Recent Trip thoughts and comments on the Poly

[bethsg]

I just returned from 5 nights at the Poly in a studio. Here are my bullet points.
- loved the 2 bathrooms, a great concept
- I think on line check in takes away from the Welcome Home experience, got a text with our room number and our Magic bands didn't work. (they didn't work for 2 days and we had to call front desk every time to get let into our room) I'll check in, in person next time. They did offer to move us on day 1, and said they weren't even sure if they would be able to resolve the problem (engineering said it was front desk, front desk said it was engineering), but we were headed out to dinner and didn't have time to move our stuff. Day 2 we left in the morning for the parks, and by late night when we returned our bands worked.
- We had a Lake View studio Moorea 1st Floor room 1027. I'd call it Obstructed Lake view as all the bungalows are directly in front of your patio blocking your lake view... you cannot sit on your patio and watch the Water Paegent, can you see most of the fireworks. I'd recommend requesting a top floor if you are using points for Lake View.
-i think the single murphy bed would only be suitable for a child, and adults legs would hang off, and you'd probably hit your head on the frame if you got up in the middle of the night.
-the TTC ferry boat horn is like an alarm clock. and it goes off starting very early in the morning and late into the night, according to the front desk, lots of people have complained; after a couple days I started to get used to it
-parking is very simple and close to the buildings it would be nice if the lobby had luggage carts you could borrow
-overall I think the quality of construction is a bit lacking, and some of the work looked rushed ex: paint drip marks, a drain plug in the tub that didn't work, buckled carpet, JMHO

 

[monorailmom]

Did you have a chance to use the pool? I'm wondering what the availability of chairs and tables were in the early afternoon, and am curious if they had servers around to take drink/food orders? We were at GFV in May and there was a server going around waiting on people.

We have one night booked in a Poly standard view studio in August before we move over to Kidani.

 

[southerngirl528]

Just a note about the murphy bed. A 6'2", "fullback-sized" member of my immediate family slept on that murphy bed for an entire night and said it was fine. And trust me, if it hadn't been I would have heard about it! I don't think it's ideal for a big adult, but he said he thought it a more comfy bed than a good sofa bed.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Two different thoughts about the Murphy bed!

I will request a higher floor for our August stay! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[MrPTato]

Good to know...My wife wanted a lake view for our upcoming trip just to see the water parade. I will have to request a higher floor.

 

[edk35]

Subscribing....

 

[southerngirl528]

Two different thoughts about the Murphy bed!

From what I understood from the OP's report, no one in their party had actually slept on the bed.

 

[Donna M]

I've slept on the Murphy bed and it's fine, it's an alternate sleeping spot, so don't expect it to be like a real bed, but it's plenty good enough.
We requested the top floor and got the second floor. That gives you the bungalow view too with a strip of lake. If you are a light sleeper don't forget the ear plugs. Even with them, the ferry horn woke me in the morning and at night. I wasn't impressed with the Poly, but maybe someday I'll try the bungalows for a night.

 

[MrPTato]

Has anyone stayed on a non lake view? Does the ferry horn sound more muffled because you don't have a direct view?

 

[southerngirl528]

Hello again, MrPTato,

We stayed in a non-lake view Studio at the Poly Villas in early May. We were in Moorea overlooking the gardens between that building and Pago Pago. I never heard the ferry horns. I am a very light sleeper and do travel with my own sound machine because of that.

 

[MrPTato]

My wife is a light sleeper and we will have a two year old that sleeps pretty well. I assume the horns could go off at 1am if the MK is open that late. Guess we will find out! Thanks sgirl!

 

[freediverdude]

Actually if they really wanted to do it right, there should be 4 room categories of the studios. Standard view should be the parking lot view rooms in Pago Pago, so you know what you're getting if you book that, and lower the points for those down to start at 15 or so. Then most of the other studios that they now call standard, they should call garden/pool view, for the same point structure as current.

The 3rd type of studios would be the 24 units on the 1st floor of Moorea facing towards the bungalows, and those could be called bungalow/dock view, and lower the points for those down to similar to the garden view, maybe 1 or 2 points above. And then the top 2 floors of Moorea facing the lake with the premium view could actually be called theme park view (I think all of those rooms would have a castle view). And they could raise the points for these rooms a few points higher to make up for lowering some of the others, and I think people would pay the points for the guaranteed castle view.

So say starting in the lowest point season of Jan or Sept, you would have parking lot view at 15 points per night, garden/pool at 17ppn, dock/bungalow at 18-19ppn, and theme park view at 23-24ppn.

 

[freediverdude]

One other thought, and maybe I should post this over on the resort board, I was thinking well what if I guaranteed at least one night of a castle view by booking a night in the hotel side that is theme park view or club level theme park view. And then that got me to think, well don't the bungalows also block the 1st floor views of the Hawaii building as well? That would really tick me off if I were paying the mega bucks for theme park view club level and got a 1st floor bungalow view.

 

[southerngirl528]

Whoa, Freediverdude! I think I just heard a whimper from MS after reading your post! While I like where your train is going, there are so few rooms in each category. For instance pool view? Those would only be on the west side of Tokelau (sp?). I do think that perhaps adding a parking lot/Stnd view might be a very workable idea for those studios in Pago Pago that do face the parking lot..

 

[freediverdude]

Whoa, Freediverdude! I think I just heard a whimper from MS after reading your post! While I like where your train is going, there are so few rooms in each category. For instance pool view? Those would only be on the west side of Tokelau (sp?). I do think that perhaps adding a parking lot/Stnd view might be a very workable idea for those studios in Pago Pago that do face the parking lot..

Well I wasn't thinking of pool view being separate from garden view, more like pool/garden being sort of like preferred/pool over at the Boardwalk, just whichever you get. I do think the dock/ bungalow could be rolled into the garden/pool category, just wasn't sure if then everyone would try to request the bungalow facing rooms all the time and be disappointed.

But I think we do agree that there should be at least standard, pool/garden/dock/preferred/whatever you want to call it, and theme park view.

 

[freediverdude]

Oh, another thing to keep in mind, these booking categories would not be as small as you might think, even if the pool view was a separate category. That pool side of Tokelau has 72 studios that would be pool view, lol, more than all the studios at GFV. I'm not sure of the number of parking lot studios in Pago Pago, it might be 48 I'm thinking. Just those would be more studios than GFV. And there also would be 48 theme park view studios.

 

[DVC Doctor]

Did you have a chance to use the pool? I'm wondering what the availability of chairs and tables were in the early afternoon, and am curious if they had servers around to take drink/food orders? We were at GFV in May and there was a server going around waiting on people.

We have one night booked in a Poly standard view studio in August before we move over to Kidani.

When I was there last month there were lots of lounge chairs, but the tables with umbrellas booked early. There is a bar close to the pool that we used, but did not see any servers walking around.

Has anyone stayed on a non lake view? Does the ferry horn sound more muffled because you don't have a direct view?

I had a lake and standard view studio. The lake view was the third floor and awesome (loud boat horn) and the standard rooms were much quieter.

 

[Jfine]

I agree with the online check in. Although we usually use it, I was dissapointed after using it at Poly. We didn't get the flower leis. Not sure if it's because we were dvc or because of the online check in. I know it's small, but that's part of staying at the Poly, at least to me. Sorry you had that big issue though. We had a similar one at BC. It's a great option when it works. A huge pain when it doesn't.

 

[Tunseeker1]

Actually if they really wanted to do it right, there should be 4 room categories of the studios. Standard view should be the parking lot view rooms in Pago Pago, so you know what you're getting if you book that, and lower the points for those down to start at 15 or so. Then most of the other studios that they now call standard, they should call garden/pool view, for the same point structure as current.

The 3rd type of studios would be the 24 units on the 1st floor of Moorea facing towards the bungalows, and those could be called bungalow/dock view, and lower the points for those down to similar to the garden view, maybe 1 or 2 points above. And then the top 2 floors of Moorea facing the lake with the premium view could actually be called theme park view (I think all of those rooms would have a castle view). And they could raise the points for these rooms a few points higher to make up for lowering some of the others, and I think people would pay the points for the guaranteed castle view.

So say starting in the lowest point season of Jan or Sept, you would have parking lot view at 15 points per night, garden/pool at 17ppn, dock/bungalow at 18-19ppn, and theme park view at 23-24ppn.

Dang!
Put it in for requests at the next poly condo meeting, lets see how many owners vote for it!
I'll stick with 2 because its easier to waitlist!

 

[Duchie]

I just returned from 5 nights at the Poly in a studio. Here are my bullet points.
- loved the 2 bathrooms, a great concept
- I think on line check in takes away from the Welcome Home experience, got a text with our room number and our Magic bands didn't work. (they didn't work for 2 days and we had to call front desk every time to get let into our room) I'll check in, in person next time. They did offer to move us on day 1, and said they weren't even sure if they would be able to resolve the problem (engineering said it was front desk, front desk said it was engineering), but we were headed out to dinner and didn't have time to move our stuff. Day 2 we left in the morning for the parks, and by late night when we returned our bands worked.
- We had a Lake View studio Moorea 1st Floor room 1027. I'd call it Obstructed Lake view as all the bungalows are directly in front of your patio blocking your lake view... you cannot sit on your patio and watch the Water Paegent, can you see most of the fireworks. I'd recommend requesting a top floor if you are using points for Lake View.
-i think the single murphy bed would only be suitable for a child, and adults legs would hang off, and you'd probably hit your head on the frame if you got up in the middle of the night.
-the TTC ferry boat horn is like an alarm clock. and it goes off starting very early in the morning and late into the night, according to the front desk, lots of people have complained; after a couple days I started to get used to it
-parking is very simple and close to the buildings it would be nice if the lobby had luggage carts you could borrow
-overall I think the quality of construction is a bit lacking, and some of the work looked rushed ex: paint drip marks, a drain plug in the tub that didn't work, buckled carpet, JMHO

I have to agree with you regarding the online check-in. I really liked the convenience of it, but we all agreed we missed the personal touch of the "Welcome home".