The *ALL NEW* Polynesian Resort FAQ thread - *APRIL 2009*

[Kay7979]

We're here and it's fantastic! We were assigned 3420 which looked like the infamous Tree View room. We had a glimpse of the pool through the tree limbs. At least we got a balcony as requested, but the view was a disappointment since this is a non-park Poly only trip.

Major Pixie Dust alert: when we went to get our keys and officially check in, I explained why the room was a disappointment but didn't press them to change it. The CM was sooooo nice. He said no other rooms were ready but he could probably switch us later (we were going over to CC's for lunch.) He said he would check the views on a few of the other rooms. We thought that was unbelievably kind.He found us at CCs and gave us our new room keys. We finished lunch and headed back to our new room. I opened the door and nearly passed out! We are in 3504 with a direct view of the castle and space mountain!!!!!!!

I will be talking about this trip for years! We only have three days, but it will be three glorious days!

CL served pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, cheese and crackers and veggies and dips. It was all very tasty.

Right now we are resort hopping. It's raining and we are sitting out on a covered porch at the GF watching it rain and enjoying the breeze and lagoon view.

More report later!

 

[swald91]

We're here and it's fantastic! We were assigned 3420 which looked like the infamous Tree View room. We had a glimpse of the pool through the tree limbs. At least we got a balcony as requested, but the view was a disappointment since this is a non-park Poly only trip.

Major Pixie Dust alert: when we went to get our keys and officially check in, I explained why the room was a disappointment but didn't press them to change it. The CM was sooooo nice. He said no other rooms were ready but he could probably switch us later (we were going over to CC's for lunch.) He said he would check the views on a few of the other rooms. We thought that was unbelievably kind.He found us at CCs and gave us our new room keys. We finished lunch and headed back to our new room. I opened the door and nearly passed out! We are in 3504 with a direct view of the castle and space mountain!!!!!!!

I will be talking about this trip for years! We only have three days, but it will be three glorious days!

CL served pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, cheese and crackers and veggies and dips. It was all very tasty.

Right now we are resort hopping. It's raining and we are sitting out on a covered porch at the GF watching it rain and enjoying the breeze and lagoon view.

More report later!

We were there a few weeks ago & had room 1527-tree & bushes right outside our door-LOVED it!!!!! Did you see the fruit & veggie art Chef Dick prepares??? If not, I hope you get to see it before you leave-it's awesome!! have a great time-those days will fly by I know our week did.... PS..who was the CM...Wes? He's great!! Alex is nice too but Wes did alot for us.

 

[SeaSpray]

We're here and it's fantastic! We were assigned 3420 which looked like the infamous Tree View room. We had a glimpse of the pool through the tree limbs. At least we got a balcony as requested, but the view was a disappointment since this is a non-park Poly only trip.

Major Pixie Dust alert: when we went to get our keys and officially check in, I explained why the room was a disappointment but didn't press them to change it. The CM was sooooo nice. He said no other rooms were ready but he could probably switch us later (we were going over to CC's for lunch.) He said he would check the views on a few of the other rooms. We thought that was unbelievably kind.He found us at CCs and gave us our new room keys. We finished lunch and headed back to our new room. I opened the door and nearly passed out! We are in 3504 with a direct view of the castle and space mountain!!!!!!!

I will be talking about this trip for years! We only have three days, but it will be three glorious days!

CL served pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, cheese and crackers and veggies and dips. It was all very tasty.

Right now we are resort hopping. It's raining and we are sitting out on a covered porch at the GF watching it rain and enjoying the breeze and lagoon view.

More report later!

Third floor lagoon-view of the Hawaii building just cannot be beat!! (IMHO). Have a wonderful time!!

 

[SuAnne]

Hi Everyone

We arrived home last night from a wonderful 8 night LVC stay at the Polynesian. It was pure heaven. We loved it so much we wanted to stay another couple of nights but it wasn’t meant to be since we weren’t able to change our flight home.

We checked in at around 7:30 am on Thursday, Aug 27 and were trilled to find out that our room was ready! I had requested a third floor room and were given room 3512 with an amazing clear view of the castle that took our breath away when we walked in the room.

Our room was spotless, the beds heavenly ( loved the pillows!) and never heard a peep from either side of us nor a turbo flush at all. You could really hear kids running in the halls though, but I think it was because the building being the age it is ,the floors aren’t as soundproofed as they are in newer buildings.

We had breakfast in the lounge every morning and the offerings were the same every day. Bagels, cinnamon buns, croissants, fruit bowl (cantaloupe, melon, grapes), and also bananas, apples and oranges, and cereals. I always had yogurt which was available if you asked for it. It was enough to get us started in the morning and more than enough for my picky eater daughter who only wanted a bagel every morning.

The evening appetizers were very nice, but did not seem to be as extensive as I have seen listed, but again more than enough for a nice pre-dinner snack and all very tasty. Our first night was Lo-Mein noodles and make your own lettuce wraps, other nights included pork sandwiches, teriyaki chicken skewers, bbq pork skewers, sushi, wings, curried shrimp soup. They also had wine, beer and punch out every night as well. I was really impressed how ‘civilized” all the guests were when the food was put out, not the feeding frenzy that we encountered when we stayed at AKL last year . The lounge never seemed very crowed at all. In fact there were some nights when we went to the lounge at 8-9pm and there was no one else there!

The staff was amazing as well. Always a warm greeting when we came in or were leaving. The lounge staff was very friendly too. The one night there was no wine out for the later evening offerings , so I asked if I could have a glass of red wine and the gentleman came back with the bottle and poured mw a HUGE glass to take to the room with me..it was enough for the next night too! Our room was always cleaned when we would return from the park at 1-2pm and our mousekeeper, Awilda actually left ME a note to thank me for the tip we left her. She was so sweet.

We had the water park option with our tickets so we didn’t spend too much time at the pools, but the quiet pool was always nice and quiet when the main pool would get busy in the late afternoon.

The most amazing part was being able to watch Wishes from our balcony every night. It doesn’t get much batter than that! There must have been a speaker very close to our room since we could here the piped in music very clearly.

I had a special treat one night when I woke up in the middle of the night and they were doing a rehearsal for Halloween party and they were projecting Halloween images onto the castle and then let off some very small and quiet fireworks. We did the Keys to the Kingdom tour the next day and our guide told us that they actually to a full dress rehearsal of the parade in the middle of the night as well.

We had a bounceback offer in our room which I was really tempted to use, but I think next trip will be next year around Christmas time and the offer is only good until the end of September next year so I didn’t book it.

I know I say this every trip, but this was our best trip ever. We actually got all teary walking down the hall when we had to leave and the staff told us to have a safe trip and come back to stay with them again.

Took lots of pictures that I will post once I get them uploaded.

SuAnne

 

[swald91]

SuAnne, I too wonder if they get tipped? Because they left us notes too both mousekeeping & turn down service.

 

[stitchrulz]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We stayed on the marina side of Fiji June 2008 (booked GV) and loved it. We had 3rd floor with the balcony which was beautiful!

Yes! This is the view we're hoping for (thanks for posting the pic!). If we don't get it, at least we'll be at the Poly!

 

[mmmears]

SuAnne,

Thanks for your mini trip report. I'm glad you had a wonderful time at the Poly. 3rd floor views from Hawaii are just wonderful, aren't they? I'll be looking forward to seeing your photos when you are ready to post them.

 

[DLW8]

This is getting me more and more excited to go! 90 days from today I'll be on the plane ready to depart for MCO. Right now, I'm waiting for 7 AM to call for my ADRs as the online system isn't working for me!

Beautiful photo and thanks for the review. We aren't staying in concierge, but I'm very excited to stay at the Poly!

 

[Kay7979]

We were there a few weeks ago & had room 1527-tree & bushes right outside our door-LOVED it!!!!! Did you see the fruit & veggie art Chef Dick prepares??? If not, I hope you get to see it before you leave-it's awesome!!

PS..who was the CM...Wes? He's great!! Alex is nice too but Wes did alot for us.

I think the CM's name was Lawrence. We never saw him again yesterday, so must look for him today to thank him in person. We did see the fruit and veggie art. It is amazing! If we ever stay here again I am sure we can be content with whatever view we get, but our original view was nothing but the midst of one huge tree. I will post a picture when we get back. This morning the lagoon is very smooth and still and it looks so very peqceful at 7:30 am.

 

[Tess]

I think the CM's name was Lawrence. We never saw him again yesterday, so must look for him today to thank him in person. We did see the fruit and veggie art. It is amazing! If we ever stay here again I am sure we can be content with whatever view we get, but our original view was nothing but the midst of one huge tree. I will post a picture when we get back. This morning the lagoon is very smooth and still and it looks so very peqceful at 7:30 am.

Lawrence is a great CM--he's very helpful and bends over backward to accommodate his guests. . .congrats on the room view--those LV are gorgeous in Hawaii.

 

[BreezysMom]

Kay7979 How awesome. Have fun and enjoy!

SuAnne I can't wait to hear more!

Some of our trips are coming so soon!

Happy Holiday weekend friends!

 

[Disney-Kim]

I think at the end time just passes in slow motion waiting for your trip to come.

 

[JCornell]

For those just back (or there now!), how crowded does the resort seem? TIA!

We just got back Monday. I'd say that it didn't seem very crowded at all. Night-time at the volcano pool had a good amount of people but we could always get a table or beach chairs and on the walkways we only would ever pass a family or two. The bus stop rarely had all of the benches filled even and never any trouble getting a seat on the first monorail to pull up. The only busy area was up by the bar and restaurants which is understandable.

 

[JCornell]

On other nights we walked out to the beach to watch Wishes and the EWP which we hadn't ever seen. And on Fridy night, DH and I saw the space shuttle take off from our balcony- awesome!

Our first time for the EWP too and we also saw the space shuttle launch from our balcony. What a nice unexpected surprise!!!

 

[JCornell]

Thanks for the reports scjo68 and Debbie! But now you've got me worried Debbie - we've also requested 3rd floor Tahiti (MK view) - I do not want my view spoiled by a big a** palm tree! (I thought if the view was obstructed it was considered lagoon view )

And thanks for the live report carlnix30! Will you also be providing a full review of the bar offerings?! I can't wait to try my first lapu lapu & pina colava next month (but will sadly be shut out from the rum punch since we aren't staying CL )

FWIW we had 2nd floor Tahiti (2034) and the view was great, especially considering it was a free upgrade from GV that we paid for!

As for bar offerings, these were the few we had. I stuck with beer mostly.
Lapu Lapu - liked it, didn't love it. It's quite strong and you don't get a lot of liquid in that pineapple for the price. Glad to try it once though.
Pina Colava - Yummy. DW and I both liked these.
Margarita (classic) - DW liked it and it was a good-sized drink besides.
Kona Pale Ale - more like an English Pale ale. Tasty but a bit too hoppy for me.
Kona Longboard Lager - this was a nice crisp lager. Great after the hot days there last week.

 

[Kay7979]

BTW last night I had what I assumed everyone had described as the rum punch, but a CM told me it was a wine punch. It had three or four kinds of wine and I think some Grand Marnier. What ever it was, it was good!

We did some resort hopping today and had lunch at Trails End buffet. The food and atmosphere were good, and we had enough to hold us for a long time. I'm sure what ever they serve in the lounge tonight will be adequate for our dinner.

The weather has been hot but nice. It's good to sit in our room for a while enjoying the AC while listening to Hawaiian music and watching the ferry boats and resort shuttles go by on the lagoon.

 

[Lilmattie13]

Hi sounds great, cant wait to be there in two weeks. How do you listen to Hawaiin music in your room? Can I ask??

 

[starstruck93]

Hey everyone! I LOVE reading all of these trip reports! Thanks so much for them! We're going to be there in 3 days and I really wanted a Volcano Pool view, bottom level. Does anyone know what room to ask for? Also, are the bottom rooms very noisey (people stomping around) That will drive me insane! LOL! TIA! April

 

[Kay7979]

Hi sounds great, cant wait to be there in two weeks. How do you listen to Hawaiin music in your room? Can I ask??

There are speakers outside our room that pipe music out along the beach. People watch Wishes from the beach at night also and you can hear that as well. Even with the balcony doors closed I can hear the music. It's louder of course from out on the balcony.

 

[Lilmattie13]

There are speakers outside our room that pipe music out along the beach. People watch Wishes from the beach at night also and you can hear that as well. Even with the balcony doors closed I can hear the music. It's louder of course from out on the balcony.

Oh lol I thought you could somehow listen to hawaiin music in your room.