They need to give us a compass at check in. A Poly Graduation Trip Report 6/16 UPDATE

[peteykirch]

So, where do I begin this adventure? I tend to be pretty well with words, being a recent graduate from Rutgers University with a degree in English, and High School Teaching Certification, but I just don't know where to begin eh? A case of ye olde writers block I guess.

Perhaps introductions would be best in order? There are two on this trip down to Disney, myself Peter, I'm 24 and this is my reward at the end of the rainbow they call graduating from College. The other traveller in this tale is my Mother, Donna. We're both Disney Veterans, there was a time frame where my Mother, my Aunt, and I would go down to Disney World every year together during the summer from the time I was a wee toddler chained on a leash to right before I was a teenager, this is my first trip in what has to be going on either 12-13 years, so a lot has changed. The last time I was at Disney was during the introduction of the Fast Pass services, at least that's the last thing I remembered from that trip. We're also a bit camera shy so don't expect many pictures of us persay, but that doesn't stop me from taking pictures of nearly everything we see/do in the World of Disney.

Where shall we stay? Being a graduation present my Motherto make this something memorable, and she had one suggestion and that was to stay somewhere I never had stayed before. We wanted to stay somewhere on the monorail line, and when you figure out the options that left the Contemporary and the Polynesian as the two I never stayed at..It was decided we would call the Polynesian home for 5 days and 4 nights during the first week of June, the 4th to the 8th.

Alright, so we have the dates, and the hotel, what else? Both my Mother and I really gravitate to the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT more so than the Studios and Animal Kingdom, so the bulk of our time would be spent in those two versus the other. However, that doesn't mean that the Studios and Animal Kingdom doesn't contain anything we enjoy to experience, it's just that we aren't the thrill ride junky types so rides like EE, RnRC, and ToT don't really entertain us in the way Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Spaceship Earth, Maelstrom, and sadly enough People Movie do.

The two of us, you could say are foodies, so there is only one real option for us in the World of Disney and that's to take advantage of the Deluxe Dining Plan. This however did lead to my Mother quip all the time how the old plan used to include all gratuities, and allowed you to have a bit more flexability in what you can order and what not.

The months and weeks leading up to the trip were an interesting puzzle. At the beginning my Mother would lightly berate me for not being excited about finally going back to the place I adored as a child, and how excited I should be. As the countdown trickled down the tables turned and I was the one giddy with anticipation and she turned into the one that had a laissez-faire attitude about the entire thing. This was seen when I pretty much completely packed with 2 weeks to go before we would set out to Orlando.

A Princeton and Oregon University shirt? But you went to Rutgers what gives?

Well, I brought my hat that has to count for something.

And that's only the t-shirts, all of that for 5 days? You got to be crazy, but yet some how my bag checked in 13lbs under the 50lb maximum for Jet Blue.

Don't worry bout the so so quality of those pictures, they'll get better those were just snapped with my iPhone. For the trip I rented a Nikon D5100 with a Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S lens. I have a NikonD40, but I wanted something that could also record video, and had a flip out LCD view screen.

This shall be continued later, with the Journey to Magical Express bus, and the reveal of what Longhouse we shall call home for the week.

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - Pre Flight Checks Complete, Let's get the show on the road

Our flight was set for 6:30AM flying out of Newark (EWR), so that of course meant rolling out of bed at 4 in the morning to get ready to hit the road at 4:30. For those who are from this area know that flying out of Newark can never be easy, it's seriously one of the most inept air ports around, although you do run better odds of leaving on time than returning. Most of the hassle is from elements outside your control, mainly other travellers who don't know regulations, what has to be checked slowing down everyone else.

However, this check in went smoothly, luckily at the hour we were leaving at there was no one in the air port, 5AM on a Monday morning. I was shocked, I figured you'd have a lot of business people heading out on business trips and what not to start the week, but I guess not.

This lead to something else I never experienced in the longest time. A non fully booked flight. I can't remember the last time I was on a plane and there wasn't an announcement asking for someone to give up their tickets because the air line knowingly overbooked and everyone showed up.

This was the first time I flew Jet Blue mainly since they just recently started flying out of Newark and well they only go to a very limited selection of destinations and I never had a reason to go to any of them. Got to say it was a nice change of pace, the DirectTV was nice, despite going in and out a few times, it was a great way to pass the time without draining the battery on my iPhone watching saved television shows or carrying on my laptop which I stored in my one checked bag.

Flying well above the clouds

About to cross into South Carolina

I spy the Florida coast! We're getting closer....Did I mention that neither of us are really comfortable flyers? I know the statistics say it's safer than driving yourself, but I'm always nervous when I hear a random sound and this leads to me snapping my head around in a manner that could give the average person whiplash to make sure the engine turbine is still attached to the wing and not plummeting 35000 feet into the ocean.

Within 20 minutes we've begun our final descent and would be touching down and making the mad dash to the Magical Express queue.

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

Jumping in! Your title intrigued me--- I will (hopefully!) be finishing up my MA in English Lit this summer.

Looking forward to reading about the Poly. That's definitely on my Disney Bucket List.

 

[peteykirch]

Jumping in! Your title intrigued me--- I will (hopefully!) be finishing up my MA in English Lit this summer.

Looking forward to reading about the Poly. That's definitely on my Disney Bucket List.

Thanks for stopping in! My Mother and I both really loved the Poly and had a great time, but that will all be discussed later.

Hopefully some other people drop in soon enough haha.

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - The Race through the Queue to the Mickey Bus

We lucked out with our seats on the plane being in Row 2, it allowed for a super quick exit off the plane, which resulted in a mad dash down the terminal to board the Faux-Monorail. For some people their Disney trip begins at different points, some it's as soon as you land in Orlando, others it's crossing under the Welcome Sign, for me it's stepping inside the Pretendorail and getting shuttled to the main terminal.

Going down the escalator and making a hard left we gaze upon the entrance to all the Magical Express queues for each resort, and it's a GHOST TOWN. Not a soul down there, other than the employees checking people in and directing people to the buses. However despite the absence of people you still have to meander through the maze of ropes to get to the front of the line for your bus stop. Which reminded me of Kevin James' stand up on going to the bank, and having to zig zag through the ropes despite no one being in the building. How you just want to walk around them and go straight to the desk, but nope you got to pretend you're a lab rat and you have to find your chunk of cheese at the end of the maze.

We'll be sharing a bus with people also heading to the Floridian, Contemporary/Bay Lake Towers, and Wilderness Lodge. At this point the giddy anticpation turns into WHY WON'T THE BUS SHOW UP, C'MON I WANNA GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD feeling. People slowly started trickling in, and yet we were still the only one in this line, it felt like a hour went by before we were finally escorted to our bus, but in reality it was maybe 15-20 minutes.

Front row seats ohh yeah, first on, first off, and this would allow me an opportunity for a good picture of the Welcome to Walt Disney World signage. We sat there for another 10-15 minutes and then the Bus Driver comes on the mic and gives us the all clear and the stop order.

Cue the drum roll


First stop, Disney's Polynesian Resort!

Huzzah he tells us that'll it be about 30 or so minutes until the first stop and then it becomes a waiting game, counting down the minutes in anticipation of what waits ahead for you in the happiest place on Earth.

I spy with my little eye, the greatest signage ever made!

It's like as soon as you go under that sign all your troubles melt away and the true relaxtion of vacation begins. Within minutes we pulled up to the Polynesian, sprinted off the bus and made our way for the Online Check In line.

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - We're in what longhouse? Really?

Finally off the bus, I decided to finally use my legitimate camera, my Nikon D5100 with the 50mm f/1.4 AFS lens. The first picture I took with it on Disney property?

Which was followed up by;

We both scurried up to the Online Check In line to find that we were the only people there, there was a smiling Cast Member who was about to greet us to join the Polynesian Family. Got to say that it was nice having everything ready as soon as you get to the counter, no need to have someone typing War and Peace into the computer to pull up reservations, tickets, and all that jazz. I was nervous because a lot of people on this board stated that people who do select the Online Check In tend to get run of the mill rooms, just because they are available, and that their requests tend to fall upon deaf ears. This is what I found funny, because as you do the Online Check In you have a little box with any requests and the conversation with my Mom went like this;

Me: "Tell them you want Tokelau, tell them you want Tokelau"
Mom: "Why? What's so special about Tokelau?"
Me: "It's in the middle of everything, you have an equal walk to the GCH and TTC, and the rooms tend to be a bit bigger, you're not near the hustle and bustle of the Volcano Pool."
Mom: "Alright alright, Tokelau it is." *Requests Tokelau* "Well, the computer told me that they cannot honor this request, so we'll see what happens.

So it came to the moment of truth, pestering the CM. Almost in unison the two of us kept asking "What longhouse? What longhouse? What longhouse?"

The CM lifts his head from the computer screen and announces, "Tokelau, you'll be in Tokelau, and your room is ready if you want to head there now and drop off your carry on bags."

Huzzah! Our request that we made, that the computer said couldn't be made, was made. It was an awkward situation, but I can't complain that we got the longhouse we wanted, and even better it was a first floor room which allowed for easy in and out access. We got our Key to the World cards, our leis, and made our way to our new home for the the 5 days we'll be here.

Which lead to me asking all week, "Is it this way? It's not left? It's right? Are you sure?" Point blank, I pretty much needed GPS to get around the resort, and it wasn't until the last day I found all the short cuts.

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - Are we going the right way? Did he say left or right at Niue?

We've made our way through the GCH to the back exit, and then we began our trek to our new home for the week. As beautiful as the Polynesian is, it can be a bit confusing for first timers to get around and find their way. Even standing directly in front of the random maps, with the big red circle stating "YOU'RE HERE" I found myself going, well what perspective is this map telling me? Is that sticker telling me I'm right in front of the sign? Or is my back towards it? I tend to over think things, but however soon enough we found our room.

Tokelau here we are. It turns out we had a corner room at the one of three entrances to this long house, which was nice since the ice machine was pretty much one turn down the hall and it smacks you right in your face, however there was a bit of foot traffic cause the elevator was right there as well.

Some random pictures of the room and it's decorations;

After a quick break to freshen up, we were off to the Magic Kingdom, and lo and behold I got us lost again...

I see that sign, and follow it, except it lead us around the front of the entire resort, and we went through the front of the lobby, but hey we got there that's all that matters.

Our first monorail color? Well today is what the Carolina Blue one, or Royal Blue, or plain old Blue according to Disney, depending on the light and what color palate someone is choosing from. One stop after the Floridian, and a run down the ramp and we've finally arrived. There it was standing in front of us in all it's glory the entrance to the Happiest Place on Earth.

First picture I took inside the Kingdom

At this point we couldn't believe the time we were making, it was still before 11 in the morning, being the pessimists that we can be at times, we both figured odds are we'd be barley getting to the Magic Kingdom for our 12:55PM lunch reservation at the Liberty Tree Inn.

Well, with nearly 2 hours to kill until lunch it was time to continue our arrival day routine. We made a beeline to Tomorrowland to ride the People Movie, such a relaxing ride, but always has been the first ride we partake in every time we come down to Disney. We also lucked out by having CM's who allowed us to ride it 3 times in a row before exiting. Yes, it's never a packed house to get on this, but we did encounter some CM's who despite no one being in line refused to let us ride it again without getting off.

The prototypical foot rest picture on People Mover.

Salon of the Future

Model of E.P.C.O.T

The Astro Orbiter

Well, it's time to leave the Space Age sheen of Tomorrowland, but which land will we end up in next time?

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - Really? That was quick, the first ride closure of the trip...

After the third time around the People Mover, we made the decision to get off and head to another one of our favorites, that means heading over to Liberty Square towards Haunted Mansion. Along the way juking out of the way of ECVs and strollers that you'd swear they would put cow catchers on the front of as if they were a train.

With our heads up looking at the bat on the weather vane we didn't see that barricde of Haunted Mansion CMs turning people away. The ride has met it's untimely end one of them snickered in a dead pan manner, but it might be revived a bit later.

Well wasn't that a downer....where to next? Well I guess it's time to foot it back to Adventureland and go on Pirates. Since I haven't been here in ages, it will be the first time that I get to ride it since they added elements of the movie to the ride.

Shift yer cargo deary, Show 'em your larboard side!

Ohh how I missed this ride.

And of course since it was my first time, I really had no clue where Jack Sparrow was showing up, and since I was pretty much shooting blindly with no LCD screen I had no clue how the pictures were coming out until I was off the ride, sadly enough no pictures of Captain Jack Sparrow were captured on this go around.

Between the time spent on People Movie, going from Haunted to Pirates our reservation at Liberty Tree was fastly arriving, so the decision was made to go back to Liberty Square and check in.

How will our standard arrival lunch end up? Well that shall be covered in the next post.

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - They really did change a lot with this place didn't they?

Back to Liberty Square we went, to our 12:45 reservation at the Liberty Tree Tavern. This always was our first meal of every Disney trip that I've been part of. Something about it just screams Disney tradition to us, so we always end up there.

However, it was a bit sad to see how much it changed, although not giant changes, they were noticeable to say the least. First when you walk in, man did they cut down on the seating in the waiting area, it always was a crowded place with a lot of people standing, but now it was even less seating with even more people standing. Then even the way they announced your party, it used to go along the lines of; "Hear Ye, Hear Ye, we're now seating the Smith delegation from the Cross Roads of the Revolution of New Jersey." Something along those lines, all we got was our named called and your table is ready. I know it's nothing major, but that one little detail did seem to add a bit to the "Colonial" experience and what not. Finally the 86-ing of the cheese curds on the Tavern Fried Cheese plate, and only getting the standard mozzarella sticks for the same price.

All little nit picks, but meh it's just a little depressing to seeing Disney cut corners that need not be cut.

However onto the meal. This was one of the meals that my Mother decided to make a note on the reservation that we were celebrating my College Graduation, however I guess our waiter didn't get the memo, they had little streamers on the table but not even a simple congratulations thanks for celebrating here or what not, oh well can't win 'em all.

Our orders?

We both started with the delicious Patriots Punch.

My Mom said they had to have changed this, she remembers when it was a lemon sherbet based, now it's orange. She said it had the same orange taste as crushed up Goody's Headache Powder, but it was relieving none the less from the unseasonably warm June afternoon.

Onto the apps, despite me telling her they no longer have the cheese curds, my Mom ordered the Tavern Fried Cheese.

Pretty basic, but it was good, nice elasticity from the cheese with each bite.

I decided to have the soup of the day which was a creamy tomato soup.

I enjoyed it, it had a nice smokey flavor that helped cut the sweetness of the tomatoes.

We both weeks in advance knew what entrees we wanted, we both had to have the pot roast.

Ohh my was this good, and the portion we both received was ENORMOUS. We both had 4 huge chunks of slowly cooked beef that fell apart into melt in your mouth strands of beef. The veggies were perfectly cooked, not mushy but not overly crisp the perfect bite.

Just as we knew what entree we both wanted well beforehand we felt the same about dessert. The Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake, ohh man did this live up to it's name. Although very dense and rich it was the perfect blend of flavors, the sweet caramel, the vanilla ice cream, the crunch of the toffee it was an overboard sensation of flavors that we both loved.

Stuffed and with an open schedule until late that night, where would we explore next? More of the Magic Kingdom? Hop on the Monorail and go around the Resort Line? Who knows.

 

[peteykirch]

Should have an update either tonight or tomorrow.

 

[erinkpoole]

Great report so far! The food looks delicious. Can't wait to read more.

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - This place is like a damn flash mob.

Full of food, we decide to see if the Haunted Mansion is finally up and running.

You'd swear it was the entrance to Soarin' with how many people were standing around. I asked one of the CMs around the line how long ago they reopened the ride, and he said about 5 minutes, in that time the line wait was already up 30 minutes. The only good thing the lines tend to go fast since it's always continually loading, and plus it's Haunted I'd wait any amount of time to ride it the first time on my trip.

We both decide to skip the "interactive" queue in hopes that you won't get stuck behind a family who is too enamored with playing with the ghostly instruments and what not and did it pay off. The 30 minute estimate was nothing like expected and within 10 minutes we were in the stretching room.

Despite being 24, I can have a bit of a panic attack when the doors open and everyone shoves through that small threshold into the waiting area for the Doom Buggys. Seriously it's like loading people into a cattle car, and it doesn't help it's nearly pitch black and no one has any clue where the hell they are trying to go.

The best part of the ride according to both of us, is when you're going down backwards into the grave yard and lucky for us they had to stop the ride at that point to load on a person leaving us on our back for a good 2-3 minutes. As much as we enjoyed it, it was sadly over shadowed by the one kid in the next Doom Buggy who was losing his collective mind FREAKING OUT.

By the time we got off the ride it was pushing nearly 3pm and the crowds were insane, we both agreed it would be best to just make it back down Main St, and head back to the hotel.

In terms of the monorail we seemed to always luck out on this trip when it came to the monorails, buses, and boats. Why do you ask? Because of this!

Whole entire cabin to ourselves.

A few stops down the line, and we were finally back at the Poly giving us a few hours until our dinner reservation at EPCOT at the Living Seas.

 

[peteykirch]

Great report so far! The food looks delicious. Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for dropping in. I should have an update either tonight or tomorrow hopefully.

 

[peteykirch]

Day 1 - It hit me like a freight train

I'm still convinced that the smell of walking off the monorail, and that first blast of air that hits you as you walk into the Great Ceremonial House is one of the most intoxicating fragrances ever. Seriously they need to bottle it, and just sell it over and over. The notes of the water crashing off the rocks, all the perfumey accents from the flowers, the sweet smell of bamboo, and a hint of citrus it's absolutely amazing.

The two of us walked around the hotel taking pictures of nearly everything we saw.

It was shortly after getting to our room, it hit me like a freight train. I guess the heavy lunch, coupled with the UNSEASONABLY WARM weather, even for Orlando I got a migraine that hit me across the temples like a right hook from Mike Tyson. It would end up well ruining everything, when my Mother and I planned this trip, she had one request. She wanted to have dinner at the Living Seas, well go figure the migraine from hell pretty much debilitates me to the point where I can't even get out of bed. I felt so so so bad, the one thing she had her heart set on and I prevented it from happening. I told her to go, and just enjoy the meal by herself, but to no avail, she didn't want to leave me. Guess that's what Moms are for? Always putting their children ahead of them, no matter how old?

I pretty much passed out, and woke up around 8 at night and was finally hungry, a quick walk to Captain Cooks where we picked up these goodies....

PORK LUAU NACHOS. Ohh my these were absolutely amazing. Fried wonton skins turned into nachos, with cheese, spicy mayo, red onions, smoky pulled pork, and pineapple. I thought these were divine, where as my Mother thought it would be better sans the pineapple. I thought the pineapple added a perfect sweet flavor in contrast to the sharp red onion and smoky pork.

Along with the nachos, I picked up one of these;

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cupcake, only available at Captain Cooks in the Poly. I thought it was pretty good, but a bit of a chocolate overload. I thought it would have been better with some white chocolate in there somewhere, either in the filling or the frosting up top. Just to change up the flavor profile, it was just the same thing on top of each layer for the entire thing.