- anyone know?
It is time for my single digit dance!!!!!
It was open by Monday 8/30 (our departure day) but by the time we got to HS (9:30) the stand-by line was 80 minutes and FP return times were for after 3:30 and we were planning on DTD so had to pass. 
I will say we did RnR for the 1st time (I've been pg the last few times we went so couldn't) and just WOW, being from Boston and a huge fan of the hometown crew already just made the ride 10x better. Took the sting out of TSMM being down for sure. 
We didn't use the Concierge services too much as I am an over planner and had done most already BUT they were great with TSMM and called the park for us on 8/29 and 8/30 to see if it had opened so we could go before we left and they also booked us 2 appts at Harmony Barber Shop @ MK so we were able to walk right in and get cuts for the boys (needed for BTS the day we got back, LOL) and skip the very long line they had. 
One of the BEST parts for us about staying in Hawaii was watching the EWP every night while in PJs. They would dim the lights and we'd sit right at the windows and the the kids oohed and ahhed. The nights Wishes was right at 9 made it even MORE enjoyable, truly the highlight of the trip. We did watch it from the beach on the last night, but having kids covered in sand (mine can't be near it without covering themselves head to toe and everywhere in between 
) was a pain, worth it, but the lounge was heaven! For the record the beach was crowded every night (standing room most nights) but on the night we happened to go out we got 4 chairs side by side at 8:55 right outside of the Hawaii building. One of the kids favorite activities this trip was collecting monorail/transportation cards, which was SO easy being on monorail hotel. They managed to collect all monorails except yellow, all boats but no buses (we rented a car). What a fun/free activity and fabulous souvenir! We also did the Poly resort photo session (morning of day 2), we got some really great shots and some that showed the photog didn't really know how to work the equipt (over exposed, under exposed, out of focus), her outside shots were great but anything inside, well... 
Wow do I have a lot of catching up to do... We were at the Poly from 8/24-8/30 had a delayed flight coming home and then kids started school the next morning. It's been a whirlwind since and I'm finally feeling like I am getting caught up on things. Anyhow I wanted to post a mini review of our experience and share some pictures.
We arrived at the resort around 11:30 and the room they had assigned to us was on the 2nd floor. The Concierge noticed we requested 1st or 3rd so moved us and let us know we'd be waiting but the room should be available by 3:00. It was raining and we were hungry so figuring it might not be that long we checked out the lounge, had lunch at CC's, and then headed back to the lounge to wait it out. Unfortunately we made the mistake of handing all of our luggage over except for backpacks, cameras and the laptop so we were sorta weighted down and had no changes of clothes/ponchos or we may have hit the parks, but instead ended up waiting it out in the lounge (god send at this point!). Finally our room was ready at 4:30, we were placed in GV room 3520, with palm trees right off the balcony (I loved this! - we could easily see through but people couldn't see in). The room was great, everything worked, no signs of disrepair and was very clean (well except the pull out desk nested under the main desk). We called for our luggage which arrived within a few minutes and quickly settled in and took a nap. We woke up around 6, had some apps in the lounge and explored the resort, walked to the TTC, and took the monorail back "home". We stayed up for the EWP and Wishes from the lounge, enjoyed some desserts and rested up for our 1st park day on Weds. Overnight and throughout our stay the halls were fairly quiet (only 1 loud family at 1:30 AM on night one), and all of our neighbors on the 3rd floor were great with regards to keeping the halls clean (no trays) and being respectful - fantastic!
Overall park crowds were fabulous, we're TGMers so followed our rec park for each day and had loose touring plans in place and never waited in a line for more than 10 minutes. We collected FPs for key rides and most of the time when we went back to use later in the day stand-by was 10-15 mins so we would often just walk through that and straight onto rides - awesome! Our only big disappointment was TSMM, it was supposed to reopen from refurb on 8/28 so we saved HS for then, and it ended up not being ready.
Back to the Poly review...
We mostly enjoyed the quiet pool as my kids love jumping in and it's not something they could really do given the crowds at the Volcano pool. The V pool was never what I would consider crowded, but just no wide open areas where I would feel comfortable letting kids jump in without fear of another swimmer coming through at the same time. We did spend one afternoon there and managed to grab chairs near a table (towels placed on the table and chairs no people in sight the 2 hours we spent there!), the kids really enjoyed the slide but preferred digging in the sand or the Q pool.
Staying in Hawaii was fabulous, not only location wise, but we loved having the lounge and "stuff" available anytime we needed. Breakfast choices were kind of boring by the end of our stay but no one complained, it was only me wanting some eggs or something else hot other than oatmeal. Evening apps were wonderful and a few times we easily made a meal of it along with the fruit and crackers/cheese, but not sure it would be enough if my kids were hearty eaters (then again it's only supposed to be apps and not a meal). Snacks were refreshed throughout the afternoon and switched up a little too so if we managed to pop on through it was fun seeing what was out there. One of my ds's was being a total nudge on us and decided he didn't want park food at lunch and only PB&J so the lounge staff was wonderful and would give us some uncrustables in the AM to take with us just in case he was having one of those day (and it saved us on many an occasion!). They also had juice boxes available for us to bring along and cartons of milk for the kids to take with them.
Anyhow I could go on forever but tried to sum up most of our Poly experience here.
Dole whip is pinneaple/vanilla soft serve ice cream and its very yummy and so refreshing! You can get a float in the MK at Aloha Ilse, its the ice cream in pinneaple juice, so good!
Morning my Poly friends! Tomorrow we leave
Kinda dragging this morning DD had three volleyball games and we didnt get home until 10 and got up at 4am.
Tonight is our big family dinner out to spend some time with our teens that we wont be seeing for the next 8 days and when we get home ill throw the last bit of toilitries in the bags and DH and I will load the car so in the morning we can get up brush our teeth and hair grab a cup of coffee and GO!
Im on cloud NINE!
Dole whip is pinneaple/vanilla soft serve ice cream and its very yummy and so refreshing! You can get a float in the MK at Aloha Ilse, its the ice cream in pinneaple juice, so good!
Morning my Poly friends! Tomorrow we leave
Kinda dragging this morning DD had three volleyball games and we didnt get home until 10 and got up at 4am.
Tonight is our big family dinner out to spend some time with our teens that we wont be seeing for the next 8 days and when we get home ill throw the last bit of toilitries in the bags and DH and I will load the car so in the morning we can get up brush our teeth and hair grab a cup of coffee and GO!
Im on cloud NINE!
It is time for my single digit dance!!!!!
banana:
Dole whip is pinneaple/vanilla soft serve ice cream and its very yummy and so refreshing! You can get a float in the MK at Aloha Ilse, its the ice cream in pinneaple juice, so good!
Morning my Poly friends! Tomorrow we leave
Kinda dragging this morning DD had three volleyball games and we didnt get home until 10 and got up at 4am.
Tonight is our big family dinner out to spend some time with our teens that we wont be seeing for the next 8 days and when we get home ill throw the last bit of toilitries in the bags and DH and I will load the car so in the morning we can get up brush our teeth and hair grab a cup of coffee and GO!
Im on cloud NINE!
I'm doing the single digit dance, too!
By the way, love the old pics, guitarob! I never got to go to WDW as a child, so I love seeing all the old pics. My first trip was 2004. My DH says he broke me because he took me on my first trip, proposed, and this will be our 6th trip since then.
I leave in 2 days!
Any tips on what to pack?!
Single!
Digit!
Dance!
Wow do I have a lot of catching up to do... We were at the Poly from 8/24-8/30 had a delayed flight coming home and then kids started school the next morning. It's been a whirlwind since and I'm finally feeling like I am getting caught up on things. Anyhow I wanted to post a mini review of our experience and share some pictures.
We arrived at the resort around 11:30 and the room they had assigned to us was on the 2nd floor. The Concierge noticed we requested 1st or 3rd so moved us and let us know we'd be waiting but the room should be available by 3:00. It was raining and we were hungry so figuring it might not be that long we checked out the lounge, had lunch at CC's, and then headed back to the lounge to wait it out. Unfortunately we made the mistake of handing all of our luggage over except for backpacks, cameras and the laptop so we were sorta weighted down and had no changes of clothes/ponchos or we may have hit the parks, but instead ended up waiting it out in the lounge (god send at this point!). Finally our room was ready at 4:30, we were placed in GV room 3520, with palm trees right off the balcony (I loved this! - we could easily see through but people couldn't see in). The room was great, everything worked, no signs of disrepair and was very clean (well except the pull out desk nested under the main desk). We called for our luggage which arrived within a few minutes and quickly settled in and took a nap. We woke up around 6, had some apps in the lounge and explored the resort, walked to the TTC, and took the monorail back "home". We stayed up for the EWP and Wishes from the lounge, enjoyed some desserts and rested up for our 1st park day on Weds. Overnight and throughout our stay the halls were fairly quiet (only 1 loud family at 1:30 AM on night one), and all of our neighbors on the 3rd floor were great with regards to keeping the halls clean (no trays) and being respectful - fantastic!
Overall park crowds were fabulous, we're TGMers so followed our rec park for each day and had loose touring plans in place and never waited in a line for more than 10 minutes. We collected FPs for key rides and most of the time when we went back to use later in the day stand-by was 10-15 mins so we would often just walk through that and straight onto rides - awesome! Our only big disappointment was TSMM, it was supposed to reopen from refurb on 8/28 so we saved HS for then, and it ended up not being ready.
Back to the Poly review...
We mostly enjoyed the quiet pool as my kids love jumping in and it's not something they could really do given the crowds at the Volcano pool. The V pool was never what I would consider crowded, but just no wide open areas where I would feel comfortable letting kids jump in without fear of another swimmer coming through at the same time. We did spend one afternoon there and managed to grab chairs near a table (towels placed on the table and chairs no people in sight the 2 hours we spent there!), the kids really enjoyed the slide but preferred digging in the sand or the Q pool.
Staying in Hawaii was fabulous, not only location wise, but we loved having the lounge and "stuff" available anytime we needed. Breakfast choices were kind of boring by the end of our stay but no one complained, it was only me wanting some eggs or something else hot other than oatmeal. Evening apps were wonderful and a few times we easily made a meal of it along with the fruit and crackers/cheese, but not sure it would be enough if my kids were hearty eaters (then again it's only supposed to be apps and not a meal). Snacks were refreshed throughout the afternoon and switched up a little too so if we managed to pop on through it was fun seeing what was out there. One of my ds's was being a total nudge on us and decided he didn't want park food at lunch and only PB&J so the lounge staff was wonderful and would give us some uncrustables in the AM to take with us just in case he was having one of those day (and it saved us on many an occasion!). They also had juice boxes available for us to bring along and cartons of milk for the kids to take with them.
Thanks Rob. I took a bunch with 3 different cameras, my DSLR by far handled the pictures the best but wish I had a tripod. I just set the camera on top of the trash can (ironically next to a speaker so wishes was LOUD
) and used that to steady myself. Made a world of difference even with a VR lens.I wish for the life of me I could remember her name (the photog). She was great with us and the kids, had good ideas and was able to work with my crew (who can be a challenge at times). She could have been having an off day but she just couldn't get control of her flash indoors, once we moved outside she still used it to fill when it wasn't necessary (if she played with the camera settings), but overall you can't beat the value and we got some really nice images. Here's a link to all of them, her worst were in the beginning and she gets progressively better but nothing is really fab (ie frameable) except when we are outside on the hammock.Thanks for the review. We are doing the private photo session as well. I hope we get a good photographer.....
Your a great photographer too! Great pics of the landscaping. Can I ask where the meal was... i want some of those deserts
We had no idea about the cards either but we are huge monorail fans so my kids always chat up the CMs asking all sorts of questions about them. This time one of the CMs pulls a card out his pocket and said that most CM's working in transportation will have them so if you behave (yeah!!!) and ask nicely they will give you one. So for the rest of our vacation the kids were angels anytime we were near monorails or the water shuttle and would ask the CMs if they had cards. There used to be 12 cards for the monorail but they no longer make pink/purple (btw parts from both of those monorails were used to make monorail teal, which doesn't have a card, and coral is currently the mono wrapped as the tronorail
) so the current collection consists of 10 cards and apparently yellow (Cinderella) is VERY hard to come by. 
to the Disboards and the Poly thread!
