We just got back from our first family vacation to Disney World, staying at the Polynesian (Dec 9-15). We were in the Hawaii building, on the ground floor, room 1521.
We arrived via car at about 6 PM and gave the valet our “introduction” letter as instructed. We were asked, ‘What do you want me to do with this?’ (exact quote) and the rest of the check-in was similarly lackluster. I was told our room was ready and given the number. I asked what floor (we had requested third floor, our only request) and was told, ‘I really don’t know, but we usually don’t grant requests.’
We were asked if we want to walk over or have bell services take us in a cart. Because we had three fairly large suitcases, we said the cart would be nice. Both the lady at the bell/valet stand and, later, the bell person who came to get us, tried to talk us out of it multiple times. ‘Are you sure?’ was asked again and again. I asked if it was a problem and was told, ‘No, but it does make it harder on us.’ I should have taken the advice and hoofed it, dragging our stuff, as the driver REEKED of cigarette smoke.
One of my biggest gripes throughout the trip is that smoking areas are not enforced AT ALL. People feel free, despite near constant announcements, to smoke anywhere they want (“hey, we’re outside”) and Disney staff does NOTHING about it. I can recall about a dozen times where people were smoking NEXT to a cast member in the parks and they said nothing at all.
We were taken to our room, dropped off and left. All before the 30 seconds it took to realize the room hadn’t been completely serviced. We went to the in-longhouse front desk and were told, ‘Yeah, there’s a problem with that room, you’ve been reassigned.’ Bell services was long gone, so we dragged our luggage down to the first floor ourselves. The new room was fine. Clean and tidy.
I was shocked at how small the rooms were after hearing about their hugeness here, over and over. If these are the largest rooms on property, I can’t imagine how small other rooms are. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t too tiny to be useful, but they were a very standard hotel size. If you’ve stayed in a Hampton Inn, you’ve probably experienced this level of amenities before.
There wasn’t a lot of visible wear and tear, with the exception of one of the beds being broken. My son is only three, and doesn’t weigh much, so it wasn’t a huge issue, but it did come off and tilt (askew) every time he got in and out. Also, our bathroom door didn’t latch (the tab that should move when you turn the handle was stuck and wouldn’t budge even when we tried to pry it out). As it was just my husband, son and I, it wasn’t a big deal, but it could be if you had teenagers or more distant family/friends along. We reported both problems on day one, but they were never attended to.
Another big annoyance for us was the in-room DVD player. Why they even have these, I don’t know. There is NO way to control the DVD player (no remote, nothing). You can, sorta, use it, but only if you manually change the source on the TV (using buttons on the TV itself, not the remote) and then only need the play button to start your movies and just let them play through (no menu, select or fast forward/reverse available). On ours, the captions were stuck on and, because there is no remote and no menu button on the player, we were stuck with it. We also had to watch all coming attractions and couldn’t skip something if my son didn’t watch a whole movie. And any movie that requires you to scroll to a menu option to start doesn’t work at all. Just ridiculous and we were told they are “all like that” after multiple times asking at the front desk for a DVD remote. We also reported these issues, a couple of times, with no resolution.
On three of the six mornings of our visit the TV didn’t work at all, other than the “Must Do Disney” infomercial channel, and we were told there was a “problem with the system.” While we definitely weren’t at Disney World to watch TV, it would have been nice to be able to let our son wake up and wind down the day with a program, which is what we had planned. It just helps him ease into, and out of, a very busy, over-stimulating kind of Disney day.
While the room was quite clean when we arrived, housekeeping while we were there was pretty dismal. Beds were made (not changed), towels replenished and trash emptied, but that was it. Nothing was EVER wiped down, cleaned or vacuumed. A drink ring on the bathroom counter was there when we arrived and there when we left. Glasses were never picked up or replenished. (I took them up to the club lounge and got more myself.) Turndown service was very hit or miss. I think we had it about half the time.
I complained on day three and, when I walked up the desk, the woman said, "Let me guess, housekeeping?" before I even said anything. I was told "You’re not the only one." But nothing changed in the service level after that either.
We did have one very good housekeeping experience. At about 11 PM my son was in bed and spilled some chocolate milk. We tried to clean it up, but it was right in the middle of the bed. I called housekeeping (directly, club desk was closed), expecting everyone to be gone and just hoping we could get some clean bedding I could change myself so we didn’t have to sleep in a wet spot. Instead, a housekeeper came and changed the whole bed, even though only the top sheet and blanket had been spilled on (we’d wiped it up). I was very apologetic and told her she didn’t need to do anything other than leave the covers, and definitely not change the whole bed, but she insisted and was very kind, saying I needed to stop saying sorry because it happened all the time and was usually a whole lot worse than this.
The club level services are SO not worth the extra money. Not even close. We were frequently given wrong and conflicting information by the staff, who mostly seemed annoyed to be there and clearly hadn’t even read their own activities guide. And the hotel activities we did try and attend—an open house at the Neverland Club and lei-making in the lobby—were incredibly disappointing. Both consisted of a few coloring pages and crayons on a table. That’s it. Even the lobby lei-making, held in the main lobby in front of a constantly running TV set, was just a few kids watching a lady string together paper flowers and then handed a coloring sheet. The whole thing lasted three minutes, at best.
We lost a hat at the Little Mermaid show in Hollywood Studios. We had asked the instant we knew it was gone (less than two minutes after leaving the theater) and the staff wouldn’t let us go look for it and told us they “had already searched the theater.” They advised us to check with guest relations lost and found when the park closed. Well, since we had no intention of staying until the park closed, we reported it to the front desk staff at the Hawaii building … Who helped us out by giving us the lost and found phone number. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes (really) we gave up. It was just ridiculous. Basically any question we asked the club level staff, including where things were, resulted in them directing us to call someone else.
As for the lounge food offerings, soda was available throughout the day, as were apples and bananas, and never seemed to run out. Cereal in the mornings was also readily available, and a staff member was always pretty prompt about getting a chocolate milk for my son, or beer for my husband, when asked. (Both must be requested, as does yogurt.) But I was told once that there must be two staff members available for one to get those items because the others have to “watch the food,” to make sure people don’t run away with it. Nice.
The food “service” was a joke. We never really had any (other than cereal in the morning and soda/chocolate milk), even if we happened to be in the lounge when it opened, because people descended on the food offerings like vultures. Apparently these were club-level veterans who knew if they didn’t, it would be gone. One afternoon I went upstairs hoping to find a snack for my son before dinner and, less than hour into the printed service time, there was NOTHING, and I mean nothing, available. Two broken goldfish crackers at the bottom of a bowl and a lonely gummy bear. There were plenty of wandering staff, but nothing was EVER refilled.
One night we had asked about some wine glasses. Not wine, just the glasses mind you, as we had our own (wine, that is), and they told us they were “all out.” Of glasses. This, again, was less than an hour into the supposed service window and there was no food to see either.
On a night we watched fireworks in the lounge, which happened to coincide with the dessert service beginning, my husband and I were both shocked by the mad stampede to the counter the second the lights came up. A line formed out the door and, within about 10 minutes, there was nothing left on two of the three trays set out. Needless to say, nothing was ever replenished.
The only benefit of the club lounge, for us, was the people. We met lots of nice people and had long chats, and my son frequently met kids to play with. In fact, he enjoyed playing in the lounge almost as much as going to the parks.
We also used the Neverland Club one night so my husband and I could go to Victoria and Albert’s. After our lackluster visit to the open house, where I was, shall we just say, less than impressed with the employees, I was ready to cancel, but my husband encouraged me to try it and I did so because my son was super-excited about going to play with toys and other kids. I don’t know how the caretakers were that night, but my son had a blast playing and even wanted to go back the next day in lieu of going to the Magic Kingdom.
The biggest Polynesian perk for our family was the ferry. It was practically right outside our door and got you to the Magic Kingdom in minutes. It was a cold trip on the days we took it, but very convenient.
The monorail, on the other hand, not so much. We made the mistake, the first night, of believing the club desk clerk who said it was a “15-20 minute” walk to the TTC from the Polynesian and took the resort monorail instead. It was a LONG trip (30 minutes-plus) and very, very crowded. We discovered on our own that walking was really more like 5 minutes, at a leisurely pace, and it was much, much easier.
We were reluctant to take the monorail at all, though, after getting stuck on it on night two for 55 minutes. We missed a dinner reservation at the California Grill and, even though the desk clerks could document the monorail problem (they actually called someone to check), they refused to credit us as a $60 cancellation fee until we said we’d like to talk with a manager in the morning because it just didn't seem fair to penalize us for a verified transportation issue. They also refused to cancel a paid-in-advance club-level safari, despite the cold, even though once we got there we were told it was cancelled anyway—due to the cold, which is kind of what we expected when the official information said it could be cancelled due to inclement weather. (That was another huge waste of time and effort on our parts—between talking to the clerks and going back and forth to Animal Kingdom for nothing it was close to three hours wasted on our final day—where the club level people were just totally unhelpful.)
Though writing all this makes it seem like a really dismal experience, it actually wasn’t. Yes, all these things went wrong, but they didn’t ruin our trip. I never lost my temper, nor did my husband, even if we were occasionally frustrated/disappointed, and seeing my son’s joy at meeting Mickey Mouse (and friends) brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion.
Looking at it cynically, Disney World is over-priced, over-hyped and over-crowded. But it’s also a magical fun place that my son is already asking to go back to again.
I acknowledge that our feelings about the Polynesian may have been different had we been able to enjoy outside activities, but we had record lows throughout the bulk of our visit, making it pretty miserable to be outside. (It was 12 degrees, without the wind, one morning.)
We did run into a few really great people, including a ferry captain who thought we were crazy to be on the boat in bone-chilling temps and gave my son a captain hat, which he’s still talking about. Or the valet person (not the one from day one) who engaged my son in chatter every morning and gave him a coloring book. Something that totally made his day. Or a monorail employee who gave my son a transportation card which he carried with him throughout the rest of the trip as his “ticket” to the monorail. We went on a Ft. Wilderness sleigh ride and had a great time chatting with our driver, even though it was freezing and drizzling out and some of the campground displays (which are amazing by the way) had been curtailed due to the weather.
Though this was a far from ideal trip, and I’d never return to the Polynesian, we WILL go back to Disney World. Hopefully when it’s warmer. And we might very well stay off site. On the way to the airport we checked out the Hilton Bonnet Creek and it was new, clean and, most of all, quiet—and no farther away from anything than the Polynesian (excepting that great ferry). The pool area was also more impressive than even the Yacht and Beach club's area, at least from what we saw of each. And it could just be luck of the draw (and I think that's always true with service) but the Hilton employees were more welcoming of us none-guests than just about any of the Disney hotel people we'd seen. (We also were impressed with the Grand Floridian staff we encountered. I think there's some truth to Disney putting their best people at their flagship hotel.)
At all times of day and night the Polynesian lobby was a madhouse. Definitely not someplace I’d ever want to be to relax and enjoy anything.
) 
I can say that we have experienced the "vultures" and food shortages over the years. These issues were mainly the fault of poor weather and failure to plan for the crowd. When the weather is inclement (cold in your case/torrential rains in our experience), folks in CL tend to stay in and as a result consume much more food, wine, beer, etc. That is not an excuse rather an explanation. Frankly, when we had similar experiences, we were a bit peeved too. There is no excuse for failing to provide the amenities for which the guest has paid.
What a disappointing first stay in WDW. I have never stayed CL as I have never seen the benefits--other than location. I would rather use the $$ difference and get room service cooked to order. Can't say your experience changes my mind--yikes--just justifies some of my fears. I have read several posts about folks getting stranded on the monorail the first few weeks in Dec--a lot! They must have been having quite the technical issues. Believe it that Poly has some of the largest rooms at WDW. If that room seems small, don't bother with anything other than CR and GF. The other deluxes, mods, and values are noticeably smaller. Glad to hear you made the best of things despite your misfortune.
I actually cancelled next year's trip for next October, I think we'll do the shore instead for 2011. 
It stinks that it has been so cold there this December. It sounds like it was a huge bummer for a lot of people.
