Poly Concierge Check In Question

[allie5]

Can anyone tell me what happens at check in at the Poly for the concierge rooms? Do we not go to the main check in at the GCH? Is there a special desk we need to find? If so, where?!!!

Hopefully our bags will coming over from AKL, so it will be just us, and we will want to check in as early as possible, as we will be simply transferring from one resort to another (I do know our room wont be ready until later in the day though).

Also, I am booking a Garden View, but if I decide when I see the view, that I really REALLY want a Lagoon view, is it possible to upgrade?(availability permitting, obviously?...has anyone done this? How much is an upgrade?)

Thanks.
Allie

 

[Tikiman]

Allie,

Are you not driving over to the Polynesian? If you are bussing over I am not sure how it works but you can walk over to the Hawaii longhouse and check in there. I would ask at the front desk how to get in over at the Hawaii longhouse or ask at the valet desk out front. If someone drives up or is dropped off with their luggage you tell the bellhop you are checking into concierge and they load your stuff on a cart to go over to the Hawaii longhouse to check in at the concierge desk inside. I am not sure what they do if you just show up to check in. Most people wait till the 11:00 checkout so it depends on if a room is empty and cleaned by the time you get there. You can upgrade when you get there if a room is available but since they are popular the rooms left over may be the rooms with the blocked views.

The difference in price depends on the season you are there.
Value season is $100 a night more
Regular Season is $125 a night more
Peak Season is $115 a night more
Holiday Season is $125 a night more

Do not be confused by the new lobby concierge desk. That is not Concierge check in. It is where non-concierge guests will pick up tickets and make arrangements like PS.

Aloha

Steve

 

[SeaSpray]

Steve (Tikiman):

We'll be in a similar situation; we'll be checking out of WL concierge on the same day we'll be checking into Polynesian concierge. So, do you think it's better to wait for room assignment until a specific time? I know that the WL will take care of transporting our luggage but we'll have at least 1 "carry-on" with our medications that we'll want to take with us. I was thinking we'd leave the WL after breakfast, go to the Polynesian and at least check in as regards the paperwork, and even if the room wasn't ready yet, leave our carry-on with concierge, then go to a park (we have a lunch PS at MGM) until the afternoon. I really am hoping for at least a decent view, so should I mention this when we first get to the concierge check-in? I'd want them to know that I'd wait, if necessary, for a decent view, as opposed to taking whatever they might have available at that moment. Does this sound logical??

 

[Tikiman]

Every situation is different and it is not possible for me to say what things will be like or what is available when you check in. I would say early check in is worse case that many may be checking out at that time before 11:00. I was not saying you will get a bad view if you check in early I was saying that is someone had reserved a garden view room and than wanted to switch to lagoon view at check in that there is a chance that the best rooms are already assigned or there are none left on the lagoon side. You can still go over and have them hold your bags and check in later. Even when they take you to your room you don’t have to go to the desk to check in right away unless you need something from them like tickets.

 

[allie5]

Thanks Steve, very useful info.

Yes we will be driving from AKL, but I was hoping to get guest services to transfer the bags for us (coming from England for 3 weeks with 2 kids, we tend to bring a fair bit!). I will make that day a fairly gentle start, with possibly a Boma breakfast, so we wont be too early checking in at the Poly. After your info on the room assignments, then we wont hurry over there now. Our best bet sounds like the MK after we check out of AKL...(I take it we would be allowed to park at the Poly at anytime on our first day of arrival at that resort?) and then back on the monorail to the Poly later in the day to check in properly.

 

[Tikiman]

Absolutely you can park at the Polynesian anytime of the day you check in. Just tell them you are checking in at the gate. Why not take your luggage with you if you have a car. Just curious. We stayed at the AKL and switched over to the Polynesian. The AKL loaded our car and off we went to the Polynesian where they took our stuff and brought us over to the Hawaii longhouse.

I guess you can do it either way. We just find it easier to be with our stuff and not worry about when it will show up.

 

[allie5]

I guess you can do it either way. We just find it easier to be with our stuff and not worry about when it will show up.

Thats a fair point. I will see what will work best for us when we are there.

I had just read a lot about how people find it useful getting the resorts to handle the baggage when you transfer...it sounded appealing, but then I would worry that they would get lost as well!

Just to add, thank you for your very informative site on the Poly, it was one of the reasons we chose the resort. Both our kids are mad for the WDW monorail so we just had to pick one of the 3 resorts for our final week...your site makes the Poly sound so wonderful, we couldnt resist!

We have visited all the monorail resorts many times but this will be our first stay at any of them and we are looking forward to it a lot!

Thanks again.

Allie

 

[Tikiman]

Don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean to imply that Disney will lose your damage your stuff, I just don’t know how fast they get it to the other resort and you might want something from it. I think most people love it because they don’t have a car and it would be horrible to have to put the stuff on a bus or taxi to get over to the other resort. I personally just like to bring it myself since we always rent a car.

Glad you are trying the Polynesian and liked my web pages.

Have a great trip.

Aloha

Steve

 

[johnvree]

allie5,
We transferred from the AKL to the Poly last May. I buzzed the AKL front desk around 9:00 to transfer our luggage. The bellhop was there within 15 minutes. We grabbed breakfast at the AKL food court and then drove to the Poly. We checked into the concierge building around 10:30. We simply told one of the valets that we were staying in the concierge building and we were taken to the Hawaii building in a golf cart.
Our room was ready and there were plenty of options available. The reason I know that is we had requested a non-smoking room. The concierge told us on check in that she wanted us to see a room on the third floor that was a smoking room. She said that she knew that we had requested non-smoking but that the room had one of the best views of the Castle and that there would be no smoke odor. HOWEVER, if we didn't want the room for any reason, she said she had many other LVC rooms available and would give us our choice. The room and view were perfect and no smell of smoke.
Anyway, it certainly seemed that there were multiple rooms open to switch to at that time of the day. Of course, our switch wouldn't have been an upgrade since we had booked a lagoon view. Not sure when our luggage got there. It was in our room when we returned from MK that afternoon. I wouldn't hesitate to have Disney move my luggage in the future and will always try to check in early in the day.

 

[allie5]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, John. Thats excellent information, thank you so much.

Allie