Just returned from 10 days at the Poly - just not worth it!

[disneymagicgirl]

We stayed there last year for 7 nights with a 40% off PIN. I like it. The rooms were quite large. Didn't love the sink inside the bath but that wasn't a dealbreaker. DH had to go to the GF to use the gym, which is a bummer at that price. However the cost has increased $50/nt for the room this year. That is ridiculous. Probably won't stay there again since prices are always rising. They have done nothing to make it worth the extra $50/nt IMO.

OP - did you use the patio/balcony off your room at all? Curious as to how nice/not nice it was. We stayed at POR but were thinking on our next trip, we will be moving at a much slower pace and thought it might be nice to stay at a Deluxe so we can sit out on the balcony and relax and maybe do room service or something. Not sure I'm willing to pay all that extra $$ though.

We use our balcony during nap time for the kids. That is about it, but for us that part is important.

 

[Sue M]

OP - did you use the patio/balcony off your room at all? Curious as to how nice/not nice it was. We stayed at POR but were thinking on our next trip, we will be moving at a much slower pace and thought it might be nice to stay at a Deluxe so we can sit out on the balcony and relax and maybe do room service or something. Not sure I'm willing to pay all that extra $$ though.

I did enjoy our balcony. Love morning coffee on it, evening glass of wine...but there are cheaper options for Deluxe balcony resorts like WL or AKL.

 

[Day-Day]

...

With that said, I do agree with a PP that said the pager at Captain Cooks sounds great! I hate standing on 3-5 different lines each breakfast for our family of five. it would be so much easier just to order it, and go get it all at once!

We all have room keys so visiting the food court at POR is easy for us. We can stick together in the service line, meet up at the register, or meet up at the table.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm almost afraid to book the Poly because I don't want to be disappointed by my "dream" resort. We've had two deluxe stays with mixed success - loved the Beach Club, felt like Wilderness Lodge wasn't worth the extra cost. The Poly is the front runner for our anniversary trip next fall and I'm hoping by then something is done to improve the monorail issue. Otherwise we might look to an Epcot area resort instead.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

We booked the Poly last year(40%) for our 10th anniversary and our first trip. We loved the Poly for the monorail and the size of the room. The pool we liked but it was wayyyy too crowded so we were in the quiet pool alot. I am staying at POR the next two trips. I liked the POLY but w/o a discount, its not worth the $6000 to us. We are staying at POR in the royal rooms for 8 days for almost half of that. I dont think I would return to the Poly w/o a discount as good as that.

 

[Bonniec]

Thanks for this review. We don't usually stay on site because we just can't afford it. But I've always wanted to stay at Pol and wondeered if it would really be worth that much m ore. This makes me feel better.

 

[Mousemommy1]

So, I've seen the reasons you didn't feel it was "worth it". For me, the lack of double sinks doesn't bother me - we don't have double sinks at home!! And, I am aware of the monorail situation, and though I am hoping that it will change prior to our trip in July, if it doesn't, we'll boat or bus..no biggie...we're used to taking the bus. Now, based on our 40% mil discount and the time of year we are going (Value Season 2), our weekday rate is $249 and weekend rate is $273. I consider this a steal!!! What price do you think is reasonable for the Poly? I know I would never pay rack rate for sure!

 

[damien]

That square footage counts the hall and the bathroom. In terms of the bedroom space, the older Poly bedrooms are significantly bigger than moderates, but with the newer Poly rooms the difference isn't so much ("newer" being a relative term, here ). If you've got a balcony, for a lot of people that "expands" the room size a bit, but not all Poly rooms have balconies.

I've stayed in the older longhouses and newer ones, and the living space, while not a whole lot more, is definitely larger in the newer ones.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

So, I've seen the reasons you didn't feel it was "worth it". For me, the lack of double sinks doesn't bother me - we don't have double sinks at home!! And, I am aware of the monorail situation, and though I am hoping that it will change prior to our trip in July, if it doesn't, we'll boat or bus..no biggie...we're used to taking the bus. Now, based on our 40% mil discount and the time of year we are going (Value Season 2), our weekday rate is $249 and weekend rate is $273. I consider this a steal!!! What price do you think is reasonable for the Poly? I know I would never pay rack rate for sure!

We stayed in the Club Level standard garden view it is $585 a night with our 40% it was $351 a night. We ate breakfast there every morning. With 5 of us, we figured atleast $50 every day for breakfast so that was a good price for us. I did love it-dont get me wrong- but I would never pay rack rate

 

[shalom]

I've stayed in the older longhouses and newer ones, and the living space, while not a whole lot more, is definitely larger in the newer ones.

Okay, sorry I got it backwards. Although I confess I still have no idea which buildings are which anyhow. But my basic point still stands -- some rooms at the Poly "feel" the same size as a moderate, because the bedroom part isn't much bigger.

 

[damien]

Okay, sorry I got it backwards. Although I confess I still have no idea which buildings are which anyhow. But my basic point still stands -- some rooms at the Poly "feel" the same size as a moderate, because the bedroom part isn't much bigger.

It's not a huge difference. It's technically about 60 square feet, but all we really noticed was slightly more room in the corner.

I think the configuration of the Mods (and Values) is better. It leaves more living space than the typical hotel configuration which is what all the Deluxe Resorts are. It's very noticeable at the Wilderness Lodge, where the rooms are only 340 square feet.

 

[hotblooded]

That's the feeling I'm afraid of. I'm hoping I won't see it that way since we've never stayed at a mod.

 

[connie1042]

We have never stayed at the Poly. Probably never will. But I do not care what Hotel we stay at anywhere, I will not pay over 200 for a room. I usually just sleep there. I don't understand the Club level either. But that is just me. We can do everything we want at the Poly and not stay there. We went on the beach one night after Ohanna's and it was packed. We usually stay at CBR. Same lush grounds, but even though it is bigger that most resorts, we usually have a beach to ourselves. Love the court yards at CBR. We get up and take our breakfast to the courtyard and just enjoy the peace quiet.

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and we LOVE the Poly. We had our first stay there this past August and it lived up to our EVERY expectation. We loved everything about the resort and have already planned our next stay there next August.

Different strokes for different folks as they say!

ETA: we also had a 35% off pin

 

[wijkowski]

OP - did you use the patio/balcony off your room at all? Curious as to how nice/not nice it was. We stayed at POR but were thinking on our next trip, we will be moving at a much slower pace and thought it might be nice to stay at a Deluxe so we can sit out on the balcony and relax and maybe do room service or something. Not sure I'm willing to pay all that extra $$ though.

No balcony. We were on the second floor.

Ron

 

[kinggoofy]

I have read the OP and a few others. I do agree with alot of what the OP is saying.

We are booked to stay at the POLY in August 2012. We were at POR for 15 nights this past August. We visited POLY several times during our recent trip, Kona breakfast, Ohana's dinner, visted with Auntie OR just had a few drinks in the Tambu Lounge.

Its as simple as this...

LOCATION... LOCATION... LOCATION.

 

[Amy&Dan]

OP: I could not agree more. Our stay at the Poly was in 2008 back when the monorail was running all the time and even so, I felt we just were better suited at a moderate. I did love the spacious room and having a daybed was a huge plus since I have teenaged boy/girl that cannot share a bed. But the single sink inside our bathroom was a very bad thing. Not so much that it was single but rather that it was inside the bathroom which made getting four of us ready a challenge. We did have a balcony which was nice. But we paid $400 a night (no discounts available for our last minute trip) for a standard, garden view room. Dh and I agreed we would stay there again but only if we got a deal that was more like $250 a night tops. And even then, we probably wouldn't because if the Poly is $250 on a code, a moderate will be way less and since we now know what the difference is, it would be ever hard to justify.

We are moderate lovers and find the pools, grounds, rooms, food courts, plus full serve (POFQ shares that with POR however) and overal feel make them the perfect balance of a good price (by Disney standards) and a resort feel.

I will always be happy we stayed there but now know that for us, the price difference is far greater than the difference in amenities.

We missed having a hot tub, found the main pool way too small(but the view of the castle was almost worth the trade off) and large room while very nice to have was not worth over twice what a moderate would have cost for our time frame.

After having stayed at all levels, including several one and two bedroom DVC's, we find the moderates worth the price over values, but don't find the deluxe's worth the price over a mod. A DVC one or two bedroom is beyond compare to any room and I do at times miss our DVC but then again, still find the moderates work great for us now that we aren't travelling with a larger family and thereby needing the space a DVC can offer.

I will also add that the location factor would be huge if we spent most of our time at MK and had stroller aged children. However, we spend our time equally at the four parks, water parks and Disney Quest so location anywhere will even out and be fine with us. I also HATE the way the monorial resorts and Epcot resorts share with each other to various areas away from the park they are attached to. Give me a resort with its own busses (I make an exception for the All Stars and Port Orleans Resorts because those resorts are so close the shared route isn't so bad) any day.

We are all different and sometimes it takes some trial and error to find the resorts and or categories that work best for each family.

 

[wijkowski]

So, I've seen the reasons you didn't feel it was "worth it". For me, the lack of double sinks doesn't bother me - we don't have double sinks at home!! And, I am aware of the monorail situation, and though I am hoping that it will change prior to our trip in July, if it doesn't, we'll boat or bus..no biggie...we're used to taking the bus. Now, based on our 40% mil discount and the time of year we are going (Value Season 2), our weekday rate is $249 and weekend rate is $273. I consider this a steal!!! What price do you think is reasonable for the Poly? I know I would never pay rack rate for sure!

To me, with the current monorail situation, I would not pay more than $200.00 a night for the Poly.

Again, everyone has different needs and wants. I am not against the Poly, it is a beautiful resort, but all WDW resorts (even the values) are beautiful to us.

We can afford to stay at any WDW resort, but when I step back and see that I can book (2) ten day WDW vacations (at a moderate) for what we just paid for a ten day Poly stay, it is very difficult to justify the current Poly pricing.

Ron

 

[loganpaulsmom]

As u stated.. everyone is entitled to their option. I for 1 don't have 1 negative thing to say about the POLY. I stayed there for the first time in my adult life (twice when I was a kid) This past May.. I loved everything about it!I did a split stay that trip and although I love the BWI, I loved the extra room at the Poly. We were in Tahiti.. and it was a bit of a walk to the ceremonial house, but to be able to leave the parks and come back and sit on my balcony and watch Wishes, that to me is just worth the extra money.. Oh, but don't get me wrong, I could have never stayed there had I NOT had the 40% discount.

 

[wijkowski]

OP: I could not agree more. Our stay at the Poly was in 2008 back when the monorail was running all the time and even so, I felt we just were better suited at a moderate. I did love the spacious room and having a daybed was a huge plus since I have teenaged boy/girl that cannot share a bed. But the single sink inside our bathroom was a very bad thing. Not so much that it was single but rather that it was inside the bathroom which made getting four of us ready a challenge. We did have a balcony which was nice. But we paid $400 a night (no discounts available for our last minute trip) for a standard, garden view room. Dh and I agreed we would stay there again but only if we got a deal that was more like $250 a night tops. And even then, we probably wouldn't because if the Poly is $250 on a code, a moderate will be way less and since we now know what the difference is, it would be ever hard to justify.

We are moderate lovers and find the pools, grounds, rooms, food courts, plus full serve (POFQ shares that with POR however) and overal feel make them the perfect balance of a good price (by Disney standards) and a resort feel.

I will always be happy we stayed there but now know that for us, the price difference is far greater than the difference in amenities.

We missed having a hot tub, found the main pool way too small(but the view of the castle was almost worth the trade off) and large room while very nice to have was not worth over twice what a moderate would have cost for our time frame.

After having stayed at all levels, including several one and two bedroom DVC's, we find the moderates worth the price over values, but don't find the deluxe's worth the price over a mod. A DVC one or two bedroom is beyond compare to any room and I do at times miss our DVC but then again, still find the moderates work great for us now that we aren't travelling with a larger family and thereby needing the space a DVC can offer.

Amy&Dan,

Exactly! Balance is the key word and we are on the same page.

There is a point in which price vs room/amenities become skewed. What does the Poly offer that is worth TWICE the price of a moderate?

Ron