The *NEW* Polynesian Resort FAQ thread - *2008*

[tete01830]

Hi everyone!

I met someone who's user name I forget (sorry I can't remember! You were the person who said you had your room changed to a better view!!),

Hi Seaspary! That was me! Nice to meet you on the trip! Brian was wonderful to us, too! Cindy from the lounge was also fabulous!! I am glad you got the upgrade and it sounds like you had a great trip.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Terry - Just wondering, did you get a chocolate postcard? Do they even give those out anymore? When we actually paid for the conceirge room like 2 years ago we didnt get it, but this time since we got the free conceirge upgrade there was no way I was asking for it, but just curious if they still have it?

 

[tete01830]

We received it in our room at check-in!! What a nice surprise! The card read...
"From the 'Ohana at Disney's Polynesian Resort, we extend to you a warm Aloha which means With every breath we take, we welcome you. Have a Magical stay! Disney's Polynesian Concierge"

 

[ChrisHart]

Hello SeaSpray we were at the Poly the 19th-22nd. We booked garden view club level and were upgraded to lagoon view club level along with our friends. I spotted you in the lounge several times and saw you in the elevator but did not want to bother you. Didn't want to seem like a crazy stalker. It was nice to see someone who you have read their posts and trip reports. Hope you had a nice vacation.

 

[SeaSpray]

Hi again everyone!

I just created a new page on my website that features the room that we were in which is an accessible room. I'll be posting a link to that page on Page 1 of this thread, and hopefully it'll be helpful for those who need an accessible room on the club level.


luvmarypoppins: No chocolate postcard for us this time, either! We've gotten them on every other trip except once before. I didn't see them out on the counter behind the CMs desks like I've seen them before so I wonder if they ran out of them when we checked in? Either that, or they just don't like us. Just kidding of course! LOL I actually was going to ask but I forgot.

A little later I'll get the pictures of the resort that I took, up on my web site and here. My DH dowloaded them from the camera for me.

 

[SeaSpray]

Hello SeaSpray we were at the Poly the 19th-22nd. We booked garden view club level and were upgraded to lagoon view club level along with our friends. I spotted you in the lounge several times and saw you in the elevator but did not want to bother you. Didn't want to seem like a crazy stalker. It was nice to see someone who you have read their posts and trip reports. Hope you had a nice vacation.

Hi! I wish you would've said "hello", it would've been so nice to meet you!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Hi everyone!

Wow, what a week! I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed, and I have a lot to say, and I don't know where to start! LOL

First of all, I want you all to know that I've risked life and limb to bring back some "info" to add to this FAQ thread. I took the "Bounce Back Offer" flier, I took the room service menu , I took the valet (laundry) service forms which list all of the prices for laundry and dry cleaning, I have the latest "Island Palm Press", I have the "May Recreational Activities" sheet that lists on a daily basis all of the extra activities around the resort and the times they occur, I have a letter they left in our room to warn about when they'd be testing the fire alarms, I have the "Phone Safety Tips" sheet which tells you to NEVER give out info over the phone to anyone claiming to be a CM UNLESS you were the person to initiate the call, and lastly, I have the room service breakfast door hanger that you fill out and leave on your door the night before. WHEW! Oh wait! I also brought home the coffee condiments packet that is near the coffee machine in the room because a lot of people ask what is included with the coffee! I'll open it up later and report. LOL

Secondly, I am blown away by all of the people who recognised me and came up to me!! My aunt now thinks that I am some sort of celebrity at the Polynesian!! I met "Cara loves the Poly" and her beautiful DD; I met "WoodysRoundUp", I met "luvsmarrypoppins", I met someone who's user name I forget (sorry I can't remember! You were the person who said you had your room changed to a better view!!), and I also met someone who recognised us while we were having breakfast at Kona Cafe on Thursday morning! She said that she doesn't post here but reads here, and a funny thing is, she said that her DH's legs are in the picture of my DH and I from our last trip where we're holding the Lapu Lapus! I just looked at that picture and I do see someone's torso and legs, who is standing behind a tree in the left side of the picture. That must be him! I was sorry that I didn't see BCV while we were there, but hopefully on another trip! (BCV, did you happen to be in room 1529 by any chance?? lol)

Anyway, it was GREAT to meet you all and I really wish we had time to chat more! This was a very busy trip for DH and I since we had our aunt with us and we did a lot more on this trip than on previous trips, since we wanted to make sure that she got to experience all of the highlights of all of the parks.

Thirdly, we got UPGRADED to concierge!!!!!!! When we were checking in, the CM said something about "the Hawaii building...." but she was looking down towards her computer monitor, so I said "Excuse me, did you just say Hawaii building? Is that where our room is? Is it just 1 of our rooms, or both???" And she said "BOTH rooms are in the Hawaii building..." I wanted to SCREAM but instead I started to punch my poor DH in the arm!! I did say "oh my goodness! Thank you so much!!" and then I explained to our aunt that we were being upgraded to the concierge building!

A CM took us and our luggage on a golfcart to the Hawaii building, and as we were about to walk in, a CM named David whom we met last year came out to greet us! THAT IS WHEN I SCREAMED!!!! I was SO Happy to see him and I think I hugged him a little too tightly, and a little too long, but I was SO excited!!! I also got to see another wonderful CM named Allison I got to chat with David and Allison a couple of more times on this trip and I was so glad to have the opportunity to do so They are both so friendly and helpful. Also, there's a CM in the Hawaii building named Brian who was also very, very professional and friendly during a room mis-hap, which I'll explain later.

Anyway, we're back, it was an excellent trip to both the resort AND the parks, and I'll be back later with more info!

Welcome home and congragulations on getting that upgrade.

 

[SeaSpray]

I just posted almost all of my Polynesian resort pictures on my website. Here's a link directly to that page: http://www.brownfamilyvacations.com/html/Polynesian08.htm

I'll be adding all of those pictures to the thread here eventually, when I get the chance, but I needed to get them up on the 'net first!

 

[DaveClan]

Hello SeaSpray we were at the Poly the 19th-22nd. We booked garden view club level and were upgraded to lagoon view club level along with our friends. I spotted you in the lounge several times and saw you in the elevator but did not want to bother you. Didn't want to seem like a crazy stalker. It was nice to see someone who you have read their posts and trip reports. Hope you had a nice vacation.

I was at the Poly from the 18th-22nd myself... you may have seen a sweaty guy walking around with his girlfriend (who was very picture hungry). lol

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I just posted almost all of my Polynesian resort pictures on my website. Here's a link directly to that page: http://www.brownfamilyvacations.com/html/Polynesian08.htm

I'll be adding all of those pictures to the thread here eventually, when I get the chance, but I needed to get them up on the 'net first!

Those pictures look great.

 

[sandym718]

Thanks for sharing those photos, they just make me want to go back even more!! Less than a year now...

 

[cassmat]

I am so excited and we are still more then 6 months away...

 

[BCV23]

Seaspray, I'm so glad you received that great upgrade!!!! Congrats. David is a great CM, isn't he? We saw Kathy as well. I think we missed Allison this trip but she's great as well. Actually, I love all the CMs in the club level at the Polynesian these days.

That door switch is fantastic isn't it? When we checked in, ours wasn't operational. But I called and engineering was there in minutes to switch it on. The switch is on the top of the door frame. I imagine it's left off most of the time but now we know how to activate it.

I'm sorry we didn't meet either. Our last morning at the Polynesian, we had breakfast at Kona and rented a pontoon. Then we checked out and had lunch at Kona. Also had dinner at Kona on our first night. Did I mention that we enjoy Kona Cafe?

 

[johnsonet]

... Our last morning at the Polynesian, we had breakfast at Kona and rented a pontoon. Then we checked out and had lunch at Kona. Also had dinner at Kona on our first night. Did I mention that we enjoy Kona Cafe?

That's so funny! We love Kona too and will be enjoying breakfast, lunch and dinner at least a couple times each during our summer trip

SeaSpray Your photos are so beautiful and are so nice to look at while I wait for our trip Can't wait to see your latest concierge pics. We are doing LVCL for the first time! I was there in March in a standard GV room and at GF a couple of weeks ago. We walked over to the Poly a couple of times on that last trip and I just thought the resort looked great Can't wait to see pics of the lounge b/c our only CL stay was a couple of years ago

 

[BKMETV]

SeaSpray:

Wonderful pics. Wish I was having my coffee there!! Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[jeanylaser]

thanks for the info!

 

[SeaSpray]

Seaspray, I'm so glad you received that great upgrade!!!! Congrats. David is a great CM, isn't he? We saw Kathy as well. I think we missed Allison this trip but she's great as well. Actually, I love all the CMs in the club level at the Polynesian these days.

That door switch is fantastic isn't it? When we checked in, ours wasn't operational. But I called and engineering was there in minutes to switch it on. The switch is on the top of the door frame. I imagine it's left off most of the time but now we know how to activate it.

I'm sorry we didn't meet either. Our last morning at the Polynesian, we had breakfast at Kona and rented a pontoon. Then we checked out and had lunch at Kona. Also had dinner at Kona on our first night. Did I mention that we enjoy Kona Cafe?

Wow, thanks BCV, for activating that door button! We had to have checked into that room only minutes after you checked out. LOL I believe we entered the room at around 2:15pm or so. Housekeeping must've gotten right in there and cleaned it because it looked great by the time we got there.

We had lunch at the Kona Cafe right after we checked in! We had to have missed each other by a very short margin. BUMMER!! I hope our paths will cross on a future trip.

 

[SeaSpray]

Ok, I think I'm ready to type out our experiences at the Polynesian.

Check-in:

We arrived via limo to the front of the Polynesian and a bellman loaded our luggage onto a rack, he tagged them all, and then gave us a receipt. We walked into the Great Ceremonial House to check in.

We waited only a couple of minutes until it was our turn. As I previously said, the CM told us that both of our rooms had been upgraded to concierge. We were SOOO excited!! I had not dared to hope for an upgrade so this truly was a wonderful surprise!!

We were taken by cart (along with our luggage) to the Hawaii building and I was so glad that our aunt was able to experience the Polynesian resort this way, although I KNOW that she would've loved it no matter what building we would've been in. After almost knocking over a CM named David because I was so excited to see him, we walked down the hallway to our room and left our luggage there. It was about 2:30pm at this time and I thought that the Kona Cafe only seated people for lunch until 2:30 but I decided to call the concierge desk to find out because we were STARVING by this point. The CM got us in for lunch at the Kona Cafe right away! Aunt and I each had the barbecued pork lettuce wraps which were DELICIOUS, and my DH had the Kona Club sandwich which he said was very, very good. He especially enjoyed the sweet potato chips that came with it.

The "room mis-hap":

After unpacking all of our luggage I walked over to the closets and noticed that there was water on the countertop between the 2 closets. I looked in the ice bucket because I assumed that someone must've filled it and that and some of the ice had melted....but that was not the case! I soon realized that the water was dripping from the ceiling and it was not only dripping over the counter, but in the middle of the hallway too, and landing on the carpet which was quickly becoming wet.

I immediately called the concierge desk and a CM named Brian answered the phone. BRIAN WAS WONDERFUL. He was extremely polite and professional and did all that he could to help us while engeering was on their way to check out the problem. In the end, engineering had determined that the drip pan for the air conditioner duct had overflowed, so they came back in a few minutes to drain it. While we were waiting for engineering to return, my DH was looking up at the area that the water was coming from and saw that another section of ceiling tile was starting to "bend" and looked like it was so waterlogged that it was going to fall. He tried to hold it up so that it wouldn't splat down to the ground, but (I had Brian the CM on the phone at this particular moment) Brian told me to tell DH to just let it fall and to get out of it's way! LOL So DH jumped out of the way and then we saw and heard "SPLAT!!!" as the ceiling tile landed like a huge mound of oatmeal.

At this point Brian offered to move us to a different room. I really didn't want to move because we were in an accessible room and I knew that the features of the room would be a huge help to me, and also because we had JUST finished unpacking, and also because the connecting room next was where our aunt was. Also, Brian said that housekeeping and engineering would have the "oatmeal" cleaned up quickly, and that the water leak would be taken care of once the pan had been drained (so that meant that this would NOT be an ongoing problem in the room).

I thanked Brian for the offer of moving us and told him that we'd stay put in the room. I asked him if we had to stay there during all of this because we were on our way out when all of this happened. He assured us that we did not have to be there, and that it would be all cleaned up by the time we returned. Brian was right! When we got back to the room a few hours later you never would've known what happened. A brand new piece of ceiling tile had been put in place, as well. Brian also did something for us, because of our inconvenience, which I thought was very, very nice of him. During the entire "event" Brian was extremely nice and professional and asked what he could do to help.

A day or two later we noticed that the thermostat said "68" but it was very, very warm in the room. Again I called the concierge desk and they said that engineering would take care of it. We went on our way and when we returned later, our room was nice and chilled, and stayed that way for the entire week. The next time we saw Brian he asked if the room temperature was ok now. We thanked him again for all of his assistance and told him that it was fine.


This was our 5th time staying in the Hawaii building and for the first time I knew what people meant when they said that the bathroom was dark. It really was dark! I think they had different bulbs in the light fixtures than we had in our previous rooms because they were very dull and gave off an orangey-yellow glow instead of a nice, bright light. Ah well. Other than having a little bit of a difficult time trying to put on make-up, it was fine. The lighting in the shower was fine, that area was not dark at all. It was only dark over the sink.

Also, a very strange housekeeping thing happened; on the second evening we returned after turn-down service and saw that the housekeeper had taken the dirty towels from the bathroom and then just left the clean towels and wash cloths in a pile on the sink. That pile stayed there all week long. LOL We'd use some of the towels from the pile and then housekeeping would just add clean ones to the pile. Each day I thought that the next housekeeper would come in and hang up the towels. I don't know why they didn't hang them up like they were on the first day and a half On our second to last day it was making me nuts so I just hung them up myself. LOL Not a big deal, just a little odd.

The pools and the grounds all looked wonderful as usual! We saw a lifeguard jump in and save 2 small kids both of whom belonged to the same dad! What an idiot he was! (We had been sitting by the bubbling end of the pool watching this particular family for a while since the little girl of the family almost drowned and was grabbing onto my leg to pull herself to the surface because the father wasn't paying attention!) I have to tell you though, that the lifeguard team is on their toes! Right before the lifeguard jumps in, she gives a couple of quick blasts on her whistle and by the time she had grabbed the kid (this was near where the slide ends into the pool) TWO other CMs had appeared to give her assistance. They literally appeared out of nowhere from behind the trees!!!! One of them was dressed exactly like the lifeguards in their red and white shirt and shorts, the other was dressed in clothing and appeared to be an EMT type of person. THIS SCENE WAS QUITE IMPRESSIVE! Once it was determined that the child was OK, the two CMs left, and the original lifeguard was back at her spot on the end of the pool (but now dripping wet), and on the watch again.

(Report to be continued....)

 

[shyjade]

Great report, can't wait to hear the rest!

Drama, pixie dust, a problem handled well by CM's...what a great trip report!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Great report, can't wait to hear the rest!

Same here.