tinkerbellmagic
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2003
- Messages
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Resort trip report: 11/27 - 12/02
Pop Century/Polynesian/Land-Sea
who: me and 6 yr old DGS
When I originally booked this trip, it was for a land/sea vacation beginning on a Sunday (11/28) at the Polynesian resort. Once I discovered I could save $200 on airfare by leaving on a Saturday instead, I booked an extra night at the beginning of our trip. To justify this extra night, I booked that night at a value resort, which brings us to Pop Century. Please note this review is based on one night stay only.
POP CENTURY
Saturday 11/27 - We stay at Pop Century for one night only before moving to the Polynesian Resort to begin our Land/Sea adventure. We only wait about 5 mins to check in at Pop. CM is extremely nice and courteous. It is only around noon, but our room is ready! Yeah! We are staying in the 50s building facing the 20s, 30s, and 40s, buildings, which are unoccupied. DGS finds the Legendary Years section of Pop intriguing and says that portion of the resort is haunted. I must admit, it does look pretty creepy knowing no one is staying there, or are they???
This is my first time staying at a value resort and I am pleasantly surprised. In the past, we have stayed at Dixie Landings, the Yacht Club, and Poly. I find the atmosphere at Pop to be lighthearted and fun, especially for DGS. He loves the icons! Sure, the room is small, much smaller than the rooms at deluxe resorts, but it's a LOT cheaper, very clean, well kept, and pretty new. I am happy here, but not sure if the small size of the room would "get to me" after a few days. Also, because there is only one window in the room, it is darker than the rooms I am used to at the Poly. Again, minor, when you consider the price.
The noise here is not too bad. Our experiences at the Polynesian have been a lot worse as far as noise goes. The mattresses are firm, as others have mentioned, but I sleep like a rock that night. I have no problems with the room being too hot, but the weather is not very hot either at this time of year, so not sure how Pop fares in Florida's blazing August heat. One thing though, after staying at the Polynesian in the past, since it's so close to MK, I am feeling pretty far out at the Pop, sort of way out there, man... like maybe I'm not really in Disney World, but look at the size of those icons! Hey for that price, I'll take it!
One small complaint I have is the confusing layout of the food court. We stopped here twice. I can't find the hot dogs for DGS (which is what he will eat). I go up to a counter area where I think I see somebody hand a hot dog to a hungry customer. I have to ask people in line if this is the hot dog line. There are no signs whatsoever indicating what is being served at this counter area. The folks that work behind said counter aren't too interested in waiting on you either. Other than that, there seems to be a nice variety of items. I see the tie-dye cheesecake, but am too full to try it. I'm sure once I got used to it, the food court would be no problem.
DGS wants to go swimming in the bowling pin pool. There are very few people in the pool. It is a lot less crowded than the Hippy Dippy pool, which isn't exactly crowded either. DGS makes a new friend and has a blast. The bowling pin pool is great fun.
After a trip to Downtown Disney, we explore the game room at Pop. A fun place and not too expensive. We only spent about $3 and DGS was happy with his little prizes. One of them was a small plastic dinosaur, which makes for a funny story later on in the trip report I plan on sharing later.
Since we would be only staying one night at Pop and moving to the Polynesian the following morning, I call Pop luggage service at night, to arrange for my luggage to be picked up at Pop between 9:30 and 10 am the next morning and delivered to the Polynesian. Unfortunately, we didn't see our luggage until 5:30 pm the day the day we checked into Poly. I imagine these luggage guys usually get stiffed since no one is in the room when they arrive, so I had put a tip in an envelope marked bell services and taped it to my two bags. Since the bags were left in my Pop room, I felt confident the luggage carrier would receive it and I had hopes of this added incentive helping my luggage get to the Poly safely and swiftly. Well, one out of two isn't bad. If you plan on moving your luggage to another resort, please make sure you bring all the neccessities for the day. I sure could have used my aspirin.
The bus transportation from Pop was very good - no complaints. Everything is clearly marked at the bus stops. We had to wait quite a while for a bus from DTD to POP that night and had to stand on a crowded bus to MK the next morning, but it was Thanksgiving weekend, so it could have been a lot worse. I suppose the crowded buses to and from Pop that I have heard others mention, would have gotten to me if I was staying here for more than one night. I have pretty much been happy with Disney bus transportation.
I would love to know why Disney halted the construction of the Legendary Years Section of Pop. I look forward to staying there if it is ever finished. Until then, DGS and I will enjoy the idea that those buildings are haunted. One night we thought we saw dim lights coming from the 30s building. Maybe Tink is hiding out there. Doesn't anyone else get a creepy feeling staring out at the Legendary section of Pop? I mean, you see buildings with rooms, doors, and windows, but the place is like a ghost town. Like a sad abandoned project, and I, for one, would love to see it finished, even though I kind of like being creeped out by it.
My overall impression of Pop is a very good one. I would not hesitate to stay there again if I was in need of a value resort.
************
POLYNESIAN
Sunday 11/28
This would be our 4th stay at the Polynesian. Today was our move from Pop to Polynesian. We take a crowded bus from Pop to MK -- standing room only. We go from bus at MK and hike on up to the monorail to take us to Poly. Since we didn't have our length of stay park passes as yet, we couldn't stop in MK. We had to go straight to Poly and check in.
We arrive at Poly around 10 am, knowing our room would not be ready. A CM in training takes care of us right away. She is nice and friendly (I wonder if she will stay that way after a few months of the Poly). We are given our length of stay passes and are told to call or check back to see if our room is ready. We visit bell services to let them know we will be waiting for our luggage to be delivered from Pop. Bell services is friendly and nice (at this point), but I am a bit disappointed to hear that we need to be in the room for our luggage to be delivered to our Poly room. In the past, I thought bell services was able to leave it in your room whether you were there or not. What a pain.
We hop the monorail and visit MK. I am really wishing we had our luggage as I need aspirin! I brought enough aspirin to supply all headache suffrerers in Fantasy Land, so I don't want to buy any. We return to Poly at 2:30 pm. Our room is still not ready, so they ask us if we would like to be put in another building. I say fine, since my only requests were non-smoking, no ground floors, and I really didn't want another fake balcony again this year. They set us up in Tokelau in a most desirable location on the corner of the building. For a garden price, we had a slight lagoon view and a view of Space Mountain! Out of curiousity, I asked where we were originally supposed to be placed and it was Rapa Nui. Later on, on our cruise, our tablemates indicated that they stayed in Rapa Nui, so you folks that are doing Land/Sea, Rapa Nui is a possibility - close to GCH, laundry, bus stops, monorail.
At 2:45 pm, our luggage has still not arrived. We go back to MK to see the parade. We come back to Poly at 6 pm. We go to bell services at Poly where we were met by a gentleman with attitude problems. It was so unnerving that I ended up lugging my own bags all the way to Tokelau.
When we opened the door to our room, I must say it felt so good to be in such spacious surroundings as opposed to Pop, but you pay a hefty price for that feeling and now that I have stayed at a value, I'm not so sure I am willing to pay deluxe prices anymore. I think a moderate may be more my speed to save $.
Now I love Poly and our room was wonderful, but after a bit, I did notice a few flaws. The switch plate cover for the electrical outlet behind the day bed was missing. Upon further investigation, I found half of it broken under the bed. The toilet, when flushed, would shred the toilet paper, but would not get rid of all of it after one flush - it took a few flushes. Room service trays piled high with old food would be left in hallways for several hours. The Noisemaker family next door had a tray outside of their door from early morning, which was still there when we passed at 6 pm. A small trash can full of overflowing trash from someone's room was left in the hall across from our door from one morning and not picked up until sometime after we went to bed. Other very minor things - A light bulb was burnt out in the floor lamp, the fridge didn't close all the way, there was no 'do not disturb' sign in our room (which I like having), the bathroom could have been cleaner, as could the carpet (I found a straw from the previous guests). I guess I expected that it would be in better shape for a deluxe. It always has in the past. I don't want this to sound like a real negative report on the Polynesian. I am just reporting our experience there during our stay. These things would not deter me from staying there in the future. The tropical grounds are beautiful.
Our room was a noisy one near an outside stairway, but I didn't mind this too much because it had a nice view. For the second year in a row, we had very noisy neighbors. We called them the Noisemaker Family. They had a screaming child that they kept up until 1 am. The parents were loud as well. I know you cannot control small tired children, but you can put them to bed at a decent hour instead of dragging them through the halls screaming at 1:30 am (which they did on our final night there).
Another thing that was annoying was the construction going on that was blocking the stairways and entryways of our building at times, making those entries impassable. It doesn't sound like a big hassle, but after walking all day at the parks, you get to your entrance and find you have to go around to the other side. I know construction must go on, it was just a pain sometimes. Also, many times, there was an odor of natural gas around the Polynesian grounds. So much so, that spending time on our balcony was not at all enjoyable.
We did eat at Captain Cooks more than a few times. The food is as bad as other counter service in WDW, but you can't beat the convenience if you're staying at the Polynesian. We always look forward to the Hawaiin Christmas carols piped in the restaurant and other areas of the resort. Our all time favorite is the Twelve Days of Christmas. My only regret about Captain Cooks is they do not serve pancakes or waffles for breakfast. DGS would love this.
Things I wish the Polynesian and other resorts had would be light up signs around the resort along the walkways and in front of EVERY long house/building entryway that states the name of the building/long house. I know some of these signs exist, but at night, it is very easy to get lost around the Polynesian. The maps aren't that much of a help either. They also need lit up signs that say "this way to Tokeleu" or "this way to Tahiti" etc. Just let us know where we are!
*edited to add* I wouldn't trade our stay at the Polynesian for anything. I enjoy the beauty of the resort, but mainly stay there for the wonderful transportation options, which cannot be matched by any other resort, imo. Most of the CMs are very friendly and courteous in Trader Jacks and Captain Cooks. It just feels like home there. For the price though, I might check into other resorts now that DGS is getting older and it's not as important to stay at a monorail resort. Is Poly worth the price? Probably not, but if you have small children, a monorail resort is very handy.
DGS loved the volcano pool at Poly. I did see a little girl hit her head on the sides of the slide on the way down, though, so not sure what happened. One annoying thing at the volcano pool was, due to the construction, you had to walk all the way around the pool area to the marina, just to grab a life jacket for the kids. Again, a minor annoyance, no big deal, but I don't understand why I needed to put up my Key to the World card for the marina to hold, while we used the life vest. At the Pop, the life-vests are in bins right next to the pool for all to use freely.
I know others enjoy moving from one resort to the next during one vacation, but it's just not my thing. I will try to avoid this in the future. I do not like the moving around. It's a time waster.
We really did have a magical time!
If I think of anything else, I will add on.
Link to trip report:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=708265
Here is my cheapskate dining report:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=693730
Here is my transportation report:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=693676
Thanks, Tink
Pop Century/Polynesian/Land-Sea
who: me and 6 yr old DGS
When I originally booked this trip, it was for a land/sea vacation beginning on a Sunday (11/28) at the Polynesian resort. Once I discovered I could save $200 on airfare by leaving on a Saturday instead, I booked an extra night at the beginning of our trip. To justify this extra night, I booked that night at a value resort, which brings us to Pop Century. Please note this review is based on one night stay only.
POP CENTURY
Saturday 11/27 - We stay at Pop Century for one night only before moving to the Polynesian Resort to begin our Land/Sea adventure. We only wait about 5 mins to check in at Pop. CM is extremely nice and courteous. It is only around noon, but our room is ready! Yeah! We are staying in the 50s building facing the 20s, 30s, and 40s, buildings, which are unoccupied. DGS finds the Legendary Years section of Pop intriguing and says that portion of the resort is haunted. I must admit, it does look pretty creepy knowing no one is staying there, or are they???
This is my first time staying at a value resort and I am pleasantly surprised. In the past, we have stayed at Dixie Landings, the Yacht Club, and Poly. I find the atmosphere at Pop to be lighthearted and fun, especially for DGS. He loves the icons! Sure, the room is small, much smaller than the rooms at deluxe resorts, but it's a LOT cheaper, very clean, well kept, and pretty new. I am happy here, but not sure if the small size of the room would "get to me" after a few days. Also, because there is only one window in the room, it is darker than the rooms I am used to at the Poly. Again, minor, when you consider the price.
The noise here is not too bad. Our experiences at the Polynesian have been a lot worse as far as noise goes. The mattresses are firm, as others have mentioned, but I sleep like a rock that night. I have no problems with the room being too hot, but the weather is not very hot either at this time of year, so not sure how Pop fares in Florida's blazing August heat. One thing though, after staying at the Polynesian in the past, since it's so close to MK, I am feeling pretty far out at the Pop, sort of way out there, man... like maybe I'm not really in Disney World, but look at the size of those icons! Hey for that price, I'll take it!
One small complaint I have is the confusing layout of the food court. We stopped here twice. I can't find the hot dogs for DGS (which is what he will eat). I go up to a counter area where I think I see somebody hand a hot dog to a hungry customer. I have to ask people in line if this is the hot dog line. There are no signs whatsoever indicating what is being served at this counter area. The folks that work behind said counter aren't too interested in waiting on you either. Other than that, there seems to be a nice variety of items. I see the tie-dye cheesecake, but am too full to try it. I'm sure once I got used to it, the food court would be no problem.
DGS wants to go swimming in the bowling pin pool. There are very few people in the pool. It is a lot less crowded than the Hippy Dippy pool, which isn't exactly crowded either. DGS makes a new friend and has a blast. The bowling pin pool is great fun.
After a trip to Downtown Disney, we explore the game room at Pop. A fun place and not too expensive. We only spent about $3 and DGS was happy with his little prizes. One of them was a small plastic dinosaur, which makes for a funny story later on in the trip report I plan on sharing later.
Since we would be only staying one night at Pop and moving to the Polynesian the following morning, I call Pop luggage service at night, to arrange for my luggage to be picked up at Pop between 9:30 and 10 am the next morning and delivered to the Polynesian. Unfortunately, we didn't see our luggage until 5:30 pm the day the day we checked into Poly. I imagine these luggage guys usually get stiffed since no one is in the room when they arrive, so I had put a tip in an envelope marked bell services and taped it to my two bags. Since the bags were left in my Pop room, I felt confident the luggage carrier would receive it and I had hopes of this added incentive helping my luggage get to the Poly safely and swiftly. Well, one out of two isn't bad.
If you plan on moving your luggage to another resort, please make sure you bring all the neccessities for the day. I sure could have used my aspirin. The bus transportation from Pop was very good - no complaints. Everything is clearly marked at the bus stops. We had to wait quite a while for a bus from DTD to POP that night and had to stand on a crowded bus to MK the next morning, but it was Thanksgiving weekend, so it could have been a lot worse. I suppose the crowded buses to and from Pop that I have heard others mention, would have gotten to me if I was staying here for more than one night. I have pretty much been happy with Disney bus transportation.
I would love to know why Disney halted the construction of the Legendary Years Section of Pop. I look forward to staying there if it is ever finished. Until then, DGS and I will enjoy the idea that those buildings are haunted. One night we thought we saw dim lights coming from the 30s building. Maybe Tink is hiding out there. Doesn't anyone else get a creepy feeling staring out at the Legendary section of Pop? I mean, you see buildings with rooms, doors, and windows, but the place is like a ghost town. Like a sad abandoned project, and I, for one, would love to see it finished, even though I kind of like being creeped out by it.
My overall impression of Pop is a very good one. I would not hesitate to stay there again if I was in need of a value resort.
************
POLYNESIAN
Sunday 11/28
This would be our 4th stay at the Polynesian. Today was our move from Pop to Polynesian. We take a crowded bus from Pop to MK -- standing room only. We go from bus at MK and hike on up to the monorail to take us to Poly. Since we didn't have our length of stay park passes as yet, we couldn't stop in MK. We had to go straight to Poly and check in.
We arrive at Poly around 10 am, knowing our room would not be ready. A CM in training takes care of us right away. She is nice and friendly (I wonder if she will stay that way after a few months of the Poly
). We are given our length of stay passes and are told to call or check back to see if our room is ready. We visit bell services to let them know we will be waiting for our luggage to be delivered from Pop. Bell services is friendly and nice (at this point), but I am a bit disappointed to hear that we need to be in the room for our luggage to be delivered to our Poly room. In the past, I thought bell services was able to leave it in your room whether you were there or not. What a pain. We hop the monorail and visit MK. I am really wishing we had our luggage as I need aspirin! I brought enough aspirin to supply all headache suffrerers in Fantasy Land, so I don't want to buy any. We return to Poly at 2:30 pm. Our room is still not ready, so they ask us if we would like to be put in another building. I say fine, since my only requests were non-smoking, no ground floors, and I really didn't want another fake balcony again this year. They set us up in Tokelau in a most desirable location on the corner of the building. For a garden price, we had a slight lagoon view and a view of Space Mountain! Out of curiousity, I asked where we were originally supposed to be placed and it was Rapa Nui. Later on, on our cruise, our tablemates indicated that they stayed in Rapa Nui, so you folks that are doing Land/Sea, Rapa Nui is a possibility - close to GCH, laundry, bus stops, monorail.
At 2:45 pm, our luggage has still not arrived. We go back to MK to see the parade. We come back to Poly at 6 pm. We go to bell services at Poly where we were met by a gentleman with attitude problems. It was so unnerving that I ended up lugging my own bags all the way to Tokelau.
When we opened the door to our room, I must say it felt so good to be in such spacious surroundings as opposed to Pop, but you pay a hefty price for that feeling and now that I have stayed at a value, I'm not so sure I am willing to pay deluxe prices anymore. I think a moderate may be more my speed to save $.
Now I love Poly and our room was wonderful, but after a bit, I did notice a few flaws. The switch plate cover for the electrical outlet behind the day bed was missing. Upon further investigation, I found half of it broken under the bed. The toilet, when flushed, would shred the toilet paper, but would not get rid of all of it after one flush - it took a few flushes. Room service trays piled high with old food would be left in hallways for several hours. The Noisemaker family next door had a tray outside of their door from early morning, which was still there when we passed at 6 pm. A small trash can full of overflowing trash from someone's room was left in the hall across from our door from one morning and not picked up until sometime after we went to bed. Other very minor things - A light bulb was burnt out in the floor lamp, the fridge didn't close all the way, there was no 'do not disturb' sign in our room (which I like having), the bathroom could have been cleaner, as could the carpet (I found a straw from the previous guests). I guess I expected that it would be in better shape for a deluxe. It always has in the past. I don't want this to sound like a real negative report on the Polynesian. I am just reporting our experience there during our stay. These things would not deter me from staying there in the future. The tropical grounds are beautiful.
Our room was a noisy one near an outside stairway, but I didn't mind this too much because it had a nice view. For the second year in a row, we had very noisy neighbors. We called them the Noisemaker Family. They had a screaming child that they kept up until 1 am. The parents were loud as well. I know you cannot control small tired children, but you can put them to bed at a decent hour instead of dragging them through the halls screaming at 1:30 am (which they did on our final night there).
Another thing that was annoying was the construction going on that was blocking the stairways and entryways of our building at times, making those entries impassable. It doesn't sound like a big hassle, but after walking all day at the parks, you get to your entrance and find you have to go around to the other side. I know construction must go on, it was just a pain sometimes. Also, many times, there was an odor of natural gas around the Polynesian grounds. So much so, that spending time on our balcony was not at all enjoyable.
We did eat at Captain Cooks more than a few times. The food is as bad as other counter service in WDW, but you can't beat the convenience if you're staying at the Polynesian. We always look forward to the Hawaiin Christmas carols piped in the restaurant and other areas of the resort. Our all time favorite is the Twelve Days of Christmas. My only regret about Captain Cooks is they do not serve pancakes or waffles for breakfast. DGS would love this.
Things I wish the Polynesian and other resorts had would be light up signs around the resort along the walkways and in front of EVERY long house/building entryway that states the name of the building/long house. I know some of these signs exist, but at night, it is very easy to get lost around the Polynesian. The maps aren't that much of a help either. They also need lit up signs that say "this way to Tokeleu" or "this way to Tahiti" etc. Just let us know where we are!
*edited to add* I wouldn't trade our stay at the Polynesian for anything. I enjoy the beauty of the resort, but mainly stay there for the wonderful transportation options, which cannot be matched by any other resort, imo. Most of the CMs are very friendly and courteous in Trader Jacks and Captain Cooks. It just feels like home there. For the price though, I might check into other resorts now that DGS is getting older and it's not as important to stay at a monorail resort. Is Poly worth the price? Probably not, but if you have small children, a monorail resort is very handy.
DGS loved the volcano pool at Poly. I did see a little girl hit her head on the sides of the slide on the way down, though, so not sure what happened. One annoying thing at the volcano pool was, due to the construction, you had to walk all the way around the pool area to the marina, just to grab a life jacket for the kids. Again, a minor annoyance, no big deal, but I don't understand why I needed to put up my Key to the World card for the marina to hold, while we used the life vest. At the Pop, the life-vests are in bins right next to the pool for all to use freely.
I know others enjoy moving from one resort to the next during one vacation, but it's just not my thing. I will try to avoid this in the future. I do not like the moving around. It's a time waster.
We really did have a magical time!
If I think of anything else, I will add on.
Link to trip report:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=708265
Here is my cheapskate dining report:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=693730
Here is my transportation report:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=693676
Thanks, Tink
Here's a New Years wish -- I am hoping someone somewhere at Disney will say, "Hey, whatya say we finish the Legandary Years before the ghosts completely take over!"
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