooms there all along?

 

[dizfan]

I assume Poly buyers have stayed there as hotel guests in the past. There was such a desire to own there that I believed it to be based on prior experience and memories. How could the horn issue not have been known given there were hotel rooms there all along?

When converted to DVC, the rooms were gutted. Tikiman even indicated the sliding doors were replaced. The insulation and sound proofing that was there before is irrelevant to the sound proofing that is there after the rehab.