Polynesian or POR?

[rdw]

One more comparison question. We have great offers at both POR and Poly - but they are about $90/night different.

We have previously stayed at WL and YC and loved them and loved the accessibility (don't especially love the buses).

I like to have downtime at the hotel to just chill and use the pool - so the pool is very important. My kids (5 and 7 at the time) - actually preferred the pool and small slide at WL over YC (we did a split stay).

$250/night at Poly or $170/night POR? Between 6 and 8 nights, over the summer. Any / all advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[vanwoo]

I've not stayed at POR, so I don't know how useful my advice is, but I would suggest making a short list of what is important, pretty much what you did above. Prioritize it and use it to decide. For me, convenience is the most important. We go to the parks in the morning, spend afternoons at the resort and go to another park in the evening. We usually choose BC or YC because of this. We generally go during Food & Wine, so we like the easy access to Epcot. It is work the extra $$ for this convenience. So my list looks something like this:

convenience, pool, and budget

There are obviously other factors but these 3 are usually what drives our choice. You may want to decide whether your dislike of the buses (I am with you on that) outweighs your desire to save $80 per night, which will probably equal between $700-$800 for your trip. Also keep in mind that you will still have to bus to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, if you go there. I hate the bus service with a passion, seriously hate it, but my kids love it as much, if not more, than the monorail. Go figure. It was part of the adventure to them, and they used it as a starting point to discuss what they wanted to do and as a place to recap what they did, whereas the monorail was too crowded and too short a ride for them to truly experience it. They did however, get tired of waiting for late afternoon buses to Epcot when we stayed at CSR that one time.

Good luck, I'm sure you will get much more helpful advice than this and remember, its Disney, and there are very few bad choices.

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

We've stayed at both and loved both - I don't think you can go wrong with either one. If I had to choose, I'd go with Poly though - the convenience of the transportation is a huge plus - we love the monorail and the fact that you can walk to TTC. We spent less time waiting for transportation at Poly than POR. Also, Poly is more compact so less walking going to refill mugs etc.

 

[mickeygirl78]

If you hate busses, one thing to consider at POR is that the busses stop at four stops within POR and sometimes FQ too. That is my biggest pet peeve about the moderates, it takes forever just to get around the resort and off to the parks. POR does have the boat to DTD though, which is really nice. The kids in our family liked the pool at POR. They loved the YC one more though (we did a split stay in Sept). The slide at POR is not very fast, they both thought it was for littlier kids (they are 12 & 9). Whichever resort you pick, I'm sure it will be fun, they are both nice.

 

[mickeynut1]

One more comparison question. We have great offers at both POR and Poly - but they are about $90/night different.

We have previously stayed at WL and YC and loved them and loved the accessibility (don't especially love the buses).

I like to have downtime at the hotel to just chill and use the pool - so the pool is very important. My kids (5 and 7 at the time) - actually preferred the pool and small slide at WL over YC (we did a split stay).

$250/night at Poly or $170/night POR? Between 6 and 8 nights, over the summer. Any / all advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

We've never stayed at POR, but we love the Poly. We've tried SAB (stayed at the BC) and while I'm glad we got to try it, we prefer the Poly pool as we weren't wow'd by SAB (we also love the WL pool). One of the many things we love about it is that it backs up to the beach with a distant view of the castle, which is great for watching the fireworks while swimming. The Poly is also great not only for convenience of going back and forth to MK, but also for going to Epcot as the TTC is a short walk away. It's also convenient to a lot of great dining options at the CR and GF. If the extra cost is doable, I'd go with the Poly. Good luck.

 

[BigAlsGal]

If you can get the poly for $250 do that. PoR will be $170 most of the time. I've never seen poly $250.

 

[Eastern]

Poly.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I would do the Poly. It is so convenient to both EP and MK, plus with the splash pad and the volcano slide at the main pool, you will have both big and little slides to go on!

 

[Soarin4us]

Polynesian for $250? That's incredible. If you can afford it, do it.

 

[terri33inne]

If you hate buses I would do Poly as well. We stayed there in August & I found it the most convenient transportation wise of the resorts. Monorail or boat to MK, and a quick walk to TTC to get the monorail to EP.

When we were there the main pool was quite crowded as they were re-doing the quiet pool. I would check the completion timeline to confirm the quiet pool will be done when you get there.

On the other hand... I LOVE POR too... very laid back & relaxing with the beautiful grounds & gardens. I think Poly tries to go for the laid back island feel, but I think it's difficult to achieve as it's visited by so many non resort guests so it always seemed quite busy to me.

I would stay in either again in a heartbeat. If you go POR make sure your room is not too far from buses/lobby, etc. Was the one thing I hated about POR.

 

[kayteekt]

Polynesian for $250? That's incredible. If you can afford it, do it.

I wonder about this too. That's awesome! Would love to know how you managed that!

 

[Babsy]

we love the Poly. We've tried SAB (stayed at the BC) and while I'm glad we got to try it, we prefer the Poly pool as we weren't wow'd by SAB (we also love the WL pool). One of the many things we love about it is that it backs up to the beach with a distant view of the castle, which is great for watching the fireworks while swimming. The Poly is also great not only for convenience of going back and forth to MK, but also for going to Epcot as the TTC is a short walk away. It's also convenient to a lot of great dining options at the CR and GF. If the extra cost is doable, I'd go with the Poly. Good luck.

I agree!

We have stayed at POR and it is a very nice resort, but for only $90 more per night, I would definitely choose the Poly. The larger rooms, the interior corridors, the convenient location, the views of the MK from the beach and pool - you just can't beat the Poly! It is very special! It is the favourite resort of many people for good reason.

 

[InTheWick]

I wonder about this too. That's awesome! Would love to know how you managed that!

Search "magical labor day deals" on google. A travel agency gets conference rates for certain rooms at certain times of the year. We used them to stay at the Poly last August and are doing it again this August.

 

[CMNJ]

Having stayed at both I vote Poly too if that isn't breaking the budget-both have really nice pools but I like the convenience of the Poly. It is a lot easier to take mid day breaks in my opinion due to its location and quicker transportation (since POR has 4 stops and often shares with POFQ during non peak times) AND being close to MK is really great for early mornings/late nights (since it is the park that tends to have the most extended hours). Also we love the appetizers and spikey pineapples (basically alcoholic dole whips) at Trader Sam's Tike Terrace. They have live music there in the evening but take a break when it is time for Wishes. They then pipe in the Wishes music in and it is a great place to relax and watch the fireworks.

 

[rcraw45425]

Poly for that rate is incredible. I just changed from the Poly (sob) to POR for my four night stay in March, total savings $1K. And that was with an AP discount. With three deluxe stays since May I just had a little trouble sucking it up this time so we're trying the Royal Rooms since it's just one of my college daughters and I and we found ourselves not even in the room except to sleep during our December Poly stay. You won't regret the Poly, the location, theming and transportation options are hard to beat. Our only bus waits were from DHS back "home", but it seems that way from there every time, no matter which MK deluxe we stay at

 

[rymahoney]

With the age of your kids i would go POLY for ease of transportation and great rate.

 

[kayteekt]

Search "magical labor day deals" on google. A travel agency gets conference rates for certain rooms at certain times of the year. We used them to stay at the Poly last August and are doing it again this August.

Thanks!