ALOHA! The Polynesian Resort Information Thread: Summer 2011 Edition!

[Bibbidi]

-My parents will be driving us to the Poly after our wedding. Can they park in guest parking? I know they will want to see our room (they haven't seen a Poly room since 1979) & also help us carry our stuff upstairs.

I'll let someone else answer your IPO/CL questions. Yes, your parents should be able to park temporarily in guest parking. There is a guard station on the way in to the entrance of the Poly, you will be required to stop and provide your reservation information. They can then answer any additional parking questions you have. Normally, if it was your own car, you would be handed a parking pass to keep on your dashboard for the duration of your stay.

We have found at Deluxe resorts that we are free to hand carry all our own luggage up to our rooms. However, we have not been able to "borrow" a luggage cart from Bell Services to transport our luggage to our rooms. You will need to utilize Bell Services if you want to go that route.

 

[Lulu'sMom]

The front page is just fabulous! wonderful job, Rob!
Who could look at all those pictures and NOT want to go to the POLY!?!?!?!

So looking forward to our anniversary there!!!

 

[Pookasaurus]

Just wanted to drop in and say thanks for all the great information! We're getting ready for our first poly stay (Checking in Sept 16th) and couldn't be more excited! It looks to be an amazing resort. Our first trip as a family (dh's first ever) was last year (por) and now my husband is obsessed with Disney and insisted we stay at the poly this year - I wasn't about to object!

 

[minniebride]

I'll let someone else answer your IPO/CL questions. Yes, your parents should be able to park temporarily in guest parking. There is a guard station on the way in to the entrance of the Poly, you will be required to stop and provide your reservation information. They can then answer any additional parking questions you have. Normally, if it was your own car, you would be handed a parking pass to keep on your dashboard for the duration of your stay.

We have found at Deluxe resorts that we are free to hand carry all our own luggage up to our rooms. However, we have not been able to "borrow" a luggage cart from Bell Services to transport our luggage to our rooms. You will need to utilize Bell Services if you want to go that route.

Thank you! I will be sure to have our reservation # on hand. My parents will likely not stay longer than 30-45 minutes. Most of our luggage will be transferred from the Swan by Swan bell services to the Poly at some point that day. My mom will just need to help me with things like my dress & a few other things. We will not be checking in until after 5pm.

I was just reading through the thread and saw that CL guests actually check in inside the Hawaii building & not in the Great Ceremonial House. Is it a far walk from guest parking to the Hawaii building? My mom has cancer and she fatigues easily, and will especially be tired after a long day at our wedding! I just want to make sure she can handle it-Poly was a small resort in 1979, but it looks quite large now!!!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I was just reading through the thread and saw that CL guests actually check in inside the Hawaii building & not in the Great Ceremonial House. Is it a far walk from guest parking to the Hawaii building? My mom has cancer and she fatigues easily, and will especially be tired after a long day at our wedding! I just want to make sure she can handle it-Poly was a small resort in 1979, but it looks quite large now!!!

On the day you check-in a Cast Member will drive you and your luggage to the Hawaii Longhouse. During the other times the walk isn't that far because once you exit the Great Ceremonial House it's basically a straight walk to the Hawaii Longhouse.

 

[dizneechic]

Thank you! I will be sure to have our reservation # on hand. My parents will likely not stay longer than 30-45 minutes. Most of our luggage will be transferred from the Swan by Swan bell services to the Poly at some point that day. My mom will just need to help me with things like my dress & a few other things. We will not be checking in until after 5pm.

I was just reading through the thread and saw that CL guests actually check in inside the Hawaii building & not in the Great Ceremonial House. Is it a far walk from guest parking to the Hawaii building? My mom has cancer and she fatigues easily, and will especially be tired after a long day at our wedding! I just want to make sure she can handle it-Poly was a small resort in 1979, but it looks quite large now!!!

The walk isn't bad at all, but even better than walking, CL guests are typically driven via golf cart to the Hawaii building. Maybe you and your mom can be driven and your DH and dad can walk (or all 4 can squish in the cart). They will also load your luggage for you in the cart and bring it to your room for you. Just check in at the podium that says Concierge or something like that when you drive up, the rest will be all taken care of by them!

 

[minniebride]

On the day you check-in a Cast Member will drive you and your luggage to the Hawaii Longhouse. During the other times the walk isn't that far because once you exit the Great Ceremonial House it's basically a straight walk to the Hawaii Longhouse.

Thank you A CM will drive us-really? Sounds fancy! Where do they meet us?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Thank you A CM will drive us-really? Sounds fancy! Where do they meet us?

On the day you check-in there should be a Cast Member there to meet you at their main entrance since your staying Club Level. However in my experience staying there the Polynesian was the only resort where that never happened for us, so we had to tell one of the Cast Members at the Bell Service stand we were staying Club Level and they called for someone to come on the golf cart.

 

[kaysmommie]

Yay a new Polynesian thread! It looks great. We are getting very excited as our trip is getting close. Also I just added another night so now we are staying 8 nights. I did book the Spirit of Aloha for our first night as well.

Also I wanted to know if any of you have done the resort photo session? I would love to book this but they raised the price to $150 and all you get is a 20 minute session and a CD. You get no pictures and also still have to order the photo pass CD separately. Any opinions would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[minniebride]

The walk isn't bad at all, but even better than walking, CL guests are typically driven via golf cart to the Hawaii building. Maybe you and your mom can be driven and your DH and dad can walk (or all 4 can squish in the cart). They will also load your luggage for you in the cart and bring it to your room for you. Just check in at the podium that says Concierge or something like that when you drive up, the rest will be all taken care of by them!

Oh, it's a golf cart-well, still fancy for us!!

On the day you check-in there should be a Cast Member there to meet you at their main entrance since your staying Club Level. However in my experience staying there the Polynesian was the only resort where that never happened for us, so we had to tell one of the Cast Members at the Bell Service stand we were staying Club Level and they called for someone to come on the golf cart.

This all sounds wonderful-I'm so excited!!!!

 

[Sappermont]

Thank you!! This is so awesome. My husband and I will be staying at the Poly at the end of the summer for the first time. It will be my husband's first trip - EVER!! I'm trying to learn as much about the Poly as possible.

I have a couple of questions I was hoping you all could help me out with. Thanks in advance!

1) Can the refillable mugs be used at the snack bar by the volcano pool?

2) I know that resort specific souvenirs are on the decline at WDW overall, however from the pictures in this thread it did look like some Poly mugs and t-shirts were available. Does anyone know if this is still the case?

Thanks so much!!

I can't wait for the Poly!

 

[kimgof]

Subscribing to my favorite thread Thanks guitarob yet again.

 

[woodkins]

Thank you!! This is so awesome. My husband and I will be staying at the Poly at the end of the summer for the first time. It will be my husband's first trip - EVER!! I'm trying to learn as much about the Poly as possible.

I have a couple of questions I was hoping you all could help me out with. Thanks in advance!

1) Can the refillable mugs be used at the snack bar by the volcano pool?

2) I know that resort specific souvenirs are on the decline at WDW overall, however from the pictures in this thread it did look like some Poly mugs and t-shirts were available. Does anyone know if this is still the case?

Thanks so much!!

I can't wait for the Poly!

As far as I know the mugs cannot be refilled at the pool bar, only in Capt. Cooks, but Capt Cooks is just as close to the pool as the pool bar, so it isn't a big deal at all. It is about 10 steps away from the pool (right near where the water slide is).

 

[rcsilverspring]

Beautiful job (as always) on the new thread! Going through severe PPD, so I need my daily Poly fix! Thanks again for all the hard work.

 

[dizneechic]

Yay a new Polynesian thread! It looks great. We are getting very excited as our trip is getting close. Also I just added another night so now we are staying 8 nights. I did book the Spirit of Aloha for our first night as well.

Also I wanted to know if any of you have done the resort photo session? I would love to book this but they raised the price to $150 and all you get is a 20 minute session and a CD. You get no pictures and also still have to order the photo pass CD separately. Any opinions would be great. Thanks in advance.

We did the resort session and overall we're pretty happy with it. The issue I had with ours was we chose the 1st session of the day and the lenses were still cold from sitting in the AC overnight. If your not familiar with photography what happens is when you bring a nice cold lens into that nice FL tropical air it causes lens fog and our first images were all fogged. The photographer eventually realized this but still, it was time lost. She also had issues controlling the flash indoors (under and over exposed several images, inconsistent skin tones all shot in the same location). While it sounds like I had several complaints, she was a great photog and I am just very picky because in my job I work with professional photogs so am accustomed to nitpicking photographers and figured she should have known better given she shoots in this environment daily. All of that said, all we wanted out of the session was a nice family shot and we accomplished that, so my expectations were met and we will absolutely be booking the session again on a future trip.

Here is a link to the good, bad and ugly of our session:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v621/dizneechic/resort/?albumview=slideshow
You can see in the 1st images (beginning of the session) most of the issues. Once we got out to the hammocks she was rockin it!

So my advice if you book, skip the 1st session of the day and you'll be all set!

 

[cmac609]

Thanks again for all your hard work on the thread. I am going to try to post some pictures from our recent trip sometime this week. Just haven't been able to post them yet.

 

[Sappermont]

As far as I know the mugs cannot be refilled at the pool bar, only in Capt. Cooks, but Capt Cooks is just as close to the pool as the pool bar, so it isn't a big deal at all. It is about 10 steps away from the pool (right near where the water slide is).

Oh, awesome. Thanks so much. I appreciate the info. and help!!

 

[logpey]

Enjoy!

Thank you, I'm booked and ready to enjoy a few hrs of bliss and thx for the heads up on Spa lounge, I promise to enjoy all it has to offer!
Next time you go back, I'm sure your family will enjoy it from beginning to end.

 

[disneydreamin247]

Thanks for the new home!

 

[elder]

So excited about the addition! I love all the Poly info. Learning as much as I can before the end of May!