ALOHA! The Poly FAQ: Fall 2010 Edition

[Tess]

This is the designated smoking area at the volcano pool as seen from my balcony in Samoa. It has been closed since at least some time on monday (i noticed monday night) and yesterday i saw the lifeguards moving all the chairs out of there. I asked why the area was closed and i was told "I think they will be working on the pool deck. Only this small area is affected and so far it doesn't look likeanything major is going on. Im only here at the Poly for one more day but if I hear any more news I will report here.

Something about that doesn't sound quite right. Why close it unless the work was imminent? Further, how could any dramatic work be done with the pool open and the brook just beside it. Strange. . .where did they move the smoking area in lieu of the closing?

 

[dtripli]

Hi Everyone

Im so enjoying this thread! We are leaving for Poly in 24 days!!! I was adviced to make more of a "general room request" rather than specifics; so I did. I requested "near quiet pool & GCH" and 3rd floor". I am wondering if I should have just been more specific. We will be arriving late to Poly on a Saturday night(hopefully by 10:30pm). We have never checked in so late before; so I don't know what to expect.

Anyway, what I truly would love is to be in raratonga, samoa, or even tokelue facing quiet pool. Should I change my request to one of these specific longhouses or leave it general as is?

Please share you knowledge! I would really appreciate it! Any other later checker iners out there?

 

[nala1128]

Oh boy, 3 girls eh? My middle guy is girl crazy... he'll be the loud one acting all goofy probably asking them if they are twins since they match. Mine are 9 (turning in 2 days), 7, & 5 1/2 and they'll be with me and dh who has crazy long hair at the moment. I'm sure we'll see each other.

Too cute....My DD is 10 and my DS is 9. People often mistake them for twins because they are the same height!! We will be there when you both are there...my son is goofy too....they will fit right in!!

 

[bluejasmine]

This is the designated smoking area at the volcano pool as seen from my balcony in Samoa. It has been closed since at least some time on monday (i noticed monday night) and yesterday i saw the lifeguards moving all the chairs out of there. I asked why the area was closed and i was told "I think they will be working on the pool deck. Only this small area is affected and so far it doesn't look likeanything major is going on. Im only here at the Poly for one more day but if I hear any more news I will report here.

Oh NO! I dont think I like the sound of that being I am due there in 35 days!
Does anyone know where the other smoking areas at the Poly are? My DH is a smoker, he will want to smoke near the Hawaii LH, the pool and GCH if at possible..

After the sadest year of my and my childrens life I have decided to book nov. 20-27th at the poly. I am desperate for somnething to keep my mind busy and nothing like disney vacation to send me into planning overdrive. I will do my best not to talk about the sad parts here. We have planned concerige garden view . Nice to meet ya'll

Welcome! Your absolutely right nothing like planning a WDW vacation to cheer you up! Im sorry to hear about your rough year, hope all is better now!

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

Just wanted to stop by and say....

We will be at the Polynesian in Club Level in exactly 30 days

 

[outahere]

Does anyone know where the other smoking areas at the Poly are? My DH is a smoker, he will want to smoke near the Hawaii LH, the pool and GCH if at possible..

The closest smoking area to the Hawaii LH is right beside the restroom building at the quiet pool (right behind the Hawaii LH).

 

[SeaSpray]

After the sadest year of my and my childrens life I have decided to book nov. 20-27th at the poly. I am desperate for somnething to keep my mind busy and nothing like disney vacation to send me into planning overdrive. I will do my best not to talk about the sad parts here. We have planned concerige garden view . Nice to meet ya'll

Welcome to the Polynesian thread! I'm really sorry to hear about your sad year. I think that a trip to WDW/Polynesian will help you to think of something positive. I had a very rough past 2 years and in February of this year planned a trip to WDW/Polynesian for July. We just got back a few weeks ago, and it was wonderful. Please don't worry about anything, we're all very supportive here, and we understand how planning a trip can really lift one's spirits.

Does anyone know where the other smoking areas at the Poly are? My DH is a smoker, he will want to smoke near the Hawaii LH, the pool and GCH if at possible..

There's a smoking area near the garden view side of the Hawaii building, right at the small building at the quiet pool that houses the restrooms. In 2008 we had a garden view room in Hawaii and DH was still smoking at that time, and he was able to walk right from our first floor room over to the smoking area there.

Also, there's a smoking area near the bubbling brook at the back entrance to the GCH.

At the volcano pool, I only know of the smoking area that is apparently now being worked on. I would think that they'd create a new smoking area for the volcano pool. It used to be over by the bar, maybe they'll put it back there again?

There's also a smoking area outside of Tangaroa Terrace. When DH used to smoke we'd stop there on our way to walking the path to the TTC to catch the Epcot monorail.

 

[SeaSpray]

The closest smoking area to the Hawaii LH is right beside the restroom building at the quiet pool (right behind the Hawaii LH).

I started typing my reply (I'm on break at work) then got interrupted by a few questions from a co-worker before I could hit "Submit" ...so you beat me to this answer!

 

[clanmcculloch]

How close is the smoking area to the Hawaii longhouse? We'll be staying CL GV in a couple weeks and we requested a 1st floor room. We also have allergy issues bad enough to require the special allergy cleaning so I need to know that we won't be able to smell smoke if sitting out on our patio.

Eeyorepixie, I didn't realize we were both switching from PO to Poly on the same day. I knew you were moving but I hadn't noticed we're both moving on the same day.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Something about that doesn't sound quite right. Why close it unless the work was imminent? Further, how could any dramatic work be done with the pool open and the brook just beside it. Strange. . .where did they move the smoking area in lieu of the closing?

I agree this seems very strange. I'm just reporting what I see and hear. I'm not a smoker so I haven't noticed if there is a different DSA near the volcano pool. I will check when we go back for our break.

 

[outahere]

How close is the smoking area to the Hawaii longhouse? We'll be staying CL GV in a couple weeks and we requested a 1st floor room. We also have allergy issues bad enough to require the special allergy cleaning so I need to know that we won't be able to smell smoke if sitting out on our patio.

I would guess that it is probably 75 feet or so, to the closest GV rooms. The rooms at the far end of the LH (opposite end from the main entrance and the CL CM desks) are at least 100 feet away. We've only stayed in LV rooms in the Hawaii LH, so I don't know for certain if you could smell smoke from that DSA.

 

[*~PrincessBelle~*]

Well looks like im in a bit of a pickle folks (but what a wonderful pickle it is)!! We are currently booked in a GV CL room with the regular DDP (we have a lot of signature ressies so this will be very beneficial to us)...today I noticed a regular GV room no CL has finally become available with the 40% off pin....

what should we do...

Keep the GV CL room with DDP

OR

Downgrade to regular GV room with DxDDP (eliminating the need to pay OOP for some of our ressies - no enough credits on regular DDP)

Doing the later would save us about $350.00 but we loose out on the perks of the lounge...it is our honeymoon and first ever Poly stay....Oh the choices!!

 

[SeaSpray]

How close is the smoking area to the Hawaii longhouse? We'll be staying CL GV in a couple weeks and we requested a 1st floor room. We also have allergy issues bad enough to require the special allergy cleaning so I need to know that we won't be able to smell smoke if sitting out on our patio.

Eeyorepixie, I didn't realize we were both switching from PO to Poly on the same day. I knew you were moving but I hadn't noticed we're both moving on the same day.

I would guess that it is probably 75 feet or so, to the closest GV rooms. The rooms at the far end of the LH (opposite end from the main entrance and the CL CM desks) are at least 100 feet away. We've only stayed in LV rooms in the Hawaii LH, so I don't know for certain if you could smell smoke from that DSA.

I never smelled smoke from that area, and our room was probably one of the closest rooms. I would mention your allergies at check-in and see if they can give you a room further down, just to be on the safe side.

I have a picture of the view from that room, the smoking area is up against the building there, but it looks much closer in this pic than it actually is:

 

[dizneechic]

Well looks like im in a bit of a pickle folks (but what a wonderful pickle it is)!! We are currently booked in a GV CL room with the regular DDP (we have a lot of signature ressies so this will be very beneficial to us)...today I noticed a regular GV room no CL has finally become available with the 40% off pin....

what should we do...

Keep the GV CL room with DDP

OR

Downgrade to regular GV room with DxDDP (eliminating the need to pay OOP for some of our ressies - no enough credits on regular DDP)

Doing the later would save us about $350.00 but we loose out on the perks of the lounge...it is our honeymoon and first ever Poly stay....Oh the choices!!

$350 is a nice chunk of change to save but for your honeymoon I would say do it up and enjoy CL. First because you know exactly what building you'll be in, 2nd because if you want to watch fireworks in the lounge in your jammies you can!!, and 3rd because if something goes awry with your other plans/ADRs you have the services of the concierge to help you re arrange and get in where you otherwise may not be able to.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Thank you outahere and SeaSpray. We do have the special allergy cleaning requested on our room (without it DD10 ends up on prednisone and albuterol; happened twice before we learned about the cleaning) so I'm hoping they'll realize that it could be an issue. Because of the cleaning our options to move are much more limited than for most people since that cleaning is time consuming and more costly for Disney (if the cleaning's already done we try avoid requesting a move unless there's something REALLY wrong and it would have to be really bad for us to do that; we have been shown our room location before the cleaning's been started and have requested a move at that point).

I'm probably worrying for nothing. Even in the parks we typically don't even realize we're approaching a smoking section until we're practically in it, but in those cases we're just passing through which is very different than hanging out in a fixed spot.

 

[dizneechic]

After the sadest year of my and my childrens life I have decided to book nov. 20-27th at the poly. I am desperate for somnething to keep my mind busy and nothing like disney vacation to send me into planning overdrive. I will do my best not to talk about the sad parts here. We have planned concerige garden view . Nice to meet ya'll

Welcome!

We too are doing a cheer up trip as we've also had one heck of a year. My oldest DS has had 3 cardiac procedures since last Oct and this was supposed to be our "last hoorah" before he got a pacemaker in Sept. We wanted to have a "do it up in Disney trip" before the life style overhaul and planned this all out. Well due to a job change (buyout) of my dh's co we bumped everything up and he was to go for the procedure end of June and we discovered during his pre-op that he no longer needed the pacer. The hospital spent 6 months trying to get us in there to have it done and we resisted (emotionally weren't ready to go there yet and he was doing OK) and what they said could never happen - DID - 6 months after the original incident (nicked/damaged his AV node during a procedure, it was gone for 6 months and then kicked back in 2 days before surgery for pacer implant). Now its a big time celebratory trip for us and while he still has some cardiac issues we'll monitor he's "robot free" and can hopefully remain that way! Needless to say it's been a long trying year on us all and there is nothing like obsessive planning to take your mind off all of life's stresses.

 

[Carrie772]

what should we do...
Keep the GV CL room with DDP
OR
Downgrade to regular GV room with DxDDP (eliminating the need to pay OOP for some of our ressies - no enough credits on regular DDP)

I am one to say save the money. The view is the same and the DXDDP is an unbelievable amount of food. Maybe you could go to the upgrade and then also upgrade your room view?

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Welcome!

We too are doing a cheer up trip as we've also had one heck of a year. My oldest DS has had 3 cardiac procedures since last Oct and this was supposed to be our "last hoorah" before he got a pacemaker in Sept. We wanted to have a "do it up in Disney trip" before the life style overhaul and planned this all out. Well due to a job change (buyout) of my dh's co we bumped everything up and he was to go for the procedure end of June and we discovered during his pre-op that he no longer needed the pacer. The hospital spent 6 months trying to get us in there to have it done and we resisted (emotionally weren't ready to go there yet and he was doing OK) and what they said could never happen - DID - 6 months after the original incident (nicked/damaged his AV node during a procedure, it was gone for 6 months and then kicked back in 2 days before surgery for pacer implant). Now its a big time celebratory trip for us and while he still has some cardiac issues we'll monitor he's "robot free" and can hopefully remain that way! Needless to say it's been a long trying year on us all and there is nothing like obsessive planning to take your mind off all of life's stresses.

Thanks for sharing that story, especially for another DISer. Everyone is so kind on this thread.

So I got my allearsnet email this week and one of the tips was to keep checking your southwest flights (that's who I'm flying) because you can get the cheaper rate if there is one. Well, there was one for our flights and while I don't get the actually money back, I did get a credit of $300!!!
Now, I just need to get ON THE FLIGHT and get TO THE POLY!!!!!

 

[disneymumma]

After the sadest year of my and my childrens life I have decided to book nov. 20-27th at the poly. I am desperate for somnething to keep my mind busy and nothing like disney vacation to send me into planning overdrive. I will do my best not to talk about the sad parts here. We have planned concerige garden view . Nice to meet ya'll

Welcome, amanda_stacy!! I'm very sorry to hear that your year has been difficult. I'm sure you will soon find this to be one of the greatest boards and most joyful places to frequent...and escape to (or maybe that's just me ). Everyone is exceptionally kind, considerate, and helpful. Congratulations on your upcoming visit to DW and happy planning!

 

[PolynesianAlex]

Cant stand this wait anymore!

We are leaving Friday and staying for 9 nights!! 10 days