Just returned from Polynesian!

[HaleysMom2]

We had 3 nights at the Poly before going on our Disney cruise. The resort is really fabulous! Our room (Tokelau 3915) was on the 3rd floor with a balcony and had a view of Cinderella's castle! Although it was a garden view room, we were able to see the beach...it was nice to get that little bonus without paying extra for it! I was very suprised by how spacious and pretty our room was. Honestly, I guess I was expecting a dark room from the pictures I've seen. It was not dark at all. Especially when we pulled back the curtains and opened the balcony door. And, seeing the castle lit up at night was awesome! Our room was very, very clean. The little refrigerator never got very cold and it took about 2 days for our water to get cold. Anyway, we spent some time at the volcano pool. It was very, very crowded every time we went, but DD still had fun. We ate at Captain Cook's twice for breakfast and once for lunch. The food was good...I liked the touch-screen menu...it made lines go quickly. We ate breakfast at Kona's one morning. I got the famous tonga toast! It was really good, but I didn't LOVE it like I expected to. By the way, it is HUGE! Definitely enough for 2 people. DH got the Eggs Benedict...delish! DD got the Mickey Mouse pancakes with chocolate chips and was really happy with those. We were not able to get tickets to the Luau or reservations for dinner at Ohana...I was bummed about that. We did go to Animal Kingdom Lodge one night at ate at Boma though. It was fantastic! Tons of food...most of it pretty different and unique. We watched the torch lighting ceremony one evening. It didn't last long, but was very cool! There was a fire dancer! The monorail to MK and Epcot was such a blessing! We also really enjoyed the water boat to MK. It's a nice, short ride and we actually rode the boat there and back twice just for the ride. The beach was very nice with some covered lounge chairs (these went quick early in the morning) and some hammocks. I was very suprised though, that we couldn't actually swim in the water. There are no lifeguards there, so they do not allow swimming. DD was able to put her feet in and play on the sand...and we got some nice pictures out there, but that's about it. DD and DH rented a little 2 seater motor boat one day and had a blast on it. I think it was around $35 for 45 minutes. Oh, and their is a great drink you can get at the bar by the pool called lava flow (something like that). It's a pina coloda with raspberry puree in it! Yum! (We got a virgin one.)

Now, for my only negative! The day we arrived, we did not get our luggage for 7 hours! That's right, SEVEN hours!!! We were not at all prepared for that! I knew that we needed to pack a day bag when we left the resort to go on our cruise, but I did not know that we needed a day bag for the day we arrived at the resort. All I had with me was DD's bathing suite. I was able to take her to the pool for a while, but then it started raining so we headed back to the room. We would have liked to have gone to MK, but did not have any of our stuff so we were stuck in our room. I called the front desk and was told that it usually takes 2-4 hours to get your luggage after you arrive. We cheked-in before 1:00 p.m. After numerous calls to the front desk, concierge, and Bell Services....being transferred back and forth between them and Disney's Magical Express main office...I was told that our luggage arrived at the resort at 5:45 p.m. I had to make several more calls before someone located it and assured us that it would be brought to our room immediately. Another hour went by. I finally walked down to the concierege desk and spoke with a (very sweet) girl. By this time, I was in tears! (Okay, so maybe that was just my pregnancy hormones making me overly emotional, but I had had it!) She went to talk to Bell services and and had someone take it to our room. She even called my husband in our room to make sure it arrived before letting me go. Needless to say, by this point we were very irritated. We had tickets for MNNSHP at MK which started at 7:00. Because of this ordeal we were much later arriving at the party.

Bottom line, if you are taking Disney's transportation from the airport to the resort...make sure you have EVERYTHING you will need for that first day so that you don't go through what we went through!

Overall, Poly was a very nice place and good experience though!

 

[Marty Joe]

Aloha HaleysMoms,

Great report and glad you had a good time at the Poly! Sorry to hear it took so long to get your luggage though. We have taken the DME the last three times. Although we have recieved our bags in a couple of hours, it takes too long to get from the airport to the Poly (wait in line 20 minutes, set in the bus for 20 minutes, 30 minute bus ride to the Wilderness Lodge, another trip to the CR, and then on to the Poly). We used to get a town car and you were wisked away quickly and in style. While the price is right for the DME, I think we are going to give it a break the next time.

There is a couple of very good reasons why you cannot swim in the Seven Seas Lagoon (or any other fresh body of water at Disney). The best reason is Brain-eating Amoeba. I won't go into details but you can look it up yourself. It is real, it does happen, and most often it happens to little ones. Another reason is the critters. You are in Florida and it is the home of all kinds of snakes and gators. Do a search on the DIS and you can see the pix for yourself. When Disney says "stay out of the water"- please stay out of the water... I see kids it the lagoon and I want to throttle the parents !

...Any hoo... I'm glad you enjoyed the Poly!