Just back from 1st stay at Poly--Loved it!!

[afcgirl]

We just got back from an amazing 8-day stay at the Polynesian. We had been dying to stay there and finally had the money to do so (we have stayed at WL twice, POR once and POP once).

Well we absolutely loved it! We were in Fiji with a marina view and we loved the location. Close to the GCH and we had a water view at garden view prices. The only negative with the room was that we were on the second floor so no balcony. I was a little miffed that I did not get my request since we booked so far in advance but did not let it ruin our time.

The room itself was HUGE and gorgeous. It was 2 adults and 2 kids and we still had a ton of room to spread out. I was so glad I chose the Poly for our longer stay, I think a smaller room would have been claustrophobic for 8 days. Oh and the air conditioner was not noisy at all, I did not even hear it. The beds were so comfortable too, better than my bed at home.

The bathroom was great too. There was a fan in our bathroom, not sure why someone else did not have one. Yes, the sink was in the room with the shower, but it did not really bother us. Loved the shower pressure.

The property itself was stunning, I love the tropical theme. The volcano pool was amazing, we loved the view of the castle and space mountain from it. The only thing missing was a hot tub, that was very poor planning not putting one in. I would rate the pool as comparable to the WL pool simply because it does not have a hot tub while WL's pool has great hot tubs.

Mousekeeping was wonderful, we got many towel animals and the room was always spotless when we got back.

Overall, I would rate Poly as the number 1 place we have stayed, edging out WL by a hair. The beauty of the resort, the view of the castle, the size of the rooms, the zero entry pool and the monorails all made it the best for us. We also still love WL, I think WL is amazingly close to Poly in beauty and convenience.

Feel free to ask questions!

 

[simonkodousek]

Glad to hear you had such a magical vacation! We'll be at the Poly in 5 days!

PS: We love the WL also! The pool area is awesome.

 

[aplejax76]

Yeah!!!

I'm so glad to hear you loved it. This will be our first time at the Poly. I can't wait.
Only 4 more days!!!!!

 

[WDWBetsy]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your stay! We really loved it too.

Hope to return in the near future...

 

[bonnielynn]

We are going in September and I am glad to hear there is people out there that love the poly.. just read about a whole lot of people who were disappointed and it made me worry..

 

[afcgirl]

^^^ Yeah, I am surprised at all of the negative posts regarding Poly. I really could not find many faults there. Yes, the hallways are a little dated, but as soon as you open the door to your room you are in heaven. Oh and the bathroom fan goes on when you switch on the lightswitch, there is no separate switch for it. Maybe that is why the other poster thought there were no bathroom fans.

Anyway, we loved it, it will be hard to stay anywhere else!

 

[Nursejilly]

So glad to hear you had a great stay at the Poly! It will be my DH's firt DW trip and i know he is going to love it. How was the transportation to AK and MGM?? Did you eat at Ohana? Hope you got some good pictures of the resort that we can all see??
Jill

 

[afcgirl]

So glad to hear you had a great stay at the Poly! It will be my DH's firt DW trip and i know he is going to love it. How was the transportation to AK and MGM?? Did you eat at Ohana? Hope you got some good pictures of the resort that we can all see??
Jill

We took the bus to AK and MGM, had very little wait. Yes, we ate at Ohana, it is our favorite restaurant! We had dinner there and it was delicious as usual. The kids loved the activities, they entered the coconut race and the limbo contest. It is a fun place to eat. The potatoes and dessert are tdf!

I do have pictures but need to upload them to the computer. I promise to post them as soon as I do that.

 

[disgirl]

Thanks for posting. I am glad you loved it there. We will be there next month for 3 nights and can not wait!!

 

[NJ2Boardwalk]

So glad to hear you had a great time We are going in Sept and after reading the PAGES of negative reports a few posts down I was starting to 2nd guess our choice. I think mindset has a lot to do with it. I'm going hoping I love it, but if I don't - heck I'm still in DISNEY and I just won't book that resort again. Good service, dirty rooms, etc...can be found anywhere, anytime. I don't think the Poly in particular should be bashed for it.

 

[Fish2girls]

I am just SOOOOOOO happy you had a great time at the Poly I just finished reading all the posts a few up from this one and I felt aweful about the experiences some people had and all the bad reviews as well! I really really want to stay there in Nov. 2008 and would love to hear more about your great trip. Is it worth it to request a room or just wing it! I would like to stay in Samoa or Raratonga, what do you suggest. I would like a room on the 3rd floor close to main building and transportation if possible but not picky. What kind of discount can you get to save on a Poly room? We want to stay standard due to room costs Well any advise would be great. Some of the Disney veterans mention not to pay rack rates but I don't know how .

Thanks for your time!!!!!!!!

 

[mickey2minnie1]

Hi,

I am family of five plus parents and requested Tokelau for Oct. becuase of the bigger rooms. We will do 2. I am wondering if maybe we should wing it and see what we get, or go with the request because of needing two rooms together. any advice??

 

[JJ&JSMOM]

Glad you had a great time. The Poly sounds wonderful - our 1st trip will be in September and we are so excited. I'm glad theres plenty of room. We've ordered a full size crib from ABBF to be delivered to the Poly & I was worried it would take up a lot of space. Thanks for the report - as others have mentioned another thread on here had me very nervous.

 

[afcgirl]

Is it worth it to request a room or just wing it! I would like to stay in Samoa or Raratonga, what do you suggest. I would like a room on the 3rd floor close to main building and transportation if possible but not picky. What kind of discount can you get to save on a Poly room? We want to stay standard due to room costs Well any advise would be great. Some of the Disney veterans mention not to pay rack rates but I don't know how .

Thanks for your time!!!!!!!!

I would definitely make a request if I were you, you might as well try to get what you want. I had requested either Fiji with a marina view or Samoa with a volcano pool view, and as I said in my initial post we got Fiji with a marina view (although not the floor we wanted). Samoa also looked like a great building to be in. It is right near the GCH and the volcano pool. I think next time we will request Samoa with a view of the volcano pool since my kids love the pool. I did hear it might be a little noisier though. Samoa is also a little closer to the ticket and transportation center than Fiji which is nice if you go to Epcot a lot (you catch the Epcot monorail there). Sorry I don't know anything about the Raratonga building.

As far as cost, we did the dining plan so we were not able to get a discount on the room. I think we paid $385 per night before tax. It is certainly not cheap, but we love the dining plan and feel we save a lot of money on food using it. I know sometimes Disney comes out with a room-only discount code but that does not work if you are on a dining package, so we never get to use it.

 

[afcgirl]

Hi,

I am family of five plus parents and requested Tokelau for Oct. becuase of the bigger rooms. We will do 2. I am wondering if maybe we should wing it and see what we get, or go with the request because of needing two rooms together. any advice??

I would make a request, the worst that will happen is that you will not get it. I made a request for Fiji or Samoa when I made my reservation, at least 9 months in advance, and they did honor it (although not the floor we wanted).

 

[LoveKermit]

I cannot wait either. It's been almost two years since we've been there. I'm dying! And I think the Poly was a good choice for us too. The only thing I'm concerned about is....enjoying it so much we never want to try any other resort. Of course, without having overly high expectations, just pure excitement!

 

[kaysmommie]

We just got back from an amazing 8-day stay at the Polynesian. We had been dying to stay there and finally had the money to do so (we have stayed at WL twice, POR once and POP once).

Well we absolutely loved it! We were in Fiji with a marina view and we loved the location. Close to the GCH and we had a water view at garden view prices. The only negative with the room was that we were on the second floor so no balcony. I was a little miffed that I did not get my request since we booked so far in advance but did not let it ruin our time.

The room itself was HUGE and gorgeous. It was 2 adults and 2 kids and we still had a ton of room to spread out. I was so glad I chose the Poly for our longer stay, I think a smaller room would have been claustrophobic for 8 days. Oh and the air conditioner was not noisy at all, I did not even hear it. The beds were so comfortable too, better than my bed at home.

The bathroom was great too. There was a fan in our bathroom, not sure why someone else did not have one. Yes, the sink was in the room with the shower, but it did not really bother us. Loved the shower pressure.

The property itself was stunning, I love the tropical theme. The volcano pool was amazing, we loved the view of the castle and space mountain from it. The only thing missing was a hot tub, that was very poor planning not putting one in. I would rate the pool as comparable to the WL pool simply because it does not have a hot tub while WL's pool has great hot tubs.

Mousekeeping was wonderful, we got many towel animals and the room was always spotless when we got back.

Overall, I would rate Poly as the number 1 place we have stayed, edging out WL by a hair. The beauty of the resort, the view of the castle, the size of the rooms, the zero entry pool and the monorails all made it the best for us. We also still love WL, I think WL is amazingly close to Poly in beauty and convenience.

Feel free to ask questions!

I completely agree! I love the Poly and it is only a bit better than WL. You got towel animals, I might be requesting Fiji this trip. We had kind of bad housekeeping in Samoa which was dissapointed but everything else was great. Looking for ward to our next stay there in October. Thanks for posting .

 

[WickedWench]

If you're making more than one request, it's a good idea to tell Disney which request is more important to you, so that if they can't accomodate all of them, they'll know which one to give a priority.

 

[grannyminnie]

I am just SOOOOOOO happy you had a great time at the Poly I just finished reading all the posts a few up from this one and I felt aweful about the experiences some people had and all the bad reviews as well! I really really want to stay there in Nov. 2008 and would love to hear more about your great trip. Is it worth it to request a room or just wing it! I would like to stay in Samoa or Raratonga, what do you suggest. I would like a room on the 3rd floor close to main building and transportation if possible but not picky. What kind of discount can you get to save on a Poly room? We want to stay standard due to room costs Well any advise would be great. Some of the Disney veterans mention not to pay rack rates but I don't know how .

Thanks for your time!!!!!!!!

Fish2girls, we stayed at the Poly for the first time this past Feb. (first week) Third floor Samoa, vol. pool view, and I loved it! Thought we'd been upgraded to lagoon view when I stood on the balcony! My TA helped me request a good room since I'd never been, and she was right on...
We never felt we had to walk so far, and never were bothered by a lot of noise. Keep in mind, however, that we went the first week of Feb. so the pool is not exactly full!!!
As for discounts, the only one I knew about at the time was AAA, and it saved me 15% off the rack rate at the Poly. With their rates, anything helps!!

 

[barbeml]

Glad you enjoyed!

We stayed at the Poly in 2002 (year of the magical upgrade from CBR), and had a wonderful time. We made the most of the restaurants (Kona every morning for breakfast), the monorail and the Tambu Lounge. Going back next year for our 10th anniversary.