Help me choose...Poly, AKL, or WL

[RamblingMad]

Thank you all for the continued suggestions! I’ve also started looking around the David’s site at DVC rentals. It might be a great option for us! Is there any downside to a DVC studio vs the standard view rooms that I should be aware of?!

They’re basically extended stays that might or might not have been refurbished. If they haven’t, then they are in far worse shape than standard rooms. If you’re looking at DVC, then you might also want to look at airBNB.

 

[Hatboxer]

I rented points and got 3 nights at the Poly and 3 nights at BC for a grand total of $1800; felt like a steal after seeing the regular room rates which were about $600/night.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

Hi all, I'm needing some help planning our first deluxe stay for next Dec 2020. We are a party of 5, but the baby will be less than 3yo so won't necessarily count in max occupancy, but we will need a space for a pack n play OR he will be 2 1/2 so maybe a fold down bed will fit him better by then. I'm open to suggestions. It will be a 4 night stay with 2 park days, 1 MVMCP, and 1 resort day. Let me also say interesting food is not a draw for us. We are all (DH and myself included) cheeseburger and fries kind of people

The Poly is obviously the iconic choice with the monorail and neat pool. Its probably the top contender but I'm looking at the other two options as they are a little cheaper.

AKL is a draw based on the animals. Our kids will be 9, 7, and 2 1/2 so that is something interesting to them. The pool area looks really cool there too. Is the Poly pool or AKL pool better? They love water slides. I'm worried in December it could be a little chilly so I'm also interested in which one has the best hot tub! lol The biggest negative to AKL is that we would have to use bus transportation everywhere. Not a huge deal, but with a deluxe stay it would be nice to have closer access to the parks.

Wilderness Lodge is in the running bc if we are not vacationing at Disney parks, you will find us in National Parks! We love the looks of the old lodges around the country and I think we would feel at home there. I also think the Christmas décor would be stunning. My negative with this one is similar to AKL. We have stayed at Fort Wilderness 2x before and the boats just do not run early enough for our liking to MK. We like to be there WELL before rope drop and it usually starts running about 30 min before park open.

Any suggestions would be appreciated! I've looked at the Epcot resorts and the sophisticated look is just not to our liking. We've previously stayed at FWx2, Pop Century, and just a couple weeks ago POFQ. I royally screwed up and forgot to check on the bounceback offer. I think it would have been a longer stay, more tickets than what we were wanting but I should have checked into it.

They're all very nice resorts, so you can't really go wrong. Since you asked for an opinion, I recommend Animal Kingdom Lodge. The animals will make it special for the kids. It has a huge, shaded hot tub. AKL guests are allowed to use both the feature pool at Jambo house (where the huge hot tub is) and the one at Kidani, where there is a nice young kids' water play area, in addition to a pool, spiral water slide & another hot tub.

AKL is more peaceful than the Polynesian. It will have a bigger Christmas tree. It has a very nice counter service restaurant and that is great when you have kids. When we stayed there the bus service was efficient. The monorail resorts are good for access to MK & Epcot, but their bus service to HS & AK is poor. And as you know, Wilderness Lodge's transportation is pretty slow all around.

But you should go with your gut on this one, since they're all good choices. Pick the resort that excites you the most.

A party of 5 won't comfortably fit in a DVC studio, by the way. Be aware of the different room layout (only one queen bed, unlike resort rooms, which have 2 queen beds) before going that route.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We've stayed at all 3 and I would choose the Poly for both space and convenience. My girls were 2 (just turned) and 4 when we first stayed at WL and we were miserably cramped because of all of their stuff...especially the stroller. I couldn't imagine being in there with all of their stuff and a crib. The boats were nice when they were running, but they weren't always due to weather and hours, so it wasn't always easy with transportation and the little ones. We stayed at the Contemporary 8 months later and it was so much better, simply because we had much more space in our room and had better...and more consistent/reliable...transportation options. We waited to stay at AKL until after we were stroller free because I just couldn't do that room size until we had one big "stuff" obstacle out of the way.

Side note...we're also big national parks fans and just finished up a year of national parks and monuments travels. I remember booking WL in hopes that it would stir up all of my memories of the Old Faithful Inn and the various Yellowstone lodges in general, but it didn't. Don't get me wrong...it's pretty, but after being back at OFI last August and the El Tovar back in Dec, I still am missing that historic vibe you get in all of the iconic national park lodging sites. WL is still worth visiting, but I preferred AKL. Maybe it's because I knew, in waking up at WL, that I wouldn't have the south rim or the potential for live bison, elk or bear outside my window, but there was usually something out there when I was on my AKL balcony.

 

[stranger706]

We just stayed at the Poly for a week at the end of July into August. Me, wife, and 3 boys age 8, 2 and 2 month old. It was our first deluxe and I'll give you the cliff notes, good and bad.

Previous resorts: AOA suites, POR multiple times

We had a deluxe studio with garden view in the Moorea? longhouse, 2nd floor. AP summer rate was around $400/night.

Things we liked:
Loved our studio room. 2 separate showers plus the fold out couch and 5th sleeper were a big help with kids.
Monorail obviously. Huge convenience with kids and strollers.
Next door to TTC. 2nd monorail access and ferry access to MK.
Property/theme is gorgeous. Fun to just walk around the resort.
Room & building were quiet the entire stay.
Spirit of aloha dinner show was amazing. Food & show both great. Kids loved it too they even got to dance on stage.
View of MK fireworks. This was really nice on the nights we came back early and just wanted to relax at the resort.

Dislikes/letdowns:
The pools, while awesomely themed, were insanely crowded every day and nearly unusable for us. Once you got into the water you could not even move around without bumping into people. It might be ok for teenagers or adults with no kids but it was not good trying to keep track of the kids and not getting run over constantly. We were able to enjoy the quiet pool one morning, but it was just as crowded most of the time.
The lobby was similar. It was so crowded all the time you could hardly get around to enjoy it. Theres just so much going on all day.
Bus service was terrible. Over an hour wait on 2 separate days for HS and AK. They did have a CM at the bus station the whole time but they just kept saying a bus should be here every 20 or 30 minutes, which never happened. They had no explanation for the delays.
Captain cooks was good food wise but again so crowded all the time it was just miserable trying to get around and get food and drinks.

Overall:
Not sure if we'll be back to Poly, not anytime soon at least. The crowds and bus service made it feel like a value resort. So far POR has the best service/value by a long shot. Over the next year we have stays booked at CBR and GF which I hear has less crowds than Poly so we will see.