Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessP
We are just back from our FIRST trip with our children (ages 6 and 4) and our first stay at the Poly! We LOVED it! Why we loved the Polynesian...
1) LOCATION!!! LOCATION!!! LOCATION!!!
2) Relaxed atmosphere
3) Friendly CMs
4) Lush foliage
5) Transportation options! The monorail service was down for a little more than 24 hours of our trip. DD and I were in line to ride the monorail (just before they shut it down) over to the the Grand Floridian for a princess tea party. DH and DS had just departed (with our car) to the FAntasia Gardens Mini Golf course. I knew there was a walking path to the GF. THANKFULLY, I found that...hot footed it over to the GF and made it in time for our tea party! Location of the poly was key! There is also a boat that goes Poly >>>> MK >>>>GF>>>>Poly (I think that's the route).
6) Large rooms
7) day bed for dd so DD and DS could have their own beds....both are tossers/turners so this provided great sleep for them.
8) The restaurant options (at the Poly) and at the GF and CR (quick monorail or boat ride over).
9)wildlife - we saw ducks, herons, lizards, a frog, and a bunny on our stay!
Thanks for the review! Where did you stay? We all love to hear Longhouse reviews
We stayed in a Garden View room in Tahiti (which is exactly what we requested).
I faxed a "reminder" room request 3 days before our arrival. We were assigned a 2nd floor room in Tahiti, right in the middle of the building. All Tahiti rooms have balconies or a patio. Many other longhouses do not have "true" balconies on their 2nd floors. We had a great view of a walking path with lush vegetation.
Tahiti is one of the newer longhouses, has 2 sinks (which was great) and large rooms. Actually, all rooms at Poly are large in comparison to most other resorts. So you can't go wrong there! There's a shelf above the sink/ counter that extends the length of the sink and counter....plenty of room for toothbrushes, etc. Closets are lit. Plenty of lighting over the beds.....they had dimmers so they were perfect for night lights for our little ones. One less thing to pack!
I brought clothespins to keep the curtains closed tight (keeping out morning light), but we didn't need them. THe curtains overlapped on their own.
No problems with Mousekeeping. Extra towels were delivered promptly upon request. WE did not utilize this service every day.
We did have a crying baby next door one night, and could clearly hear him or her through the connecting door area. However, we had a sound machine my DH purchased from drugstore*dot*com. HoMedics brand sound spa machine $19.99. It worked PERFECTLY in drowning out any unwanted noise. My kids are used to sleeping w/white noise machines so it was a "must pack." I have heard you can request a box fan...as you've been discussing here.....but I found this sound machine to be a great remedy and fairly compact for packing.
Tahiti location review: For us, this was the perfect longhouse. It was probably a 10 min. walk (with little ones walking an easy pace) from Tahiti to the volcano pool, Great Ceremonial House, Poly monorail, TTC monorail, Captain Cooks, marina...and maybe 5 minutes max to the quiet pool. We used the volcano pool nearly every day (and we didn't mind the walks at all). For us, it was nice to get back to the quite atmosphere of Tahiti
after busy days in the parks/pools. If you like to be "in the midst of the action"
I'd request one closer to the pool....Hawaii, Samoa, Niue.
Quiet Pool Review: This was the pool my kids preferred (quieter, less crowded), but it was closed probably 3 out of our 6 days there (for cleaning). There are a few ducks that like to hang out there, and one day we could see all the duck feathers, etc. floating. I guess that's why it had to be cleaned so often??? But it was great to see them really keeping up with the pool maintenance so well.
They did some pressure washing of the buildings while we were there....all fresh and clean, as well as the sidewalks.
Kona Cafe for dinner - my DH's favorite meal while we were there.
Captain Cooks - great variety, good food. We were always able to find table space (outside) for our meals, even at peak times.
Torch Lighting Ceremony - Currently this is at 6pm Tuesdays - Saturdays. The whole family enjoyed this ceremony. Our kids even requested to go see it again another night, but it didn't work out.
Don't forget to catch the Electrical Water Pageant (currently 9pm nightly) from the beach or inspiration point at least one night of your stay. You can also see the Wishes or Hallowishes fireworks from there. We did this 3 nights of our stay....for our young ones, this was the PERFECT way to view fireworks. They thought it was loud from the Poly...I cannot imagine how their ears would have handled it INSIDE the park.
), so we walked through the Poly a little bit. It was beautiful and I'm excited to go back there. While we didn't have any problems with the bus service from AKL, I believe I whimpered a bit seeing the boat dock on our way to the buses after leaving MNSSHP. It would have been pretty fantastic to just hop on the boat and be so close to our beds.
We stayed there for 10 years every trip, then it was 16 years until our next stay (busy trying other resorts and fell in love with GF), so I know how exciting it is to return. 
