Fiji or Niue in Poly?

[jtjcwise]

My family will be staying at the Poly for 1st time in June in a GV room. Trying to decide which building to request. Wnat to be close to GCH and pools because have 2 small children. Looking at either fiji or Niue. Any opinions would be helpful. Is Niue rooms is good shape because has not been renovated yet. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Daisymeo]

Welcome to the DIS boards! Nuie would be slightly closer to the GCH and to the pools. However, it only has two stories and there are no balconies. There are also no elevators if you are put on the second floor which is no big deal unless you are toting strollers up the stairs. For the view, I like Fiji better. You either have a view of the marina or the beach looking sideways towards the Grand Floridian and the luau cove. I think Fiji would actually be closer to Captain Cook's, the snack bar in the GCH where you refill your mugs, etc. since it is on the same side of the GCH as Fiji is. The Poly is really not that spread out as it may look on the map. There are probably only a couple of minutes difference to walk to the pools from Fiji than it would be to walk to the pools from Nuie. I have stayed in Tokelau and Aoteorea and next time I go I want to try Fiji. I liked Tokelau because it was closer to walk to the TTC to catch the monorail to Epcot. It is pretty hard to go wrong in any building at the Poly. I think the only garden views I would not like are Rapa Nui and Tuvalu.

If you haven't seen it yet, here is a wonderful web site with all kinds of information about the Poly thanks to Tikiman. I used it when I planned both my trips to the Poly.
http://tikiman2001.homestead.com/index.html

 

[skiwee1]

Originally posted by jtjcwise
My family will be staying at the Poly for 1st time in June in a GV room. Trying to decide which building to request. Wnat to be close to GCH and pools because have 2 small children. Looking at either fiji or Niue. Any opinions would be helpful. Is Niue rooms is good shape because has not been renovated yet. Thanks for your suggestions.

Nuie has no balconies on the 2nd floor. You can use the elevator at Rarotonga. Actually the farthest room away in Nuie would still be closer to the Raratonga elevator then the farthest room at the Rarotonga! We stayed in Raratonga in October in the very last GV room on the left. It was a long walk to the other end to get to the elevator. Since Nuie is a lot shorter, your walk would be shorter. Nuie is also closer to the GCH and Captain Cooks then Fiji. If you use the Raratonga elevator then you are only about 10 feet via a covered walkway to the GCH. Depending on what end of Nuie that your room was on you may only be 25 feet from Captain Cooks. The other end puts you closer to the main pool but we are still talking about a 30 second walk! It very close to both pools being right between them. That was my first choice until I found out there were no balconies. I know nothing about Fiji except it appears that you will have to walk around the marina to get to the main pool. It is too far away from everything for my liking but you may want that. I am going again in May and requesting the Raratonga again, 3rd floor. We really liked the location with the neat view of the monorail and its closeness to the GCH, the pools and Captain Cooks. I had heard it was rundown but we saw nothing of a sort. Everything was nice and new. No smells either! I can't wait...........39 more days to go!

 

[DisneyDude10171]

skiwee- I just got back seimrecently, and I too wanted Raratonga but they told us when we arrived that they were not placing any guests into it. Rehab? Im not sure though, it may be open again in May.

Also, I have stayed in Rapa Nui and as long as you face North, the view is still good. A South facing room, however, gets you a view of the lovely parking lot. Tokaleu sounds like it would not be a good choice for you, since it is a two minute or so walk to CC's/GCH and the pool.

If Raratonga is available, go for that one!

 

[Sammie]

Tokelau gets my vote for the best Garden view location.

Fiji is in a somewhat unusual location and you do at times have to walk around things to get to certain points.

Also some do like being that close to the Luau.

Also the rooms are larger in the Tokelau building since it was in the later addition of buildings and has balconies on 2nd and 3rd floors.

Disney has closed some areas of certain resorts, floors and/or buildings due to crowds being down. This may be the case with Rarotonga.

 

[DisneyDude10171]

if we're talking size- then i believe that Rapa Nui ranks #1- they have 2 sinks in the bathroom, too. It is also closest to parking since it has its own driveway. Monorail proximity is taken care of too, go to TTC

 

[skiwee1]

Originally posted by DisneyDude10171
skiwee- I just got back seimrecently, and I too wanted Raratonga but they told us when we arrived that they were not placing any guests into it. Rehab? Im not sure though, it may be open again in May.

Also, I have stayed in Rapa Nui and as long as you face North, the view is still good. A South facing room, however, gets you a view of the lovely parking lot. Tokaleu sounds like it would not be a good choice for you, since it is a two minute or so walk to CC's/GCH and the pool.

If Raratonga is available, go for that one!

Thanks for that info. We are going end of April and was really hoping for that building. Just my luck they choose to shut down my favorite building! I know it wasn't one the rehab list at all. Guess I have to find out the scoop from the Tikiman. Thanks again!

 

[Tikiman]

I was going to post this earlier but I forgot. (some of this has already been said but this is what I wrote before the other responses.

I just wanted to offer up some corrections to Daisymeo’s suggestions (sorry Daisymeo. Don’t mean to step on your comments). Niue’s second floor does have elevator access it just happens to be in Rarotonga. You take the elevator that is at the corner of Rarotonga closest to Niue and walk over the second floor deck to get to Niue’s second floor. Also the GCH and Captain cooks is much closer to Niue that Fiji. Niue rooms look right at the doors to the GCH and Captain Cook’s and with Fiji you will have to walk around the marina and past Tonga longhouse to get to the far end (where the shopping is) of the GCH and to get to the pool. I still would not say it is a long walk but one thing I did not like was I like to walk to the pool with out shoes and I would not suggest walking over the marina area with out shoes. I have gotten splinters almost every time I have done that since the marina walkway is wooden planks.

I totally agree with Daisymeo’s suggestion for Tokelau but if you want to be right next to the volcano pool that Niue is right next to it. I also agree that Tuvalu and one side of Rapa Nui have the least desirable garden views and Fiji does have better views that Niue (just my opinion).

 

[jtjcwise]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We are concerned about getting back late from the parks and having to carry 2 boys to the room. I am leaning towards Niue, but wife likes the views that Fiji seems to have. we are afraid of Toukela being far away from GCH since we will be spending most of our time in MK. Are rooms in Niue in good shape, has anybody stayed there recently. Also considering the longhouses with views of monorail, sons love trains and such.

 

[Daisymeo]

Tikiman, feel free to correct me anytime. I totally forgot about the connector that runs between the two buildings even though we walked under it many times our last trip. I love your web site. Thanks for all the hard work you do to help out us Poly lovers.

 

[TDC Nala]

In my Passporter, Fiji has a little smoking building sign on it. Would that make a difference? For views, monorail and GCH I think I'd go to Aotearoa, if it isn't being renovated.

 

[jtjcwise]

Is Aotearoa far from the pools? How close is it ti GCH. I know everything is not far apart, but DW looks at map and says it looks like things are spread out? I think I will take away the map from her.

 

[Tikiman]

Aotearoa can be a farther walk to the pool than most longhouses just because you have to walk around the marina. There is no direct route to the pool. Even if you were in Tahiti which is the farthest from the GCH you can get to the pool rather fast by walking directly down the beach.