Pools at Poly vs. CR

[indymom1]

We will be going to DW July 2006 for 10 nights. We have stayed at the Poly before but never the CR. My two boys will be 3 and almost 9 at the time of the trip. My older son loved the Poly pool but seems very interested in staying at the CR with the monorail. Could anyone compare the two pools. The pictures that I have seen of the CR pool it seems very small and we are afraid he may not like it after playing in the one at the Poly? Any thoughts or suggestions?? We don't want to resort hop we just like to get to one place and stay put so splitting the stay is not an option for us. What have your older children thought of the CR pool??

Thanks in advance
Kathy

 

[sharonk]

The pool at CR is actually quite big, and there's a second, smaller pool nearby. ( maybe that's the one you saw and thought was small?)

It has a nice water slide, and it's situated right on the lake, so there are some very good views.

It's not themed as nicely as the Poly pool, but we still liked it!

Sharon

 

[sotoalf]

Well, there's just no comparison. It depends how much of a stickler your kids are for themes and such. The Poly's Volcano Pool is better themed, has better slides.

However, I wouldn't let choice of a pool be the deciding factor, especially if your son wants to stay at the CR anyway. The Contemporary's pool DOES have a slide - check it out on www.wdwig.com - and it's pretty big. And the CR's pool has two jacuzzi's; neither of the Polynesian's two pools has a jacuzzi.

The CR's pool area also has a squirting fountain littlte kids seem to love, as well as a circle pool called the Bay Pool, because it overlooks Bay Lake. It's shallow around the ends and deep (about 5 ft) in the middle.

 

[bhillier]

I vote for the Poly. The zero depth entry is awsome even for a child that can swim. The pool is even heated. It just right. there is nothing like swimming in the pool after a long day in one of the parks. Get a snack and maybe throw the football around while waiting for the fireworks to start. Once they start they are beautiful while floating in the pool or laying on a lounge chair. We loved the Poly. You can't get a good feel of the place from pictures. Poly 100% . It will be the best trip ever!!!!

 

[skiwee1]

I vote for the Poly. The pools at the CR are the ONLY reason we will never stay there. They must be the most boring pools onsite. It is bad enough that there is no kiddie pool but there is no zero entry. My 5 y/o has been going to the Poly pool for 3 1/2 years and loves being able to chose the depth she wants to play in.

 

[JayCT]

We stayed at the Poly two years ago and loved it. Two weeks ago we stayed at CR for the firat time. We wanted to try something different. We too were concerned about the CR pool, however, we were surprised to find that the pool itself was better than we expected. It was the patio area that I had a real problem with.

First of all, there are two pools at CR. The smaller round pool is next to Bay Lake, the large main pool is nearer to the hotel. The large pool has a pretty good open water slide that DW and the kids really liked. There are also a couple of hot tubs adjacent to the main pool. The thing about the CR pool I really disliked was the seating area adjacent to the pool. It is a large expanse of pavement with hundreds of lounge chairs. The problem is that few of them are in the shade. The ones that are in shade are taken very early. I swear people must get up at dawn and stake their claim because I never saw a chair in the shade that was not taken and we were there during the off-season. Also there were only six tables with unbrellas by this pool. Other resorts have hundreds of tables with umbrellas. not the CR. I asked the lifeguard about this and she said "People like to sit in the sun and that is all we are allowed to put out". I do not know what that means but that is what she said and I definitely got the impression that she did not want to talk about it. I did write about this complaint rather extensively in the email they sent us. i hope they got the message.

So if you like to relax in the shade by the pool while your kids are swimming after a long day at the parks, I would not recommend staying at CR. Needless to say we will never stay there again. Jay

PS - The Fun Center was great, but it is a short ride from the Poly on the monorail.

 

[noopy]

It's true that there aren't enough tables with umbrellas at the CR pools, and people do seem to stake their claim fairly early. I hope they hear from a lot of visitors about this frustrating problem. However, we still loved the pool and managed to find a table twice and chairs on the other days. Since it wasn't that hot, we didn't mind sitting in the sun some - we were mostly in the pool. My daughter loved the pool! She found all of the fountains in the pool, the slide, and the play areas on the pool deck where water squirted up to be very entertaining. At times, I felt like the pool was more attractive to her than the parks! We also loved walking from the deck right onto the beach to play in the sand, and watching the boats in the lake from the pool area was so relaxing.
We have already planned our 2nd visit to the CR, and are looking forward to the pool, the restaurants, the large rooms, and definitely the monorail - we had a wing room with a view of it that thrilled my DD! We can't wait!


Our little family

 

[indymom1]

Thanks everyone.....both sides have given us some things to think about. I guess my biggest concern is that we will be travelling in late July with lots of heat and humidity and would have a 3 year old and almost 9 year old. I think it would be hard if there were not a lot of shady places for them at that time of year. Thanks again