I garnered so much information from this thread before we left for the Poly and I thought I would write a quick review of my experience in case it may help someone with their planning.
Our all girl crew consisted of Me, DD-25yrs., DD-23yrs., DD-4.5yrs., and my granddaughter 20 months. We rented a car and arrived at the Poly at about 5pm-ish on Saturday. There was no check-in line and the process was quick and pleasant. We had reserved a standard GV room and I had only requested a balcony or patio. We were assigned a 3rd floor room in the Aotearoa long house. The view included the monorail and a bit of the highway. But truthfully it was just fine and it was very quiet. I had read about noise from the luau, but we didn't hear it at all. We loved the location as it was close to the main house and the pool. I would stay in this longhouse again.
I was worried about all 5 of us being comfortable in one room for a week, but it was fine. There was plenty of storage and the counter space in the bathroom provided enough room, even with our all girl crew. I didn't find the room that dark, although the bathroom lighting could be better for makeup application.
The mousekeeping was just fine. We usually left the room by 7:30am and returned about 1pm for an afternoon break. Our room was always made up, vacuumed, trash out, etc. It was just great. My oldest daughter slept on the daybed and reported that it was comfortable and she slept well.
We used the monorail for MK and Epcot and it was especially convenient with the small children. But did not use any of the busses, as we had a car.
The Poly grounds are beautiful. The lobby smells great and is just as beautiful. The pool was fun. I really didn't find it especially crowded. We were always able to find chairs or a table near the bar. They gave us lifejackets for the kids and let us keep them all week, so we didn't have to ask each time we went to the pool.
As has been reported, the flow at Captian Cooks is a mess. However, the food was decent. We especially liked the grown-up grilled cheese and the pulled pork sandwich. And of course LOVED the dole whip!! The pastries were also very good! We ate one breakfast at Kona. I had the Tonga toast and it was delish, but even better was the pressed coffee. That coffee tasted so good after getting Nescafe everywhere else!
We all thought the boutiki shop had some cute things. We bought a couple sundresses and tops there. We thought the pricing was decent.
I used the laundry room one day. It took a little over an hour for a full wash/dry cycle. The cost was $2.00 per load per washer and per dryer. There were plenty of machines. There were only two other people doing laundry at the time I was there.
All the CMs were friendly with an "Aloha" greeting everywhere. Even my four year old started using the same greeting to everyone.
Overall we had a great time! The parks were empty and we really didn't have to wait for anything. I think our longest wait was 10 minutes. We fast passed Toy Story and Kilamanjaro Safari or else we would have had a long wait. We won Magic Kingdom Dream Fastpasses at the Princess greeting place in Toontown. It was fun to win, but we really didn't get to use them as we walked on all the rides that day. We went to
MNSSHP that same night and thought we might use the fast passes that evening, but again walked on all the rides. By the way, we loved the party. We would definitely attend again. It is a must do!!
As far as weather goes, it was really nice. It rained hard on Monday afternoon/evening, but other than that it was perfect for us. We saw a couple love bugs at the end of the week at Disney Studios, but that was it.
It was soooo much fun. All of us loved it. My four year old said she wanted to stay for a thousand days! I think we all wanted to stay that long! Again, thanks to everyone who contributes to these boards. All the information really helped us have a perfect family vacation!
)
and magical moments
to all of you.I've stayed at the Poly once before, but never in the Hawaii building. I'm getting so excited
. Thanks for all the trip reports and pics
