Hi all, just got home from the poly yesterday - early a.m.
Overall, great stay. Beautiful warm (oh,ok - HOT) weather.. only one lightning storm (which hit a palm near the bustop and it caught on fire!!) .
Notes:
We stayed CL Hawaii building - LV. Requested either first floor or 3rd floor, specifically did NOT want 2nd floor. Have stayed first floor 2x before LV, and third floor once before LV.
Well, we checked in outside about 9:30pm on 8/5, was told our room number was 25XX - (don't remember much after the 25 part), we know this was 2nd floor and we were NOT happy -- asked to speak to the concierge right away, as we did not want this!
They attempted to bring us to the front desk to check in again - which we know we don't need to do - being CL - so we said we weren't checking in there, and that we wanted to go to the Hawaii building to speak to a concierge. They are only on til 10pm.
We were brought to the Hawaii building - not in any golf cart btw, we all walked (not a huge deal, but still -- off) then we go thru the whole story about how months ago, i spoke to the IPO (thru the IPO poly concierge email) and requested first floor, or 2nd choice was 3rd floor.... blah blah, i will save you all the long details -- but basically -- the concierge didn't know why they "didnt get the message", and they were booked on those rooms, even though we called a few days prior to let them know we were a late check in, and again, placed the request for our room, we were told they would for sure try to hold one of those rooms for us.
Fast forward, we ended up getting a manager - she was nice, but not much more help -- seems like they were blaming IPO for dropping the ball - as they checked into our past stays and patterns there.
Sorry, but for $600+ a night -- i want a balcony or patio - not a slider opening to nothing. Also - the room the stuck us in was the LAST room -- oh, i think it was 2518. Awful view as well, palm trees were totally blocking the view of the castle and such -- again, combined with the no balcony/patio - for $600 a night is nuts.
They did have a room leaving first floor LV the next day - so we took that.. and moved over the next a.m. Our second room was perfect.. just more of an inconvienince that we had to do -after arriving late the night before and going thru this..
Turns out that a fest (from the famous Tiki man) was going on while we were there -- (missed this - as i found out too late, but man, those people looked great to hang with! Found out TikiMan was staying 2 doors down from us - but never got to meet him). But i am sure this would explain lots of the "booked rooms". However, i still feel that we arrived late and got what room was leftover.. not cool in my book.
Then, my other prob. was - i asked about IPO - they were supposed to be checking continously for a Mickey's BBQ tickets for us - never got back to me, and didn't let me (or the concierge staff) know if they ever secured them or not. Conceirge found no records for anything.... again, blamed the IPO., who didn't open up til the next day.
Also - we always had a packet waiting for us upon checkin with the concierge -- with ADR's in it and so on - nothing this time. They didn't even ask about any of my other ADR's. I was a lil' upset, and voiced my concern. Again, they had "no idea" why it didn't show up. (BTW, Michael (I think was his name, tall guy with glasses) was the concierge that we dealt with the first night).
I gotta tell ya - after having dealt with the Poly concierge several times before, with no problems, they were definately not on the ball this night. I was disappointed - i will admit - on my first night going to bed.
Anyway, as i said, after that - we had a great time... I can tell you though for a fact, things have cut down CL there --- first sign i saw, remember those huge chocolate bars they gave you when you checked in your room -- that had the pic of the poly on them?? Well, we got one in March that was huge -- now, we checked in and it was literally 1/2 the size --- mabye 5" square vs a 4"x10" bar before. Not a huge thing - but noticable for repeats. Others wouldn't know.
NExt sign was the food -- Chef Dick is amazing, and created great food - but i did notice little things -- no more mixed nuts out - which were there in March - not replenishing the food as frequently, and NO PINEAPPLE with caramel!!!! They had this every night in March. I was major bummed about this!!
One of the CL CM's (don't want to say who) did tell us that they did cut back on the food - and said however, that the GF CL was beefed up with food - since it's the flagship resort - they got the pineapple (without the caramel) -- how can you take the pineapple away from the Poly???!!! Thank goodness they still had that amazing punch!!
They did say that the Tonga building now had it's own breakfast/snacks out -- but they didn't do the hot dinner stuff there - so Tonga guests could still come over for that. But, they said that the Tonga building had different items out for breakfast (banana bread for one) and that we weren't allowed to go there - and vise versa.. ?? I really wish they would have put out some banana bread ONCE for us!
And for what it's worth - which is not much in the scheme, but - they didn't put out rice crispie treats anymore at night! Again, i loved these!! LOL And i noticed a small cutback in the way of alcohol for the late night snacks.. imo.
All in all, i love the poly, and don't want to sound all negitive, but for those who have stayed CL before, and are going back -- take notice - you will see the lil' subtle cutbacks. But, the rates still go up.
Mousekeeping was great. room was always done early and nice and clean.
Me and my dd ate at Ohana's for breakfast one a.m. - GREAT MEAL!!! Loved it!!!!
I also took note from the DIS, and got a Lapu Lapu drink on my last day (Monday) - it was worth getting once, won't do it again though.. for $13 i didn't even get a buzz.. LOL
I would rather get 2 pool bar drinks for that price.
But, worth trying.
Pool was always crowded, but they had great games/activities each day. dd loved the Wii cart!
That's it for now.... please lmk if you have questions!
I dont know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing!
If anyone else is going when we are, we would love to meet you! my wife and I will be there 27 AUG to 5th SEP, if your going around that time pm me maybe we could sit by the pool and drink Lapu Lapu's and feel sorry for those that arent there!! 
but... my vacation is over and yours will be just beginning! 
I hope you still had fun. I can understand completely...
Good luck!
I am so annoyed about the pineapple with carmel being taken away! 
DH and I are thinking of buying into DVC and I want to check some things out while we are there in October. It is great that we have a store here so we don't have to waste precious vacation time doing all of that! I am seriously thinking about BLT even though the CR is not really appealing to us, BLT seems fabulous. I am super excited 
