Looking for Poly longhouse and room advice.

[smelton521]

We are planning our 1st Disney trip in March 2014. We are looking at staying at Poly and need room advice. What is the most convenient longhouse when traveling with 2 adults, a 5 yr old and 4 yr old? We will be booking a standard room. Are there any standard rooms that happen to have a little view of the castle (that you don't pay extra for) and does anyone know the room numbers so we could request one?

Thanks!

 

[Tikiman]

Tokelau has standard rooms that can see the castle off to the side if you get the right rooms but I often tell people to not request a specific room number. If it goes into the system that way and it is not available in the system then you are just get the luck of the draw. It is good to have an idea of what rooms you may want once you check in and see what is available but I would not suggest listing that in a request.
I was told that there are only so many characters they can type into the request field so if you go too long with your request it will not even get entered. Often I find you are lucky to get the building you request so it might be like winning the lottery to get a specific room.

Keep the requests simple like building and floor. My request would be Tokelau, upper floor. Im not sure that even putting in an end of the building (like beach end) would be recognized in the system when it tries to match up request. From how it was described to me with the new computer system is that it is entered in as information and if it does not understand it then you get kicked out and put into a random draw. Maybe someone working there now can confirm this but this is how it was described to me by a few people that use the system and set it up. Basically they told me don’t make your request long or complicated. It is not like a person with knowledge of the resort is sitting at a desk and trying to assign rooms that fit everyone’s request.

Also have a back up location in mind when you check in if your room is not where you wanted it to be.

 

[wishing4PA]

Tokelau is a pretty good location. (Thanks, Tikiman! I'm pretty sure it was your map and room size info that had us requesting that longhouse.) It was nice to be on the side of the Poly closest to the TTC in order to walk to/from the monorail on our EPCOT days.
You might think it would be easier to ride the resort monorail and transfer, but the transfer involves going down a long ramp and back up another, so it was easier for us to walk to the TTC and just have one long ramp.
FWIW, we could see only trees from our standard Tokelau room. But you do see the castle from the pool and beach area, which was good enough for us. We knew it was there, even when we couldn't see it. A view from the room would be really cool though!

 

[smelton521]

Tokelau has standard rooms that can see the castle off to the side if you get the right rooms but I often tell people to not request a specific room number. If it goes into the system that way and it is not available in the system then you are just get the luck of the draw. It is good to have an idea of what rooms you may want once you check in and see what is available but I would not suggest listing that in a request.
I was told that there are only so many characters they can type into the request field so if you go too long with your request it will not even get entered. Often I find you are lucky to get the building you request so it might be like winning the lottery to get a specific room.

Keep the requests simple like building and floor. My request would be Tokelau, upper floor. Im not sure that even putting in an end of the building (like beach end) would be recognized in the system when it tries to match up request. From how it was described to me with the new computer system is that it is entered in as information and if it does not understand it then you get kicked out and put into a random draw. Maybe someone working there now can confirm this but this is how it was described to me by a few people that use the system and set it up. Basically they told me don’t make your request long or complicated. It is not like a person with knowledge of the resort is sitting at a desk and trying to assign rooms that fit everyone’s request.

Also have a back up location in mind when you check in if your room is not where you wanted it to be.

Awesome info! Thanks Tikiman! My brother is one of the project managers with the company that created/implemented the new computer system so I will definitely ask him how it handles requests!

 

[Tikiman]

Awesome info! Thanks Tikiman! My brother is one of the project managers with the company that created/implemented the new computer system so I will definitely ask him how it handles requests!

 

[smelton521]

Would you still consider Tokelau to be the best longhouse to request the 1st week of March 2014 if there is construction going on? This is our first Disney trip and I wanted to book a monorail resort so that I can take my kids back to the room easily in the afternoons for naps. The Polynesian seems to be a favorite of almost everyone I talk to so I thought we would try it but I am not sure what to do now in light of the construction.

 

[trishadono]

Would you still consider Tokelau to be the best longhouse to request the 1st week of March 2014 if there is construction going on? This is our first Disney trip and I wanted to book a monorail resort so that I can take my kids back to the room easily in the afternoons for naps. The Polynesian seems to be a favorite of almost everyone I talk to so I thought we would try it but I am not sure what to do now in light of the construction.

Go to Tikiman's site for up to date info.

I think Tokelau good because that section has all been refurbished.

I was there in April and May at Hawaii and the construction was barely noticeable. You should be fine.

 

[smelton521]

Go to Tikiman's site for up to date info.

I think Tokelau good because that section has all been refurbished.

I was there in April and May at Hawaii and the construction was barely noticeable. You should be fine.

Okay thank you!

 

[corndog]

We are partial to Fiji. Our request at the Poly always starts with NOT Tokelau, Tahiti or Rapa Nui (they are too far away from everything). From there it is 1st or 3rd floor, then Fiji.

The trip we just returned from we had also requested connecting rooms. We were given Aotearoa, 2nd Floor, not connecting, monorail view. Upon request, we were quickly changed to Fiji, 1st Floor, connecting, marina view. We also had a view of the Contemporary, the monorail, the GCH, Volcano, etc. It's remarkable to me that these remain the same view category.

The other side of Fiji is great too, because it also has Lagoon views, views of the GF and you can hear the Luau if you're around in the evenings. It's also easy to step onto the beach for Wishes.

 

[Disney grandma]

We are partial to Fiji. Our request at the Poly always starts with NOT Tokelau, Tahiti or Rapa Nui (they are too far away from everything). From there it is 1st or 3rd floor, then Fiji.

The trip we just returned from we had also requested connecting rooms. We were given Aotearoa, 2nd Floor, not connecting, monorail view. Upon request, we were quickly changed to Fiji, 1st Floor, connecting, marina view. We also had a view of the Contemporary, the monorail, the GCH, Volcano, etc. It's remarkable to me that these remain the same view category.

The other side of Fiji is great too, because it also has Lagoon views, views of the GF and you can hear the Luau if you're around in the evenings. It's also easy to step onto the beach for Wishes.

We always request Fiji for the reasons you mention above!

 

[mlandon]

Wow this is an interesting thread! My family and I really like Tahiti for its proximity to the TTC and the fact that it's secluded. It's nice to come back to the room at the end of a long day via the quiet, tiki torched pathways. Very serene !