Disney's POLYNESIAN VILLAGE RESORT Information & Questions

[AquaDame]

Exciting! My DH would be jealous.
The grill at CC's doesn't start serving the breakfast menu until 6:30 a.m., but the restaurant is still open earlier for grab and go items (juice, pastries, fruit, cereal, etc)

Gotcha - cereal is much better than nothing! So glad they are open at all!

 

[mmtwinmama]

Hi! I was wondering about the CL Lounge and the 3rd floor seating area. Is there a door that you can enter and exit the lounge from on the 3rd floor? I'm trying to figure out a room to request and am thinking 3rd floor near the lounge might be good for us if we can get in and out via the 3rd floor.

 

[mickeynut1]

Staying at the Poly in a little under a month. We are landing at MCO around 10pm and then getting on Magical Express. We saw that Trader Sam's closes at midnight (we had hoped for 2am) does anyone know if TS stays open later than advertised or they shut down exact at 12? We were hoping to get to go the first night and since it would have been super late less crowded but are now figuring that won't happen since we aren't cabbing.

I can't answer about Trader Sams, but wanted to say I hope you have a great trip .

Checking into Poly on Friday, yes this Friday! 3 lovely afternoons from now! Our first stay at Poly and will be a LONG one! We are there from the 16-26!!! So excited!

Have a great trip!

We were able to snag tickets to see the rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center on the 30th this morning (yay!!). Is Captain Cooks really open 24 hours? We will need to eat before dawn (almost) and get on the road to make it in time for checkin there!

The pp answered your question about CC, but I wanted to say congrats on the tickets. Hope you have a great time .

 

[mmmears]

Hi! I was wondering about the CL Lounge and the 3rd floor seating area. Is there a door that you can enter and exit the lounge from on the 3rd floor? I'm trying to figure out a room to request and am thinking 3rd floor near the lounge might be good for us if we can get in and out via the 3rd floor.

Yes, you can enter from the hallway on the 3rd floor and then go down the stairs to get to the food area. We've always stayed on the 3rd floor and that's the door we use to access the lounge.

 

[MouseMum]

So excited! I am going to request 3rd floor marina view... thank you for the suggestion

Thinking the same requests

 

[KSR0330]

Thinking the same requests

It sounds like a lot of people are making this request!

 

[MouseMum]

It sounds like a lot of people are making this request!

We're not going until next August, so pool construction will likely be over. If that's the case, I won't mind another spot. But if I was going earlier, that's where I'd like to be. Seems like it has nice reviews!

 

[KSR0330]

We're not going until next August, so pool construction will likely be over. If that's the case, I won't mind another spot. But if I was going earlier, that's where I'd like to be. Seems like it has nice reviews!

We're going next August, also! I got a quote from "the place you suggested" and WOW! What a great deal! Our first trip staying on site, and it's at the Poly!

I have done a TON of research on the longhouses and am requesting Fiji/3rd floor/marina view. Maybe we'll be neighbors!

 

[vinotinto]

Just back from our second Poly stay. This one was better than our first time (5 years ago), although we stayed for only 4 nights. Some random thoughts:

Thumbs Up
- as I mentioned, my room requests were fulfilled. I was impressed.
- new lobby looks much, much better than the old lobby. New furniture, chandelier, color scheme, all nice.
- resort is refreshed. New paint, duvet, double sinks, etc., are an improvement.
- Pineapple Lanai. After being married for 16 years I learned my DH is a Dole Whip fan, going back to his younger days. Never knew this! He almost passed out when he realized there was a whole restaurant devoted to dole Whips at the Poly!
- cast members. We were greeted around the resort with Alohas.
- Lilos Playhouse. My oldest (10, almost 11), did not want to go. I was very honest with the CM and mentioned he thought he was too old. The CM promptly mentioned the key words: video games and snacks, and actually invited him to come in and check it out for himself, before we checked him in. This totally worked, he was happy to go and I did not hear any complaints. I should probably send a complimentary message.
- Trader sams. I picked up a pager at 5 pm. Was told 1 hour wait. Went back to the room to finish getting ready, took kids to Lilos, went to get dole Whip, and got paged within 1 hour. Sat at the big communal table in the middle. Really, a lot depends on who is sitting at the table, but met some nice people, had a couple of drinks and had the very delish (albeit tiny) tuna poke. Downside is that the drinks are really, really sweet.
- new hot tub. It was actually working when we were there.
- resort monorail after MNSSHP. We left at around 11:00 pm and had no wait for the resort monorail.

Stuff that we were meh about:
- dining at the resort. It's just packed all the time and the polynesian theme wears out fast for food. Tried to get into Kona twice for breakfast and lunch and they were not taking walk ins. Wound up having to make an ADR for our last morning so we could have the Samoan and the macademia pancakes (both fantastic). Would have preferred to sleep in that day. No flexibility. They really need to hold back some walk in slots for guests staying at the Poly. We don't care for 'Ohana, so did not book it. We wound up traveling all the time to the Contemporary for meals. Had breakfast and dinner at the Wave and dinner at Cali Grill. Just better dining there overall.

- Captain cooke's was OK for breakfast, just very basic. No real coffee. Had to go upstairs to Kona island to get a decent coffee and then trek back downstairs. Long lines during lunch. Seating gets packed when raining. We had to take our food to the lobby. Fish tacos, coconut meatball and pork nachos all tasty.

- monorail - we lucked out and had great service, but according to what I overheard in the pool and was told by the boat launch driver, it was down part of the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday. It was *not* on a reduced schedule, which was good. We took the boat launch on Sunday afternoon and it was delightful. When monorail is working, it's great, but when it's not working, lines get backed up quickly.

- the pool. Packed and not with pool hoppers and just not that impressive. It rained on Saturday, and it closed for about an hour, and within 15 minutes of re opening, it was packed again, clearly from people staying onsite that went back to the rooms until it reopened.

- frosted glass on bathroom. Got woken up by husband at 6 am on first day getting ready for his run. Ugh, so much for sleeping in during vacation! Got woken up by son at 6:30 on second day (morning after MNSSHP) when he had to go potty. All the light in he bathroom just filters out through the frosted glass. I wish I would have brought something to tape to the frosted glass to block the light.

- parks were packed. Touringplans posts the next day the actual crowd levels in "how did we do?" And they indicated Saturday and Sunday were both 10s. It seems 10 is the new 7.

We did have a blast, just wanted to point out the mehs so you don't make the same mistakes I made. In summary, use the boat launch, make ADRs for breakfast and lunch at Kona, and bring something to block the light from the bathroom.

 

[psac]

Hi! I was wondering about the CL Lounge and the 3rd floor seating area. Is there a door that you can enter and exit the lounge from on the 3rd floor? I'm trying to figure out a room to request and am thinking 3rd floor near the lounge might be good for us if we can get in and out via the 3rd floor.

We had third floor Garden View before the quiet pool construction and loved the location and the balcony. Third floor is the way to go!

 

[Boopuff]

Here at the poly now. Staying in Pago Pago 2nd floor garden view (deluxe studio) nice room, lovely view. Not near construction. We get up and get to the pool first thing 9am-ish. Lots of empty chairs not at all crowded. The hot tub is very nice..now for the love of.. Why do kids need to be in the hot tub?!! They have an entire splash fun area why oh why in my peaceful hot tub! I'd love that to be adult only...However, we left about 11:30 and it was getting busier. Did see a few "lurkers" at the pool gate and also noticed many poly guests just don't hold the gate for anyone! The real pita thing is the fireworks crowd filling the teeny tiny bit of beach (curse you bungalow!) most firework watchers are clearly not poly guests ("now let's get to the monorail to get back to....")

Parks duing the weekend of Columbus Day... crazy! Busy. Food and wine was very busy today, Tuesday. Has the incredible misfortune exiting the America pavilion just as the eat to the beat let out. At that point it felt like New Year's Eve! Overall we've used our fast pass and just take things slow!

 

[RhodyChief]

My wife and I will be staying at the Polynesian for the first time in January for two nights in a Standard View Room (then moving over to AKV for the rest of our trip) and couldn't be more excited!

Thanks for all the great tips and info that have been posted, it definitely will help us make the most of our stay. Since we booked through Orbitz I'll have to take my chances with room selection but hopefully we'll be able to get one on the 3rd floor. Fingers crossed!

 

[barefootMom]

Did I read somewhere that the new quiet pool will also have a hot tub? I will be going the 3rd week in April, what do you think the chances are of that pool being open??

Finally, I just received a "magical" quote from a TA that was slightly less than the pin code rate I had - is there any reason NOT to book through them (can I even ask this??)?

 

[TKKAM]

Anyone else doing Haloween at the Poly? Any tips?

 

[williamscm3]

Recently booked our first trip to the Poly for next August!! We will be staying in a lagoon view room. I look forward to reading all about the Poly over the next 312 days...but whose counting

 

[mickeynut1]

We're not going until next August

We're going next August, also!

Us too .

Just back from our second Poly stay. This one was better than our first time (5 years ago), although we stayed for only 4 nights. Some random thoughts:

Thumbs Up
- as I mentioned, my room requests were fulfilled. I was impressed.
- new lobby looks much, much better than the old lobby. New furniture, chandelier, color scheme, all nice.
- resort is refreshed. New paint, duvet, double sinks, etc., are an improvement.
- Pineapple Lanai. After being married for 16 years I learned my DH is a Dole Whip fan, going back to his younger days. Never knew this! He almost passed out when he realized there was a whole restaurant devoted to dole Whips at the Poly!
- cast members. We were greeted around the resort with Alohas.
- Lilos Playhouse. My oldest (10, almost 11), did not want to go. I was very honest with the CM and mentioned he thought he was too old. The CM promptly mentioned the key words: video games and snacks, and actually invited him to come in and check it out for himself, before we checked him in. This totally worked, he was happy to go and I did not hear any complaints. I should probably send a complimentary message.
- Trader sams. I picked up a pager at 5 pm. Was told 1 hour wait. Went back to the room to finish getting ready, took kids to Lilos, went to get dole Whip, and got paged within 1 hour. Sat at the big communal table in the middle. Really, a lot depends on who is sitting at the table, but met some nice people, had a couple of drinks and had the very delish (albeit tiny) tuna poke. Downside is that the drinks are really, really sweet.
- new hot tub. It was actually working when we were there.
- resort monorail after MNSSHP. We left at around 11:00 pm and had no wait for the resort monorail.

Stuff that we were meh about:
- dining at the resort. It's just packed all the time and the polynesian theme wears out fast for food. Tried to get into Kona twice for breakfast and lunch and they were not taking walk ins. Wound up having to make an ADR for our last morning so we could have the Samoan and the macademia pancakes (both fantastic). Would have preferred to sleep in that day. No flexibility. They really need to hold back some walk in slots for guests staying at the Poly. We don't care for 'Ohana, so did not book it. We wound up traveling all the time to the Contemporary for meals. Had breakfast and dinner at the Wave and dinner at Cali Grill. Just better dining there overall.

- Captain cooke's was OK for breakfast, just very basic. No real coffee. Had to go upstairs to Kona island to get a decent coffee and then trek back downstairs. Long lines during lunch. Seating gets packed when raining. We had to take our food to the lobby. Fish tacos, coconut meatball and pork nachos all tasty.

- monorail - we lucked out and had great service, but according to what I overheard in the pool and was told by the boat launch driver, it was down part of the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday. It was *not* on a reduced schedule, which was good. We took the boat launch on Sunday afternoon and it was delightful. When monorail is working, it's great, but when it's not working, lines get backed up quickly.

- the pool. Packed and not with pool hoppers and just not that impressive. It rained on Saturday, and it closed for about an hour, and within 15 minutes of re opening, it was packed again, clearly from people staying onsite that went back to the rooms until it reopened.

- frosted glass on bathroom. Got woken up by husband at 6 am on first day getting ready for his run. Ugh, so much for sleeping in during vacation! Got woken up by son at 6:30 on second day (morning after MNSSHP) when he had to go potty. All the light in he bathroom just filters out through the frosted glass. I wish I would have brought something to tape to the frosted glass to block the light.

- parks were packed. Touringplans posts the next day the actual crowd levels in "how did we do?" And they indicated Saturday and Sunday were both 10s. It seems 10 is the new 7.

We did have a blast, just wanted to point out the mehs so you don't make the same mistakes I made. In summary, use the boat launch, make ADRs for breakfast and lunch at Kona, and bring something to block the light from the bathroom.

Thanks for your review. Glad you had a good time .

Here at the poly now. Staying in Pago Pago 2nd floor garden view (deluxe studio) nice room, lovely view. Not near construction. We get up and get to the pool first thing 9am-ish. Lots of empty chairs not at all crowded. The hot tub is very nice..now for the love of.. Why do kids need to be in the hot tub?!! They have an entire splash fun area why oh why in my peaceful hot tub! I'd love that to be adult only...However, we left about 11:30 and it was getting busier. Did see a few "lurkers" at the pool gate and also noticed many poly guests just don't hold the gate for anyone! The real pita thing is the fireworks crowd filling the teeny tiny bit of beach (curse you bungalow!) most firework watchers are clearly not poly guests ("now let's get to the monorail to get back to....")

Parks duing the weekend of Columbus Day... crazy! Busy. Food and wine was very busy today, Tuesday. Has the incredible misfortune exiting the America pavilion just as the eat to the beat let out. At that point it felt like New Year's Eve! Overall we've used our fast pass and just take things slow!

Hope you're having a good time .

My wife and I will be staying at the Polynesian for the first time in January for two nights in a Standard View Room (then moving over to AKV for the rest of our trip) and couldn't be more excited!

Thanks for all the great tips and info that have been posted, it definitely will help us make the most of our stay. Since we booked through Orbitz I'll have to take my chances with room selection but hopefully we'll be able to get one on the 3rd floor. Fingers crossed!

The Poly is amazing, you're going to love it!

Did I read somewhere that the new quiet pool will also have a hot tub? I will be going the 3rd week in April, what do you think the chances are of that pool being open??

I can't answer about the hot tub, but there is a chance the pool will still be under construction in April. Completion was originally scheduled for early spring, but construction started a couple of months late, so that could delay the opening.

Anyone else doing Haloween at the Poly? Any tips?

We are not, but I wanted to say have a great trip!

Recently booked our first trip to the Poly for next August!! We will be staying in a lagoon view room. I look forward to reading all about the Poly over the next 312 days...but whose counting

Congrats on booking your first Poly stay . Looks like there will be a lot of us at the Poly next August .

 

[PAdislover]

Anyone else doing Haloween at the Poly? Any tips?

We are staying at the poly and doing Halloween events there. No tips though since I have never done it before!

 

[PAdislover]

Has anyone heard of getting a box fan for your room at the poly? I thought I remember reading somewhere that they are available but don't know how I would get one or if this is even true.

 

[AquaDame]

Anyone else doing Haloween at the Poly? Any tips?

We're there for Halloween too, but we have tickets to MNSSHP so that is where will will be!

 

[kcpinwdw]

Finally, I just received a "magical" quote from a TA that was slightly less than the pin code rate I had - is there any reason NOT to book through them (can I even ask this??)?

We used them this year and it was great so we booked again for next year (CL this time!)--- so I cant see any reason not to use them!