georgiapeach60
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2000
We just got back Sunday night. We had 2 families with children(all sons) who were 8, 9, 12 and 17yo. We stayed at the Polynesian in two rooms, garden view. We had requested Tahiti but it ended up in Rapa Nuie. The room was big and plenty of space for us all. It was non-smoking. The view was partial parking lot, trees and a little of the monorail. We were on the third floor and did have a balcony. Except for checking the temperature every morning we never used it. I was glad that we hadn't paid the extra for a better view. It was very nice to have the two sinks in the morning. The atmosphere was nice and we didn't really find that anything was much of a walk to get to. No odd smell although my SIL said it reminded her of the smell of the vegetation in Mexico on a trip she had there. Not a bad smell but one that was reminescent of that experience. The first night we ate at O'Hanas. It was one the best meals I have had. Four of our group are vegetarians and the chef made them a wonderful pasta dinner but truthfully what was initially presented would have fed them all. The salad with the lime dressing was very good as was the shrimp with the various dipping sauces. The dinner comes with dessert but my ds and I had to have the "Snow ball" which is vanilla ice cream with toasted coconut and chocolate sauce. It was very good. We caught a little bit of the fireworks that night out the window but we were by the fire pit. Our p/s was for 7:40 and that seems like a good time if you wanted to see them and eat. The crowds were very small and we usually walked on to almost every ride. I think the longest we waited for anything was 20 minutes. A couple of times we did use the fast pass just to make better use of our time but we accomplished an enormous amount in the time we had. The lack of EE didn't pose a problem and we saw and did just about everything we wanted. Things that we didn't get to had more to do with that with working with 8 people who may have different focuses sometimes causes you to miss opportunities. We also ate at the Plaza, The Sci-Fi diner, The Rainforest Cafe, The Portabello Yacht Club, The Garden Grill and the Kona Cafe. My veggie relatives said the veggies at the Garden Grill were the best meal they had. My highlight was doing Cindy's breakfast. Even though all of the kids were boys they seemed to have a really good time and enjoyed themselves. The food was good and plenty and the atmosphere was great. Well worth the time and effort. The weather was nice for the most part. We did have some cool mornings and evenings but since everyone had at least a couple of long sleeve shirts and a light jacket it was OK. TTC did a good job at getting us where we wanted to be when we wanted to be there. They picked us up from the airport on the 1st and took us to the Polynesian, then the picked us up on the 7th and took us to the HRH and then picked us up on the 10th and took us back to the airport. No problems at all. The drivers were friendly and efficient. The HRH was nice. The rooms seemed small after the Polynesian and the boys had been spoiled by the daybed and not having to share a bed. The Sunset Grill had good food and was convenient. The FOTL passes to Universal and IOA are invaluable. Agian the crowds were not bad but we just whizzed on to everything. We ate at Mythos. The food was good and the atmosphere was interesting. We got to see the Marde Gras parade and my littlest one was very excited about catching the beads. There are special places for those under 9 to stand and they are given first shot at a lot of the beads. It was a very enjoyable trip and there really wasn't anything that we had a problem with.
and what did they enjoy? I'll be going next year with 2 15 yo boys, so I was just curious. 
Sorry to hear you didn't get Tahiti though. I have that building requested for my April trip, too. 
