We are back from a split-stay at BWI CL deluxe room and then Poly CL LV. I just posted a review of BWI CL in the BWI thread. It was our first CL stay there, so I wanted to mini review it. As far as Poly CL, we are veterans at staying there and my opinion is well known...nothing much has changed for us in that regard. It's our favorite CL (along with RPC) because of the location, lounge views, and our first floor lagoon room. Still, we wish the lounge food would improve. BC, BWI, and RPC have outstanding food, and we wish Poly would follow suit. A few things to note about both CL experiences:
BWI CL deluxe room #4255, fourth floor, first room inside security doors.
Things we loved:
> CM's are excellent! I now understand why so many people rave about them. To list a few....Pete, JJ, Lorenzo, Howie, Anita, and basically every other CM too. Housekeeping was excellent too -- very professional and friendly.
> The lounge food was outstanding. I posted pictures in the BWI thread. To name some food that stood out: minestrone soup (a soup each night), fresh Italian bread, shrimp, mac & cheese, chicken Caesar salad, artichokes, roasted veggies, full-sized greek yogurt and bottles of OJ for breakfast, bottles of water available from CM's.
> Our room was a super convenient size. The couch converted to a large bed, much larger than the normal daybed. 2 large TV's. I posted pics in the BWI thread.
Things that we didn't love:
> The lounge didn't have a view. You could step out onto a balcony and see some high fireworks at night, but it felt like an "enclosed" type of lounge like the BC.
> The CL location was on the 4th floor and sort of a hike to get places. Our room was maybe about 10 or so rooms away from the lounge, not really bad at all. But then we had to go the other way to get the elevator down to the boardwalk. If going to the pool, it wasn't overly convenient to go back and forth to the lounge.
> The lounge was small....maybe 7 or 8 tables. Did have a couch, though, and nice big TV.
> Iced tea and lemonade dispensers were only out for maybe the afternoon. Would've loved them out at night too.
> Our balcony was simply too small for us. I had read the warnings beforehand, but we highly prefer being on the same floor as the lounge. Prioritizing, we'd still request 4th floor.
POLY CL LV, Room #1505.
Things we loved:
> Location of Hawaii! Simply can't be beat. Can walk to both pools in less than a minute. Very convenient to go back and forth to the lounge.
> The view from the lounge is amazing. LOVE that we can relax in the lounge without being rushed out and enjoy the spectacular view.
> Our 1st floor patio with lagoon view is our ultimate favorite room in Disney. Whenever we have a break in our room, I'm immediately outside on the patio enjoying the view and soothing music. Watching Wishes right from our patio is magical, nothing compares to this for our family.
> CM Irv. Everyone knows him. He makes it a point to know everyone. Whenever we need anything at all, we look for him and we know we'll have it.
> July 3 and 4. Perfect. CM's did an outstanding job this year. We finally feel like we got exactly what we paid for.
> We had welcome note and chocolates!
Things we didn't love:
> The CM's are never very friendly. There is one in particular that I avoid every trip because I had him at check-in a few years ago and he totally turned me off.
> Housekeeping was not great, especially after coming from BWI CL (which had top-notch housekeeping). I'm not sure how to even describe the service -- none of them were friendly, not even sure what language they spoke, room was rarely cleaned by 3:00 pm. My tips were like night and day from BWI to Poly....
In comparing the 2 CL experiences, BWI was the superior CL due to the food and CM's. But Poly remains our favorite because of everything else it has to offer. No other resort can compare to the lounge and room views of being right on the lagoon seeing GF, the Castle, CR....and also being steps away from both pools is a huge perk. The overall ambiance of Poly is what lures us in. On our last morning at Poly, I sat on the patio with tears in my eyes because I was going to miss listening to the soothing music while enjoying my favorite view in WDW.
Setbacks have been a huge discussion over the last several months. If they are even still happening, they are not apparent at BWI. In fact, there were really almost too many CM's working. The lounge is already small, and there were at least 4 CM's in it each night. They're very efficient and I bet 2 CM's could easily do the job. Poly also had an abundance of CM's working, though Poly's lounge is much larger and they need several CM's working each night. CM Irv commented that he was laid off for 2 months earlier in the year, but now he is back to his normal working hours. We had turndown each night at both resorts. We had a welcome card and chocolate at Poly. No welcome card or chocolate at BWI.
We opted to do the direct-to-room text and skip the personal check-in, and both resorts did tell us we could have been greeted and properly walked to CL (poor Pete said he had been looking for us all day! I felt bad...). When we walked directly to Hawaii from the monorail, the desk CM gasped and said "where is your welcome lei and why didn't someone walk you back here?" I quickly explained it was our choice to just walk back ourselves and she was okay with that, but she jumped up and gave us a hug and welcome lei. So at least these 2 CL's seem to have greeters back in service again!