ALOHA! The Poly FAQ: Fall 2010 Edition

I've posted the first part of our Trip Report, which will include plenty of photos, from our stay at the Poly CL last week here.

I hope you enjoy it!
 
I've posted the first part of our Trip Report, which will include plenty of photos, from our stay at the Poly CL last week here.

I hope you enjoy it!

Very nice guitarob. . .looking forward to more. Spectacular photos!
 

Enjoying the TR so far, will have to read more when we get back. We are leaving tomorrow for the Poly and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their help and info in this thread, I didnt post much, but I sure read alot! :woohoo:
 
I've posted the first part of our Trip Report, which will include plenty of photos, from our stay at the Poly CL last week here.

I hope you enjoy it!

Beautiful photos! Just what I needed on a damp & drizzly fall morning! Looking forward to seeing more! :cloud9:
 
I've posted the first part of our Trip Report, which will include plenty of photos, from our stay at the Poly CL last week here.

I hope you enjoy it!

YAY! This makes me even more excited! :woohoo: Can't wait for our trip! We aren't staying concierge level but still at the Poly!! :cool1:
 
/
Only one month to go!!!! :cool1:

So far we've been able to keep our mouths shut, so this will be a surprise trip for the kids. We were worried about them not getting to anticipate the trip, so we did decide to tell them that we have decided to do a Disney trip, but told them we don't know when. They are off planning what rides they want to do and what restaurants they want to go to (with subtle guidance from us to co-ordinate with the ones we have ADRs for ;) ). Plan is to wake them up *very* early the morning we are leaving and surprise them then! (Hopefully teachers won't ruin the surprise.)

One thing I want to warn people of -- if you have a discount, be very careful about making changes. I called to add the dining plan yesterday and they lost my 40% code. It took them about 1/2 hour to get it back (and the guy made it sound like he was doing me a favor). Funny, I didn't get the prompt for the survey after that call. :rotfl2:
 
I've posted the first part of our Trip Report, which will include plenty of photos, from our stay at the Poly CL last week here.

I hope you enjoy it!

Your trip report literally made my heart race! I just keep thinking how in 11 days we will be arriving at the Polynesian ourselves for the very first time! :D :D
 
I've posted the first part of our Trip Report, which will include plenty of photos, from our stay at the Poly CL last week here.

I hope you enjoy it!

Great pictures! We will be there in 18 days, and can't wait. The sad part is that it isn't even here yet, and I'm already dreading it being over!
 
Sweet! Pics arent showing up on y work comp. Ill have to give them a look tonight at home!

Thank you so much ofr sharing! Wahoo...16 more days for me!
 
I've posted the first part of our Trip Report, which will include plenty of photos, from our stay at the Poly CL last week here.

I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the report. I will be at the POLY CL next week (1st time CL) and I'm so excited! BTW I'm from Sicklerville also.
 
guitarob
Your night pictures are stunning. Did you have to use a tripod? I'm starting on your trip report too.
 
Another question to all of you Poly experts:

On our arrival night (Nov. 14) we want to head over to HS in the evening to see the Osborne lights. I thought since we didn't get to see it last year that it would be something fun to do the first night since we don't plan on spending any other time at HS.

What's the easiest way to get there? Bus? Or should we just get a cab? We will be flying and not renting a car. It says it takes 40 minutes to get to HS from Poly on the bus (using the little transportation thing here on the Dis).

Suggestions?
 
We are back too :sad1: We were in room 1522 - funny, we were all in the same hall at the same time. We had no issues/problems/concerns with our room at all, just like other stays both at the Poly and elsewhere on property. DH is now addicted to CL and has declared that will be the way to go for us from here on out - darn, I'll just have to suffer! :rotfl2:

OMG we just got back from 9 nights there and we were 1523!!! :rotfl:
 
Another question to all of you Poly experts:

On our arrival night (Nov. 14) we want to head over to HS in the evening to see the Osborne lights. I thought since we didn't get to see it last year that it would be something fun to do the first night since we don't plan on spending any other time at HS.

What's the easiest way to get there? Bus? Or should we just get a cab? We will be flying and not renting a car. It says it takes 40 minutes to get to HS from Poly on the bus (using the little transportation thing here on the Dis).

Suggestions?
I would just take the bus and here is another tip about them. Besides taking the bus from the Polynesian you can also walk to the TTC and get on a bus from there to Hollywood Studios which might be faster, because the bus from the Polynesian also shares with the Contemporary and Grand Floridian.
 
Just thought I’d drop in with my two cents before I start on my full TR..

Just came back from one night at AKL savannah view and 8 nights at the Poly GV CL. We were in Hawaii room 1523 ground floor...I did request ground floor as I thought I’d like sitting out on the patio and I did get my request.

Everyone at the Poly was just so wonderful and friendly the whole stay. The room was clean and had no problems whatsoever. Mousekeeping was consistent in keeping everything tidy and restocked. The lounge had sufficient offerings for breakfast (cinnamon buns, croissants, fruit etc) but didn’t really have a chance to see offerings for lunch/dinner as we spent a lot of nights out at other TS locations.

The concierge staff was phenomenal. We used them a lot to book numerous tours/excursions after we arrived and to move TS dinning times.

The parks felt a little more crowded that what I had thought they would of been but didn’t really see it reflected in wait times. The longest we waited to see/do anything was about 13 minutes and that was to meet Mickey at lunch time. One morning though we didn’t make it to HS until about 10:20 and TSM had a wait of 75 min and FP were available for 6 pm that night....hubby didn’t want to wait and I don’t blame him but if that’s the only big ticket ride we couldn't make it on than I think we did well and that was due to poor planning on our part...

Overall we had an amazing stay at the Poly. It lived up to all my expectations and more. I would definitely stay at the Poly again just for the convenience of getting to MK and Epcot. Not to mention the ability to watch wishes from the beach every night and be a short walk back to your room. The CL was definitely a nice touch. We both enjoyed the wine/liquor offerings at night and the breakfasts in the am. I don’t think it’s something we would spring for again though unless we had small children with us... I think the same goes for the Poly itself. I loved it. I truly loved it but the price tag on our honeymoon was a little too much for hubby to swallow. For future trips we’ll have to resort back to a value maybe a mod if a good pin code comes up but for sure when we start having children of our own and we take them for the first time it will be a Poly stay for sure with a MK view instead!!

I will start my TR later tonight and post some lovely pics of the Poly...
 
Just thought I’d drop in with my two cents before I start on my full TR..

Just came back from one night at AKL savannah view and 8 nights at the Poly GV CL. We were in Hawaii room 1523 ground floor...I did request ground floor as I thought I’d like sitting out on the patio and I did get my request.

Trying to figure out which would be better, if we're lucky enough to get our request... Have heard that 3rd floor views can't be beat, but wondering if it might be nice to have the patio/ground floor access when traveling with kids. What do people think? Do people seem to come and go through patio doors? Would this be an advantage?
 
Trying to figure out which would be better, if we're lucky enough to get our request... Have heard that 3rd floor views can't be beat, but wondering if it might be nice to have the patio/ground floor access when traveling with kids. What do people think? Do people seem to come and go through patio doors? Would this be an advantage?

Can't speak to CL, but we love 1st floor regular GV. Our kids are the same age as yours! It just seems to give us more "space" for the week, as the kids can play out in the grass. Our previous trips, at least one of the kids napped, so DH and I (and 2nd trip DS), could sit outside, take turns going for a walk, going to get a snack, etc, without disturbing the sleeper. Works great for us and we'll request it again! (and, normally, at the beach - we're high floor requesters, for the view. But at the beach we have a condo or suite with separate living area, so space and the ability to come and go isn't an issue).
 
I'll add my "2, somewhat-brief cents" here instead of making a trip report. Everyone's recent trip reports are so great, figured I'd add mine as well albeit sans gorgeous pics! :goodvibes

- - - - -

Just back yesterday from our first family trip to Disney & The Poly. It was the first ever Disney trip for my hubby ("The Skeptic") and for our 3 year old girlie.

I have to say, when I originally was looking at where to book, I wasn't "sold" on The Poly... but then I found the DISboards and everyone in this thread managed to slowly (okay, quickly) change my mind. I got excited and crossed my fingers that The Skeptic would come around, even if only because our kiddo would surely be enjoying herself. I'll try to keep what's to follow solely about what we experienced at The Poly.

My take on the Poly:
Check-in: courteous and efficient CMs. Only waited a bit past 3pm before we got our text saying the room was ready. Had our request granted, Tokelau top floor.

The Room: We stayed in 3903. (Did a quick bedbug check and no critters found.) Lysandra was our mousekeeper and she did a fine job. Left a cute Minnie towel "animal" for our arrival -- which the kiddo destroyed after I took a few pics -- and left a couple other cute offerings on two other days. Gorgeous, green view. Quiet. Steps away from the quiet pool, which we enjoyed on two afternoons. The grounds are so relaxing. The room showed some signs of wear-and-tear. Mind you, nothing extraordinary or anything that bothered me in the slightest. A little tip for anyone wanting to create a "din" to keep outside noises out: on the thermostat, set the fan to "fan" (which will keep it running constantly) not "fan auto" (which will let it cut off when the room reaches temp). With that setting, I heard nothing at all throughout the night... except my husband's snoring. >.< No thermostat setting would fix that.

The Grounds:
Gorgeous, lush, relaxing. Even though tropical theming isn't really "our bag", it was simply lovely, really. The beach was phenomenal.

The Restaurants:
Our first experience was at Captain Cooks whilst waiting for our room to be ready. Wasn't horrendous, wasn't wonderful. Just... was. The next experience was drinks from Tambu lounge. Lapu Lapu, Bahama Mama. Yummmmmm. Oh, and the crab sushi was delicious -- shame it wasn't eel! The Lapu Lapu was fab, did I mention that? ;) Following day, we had a character breakfast at Ohana. The characters were great, the dancing was cute. Our kiddo had a blast. Our neighbors at the next table were hilarious. The food was okay, standard breakfast fare with nothing above par. I do have to say the "potatoes with sugar" was slightly odd. o.O Had dinner at Kona Cafe. I think they need a bit of work on their menu item descriptions as the pasta dish I ordered wasn't described properly but no biggie. The chocolate torte -- which I forget the name of -- and the drinks more than made up for it. Our final, on-site dining experience was breakfast at Kona Cafe. Had a standard breakfast plate which was just right and the press-pot kona coffee. Although the press-pot was nice in comparison to any other Disney coffee we had, I guess I'm more a "so dark and strong, you can stand a spoon up in it" coffee type o' gal.

Overall Thoughts:
All of the CMs and restaurant staff we dealt with were courteous and efficient, didn't encounter a single person working there that didn't make us feel welcome. The location of The Poly just simply cannot be beat. Period. The walk to the TTC, which we did many times, is so easy I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. We actually never left via the hotel's monorail station because the TTC was so convenient; though we returned via The Poly stop on a couple of occasions. Our one good bus experience (and one very unfortunate) would never convince me of trying anywhere else.

Amazingly enough, The Skeptic has been converted -- not into a Disney Addict -- but someone convinced of the enjoyment and ease in letting yourself be treated well while on vacation. They make it so easy to be care-free, it's impossible not to appreciate all of what The Poly -- and Disney -- have to offer. We had a fabulously wonderful first 4-1/2 days at Poly... looking forward to those next days already, whenever they happen to be. ;) :goodvibes
 

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