Disney's POLYNESIAN VILLAGE RESORT Information & Questions

[akhenaten]

It has been s couple years since I used ME, but last time I did, there was a page in a booklet they mail to you that they scan at the airport when you go to check in for ME.

I brought the book like they said..but only needed to scan the bands to get on at the airport. Leaving the poly we needed the letter ....which they place under your room door two nights before we were scheduled to leave...

 

[ninafeliz]

We finally landed at MCO 4 hrs late, but at last we're here! Now for the ME and check in at the poly. I assume we won't have many options of rooms this late, but since no GV CL rooms look good and it was stressful getting here I'm ok with it.

 

[5bound4wdw]

We finally landed at MCO 4 hrs late, but at last we're here! Now for the ME and check in at the poly. I assume we won't have many options of rooms this late, but since no GV CL rooms look good and it was stressful getting here I'm ok with it.

Glad you made it! We are arriving on a late flight next week, and I wonder what kind of room we will end up with as well .

Hope everything is magical when you check in!

 

[mommyrosa2]

I saw your posts on the CR thread - you had the upgrade to a suite, right? How wonderful.

If you don't mind me asking, where was the first room they gave you and what was wrong with it?

I am so sorry that you had such a let down for your Polynesian CL check in. They should've sent you an email telling what to do. We still have 8 days until our trip, but we got this email about 2 weeks ago:

Aloha!


Thank you for choosing Disney's Polynesian Village Resort at Walt Disney World as your vacation destination. On behalf of our team, we would like to extend a warm welcome!


Let us take a moment to explain the Concierge Club check-in process. Upon your arrival at our resort, please proceed to the Valet Desk. You will then be met by one of our Curbside Cast Members who will escort you directly to the Club Concierge desk for check-in.



When you went to the front desk in the GCH the CM should have called the Hawaii building so that a CL CM could have met you in there and brought you to the Hawaii building for check-in.

I really hope that your stay improves!

P.S. Where was your first room located and what was wrong with it???

[/QUOTE]

The first room was on 2nd floor right next to the kitchen/lounge and way too noisy. We ended up switching resorts as things didn't get any better but before we left, we made sure to have a long chat with the manager.

 

[xjay]

We checked in this morning and were upgraded to a dvc studio! We were originally booked with a regular standard view room. We had a stumble when checking in. Our reservation wasn't linking to our my disney experience accounts for some reason and the CM that gave us our room number sent us to the wrong building. She told us we were in Tokelau but the room number didn't match what was in the building. Had to go back to the GCH to find out we were actually put in Pago Pago, which is definitely a lot better for us considering we just got back from HS not too long ago to come back to our room and got a partial view of Wishes from our balcony. That definitely made up for the mishap this morning

 

[SeaSpray]

The first room was on 2nd floor right next to the kitchen/lounge and way too noisy. We ended up switching resorts as things didn't get any better but before we left, we made sure to have a long chat with the manager.[/QUOTE]

I'm really sorry that they didn't take care of you better

If you are comfortable doing so, can you tell us what happened to make you decide to switch resorts? Which resort did you change to??

For the last several months I've been receiving very nicely-worded emails from the Polynesian IPO. Just a couple of days ago I received one that made me feel less than "welcome"; it was actually off-putting to be honest. We've stayed CL at the Polynesian several times; I just wonder how this next trip will be.

 

[Mrsktbrown]

@SeaSpray , I hope you'll report back to us! We're taking our first trip to Poly CL next month (first trip to to WDW too!), and I'm admittedly a little worried. We decided the location and lounge view were worth staying (we considered switching to Beach Club CL), but I doubt myself basically every day.

 

[SeaSpray]

@SeaSpray , I hope you'll report back to us! We're taking our first trip to Poly CL next month (first trip to to WDW too!), and I'm admittedly a little worried. We decided the location and lounge view were worth staying (we considered switching to Beach Club CL), but I doubt myself basically every day.

I will definitely report live from the Polynesian. This will be my first time reporting live because now I have a nice, light tablet to bring with me. lol

I'm going to have an open mind, so we'll see what happens!

 

[WDWKOOK]

I'm really sorry that they didn't take care of you better

If you are comfortable doing so, can you tell us what happened to make you decide to switch resorts? Which resort did you change to??

For the last several months I've been receiving very nicely-worded emails from the Polynesian IPO. Just a couple of days ago I received one that made me feel less than "welcome"; it was actually off-putting to be honest. We've stayed CL at the Polynesian several times; I just wonder how this next trip will be.

Speaking with the manager and moving to another resort ate up a considerable amount of their time and I'm sure they're trying to enjoy their vacation more now. I hope @mommyrosa2 won't mind me answering for her... They requested to be moved yesterday morning and were able to move next door to GF Sugar Loaf. They are happy they moved and she reported a huge difference in service at GF.

DD and I arrive Friday for 10 nights and I have many concerns based on past negative experiences at Poly. It's DD's last summer vacation before graduating high school so I let her choose any resort. But, I warned her that if we're displeased, I won't hesitate to move. We've actually had to do this a couple of times, once from Poly. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if I felt unhappy. It completely salvaged a disappointing stay and the GSMs (at the resort we moved to) made it easy and painless. Poly, OTOH, made a mess of it and CR had to try and fix their mistakes.

 

[TJA]

The first room was on 2nd floor right next to the kitchen/lounge and way too noisy. We ended up switching resorts as things didn't get any better but before we left, we made sure to have a long chat with the manager.

Yikes, so sorry about your experience at Poly CL. I just wanted to chime in and say that we've never had a great experience checking in at Poly, and we've stayed there many times. We've just never had a CM that "wow'd" us there. However, we've always been walked back to Hawaii. Upon getting off ME, there is normally a CM standing around with an Ipad that ends up looking us up and walking us back.

Also, I just wanted to add that our first Poly CL stay was on the garden side several years ago. To be honest, we didn't think it was anything special and we didn't return for a lot of years. I think we may have had your 3rd floor room with the tree on the balcony because I remember we really couldn't see anything or sit on our balcony. However, we finally tried it again and stayed on the lagoon side and that made a HUGE difference. It seemed like an entirely different trip being able to walk right out onto the beach (1st floor) and also to be able to watch Wishes from most any room. Just thought I'd mention that fwiw.

 

[SeaSpray]

Speaking with the manager and moving to another resort ate up a considerable amount of their time and I'm sure they're trying to enjoy their vacation more now. I hope @mommyrosa2 won't mind me answering for her... They requested to be moved yesterday morning and were able to move next door to GF Sugar Loaf. They are happy they moved and she reported a huge difference in service at GF.

DD and I arrive Friday for 10 nights and I have many concerns based on past negative experiences at Poly. It's DD's last summer vacation before graduating high school so I let her choose any resort. But, I warned her that if we're displeased, I won't hesitate to move. We've actually had to do this a couple of times, once from Poly. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if I felt unhappy. It completely salvaged a disappointing stay and the GSMs (at the resort we moved to) made it easy and painless. Poly, OTOH, made a mess of it and CR had to try and fix their mistakes.

I know what you mean; our vacation time is so precious to us that we use a towncar service rather than ME. Nothing wrong with ME, but we choose to be able to decide what time to leave to get to MCO, for example.

Can I ask you a question?? If we're at a resort and are unhappy after speaking with management, how do we tell them that we want to move elsewhere?? And do they check to see where there is availability for you?? And then do you pay the difference if moving to a more expensive resort, or conversely, do you receive a refund if you move to a less expensive resort?

Back in 2001 on our first family trip and my first on-site stay, we booked Caribbean Beach Resort. It was great, we loved it. Nothing at all wrong with it. Then a few days in to our trip we had dinner at the Grand Floridian. When we got there, my DH asked me why we weren't staying there! I said, well back when we were planning this trip and working up a budget, we decided on a moderate resort. So he said Ok, but I think we should stay here.

So we walked over to the check-in desk at the GF and my DH asked if there were any rooms available with a view of the castle. The lovely CM took us to see what the rooms looked like, then she checked her computer to see if a "castle view" room was available. There was, so DH said ok, please tell us what to do to move here from CBR. The GF CM said she'd take care of the "paperwork" end of it, we paid the difference in resorts, then she said to just go back to CBR and pack. She called CBR to tell them we'd be moving, and when we got to CBR they even had a van waiting for us to take us and our luggage over to GF.

Anyway, that was a different situation. But I've read many times on here that people move to another resort when they're unhappy with their current resort, and I'm not sure of the logistics.

Thanks for any info, and hopefully, we'll be happy at the Polynesian, but I'd like to know what to do in case we're not happy, considering all of the construction etc, and the fact that DH and I both need to rest in the middle of the day due to medical issues that we have. We're staying CL but in a GV room, so unless we happen to get an upgrade to the lagoon side, we may have an issue with noise during the day. I have emailed IPO to ask for the quietest room possible, and all of the IPO CMs responses were very nice until this last email that I got a couple of days ago. The tone of the email sounded almost stern, and she let me know that all of the GV rooms WILL be facing construction, and since I'll have a wheelchair, then maybe I'll be "upgraded" to an accessible room. Yes she used the word "upgrade". I didn't respond to that email but I felt like writing back and saying "Hey, an accessible room is NOT an upgrade!" They have accessible rooms on both sides of the Hawaii building; I've stayed in them before! My reservation wasn't originally booked as an "accessible" room, but I had just mentioned that if one was available, then we'd be happy to stay in one, and if not, then a regular room is fine because we've stayed in regular rooms with my wheelchair before, too. It just irked me that she used the word "upgrade" in reference to an accessible room.

 

[rcraw45425]

Hoping that IPO is not going to be a pain. Based on things I've read I just called to touch base. the young man was very nonchalant, "oh yeah, we send a letter out around 10 day out to check for your arrival time and method" . No question about whether we will need any ADRs, tee times, etc. I inquired about obtaining an ADR, he checked and said, oh yeah, Ohana is booked solid, but yo can get there early each day and get in the standby line. NO offer to keep checking, etc. Glad I know the drill myself or I feel like I'd be very disappointed in them.

 

[SeaSpray]

Hoping that IPO is not going to be a pain. Based on things I've read I just called to touch base. the young man was very nonchalant, "oh yeah, we send a letter out around 10 day out to check for your arrival time and method" . No question about whether we will need any ADRs, tee times, etc. I inquired about obtaining an ADR, he checked and said, oh yeah, Ohana is booked solid, but yo can get there early each day and get in the standby line. NO offer to keep checking, etc. Glad I know the drill myself or I feel like I'd be very disappointed in them.

It's funny but I've never called IPO I always just email them. Now I'm curious! I might give them a call since our trip is a week away....

 

[Aerinha]

Is the general unhappiness with the Poly just CL stays and lack of service from the IPO or is it an overall thing? I am staying in a regular room, not CL, in Dec and am already annoyed about the transportation situation (not that there is a refurb but that after two years of refurb they still don't seem to know until the morning of how guests can get ot MK or Epcot)....should I be seeing if my magical deal can be switched elsewhere?

 

[SeaSpray]

Is the general unhappiness with the Poly just CL stays and lack of service from the IPO or is it an overall thing? I am staying in a regular room, not CL, in Dec and am already annoyed about the transportation situation (not that there is a refurb but that after two years of refurb they still don't seem to know until the morning of how guests can get ot MK or Epcot)....should I be seeing if my magical deal can be switched elsewhere?

I think it's been mainly the CL. I know a few people who are at the Polynesian (non CL) right now and they're loving the resort.

Regarding the monorail, I hate all the issues with wondering whether it'll be working or not. We love to stay on the monorail, so the idea of changing resorts because of monorail issues wouldn't help us, since they all share the resort monorail line. If you think you'd be happy off the monorail line, then maybe a different resort would help to remove the monorail issues for you.

After hearing about all of the monorail issues, we decided to not plan any pre-park opening ADRs.

 

[rcraw45425]

Monorail service for the last couple of years has sucked, but been progressively worse with the DVC additions at GF and Poly. My husband and teen daughter spent almost an hour stuck on the EPCOT monorail back to the Poly a couple of years back for about an hour. Older daughter and I were able to complete our shopping and walk to the station and they were just getting back to the hotel, and we shopped for quite a while. And my biggest gripe si the bad A/C on there. Nothing like being packed in like sardines and no cool air.

 

[SeaSpray]

It's funny but I've never called IPO I always just email them. Now I'm curious! I might give them a call since our trip is a week away....

I know that I'm quoting myself here, but I just called IPO and wanted to report how the call went.

The first time I called, the phone rang and rang, then someone picked up, and then hung up!! That wasn't good.

So I immediately redialed and this time the call was answered right away by an IPO CM named Sabra. I recognized her name right away, since I had done all of my correspondence via email.

I have to say that Sabra was wonderful. I had the call on speakerphone because I wanted my DH to be able to hear, too. I told her that I was calling to clarify an email that I received last week. She first asked for our reservation number and while she was looking it up, she asked in a cheerful voice "Are you excited about your upcoming trip??"

We then spoke for about 20 minutes. She wanted to make sure that our room requests were exactly what we wanted. She confirmed that they are basically fully booked right now and for the next several weeks. She took the time to ask specific questions to help us decide the best room location requests, as well as take into consideration the fact that we will be back at the resort each day after lunch to rest.

I also asked her to clarify the check-in process and the arrival at the front of the resort process. She did so in a very friendly manner, explaining various scenarios.

Apparently it really depends on who answers your phone calls or emails. I looked back at my emails and saw some from Sabra (as well as others) who wrote very nice email replies to me.

 

[Aerinha]

I think it's been mainly the CL. I know a few people who are at the Polynesian (non CL) right now and they're loving the resort.

Regarding the monorail, I hate all the issues with wondering whether it'll be working or not. We love to stay on the monorail, so the idea of changing resorts because of monorail issues wouldn't help us, since they all share the resort monorail line. If you think you'd be happy off the monorail line, then maybe a different resort would help to remove the monorail issues for you.

After hearing about all of the monorail issues, we decided to not plan any pre-park opening ADRs.

I am typically an Epcot area resort person for the ease of strolling to the gate in ten mins, But they really lack breakfast options back there so I wanted to give a monorail resort another try since this was a longer stay.

 

[TJA]

I know that I'm quoting myself here, but I just called IPO and wanted to report how the call went.

The first time I called, the phone rang and rang, then someone picked up, and then hung up!! That wasn't good.

So I immediately redialed and this time the call was answered right away by an IPO CM named Sabra. I recognized her name right away, since I had done all of my correspondence via email.

I have to say that Sabra was wonderful. I had the call on speakerphone because I wanted my DH to be able to hear, too. I told her that I was calling to clarify an email that I received last week. She first asked for our reservation number and while she was looking it up, she asked in a cheerful voice "Are you excited about your upcoming trip??"

We then spoke for about 20 minutes. She wanted to make sure that our room requests were exactly what we wanted. She confirmed that they are basically fully booked right now and for the next several weeks. She took the time to ask specific questions to help us decide the best room location requests, as well as take into consideration the fact that we will be back at the resort each day after lunch to rest.

I also asked her to clarify the check-in process and the arrival at the front of the resort process. She did so in a very friendly manner, explaining various scenarios.

Apparently it really depends on who answers your phone calls or emails. I looked back at my emails and saw some from Sabra (as well as others) who wrote very nice email replies to me.

Thanks for following up on your phone call with IPO. I have to agree that it makes a huge difference who you talk to, really at any CL, but since we're talking specifically about Poly, I'll mention something that happened to us last month there. One morning we waited for a bus to HS for a little over an hour. A young woman CM stood at the curb with a radio and notepad, but never radioed for a bus to HS even though many guests were questioning her. Anyway, I called IPO right from the bus stop to explain we were just about to miss our 1st FP (Toy Story!!) because we had been waiting an hour for a bus. Long story short, this particular CM made a few calls and was able to extend my Toy Story FP to the entire day and she also gave me 2 additional "free" FP's for any ride at HS. I do think Customer Service at HS would've done the same thing, but moral of the story is that CL took care of this for me and I didn't have to go to CS at HS. This particular CM, wish I could remember her name, was outstanding. My fate could've been entirely different had she not answered the phone and I got a less-than-helpful CM.

I do hope your trip goes well for your family! Poly is sure a gorgeous resort, with the exception of the quiet pool work of course. And you're prepared for the food offerings as I posted pictures of each night's 5-7 appetizers, corn dogs and all!

 

[rcraw45425]

Glad you had a good experience with Sabra. I had Colin (I believe) and also had multiple phone rings before anyone picked up.