just back from the Poly

DBFLUKE

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 15, 2007
Messages
103
We just got back from a 5 night stay @ the Poly. It was our first visit to the Poly. The grounds are beautilful, the pools were nice & the atmosphere was wonderful. Unfourtunately we encountered quite a bit of problems which took alot of my vacation time to fix things. The issues should have never happened @ a deluxe resort. When we arrived at 12:30 our room was ready (tahiti ) great. We took our luggage on ME with us because we didn't want to wait hours for our stuff, ( this was time cosuming for us because we had to go to a different terminal after getting our luggage in order to catch ME - terminal A & then B ) That was fine it was our choice. ( NO complaints ) As I was checking us in, Bell Services grabbed my luggage & said they would bring my bags over after I checked in. We gave Bell Services our room # & headed to the room. The room was very large but not enough lighting. Over the daybed was a huge patch on the wall, which looked like a picture or mirror once hung but not anymore. o.k. I could deal. 45 minutes later no luggage. I called them they said they would be right there. 15 minutes later they called & said they would be there in a couple of minutes. Meanwhile I noticed that my fridge didn't work, They sent a person up to swap it out. Then my garden grocer order came still no Luggage. We questioned the b.s. man he said that he didn't see any of our luggage but he would go & re-check. About 15 minutes later my luggage finally came. Let me say that I was getting upset we were supposed to have already left for AK by now. My sunscreen & other stuff was in the suitcases due to TSA rules. I then went & spoked to a manager about the delayed luggage incident & she was nice & paid for us to take a taxi to & from AK so we could get there quickly. That was nice of her. AK was great. when we got back around 9 pm the replaced fridge did not work either. They brought up another one (smaller ) & put the big one in the corner of the room. Thet swore they would both work. ( something to do with the design of the cabinets, not any ventilation for the fridge so they over heat. CM said that this was a common problem & to leave the doors open . ) o.k. great thanked her for the info & went to dinner came back @ midnight - both fridges still did not work. Went to the front desk, Cm was wonderful She gave us a credit & told us that she would move us in the morning to Hawaii- concerige .
So the next morning my DH packed the room all up while I took 2 of my kids to the park. He had to check our stuff with BS because the new room was not ready. The gave hime a safety deposit box for most of our valuables. The laptop would not fit so they said that they were locking it up in a AC cage. Great so we thought. Later in the day he went back to the Poly to do the change rooms for us & unpack. So nice of him, I was getting stressed. We all meet up at the Poly later . He told me that they never locked up my laptop, he knew this because he went into a shed with BS who could not find it. My DH found it, unsecured - REAL NICE. So now we are moved ( smaller room - no big deal ) I go & try to open the room safe to lock up my laptop. Won't open - locked from previous guest. Call front desk, they send up someone to unlock it with some sort of code machine. While I'm locking up my stuff on the shelf underneath there are diapers. ( good cleaning ) o.k. then I went out on the balcony to hang up some wet clothes, door is unlocked didn't think anything of it . Come inside & try to lock the doors - lock doesn't work tried many times. Call front desk & told them they said they would send someone up, I informed them that I had dinner reservations & had to leave, I put a chair in the grooves to help prevent someone from beaking in. When we got back it was late, they never sent anyone up. Anyways, talked with Manager very nice. My daughter was going to bed no blanket in the closet for the daybed. Had to call for one. Just as the the blanket was coming up I pulled back the bedspread on my bed ( not very far ) there was a dead bug on my bed. That was it.... my husband went to the GCH & got the Manager to bring her up to see it. ( When I found it the CM was @ the door with the blanket so I had her come in to see it also. ) So at 12:30 a.m. they were changing my bed. They said that the next day my room would get a VIP cleaning. & the manager of housekeeping would contact me. I told them that the next day was my daughters birthday & we would be out all day. The person called me & left a message but I could never get back in touch with him I tried but gave up after wasting 1/2 hr on the phone. Later one of my daughters was kneeling on the daybed putting on makeup & she dropped her mascara, when she looked down between the bed & wall there was a slice of half eaten brown bread & then there was a pile of something brown.
Yes they got another call . The duty manager & front desk manager came up. He picked both things up with a towel. He said that it was all bread. But let me say that the pile did not look like bread. My dh said that if it was really only bread why did he use a towel.
( and the fact that we know the previous guests had small children - the diapers ) I don't know but I was grossed out. But thank above that was the last of the problems. So much for that VIP cleaning. Needless to say I wish that my experience here was great, but how would you feel. We stayed at the BC last visit which we prefer now.
 
:surfweb: OH MY GOD! I cant believe (although i do believe you) that any hotel rooms would have that many problems, especially a delux resort at Disney World. We've been to the Carribean Beach and Coronado Springs Resorts and didnt experience any of the problems that you faced. Magic express was great, our bags were in our room shortly after our mid day arrival and most importantly, our rooms were clean and kept clean by mousekeeping banana:

Sorry you had to deal with such garbage on your vacation.
 
Wow. I thought surely once you got the upgrade to concierge things were going to turn around.

Sorry about all that!
 
Sounds very much like what we encountered at AKL last September. I was disgusted and unfortunately didn't complain to the right person because management never got involved. I felt truly disappointed in the "customer service" at AKL, and I use the term loosely. There's nothing more disgusting than being checked into a DIRTY ROOM, except empty promises that the problem would be resolved. Yeah, we had several dead bugs in our room too.

We are trying Poly in November - hopefully we don't have the same experience. Sorry you had to go thru that, I know it sucks when you're supposed to be somewhere "Deluxe" and magical. Glad you kept on them to make things right!
 

On more than half my trips, I find things in the room left by previous guests. At the Poly (specifically), I found items belonging to previous guests twice this year and once last year. One of those things was a bunch of Chip & Dale pretzels under the chair.

I was also lucky enough to find someone else's half-eaten food (cookie with bites out of it, half-eaten bag of popcorn from club lounge) amongst the throw pillows at the BWI on the club level.

Seriously, if they aren't going to clean, they could at least scope out the room and remove food and previous guests' belongings! I don't blame the housekeepers - I know how little time they are given to clean those rooms. It is hard work and they do their best. I blame management.

I don't complain, though. If it is something other than food I will call housekeeping and tell them I have items belonging to a previous guest and they'll come and get them. I don't tip for this.

One time the "Regional" Housekeeping person called to thank me, because there had been a big go-round, I guess with a previous guest. He called to tell them he'd left his daytimer there, with cash, checks, credit cards, work info, etc. in it. They said it wasn't there. A housekeeper went to check for it and reported that it wasn't there. The manager was sent to look for it and reported that it wasn't there. Then I showed up and found it. I think some people lost their jobs over that.

I love Disney and I love their hotels, but housekeeping is really an issue sometimes.
 
Wow, that sucks that you spent all that money on a deluxe and got "value" service. That is why I would probably never opt to stay at a deluxe if I was paying for it. I just don't think it's worth it. I think Disney's idea of deluxe is not exactly the Four Seasons.
 
After reading your replies I should tell you guys that they did comp me 100.00 the first night & the 2nd night they compted me $100.00 & after the dead bug in my bed they comted me a full night say. but the ? beside the daybed they gave us nothing well they picked it up.
So they did make good on the problems. But I would of rathered a smooth resort stay. Because for the first 2 days every minute I was in the hotel room I was miserable. And you know how it goes when Mom's not happy nobody is happy! The grounds are nice but the rooms, for a hotel that was just redone 1 1/2 yrs ago ( it doesn't look it ) Most people pay 329.00 & up for rooms here. We found the bug & the surprise & no blanket @ conceirge & people pay over 400.00 a night for that longhouse. I'm not rich, If I pay big bucks to stay at high end places There are certain things I expect & certain things I expect not to encounter. I know some people are going to hate that I've written this post, sorry. On the other side I did enjoy the grounds & restaurants. & once we got past the 2 days things went well for the most part. One thing that I learned if i only tipped mousekeeping $5.00 for the day we didn't get any towell characters. When I tipped $10.00 we got about 4 of them. I picked up the room every morning, I am not a slob ( my kids are but I clean it before we leave for the day. ) One morning my daughter dropped corn bread all over the hallway in the room, so a mousekeepers cart was outside my door, I took the vaccum & cleaned it up before I left, the mousekeeper knocked on my door, I told her the situation & she was very nice & said she would of done it. that is just they way I am.
 
I have to say that I travel a lot on business and stay in nice four and five star hotels. The kinds of things you and others complain about I run into at lots of places. I have decided that it is the luck of the draw. Bugs crawl into things, people drop things into places housekeepers don't look. I stayed at a really ritzy hotel a client booked me into this past spring and found a bunch of clothes in the drawer from a past guest. The room was clean, but no one had checked the drawer... it sounds to me like a bunch of things conspired against you to have so much go wrong in one place... These are the kinds of things that get reported most....
 
I'm sorry things didn't go too well at the Polynesian. I completely agree, that level of service at a $350+ per night hotel is unacceptable. We had a few issues at the hotel, but all of them were fixed in a timely manner.

PS: Our fridge kept stopping because of no ventilation. Even keeping the cabinet door open didn't help. :(
 
Sorry to hear you had such problems during your stay. We all want our family holidays :grouphug: to be as stress free as possible, you were right to keep reporting the issues you had....:scared:
 
Oh this all makes me nervous!! We will be checking into the Poly for the first time in 24 days. I know that every hotel has there issues & maybe the Poly gets more attention on these issues because it's THE POLY. :confused3 People do expect that things will be clean & repaired or whatever. It is alot of money to spend & have that many things go wrong. I would be so bummed. We had the same issue with our fridge at POR & told the same thing about the cabinet design blocks the ventilation of the fridge. This man took the entire back off our fridge & suggested the open door in the front also. That food thing is just plain old nasty. I think I might have pulled a little nutty about that one. A previous poster did make a good point about it being more about management than housekeeping. They are on a very strict time schedule & let's face it we all want our rooms ready when we get there. I don't know what the answer is. I'm just really hoping all goes well with our trip. I almost feel like I'm going expecting the worst & that's not how I want to start my trip. As informative as these boards are, sometimes I think too much information can become our worst enemy. Sorry your trip was go irritating. Here's hoping future trips are better!!pixiedust:
 
Sorry to hear about your stay! I'll be staying at the Poly in October. I try to remember that although I'm paying 5-star prices this is not a five star hotel. Although clean rooms are expected at any level.:confused3 I'm glad they comped you for all your trouble. We stay at deluxes basically for the queen size beds and hallways (vs motel outdoor room doors). I actually think some of the mods have fabulous theming, but DH says he won't sleep in a full.
 
How embarassing for the Polynesian to have such problems during your stay!

I understand that not all of the furnishings for the rehab are in the Tahiti longhouse yet, so maybe that is what you experienced with the spot on the wall.

When your slider would not lock was it both locks that would not work? I have found that the little latch that is built into the slider's handle won't work (not just at the Polynesian). But I can't see how the chrome hook that fits into the rings on the door frame would not work.

I don't think housekeepers actually move furniture, so I can see where things can be dropped by guests behind the daybed (which I expect is most often used by kids). "VIP" cleaning should have caught that! I would be upset to find that but it wouldn't make me miserable every moment I was in the room.

The fridge in a cabinet looks nice. Ours worked fine. But I can see where heat build-up might be a problem. Sorry it happened for you.

A missing blanket would be no big deal for me - a petty annoyance (sounds like you had a bunch of them!) but nothing a phone call would not take care of.

In 20 years of staying at the Polynesian I have seen 1 bug (a tiny spider in the bathroom back in 1990). I am always amazed that there are not more bugs - it is Florida - land of Truly Nolen (the extermination company with the yellow VW bugs with mouse ears!)

In those same 20 years, we have NEVER received a towel animal - not a big deal for our family. I can see where you would be disappointed if you had that expectation going in, but to add the lack of towel animals to the littany of things that went wrong for you sounds like you were looking for things to go wrong at that point. I would never increase my tip amount to get towel animals, especially if I had the housekeeping issues you had!

Glad that you had a good trip after a rocky first 2 days:goodvibes . To be comped for 1.5 nights and upgraded to concierge shows that the Polynesian did try to make up for its shortcomings.
 
Wow Really sorry to hear that! We've stayed at the Poly at least 11 times in the past 7 years three of which were in the last year alone and we've never experienced anything like that at all!! We did have our inroom safe locked by the previous guest once but that was the only bad experience out of the 11 total trips. I don't blame you for being upset I would have been too!! We just got back from wilderness lodge on the 27th of aug. Our sliding glass door didn't lock and there was a clump of hair under the sink in the bathroom. YUCK! Several years ago we stayed at the Caribbean Beach and we were left a nice snotty tissue next to bed. Lucky for us these experiences were few and far between unlike yours!
 
Sorry about your Poly stay. Pretty grose stuff. I would rather not encounter these types of problems. This is unacceptable at any level of resort, but for the amount to stay at the Poly :eek: .
 
PolyPal
I'm very happy that all of your 20 years of service there has been great. As far as the locks on the slider, Tahiti had the metal lock you described. Hawaii did not have that, ( just the standard upper & middle of the door locks & both did not work! ) Yes, after all of incidents, not having a blanket did further upset me. It was 11 or 12 and my daughter wanted to go to sleep. I can deal with a spider on the floor or 1 bug, but a dead one on my sheets. ( ya know under the covers, made up that way ) I don't think so! I was not adding the towel characters as a issue. I just thought it was funny how if you left more than the norm of a tip, what you would get. And by the way, after the maid who had to come & change my sheets @ 12:30 in the morning, my DH tipped her & that was not our fault that she had to come & re-do the bed. As cleaning the room for them on a regular basis you did not have to move the bed to see what was left there. I am sure that while any person made that bed they would of saw it. You can't tell me that housekeeping doesn't look there for any lost items ( money, ipods etc... because I'm sure housekeeping does find lost money there on a regular basis. ) Anyways believe me I was not looking for things to complain about. I had been looking forward to this trip all summer long. For the six days we were spending there, I did not enjoy wasting my time on the phone with the front desk or @ the front desk.
 
My thoughts:

1) Disney deluxe is definitely the same as non-Disney hotel's deluxe. For the most part, Disney deluxe just means more immersive theming, monorail access (for GF, Cont, and Poly)and/or walking distance to Epcot, sit down restaurants and larger rooms.

It does not mean white glove treatment. It does not mean top notch amenities.

2) With the exception of the WL, I think all of the deluxe properties are overpriced. I have wanted to stay at deluxe, esp'y Poly or Beach Club, but I just can't justify the price. Especially when compared to the cost of the WL and also the POR which is a beautiful resort.
 
My thoughts:

1) Disney deluxe is definitely the same as non-Disney hotel's deluxe. For the most part, Disney deluxe just means more immersive theming, monorail access (for GF, Cont, and Poly)and/or walking distance to Epcot, sit down restaurants and larger rooms.

It does not mean white glove treatment. It does not mean top notch amenities.

ITA, Anna. I think many guests hear "Deluxe" and expect the same level of service that you would get from a Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons. Disney Deluxe resorts are not the same!
 
Sorry for your inconvenience! We stayed Poly CL last fall and had a wonderful stay. However, we did have housekeeping problems at AKL the previous year. I guess it's just luck of the draw.

I know Disney calls their hotels "Deluxe", but they are not 5 star hotels. The Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton are usually true "Deluxe" hotels. At those hotels, you generally pay considerably more than a Disney Deluxe. (Rack rate at the Four Seasons Maui runs over $600 per night!) It's too bad that guests assume they are getting Four Seasons-type hotels (in part because of Disney's marketing). Sadly, in most resort cities, a true 5 star hotel costs far more than WDW.

That being said, I think the OP was correct in getting management involved immediately instead of waiting until he got home.
 














Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!

Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE







New Posts







DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top