Polynesian

[Have3Kids&aHusband]

As stated in previous posts, every family has their own preference. We stayed at Poly 7 years ago and loved it. We loved the pool, which was before it was redone. My husband & I enjoyed the convenience of the monorail with small children. It was definitely a wonderful splurge. We made 3 more trips since the Poly and stayed at WL, YC, and split stay Riverside & YC. The kids' new favorite happens to be Yacht Club. However, each stay we go over to Poly because my husband loves Dole Whips and loves the atmosphere there. Last time the kids saw the new pool area and commented that they wouldn't mind doing a split stay at Poly & YC. They had already voiced to my husband & me that they would prefer to not stay at Riverside again. Fast forward to now: I worked out dates so we could get a standard room for 3 nights at Poly and 5 nights at YC for our trip next summer. Everyone is looking forward to having the chance to stay at Poly again, but not worrying about missing out on their favorite YC.

 

[Sarahslay]

YS is far from the lobby, and doesnt get a huge crowd - no waiting around common areas. This is definitely the quietest resort Ive stayed at. Many guests are there for business. They are in conference rooms all day and have a planned activity at night. AKL is a close second. Poly is the "loudest" by far. I sometimes take the monorail over to CR for an ice cream just for some quiet time!

I stayed at YC in October and the lobby was actually always busy, every single time I walked through there wasn't an empty seat and there were people milling around. With the low ceiling and dark atmosphere it felt crammed, and then there were multiple people with very large dogs just hanging around in the lobby, it was definitely not quiet during that stay (Maybe when it's not f&w). I think when you go to any resort really makes a difference to how busy anyone thinks the lobby is. I've never been in Poly when it's been packed, but I'm also not there during peak meal times and likely won't be when I stay there (as we will be off somewhere else in a park eating, or other resort eating). The lobby at CR isn't crowded for sure, dead in fact, but the main hub around chef mickeys can get nuts when every family with toddlers in the area comes to eat with their giant strollers. I always feel like the absolute worst lobby is GF. When I stayed there last summer in RPC it was always crowded, always bustling, seats always filled and always loud. With so many restaurants I could see why, and there were always people coming for their little girls to dance with Cinderella and Prince Charming in the afternoon. My room overlooked all the pools and they always had people at them, the central pool less so, but they had tons of activities on the lawn outside of the central pool which kept the whole area active most afternoons. I never dock any resort for being crowded though, it comes with being at Disney, and even with finding resort lobbys crowded and often noisy I've still really enjoyed myself. If I wanted someplace quiet I'd stay home, I live on a mountain, it's dead quiet aside from some birds.

 

[ginny65]

It is funny how people can have the same experience but come away from it with different views. We consider YC to be our "home" resort. However, I have always felt I could never really relax while at SaB. There is always so much going on at the pool, the view of boats coming and going to fun theme parks and BW, people coming up to the window Beaches and Cream, not to mention that nice bars are just a walk away at Swan and Dolphin.

 

[Lilylogan]

We love the Polynesian but I think part of it is that it seems "old school" Disney to me - lots of nostalgia imo

 

[DISNEY1975]

I stayed at YC in October and the lobby was actually always busy, every single time I walked through there wasn't an empty seat and there were people milling around. With the low ceiling and dark atmosphere it felt crammed, and then there were multiple people with very large dogs just hanging around in the lobby, it was definitely not quiet during that stay (Maybe when it's not f&w). I think when you go to any resort really makes a difference to how busy anyone thinks the lobby is. I've never been in Poly when it's been packed, but I'm also not there during peak meal times and likely won't be when I stay there (as we will be off somewhere else in a park eating, or other resort eating). The lobby at CR isn't crowded for sure, dead in fact, but the main hub around chef mickeys can get nuts when every family with toddlers in the area comes to eat with their giant strollers. I always feel like the absolute worst lobby is GF. When I stayed there last summer in RPC it was always crowded, always bustling, seats always filled and always loud. With so many restaurants I could see why, and there were always people coming for their little girls to dance with Cinderella and Prince Charming in the afternoon. My room overlooked all the pools and they always had people at them, the central pool less so, but they had tons of activities on the lawn outside of the central pool which kept the whole area active most afternoons. I never dock any resort for being crowded though, it comes with being at Disney, and even with finding resort lobbys crowded and often noisy I've still really enjoyed myself. If I wanted someplace quiet I'd stay home, I live on a mountain, it's dead quiet aside from some birds.

Strange... I had a totally different experience every time I went....

From our late March thru early April trip.......

Beaches and Cream when we were there...





Lobby...






Yachtsmans Steakhouse






Poly in September....

 

[DISNEY1975]

Beach Club - Early April....





Right after rain....



AKL....







Poly by far the busiest, every trip, no exception.

 

[toodycat]

I can understand your feeling. We absolutely LOVE the Poly. It's our favorite resort and we will save to be able to stay there every time we go to Disney; however, it's not for everyone. We ventured out and stayed at BC one year because we heard such amazing things about it (pool, walk to epcot.....). We literally walked into our room and I looked at my husband and said, can we move to the Poly. My kids were even like "when are we going to OUR resort." We tried the pool at BC and the food and walked around a bit then we had the cast member move us over to the Poly. Everyone was much happier. It's all about what you like. When I try a resort, I try not to let negative things that could happen at any resort affect my opinion. Any resort can have a bad day with dishes, bugs, rude staff. That is definitely not exclusive to one place. You never know what you will like until you try it!! And I agree with the experiment comment. We save for these trips and i'm not spending my money hoping I will like the resort!!! For me, the GF is beautiful but I would never experiment with my money over there lol!! So funny how different everyone sees things. Enjoy your next GF trip!!!

I do think you have to compare CMs to CMs and service to service. We’ve stayed at the GF half a dozen times and never had a rude CM. On our second stay at the Poly, our flight was delayed and then Happy Limo didn’t show up. We had to take a cab from MCO and got in much later than expected. Instead of the usual Disney welcome at the front desk, we were told that the building we requested wasn’t available “because you were late.” I know you can’t reserve a room in a building; you can only request and hope for the best, but it’s not very magical to start my stay by placing blame on me for something I couldn’t control. We had even called the Poly to tell them that we would be checking in later than anticipated because of the delay. I didn’t care about the building. I cared about the attitude. Then, she looked my son up and down and said, “Isn’t he supposed to be in school?” In fact, schools in New York don’t start until after Labor Day, so he was still on school vacation. Also, we were celebrating our wedding anniversary, and whereas the GF has always sent cards, flowers or strawberries to our room, the Poly did nothing for our special day. My husband mentioned it and someone slid a certificate under our door a day or two after our anniversary. When we evaluated all that plus the bugs, it just seemed like whoever was in charge at the Poly wasn’t as customer service minded as the managers of the other resorts where we’ve experienced excellent service that went the extra mile, specifically the GF, AKL, and WL. For the same money, I would stay at one of those resorts. I can understand that the Poly is “home” to you, and if if feels the most comfortable for your family, that’s great. I just felt that the glitches we experienced were systemic and not isolated incidents. At other resorts, I felt like the CMs were responding to us like they were happy to see us and make our vacation the best it could be. I don’t love the BC, but I got that vibe there as well. At the Poly, it kind of felt like they were resting on their reputation and CMs didn’t have to be Disney level friendly. The only exception was the guy who drove the golf cart to our room and let my son sit up front.

 

[vinotinto]

We've stayed twice at Poly, and many other times at other resorts. There's definitely a LOT going for the Poly and I would stay there again, although for some reason I haven't stayed there in a while. We may be overdue.

I think @GADisneyDad14 did a good summary of the criticisms of it. I will add to the list of criticisms that guests expect a lot for the price that Poly cost per night. Not only is the rack rate pretty high, but it's often discounted at a worse percentage than other deluxes.

And part of the additional cost is the "excellent" transportation. But, the monorail is very crowded and we've had our fair share of monorail delays and issues. And the bus sharing to DHS and AK means that you are doing stops (usually with GF), so in some ways it's not much different than a moderate or other deluxes. My personal opinion is that the 3 Epcot resorts have better location and transportation, since you can walk to two parks. BWI even had the MK bus going straight back and forth to MK. So, that's my two cents on transportation.

 

[snappy]

I found the Poly to be extremely relaxing but we avoided the CH except when checking in and the night we went to Trader Sam’s. No reason to go to the CH otherwise for us. We found our DVC studio beyond comfy and quiet. We rented a cabana one afternoon. It was wonderful. I love the Oasis pool. It was clean and quiet when we went. We went another morning and stayed until after 2 pm. Did not want to leave and boy was I glad since it was the day the Disney turnstiles jammed up when the system wouldn’t recognize ticket media. We were happily oblivious. I priced out an all day cabana and it was $73. Bargain. We ordered drinks and food from the Oasis bar which we enjoyed.

We moved to an Epcot resort after 5 nights and it was the perfect vacation.