GCH was always crowed due to ‘Ohana’s, Capt Cooks seemed to always be chaotic (i guess because its so small). The longhouses are dated, the elevators are tiny and need updating bad, the lava pool is small to be a feature pool, we had trouble with housekeeping (we were gone all day and didnt get back to our room until 2am due to Galaxtic Nights at HS and our room had not been serviced, waited over 2 hours after calling for towels and no one ever came, ended up walking to GCH and having someone there help me) overall it was not at all what i expected especially for the amount of money we paid per night (and we had a magical deal saving almost 1/2 off rack rate).
We have stayed at AoA, Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge, AKL and last month Beach Club. Based on what type if vacation you are looking for I would stay at all the others again, but sadly not Poly. We have 3 trips booked between now and Nov 2019, we are booked for those trips at WL, Contemporary and Beach Club.
WL and AKL are very similar to us, if you have a lot of resort time planned I would pick AKL, for Christmas this year we are doing WL. If you want a tropical feel then Beach Club all the way. And I love the upscale feel of the Contemporary, even with it having Chef Mickey’s it never felt as crowed with extra guest like Poly did.