August 2019 - Hard Time Choosing

[Easto]

Our girls will be 7 and 9 at the time.

We went summer 2016 with them and stayed at the Poly. We loved it: The atmosphere, the convenience of the monorail, the pool, etc.

This may be our last Disney trip for a while 3-4 years

We toured a few resorts last time, specifically Contemporay and Grand Floridian. Contemporary felt like a hotel to me, didn’t like the vibe. GF was really nice, but I felt this posh vibe in there like I shouldn’t touch anything, LOL.

Basically I’m biased to the Poly.

The quote we received has a large increase in Poly and GF based on previous years.

If we decide the Poly is out of our price point, which resort(s) would you suggest based on similarities to the Poly?

Anyone else love the Poly and stayed elsewhere and was pleasantly surprised?

 

[lala5176]

Poly is hard to beat but have you considered the Beach Club / Yacht Club?
There is a very lively atmosphere there. It has a great pool and updated rooms on either side. It is walking distance to Epcot and HS. We have stayed and really enjoyed ourselves even though Poly is our favorite!

 

[buzznina]

Every family is different, likes, dislikes, what's important etc. I would just look at sites like touringplans, allEars and maybe a couple of others and make a list of resorts your family is interested in and then start narrowing it down one by one. I will say that we thought the same way about GF until we actually stayed there and it is now our favorite resort and would stay there most of the time but, for us, we just have a very hard time justifying the deluxe resort costs.
You might want to look at WL or AKL, still deluxes but cost less than the Epcot/MK resorts.

 

[Wood Nymph]

In general, I find that it is better to return to a resort that you love, and keep returning until one of the following happens:

- you have a bad experience at your favorite
- you get tired of it and you want to try something new
- a fantastic discount appears at another resort and you can't pass it up

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If Poly is out of your budget, but you still want relatively quick access to MK, I would consider WL. It's GORGEOUS. You will sacrifice on room space and size of pool, however. If you are less concerned about MK proximity, consider AKL. It also is gorgeous and has better pools than WL, but you will sacrifice room space and proximity to MK. If a pool is important and you will be visiting EP and DHS, consider YC/BC (I would book whichever is cheapest). The pool at BC/YC is arguably the best on property. The rooms at BC/YC are spacious and you can walk/boat to EP and DHS. BWI is also a lot of fun and, though some don't like the clown slide, it's my DS11's favorite in all of WDW.

 

[Disneylover99]

Our girls will be 7 and 9 at the time.

We went summer 2016 with them and stayed at the Poly. We loved it: The atmosphere, the convenience of the monorail, the pool, etc.

This may be our last Disney trip for a while 3-4 years

We toured a few resorts last time, specifically Contemporay and Grand Floridian. Contemporary felt like a hotel to me, didn’t like the vibe. GF was really nice, but I felt this posh vibe in there like I shouldn’t touch anything, LOL.

Basically I’m biased to the Poly.

The quote we received has a large increase in Poly and GF based on previous years.

If we decide the Poly is out of our price point, which resort(s) would you suggest based on similarities to the Poly?

Anyone else love the Poly and stayed elsewhere and was pleasantly surprised?

We love the Poly in August! But no doubt, got the same quote as you, so we couldn’t do it. We booked WL instead with a great rate! After a restless night, I switched it to the Poly and I feel so much better. I’ve made peace with the price. Lol.

 

[Easto]

Thanks for the replies.

Last time we went we did:
MK x 3
EP x 1
HS x 1
AK x 1

My oldest is now too cool for princesses so I assume we would likly do 1-2 at MK.

I’m also “out of the loop” on all the new WDW stuff. I burnt myself out planning the 2016 trip so I’ve been AWOL since then.

I know about Avatar at AK and Toy Story at HS but all the small details escape me at this time.

Essentially I’m not too sure how many park days we would do and which parks we would do more than once.

We also skipped out on the water parks in 2016 out of pure exhaustion. Had planned to do it the day before we left, however 9 days in we were completely gassed and couldn’t muster up the energy to go.

It may be something we look at doing this time, who knows

We were told next year is their 50th Anniversary AND the opening of Star Wara so discount are unlikely.

 

[jods]

We love the Poly. Last trip we stayed BC because the kids wanted SAB. We all missed the poly and none of us loved the BC. When we went to ohanas and walked into the lobby, my then 13yo said, now this feels like home. We stayed WL prior to the poly and loved it. If poly isn't in your budget I think I would try wl before BC.

 

[Aries14]

Poly is our favorite too. We have stayed at all deluxes and we are returning to Beach Club this august. AK is probably our 2nd favorite but we really love the location of Beach Club and with it being august, our kids wanted the better pool.

We also have 2 girls and the same ages. And they are also more into the other parks this time around so I dont see us spending most of the time at MK anymore. My girls actually love Epcot!

 

[mickeynut1]

Our girls will be 7 and 9 at the time.

We went summer 2016 with them and stayed at the Poly. We loved it: The atmosphere, the convenience of the monorail, the pool, etc.

This may be our last Disney trip for a while 3-4 years

We toured a few resorts last time, specifically Contemporay and Grand Floridian. Contemporary felt like a hotel to me, didn’t like the vibe. GF was really nice, but I felt this posh vibe in there like I shouldn’t touch anything, LOL.

Basically I’m biased to the Poly.

The quote we received has a large increase in Poly and GF based on previous years.

If we decide the Poly is out of our price point, which resort(s) would you suggest based on similarities to the Poly?

Anyone else love the Poly and stayed elsewhere and was pleasantly surprised?

The Poly is our favorite, but we also like trying different resorts. Like yourself and buzznina, we always felt out of place at the GF as it gave us a "stuffy" vibe, so we never had the desire to stay there. That changed when I had the chance to go on a girls trip where the GF was the majority vote of where we were staying. I'm glad I had that experience because my views of the resort quickly changed as now I realize that visiting a resort is a totally different experience (for me) vs actually staying there. The Poly will always be my favorite overall, but the GF runs a close second (along with a few others). I suggest looking at different resorts and choosing the one that appeals to you the most. Good luck .

 

[Easto]

BC/YC - $2946
BW - $2946
Poly - $ 3766
GF - $3645
AK - $2359
WL - $2430

These are the prices quoted for 9 nights. Any of these stand out to you as good or bad?

 

[buzznina]

If GF and POLY are out, I would definitely go with BC.

 

[CynBeth]

I would say WL or YC.

 

[holden]

If you really love the Poly stay there. If you stay somewhere else you might compare everything to your experience at the Poly, and the other resort might not measure up.

If you want to try something new, perhaps price out club level at WL. It might still be cheaper than the Poly and their club level experience is awesome.