ALOHA! The Poly FAQ~ Spring 2010 Edition

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My husband actually loves this view! He'd rather see the Monorail out our window than most anything else!

in 2008 we stayed in aotearoa and had a view of the monorail.i loved it it was the best view. we had landscaping inbetween our room though and not a parking lot.i wouldnt want a parking lot view.
 
Just back from a WONDERFUL Polynesian vacation! :sunny: I'm exhausted (got home at around 1am) but I'll write more tomorrow!

In a nutshell, the grounds were beautiful, the pool was great as always, the room was clean and in great shape, the CMs that we encountered everywhere were very nice and very helpful. The CMs at the desk in the Hawaii building were very nice, especially a guy named Wes. He's great, and I remembered him from our 2008 trip.

The weather was surprisingly not bad at all, and some days were actually "perfect weather". I was expecting bad heat and humidity.

Ok I'll finish the review in the morning!! :)
 
Just back from a WONDERFUL Polynesian vacation! :sunny: I'm exhausted (got home at around 1am) but I'll write more tomorrow!

In a nutshell, the grounds were beautiful, the pool was great as always, the room was clean and in great shape, the CMs that we encountered everywhere were very nice and very helpful. The CMs at the desk in the Hawaii building were very nice, especially a guy named Wes. He's great, and I remembered him from our 2008 trip.

The weather was surprisingly not bad at all, and some days were actually "perfect weather". I was expecting bad heat and humidity.

Ok I'll finish the review in the morning!! :)

Welcome back! Can't wait to hear more popcorn::
 
Okay, I just have to join the fun going on in this thread. Here I sit, a 53 year old woman, with butterflies in my tummy thinking about our upcoming trip to the Poly, Sept 11 - 19. My husband is just as excited, and we've been giggling together every night since we booked our trip a couple weeks ago. It will be his 2nd Poly stay, and my third. We've loved every resort we've stayed at but are especially thrilled to be going back to the Poly!

Joan


OMG Joan we will be there at the same time!! We can hardly wait, its our first Poly stay, its been my dream since I was a little girl :banana:
I feel like a child going..Is it time yet, are we almost there? Im wishing everyone's summer away just for our trip! We arrive the night before staying at Best western DTD

:yay:
 

Just back from a WONDERFUL Polynesian vacation! :sunny: I'm exhausted (got home at around 1am) but I'll write more tomorrow!

In a nutshell, the grounds were beautiful, the pool was great as always, the room was clean and in great shape, the CMs that we encountered everywhere were very nice and very helpful. The CMs at the desk in the Hawaii building were very nice, especially a guy named Wes. He's great, and I remembered him from our 2008 trip.

The weather was surprisingly not bad at all, and some days were actually "perfect weather". I was expecting bad heat and humidity.

Ok I'll finish the review in the morning!! :)

Hey, it's tomorrow. . .are you still in bed? :lmao:
 
Aloha!!! Surprisingly, I did not take very many pictures on this trip. It was all about relaxing and focusing on my family, and having fun. :sunny:

Arrival: We arrived via limo at around 10:30am. A bellman took our luggage (loaded it onto a cart); while my family stayed with the limo while the luggage was being unloaded I walked over to the valet desk. There's a sign on the right-hand side of the desk that says "Club Arrivals" so I walked over there. The CM took our name, made a phone call, and told me that our room was #1516, and that it was ready! Once my family joined me at the valet desk, we were told that it'd be a wait for a cart ride down to the Hawaii building, or, we could walk and they'd bring our luggage as soon as possible. Since I figured that all 5 of us, plus our luggage, couldn't really fit onto 1 cart anyway, I told them we'd walk, especially since our room was ready!

We walked into the Hawaii building and told them that we were staying in room 1516, and that it was ready. By the way, we did have to sit and wait around 15-20 minutes while the 2 CMs were checking in other families. When it was our turn, the CM printed our tickets and our itinerary, and we were on our way down the hall to our room. 1516 is at the far end of the hall, floor level, facing the lagoon, Magic Kingdom, Castle, etc. It's a lagoon view room, so no "upgrade" to theme park view, but really, there was no obstruction, unless you call the palm trees way out on the beach an obstruction. LOL We could clearly see the castle, Space Mountain, the Contemporary, wedding Pavilian, Grand Floridian, and the marina, from our room and patio. We'd always stayed in a third floor room before, but now I'm a first floor convert! ::yes::

The room: We could walk right off the patio, on to the grass, then to the beach... hammocks, tiki torches, Sunset Point...all right there. :cloud9: We had a "towel animal" waiting on the bed; a Mickey head made from 3 towels, with pink flower leis in the center of each of the 3 circles. Very nice touch, and it was the only towel animal we received all week. That doesn't bother me though. :) The room was clean, no mold in the bathroom, nothing peeling off the walls, carpet was in excellent condition, etc. The fridge worked great, and so did the air conditioning. :thumbsup2

To be continued after dinner!!! :surfweb:
 
Aloha!!! Surprisingly, I did not take very many pictures on this trip. It was all about relaxing and focusing on my family, and having fun. :sunny:


We walked into the Hawaii building and told them that we were staying in room 1516, and that it was ready. By the way, we did have to sit and wait around 15-20 minutes while the 2 CMs were checking in other families. When it was our turn, the CM printed our tickets and our itinerary, and we were on our way down the hall to our room. 1516 is at the far end of the hall, floor level, facing the lagoon, Magic Kingdom, Castle, etc. It's a lagoon view room, so no "upgrade" to theme park view, but really, there was no obstruction, unless you call the palm trees way out on the beach an obstruction. LOL We could clearly see the castle, Space Mountain, the Contemporary, wedding Pavilian, Grand Floridian, and the marina, from our room and patio. We'd always stayed in a third floor room before, but now I'm a first floor convert! ::yes::

To be continued after dinner!!! :surfweb:


Glad you had a great time! :banana: Is it pretty normal to receive free room upgrades at Poly? Do you have to be CL to have the fairy dust sprinkled on you? Thanks & I can't wait to read more! :goodvibes
 
Glad you had a great time! :banana: Is it pretty normal to receive free room upgrades at Poly? Do you have to be CL to have the fairy dust sprinkled on you? Thanks & I can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

No, not really normal to receive free room upgrades. I only mentioned that it wasn't an upgrade because I feel that our room view was just as good as the theme park view category rooms. :) On previous trips I've stayed in several rooms that would now be categorized as theme park, and the only difference between those and the view we just had were the few palm trees way out on the beach. :)

Edited to add: No, you don't have to be staying CL necessarily in order to receive an upgrade. :) But they don't happen very often at all, so please don't feel bad if you don't get one. :)
 
The room: Each morning housekeeping did a great job cleaning the room and the bathroom. They left fresh shampoos, conditioners, and soaps each day. I really couldn't find anything at all negative to say about the room, it was great. :)

Turn-down service: They came each afternoon at around 4:30pm; a few of the nights my children asked them to please come back later in the evening because we were in there getting ready for our evening. If it were just DH and I, we probably would've just let them in, but with 5 of us, it would've been too many people in the room at one time. So, they did come back later. Turn-down service was fine; they turned the beds down and left chocolates, and left a couple of lights on. Nothing more, nothing less. I enjoy coming back later on and seeing the beds turned down; it's just one of those little perks. :cloud9:

The concierge lounge: It was in great shape, physically. Furniture and carpeting all looked to be in good shape. :) Morning offerings were the same as have been mentioned by recent DISers: bagels (peanut butter, cream cheese, jelly, honey, butter), croissants, one more there were mini blueberry muffins, there was cut-up fruit (honey dew and cantelope), whole fruit (apples, oranges, bananas), hot oatmeal with dried fruit and brown sugar, cold cereals (raisin bran, froot loops, frosted flakes, cheerios), low fat milk, whole milk, cranberry juice, orange juice. Coffee machine, tea bags, hot chocolate, diet Coke, Coke, Sprite.

We weren't in the lounge a lot of the time, but on our last afternoon there were chips and salsa, pretzels, goldfish, popcorn, gummy sharks, fruit, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, lemonade, iced tea, passion-orange-guava juice, sodas.

We were in the lounge only a few times for the evening offerings. While there we had sushi, pulled pork, samosas, turkey skewers, sticky wings, some kind of cheese pastry with cherries on it, some sort of meatballs, pineapple gazpacho, plus varied cheeses and crackers, pineapple and caramel sauce, veggies with ranch dip, etc. Everything that we sampled was fresh and tasty.

Desserts: We only made it back to the lounge once or twice for desserts. We had mini whoopee pies, tiny fruit tarts, tiny chocolate tarts, a sort of tiramisu served in individual cups, macaroons, coffee mousse served in individual cups, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, etc. Again, everything was very fresh and very tasty! Much better than in years past when the desserts we tried were tasteless.

We saw who we think might be the new lounge chef; a younger man named Anthony. He was overseeing all of the food offerings, making sure things were filled, presented properly, etc. Now, I have to say that there were 2 older women working along side of him who.... how shall I say this.... :confused3 ....very not refined at all. They were questioning the chef on certain things, asking questions of him that I didn't feel were appropriate. Also, last evening we were standing near the food offerings when Chef Anthony and one of these women were working behind the food counter.... All of a sudden the woman says "Fireworks in the daytime?! What's that all about?!?! Why would they do that??? Who can see fireworks in the daytime?!?!??!" Chef Anthony was politely trying to explain that it's most likely the castle show that performs a few times a day... I was just observing all of this....but when she said "Who can see fireworks in the daytime anyway?!?!?" I smiled at her and said "Well YOU just saw them, and you're all the way here in the lounge". :laughing: I am not normally the kind of person to give a wise-guy remark like that, but for someone who on the job as Disney, and her tone of voice as if those fireworks were the most stupid and ridiculous thing on earth, it just sort of came out. LOL

Anyway, she and the other older woman were harmless, but just definitely not at all professional, even in a casual manner. They were not offensive.... just hard to explain their unusual behavior. LOL

The resort: The grounds were GORGEOUS! Very well kept, lots of flowering trees and bushes, well manicured lawns, etc. Very clean, never saw litter anywhere, no overflowing garbage cans, etc.

The pools: I only swam in the volcano pool, and I LOVED it. :cloud9: My DSs and DSsGF swam in the quiet pool and they said it was fine. :) Lots of lifeguards on duty until 10pm each night, in the volcano pool. Lots of activities going on during the day; hula lessons for kids and adults, chalk drawing near the pool, hula hoop contests, Disney trivia contests, pool games, etc. It seemed that every time we walked past the pool, there was something going on. :) Also a ping-pong table was set up near the volcano pool. The pool was never over crowded. The temp was great, a little cool at first, but very refreshing in the heat. Speakling of heat, the weather was pretty darn awesome for July! :sunny: No stifling humidity. :)

Capt Cooks: One night at around 11pm we all got hungry (this was after a big dinner at Teppan Edo! LOL), so we went to Capt Cooks. We ordered 2 flatbread pizzas (cheese and pepperoni), a cheeseburger, and a Dole whip. Everyone enjoyed the food. Personally I had some of the cheese flatbread, and while it wasn't the best I've ever had, it was pretty good and absolutely hit the spot that night! :thumbsup2

Kona Cafe: What can I say, it's my all-time favorite Disney restaurant! We had 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 1 dinner there this trip. The pineapple macadamia pancakes are STILL out of this world delicious!! :cloud9: DH said the Tonga Toast was as good as ever, and DS22 loved the Big Kahuna, DS19 loved the french toast, and DS19sGF loved the pineapple macadamia pancakes. Her parents own a restaurant where she also works, (and she's going to college for culinary), and she's going to see about trying to incorporate these Kona Cafe favorites into their menus! :thumbsup2

For lunch I had the coconut almond chicken breast, the turkey club sandwich, tried some of the teriyaki steak, shared the sticky wings, and it was all very, very good.

For dinner, we had the teriyaki steak, coconut chicken breast, Asian noodle bowl, etc, and everything was great. Nothing that we had at the Kona Cafe was bad!

Desserts consisted of the Kiluea torte, Kona Cone, Coconut Kiki Tart,creme brulee, sugar-free apple stack, and they were all very good. I loved the Coconut tart.


'Ohana dinner: We all enjoyed this very much. You can't let the servers make you feel rushed. At one point they were starting to bring the meats over, but I said we weren't quite ready for them yet, and they said that's fine, and came back a little later, while we enjoyed the wings, pot stickets, noodles, and veggies. :) All of loved the bread pudding, even picky DS19!

That's all I can think of right now! :) Any questions??
 
I just remembered that I wanted to mention that we could hear very clearly the sounds from the fireworks! There's a speaker in the bushes out on the path in front of the Hawaii building and we could hear Hawaii music during the day, and the sound track of the fireworks at night. :) Also, while swimming in the volcano pool we could also hear the sound track to the fireworks. :) There were some moments where people and kids were yelling and speaking loudly, and we were sitting down at the far end of the pool and we couldn't hear over the noise, but it was fine, everyone was having fun, and that's the main thing. :) At any rate, the speakers were all working very well during our stay.

Polynesian logo merchandise: I'm still not thrilled with the selection! :confused3 But it is better than in recent years. lol Finally I was able to buy a Polynesian logo magnet that didn't have Lilo and Stitch on it. LOL I also bought a matching magnetic note pad, both will go on my fridge. :) I bought a Polynesian resort t-shirt for DH that has the same "new" logo on it as on the magnet and note pad, which is the row of tiki poles. Sadly, there wasn't any logo clothing that I liked for myself. :confused3 DH did buy a new pair of Ray Ban sunglasses in Bou-tiki when his current pair broke, so he was happy about that. :cool2: They didn't have any new ceramic coffee mugs. :sad2: No old ceramic coffee mugs, for that matter. This has been my one and only complaint about the Polynesian, lack of nice logo merchandise. Oh well, not a big deal, just a pet peeve. :laughing:


DH is going to download the pics that we took.
 
Thanks for the great review SeaSpray! I'm glad you and your family had such a good trip. :goodvibes
 
Hi SeaSpray! Yes, I have a question....WHY DIDN"T YOU TAKE US ALL WITH YOU?????? :rotfl:

No, really...so happy you enjoyed the POLY so much.....Did you like the 'new' POLY music????? Is it a big difference from the old :rolleyes1
 
Hi SeaSpray! Yes, I have a question....WHY DIDN"T YOU TAKE US ALL WITH YOU?????? :rotfl:

No, really...so happy you enjoyed the POLY so much.....Did you like the 'new' POLY music????? Is it a big difference from the old :rolleyes1

I wish we could ALL go with each other on our trips!! :lmao:

Regarding the new music, I did notice that it wasn't what I'm used to hearing. In fact, I have the old loop on my iPod and listen to it at work, and I was really looking forward to hearing it again at the resort. The new music is ok... definitely "tropical" sounding, and if you didn't know the old music then you wouldn't even think about it, but I have to say that I did miss the old music, and like it better than the new.
 
Thanks for the report SeaSpray. I agree with you about the resort merchandise. I hope to see some new Poly shirts, sweatshirts, etc. when we go in November. One of our favorite things to buy is a new Poly drawing every trip. Can't wait for your pictures. Aloha.
 
Thanks for the report SeaSpray. I agree with you about the resort merchandise. I hope to see some new Poly shirts, sweatshirts, etc. when we go in November. One of our favorite things to buy is a new Poly drawing every trip. Can't wait for your pictures. Aloha.

We already have 2 Polynesian resort drawings, and we bought a new one the other day! It's so cute! It shows the backs of Mickey and Minnie, they're in Adirondac chairs, and they're on the beach, facing the castle. There's a tiki in the sand, and a coconut drink in the sand next to Mickey and the coconut has the Polynesian resort logo on it. I love it and can't wait to hang it. :sunny:

Speaking of merchandise, we bought 2 of the Mickey/sandcastle beach towels that cost $10 each with a $25 purchase, and we also bought the 2-piece carryon luggage set for $16 with $40 purchase.
 
31 days to go before I visit the Poly for the first time!!

Love reading all the info...keep it up
 
31 days to go before I visit the Poly for the first time!!

Love reading all the info...keep it up
 
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