Poly Lagoon View or Club Level Garden View?

[miller mom]

Since it's a whopping $100 difference and I've never stayed at the Polynesian, I am struggling to decide which makes more sense. I have a 4 year old son who will get whipped pretty early,. The Lagoon View might be nice to have at night, but on demand snacks seems nice too. Really can't spring for both. Thoughts??

 

[OhdahLolly]

From what I understand CL lounge has a GREAT view of the lagoon, and if you are going to eat/snack there.. you'll get a wonderful view. Likely viewing it more so than you would in your room! So the room view (unless its MK view) doesn't seem like that much, eh?

Compared to CL, which gives you free snacks, and free drinks. It seems great for parents with small ones. If you take a break from the parks, go back to the resort. Snack. Hit the pool, then go to your dinner. Don't have to worry about the kids starving in between or having less healthy snack choices (again if that matters to you since you are on vacation!)

 

[coopersmom]

I had a recent club-level stay, with an almost-four-year old boy, and wasn't impressed at all (we'd NEVER go back), but if you have your heart set and think you'll love it I won't try to talk you out of the Polynesian.

In terms of snacks, you're just as good stopping at a grocery store and spending $150-$200 on breakfast stuff and drinks and maybe a box of goldfish crackers as you are with club level. It will save you a bundle and probably give you a better selection.

What we liked about club level wasn't the food, which was scarce and not replenished, though I did drink quite a few diet Cokes and my husband had, I think, four beers in our week-long stay. (Son and hubby also had cereal and fruit, or yogurt, for breakfast each morning we didn't do a character breakfast.) Instead, it was the community.

The rooms at the Polynesian are not huge, though they are often described so on this forum. There's nothing wrong with the size, it's just very standard hotel room size and that can feel a little close with a little one, especially when you consider that they will spend their entire day at Disney under strict control: waiting in line, holding your hand, in a stroller, etc. Also, as an only child, my son got a little lonely for other kids to actually play with during our week stay.

In the lounge, my son loved the kids' area (some smaller furniture and a TV set) and, more importantly, the kids he met there. He actually liked that as much as the parks some days and had a great time with various little ones throughout our stay.

Husband and I enjoyed having someplace besides the room to sit, and we chatted with quite a few other guests there and met some very, very nice folks. We also watched the fireworks from the lounge twice during our stay and that was nice too, though if it had been warmer we'd have preferred to watch from the beach.

Was it worth it? To my mind, no. But only you can decide if the cost-benefit works out for you and your family. I do know that as an "only" my son often asked to go to the lounge, in lieu of just back to the room, after a day out in the World.

EDITED TO NOTE: When we went it was really cold, so meeting other kids and playing by the beach or pool wasn't an option. If it had been, the lounge would have been even less valuable to us. In the end, we decided our next visit will likely be off-site. We toured the Hilton at Bonnet Creek and the pool area exceeds anything we saw at Disney, even Yacht and Beach (in my opinion), and the standard room we saw was bigger than the Polynesian, or at least looked that way because it was brighter and newer. And, frankly, for the cost of a night at the Poly you can get a suite at the Hilton (or even the Waldorf) both of which exceed anything I've seen Disney offer. And driving there was no farther than Disney hotels, to be honest, assuming you've got a car (and the rental cost would still make the Hilton cheaper). The only thing we'd miss is the great Polynesian ferry to the Magic Kingdom. If you stay in the Hawaii (club level) building it's practically right outside your door and can have you at the gates in under 10 minutes. Very nice.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Only you can decide which will work best for you.

In my family, we never pay for view. We'll certainly pay for location though. This makes the decision for us very easy to choose Poly GV CL over Poly LV. We do like to sit outside on the patio with coffee in the morning (we really like 1st floor though obviously not guaranteed) but we feel that the resort if very beautiful and enjoy the relaxing feeling of the GV. We love the location of the Hawaii building in general and I consider that to be one of the reasons to stay CL at Poly. To watch the fireworks, we love the CL lounge or the beach. With the location of Hawaii, both are easy options. Granted, when our kids were younger it would have been nice to be able to watch from our room but that would require TPV, not LV. Even then, I wouldn't have paid for the view. We would have just carried our sleeping kids down once during the trip and cuddled on the beach on lounge chairs rather than pay for the view.

For us, our own touring style makes CL very attractive. Because we like a light quick breakfast in the morning before hitting the park and we're always back at our resort by 4:00 at the latest (usually much earlier) to just hang out for the rest of the evening, we're there to take advantage of the lounge offerings. If we didn't tour like this then it likely wouldn't be as attractive to us though we really do like the location of the building.

Figure out just how you want to spend your time and what is most important to you and it'll become a much easier decision. Will you really take advantage of the view from a LV room? Will you be around the resort when the food's being served in the CL lounge? Is the location of the Hawaii building important to you? Will you take advantage of any of the other club ammenities?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I would go with the Club Level - Garden View because of everything you get when staying Club Level, plus you can see Cinderella's Castle and Wishes anytime in the lounge.

 

[woodkins]

This past Sept. we stayed at the Poly Lagoon view & loved it. Having said that I JUST booked Garden View-Club Level for the end of Oct. The Lagoon view was lovely & the room location great. We requested and got a first floor room so that my 8yr old dd could run out and play while we were getting ready etc. We were in the Tahiti building and she would play on the beach and we could see her from our patio.

We also love the location of the Hawaii building and the ability to hit the lounge for snacks and drinks throughout the day. We spend many afternoons or evenings at the resort by the pool so the lounge is a great place for us to stop in and refresh. It has a great view of the fireworks at night & we loved getting coffee or dessert and sitting in the lounge watching the fireworks.

I would rather have the CL treats over the view for sure.

 

[swald91]

I like the Club Level Garden View....the lagoon view is great but more $$... I guess it really depends on what you prefer. As far as room size goes, Poly has one of the largest. We have stayed at Dixie landings (POR) and WL and by far the rooms here are bigger. Just like a previous poster mentioned-they are a normal size hotel room but one of the larger for Disney property. Good luck with whatever you choose and have a great stay!!

 

[stm61]

we love CL garden view! It's not in the budget every trip, so that makes it even better when we can swing it. We don't always make it back in time for evening appetizers, grandma insists on a sit down meal most days, but we do take advantage of breakfast every morning and the evening snacks. My kids really enjoy going down for drinks also. They don't lock the doors when the lounge is closed, so you're able to help yourself to cooler drinks. We always request a 3rd floor room for the balcony. That way if the younger kids fall asleep early we can sit and relax on the balcony. Though my kids will usually sleep through any "normal" noises, it's nice to have that little extra space. My older kids will also sit out there to use their phones in "private".

 

[Allison]

Definitely go for the club level. We really enjoyed the lounge. The evening snacks were great and it was nice to grab drinks whenever we wanted.

It was great to watch the fireworks from the lounge.

 

[MonoManBlue]

I had lagoon/MK Club Level at poly, and it was great. I really enjoyed the lounge, and while yes sometimes there wasn't a 'huge' selection of snacks, it was extremely nice to go get something whenever I wanted it. They have an awesome 'alcoholic' mixed drink and the ability to get a beer whenever i wanted it (even though I am not a heavy drinker) was kinda nice. I think for $100 a night, you'd almost be crazy not too

 

[hoosiergirl7]

We stayed Poly CL GV 13 months ago and loved it. We were on the 2nd floor so the lounge was down the hall. We loved having breakfast, snacks, drinks (both alcoholic and non). The adults would always unwind every night with an beer or glass of wine. A few nights after the kids were in bed my dad usually was ready to just chill himself would stay with them while DH, my mom and I would go down to the lounge to have our drinks and watch Wishes. The food was always good. I had absolutely no complaints. We didn't always do the evening appetizers because we were on the DDP and had a few early ADRs.

We're not staying at the Poly on our next trip back because it's just not in our budget but we love the resort and hope to do CL again.

As another poster said, our kids loved being able to interact with other kids there. We even had some conversations with other adults.

So I would hands down choose the CL room over the lagoon view room any day.