Polynesian or Beach Club?

[kdog_1981]

I am trying to decide on our vacation for Jan 2nd-10th. We have a 3 (girl), 2 (boy), and almost 1 (girl) yr old. We were set on the Polynesian because of the monorail to MK and Epcot. Now I was looking into the BC and noticed how fun this resort looks. Close to Epcot and a boat ride away to Hollywood. The wife and me want to do a least one night to ourselves (babysitter) and go to the Boardwalk inn resort entertainment area. This would be so easy if we were at the BC. Are the rooms bigger at Polynesian? I also saw that 50% of the balconies at the BC are really small. Balcony is a must for us having 3 little kids, we need somewhere to go after they fall asleep. I really like the restaurants selections at the BC along with the Beaches & Cream Soda Shop. We plan on going to MK and Epcot twice. The cost is about $400 more at the Polynesian.

Thoughts?

 

[TJA]

Those are your best 2 options. Honestly, we took our twins to Disney when they were all 3 of those ages and we really preferred the BC because we fell in love with the whole epcot resort area and boardwalk fun. Each night we'd get the kids ready for bed, put them in stroller, and just enjoy the beautiful walk around the water. There would be little magic shows at times on the boardwalk that we'd stop and watch. So much to do and see. Poly does have larger rooms. And at poly you could see the castle and watch wishes right from the beach. Direct monorail ride to 2 parks is very handy. I think you'd be happy at either one, really. I'm partial to BC but poly is a close second.

 

[maxiesmom]

During one trip we did a split stay starting off at the Poly and moving to the Beach Club. And everyone was sad we left the Poly! While the location next to Epcot is great, the bus service to the Magic Kingdom from the Beach Club left a lot to be desired. You share with the other boardwalk area resorts, so it makes for a long, crowded ride.

I'd stay at the Poly. You are within walking distance of the TTC, and only a monorail ride away from Epcot.

 

[kdog_1981]

What about the restaurant selection on each resort? Transportation is an obvious win on Polynesian.

 

[Wood Nymph]

What about the restaurant selection on each resort? Transportation is an obvious win on Polynesian.

The Beach Club, my favorite place, loses when it comes to restaurant selection. They have Cape May Cafe for breakfast and dinner buffets, which is delicious but not cheap. There is a restaurant at the YC. But the only counter service is the marketplace, and it doesn't have a lot of variety. I've never been a fan of Beaches and Cream. It is a small place and the lines can get very long. The Boardwalk has a lot of restaurants and we would also eat at one of them each trip. But we would mostly eat in Epcot or one of the other parks for lunch and dinner.

 

[maxiesmom]

What about the restaurant selection on each resort? Transportation is an obvious win on Polynesian.

The Poly wins on that one too. It is as if, when you are staying at the Beach Club, they expect you to eat either in Epcot or on the boardwalk. The Beach Club is very limited in it's dining choices.

That was actually the 2nd thing I really didn't like about the Beach Club. The lack of a decent grab and go place.

 

[TJA]

When our kids were that young, what we did was take a stroll through Epcot and then hop on the monorail to MK. It's definitely the long way to MK, but we loved/love this route. So much so that we still do it today and my kids are now age 9. We grab a snack in Epcot, get a few fast passes with late return times, and then head over to MK. If we have a breakfast ADR in MK, then we just take the bus. We're not huge bus fans and do try to utilize walking trails, monorail, or boats to parks.

As far as food options -- do you mean fast-food type things like a burger? The marketplace at BC is very limited in its options of counter-service, but what they do have is very good. Flatbread pizza and sandwiches are really pretty good. Beaches & Cream is right there too. And of course you have tons of restaurants within walking distance (epcot countries, boardwalk...). We are not huge fast-food people, but I do remember when my kids were that young that it was handy having a place to quickly get some milk and snacks -- depending on what building you are in at Poly, it really could be the same distance from your room to the marketplace at BC or the store at Poly. BC is all one building, so you'd take the elevator down. At Poly, you'd go outside to the main building to get your food items.

Oh -- balconies....yes there are lots at BC with just the standing balconies. You'd have to make a first request on your reservation that says "full balcony." There's a chance you won't get your request, but I do think they'd do what they could to accomodate you. You are headed there after the holiday, so if it's a slower time you should have a good chance of getting one.

Is Club Level something in your budget? We never stayed Club Level when our kids were that young, and I do wish we would have now that we've experienced it. It's very handy with kids.

 

[catho72]

We stayed at BC last summer and LOVED it! The pool is amazing, we love Beaches and Cream (it's a must-do for us every trip since '08), the resort is beautiful, the CM's are wonderful. The transportation there is great....walk to Epcot, walk or boat to DHS, bus to MK and AK. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus. We also only stopped at YC en route to the parks. The whole resort is under one roof and is extremely relaxing. Your kids would enjoy the character breakfast at Cape May.

We've never stayed at Poly. When we go back in July, we are doing a split stay between BC and Poly.

No matter where you stay, you will have a magical trip!

 

[owl0306]

love bc so much more than poly. i loved being able to walk to epcot and either walk or take a boat to hs.

 

[mickeynut1]

We've stayed at both and while we loved the BC and had a great stay, the Poly would be my choice. The BC is great as it's within walking distance to Epcot, but the Poly rooms are much larger, there are more dining options, and it's very convenient being on the monorail for MK and is within a 5 minute walk to the TTC for the Epcot monorail. Good luck deciding.

 

[heidijanesmith]

I am trying to decide on our vacation for Jan 2nd-10th. We have a 3 (girl), 2 (boy), and almost 1 (girl) yr old. We were set on the Polynesian because of the monorail to MK and Epcot. Now I was looking into the BC and noticed how fun this resort looks. Close to Epcot and a boat ride away to Hollywood. The wife and me want to do a least one night to ourselves (babysitter) and go to the Boardwalk inn resort entertainment area. This would be so easy if we were at the BC. Are the rooms bigger at Polynesian? I also saw that 50% of the balconies at the BC are really small. Balcony is a must for us having 3 little kids, we need somewhere to go after they fall asleep. I really like the restaurants selections at the BC along with the Beaches & Cream Soda Shop. We plan on going to MK and Epcot twice. The cost is about $400 more at the Polynesian.

Thoughts?

Poly pros:
1-The rooms are larger at the Poly
2-each room has a daybed, you do not have to request one
3-rooms have either a patio, full balcony or neither. No Juliette balconies at the Poly.
3-transportation to MK and TTC is super quick and easy

BC pros:
1-Easy access to the BW, just a 5min walk
2-Awesome pool, SAB is huge and fun for all

I pick the Poly for it's room size, transporation options (MK from YC took us about 1hour, from sharing with all the EPCOT resorts and then getting to MK) From the Poly it was 5min on the monorail and patio/balcony requests (more full size balconies). A patio/full balcony is a deal breaker for us. I requested 1st floor at the Poly and YC and got both. Patio's are lovely at both resorts, but the Poly's is larger.

 

[BJSforVols]

We are a family of 5 and just returned from the BC as our 1st Disney visit. We thought the BC was very nice, but we will probably stay somewhere different next time, and the reasons are many of what you are questioning. We originally chose BC over Poly and CR due to SAB and being close to Epcot. I'm not sure if you will be like us or not, but we really did not take advantage of the resort luxuries such as SAB due to being at the parks most of the time. Even on park free days, we ventured away from our resort to DTD, water parks, mini golf, or other locations. (We did end up using SAB a few times, but primarily because we felt we had to beings it was a primary reason for choosing BC.) MK was probably our family's favorite, so we plan to stay at a MK resort next time. The wilderness lodge would be considered, but we are a family of 5 and their rooms only have a capacity of 4.

We are leaning to a monorail resort due to the transportation luxury. We did not have any extreme negative with the bus or boat service, but it's still not comparable to the monorail. We rode the monorail from MK to Epcot a few times around the lunch hour and now understand how much advantage the monorail is over the other transportation sources.

We also want to stay at a resort which has an option for food and refilling your mugs after 11PM. It seemed the market place was always closed by the time we would get back to our rooms each night. The Market place food was very good for QS, but its convenience was terrible. Beaches and Cream does not allow reservations, and the wait was always 1 hour or more. We are not big fans for waiting to eat that long, so we never got to experience Beaches and Cream (other than the walk up ice cream counter). Hurricane Hanas was closed for renovations, so that probably had a negative impact on our opinion of the food options at the Beach club. Most of our meals which were not reservations ended up being at Epcot, and we figure we could do that via the monorail about as easy as walking from the beach club.

I opened your thread, because I thought it would have some good information helping us decide on the Poly or somewhere else next year. Sorry to be long, but I thought we may have some valuable input for you. Long story short, the BC is very nice but did not really fit our family. If you like hanging out at your resort other than when you are sleeping/resting and typically return to you hotel before 11pm when the Market Place closes; the BC is a great option. If you are like us and plan to spend most of your time away from the resort except when you take naps or sleep at night, I'd go with the Poly.

 

[kdog_1981]

Thanks for the great detailed suggestions. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge with Savanna view in 2010. I think the wife and me will have some good discussions about the 2. Leaning towards Poly. Will be booking tonight online.

 

[Masonmj84]

We were also torn by this choice.

We have an 8 night deluxe dining vacation coming up where we have the following ADRs:

Dinner:
'Ohana
Citricos
Artist Point
Cali Grill
Hollywood Brown Derby (Fantasmic package)
Jiko
Flying Fish
Yachtsman

Breakfast:
Kona
Cinderella's Royal Table
Crystal Palace
Tusker House
Cape May

Lunch:
Les Chefs
Via Napoli
50's Prime Time

We're also planning on attending MVMCP, Fantasmic (with dinning pacakge), and Illuminations.

Based on all of this, we decided to do a split stay between Poly and BC. We plan to visit MK (twice), plus MVMCP, during our Poly stay, and then go to EP on our Poly check-out day. Later that day, we'll check into BC, and during that stay, visit HS, AK, and do a second day at EP.

We'll eat at the MK area restaurants during our Poly leg and EP/HS and AK area restaurants during our BC leg.

We sort of view this as getting more of the best of both worlds (and less of the worst). For example, the two most often cited negatives of BC are: (1) limited CS options; and (2) poor bus service. But beause we're doing deluxe dining, we don't care about (1) and because we only need to ride the bus on our AK day (which we'd have to do regardless of where we were staying), we don't see (2) as a big negative.

At the same time, we'll still get to take advantage of some of BC's often cited advantages: (1) being able to walk to EP and HS (particularly nice, for example, after Illuminations); and (2) SAB (including hot tub, which Poly does not have).

That being said, if I had to pick just one of these two resorts, I'd probably pick the Poly. Overall, I like the theming and location better (we always do at least 2 MK days, so being able to Monorail to both MK and EP beats being able to walk to EP and HS, especially with the spotty bus service from BC to MK).

 

[BJSforVols]

At the same time, we'll still get to take advantage of some of BC's often cited advantages: (1) being able to walk to EP and HS (particularly nice, for example, after Illuminations); and (2) SAB (including hot tub, which Poly does not have).

I wouldn't say walking to HS from BC is an advantage. The walk from BC to HS is fairly long. I would advise taking the boat ride to HS from BC over walking. The walk to Epcot is a great advantage of BC though - especially if you enjoy the World Showcase area.

 

[njmom76]

Last year we stayed at BC with DD (3 at the time) and it was great, but we spent a lot of time in Epcot. This year, DD was much more opinionated about where we were going and we knew we'd be spending a lot of time in MK, so we stayed at Poly and loved it as well. We are hoping to stay Poly again next year as we'll also have an infant with us as well as the 5 year old and the monorail is so convenient to both MK and Epcot. Plus the room size at Poly was very nice and we'll be a party of 3 adults and 2 kids (1 in pack in play). Both are great choices though.