ALOHA! The Poly FAQ: Fall 2010 Edition

[GaSwan]

I'm one of the Tahiti fans, we love this building as we don't find the walk from GCH to Tahiti that bad about 4 minutes, (its me my wife and a 8 and 11 yr old) and being so close to TTC a big plus add in the fact that there is no walking path in front of building (lagoon side) so noone is wandering by while you enjoy your view. The rooms are larger and the bathrooms have double sinks.

Cap'n--thanks so much for your response. Tahiti seems to have lot to recommend it--but what do you think of the TPV from Tahiti?

thanks
Lee

 

[DebbyLof428]

BreezysMom - so sorry to hear about your loss. I agree with previous posters that a Disney vacation is a perfect way to heal. Good luck with your planning.

 

[dizneechic]

Another random question...
How close is Captain Cooks from each of the pools? I'm debating on if we should pick up 2 refillable mugs to use while down there even though we are staying CL. If it's easier to just go over to CC to top off it may be a good idea, or even just to have larger cups to bring beverages back to our room vs the CL cups. Anyone have opinions on this, worth it or don't bother?

 

[Capt. Barbosa]

Cap'n--thanks so much for your response. Tahiti seems to have lot to recommend it--but what do you think of the TPV from Tahiti?

thanks
Lee

The theme park view was great I was on the first floor and loved having the lawn out in front of us. I have some pictures I will post up plus a link to a video I shot it was with a webcam as I streamed my view live 24/7 so the castle appears far away because of the focal length of webcams are made for close up not distance.

The Video Link recorded during the opening of MK about 20 min long no action just atmosphere

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2389715

Wishes from Patio

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2399030


Looking toward the GF from in front of Tahiti

Swing on the beach in front of Tahiti

Tahiti from the Ferry

MK at Dusk

Looking toward the CRT

The Ferry leaving TTC

Shot from the Patio of Room 1017 (HC room 1st floor)

The Patio with the webcam setup

 

[Aristocath]

Aloha friends

guitarob, the thread is awesome. You have done such a excellent job! It is also great that you are going soon so you can get updated info and new pictures . Thank you so much for continuing the best thread on the DIS

It is nice to see so many new poly lovers on the thread. I have not been frequenting the board lately so I know I have missed some trip reports/reviews and plan on going back and reading each page. I hope you all had great stays and I am looking forward to catching up.

Sadly, we have had a horrific summer and I am debating a trip in the fall or early December. After I got cleared and was on the mend from my medical issues my Mom got diagnosed on June 28th with lung cancer that had already spread through her body. We lost her last Sunday just 6 weeks after her diagnosis. My Mom and I were really close as was my Breezy So, we need some Poly therapy along with Disney magic...and soon!

I am waiting to see about these alleged discounts that are supposed to come out tomorrow for fall and 2011 before I make my final decision but I am definitely booking a trip to Disney tomorrow regardless if it is for October or December or adjusting our March trip to earlier dates. I am sure planning and looking forward to a trip to the Poly will be good therapy for all of us. My Dad, even expressed a remote interest in joining us. I would love to take my Dad to Disney World and the Poly! I know he would love the holiday decor if we went in early December which would coincide with Mom's b-day so I am aiming for early December if possible.

Sorry to be a bit of a downer... I have missed this thread and all my Poly peeps. I look forward to be more active posting and planning again!

I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[Aristocath]

Got back last night from our wonderful vacation. Our first three nights were spent at the Doubletree Downtown Disney. We spent a day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, visited Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach.

Saturday morning the 7th we checked into the Polynesian. We arrived in our rental and the bell captain arranged for the cart to drive us to the Hawaii building and stored our luggage since our room wasn't ready. Check in went smoothly and we had breakfast in the lounge before heading to the MK.

We had Hawaii #3520, a garden view room. We loved having the balcony and we could see the quiet pool from our room, along with a huge tree. Our room was well maintained and very clean. Emina was our mousekeeper for most of the nine nights and she did an excellent job.

We loved having the lounge to go to for breakfast and afternoon snacks. We often were there for late evening service but rarely made it to the appetizers. The CMs in club level were very friendly and helpful. My only complaints about the lounge: we needed more variety at breakfast. The breakfast menu was basically the same every day!

My other complaint had nothing to do with the staff, it was the other people staying CL. Our room was at the opposite end of the building from the lounge and it was gross to walk down the hallway to see it littered with trays, glasses and plates of half eaten food from the lounge. Why don't people clean up after themselves? If I was taking a drink to my room from the lounge, I got a paper cup. There was one room with about 8 wine glasses sitting ouside of it one night when we got back from the parks. Okay, rant over.

Transportation was great. We rarely waited more than five minutes for a bus. The walk to the TTC was short to get the Epcot monorail and getting to the MK was so easy. My boys enjoyed taking the launch to the MK too.

We ate at Captain Cook's three times and I love the grilled cheese. 'Ohana was so good and we had very good service there. I was worried since I'd seen so many reviews mentioning slow service.

Anyway, it was a fabulous vacation! It will probably be four years until we go back to WDW again since we have some other vacations in the works. So glad this was practically perfect in every way!

Also, it was so fun to meet Jetskigirl and her lovely family in the lounge. Thank you for the Disneyland maps.

I'll be happy to answer any questions if I can.

Cathy

 

[bluejasmine]

Thanks for the review Cathy! Any pics you can post? Looking fwd to my first CL stay in a few weeks! I dont understand ppl just setting their dishes outside the hall!
I cant wait for grilled cheese from Capt Cooks and Ohanas! great now my leftover cheese tortellini just tastes bland! LOL!

 

[GaSwan]

The theme park view was great I was on the first floor and loved having the lawn out in front of us. I have some pictures I will post up plus a link to a video I shot it was with a webcam as I streamed my view live 24/7 so the castle appears far away because of the focal length of webcams are made for close up not distance.

Cap'n--thank you so much, the video and pictures are gorgeous and so helpful. I think its Tahiti for us.

Lee

 

[jetskigrl]

Got back last night from our wonderful vacation. Our first three nights were spent at the Doubletree Downtown Disney. We spent a day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, visited Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach.

Saturday morning the 7th we checked into the Polynesian. We arrived in our rental and the bell captain arranged for the cart to drive us to the Hawaii building and stored our luggage since our room wasn't ready. Check in went smoothly and we had breakfast in the lounge before heading to the MK.

We had Hawaii #3520, a garden view room. We loved having the balcony and we could see the quiet pool from our room, along with a huge tree. Our room was well maintained and very clean. Emina was our mousekeeper for most of the nine nights and she did an excellent job.

We loved having the lounge to go to for breakfast and afternoon snacks. We often were there for late evening service but rarely made it to the appetizers. The CMs in club level were very friendly and helpful. My only complaints about the lounge: we needed more variety at breakfast. The breakfast menu was basically the same every day!

My other complaint had nothing to do with the staff, it was the other people staying CL. Our room was at the opposite end of the building from the lounge and it was gross to walk down the hallway to see it littered with trays, glasses and plates of half eaten food from the lounge. Why don't people clean up after themselves? If I was taking a drink to my room from the lounge, I got a paper cup. There was one room with about 8 wine glasses sitting ouside of it one night when we got back from the parks. Okay, rant over.

Transportation was great. We rarely waited more than five minutes for a bus. The walk to the TTC was short to get the Epcot monorail and getting to the MK was so easy. My boys enjoyed taking the launch to the MK too.

We ate at Captain Cook's three times and I love the grilled cheese. 'Ohana was so good and we had very good service there. I was worried since I'd seen so many reviews mentioning slow service.

Anyway, it was a fabulous vacation! It will probably be four years until we go back to WDW again since we have some other vacations in the works. So glad this was practically perfect in every way!

Also, it was so fun to meet Jetskigirl and her lovely family in the lounge. Thank you for the Disneyland maps.

I'll be happy to answer any questions if I can.

Cathy

It was great meeting you and your family too Cathy!!!

I agree about the dishes in the hall. I saw that alot also and it bugged me too. We always walked our dishes back to the lounge or left them inside and the mousekeeper took them when she cleaned. And yeah, the breakfast didn't rotate too much, did it, LOL. I don't think I will be eating a bagel for a while

We tried Cap't Cooks for the Tonga Toast and the flatbread pizza. I thought both were very good!! But since we took afternoon breaks most days, we were able to try many of the appetizers in the lounge and they were all very good too!

 

[jetskigrl]

Another random question...
How close is Captain Cooks from each of the pools? I'm debating on if we should pick up 2 refillable mugs to use while down there even though we are staying CL. If it's easier to just go over to CC to top off it may be a good idea, or even just to have larger cups to bring beverages back to our room vs the CL cups. Anyone have opinions on this, worth it or don't bother?

If you are staying CL, I wouldn't bother with the refillable mugs. We even ended up with too much water in our room (we ordered two cases to be delivered) because there was so much available in the lounge. Both the CL lounge and CC are about the same distance from the pools (very close to the volcano pool - just steps away).

 

[jkstewart1800]

Got back last night from our wonderful vacation. Our first three nights were spent at the Doubletree Downtown Disney. We spent a day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, visited Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach.

Saturday morning the 7th we checked into the Polynesian. We arrived in our rental and the bell captain arranged for the cart to drive us to the Hawaii building and stored our luggage since our room wasn't ready. Check in went smoothly and we had breakfast in the lounge before heading to the MK.

We had Hawaii #3520, a garden view room. We loved having the balcony and we could see the quiet pool from our room, along with a huge tree. Our room was well maintained and very clean. Emina was our mousekeeper for most of the nine nights and she did an excellent job.

We loved having the lounge to go to for breakfast and afternoon snacks. We often were there for late evening service but rarely made it to the appetizers. The CMs in club level were very friendly and helpful. My only complaints about the lounge: we needed more variety at breakfast. The breakfast menu was basically the same every day!

My other complaint had nothing to do with the staff, it was the other people staying CL. Our room was at the opposite end of the building from the lounge and it was gross to walk down the hallway to see it littered with trays, glasses and plates of half eaten food from the lounge. Why don't people clean up after themselves? If I was taking a drink to my room from the lounge, I got a paper cup. There was one room with about 8 wine glasses sitting ouside of it one night when we got back from the parks. Okay, rant over.

Transportation was great. We rarely waited more than five minutes for a bus. The walk to the TTC was short to get the Epcot monorail and getting to the MK was so easy. My boys enjoyed taking the launch to the MK too.

We ate at Captain Cook's three times and I love the grilled cheese. 'Ohana was so good and we had very good service there. I was worried since I'd seen so many reviews mentioning slow service.

Anyway, it was a fabulous vacation! It will probably be four years until we go back to WDW again since we have some other vacations in the works. So glad this was practically perfect in every way!

Also, it was so fun to meet Jetskigirl and her lovely family in the lounge. Thank you for the Disneyland maps.

I'll be happy to answer any questions if I can.

Cathy

I have to admit in my earlier days of hotel travel I use to be the person who would put stuff outside my door when I was done with it (like room service dishes) It wasn't until someone told me that I had to CALL room service/ housekeeping to come get them (and they do ) that I finally figured out how the system works...

 

[crostorfer]

(This is our first trip to the World, so I have a lot of questions, I apologize if this has been asked before.)

Has anyone who has previously stayed at the Poly used their debit card at the time of check in for incidentals at the resort? If you have, did they place a hold of an amount of money on your account? I stayed at a Hyatt in Singapore once and they placed a $500 hold on my account until we checked out, which seriously cut in to my spending money budget. I was just curious to if the Poly did as well so that I know ahead of time to do some account switcharoos with my spending money. Thanks!

 

[leane]

(This is our first trip to the World, so I have a lot of questions, I apologize if this has been asked before.)

Has anyone who has previously stayed at the Poly used their debit card at the time of check in for incidentals at the resort? If you have, did they place a hold of an amount of money on your account? I stayed at a Hyatt in Singapore once and they placed a $500 hold on my account until we checked out, which seriously cut in to my spending money budget. I was just curious to if the Poly did as well so that I know ahead of time to do some account switcharoos with my spending money. Thanks!

I don't have a credit card only a debit card cool1: debt free except for our mortgage ) They didn't put a hold of any kind on my debit card.


The AP rates for our travel dates finally came out today and we were able to save an addtional whoopping $36 lol I am just happy we could get the room with that code. We added the basic dining plan. I am one that likes to have at least one solid meal a day.

 

[pipervali]

So I'm hoping ya'll can help me out a bit. We're booking a sort of on the fly Disney trip for the week before Thanksgiving of this year. We were down two years ago, but both myself and my DM have decided we both need a break lol.

We've never stayed on property, the last trip we rented a house actually. But we've figured, with the 40% discounts going right now, it's the perfect time to try it out. Because of that, we figured, might as well try one of the Deluxe resorts. My DM is newly retired, so this will probably be the last big splurge for a while. I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, so I figured the Poly was a perfect compromise lol

I'm just curious, I've seen lots of people talking about watching the fireworks and whatnot along the beach of the Poly. Will that be something that we can do during the off season of November? I remember when we were down in September two years ago, that Wishes was only like once a week then, and we're unfortunately not going to be staying until Saturday. Also, are the movies on the beach between the GF and the Poly still shown during the off season, or just during the summer and holiday busy periods?

Sorry for all the questions gang, I'm just really trying to decide if the Poly is the right resort for us, and I'm getting anxious to book as well before all the discounts get jumped on and I'm stuck.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Sadly, we have had a horrific summer and I am debating a trip in the fall or early December. After I got cleared and was on the mend from my medical issues my Mom got diagnosed on June 28th with lung cancer that had already spread through her body. We lost her last Sunday just 6 weeks after her diagnosis. My Mom and I were really close as was my Breezy So, we need some Poly therapy along with Disney magic...and soon!

I'm so sorry to hear that BreezysMom. It sounds like you haven't had any luck yet finding the right room with the right discount so I'm crossing my fingers that something opens up so you can head to WDW.

All I can say is WOW!!!!

Welcome back and thanks for posting the reviews!!

Thank you logpeg. Have been on chemo for awhile now and tomorrow I start 6 weeks of radiation. I should be done by the end of Sept. That gives me all of Oct to get my strength back. I am so glad I switched to room only because I won't have to pay the rest until I get there and if needed I can cancel only 5 days out.

Get well (& strong) soon esmerelda51!

attaching the yellow ME tags to the bags right now... I figure we will be waiting on line for Pirates this time tomorrow...

Whoo-hoo!!!!

Can anyone tell me what time to pool bar opens? We arrive early in the morning and after breakfast at O'Hana we plan on chilling by the pool until our room is ready. And also, what is the best drink the pool bar serves and how much it costs? Thanks!

I usually go in April/May and the pool bar has been open by 11 am (the earliest I've arrived at the pool). I'm not sure if their hours vary by time of year though. So they have lots of yummy drinks!!! It depends on what you are in the mood for. The Pina Colava is a good 'hungry' drink because it is a Pina Colada (so very filling) with a raspberry swirl in it. I can only drink one of these because they are so filling but it is a must to get at least one I personally like the X-fusion (x-rated) lemonade. I believe they changed the name to Poolside lemonade but it is x-fusion liquor (guave/orange/passion fruit flavor I think) with vodka and LIGHT lemonade. So this is a lower calorie drink and more 'refreshing' for a hot day at the pool. But I like to try all of the ones they serve and some off the menu too

have fun, we catch our plane at 6:45 tomorrow. i cant wait i spent all day saying tomorrow at this time......

Have fun!!!

Got back last night from our wonderful vacation.

Welcome back and thanks for the review!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

At one time, there was a Haunted Pirate Cruise from the Poly - do they still offer this?

 

[Tess]

So I'm hoping ya'll can help me out a bit. We're booking a sort of on the fly Disney trip for the week before Thanksgiving of this year. We were down two years ago, but both myself and my DM have decided we both need a break lol.

We've never stayed on property, the last trip we rented a house actually. But we've figured, with the 40% discounts going right now, it's the perfect time to try it out. Because of that, we figured, might as well try one of the Deluxe resorts. My DM is newly retired, so this will probably be the last big splurge for a while. I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, so I figured the Poly was a perfect compromise lol

I'm just curious, I've seen lots of people talking about watching the fireworks and whatnot along the beach of the Poly. Will that be something that we can do during the off season of November? I remember when we were down in September two years ago, that Wishes was only like once a week then, and we're unfortunately not going to be staying until Saturday. Also, are the movies on the beach between the GF and the Poly still shown during the off season, or just during the summer and holiday busy periods?

Sorry for all the questions gang, I'm just really trying to decide if the Poly is the right resort for us, and I'm getting anxious to book as well before all the discounts get jumped on and I'm stuck.

Wishes is shown every night, weather permitting. It should not be a problem for you to view it from the beach.

As far as the movies go--not sure about November. I know they had the movies in October last year. Maybe someone else who visits during that time can better answer.

Hope you enjoy your splurge!

 

[outahere]

Wishes is shown every night, weather permitting. It should not be a problem for you to view it from the beach.

I just checked the schedule and there are several nights in November when they do not have Wishes scheduled. You can check here for the schedule:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/novfw10.cfm

 

[Tess]

I just checked the schedule and there are several nights in November when they do not have Wishes scheduled. You can check here for the schedule:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/novfw10.cfm

Isn't that because they have MVMCP? I thought the fireworks went off, but you couldn't be in the park without admission to MVMCP? If so, you can still view from the beach.

 

[maiapapaya]

Sadly, even though I was up early on the computer and on the phone with Disney directly, I have not really been able to snag a discounted room during times that we are available/want to go. I have a feeling that they did not release a lot of inventory or something. While I prefer to stay club level, garden view I was not being too picky about the room category except for TPV club level which I refuse to pay for even with a discount

But I will keep trying to see if maybe they open some additional inventory. The lady at the call center kept trying to tell me that they had free dining rooms available but I tried to explain to her that 40% off rack rate at the Poly is by far a better financial option, especially since I want to stay club level and don't really want the dining plan...she kept saying, but "it's free meals".

Happy planning everyone

I'm just catching up on my DIS after being away from the computer for the better part of 6 days. I really hope that you can manage to book a room (preferably between Nov. 28 & Dec 5 ... ) I need to give you a big hug.