Disney's POLYNESIAN VILLAGE RESORT Information & Questions

[missnic]

Just got back from a stay in Fiji. Walked all around the resort on one of our last nights and was glad we requested that building. I had to laugh when we first arrived and I saw how close the buildings are to each other! I was imagining it to be much more spread out. On our second day we took the monorail to Epcot. Original plan was to walk to TTC but my son's feet were already bothering him so we took the resort monorail to the TTC, which took forever! Again, had to laugh when we finally got to the TTC and saw that it's literally right next to the Poly. Would have been a 10 minute walk, at most. Doh!

I know! It looks so much more spread out on paper!
Was Fiji nice and quiet?

One more question for anyone who can answer.. I know you can get the Ohana dinner via room service.. but can I just get an order of the bread pudding? I know I can get it at Tambu, but I'd rather have it in the room. And, can I take a drink outside the bar area/back to the room? I'm envisioning having bread pudding and a pina colava on a balcony.

 

[DISNEY1975]

I'm here now. In rarotonga facing construction. Looking at a large mud pit. Uglier than expected. Nothing beautiful about my view from the 3 rd floor. they cut the trees down, so I'm looking directly at the mess. Went to monorail at 7:45am. Not running. Walked to tcg, not working there either. Epcot monorail has been down for 2 days. We took a bus to Epcot this morning. So far, not fantastic. The BBQ was fun last night. I'll try to write more complete sentences when I'm with a real computer

 

[PAdislover]

I'm here now. In rarotonga facing construction. Looking at a large mud pit. Uglier than expected. Nothing beautiful about my view from the 3 rd floor. they cut the trees down, so I'm looking directly at the mess. Went to monorail at 7:45am. Not running. Walked to tcg, not working there either. Epcot monorail has been down for 2 days. We took a bus to Epcot this morning. So far, not fantastic. The BBQ was fun last night. I'll try to write more complete sentences when I'm with a real computer

That stinks that they put you in that room. What did you request at online check in? Did you fax in a room request at all?

 

[Beachmomma3]

Sorry this report is late. I hope these observations are helpful.
1.We were @ WDW Aug1-Aug10 staying @ The Polynesian Village on DVC points (home resort is Poly) in Moorea, standard view, first floor DVC room 1046. Me, DH, DS20, DS15, DD13.
We've stayed Poly 4 other vacations, BC once, Pop quick 3 nights, POR 1 night.
2. Upon arriving from ME @ 8:30pm, we were a little disappointed. No "Welcome Home!", no leis walked to Moorea and MB not working. Had to walk back to GCH. He followed us back to make sure he activated correctly.
3. Very satisfied and happy w our choice to buy @ Poly. Room observations are- we loved the 2 bathrooms. Having 2 toilets would have been very helpful as well-oh well. Rooms are good size compared to Poly non-DVC rooms. Be careful of the front left foot of the bed. Several of my family hit their leg right in to platform that juts out a bit several times.
We were there 9 days w 5 people and we do not do laundry on vaca, so had quite a bit of luggage. Was unable to find room to unpack my suitcase. We had no problem w drawer and the coffee table storage for the other 4. It was ok though. Just left open on luggage rack in closet.
View was great. Noise was never a problem. Ducks are still there and if they see you relaxing on patio they will visit you and always relieve themselves. It is a pain to try and clean off. Yuck!
There were some issues w shower drain in the walkout shower. We didn't complain. It wasn't horrible but I see how it's happening. The drain is along the left side. The water falls in a long, thin cutout.Any lady with long hair loses some when washing her hair. There is no way to even see the drain to clean. The shower is beautiful! But I wish they would have tested this a bit before installing.
My son uses a manual wheelchair for long distances. We didn't bother w a handicap DVCroom, bc guest services told me they were the same size as the reg DVC rms. it was a little difficult to find a good place to park the chair in the room and out of the way. But we did manage fine.
I was happy w decor. Nice supply of plates, paper towels, cups, dishwash soap. Nice size refrigerator wh used a lot. Microwave was great too. Used Garden Grocer for water, meat and cheese, beer, wine, juice, milk, and cole slaw mix. The Cole slaw mix was old and out of date. I emailed them and was given a refund.
4. Housekeeping was not good at all. I added to our ressie, weeks out, daily towel service. Upon checking in , I again made sure it was added to our reservation. We were never given towel service without call to housekeeping. Every night we'd get back around midnight to see it had not arrived and we'd then have to wait 15-30 min for delivery. In the end, I was not charged for it, but very annoying bc I would have paid for it. Also, if you plan to make your own coffee, might want to bring your own. There was only one days supply when we checked in and on the 5th day was only given 1 more day supply. Mb this normal? Not sure. Notice I said 5th. Yep they "missed" our room on the 4th day. Our sheets were not changed once. Bc this was our first DVC stay, I'm not sure if this is normal protocol. I asked housekeeping and they said it was?
5. Pool was as beautiful and relaxing as always. I miss the sand. But still love it! I love relaxing at the pool and hearing the sounds from MK, the boats, monorail, etc!! There was one day where there were a few chair issues that I noticed. Again 5 of us and we always use only 3 chairs. Why? Bc really how many times are we all out of the pool at the same time??? When a family of 8 puts towels on 8 chairs and you only see one or 2 of them return at a time (I was there for an hour laying out), I find that a little selfish to other families. I would never say anything to them. But--I saw several people walking around not sure what to do bc they couldn't find chairs. Gate didn't always work w MB but not a problem. CM cleaning up wet towels laying around were great. Bar was fast and good.
6. Loved Kona for lunch more than dinner. Fish tacos were the best I've had. Love kona pressed coffee from there, too. Room service (breakfast) was great and fast. Capt Cooks was satisfactory as well. They changed the entry and exit to ordering while we there. A few confused guests but they were trying very hard to make it efficient and workable for everyone. Try not to go right when it changes from bfast to lunch- a little longer wait. Ohana was still just as yummy as always. Tried the Spirit of Aloha for the first time. My family really enjoyed the show and food. I'm glad we finally tried it.
7. No issues w monorail, boat, or buses. Very happy using all 3 note if you have a wheelchair you cannot use the small resort boat. After a late MK night we noticed they were using the large boat so we took advantage of it. But did not see it used again.
8. The Poly grounds were maintained beautifully as always and I really love the new lobby. I do miss the aroma that used to be there. But I'm satisfied and happy w the new feature that replaced the old.
9. All in all I'm happy to call the Poly home and excited to see the quiet pool area when it's finished! We had an awesome trip this year trying new things and spending wonderful time together. The park visits and restaurants were great as always. Used TIW and think it saved quite a bit of $. DVC disc for souvenirs was great too! Very magical stay! Sorry this is so long.

 

[jerseygal]

We had lunch at Kona about 10 days ago and it was one of the best meals of our trip. It's the second time we've had lunch there and we've loved both meals.

Speaking off Kona, just saw a pic of the Big Kahuna breakfast at Kona. looks BIG! Have ADR for breakfast at Kona and then lunch ADR at another favorite, Grand Floridian Café.. Think we'll share the Big Kahuna since we'll have to save room.

 

[jerseygal]

THANKS for your detailed review Beachmomma3. Very helpful! Have read the same "not working" comment with the magic bands before. Have read another thread and a there was a suggestion that instead of everyone in the party going to the room carrying luggage and check in "stuff", perhaps one person in the party should go to the room to ensure the MB is working and others wait with luggage in the lobby. Often times, guests are just "plain old tired" from traveling and magic bands not working to enter the room adds to fatigue on check in day.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

I'm here now. In rarotonga facing construction. Looking at a large mud pit. Uglier than expected. Nothing beautiful about my view from the 3 rd floor. they cut the trees down, so I'm looking directly at the mess. Went to monorail at 7:45am. Not running. Walked to tcg, not working there either. Epcot monorail has been down for 2 days. We took a bus to Epcot this morning. So far, not fantastic. The BBQ was fun last night. I'll try to write more complete sentences when I'm with a real computer

I'm sorry to hear you got the mud pit view. Blech.

Is/was the Epcot monorail down for an entire 2 days or is it just running on the modified schedule? We were in Disney last month and all of the monorail beams were on a modified schedule. I had read about it on the DIS so I was expecting it. On one of our Epcot days the Epcot monorail didn't start running until 9:00am so we took a cab instead so we could make RD.

 

[Rosebud123]

I know! It looks so much more spread out on paper!
Was Fiji nice and quiet?

Fiji was very quiet. The only negative thing about it (and this really didn't bother us at all) was the hallway. It was pretty dark and grubby looking. There was dirt on the carpet that stayed there our entire 6 day stay, which surprised me. Also, although the bathrooms are really big I didn't like that the sinks weren't outside the bathroom. That made getting a whole family ready a bit more challenging. But Fiji really is a great location. We originally had a 2nd floor (no balcony) room overlooking the GF/beach, but we switched the next day because I really wanted a balcony. However, the views from both sides of the building are very nice.

 

[vinotinto]

I'm here now. In rarotonga facing construction. Looking at a large mud pit. Uglier than expected. Nothing beautiful about my view from the 3 rd floor. they cut the trees down, so I'm looking directly at the mess. Went to monorail at 7:45am. Not running. Walked to tcg, not working there either. Epcot monorail has been down for 2 days. We took a bus to Epcot this morning. So far, not fantastic. The BBQ was fun last night. I'll try to write more complete sentences when I'm with a real computer

Oh dear, that does not sound good at all. I hope things improve. Has the monorail to Epcot been completely down or only down in the morning? I saw new pics that there are walls that went up around the monorail exit in Epcot. Did *not* look temporary, but was unsure at what I was looking at.

Edit: here are the pictures of the walls around the Epcot monorail exit:
http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/201...ando+Theme+Parks+News)&utm_content=FeedBurner

 

[travelgirl06]

Oh dear, that does not sound good at all. I hope things improve. Has the monorail to Epcot been completely down or only down in the morning? I saw new pics that there are walls that went up around the monorail exit in Epcot. Did *not* look temporary, but was unsure at what I was looking at.

Edit: here are the pictures of the walls around the Epcot monorail exit:
http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2015/09/epcot-update-living-with-land.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OrlandoThemeParksNews+(Orlando+Theme+Parks+News)&utm_content=FeedBurner

As of last week the monorail seemed to be operating in accordance with what was on the Times Guide, at least as far as we noticed. We had 2 evenings where we needed to bring alternate transportation back (boat during EMH and also after CA grill dinner, and I am pretty sure we anticipated no monorail access for both of those). Limited hours can be frustrating though, especially when paying a premium for the fun and convenience of the monorail (I was always amazed at how quickly we got to MK)

Eta: I think there were some construction walls around the EPCOT monorail last week, but the monorail was still running. Not sure if they are the same as those pictures, but they looked similar.

 

[Sue M]

Has it been a week since we left Poly? So unfair time flies on vacay. So Mini report on our trip! 2 week stay.

1. We were in Lauderdale first & drove up to WDW, arriving late morning. Room wasn't ready but wasn't expecting it to be. Checked in and my first request was a balcony. asked if we had one, nope. 2nd floor. Since we had a long stay, balcony was really important to me. I requested on res & put it in the online check in.
So I asked if we could have a balcony in Fiji. Nothing avail for 2 days. Asked, what about Samoa? Yup, next day if I wanted to move, so I just asked for any avail room for the night (got Nieu looking at mud pit) and moved next day.

Love Samoa!!

2. Email notifications not so great!! They don't text to international phones for room notification, only email. We returned to resort at 3:00 to see if room was ready. They said housekeeping was in it and would be ready in 30min.

Fine, great opportunity to go upstairs and get a Lapulapu from Walter, and meet up with Beth!! We had a great Dis meet, then went back down to check on room. Got in room by 4:00. Email notification came thru at 7:30pm, lol. Gave us a good laugh.

3. Room was fantastic! But.......had old fridge in it with 5 inches of ice built up on roof. I have had bad experiences with those ( food was ruined and had to throw out) and phoned to ask for one of the new fridges. Also shampoo. No problem, shampoo was promptly delivered, & next day new fridge was in room, but instead of taking old fridge out, they just plugged new fridge in by desk. Plugs are old and loose. If you just touch cord by accident plug moves and breaks connection. They really should have replaced the plugs in desk unit when they renovated, but I digress!!
Happened to see our wonderful housekeeper near our room. I asked her if this was usual, that they leave old fridge in cabinet, and stick new fridge by desk? She said, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it! And she did. Guess she got maintenance to take out old fridge & put new one in cabinet.

Our room was also very quiet! Never heard neighbours. Luckily we didn't have loud ones.

4. Did I mention housekeeper was great? Great job keeping our room nice. All public areas were clean and well kept too.

5. You need to be a PHd to read transportation schedule!! If it's Tues, and a full moon, resort monorail is on modified schedule, but if it's Thurs and a crescent moon, express monorail is on modified schedule. Lol. We messed up once, and walked to TTC to get Epcot monorail, which turned out to be on the modified schedule that morning and ended up taking the bus we could have taken from Poly ;-).
But in general transportation was fine. Just don't get caught at MK park closing and rain starting. Really long waits for boat or monorail. Many people using resort monorail to get to TTC instead of the express monorail that had even longer line. Wish they could do something about that, at park closing, I've heard at busy times they have CMs checking MBs at resort monorail and directing those going to TTC to use Express.
We weren't planning to leave at park closing. But evening parade was canceled due to incoming weather so everyone left early!!

We were on a Big Thunder when Wishes was going on, so great, definatly a WDW moment. So great we rode again, was walk on. Everyone was waiting for parade I guess or watching Wishes. Should have resisted that second ride, in hind sight!!

I still think Poly has the best transportation, with boat and monorail to MK and the other MK resorts, and walking distance to TTC.

6. Food at Capt Cooks was pretty good. And loved Tonga Toast at breakfast. At busy times my suggestion would be to have one line just for Grab & Go. Having to wait 15 min just to buy a Mickey Bar was crazy because the line is also for orders. And it kept melting so I had to put it back in freezer and get another.
Love the Cooks outdoor seating in the evenings, we sat near the Trader Sam's seating area and enjoyed listening to the singer.
Also watching the cute momma duck & babies!!
We also enjoyed our meals at Kona & 'Ohana. Wanted to get the Shave Ice at Kona Island but machine was down.

7. Pool was nice, even enjoyed the slide once or twice. Really enjoyed floating around watching Wishes.
Occasionally was difficult to find a couple of lounges together. It would be courteous if "guests" would put their used towels in the towel return they have to walk right by on the way out when they're done with them instead of leaving them on lounges.
There were pool hoppers. 2 men with 4 kids were next to us one day, but didn't realize they were hoppers until they were leaving and heard one tell friend he didn't realize they were going to stop for a swim or he would have packed a suit in his back pack, Hmmm. Of course they took prime spot lounges. Seeing strollers loaded down with bags, back packs etc makes you wonder. Locals were also using pool that had dinner reservations and thought it was ok to use pool for a swim too. I prob wouldn't find it as annoying if there were plenty of lounges. Some days there was more availability. Especially our second week, when crowds thinned out everywhere ( until Labour Day). I wish they had the SAB system of CMs at gate scanning MBs.

8. Same problem finding a lounge on beach to watch Wishes. One night we got lounge to watch Wishes because we arrived there early to watch movie on the beach. Other nights we just watched sitting on pool lounge or floating in pool, which was so special.

9. Pool gate was tricky to use. No light going green to let you know it unlocked. But after a few days we got the hang of it!!

10. Construction was a non issue for us. It was sometimes tricky getting to TTC path or bus stop with the screens, but I admit I'm directionally challenged at the best of times!!

11. Love the new pay options in laundry, no more having to carry around bag full of quarters. Or quarters being jammed in machine.

12. All the CMs were great, friendly and helpful.

13. Have to say it, not happy they built the bungalows, loved the old beach and panoramic views.
We loved sitting on our balcony watching that huge storm blow in. Glad we weren't caught out in it! Sure, we had a few minor glitches, but really loved our stay, our first stay was during winter, and after that always wanted to return during summer. So glad we did.

14. Oh yes, we got our MaiTai mug from Trader Sam's!!

15. Looking forward to staying again!

 

[PAdislover]

Has it been a week since we left Poly? So unfair time flies on vacay. So Mini report on our trip! 2 week stay.

1. We were in Lauderdale first & drove up to WDW, arriving late morning. Room wasn't ready but wasn't expecting it to be. Checked in and my first request was a balcony. asked if we had one, nope. 2nd floor. Since we had a long stay, balcony was really important to me. I requested on res & put it in the online check in.
So I asked if we could have a balcony in Fiji. Nothing avail for 2 days. Asked, what about Samoa? Yup, next day if I wanted to move, so I just asked for any avail room for the night (got Nieu looking at mud pit) and moved next day.

Love Samoa!!

2. Email notifications not so great!! They don't text to international phones for room notification, only email. We returned to resort at 3:00 to see if room was ready. They said housekeeping was in it and would be ready in 30min.

Fine, great opportunity to go upstairs and get a Lapulapu from Walter, and meet up with Beth!! We had a great Dis meet, then went back down to check on room. Got in room by 4:00. Email notification came thru at 7:30pm, lol. Gave us a good laugh.

3. Room was fantastic! But.......had old fridge in it with 5 inches of ice built up on roof. I have had bad experiences with those ( food was ruined and had to throw out) and phoned to ask for one of the new fridges. Also shampoo. No problem, shampoo was promptly delivered, & next day new fridge was in room, but instead of taking old fridge out, they just plugged new fridge in by desk. Plugs are old and loose. If you just touch cord by accident plug moves and breaks connection. They really should have replaced the plugs in desk unit when they renovated, but I digress!!
Happened to see our wonderful housekeeper near our room. I asked her if this was usual, that they leave old fridge in cabinet, and stick new fridge by desk? She said, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it! And she did. Guess she got maintenance to take out old fridge & put new one in cabinet.

Our room was also very quiet! Never heard neighbours. Luckily we didn't have loud ones.

4. Did I mention housekeeper was great? Great job keeping our room nice. All public areas were clean and well kept too.

5. You need to be a PHd to read transportation schedule!! If it's Tues, and a full moon, resort monorail is on modified schedule, but if it's Thurs and a crescent moon, express monorail is on modified schedule. Lol. We messed up once, and walked to TTC to get Epcot monorail, which turned out to be on the modified schedule that morning and ended up taking the bus we could have taken from Poly ;-).
But in general transportation was fine. Just don't get caught at MK park closing and rain starting. Really long waits for boat or monorail. Many people using resort monorail to get to TTC instead of the express monorail that had even longer line. Wish they could do something about that, at park closing, I've heard at busy times they have CMs checking MBs at resort monorail and directing those going to TTC to use Express.
We weren't planning to leave at park closing. But evening parade was canceled due to incoming weather so everyone left early!!

We were on a Big Thunder when Wishes was going on, so great, definatly a WDW moment. So great we rode again, was walk on. Everyone was waiting for parade I guess or watching Wishes. Should have resisted that second ride, in hind sight!!

I still think Poly has the best transportation, with boat and monorail to MK and the other MK resorts, and walking distance to TTC.

6. Food at Capt Cooks was pretty good. And loved Tonga Toast at breakfast. At busy times my suggestion would be to have one line just for Grab & Go. Having to wait 15 min just to buy a Mickey Bar was crazy because the line is also for orders. And it kept melting so I had to put it back in freezer and get another.
Love the Cooks outdoor seating in the evenings, we sat near the Trader Sam's seating area and enjoyed listening to the singer.
Also watching the cute momma duck & babies!!
We also enjoyed our meals at Kona & 'Ohana. Wanted to get the Shave Ice at Kona Island but machine was down.

7. Pool was nice, even enjoyed the slide once or twice. Really enjoyed floating around watching Wishes.
Occasionally was difficult to find a couple of lounges together. It would be courteous if "guests" would put their used towels in the towel return they have to walk right by on the way out when they're done with them instead of leaving them on lounges.
There were pool hoppers. 2 men with 4 kids were next to us one day, but didn't realize they were hoppers until they were leaving and heard one tell friend he didn't realize they were going to stop for a swim or he would have packed a suit in his back pack, Hmmm. Of course they took prime spot lounges. Seeing strollers loaded down with bags, back packs etc makes you wonder. Locals were also using pool that had dinner reservations and thought it was ok to use pool for a swim too. I prob wouldn't find it as annoying if there were plenty of lounges. Some days there was more availability. Especially our second week, when crowds thinned out everywhere ( until Labour Day). I wish they had the SAB system of CMs at gate scanning MBs.

8. Same problem finding a lounge on beach to watch Wishes. One night we got lounge to watch Wishes because we arrived there early to watch movie on the beach. Other nights we just watched sitting on pool lounge or floating in pool, which was so special.

9. Pool gate was tricky to use. No light going green to let you know it unlocked. But after a few days we got the hang of it!!

10. Construction was a non issue for us. It was sometimes tricky getting to TTC path or bus stop with the screens, but I admit I'm directionally challenged at the best of times!!

11. Love the new pay options in laundry, no more having to carry around bag full of quarters. Or quarters being jammed in machine.

12. All the CMs were great, friendly and helpful.

13. Have to say it, not happy they built the bungalows, loved the old beach and panoramic views.
We loved sitting on our balcony watching that huge storm blow in. Glad we weren't caught out in it! Sure, we had a few minor glitches, but really loved our stay, our first stay was during winter, and after that always wanted to return during summer. So glad we did.

14. Oh yes, we got our MaiTai mug from Trader Sam's!!

15. Looking forward to staying again!

Great report! Do they give you a copy of the monorail schedule when you check in? I am so nervous about getting a mud pit facing room in October.

 

[jerseygal]

SueM..Thanks for your detailed report; sounds like you had a GREAT time. GLAD that you wound up moving to the room that you liked! Two quick questions in regard to the pool gate. When you say that the pool gate is tricky, do you have to do something "special" with the magic bands? Additionally, how early before Wishes if you want loungers do you think you must go to the beach?(of course with a fun drink in hand!) TIA!

 

[vinotinto]

Eta: I think there were some construction walls around the EPCOT monorail last week, but the monorail was still running. Not sure if they are the same as those pictures, but they looked similar.

Thank you! I hope you are right! When I saw the walls, my first thought was that it the Epcot monorail would not be working at all.

 

[vinotinto]

5. You need to be a PHd to read transportation schedule!! If it's Tues, and a full moon, resort monorail is on modified schedule, but if it's Thurs and a crescent moon, express monorail is on modified schedule. Lol. We messed up once, and walked to TTC to get Epcot monorail, which turned out to be on the modified schedule that morning and ended up taking the bus we could have taken from Poly ;-)

LOL, thanks for the great trip report! Was there a bus to Epcot from Poly? Somewhere else I read that they were told by CM that the bus to Epcot on is from TTC not Poly.

 

[cinderkelly]

Has it been a week since we left Poly? So unfair time flies on vacay. So Mini report on our trip! 2 week stay.

1. We were in Lauderdale first & drove up to WDW, arriving late morning. Room wasn't ready but wasn't expecting it to be. Checked in and my first request was a balcony. asked if we had one, nope. 2nd floor. Since we had a long stay, balcony was really important to me. I requested on res & put it in the online check in.
So I asked if we could have a balcony in Fiji. Nothing avail for 2 days. Asked, what about Samoa? Yup, next day if I wanted to move, so I just asked for any avail room for the night (got Nieu looking at mud pit) and moved next day.

Love Samoa!!

2. Email notifications not so great!! They don't text to international phones for room notification, only email. We returned to resort at 3:00 to see if room was ready. They said housekeeping was in it and would be ready in 30min.

Fine, great opportunity to go upstairs and get a Lapulapu from Walter, and meet up with Beth!! We had a great Dis meet, then went back down to check on room. Got in room by 4:00. Email notification came thru at 7:30pm, lol. Gave us a good laugh.

3. Room was fantastic! But.......had old fridge in it with 5 inches of ice built up on roof. I have had bad experiences with those ( food was ruined and had to throw out) and phoned to ask for one of the new fridges. Also shampoo. No problem, shampoo was promptly delivered, & next day new fridge was in room, but instead of taking old fridge out, they just plugged new fridge in by desk. Plugs are old and loose. If you just touch cord by accident plug moves and breaks connection. They really should have replaced the plugs in desk unit when they renovated, but I digress!!
Happened to see our wonderful housekeeper near our room. I asked her if this was usual, that they leave old fridge in cabinet, and stick new fridge by desk? She said, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it! And she did. Guess she got maintenance to take out old fridge & put new one in cabinet.

Our room was also very quiet! Never heard neighbours. Luckily we didn't have loud ones.

4. Did I mention housekeeper was great? Great job keeping our room nice. All public areas were clean and well kept too.

5. You need to be a PHd to read transportation schedule!! If it's Tues, and a full moon, resort monorail is on modified schedule, but if it's Thurs and a crescent moon, express monorail is on modified schedule. Lol. We messed up once, and walked to TTC to get Epcot monorail, which turned out to be on the modified schedule that morning and ended up taking the bus we could have taken from Poly ;-).
But in general transportation was fine. Just don't get caught at MK park closing and rain starting. Really long waits for boat or monorail. Many people using resort monorail to get to TTC instead of the express monorail that had even longer line. Wish they could do something about that, at park closing, I've heard at busy times they have CMs checking MBs at resort monorail and directing those going to TTC to use Express.
We weren't planning to leave at park closing. But evening parade was canceled due to incoming weather so everyone left early!!

We were on a Big Thunder when Wishes was going on, so great, definatly a WDW moment. So great we rode again, was walk on. Everyone was waiting for parade I guess or watching Wishes. Should have resisted that second ride, in hind sight!!

I still think Poly has the best transportation, with boat and monorail to MK and the other MK resorts, and walking distance to TTC.

6. Food at Capt Cooks was pretty good. And loved Tonga Toast at breakfast. At busy times my suggestion would be to have one line just for Grab & Go. Having to wait 15 min just to buy a Mickey Bar was crazy because the line is also for orders. And it kept melting so I had to put it back in freezer and get another.
Love the Cooks outdoor seating in the evenings, we sat near the Trader Sam's seating area and enjoyed listening to the singer.
Also watching the cute momma duck & babies!!
We also enjoyed our meals at Kona & 'Ohana. Wanted to get the Shave Ice at Kona Island but machine was down.

7. Pool was nice, even enjoyed the slide once or twice. Really enjoyed floating around watching Wishes.
Occasionally was difficult to find a couple of lounges together. It would be courteous if "guests" would put their used towels in the towel return they have to walk right by on the way out when they're done with them instead of leaving them on lounges.
There were pool hoppers. 2 men with 4 kids were next to us one day, but didn't realize they were hoppers until they were leaving and heard one tell friend he didn't realize they were going to stop for a swim or he would have packed a suit in his back pack, Hmmm. Of course they took prime spot lounges. Seeing strollers loaded down with bags, back packs etc makes you wonder. Locals were also using pool that had dinner reservations and thought it was ok to use pool for a swim too. I prob wouldn't find it as annoying if there were plenty of lounges. Some days there was more availability. Especially our second week, when crowds thinned out everywhere ( until Labour Day). I wish they had the SAB system of CMs at gate scanning MBs.

8. Same problem finding a lounge on beach to watch Wishes. One night we got lounge to watch Wishes because we arrived there early to watch movie on the beach. Other nights we just watched sitting on pool lounge or floating in pool, which was so special.

9. Pool gate was tricky to use. No light going green to let you know it unlocked. But after a few days we got the hang of it!!

10. Construction was a non issue for us. It was sometimes tricky getting to TTC path or bus stop with the screens, but I admit I'm directionally challenged at the best of times!!

11. Love the new pay options in laundry, no more having to carry around bag full of quarters. Or quarters being jammed in machine.

12. All the CMs were great, friendly and helpful.

13. Have to say it, not happy they built the bungalows, loved the old beach and panoramic views.
We loved sitting on our balcony watching that huge storm blow in. Glad we weren't caught out in it! Sure, we had a few minor glitches, but really loved our stay, our first stay was during winter, and after that always wanted to return during summer. So glad we did.

14. Oh yes, we got our MaiTai mug from Trader Sam's!!

15. Looking forward to staying again!

Thank you for the great report!

 

[Beachmomma3]

I know! It looks so much more spread out on paper!
Was Fiji nice and quiet?

One more question for anyone who can answer.. I know you can get the Ohana dinner via room service.. but can I just get an order of the bread pudding? I know I can get it at Tambu, but I'd rather have it in the room. And, can I take a drink outside the bar area/back to the room? I'm envisioning having bread pudding and a pina colava on a balcony.

I'm not sure about the bread pudding on the room service menu by itself. But, I do know you can take a drink from the bar to your room. I asked one time just to be sure enjoy your Pina Colava! I believe I had a raspberry one that was delicious from Tambu Lounge.

 

[rcraw45425]

Decided to add Memory Maker yesterday for our super short trip. Can't remember if there are any photographers at the resorts, we'll have my daughters' best friend with us and thought that it would be fun to get few resort photos.

 

[danjoan14]

Decided to add Memory Maker yesterday for our super short trip. Can't remember if there are any photographers at the resorts, we'll have my daughters' best friend with us and thought that it would be fun to get few resort photos.

We love the Memory Maker. I don't recall any photographers at the Poly during our stay.

 

[rcraw45425]

We love the Memory Maker. I don't recall any photographers at the Poly during our stay.

We did it back in May and managed several good photos. This time I know I'll lose money on it but since we're doing the Halloween Party I have hopes for some good ones there. Praying for cooler temps and no rain next week!!