"I think I'm in love, and her name is Polynesia..." an Aug/Sept '15 TR (NEW TR link @ end!)

[rteetz]

I have always wanted to stay at the Poly or any MK area resort for that matter. The new DVC rooms look great. I love the bathroom concept that they took from the cruise line I'm guessing that continues in future DVC projects.

That pizza and pulled pork sandwich look very good. I am not sure I would go for chicken and waffles. I am not one to mix breakfast foods with other things.

 

[Tinker326]

I can't WAIT to get to Poly! 119 days and counting!!!

I don't even need to be convinced to love it. I loved it since I first set foot in a room there in 2004.

Do you know, (I have heard)- do they serve Tonga Toast at Cap't Cooks for B-fast?

 

[skier_pete]

I have always wanted to stay at the Poly or any MK area resort for that matter. The new DVC rooms look great. I love the bathroom concept that they took from the cruise line I'm guessing that continues in future DVC projects.

That pizza and pulled pork sandwich look very good. I am not sure I would go for chicken and waffles. I am not one to mix breakfast foods with other things.

Chicken and Waffles is a southern/soul food staple, but I've never cared for it. (Though I LOVE breakfast for dinner!) The pulled pork sandwich was excellent, I really did want to eat there again but we never got the chance.

I really think the bathroom was more in line with "what do we do with all this space". The rooms at the Poly are large (430+ square feet) and made from giant pre-fab blocks, so they couldn't really re-configure them. For whatever reason, they thought it would better serve the studio to have more bathroom space. With how nice they are, I still would've preferred more living space than having 200 of my 430 square feet be bathroom and hallway. I feel like they were more trying to emulate the 1-bedroom DVC rooms, which would make people feel the point cost was justified.

I can't WAIT to get to Poly! 119 days and counting!!!

I don't even need to be convinced to love it. I loved it since I first set foot in a room there in 2004.

Do you know, (I have heard)- do they serve Tonga Toast at Cap't Cooks for B-fast?

That room will be great for the 5 of you, too! The girls will be fighting over who gets the trundle though! Enjoy!

I don't know the answer to your question - at least from personal experience, we did breakfast in our room every day except for once at O'Hana. The Tonga Toast never looked all that appealing to me anyways. Too overdose on sweet. (Yeah, I know you say "No such, thing Pete!" Ms. Cupcake!)

 

[jandlinz]

The Polynesian sounds like a dream. I hope one day to stay there.

 

[franandaj]

T Rex looks interesting but I doubt we'll ever eat there. I didn't realize thy had PP photographers at DTD.

After reading your comment about sundae toppings at B&C I asked Fran and her comment was "no peanuts", so we're good.

The Poly rooms look nice. I can't wait to experience that resort myself!

 

[Dentam]

The Poly was the resort we stayed at during our first ever visit to WDW back in '99. I love the rich colors they used in the new lobby and the rooms look just as incredible! I really want to stay here next time! I'm definitely going to look into renting points to make it happen. Thanks so much for all of the great pics of the room!

 

[Vernie822]

Drooling over those Beaches and Cream sundaes!! You are right, they are soooo huge, but so delicious. Love that DD barely touched her hot dog so that she had room for a sundae.. Smart kid!!

I agree on Disney Springs - we were kind of done after a little shopping. Absolutely love those plates - I saw them in the Poly gift shop and thought they were awesome! We did go to Jock Lindsey's and take some pics (we were there last week and it's fully open). REALLY cool place! I'm not too into Indiana Jones so I'm sure Indy fans can really appreciate that place. It was so neat inside, and the CMs let us take pictures. Definitely a cool atmosphere and you could totally take your daughter there I'm sure.

We stayed at the Poly in a DVC room this trip too and I totally agree - I'm in love with Polynesia as well. We just bought a resale contract but I tried telling my fiance we needed to buy a Poly contract too.. it really is so lovely! Your pulled pork sandwich looks outstanding - we ended up with a grilled chicken sandwich and the pulled pork nachos there, both were good. Everything about that room made me want to live there. Maybe just in one of the bathrooms if they would let me.

I even thought the trundle bed had a lot of space - perfect spot for DD!

 

[Vernie822]

I can't WAIT to get to Poly! 119 days and counting!!!

I don't even need to be convinced to love it. I loved it since I first set foot in a room there in 2004.

Do you know, (I have heard)- do they serve Tonga Toast at Cap't Cooks for B-fast?

Not to steal @skier_pete 's TR but we were there last week and they DO have Tonga Toast at Captain Cook's! Around $7 and you also get sausage or bacon. It does not come with the strawberry sauce like at Kona though. I was excited that they had it since I was torn between the macadamia pineapple pancakes @ Kona, so I could try both - The macadamia pineapple pancakes were amazing.

 

[DisneyJo]

Your Poly room looks wonderful and oh what a view

 

[skier_pete]

The Polynesian sounds like a dream. I hope one day to stay there.

Staying on points is the way to go. Couldn't imagine paying full price for it, no matter how much I loved it.

T Rex looks interesting but I doubt we'll ever eat there. I didn't realize thy had PP photographers at DTD.

After reading your comment about sundae toppings at B&C I asked Fran and her comment was "no peanuts", so we're good.

The Poly rooms look nice. I can't wait to experience that resort myself!

Yuk - peanuts on a sundae. My least favorite topping.

We saw a lot of PP photos in places we hadn't seen them before. (The last time we were in the water parks they only had one PP, this time we saw several different locations in each park.) DTD was definitely a new one for me too!

I betting your Poly trip will be wonderful!

The Poly was the resort we stayed at during our first ever visit to WDW back in '99. I love the rich colors they used in the new lobby and the rooms look just as incredible! I really want to stay here next time! I'm definitely going to look into renting points to make it happen. Thanks so much for all of the great pics of the room!

Thanks! The rooms are really impressive. I do have to say they did an effective job of making rooms that are worth the extra points. One thing that turns me off to the idea of BLT are they are the smallest studio rooms of all the DVC resorts. I still want to try it someday, but the size raises a red flag at the idea of ever getting points there.

Drooling over those Beaches and Cream sundaes!! You are right, they are soooo huge, but so delicious. Love that DD barely touched her hot dog so that she had room for a sundae.. Smart kid!!

I agree on Disney Springs - we were kind of done after a little shopping. Absolutely love those plates - I saw them in the Poly gift shop and thought they were awesome! We did go to Jock Lindsey's and take some pics (we were there last week and it's fully open). REALLY cool place! I'm not too into Indiana Jones so I'm sure Indy fans can really appreciate that place. It was so neat inside, and the CMs let us take pictures. Definitely a cool atmosphere and you could totally take your daughter there I'm sure.

We stayed at the Poly in a DVC room this trip too and I totally agree - I'm in love with Polynesia as well. We just bought a resale contract but I tried telling my fiance we needed to buy a Poly contract too.. it really is so lovely! Your pulled pork sandwich looks outstanding - we ended up with a grilled chicken sandwich and the pulled pork nachos there, both were good. Everything about that room made me want to live there. Maybe just in one of the bathrooms if they would let me.

I even thought the trundle bed had a lot of space - perfect spot for DD!

It's hard not to fall in love with it, that's for sure. I think DW liked it, but maybe not quite as much as I did. I can't possibly justify a contact there. Spending $165 on points when I stayed there no problem with my measily $74 points tells me I shouldn't jump on a contract just yet!

Not to steal @skier_pete 's TR but we were there last week and they DO have Tonga Toast at Captain Cook's! Around $7 and you also get sausage or bacon. It does not come with the strawberry sauce like at Kona though. I was excited that they had it since I was torn between the macadamia pineapple pancakes @ Kona, so I could try both - The macadamia pineapple pancakes were amazing.

Steal away, @Vernie822 !!! At least for me, I read TR for entertainment, but also on the hopes that I might learn something I didn't know - so I apprecaite your response, and I'm sure @Tinker326 does too!

Your Poly room looks wonderful and oh what a view

I would've spent a lot more time on the patio admiring the view if it hadn't been so friggin' muggy.

 

[mlegerto]

Howdy Neighbour! Now I see how close we actually were staying when you moved over to the Poly! Gooooo Moorea!

Can't blame you for falling in love with the Poly. I did to. Don't know how I will ever stay anywhere else. I'm not ruined!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[skier_pete]

Howdy Neighbour! Now I see how close we actually were staying when you moved over to the Poly! Gooooo Moorea!

Can't blame you for falling in love with the Poly. I did to. Don't know how I will ever stay anywhere else. I'm not ruined!

Can't wait to hear more!

Oooh @mlegerto I messed that up - while we were close neighbors, we weren't that close. We actually were in Tokelau - which we had fun mispronouncing as TOKE-A-LOO - so we weren't in Moorea, though we went over to Moorea to do laundry. We were still pretty close, and as I said in your TR, we must have been within a few feet of each other at least a couple of times.

I admit, I must have a real affinity to the African/Asian influences, because my favorite resort until this point was Animal Kingdom Lodge. There's much of that resort that would still make it my favorite, but the location of the Poly can't help but make it an easy favorite over AKV. I am still excited to try the other resorts, but I might still switch to the Poly when opportunities arise.

(and you do realize we are STILL neighbors - you are only about 90 minutes from us. We may be heading up your neck of the woods next weekend, as we are rewarding our daughter's good grades with a trip to the new Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto. )

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW! That Poly room is spectacular. I can only dream of staying there! Looks like I'll have to live vicariously through you and franandaj!

 

[Tinker326]

Not to steal @skier_pete 's TR but we were there last week and they DO have Tonga Toast at Captain Cook's! Around $7 and you also get sausage or bacon. It does not come with the strawberry sauce like at Kona though. I was excited that they had it since I was torn between the macadamia pineapple pancakes @ Kona, so I could try both - The macadamia pineapple pancakes were amazing.

Thank you!!! I was trying to debate if I should make a Kona Cafe ressie but if I can get Tonga Toast at Cap't Cooks- I think I will pass on the reservation & save myself some $$!

 

[skier_pete]

Before Thanksgiving arrives - I thought I would start a post for Day 8.

I’ve probably said this elsewhere in this trip report – but going to Walt Disney World on a trip and not going to Magic Kingdom for the first seven days is a little bit surreal. There is so much else to do it is not like you are bored without it, but for me it was something that felt like it hovered over the first 7 days of the trip. Putting together the plans – it simply never made sense to go to MK from Beach Club, but I really, really wanted to.

Suffice it to say that our eighth day started with a bit of elation – that we were finally, FINALLY getting to Magic Kingdom. For me, Magic Kingdom is and always will be Disney World. I couldn’t imagine taking a trip here without spending a day in this park. At least five of my top 10 favorite attractions are here, and this is where my earliest childhood memories reside.

However, I think coming to Magic Kingdom this late in the trip made for a different touring experience. By day 8, you’ve reached a point where the pace of a trip cannot be fully sustained. In this case, we still were playing with 3 more days after this day – two of which would be spent here. A rushed pace was not necessary. I also made up for my lack of early pictures by taking a TON of photos at MK!

I was sure to get everyone to the monorail plenty early. We had only made one rope drop so far on this trip and I wasn’t going to miss this one. We headed over to the monorail about 8:15 AM. It wasn’t a very long wait to get to the resort – but it certainly was a PACKED ride.


We made it to the train station a few minutes before the welcome show. Here we are with a thousand of our closest friends:



It may have been September 4th, but Halloween was in full swing!


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They actually ran the show pretty early (maybe 8:40 AM). We always enjoy this show, even though we could probably do the whole speil from heart. (And I heartily miss the other welcome shows.)



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Before we knew it we were heading down main street.


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Original plan was to head for Big Thunder Mountain, but we decided to hit Jungle Cruise first. Again the CMs held us at the entrance to Adventureland – and then started walking us in.



Skipper’s Cantina still under construction


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As we were walking, they explained that Jungle Cruise would NOT be opening right away. (DOH!)

So, we had to decide whether to head to BTMRR or something else. We figured we were already behind any initial crush, so we would wait a bit for BTMRR and instead decided to ride Aladdin’s Carpets – consider this our “Dumbo Dash”.

Magic Carpet SELFIE!



Includes a Tiki Room photobomb!



We got off the carpets and JC was still not running.



Continued in next post.

 

[skier_pete]

With Pirates out of commission for a refurb, there wasn’t much point in sticking around Adventureland at this point, so we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain for a ride on the “Wildest Ride in the Wilderness!” There was zero wait though, and in fact we rode in a ½ empty car. (The park in general was pretty NOT crowded today.) I actually didn’t take any pictures on the ride because I turned the camera around and filmed DW and DD on the ride. Still haven’t watched that.

However, coming off the ride – we got a photopass shot!



We had a FP for later in the day for Splash Mountain – we had decided that we weren’t going to get ourselves soaked on this ride and have to walk around all day – so it would wait until we “broke for a rest”.

We started heading over to Haunted Mansion – and low and behold I swung over to Jungle Cruise and it was OPEN! (It was probably only about 9:25 AM at this point.) So we rode what may be DD favorite ride. There was really no wait at all either, we literally got on the first boat we walked up to.

Smiley and Ginger.



“How did I become a skipper? It’s plane to see I took a crash course.”



“Watch out for these hippos! They’ve sunk six boats this week. Fortunately only 5 of them were mine”



“Oh two H! Don’t try this at home folks, you’ll hit your head on the sink!”



A little “Shur-lee’s Temple”



Our skipper was pretty good – and DD enjoyed it so much that she wanted to go again. And here’s quite possibly a first, the line was so short, we got off the boat, exited, got in the queue, and boarding the boat IN FRONT of the one we got off of! So we waved to our previous skipper as we were pulling away from the dock. I wonder if she recognized that we were from the her boat.

The second time around many of the jokes were the same, but I think this guy had a better delivery. I never tire of the same awful Jungle Cruise jokes!

So we got off Jungle Cruise and headed over to Haunted Mansion – again no wait – we didn’t even bother to walk through the new queue area.


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We had to wait maybe a couple minutes for them to open the doors, but then we were the ushered right into Master Gracey’s portrait room! (But not after a glimpse from Madam Leota.)



Scariest ride ever!



We wrapped up the ride and went into Momento Mori. Our first spending spree of the trip – we spent about $135 in here, between coasters and placemats, and Haunted Mansion book, and DD bought a case for her Kindle. One of the few souvenir shops that can really tempt me.

We had now covered most of the West end of the Park – with only Splash Mountain and the Tiki Birds left to cover, and it wasn’t even 10:30 AM. Well, at least according to the clock on the wall.



Yep – first up was Small World. This is DWs favorite, and thus deserving of another selfie.


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Can’t go wrong with Small World!

To be continued after the holidays! Merry Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[rteetz]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looks like a fantastic day in the Magic Kingdom!

I have never gotten to experience the Halloween stuff at the MK but I hope to someday.

I love the jungle cruise. We got to experience the jingle cruise last time which was something different and fun.

Great Photopass pictures as always.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Happy Thanksgiving.

What an amazing morning at MK to get that many rides in quickly. Love it when your few thousand friends all know to scatter through the park to keep the lines short.

 

[mlegerto]

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

[franandaj]

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving! We ate too much, as usual!

I enjoyed this update and thought one thing was quite unusual and that has to do with a WDW centric person vs Disneyland centric folks. I even mentioned this to Fran and she had the exact same answer as I did. You said that MK is the defining thing about WDW for you, but yet when I said that to Fran we both said that Epcot was the defining park. I know for me the reason is that MK is kind of like a rip off of the original park and even stripped of some of the key attractions which have been farmed (I would really use another not so DIS friendly word that rhymes with "warred") out to other parks at WDW to make them more attractive.

To me Disneyland is THE park and MK is a cheap knock off. What makes WDW unique to me is Epcot. We don't have anything like Epcot at the original so that is what makes WDW cool to me. I'm thinking that Fran thinks similar, but when I mentioned your thoughts to her, she didn't tell me why she agreed with me that Epcot makes WDW what it is, but I'm guessing her reasons are similar to mine.

I'm not knocking your viewpoint, but just pointing out how folks from different walks of life can view the same place totally differently. Cool that we can all enjoy the same place with different perspectives. I'm glad you got to do as much as you did without so many waits. I hope we are as lucky in the a couple weeks!