Disney's POLYNESIAN VILLAGE RESORT Information & Questions

[Skili9111]

We are here right now... Checked in at 11 am standard view and the room isn't ready yet. The CM said it could take until 5 pm, is that correct? In previous stays at other resorts we have never waited so long. If check in is at 3, then why would it take until 5?
Anyway, the resort is beautiful. I do have to say our check in was slightly awkward... It was like the CM didn't quite know what he was doing. I thought it was a fluke but about an hour or so when I asked another CM was our room ready, he was pretty "unmagical" as well.
It's perplexing... We have stayed at values, moderates... And have had much better check in experiences. It's not ruining our day by any means, it's just not what I expected.

 

[rcraw45425]

We are here right now... Checked in at 11 am standard view and the room isn't ready yet. The CM said it could take until 5 pm, is that correct? In previous stays at other resorts we have never waited so long. If check in is at 3, then why would it take until 5?
Anyway, the resort is beautiful. I do have to say our check in was slightly awkward... It was like the CM didn't quite know what he was doing. I thought it was a fluke but about an hour or so when I asked another CM was our room ready, he was pretty "unmagical" as well.
It's perplexing... We have stayed at values, moderates... And have had much better check in experiences. It's not ruining our day by any means, it's just not what I expected.

Our first Poly stay in '04 was a disaster. We did a split stay with the WL and had been told to call early and see if our room was ready. I called and they said sure, come on over your room is ready. We loaded all luggage and drove over around 11:30. No, room isn't ready. Go eat lunch and check back with us around 1pm. 2PM we get back from DTD and check, nope, rooms not ready. We sit around in the lobby (kids were younger and I didn't want them to swim since we had a dinner ADR at 'Ohana at 5:30). 3 rolls around, no room, 4, no room, by then they're calling housekeeping to find out what's going on. At 5 a manager approaches and says that every other room in the building is clean but ours isn't. They SHAMPOOED THE CARPET! WTH! By then I'm livid, I explained that we had dinner ADR at 'Ohana and then we had the Halloween Party and had to get the girls into their costumes. Manager was a doll, he told us to go eat and then bring him our receipt, he comped our 'Ohana meal as an apology. We finally got into the room at 6:30 and the carpet was wet until midday Saturday. Tried to use the volcano pool and it was closed the entire time because someone's kid (no swim diaper) had a blowout and they had to decontaminate it twice. It took us almost ten years to give that resort another try.

 

[pamkat1820]

hopefully this time tomorrow we will be checking to the poly. Everything is packed and ready to go. My kids are counting down the time to bed time. Which never happens in this house! Really looking forward to our first Poly stay!

 

[mommyrosa2]

Since I have a few minutes, I wanted to chime in.

First, thanks Kook...I didn't mind you answering for me .

Secondly, i want to be sure that I make myself clear that the reason we decided to leave was NOT because we had a less than magical check-in. While I don't feel the need to get into all the nitty gritty, I will say that we basically encountered one issue after another and the compilation of problems and lack of service was enough for us.

Like Kook said, we are at the GF now, service has been outstanding and we are finally starting to feel like we are back in true vacation mode.

For anyone wondering about compensation...we did not want any and did not ask for anything other than to be moved. As a last ditch effort the manager at the Poly did ask us repeatedly if there was anything he could do for us that would make us change our minds about moving and even offered us a bungalow over the water with CL access for the remainder of our stay to which we respectfully declined. And I would say that pretty much sums it up.

 

[ETICKETTORIDE]

We arrived in Florida a day before schedule (by car) and needed a place to stay, so we trooped it out at a place on the strip for $40 just for a few hours since we arrived at 1am... (double ugh)
Lets just say, that I had stayed at this motel once before in 93' that sorta (looks like a pyramid), and it hasn't changed...but that's a ridiculous story for a different day.

Anywho, on to the good stuff! I have arrived at the Polynesian! Weather is just fine, very nice, which is a relief because I can remember coming to Disney last July and a previous trip in 2000 at Coronado, and it was just like opening an oven door when leaving your hotel room- yes, that intense!

Resort is beautiful, my expectations are exceeded. No construction sights or sounds (though I'm sure If i went looking I'd find it)
Check in guy was super nice, and at random he put us in the Tuvalu section (right next to this beach I snapped a pic of) We arrived at around noon just to have lunch and poke around but our room was all set to go, so that was cool. My daughter posing for a quick picture right when we checked in below.

Okay, time to explore some more!

 

[SeaSpray]

Since I have a few minutes, I wanted to chime in.

First, thanks Kook...I didn't mind you answering for me .

Secondly, i want to be sure that I make myself clear that the reason we decided to leave was NOT because we had a less than magical check-in. While I don't feel the need to get into all the nitty gritty, I will say that we basically encountered one issue after another and the compilation of problems and lack of service was enough for us.

Like Kook said, we are at the GF now, service has been outstanding and we are finally starting to feel like we are back in true vacation mode.

For anyone wondering about compensation...we did not want any and did not ask for anything other than to be moved. As a last ditch effort the manager at the Poly did ask us repeatedly if there was anything he could do for us that would make us change our minds about moving and even offered us a bungalow over the water with CL access for the remainder of our stay to which we respectfully declined. And I would say that pretty much sums it up.

Yikes! I'm sorry that the issues at the resort made you miss out on valuable vacation time. I'm guessing that everything that happened was pretty bad if they offered a bungalow. I never thought that you only because of a crummy check-in.

I am glad that you're having a good time and having great service at the Grand Floridian. I get these thoughts about changing to the GF, but my DH doesn't want to, so hopefully we won't encounter any problems.

 

[HubbDave]

Mommyrosa, that is too bad

So far we have had nothing but a great experience (besides the weather) Resort has been good to us. CMs have been excellent. We will be sad to leave in 2 days

No complaints thus far

 

[HubbDave]

can't recall how to upload images

 

[Sue M]

We arrived in Florida a day before schedule (by car) and needed a place to stay, so we trooped it out at a place on the strip for $40 just for a few hours since we arrived at 1am... (double ugh)
Lets just say, that I had stayed at this motel once before in 93' that sorta (looks like a pyramid), and it hasn't changed...but that's a ridiculous story for a different day.

Anywho, on to the good stuff! I have arrived at the Polynesian! Weather is just fine, very nice, which is a relief because I can remember coming to Disney last July and a previous trip in 2000 at Coronado, and it was just like opening an oven door when leaving your hotel room- yes, that intense!

Resort is beautiful, my expectations are exceeded. No construction sights or sounds (though I'm sure If i went looking I'd find it)
Check in guy was super nice, and at random he put us in the Tuvalu section (right next to this beach I snapped a pic of) We arrived at around noon just to have lunch and poke around but our room was all set to go, so that was cool. My daughter posing for a quick picture right when we checked in below.

Okay, time to explore some more!





View attachment 116579 View attachment 116580 View attachment 116581

Great view!

 

[chinooker]

Random question, but we are staying in club level at the Poly in December, so what is one request that would make our stay even more magical? Thanks for the input and advice in advance!

 

[Sue M]

Since I have a few minutes, I wanted to chime in.

First, thanks Kook...I didn't mind you answering for me .

Secondly, i want to be sure that I make myself clear that the reason we decided to leave was NOT because we had a less than magical check-in. While I don't feel the need to get into all the nitty gritty, I will say that we basically encountered one issue after another and the compilation of problems and lack of service was enough for us.

Like Kook said, we are at the GF now, service has been outstanding and we are finally starting to feel like we are back in true vacation mode.

For anyone wondering about compensation...we did not want any and did not ask for anything other than to be moved. As a last ditch effort the manager at the Poly did ask us repeatedly if there was anything he could do for us that would make us change our minds about moving and even offered us a bungalow over the water with CL access for the remainder of our stay to which we respectfully declined. And I would say that pretty much sums it up.

Glad things are getting better for you. GF is great! Won't be long before we're checking into Poly, and hope we love it as much as we did our last stay there! Was supposed to stay there last summer, but with main pool closure we switched to GF.

 

[fairy oma]

I know that I'm quoting myself here, but I just called IPO and wanted to report how the call went.

The first time I called, the phone rang and rang, then someone picked up, and then hung up!! That wasn't good.

So I immediately redialed and this time the call was answered right away by an IPO CM named Sabra. I recognized her name right away, since I had done all of my correspondence via email.

I have to say that Sabra was wonderful. I had the call on speakerphone because I wanted my DH to be able to hear, too. I told her that I was calling to clarify an email that I received last week. She first asked for our reservation number and while she was looking it up, she asked in a cheerful voice "Are you excited about your upcoming trip??"

We then spoke for about 20 minutes. She wanted to make sure that our room requests were exactly what we wanted. She confirmed that they are basically fully booked right now and for the next several weeks. She took the time to ask specific questions to help us decide the best room location requests, as well as take into consideration the fact that we will be back at the resort each day after lunch to rest.

I also asked her to clarify the check-in process and the arrival at the front of the resort process. She did so in a very friendly manner, explaining various scenarios.

Apparently it really depends on who answers your phone calls or emails. I looked back at my emails and saw some from Sabra (as well as others) who wrote very nice email replies to me.

I have also dealt with Sabra on a few occasions and she is a delight to work with; I had very much the same experience with her. She is helpful, makes added suggestions to make our stay special and worked hard to get ADRs we wanted. She double checked our 3 room reservations and the special requests we had made.

I have also dealt with 2 other IPO CMs and cannot remember their names but they were also very helpful and seemed to genuinely want to help make our family vacation special.

 

[kelowatt]

20 days to go! 15 work days. I can do it
We had a tiki party this weekend in part because i can't stop obsessing about our trip. I even used the hippopatomaitai glass my sister and dad brought me from their trip in April.

This is our first trip with the baby (who is 13 months), so the touring is going to be a lot slower. I'm setting a few goals for myself this trip, with the idea that anything else i get to do is just gravy (I want to ride the mine train since my last trip it wasn't open yet, and ideally i will come back with a Nautilus and a Country Bear Jug sipper). Just knowing that even if the baby is melting down, i can still go to the beach with a pineapple beverage and watch Wishes and the Water Pageant makes the idea of slow touring pretty appealing.
Since he's not *my* baby, i might even come back from this vacation...relaxed? (I mean, he is a pretty awesome baby, but then i can just hand him back if needed. Being Auntie is the best)

 

[johnsonet]

...

The best interactions have been with a CM at Captain Cooks who was "directing traffic" - recommended the fish tacos. Super good. He also helped in other ways

The barista at the Kona Island has been great while we were getting fresh pressed coffee the last 2 mornings

Had the exact same experience last month. The sweet ladies at the coffee bar were the best and I loved the guy at CC with the Stitch hands/mitts I passed by there a lot going to/coming from my room in Fiji and he was always so friendly and funny.
Have a great time!

 

[AngiTN]

We are here right now... Checked in at 11 am standard view and the room isn't ready yet. The CM said it could take until 5 pm, is that correct? In previous stays at other resorts we have never waited so long. If check in is at 3, then why would it take until 5?
Anyway, the resort is beautiful. I do have to say our check in was slightly awkward... It was like the CM didn't quite know what he was doing. I thought it was a fluke but about an hour or so when I asked another CM was our room ready, he was pretty "unmagical" as well.
It's perplexing... We have stayed at values, moderates... And have had much better check in experiences. It's not ruining our day by any means, it's just not what I expected.

We had a pretty poor check in on our trip at the first of the month. I chalked it up to our arriving at 9:00 AM and their not quite being in true check in mode. But after reading your, and other reports it seems sort of the norm for Poly. A shame they can't get a handle on their check in process and CMs. We loved the rest of our trip and the room was perfect, no complaints about 1 other thing for our 8 night stay. Even had good interactions with other CMs at the front desk when paying with our gift cards. Just that check in guy was a let down. He didn't even give us an activity schedule or anything. Like you, it didn't ruin our trip but it doesn't put Poly high on our list of resorts to return to. That first impression is important to me.

I wonder when you did get your room. You are right, they are supposed to provide one by 3:00. I had Pop try to tell me that I couldn't have our room by 3:00 and I said no, you are wrong, you will have us a room by 3:00. And they did but it was a fight. It was just one of many reasons why I won't stay at Pop again.

 

[Aerinha]

Not to get too off topic, but I had two other resorts not have my room ready by 3. In both cases I arrived around 2 so I wasn't phenominally early and I had indicated in online check in and, for my CL stay at AKL on the IPO sheet, what time I would arrive so not having the room at arrival was irritatiing. What made it worse was that the first time, at YC, they said they would text me the number and didn't so I had to stop at the desk at 9 p.m. To get it, and at AKL when it reached 5 I called them from Epcot to see what was going on to get it. Then discovered I was in a bunk bed room really far from the CL area. From the way they rushed to assure me it was a CL room, I suspect they forgot about me once I left the resort and gave me what was left when the text failed to arrive and I called.

 

[AngiTN]

Not to get too off topic, but I had two other resorts not have my room ready by 3. In both cases I arrived around 2 so I wasn't phenominally early and I had indicated in online check in and, for my CL stay at AKL on the IPO sheet, what time I would arrive so not having the room at arrival was irritatiing. What made it worse was that the first time, at YC, they said they would text me the number and didn't so I had to stop at the desk at 9 p.m. To get it, and at AKL when it reached 5 I called them from Epcot to see what was going on to get it. Then discovered I was in a bunk bed room really far from the CL area. From the way they rushed to assure me it was a CL room, I suspect they forgot about me once I left the resort and gave me what was left when the text failed to arrive and I called.

Well, at AKL all their CL rooms (that are not DVC) are far from the CL lounge. They are all on the 4th floor

Sometimes the rooms are ready and the text doesn't work. I know that's happened to us. I do get the email so I know it was ready

 

[rcraw45425]

Just spoke with Mark in the IPO, such a change from the other day's experience. He even mentioned that you can order 'Ohana through room service ($40 per person, you choose how many people to order for) and they bring everything, even the bread pudding and a table to your room and set up. Great option for parents with little ones that aren't cooperating and also for lighter eaters that feel like they lose money on the amount they eat i noted restaurant.

 

[Ferrentinos]

Just spoke with Mark in the IPO, such a change from the other day's experience. He even mentioned that you can order 'Ohana through room service ($40 per person, you choose how many people to order for) and they bring everything, even the bread pudding and a table to your room and set up. Great option for parents with little ones that aren't cooperating and also for lighter eaters that feel like they lose money on the amount they eat i noted restaurant.

I responded to this on the other thread - but I'll respond here too - we did this on our most recent trip and it was amazing! We ordered it for "1" person and there was more than enough for me and DH - it is now a must-do for every Poly trip from now on!! Highly recommend! DD4 was just playing in the room and eating her little yogurt and fruit (she is a light eater that you mention) - we sat on our patio eating plate after plate after plate! Loved it!

 

[jessicag13]

Just spoke with Mark in the IPO, such a change from the other day's experience. He even mentioned that you can order 'Ohana through room service ($40 per person, you choose how many people to order for) and they bring everything, even the bread pudding and a table to your room and set up. Great option for parents with little ones that aren't cooperating and also for lighter eaters that feel like they lose money on the amount they eat i noted restaurant.

i was actually just looking at all the menus for the polynesian, and saw they had this on the in-room menu as the Ohana Twilight Feast (it looks amazing- food-wise, and laziness-wise )
http://allears.net/dining/menu/polynesian-in-room-dining/all-day