Momof2Disneyboys
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2007
- Messages
- 20,880
Just back from our very first Polynesian Resort stay and WE LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Our trip was August 26 September 4. We stayed at CBR for the first 5 nights (review here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2795237 ) and at the Poly for the last 4 nights.
The Poly where to begin? We had visited the Poly several times prior to this stay, eating at Kona and Ohana, just walking around, or shopping. And we thought it was an absolutely beautiful resort with a great atmosphere, but I often wondered what it was exactly that made so many people here on the DIS so crazy for it. After-all it's just a resort, right? Well.......now I know!! Wow. The Poly is just fabulous. It takes your WDW vacation to a whole other level. The CM's are outstanding for the most part, the grounds are amazing, the location is perfect, the shops are great, the pools are fantastic, the food is excellent, everything is near perfect. We now have a new favorite resort!
We arrived on Wednesday Aug 31st. We took a cab from CBR. It was around 11:00am. We were greeted right away. We were booked Club Level. Bell Services took our luggage and a CM escorted us to the Hawaii building. We were greeted by a CM at the CL check in and told that our room was ready and that our request of a top floor had been granted!! We booked a GV room and that's the side of the building we got. She said we were in room 3527. We took the elevator up to the third floor and went to our room. None of our room keys would work. We tried several times. So the kids and I stayed there at the door while DH went back down to the CL check in and told them that our keys didn't work. While we waited on him to come back up I pulled out my little list of CL GV room numbers and the views they each had that I had jotted down with info from the DIS before we left. 3527 was one that said it had a not so great view. Great. Well pretty soon DH comes back and says that's not our room, she wrote down the wrong number. Our room is actually 3522. So I quickly look at my list again and it says 3519, 3520, 3521 very bad view of an ugly tree.
And beside 3522 I had a question mark.....I had 3523-3526 as rooms with great views. So I had no idea what we were in for. We made our way to our new room and opened the door and I ran right over to the balcony and we had a half view of the ugly tree and a half view of the quiet pool. I was happy!! 
The room was gorgeous! The kids were even saying how nice it was and they don't usually notice things like that! Very roomy and clean. DS12 loved the couch that pulled out into a bed. The bathroom was nice and had lots of room and storage space, I wish it would have had double sinks though. All the décor was very nicely done. I was afraid the room would be too dark for me, I tend to like a lighter, brighter theme, but I really liked the room! I called down to Bell Services and they said they would be up with our luggage shortly. They came in about 20 minutes.
Mousekeeping was great. We had them come in twice. We don't typically have them come in very often, but after what a fabulous job she did the first day we had her come in one other time. She left us very cute towel animals each day. The kids were thrilled! On the days we didn't have them come in they called 2X to see if we needed anything.
This was our first time staying Club Level. Overall CL was probably the only thing that didn't wow us about the Poly. We just thought it was okay. The breakfast offerings were good. They had cereal, fruit, bagels, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, juices. etc.In the afternoon there was goldfish, gummy bears, trail mix, cookies, and either yogurt covered pretzels or yogurt covered raisins. The evenings varied. There were things like pita bread and hummus, mini corn dogs, meatballs, carrots, cucumbers, pineapples, crackers and cheese, etc. The late evening consisted of about 3 different tiny desserts and cookies - sometimes. On more than one occasion they ran out of things - mostly the desserts/cookies at night and apparently when they run out, they run out. There are no more. One night we got there about 9:40 and there was barely anything left so we asked if they had anything else and were told no. So overall CL was nice and convenient, but we just didn't feel it was worth the extra money.
As for transportation we were done with DHS and AK by the time we got to the Poly, so we didn't experience the bus service to either. We did take the bus to DTD one day. It shared with the Contemporary. They had already picked up at the CT when we got on, so we went straight to DTD after we got on. I don't remember the exact time it took to get there, but it wasn't too long. Coming back from DTD was another story. Once the bus picked us up at the Marketplace at DTD it had to stop at Pleasure Island at DTD, switch drivers, do an inspection, stop at Typhoon Lagoon, the CT, and then the Poly. It was almost an hour trip. And of course we had monorail service to MK and Epcot, which was great! We took the boat back from MK once night and it took a long time (including the wait) to get back to the Poly.
We ate at Ohana for dinner and Kona for breakfast and both were delicious! We grabbed a few things from Captain Cook's and it was good as well. It was so nice being able to get Dole Whips at the resort!!
The pools were awesome.
We spent 2 afternoons at the main pool. The one day we got wrist-banded, the other day we didn't. So it seemed to be not real consistent how they were doing it. Neither of those days were very crowded at the pool. We did notice it becoming more increasingly crowded as the weekend came though. We also swam at the quiet pool twice. It was very nice as well.
We loved being able to hang out on the beach in the evening and watch the water pageant and Wishes! As far as activities there were pool games and a pool party each afternoon at the main pool, there was a movie on the beach each evening and a campfire. We watched the torch lighting ceremony one evening and it was very neat. The activity sheet said hula lessons in the lobby at 3:45 but we went one day and it wasn't going on.
The walkway to the GF is open. I had read prior to leaving that it was closed due to the DVC construction going in between the 2 resorts. There are lots of ugly construction walls up, but the walkway is open.
So overall it was a phenomenal stay and we would love to stay there again one day. Soon! We just loved it!
I think that's it. If you have any questions let me know. Pictures will be coming very soon. I have tons of them!!
Our trip was August 26 September 4. We stayed at CBR for the first 5 nights (review here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2795237 ) and at the Poly for the last 4 nights.
The Poly where to begin? We had visited the Poly several times prior to this stay, eating at Kona and Ohana, just walking around, or shopping. And we thought it was an absolutely beautiful resort with a great atmosphere, but I often wondered what it was exactly that made so many people here on the DIS so crazy for it. After-all it's just a resort, right? Well.......now I know!! Wow. The Poly is just fabulous. It takes your WDW vacation to a whole other level. The CM's are outstanding for the most part, the grounds are amazing, the location is perfect, the shops are great, the pools are fantastic, the food is excellent, everything is near perfect. We now have a new favorite resort!
We arrived on Wednesday Aug 31st. We took a cab from CBR. It was around 11:00am. We were greeted right away. We were booked Club Level. Bell Services took our luggage and a CM escorted us to the Hawaii building. We were greeted by a CM at the CL check in and told that our room was ready and that our request of a top floor had been granted!! We booked a GV room and that's the side of the building we got. She said we were in room 3527. We took the elevator up to the third floor and went to our room. None of our room keys would work. We tried several times. So the kids and I stayed there at the door while DH went back down to the CL check in and told them that our keys didn't work. While we waited on him to come back up I pulled out my little list of CL GV room numbers and the views they each had that I had jotted down with info from the DIS before we left. 3527 was one that said it had a not so great view. Great. Well pretty soon DH comes back and says that's not our room, she wrote down the wrong number. Our room is actually 3522. So I quickly look at my list again and it says 3519, 3520, 3521 very bad view of an ugly tree.
And beside 3522 I had a question mark.....I had 3523-3526 as rooms with great views. So I had no idea what we were in for. We made our way to our new room and opened the door and I ran right over to the balcony and we had a half view of the ugly tree and a half view of the quiet pool. I was happy!! The room was gorgeous! The kids were even saying how nice it was and they don't usually notice things like that! Very roomy and clean. DS12 loved the couch that pulled out into a bed. The bathroom was nice and had lots of room and storage space, I wish it would have had double sinks though. All the décor was very nicely done. I was afraid the room would be too dark for me, I tend to like a lighter, brighter theme, but I really liked the room! I called down to Bell Services and they said they would be up with our luggage shortly. They came in about 20 minutes.
Mousekeeping was great. We had them come in twice. We don't typically have them come in very often, but after what a fabulous job she did the first day we had her come in one other time. She left us very cute towel animals each day. The kids were thrilled! On the days we didn't have them come in they called 2X to see if we needed anything.
This was our first time staying Club Level. Overall CL was probably the only thing that didn't wow us about the Poly. We just thought it was okay. The breakfast offerings were good. They had cereal, fruit, bagels, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, juices. etc.In the afternoon there was goldfish, gummy bears, trail mix, cookies, and either yogurt covered pretzels or yogurt covered raisins. The evenings varied. There were things like pita bread and hummus, mini corn dogs, meatballs, carrots, cucumbers, pineapples, crackers and cheese, etc. The late evening consisted of about 3 different tiny desserts and cookies - sometimes. On more than one occasion they ran out of things - mostly the desserts/cookies at night and apparently when they run out, they run out. There are no more. One night we got there about 9:40 and there was barely anything left so we asked if they had anything else and were told no. So overall CL was nice and convenient, but we just didn't feel it was worth the extra money.
As for transportation we were done with DHS and AK by the time we got to the Poly, so we didn't experience the bus service to either. We did take the bus to DTD one day. It shared with the Contemporary. They had already picked up at the CT when we got on, so we went straight to DTD after we got on. I don't remember the exact time it took to get there, but it wasn't too long. Coming back from DTD was another story. Once the bus picked us up at the Marketplace at DTD it had to stop at Pleasure Island at DTD, switch drivers, do an inspection, stop at Typhoon Lagoon, the CT, and then the Poly. It was almost an hour trip. And of course we had monorail service to MK and Epcot, which was great! We took the boat back from MK once night and it took a long time (including the wait) to get back to the Poly.
We ate at Ohana for dinner and Kona for breakfast and both were delicious! We grabbed a few things from Captain Cook's and it was good as well. It was so nice being able to get Dole Whips at the resort!!
The pools were awesome.
We spent 2 afternoons at the main pool. The one day we got wrist-banded, the other day we didn't. So it seemed to be not real consistent how they were doing it. Neither of those days were very crowded at the pool. We did notice it becoming more increasingly crowded as the weekend came though. We also swam at the quiet pool twice. It was very nice as well. We loved being able to hang out on the beach in the evening and watch the water pageant and Wishes! As far as activities there were pool games and a pool party each afternoon at the main pool, there was a movie on the beach each evening and a campfire. We watched the torch lighting ceremony one evening and it was very neat. The activity sheet said hula lessons in the lobby at 3:45 but we went one day and it wasn't going on.
The walkway to the GF is open. I had read prior to leaving that it was closed due to the DVC construction going in between the 2 resorts. There are lots of ugly construction walls up, but the walkway is open.
So overall it was a phenomenal stay and we would love to stay there again one day. Soon! We just loved it!
I think that's it. If you have any questions let me know. Pictures will be coming very soon. I have tons of them!!
Too funny! Sounds like you had a great stay though! I would absolutely love to stay there someday. I know taking the monorail was wonderful. There are just so many little perks to the Poly, dole whips, fireworks on the beach, Ohana, Kona, awesome pool, monorail.... sounds heavenly! And the room looks really big compared to the values and mods. And what a cute touch with the buckets for the kids. I love stuff like that. Maybe I'm just easily entertained, but it's the little things like that that win me over!
