donalds girl
8th time to see the Mouse
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 13
Hello Friends!
We're just back from the Poly... first stay here, but certainly not the last, believe we're hooked! I've wanted to stay at the Poly since my first vist back in the early 70's... so glad the Grand was full and we booked this hotel!
Let's see... we requested a room in Tokelau, but were pleasantly surprised with an upgrade to Hawaii! Awesome!
We bought the meal plan that includes three meals and two snacks daily. Even though we're 'foodies', don't think it's possible to eat three sit down meals per day, even on vacation... A few of the restaurants we booked (Cali Grill, Brown Derby) are two points for a meal, so this was a good plan for us.
We didn't know we were getting this fab upgrade to Concierge in Hawaii, really incredible! We ate breakfast there every morning, but didn't really visit much after that because our days were full with Parks!
We had lunch and dinners at Garden Grill in Epcot, nice little character lunch, but not great. Coral Reef lunch was Excellent! Food, Fish and Service, exceptional, don't miss it! Dinner at California Grill, Brown Derby and Chefs de France also highly, highly recommended! Character breakfast at Ohana's was a nice surprise, very good and right in our hotel. Our last meal was a quick lunch in the coffee shop at the Poly (forgot the name) and it was excellent, also, an unexpected surprise.
We left with 8 meals still on our account, because of the breakfast's we enjoyed in our upgrade to Concierge level. Had a bunch of snacks left, too, but picked up some fruit, water, chips and Mickey Treat pops for the trip home.
An Interesting Note:
While waiting to have dinner in Paris, 8:20 reservation, someone came to the desk and checked in, they had a 5:30 reservation, which was honored at 8pm. So don't stress about being late for dinner reservation, seems unimportant...Dinner in Paris was great, and we were able to step out of the restaurants to see the Illuminations show, the staff had actually suggested that we do that to enjoy the fireworks, just beautiful!
Another Note:Since this was a 'spur of the moment' trip, had some challenges booking a character breakfast. On our last day of vacation, we we're up very early and went over to Ohana's to see if we could get a table. We were sat almost immediately, just before 8am, and it was great!
Our DD stayed one night in Neverland, and it was great! DH and I enjoyed a wonderful meal at Cali Grill and she enjoyed her visit. Highly recommend Neverland club for the kids (my DD is 9 years old).
We upgraded to a 10 day pass, can't wait to go back again! I'm hoping for a November trip (NJ Teacher's Convention), but DH says we should wait until next May...
One More Note:
Using Express service from airport... Our flight was delayed 2 hours, we arrived just before midnight to the hotel. Our bags went via Express, and we learned that it could take up to THREE HOURS for our bags to arrive to our room. Be Aware of this! Especially if your arrival is late, and you would like to sleep in pajamas as opposed to the clothes you wore on the flight!
If someone would have told us this, we would have picked up our bags after the flight and put them on the bus, which apparently can be done, but no one told us about this, or the delay in getting bags to your room.
Our bags arrived at 3am, not so great, but a lesson learned. Just wish someone on the Express staff (a greeter, an escort to the bus, a guide and an bus driver) would have explained this.
In a nutshell... Totally Awesome, everything! (except for the luggage delay)
Weather, Crowds, Poly, Restaurants, just perfect!
We're just back from the Poly... first stay here, but certainly not the last, believe we're hooked! I've wanted to stay at the Poly since my first vist back in the early 70's... so glad the Grand was full and we booked this hotel!
Let's see... we requested a room in Tokelau, but were pleasantly surprised with an upgrade to Hawaii! Awesome!
We bought the meal plan that includes three meals and two snacks daily. Even though we're 'foodies', don't think it's possible to eat three sit down meals per day, even on vacation... A few of the restaurants we booked (Cali Grill, Brown Derby) are two points for a meal, so this was a good plan for us.
We didn't know we were getting this fab upgrade to Concierge in Hawaii, really incredible! We ate breakfast there every morning, but didn't really visit much after that because our days were full with Parks!
We had lunch and dinners at Garden Grill in Epcot, nice little character lunch, but not great. Coral Reef lunch was Excellent! Food, Fish and Service, exceptional, don't miss it! Dinner at California Grill, Brown Derby and Chefs de France also highly, highly recommended! Character breakfast at Ohana's was a nice surprise, very good and right in our hotel. Our last meal was a quick lunch in the coffee shop at the Poly (forgot the name) and it was excellent, also, an unexpected surprise.
We left with 8 meals still on our account, because of the breakfast's we enjoyed in our upgrade to Concierge level. Had a bunch of snacks left, too, but picked up some fruit, water, chips and Mickey Treat pops for the trip home.
An Interesting Note:
While waiting to have dinner in Paris, 8:20 reservation, someone came to the desk and checked in, they had a 5:30 reservation, which was honored at 8pm. So don't stress about being late for dinner reservation, seems unimportant...Dinner in Paris was great, and we were able to step out of the restaurants to see the Illuminations show, the staff had actually suggested that we do that to enjoy the fireworks, just beautiful!
Another Note:Since this was a 'spur of the moment' trip, had some challenges booking a character breakfast. On our last day of vacation, we we're up very early and went over to Ohana's to see if we could get a table. We were sat almost immediately, just before 8am, and it was great!
Our DD stayed one night in Neverland, and it was great! DH and I enjoyed a wonderful meal at Cali Grill and she enjoyed her visit. Highly recommend Neverland club for the kids (my DD is 9 years old).
We upgraded to a 10 day pass, can't wait to go back again! I'm hoping for a November trip (NJ Teacher's Convention), but DH says we should wait until next May...
One More Note:
Using Express service from airport... Our flight was delayed 2 hours, we arrived just before midnight to the hotel. Our bags went via Express, and we learned that it could take up to THREE HOURS for our bags to arrive to our room. Be Aware of this! Especially if your arrival is late, and you would like to sleep in pajamas as opposed to the clothes you wore on the flight!
If someone would have told us this, we would have picked up our bags after the flight and put them on the bus, which apparently can be done, but no one told us about this, or the delay in getting bags to your room.
Our bags arrived at 3am, not so great, but a lesson learned. Just wish someone on the Express staff (a greeter, an escort to the bus, a guide and an bus driver) would have explained this.
In a nutshell... Totally Awesome, everything! (except for the luggage delay)
Weather, Crowds, Poly, Restaurants, just perfect!
) and they saved us money on a lot of trips over the past year. The room-only savings is bigger with APs than with AAA. So, it's something to consider. Unfortunately, we won't be able to go to WDW as much this year, so we're not renewing the APs.
. They are 7, 10, 13 & 16, and all really great kids, so we will be fine! In fact, it is only because my husband decided to stay home for this trip that we can consider staying at the Poly - with the 6 of us the price of 2 rooms is simply out of the question. 
So, we will get 10% off our room. Looks like we will save around $400 at the Poly. Still not sure if we can do it since we want to buy a home before we get married, but with my Fiance passing his paramedic test and upgrading to paramedic soon with a higher pay, we just might be able to do it all! 
