YCFAN
<a href="http://www.wdwinfo.com/dis-sponsor/" targ
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2003
- Messages
- 2,545
Day 3 is a sleep in day. We're moving to the Polynesian today and I decided to just let everyone leisurely wake up, eat in the lounge, pack up and we're off to the Poly!! It was very sad leaving the YC, everything had been so wonderful and the stay of 2 days way too short. As we were leaving I saw Maria, our mousekeeper, who by the way on our way in saw us in the hall and remembered us from the year before (very good), I gave her an extra tip and a box of Godiva cookies I had brought hoping to see her again. She was so pleasant last July. We going past the concierge desk when Ned (he's new at the YC) told me to say hello to Claudia. He explained that he had just transferred not too long ago from the Polynesian concierge over to the YC. I told him I would and we were off. Valet had the car waiting and we transferred our own luggage. It was about 10:30 am and we had 12:30 lunch PS at Whispering Canyon so we decided to just go ahead and check in at the Poly and then go to lunch. Amy had left me a message that morning that she had called over to the Poly and asked them to give me a good view. I'm so excited I can't stand it, this vacation has just been going sooooo well. The requests that I had put in on our reservation was for first floor, non-smoking. We had lagoon view concierge so I knew we'd have a good view.
We pulled up to the entrance of the Poly and told the valet we were using valet parking and were concierge guests. They loaded everything onto a cart and were told to go inside to the desk. I repeated we were concierge guests and the bellman said, "Oh, I'm sorry" and he picked up a phone, called concierge and told me that my room wasn't ready and that they wanted to talk to me. OK, no problem. I took the phone and the lady on the other end identified herself as Aida. She said our room was not ready but that she could put me in a second floor room immediately. I turn to my husband to ask him what he thinks and the bellman is shaking his head and telling me, "don't do it, you wait for first floor". OK, no problem. He then points through the Great Ceremonial House and says "go through those doors and turn right". If I had never been to the Polynesian before this would have been a problem but I knew where Hawaii was and we just walked over there. No cart ride, no tour.
OK, no problem. We walked into the concierge area and there was one gentleman on the phone. We stood there a while before he even acknowledged us and then said he'd be right with us. After about 5-7 minutes a strikingly beautiful woman walked up and took her seat behind the desk. This was Claudia (pronounced Cloudia, not Clawdia.) I told her Ned had said hello and she smiled and thanked me for relaying the message. She again told us our room was not ready and I said "No problem. We'll just get our UPH's and go to the MK." Her reply was that we didn't have UPH's. OK, there must be a problem. I prepaid for the room and for the UPH's for five people. She brings up the reservation and says that she can see that I had paid $3106 but that CRO had not put in the proper code for the UPH's. I explained that $3106 was a lot more than 4 nights would cost and she said she would handle it. About 10 minutes later Aida came up to the desk and she spoke to me saying she had talked to Amy earlier that morning. Now I'm feeling better, but it still isn't really a problem, we're on vacation and I'm not going to let a little glitch bother me. There's always glitches. After almost a half hour Aida is trying to tell Claudia how she can handle this and Claudia (who is the manager) looks at me and says "I'm sure you understand that there are ways to do things and then there is the right way to do things." Sure. No problem. The kids are getting antzy and it's now about 11:45. I ask what the quickest way to get to the Wilderness Lodge is because we have a lunch PS. She tells me to take the boat and transfer at the MK but we should hurry, if we leave soon we'll just make it in time. Suddenly she cuts our room keys and we're off. OK, no problem. We're off for a pleasant boat ride to MK and then from MK across Bay Lake to the Wilderness Lodge. This really was a beautiful ride and we make it with about 10 minutes to spare. We had timed the boat departures perfectly. Now everything's back on track. We had a wonderful meal at the Whispering Canyon, the food was actually very good. They don't do as much at lunch as far as entertainment as they do at dinner, but it was plenty for my crowd. They had a guy do bird calls and animal sounds and several people that were eating there also came up and did a few animal sounds. They was a lot of whooping and hollering and suddenly a bride and groom came walking in that had just been married and were still dressed in their wedding clothes. (We end up seeing a lot of bridal couples before the week is over.
After lunch we ride over to the MK and settle down for the afternoon parade. The teenagers decide they're headed for Space Mountain so it's just DH, Andrew, and me again. We were sitting next to a very nice English family (again) waiting for the parade. They had a little girl and was about 7 and she had started collecting pins. I reached into my fanny pack and pulled out a Minnie Mouse pin and asked her if she had that one yet. She said no and I gave it to her. She was so surprised and her mother kept telling her to thank me. (This is the stuff I love. Surprising people when they don't expect it. It doesn't have to be much, but it makes their day better and mine too.) We loved the parade and Andrew was in heaven. After the parade it looks as if it's going to storm and he head back to get our room. We have 5:50 PS's for Liberty Tree Tavern so we're going to have to make this quick. We get back to the Poly and find out our room is the very last room on the first floor. The carpeting ends in the hallway at the room beside us. Everytime we go in or out of our room the automatic sliding door to the outside of the building opens. Very annoying. I hate this room. The ceilings seem very low and it's dark. The bathroom has everything in one room, tub, toilet, one sink. Impossible for 5 people. The towel racks in the bathroom are not even hip level and I'm 5'3". There is no such thing as a make-up mirror and the lighting in the bathroom is minimal. Oh well, at least I have my MK view. No such luck. Ours is the only room on the entire lagoon side that has foilage planted in front of the patio. The reason we wanted the first floor to begin with was so Andrew could play outside on the grass. Well this couldn't be done unless we climbed over bushes, rocks, and a few small palm trees. If you sat on the far side of the patio though you got a pretty good view of Wishes but then it's pretty hard to miss Wishes no matter where you are. As we opened the curtain there was a couple getting married on the hill under the palm trees just outside our room. I felt like an univited guest. My husband tried to bribe my 16 year old son with $100 if he'd yell "but I can't forget about last night" and I threatened to kill both of them if he did. They hurried the wedding and moved the cake and all quickly because it was about to pour rain. Well the bottom fell out. Now the outside sliding door next to our room is stuck open and a torrential downpour is blowing into the hall. The floor is covered with water. I decide to go down to the lounge and let someone know. As I'm walking down the hall there are five ceiling tiles missing from the ceiling and as I'm passing underneath them a huge spider about as big as a quarter comes falling out right in front of my face. I jump on him and smoosh him into the carpet. I go down to the concierge desk and let him know about the door being stuck, the water, the missing ceiling tiles, and the spider smooshed into the carpet. I also asked if he had any umbrellas I might borrow. He had one so I took it and went to the gift shop and bought more so we could make it back to MK for our PS. On my way back into the building I mentioned to the guy at the desk that I had ordered and prepaid for a Stitch to be left in the room for Andrew and that nothing was there. He looked into the computer and assured me that it had been delivered. No it hasn't. He'd look into it. I also mentioned that we didn't even get any leis when we checked in and he said, "Oh my, what was she thinking?" Handed me 5 red leis and told me a have a magical stay. The ceiling tiles were not replaced for three days and when I left the spider was still smooshed into the carpet. They never cleaned up the water either. It finally evaporated. The building is suppose to be secure but we never needed a key to get in down at our end. The door just opened whenever anyone would come near it. Even after midnight when the teenagers would come back to the room. The rain slowed down and we made our way to the MK for dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. Everyone enjoyed this meal and the character interaction was fabulous!! Afterward we rode Haunted Mansion and Evan and Kate stayed in the park to watch the parades and fireworks. Steve, Andrew and I went back to the room and caught the Electrical Water Pageant and Wishes from the beach. The EWP is short and sweet but is truly a gem. Andrew really liked it. Today was not the gem of a day that we had been having but we're on vacation. OK, no problem.
We pulled up to the entrance of the Poly and told the valet we were using valet parking and were concierge guests. They loaded everything onto a cart and were told to go inside to the desk. I repeated we were concierge guests and the bellman said, "Oh, I'm sorry" and he picked up a phone, called concierge and told me that my room wasn't ready and that they wanted to talk to me. OK, no problem. I took the phone and the lady on the other end identified herself as Aida. She said our room was not ready but that she could put me in a second floor room immediately. I turn to my husband to ask him what he thinks and the bellman is shaking his head and telling me, "don't do it, you wait for first floor". OK, no problem. He then points through the Great Ceremonial House and says "go through those doors and turn right". If I had never been to the Polynesian before this would have been a problem but I knew where Hawaii was and we just walked over there. No cart ride, no tour.
OK, no problem. We walked into the concierge area and there was one gentleman on the phone. We stood there a while before he even acknowledged us and then said he'd be right with us. After about 5-7 minutes a strikingly beautiful woman walked up and took her seat behind the desk. This was Claudia (pronounced Cloudia, not Clawdia.) I told her Ned had said hello and she smiled and thanked me for relaying the message. She again told us our room was not ready and I said "No problem. We'll just get our UPH's and go to the MK." Her reply was that we didn't have UPH's. OK, there must be a problem. I prepaid for the room and for the UPH's for five people. She brings up the reservation and says that she can see that I had paid $3106 but that CRO had not put in the proper code for the UPH's. I explained that $3106 was a lot more than 4 nights would cost and she said she would handle it. About 10 minutes later Aida came up to the desk and she spoke to me saying she had talked to Amy earlier that morning. Now I'm feeling better, but it still isn't really a problem, we're on vacation and I'm not going to let a little glitch bother me. There's always glitches. After almost a half hour Aida is trying to tell Claudia how she can handle this and Claudia (who is the manager) looks at me and says "I'm sure you understand that there are ways to do things and then there is the right way to do things." Sure. No problem. The kids are getting antzy and it's now about 11:45. I ask what the quickest way to get to the Wilderness Lodge is because we have a lunch PS. She tells me to take the boat and transfer at the MK but we should hurry, if we leave soon we'll just make it in time. Suddenly she cuts our room keys and we're off. OK, no problem. We're off for a pleasant boat ride to MK and then from MK across Bay Lake to the Wilderness Lodge. This really was a beautiful ride and we make it with about 10 minutes to spare. We had timed the boat departures perfectly. Now everything's back on track. We had a wonderful meal at the Whispering Canyon, the food was actually very good. They don't do as much at lunch as far as entertainment as they do at dinner, but it was plenty for my crowd. They had a guy do bird calls and animal sounds and several people that were eating there also came up and did a few animal sounds. They was a lot of whooping and hollering and suddenly a bride and groom came walking in that had just been married and were still dressed in their wedding clothes. (We end up seeing a lot of bridal couples before the week is over. After lunch we ride over to the MK and settle down for the afternoon parade. The teenagers decide they're headed for Space Mountain so it's just DH, Andrew, and me again. We were sitting next to a very nice English family (again) waiting for the parade. They had a little girl and was about 7 and she had started collecting pins. I reached into my fanny pack and pulled out a Minnie Mouse pin and asked her if she had that one yet. She said no and I gave it to her. She was so surprised and her mother kept telling her to thank me. (This is the stuff I love. Surprising people when they don't expect it. It doesn't have to be much, but it makes their day better and mine too.) We loved the parade and Andrew was in heaven. After the parade it looks as if it's going to storm and he head back to get our room. We have 5:50 PS's for Liberty Tree Tavern so we're going to have to make this quick. We get back to the Poly and find out our room is the very last room on the first floor. The carpeting ends in the hallway at the room beside us. Everytime we go in or out of our room the automatic sliding door to the outside of the building opens. Very annoying. I hate this room. The ceilings seem very low and it's dark. The bathroom has everything in one room, tub, toilet, one sink. Impossible for 5 people. The towel racks in the bathroom are not even hip level and I'm 5'3". There is no such thing as a make-up mirror and the lighting in the bathroom is minimal. Oh well, at least I have my MK view. No such luck. Ours is the only room on the entire lagoon side that has foilage planted in front of the patio. The reason we wanted the first floor to begin with was so Andrew could play outside on the grass. Well this couldn't be done unless we climbed over bushes, rocks, and a few small palm trees. If you sat on the far side of the patio though you got a pretty good view of Wishes but then it's pretty hard to miss Wishes no matter where you are. As we opened the curtain there was a couple getting married on the hill under the palm trees just outside our room. I felt like an univited guest. My husband tried to bribe my 16 year old son with $100 if he'd yell "but I can't forget about last night" and I threatened to kill both of them if he did. They hurried the wedding and moved the cake and all quickly because it was about to pour rain. Well the bottom fell out. Now the outside sliding door next to our room is stuck open and a torrential downpour is blowing into the hall. The floor is covered with water. I decide to go down to the lounge and let someone know. As I'm walking down the hall there are five ceiling tiles missing from the ceiling and as I'm passing underneath them a huge spider about as big as a quarter comes falling out right in front of my face. I jump on him and smoosh him into the carpet. I go down to the concierge desk and let him know about the door being stuck, the water, the missing ceiling tiles, and the spider smooshed into the carpet. I also asked if he had any umbrellas I might borrow. He had one so I took it and went to the gift shop and bought more so we could make it back to MK for our PS. On my way back into the building I mentioned to the guy at the desk that I had ordered and prepaid for a Stitch to be left in the room for Andrew and that nothing was there. He looked into the computer and assured me that it had been delivered. No it hasn't. He'd look into it. I also mentioned that we didn't even get any leis when we checked in and he said, "Oh my, what was she thinking?" Handed me 5 red leis and told me a have a magical stay. The ceiling tiles were not replaced for three days and when I left the spider was still smooshed into the carpet. They never cleaned up the water either. It finally evaporated. The building is suppose to be secure but we never needed a key to get in down at our end. The door just opened whenever anyone would come near it. Even after midnight when the teenagers would come back to the room. The rain slowed down and we made our way to the MK for dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. Everyone enjoyed this meal and the character interaction was fabulous!! Afterward we rode Haunted Mansion and Evan and Kate stayed in the park to watch the parades and fireworks. Steve, Andrew and I went back to the room and caught the Electrical Water Pageant and Wishes from the beach. The EWP is short and sweet but is truly a gem. Andrew really liked it. Today was not the gem of a day that we had been having but we're on vacation. OK, no problem.
) and I prepaid for 3 UPH passes. For some reason the passes didn't show up (weren't attached) to the reservation AND the money I prepaid was deducted from my hotel charge. All was straigtened out eventually. We did come close to our PS lunch time though and it took a good 45 minutes to get checked in!
