Just back from Poly - Dodged another hurricane!

[packy]

We just got back tonight from the Poly for a week and dodged another hurricane. We arrived on Tuesday the 23rd and by Wednesday they were forecasting Katrina to move north into Florida for a total washout of our week in Disney. Fortunately for us (but not those in LA and MS) the hurricane moved South into the Gulf. We have gone six times in the last seven years during the last week of August and have dodged hurricanes in 5 of these years. This is probably it for late August for us. That said, we ended up having a great vacation. Please feel free to ask any questions.

 

[Janet2k]

Welcome home, Packy. I'm glad you had a safe vacation. Like you, my heart goes out to those who were affected by the hurricane.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Thanks for posting, Packy. We are fans of late August and were sandwiched between hurricanes last year like you; still, we plan to go again this time again next year.

How did you find the crowds this year as compared to last? I noticed that park hours were added and there was one more Spectro. Is this due to heavier crowds or Happiest Celebration on Earth?

Thanks!

 

[DisneyFans4]

Welcome home Packy!
As you can see, we also travel in August but I always go the first week for this same reason and last year we got caught in Hurricane Charley.
We came home Aug. 19 and when we heard the reports we thanked God we were there when we were because we would have been caught again. At least this wasn't a bad one for Florida and your home safe. I had a cousin who was there the same time as you and I think he comes home today. My DH has a co-worker that left this past Sat. so I'm curious if her flight even left on time.

 

[cara loves the poly]

Welcome back!!! We stayed at the Poly for out first trip last year and loved it! My husband has been all over the world and he said it was his favorite! (now that we have beautiful children!) We thought it would be a one time event, we have ALREADY booked next year at the Poly, this time lagoon view concierge. I'm soo glad the hurricane did not take away from your magical time, but our hearts and prayers too, do go out to those affected.

 

[sunkissed212]

Welcome back! Glad to hear that your trip wasn't spoiled by Katrina.

Can you tell us about the renovations at the Poly? How are things coming along and how is everything looking overall. I'm not going there until October of 2006 and I assume everything will be done by then but I'm curious as to where they stand as of right now. Oh yeah, and of course...pics would be great!

 

[tlev]

How was the renovation at the Poly going? Did you have a new room? How does the GCH look?

 

[packy]

Welcome back! Glad to hear that your trip wasn't spoiled by Katrina.

Can you tell us about the renovations at the Poly? How are things coming along and how is everything looking overall. I'm not going there until October of 2006 and I assume everything will be done by then but I'm curious as to where they stand as of right now. Oh yeah, and of course...pics would be great!

I'll answer a few of the questions that have been asked here.

Crowds - I thought they were lighter than last year and maybe the lightest of our six trips in late August. We went to AK and MK the morning after the extra evening magic hours and found the crowds to be extremely light, probably the least crowded we have ever seen for MK. The CM at the Poly said they were only at about 60% occupancy, in part because several buildings were under renovation.

Renovations - Fiji and Nive were both being renovated. Didn't notice any others so it may have just been these two. We did notice that they were replacing the sliders at Fiji with three section doors as opposed to the two door sliders on the other buildings. Good idea as the two door sliders are heavy and hard to move. Both buildings were completely closed so you may not want to request them for a couple of months or so.

Disney Dining - we had the free Disney Dining. Too much food. We had a five day stay at Disney and two at Universal. By the end of the five days we were dined out. Out of 20 snacks we were allowed, we still had 11 left on the night before we checked out. Others we talked to said the same thing. We ate at the Kona Cafe, Concourse Steak House, GF Cafe, Canada Le Cell, and Tony's at MK. All were good but Concourse was probably my favorite. We ate more than we would have without the plan, but at $35 a day for an adult it is still a good deal and we probably would have spent $140 a day for four anyway and not have had as many sit-downs nor appetizers and desert (maybe one or the other). Counter service with a $2 desert ran to $44-$45.

We had a really nice time until we spent 15 hours getting home yesterday. We left our hotel at Universal at 7:00 a.m. for a 9:10 a.m. flight that was supposed to get to Newark at noon. After almost 6 1/2 hours at the airport, they ended up cancelling our flight at around 2:30 p.m. for mechanical problems. They offered a hotel room for the night but we were both going to work today so managed to get on a 5:20 p.m. flight. That took off a 1/2 late and we didn't get to Newark unitl about 9:00 with another hour to get home. Everyone was tired today after spending over 9 hours at the airport in Orlando. Still a good vacation.