Poly - Deluxe Studio VS standard room

[pumpkinjl]

If you had the choice to stay in a deluxe studio room at the Polynesian vs. staying in a standard Polynesian room which would you choose an why?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

This gets asked all the time.

It depends on multiple factors. A studio uses space differently. It has a kitchenette and a second shower, and limited storage. It has one real bed, a murphy bed and a sofa bed. Depending on your party makeup, someone may not be happy about a sofa bed. It does have a guaranteed balcony or patio, but one of the buildings is also the building with, arguably, the worst views at the Poly (hel-lo Pago Pago!).

A standard room has two queen beds and a fold-down bed that's a lot easier to fold back up. While there is only one shower, there is more storage space. There is no microwave or toaster, which is the main difference between it and the kitchenette amenities.

I'm staying in both next trip, but rather prefer the standard room.

 

[Hopefully]

What is your party makeup? As a couple I would choose the studio because we only need one bed and I like the sofa during the day. For a family I would choose the standard room for 2 real beds and the pullouts.

 

[purplegirl1818]

The second shower is amazing. You will be spoiled and never feel the same with a normal bathroom!

 

[Tikiman]

I would have to say I would personally take the studio over the standard resort room. Larger room with more amenities. I like the decor better personally. I also like having the ability to fold up the second queen into a couch for more room. The two bathrooms are great. I don’t plan on cooking in the room but having the small kitchenette and plates and utensils is nice in a room. While Pago Pago has some bad parking lot views the DVC studios also occupy Tokelau and it is in a prime location with many of the rooms being the only standard view rooms on property with a view of the castle and fireworks.

 

[pixarmom]

We've stayed in both (regular room many times over many years) and studio once. We're a family of five, so the ability to have a non-bed seating area is great. (The daybed in the regular rooms doesn't usually face the TV, so it's not as useful for us as the studio sofa.) Like Steve, I far prefer the decor of the studio. The kitchenette area is wonderful for rinsing out mugs and it's a great spot to store all those extra snacks and beverages (particularly during a race weekend!) Our kids thought the sofa bed was the most comfy sofa bed they have ever slept in. For our family, the two showers and bathroom sinks were a huge benefit. Again, with all the changing and showering involved in a race weekend, it was particularly ideal for that purpose. Like purplegirl said, it's going to be really hard to go back to just one bathroom at Poly or another resort in the future! I never thought we'd stay in a DVC villa, but Poly changed our minds entirely.

 

[Babsy]

WE much prefer the regular rooms. There is only the two of us but we need two beds and no one wants to sleep on a pull out. I like a lot of storage and there is almost no storage in a villa. I have no use for two bathrooms unless there is a second toilet (which there isn't) so the second bathroom is wasted space for us. We shower one after the other and done in about 15 minutes! We don't watch TV while on vacation so where the sofa faces doesn't matter to us. I never use a microwave because I hate food that comes out of those machines. So the 'kitchenette' is a bust as far as I am concerned. You get a fridge and a coffee perk and two sinks in the regular room, which is enough for us to have a beverage or coffee in the room.

The studio villas are OK for young families, I guess. The kids can sleep on the pull out and fold down beds. they never would have worked for us though.

I really find it hard to imagine staying in one of these cramped spaces. DH and I looked at buying DVC at the Poly, but there was no where in the poly DVC where we could stay. Not a single one bedroom or two bedroom. Just the studios and the bungalows. WE decided to just keep going and staying in the regular rooms in CL.

 

[pumpkinjl]

What is your party makeup? As a couple I would choose the studio because we only need one bed and I like the sofa during the day. For a family I would choose the standard room for 2 real beds and the pullouts.

We are a party of 5.

 

[pumpkinjl]

More info: Once you pull out the sofa bed, can you just leave it out or does mousekeeping fold it back up? Can you walk around the room with the bed out and the pull out out? How much does it hinder the use of the balcony? Where do you stash the coffee table?

 

[pumpkinjl]

The second shower is amazing. You will be spoiled and never feel the same with a normal bathroom!

This is a HUGE selling feature for us!! We usually get back to the room late. Two people showering at the same time will speed up our getting into bed so that we can make rope drop in the morning!!

 

[Hopefully]

More info: Once you pull out the sofa bed, can you just leave it out or does mousekeeping fold it back up? Can you walk around the room with the bed out and the pull out out? How much does it hinder the use of the balcony? Where do you stash the coffee table?

Would you be booking through Disney (very expensive) or renting point through a broker (more reasonable cost, but with more restrictions). If renting through Disney you would get daily Mousekeeping and I think they would fold it up. If renting through a broker, you only get Trash and Tidy service on day 4 if a 7 night stay, with clean towels, replaced toiletries and emptied trash. No one would be in your Villa the other days.
Leaving the sofa bed out would take too much valuable floor space, in my opinion. I believe the coffee table needs to go in the area near the balcony door.

 

[pixarmom]

More info: Once you pull out the sofa bed, can you just leave it out or does mousekeeping fold it back up? Can you walk around the room with the bed out and the pull out out? How much does it hinder the use of the balcony? Where do you stash the coffee table?

Following up on Hopefully's post, I agree the sofa bed takes up way too much valuable space. So every day, we would fold up the sofa bed ourselves ASAP and get the coffee table back in place. Otherwise, there is not much floor space and it's difficult to get out to the balcony.

Also, although we have a different travel party (2 adults, 2 teen boys and a little one) and a different perspective, I think Babsy's points are important to consider. The kitchenette isn't similar to a kitchen - we only used the microwave to warm up coffee. It was just an extra sink and a good space for snack/beverage storage - not a place we would use to cook. I also agree with the point about storage - it's very limited. We keep our clothes in our luggage (which we store in the closet and in the indentation in the front hallway) and the boys' backpacks in the coffee table to avoid clutter. The storage space in the bathroom, however, is wonderful for us - lots of drawers in the extra bathroom so I loved not seeing everyone's toiletry bags out on counters - yay!

It's also true that the studio villa is a tight fit for 5 people. For a regular vacation, this wouldn't matter much (nor would the placement of the seating area as it relates to the TV) because we'd always be out and about. But for that particular race weekend, half of us were getting up at 3am and running 19.3 miles over two days, so teen boys needed to crash a bit after the races and they spent more time resting in the room (with TV on) than usual. So in some ways, we would have appreciated the extra space of a regular room. But the other factors - including the shower situation - made the studio a better choice for us. (Multiple runners getting dressed at 3am, and then multiple runners wanting an ASAP shower after the races - yay studio!)

P.S. I forgot to second aurora's comment about the guaranteed balcony/patio - that was a nice benefit. We've always requested and received a balcony or patio in the regular Poly rooms and received one, but I like not having to think about it.

 

[Tikiman]

More info: Once you pull out the sofa bed, can you just leave it out or does mousekeeping fold it back up? Can you walk around the room with the bed out and the pull out out? How much does it hinder the use of the balcony? Where do you stash the coffee table?

Our friends had the bed folded out when we visited their room and there was plenty of room to get around inside. They even had their owners locker storage bins in there taking up room. I also like the small table to sit at if you were going to eat in the room. The small roll a round table that is tucked under the desk just does not work for more than one person. Storage is not much of an issue for me because I hang up some things and the rest stays in my bag. There are drawers under the bed that we can put the rest of the family in and my bag can go under the bed. Even with the two bathrooms taking up a lot of the room the living area that is left is almost the exact same square footage as the standard room living area because these rooms were longer than the original construction so with the bed folded up you actually have more usable space in the studios. Some people love the second bathroom to put a crib in so that the baby can have a place to sleep and not be disturbed by the tv or lights being on in the main room. Speaking of TV the one in the studio is awesome. I wish they had put those in all the resort rooms.

 

[Dec38]

I just switched our reservation from a standard room to the deluxe studio, garden view, because the studio was eligible for the back to school deal, so we saved around 15%. I'm a little nervous about the switch, but I think either room would work for us so I went for the savings. I'm just really hoping we get Tokelau. I'm planning to do the Touring Plans room request fax. Any other tips for getting room requests met? I booked directly through Disney.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Would you be booking through Disney (very expensive) or renting point through a broker (more reasonable cost, but with more restrictions). If renting through Disney you would get daily Mousekeeping and I think they would fold it up. If renting through a broker, you only get Trash and Tidy service on day 4 if a 7 night stay, with clean towels, replaced toiletries and emptied trash. No one would be in your Villa the other days.
Leaving the sofa bed out would take too much valuable floor space, in my opinion. I believe the coffee table needs to go in the area near the balcony door.

DVC stopped calling it Trash and Tidy many years ago because too many guests thought it meant they would clean up the villa. All they do is replace the towels and expendables in the villa and take out the trash. Trash and Towels is the more common name now.

 

[DebbieB]

More info: Once you pull out the sofa bed, can you just leave it out or does mousekeeping fold it back up? Can you walk around the room with the bed out and the pull out out? How much does it hinder the use of the balcony? Where do you stash the coffee table?

We always fold it up first thing in the morning and only pull it back out at bedtime.

 

[Jocely]

We loved the studio. I don't know why it gets such a bad rap for storage. We had five of us and I unpacked everything. 2 large drawers under bed then room under bed to store empty suitcases. Drawers on either side of bed, coffee table that opened and 2 drawers in each bathroom plus a huge closet. Pull out was super comfy for kids and I slept on it one night. Was so nice to have a couch when folded up. We had garden grocer deliver so if we wanted to get out quick in mornings could make food in room easily with kitchenette. Only advise would be to bring some hangers because there were not nearly enough. I would be too upset not to get a balcony so I would never dare book a regular room unless we had to have the 2 beds. We stayed in Tokelau with a pool view but it was close to the back of the quick service at the pool so there was some big unit (refrigeration or ac?)that was increadibly noisy. I would try to specify room facing away from the pool or on the half of building closer to lagoon so you don't run into that. You could leave the bed open if you wanted to and still use balcony.