Only ever stayed at the Poly...have we made it impossible to switch to mod or value?

lemondog

<font color=darkorchid>My twins fight over who too
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Back when we were a family of 5 we always stayed at the Poly. We are doing one more trip at the Poly next summer while the baby is still young enough to not "count." However once she reaches the age of 3 we will be too big to stay in a single room, and two rooms or a suite at the Poly...or the 2 bedroom DVC villas...are simply out of our budget. Which means we have basically 2 choices if we want to stay on site (which we do): Ft. Wilderness Cabins or a family suite at ASMu or AOA. The cabins are considered a moderate, and the family suites are technically a value. Are we going to be REALLY disappointed compared to the Poly? We obviously don't do well with change...lol. :rotfl:
 
You could move to a deluxe room at the WL for close to the same price as the Poly. That's another option if you want to stay Deluxe in 1 room.

When your girls get older I'd consider 2 moderate rooms over a value suite personally. It's not awful though going to a suite you'll love the extra room.

FWIW we love the Poly but have no problem staying elsewhere when we have to
 
We stayed at POR after we stayed at the Poly. We missed the Poly a lot. The Poly is a Deluxe resort. It is just different than Moderate and Value. The most important thing is to be happy making wonderful family memories at WDW with or without the Poly.:goodvibes
 
Luckily, we never fell into the "once you go Deluxe you can't go back" spell:) We have had great vacations at all the levels of resorts and we do like to take 1 or 2 resort days during our longer (8 nts) stays. Once the Mods added queen beds, movies and pool activities it became even harder to justify the big $$$ difference. We still plan on doing short trips to deluxes with at least a 35% discount, but have no real regrets not staying there on most trips. But that is our family and I know every family is different.
 

I totally understand where you are coming from. We are still a family of 4, but a 15 year old girl and almost 18 year old son makes staying in one room hard. Our next trip, I am also thinking about two rooms. The Poly is our favorite resort by far and will really miss the balcony/patio.
 
There are two other options - the deluxe rooms at WL and BWI. Both include CL privileges. Considering your would have breakfast, drinks, appetizers, desserts and adult beverages the price might even out. Definitely less expensive than a suite or 2 rooms at a deluxe resort.
 
We have stayed at the Poly 3 times. The first time we stayed at a Magic Kingdom View on the 3rd floor. As perfect and beautiful as it is there, we don't spend enough time there to justify the price anymore. We are going in Dec and are going to try the POR. You never know if it is a mistake until you try it.

Eric
 
I liked the Poly, but in the end, it's the room being on site at WDW and the KTTW card that I love best. I think you'll be fine.
Now that the values have added fridges (and you'd get that anyhow in the suites), my main issue with the values will be giving up the pool slide. Yeah, the pool slide is a deal-maker for me... except we never went on the Poly slide (it was not real warm that week) and I had to make a special effort to make it down to the pool at FW the last night of that trip because ... "I paid for a pool slide I'm going to use it!" Our last trips were so busy the resort hardly mattered at all!
 
I think the only logical option you have at this point is to buy into the Vacation Club. :thumbsup2

On a serious note: As others have mentioned, the only way you'll know about the impact of the change, or to what degree you and your family will enjoy it, is to give it a try at another resort.
 
I think at first you will be disappointed. It's just nature. But, if you go in with a positive attitude, I think you'll find that the moderates and values have a lot to offer too. We used to stay deluxe all the time (12 yrs worth of trips), but in the last three years and seven trips, they've all been at values, moderate or offsite. Each trip has been great.

We like bus service better at value and mod level...less sharing. We like the food courts for quick meals. The pools are nice and had plenty of lounge chairs. I'm sure you'll find things you like too.

And honestly, Poly was my least favorite Deluxe experience. (we've stayed Poly, BWI, BWV, YC, AKL, WL, GF, and Swan)
 
There are two other options - the deluxe rooms at WL and BWI. Both include CL privileges. Considering your would have breakfast, drinks, appetizers, desserts and adult beverages the price might even out. Definitely less expensive than a suite or 2 rooms at a deluxe resort.

oh this is a great idea!

I feel your pain... we have three kids and I think our options are limited, I can't imagine four! good luck to you!
 
We feel your pain. We stayed at the Poly in April and will do so again in April 2013, but have planned a 4 night “what the heck” trip in December and chose the POP due to the dedicated bus service. We concluded that we won’t be in the room very often as we enjoy the Holiday decorations and festivities around WDW and the $85-110 price for a preferred room couldn’t be beat. The Poly was $1200 MORE and the WL was $1000 MORE! So, we will save the money and try a value….I’ll let everyone know how that works out….

Mike



Mike, DW, DS (4), DMIL



Mike :wizard: DW princess: DS (4) pirate: DMIL princess:

First visit 1976, WDW 2/2010 BC CL, Disneyland GC 12/2010, WDW 4/2012 POLY TPV, WDW 7/2012 (off site meeting), WDW 12/12 POP and 4/2013 POLY with Disney Dream cruise!

 
I have never been disappointed with any Disney hotel. And I have stayed at Poly, WL, POR, CSR, and POP Century.

Each one has positives and negatives.

In fact, I probably would not stay at Poly again. Although it was nice, I missed having a hot tub and overall preferred WL for the money. We also enjoy CSR.

For our next trip we are trying the Dolphin/Swan. I love mixing it up!
 
It really depends on why you stay at the Poly. If it's because you like the convenience of the monorail then yes, you are going to going to miss that. You could always rent points from a DVC owner and depending on the costs rent 2 stuidos or a 2 bedroom at BLT for the monorail. Or even a good discount at the Swan and Dolphin could help you swing the price of 2 rooms or a room that can accommodate your family. It isn't a MK resort but is a deluxe resort in walking distance to Epcot and HS. I have stayed at values, mods and deluxes. I like them all. DH prefers deluxes with non bus transportation to the parks so we usually go deluxe. But I can be just as happy at POP as I am at BLT. I would not be happy at the Sports one but I wouldn't be happy at Saratoga either. For me it depends on the location not the actual resort.
 
I think you'll be fine. I've never stayed at the Poly, but I have stayed at the Contemporary. Since then, I've stayed exclusively at POFQ and love it. There are things I miss, but it's nothing that's a deal-breaker.

Have a great trip!
 
Last year we did a split stay between ASMu Family Suite and the Poly. We actually preferred ASMu!!! We LOVED the Family Suite and preferred the food court. Of course, you can't compare having access to the monorail, the grounds, and the beach at the Poly (which we LOVED) but for our family ASMu was great!!! I think we'll try AoA in the future if we stay on site again.
 
I have to say, I've stayed at the Polynesian and at the cabins. The Polynesian is an amazing hotel, perhaps one of my favorites ever, anywhere... but I seriously love the cabins too. The convenience of being able to drive right up to your room after the end of a long day is great. The little details and the themeing in the cabin decor is at the level of any deluxe in my opinion. The campgrounds are just as beautiful as the Polynesian grounds, in a different sort of way. It was much closer to the Magic Kingdom than I was expecting-- I couldn't believe how beautiful the boat ride was from that part of the lake in the mornings. And there's one thing they have that the Poly doesn't-- hot tubs! Glorious, glorious hot tubs.

I think you might enjoy a cabin a lot more than you are expecting, even after a deluxe. I know I really loved it and I would do the cabins again in a heartbeat.
 
Thanks so much for your input everyone! We spend a LOT of time at the resort which is why we love the Poly and what concerns me with staying at a mod or value. Is it relaxing enough and are there plenty of activities for the kids? We love the Poly...we love love love to watch the fireworks on the beach, and every afternoon the kids can swim, play on the beach, take part in activities in the GCH, or hang in the arcade. We are not park commandos. We also love to eat at table service restaurants and being the monorail makes it more convenient to quickly reach many of our favorites. However we always drive so we don't rely on the bus service. I think we would be fine at the value, but it would be very different and we would drive a lot more places. Although I do still have the concern about kid-friendly activities to keep them occupied. I like the idea of everything to do at Ft. Wilderness but I know it's so spread out...are the buses fairly regular? Also what is the pool like there? I seem to recall seeing pics of just a square hole filled with water,lol! I know we are definitely spoiled by the amazing volcano pool at the poly, but I like to think we are not so spoiled we couldn't adjust! :rotfl:
 
The FW pool is still a little like a square hole filled with water, but with a decent (not huge) slide. It was upgraded a few years ago (not sure of the year) so if you saw really old pictures, you may want to get back on the resort pics threads or allears or even lol the Disney site to check it out. To me, the only real disadvantage of the fort was not being able to drive around it. That's why so many people rent golf carts from Disney or offsite companies. We didn't, so I'm not very knowledgeable on the carts (the experts are on the camping board), but I think you might be able to get bigger carts from offsite - and definitely cheaper.
Otherwise, depending on where you are and how miserably hot it is, it may or may not be a reasonable walk from your cabin. So you're supposed to ride the bus to get to the pool. This, to me, was a tad inconvenient and would feel weird. We were in the closest loop to the feature pool, though, so we could walk, but it was kind of an unpleasant hike in July. Next time I'd probably ask for a cabin near a (totally a square hole filled with water) quiet pool, just for convenience. One good thing about our location was our nearest bus stop served 2 of the internal routes - meaning buses came by more often. :)
FYI, I hated the murphy bed. :sad: Some people don't mind it though, so it might just be me.
Otherwise I loved the cabin, and would recommend you give it a try!
I do think you might miss the convenience of TS. Yes, there are some options, but nothing that will be quite as easy to get to as you are used to - aside from the cabin's kitchen.
 
Are we going to be REALLY disappointed compared to the Poly? We obviously don't do well with change...lol. :rotfl:

That's kind of like asking, "We love our 2 seater Miata but we have 5 people to drive around now, will I be disappointed with a bigger car?

Disappointment has nothing to do with it, what you are saying is you CAN'T stay at the Poly.

You don't like change, but, it all worked out when you went from a family of 2 to 3 and then 4 and 5. That's change.

Don't worry about what you're giving up, you're just staying somewhere different.

I have stayed at every level of WDW resort. I like them all. I have never been disappointed with any of them.

Good luck.
 





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