ALOHA! The Poly FAQ~ Spring 2010 Edition

[mickey2minnie1]

We leave for the airport at 3 am Tuesday morning!

I cannot wait to see the Poly again.

 

[Zuzu03]

We leave for the airport at 3 am Tursday morning!

I cannot wait to see the Poly again.

Have a GREAT trip!!!!

 

[Minnie&Nana]

We leave for the airport at 3 am Tursday morning!

I cannot wait to see the Poly again.

How exciting!!!

 

[vinotinto]

That is a good question?

I have to say though that when we go, we always walk past the tennis courts and DH says, "we should bring our rackets next time". Then we realize we would probably never make the time to play.

I don't see where it would be a problem because I have never seen anyone ever using the courts when I have been there. Poly gues are allowed to use the health spa...I am not sure if that includes the courts.

Anyone else know

Has anyone here been to the health spa at GF? What do they have for complimentary use besides the gym machines? Is there a steam room or sauna or hot tub?

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Hi!! I was wondering if the room had dishes at all for if we wanted to heat up some oatmeal for breakfast. THANKS!!

The rooms only have cups. I used to use the kids meal plates (they were deep Mickey shapes) and I used the leftover ones as bowls but I didn't notice those shapes when I was there last (might have been a fluke) so I bring 4 bowls and rinse them out daily. I grab some plastic utensils at Capn Cooks as well.

 

[melham]

Last year at AKL all we had were glasses for H2O in our rooms, but we grabbed some extra styrofoam cups from the food court and brought those to our room for oatmeal.
Sometimes we just took the oatmeal down w/ us and stopped by on the way to the bus stop and used the hot H2O from the coffee makers in the food court and a cup to mix my son's oatmeal. Then we fed him while we waited on a bus to come. Worked out great!

The rooms only have cups. I used to use the kids meal plates (they were deep Mickey shapes) and I used the leftover ones as bowls but I didn't notice those shapes when I was there last (might have been a fluke) so I bring 4 bowls and rinse them out daily. I grab some plastic utensils at Capn Cooks as well.

Thanks. We will be sure to bring some bowls with us then. Appreciate the quick response. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Thanks. We will be sure to bring some bowls with us then. Appreciate the quick response. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that's your best bet. Bring some of the plastic/throw away bowls. You should only need one per person and then rinse them out each day. You probably can find some bowls at one of the restaurants but you never know!

 

[think-like-tink]

anyone have a link to what the menu is now for CL?

 

[think-like-tink]

Tinkerbellie, we aren't to far from you. We are in chey,wy

 

[melham]

So this is probably a stupid question, but where do we find all of the schedules for shows and everything? Do we just wait until we get to the parks or should we be looking everything up ahead of time? Such a newbie

 

[Tess]

anyone have a link to what the menu is now for CL?

I posted a menu earlier in this thread (and perhaps Breezysmom has it in the first few pages?). I believe the menu is the same as contained in that post. The menu was revised and changed last October.

I found the copy of the new menu in my photobucket:

As indicated on the sheets--the new menu is on the right side of the page.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Tinkerbellie, we aren't to far from you. We are in chey,wy

You guys aren't far away at all! We drive through Cheyenne a few times a year on our way up to the family ranch in Montana. I've always wondered - what airport do you fly out of to get to Orlando (or anywhere else)? Do you drive down to Denver International Airport or somewhere else? Just curious!

 

[think-like-tink]

We drive down to Denver to fly out. It drives me nuts.

 

[mousketexan]

We are back, and we had a wonderful time. We had room 3910 GV in Tokelau. It was not a great view (mostly saw the side of Hawaii longhouse), but we did have a balcony (which was my only request). If we stay at Poly again, I will request Tahiti. I really liked the location of that longhouse the best, and it appeared that the gardenview rooms had much nicer views than we did. Or maybe I will spend the extra money for TPV...but I doubt it. We were in the room so little that I don't know that I really cared what was outside the window.

We loved the convenience of the Poly to the monorail and the TTC. Overall, the monorail worked well for us. On the first night, we thought it would be quicker to catch the ferry boat back to Poly, but we didn't realize how few people it holds and we ended up having to wait for the third one. Though our goal was to get back to the Poly beach in time to watch the Nightastic fireworks, we ended up having an amazing view of them from the back of the ferry boat. Our driver slowed the boat down so we could see the whole show from the boat, which was nice.

My kids loved both of the pools; in fact, I think they preferred the quiet one because there was more room to spread out. They also went to the Never Land Club one night and they seemed to really enjoy that.

We had a very nice dinner at Kona (a bit loud, but the food was good quality and the service was great) and a great breakfast at Ohana (really good food, great characters, nice atmosphere). We had quite a few snacks and meals at Capt. Cook's, too. Loved the Aloha Pork Sandwich...yum! Unfortunately, the Dole Whip machine was out of service for a few days...kind of a bummer.

My overall impression of the Poly is that it's a very conveniently located resort, and the theme is nice. Loved the feel of the GCH. The rooms are very large, the beds were very comfy (with really soft blankets!), and the extra daybed was nice to have. (DH ended up sleeping in it when DD climbed into our bed in the middle of the night.) It's not what I would normally consider a "deluxe" resort. The elevators are small, the service is mediocre (unless maybe you are CL, which we weren't) and I felt kind of like a "number" instead of a guest. I'm not complaining...it met my expectations in most ways and exceeded my expectations for convenience. I just think the "deluxe" description is a little bit of a stretch.

Any questions, ask away!

 

[Tess]

We are back, and we had a wonderful time. We had room 3910 GV in Tokelau. It was not a great view (mostly saw the side of Hawaii longhouse), but we did have a balcony (which was my only request). If we stay at Poly again, I will request Tahiti. I really liked the location of that longhouse the best, and it appeared that the gardenview rooms had much nicer views than we did. Or maybe I will spend the extra money for TPV...but I doubt it. We were in the room so little that I don't know that I really cared what was outside the window.

We loved the convenience of the Poly to the monorail and the TTC. Overall, the monorail worked well for us. On the first night, we thought it would be quicker to catch the ferry boat back to Poly, but we didn't realize how few people it holds and we ended up having to wait for the third one. Though our goal was to get back to the Poly beach in time to watch the Nightastic fireworks, we ended up having an amazing view of them from the back of the ferry boat. Our driver slowed the boat down so we could see the whole show from the boat, which was nice.

My kids loved both of the pools; in fact, I think they preferred the quiet one because there was more room to spread out. They also went to the Never Land Club one night and they seemed to really enjoy that.

We had a very nice dinner at Kona (a bit loud, but the food was good quality and the service was great) and a great breakfast at Ohana (really good food, great characters, nice atmosphere). We had quite a few snacks and meals at Capt. Cook's, too. Loved the Aloha Pork Sandwich...yum! Unfortunately, the Dole Whip machine was out of service for a few days...kind of a bummer.

My overall impression of the Poly is that it's a very conveniently located resort, and the theme is nice. Loved the feel of the GCH. The rooms are very large, the beds were very comfy (with really soft blankets!), and the extra daybed was nice to have. (DH ended up sleeping in it when DD climbed into our bed in the middle of the night.) It's not what I would normally consider a "deluxe" resort. The elevators are small, the service is mediocre (unless maybe you are CL, which we weren't) and I felt kind of like a "number" instead of a guest. I'm not complaining...it met my expectations in most ways and exceeded my expectations for convenience. I just think the "deluxe" description is a little bit of a stretch.

Any questions, ask away!

Welcome Back Robyn! Glad you enjoyed your stay and thanks for sharing your thoughts! Any pictures for us?

 

[think-like-tink]

Thanks Tess. I saw that post,I wasn't sure if it had changed again or not.


Mouseketexan, I would lOVE to see some pics.

 

[mousketexan]

Welcome Back Robyn! Glad you enjoyed your stay and thanks for sharing your thoughts! Any pictures for us?

We arrived home at 10:30pm and I had to come to work today, so no time to upload the pics yet. Stay tuned...they are coming.

 

[mickeywho?]

My son and I were at the Poly the weekend of May 20-25. We looove the resort! Beautiful grounds, great atmosphere....
A few thoughts - we stayed in a GV room in Fiji (ground floor with Patio). We were facing Luau Cove - perfect view - just a little noisy at night when the show was happening.
The room felt quite dark and the furnishings needed fresh paint. While the room was clean there was definitely wear-and-tear and I'm surprised that it would need a refurb so soon since the last one...
As much as I love the Poly I don't know how soon I'll be going back. I'll insert a portion of my letter to guest communications...

"Every morning we would head over to a park and when we were worn out for the day we would head back to the hotel for a swim. My son loves the slide and a nice cool dip was something I looked forward to finishing my day. Every day we were there it would take me well over 30 minutes to find a place to sit (I like to stay within sight of my son) because of the amount of people there.

At first, I thought this was just because it was a busy time at the resort - great weather and heat! Then I realized there were many "guests" using the pool that really should not have been there. I met one family on the bus to Downtown Disney one evening - they had a cooler and a couple of large beach bags and I commented to the father of the group that it seemed late in the day to be heading to the waterpark. Nope! They had spent the day at the Polynesian pool and were heading back to their hotel on International Drive.

The next day, (I gave up on looking for a table and placed a chair next to the pool instead), I met another family at the pool. Their table was piled high with their stuff - and it sat there without any sign of them for over an hour. When they finally arrived (apparently after going to Target for some grocery shopping) their young daughters chatted on and on about how much better this pool was than the one at the Allstars and could they please come back tomorrow and the next day! Dad said sure - they would drop their stuff off in the morning, head to Magic Kingdom for a few hours and then be back after lunch to spend the afternoon. Nice!

As a paying guest at the Polynesian I was quite frustrated by this. I may expect to be crowded out of a popular pool by other Polynesian guests but the fact that many others seem to think it's perfectly fine to use this pool while not staying in the hotel was quite disgusting. No one was checking resort ID - the lifeguards were busy enough keeping the guests safe. How difficult would it be to have a cast member ask for ID every couple of hours? "

Pool-hopping continues to be a big issue at this resort. I really hope they start to do something about this. I heard back from Guest Communications yesterday - they apologized and said that my comments and theirs would be forwarded to the resort manager and assistant manager.

 

[BabyFu18]

It sucks to hear about the pool hopping it's one thing I am very concerned with for our upcoming trip, it's so saddening to me that people think it's okay to just drop bags off to hold your place at the pool of a resort that they aren't even staying at!

I'm just hoping that the pool hopping and over-crowded pool isn't going to ruin our trip, it seems to be such a big problem at the poly, but I've still always wanted to stay there so I'm giving it a shot for the first time.

 

[Momtomouselover]

We also found the pool at the Poly to be very crowded during our recent visit. The line for the slide was long and so we only went a couple of times. We split our resort stay between the Poly and the BC and the BC pool was less crowded and more enjoyable to us.

I also agree with the reviews that the resort has an excellent location, very pretty grounds and the GCH is nice but the rooms and elevators are in need of an update/rehab again. The mousekeeping was not as good at this resort either (or maybe it is harder to keep up an older place??). I think perhaps the Poly is resting on its laurels due to pretty grounds and location. Will I return...maybe because I like the location and being able to watch the fireworks from the beach, however, I may consider the GF next time to compare.