I'm fairly persnickety too, but I do understand that Disney deluxe is not "regular" deluxe. But, if some buildings are better than others, I would definitely want the better building! The problem is, we don't know for sure which buildings/rooms are standard view.
This location sounds perfect to me. The day after I booked this trip (the most walking around vacation there is) I seriously injured my knee. Walking right now is a difficult task. Being close to the monorail, restaurants & pool sounds like heaven. I have no interest in wandering aimlessly around the resort.Oh dear G-d in heaven! I still don't know anything about the 12 days of Christmas Hawaiian style past the 10 cans of peaches and 1 papaya tree because ma brain just gave up after listening to the same.music.over.and.over.and and over. again. Those 11 pitiful songs were like drool to my ears and it's a good thing I dinna take the man's suggestion that we drink a shot after every restart of the loop cause it would have been the drunken grandparents' trip and DGD would've been scarred for life.
Our summer trip we stayed at Fiji, 3rd floor marina view (then part of standard) and wuvved it. Asked for but dinna receive it for our Christmas trip. This time we got Aotearoa, 3rd flr, monorail view. I despised it initially but then I always arrive at Disney in primo Grumpy mode it seems. Kept wondering why they thought a grrl from da Bronx would want to sleep next to the 3rd Avenue El for 2 weeks and think it was something special -what is this old home week?!. A far as overall locale it's a nice place, fairly quiet and close to the monorail entrance, Lava Pool and restaurants. Since we no longer faced the front we missed most of the woo hooing of the Spirit of Aloha crowds' mad rush to the resort's bars. My only problem is that longhouse is way past due it's renovation date IMO. Perhaps if they charged less for it until upgrade time but we all know that's not going to happen.
I chuckled a little when you wrote that 42 is cold as I sit in the middle of a blizzardin the northeast with current temperatures of 22 degrees F, which is actually a heatwave since yesterday was 7 degrees and tomorrow will be -5. It’s all relative!
. With that said, it is predicted to be in the 30s on Sunday, with it getting as high as 39 on Wednesday, at which time I told my DH that will be a heat wave 
. We are headed back to the Poly in March for Spring Break; we can't wait!
We stayed at the Poly very frequently in 2015, and have picked the Epcot resorts in 2016 and 2017.
Excited to come back to our original favorite.
.It is certainly convenient to everything with the possible exception of the TTC and if your knee starts aching you will definitely enjoy a soak in one of the hot tubs!
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Tikiman does a great review of the longhouses that you might find of use. Keep in mind that the new still to be announced category (marina view) is not included but it's pretty easy to figure out what rooms that will include.
You are hilarious! You remind me of so many people in my life, probably because we live in the same part of the country. Thanks for the details. I’m quite detail oriented as well, but with my new normal, my priorities have shifted.It is certainly convenient to everything with the possible exception of the TTC and if your knee starts aching you will definitely enjoy a soak in one of the hot tubs!
The man said the following about the room: "It looks just like the one at Fijii and the only real difference was the lack of water view which I know you wanted. You were a grouch when we checked it and I'm glad you got over it. Now pass me that caramel drizzled chocolate covered marshmallow stick from Karamel Kuche because I know you're trying to hide it."
Alright....after 25+ years of unwedded bliss I guess he knows me better than I think but he's wrong about the marshmallow thingie. It's the caramel chocolate brownie he'll nevah see.
My take remains that the second room really does need a refurbishment but I am taking into consideration that yes Disney's idea of Deluxe is like no others (and priced accordingly for the convenience) and that given the popularity and non stop usage of rooms a certain amount of imperfections are to be expected. I noted a bleach type stain on the carpet near the fridge, a wall that needed replastering but probably only if you were looking for it; a toilet paper holder that needed re-tightening and some wallpaper that could use a touch of glue to hold it down. See that? True blue persnickety. Served me well working for hotels but ahhhh to live with me can be something else
I think you'll be happy there and might want to request a first floor room to avoid any possibilities of stair travel. As the customer reps always say on the phone after getting my full share of "It's a Small World after All"....have a magical stay!
Haha- the Christmas music at the Poly was truly terrible! Where was Melakalikimaka? Guess if that and the lack of storage in the studio are my only complaints then it was pretty good!
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So they parked the floats used in the electric water pageant right in front of the bungalows (the floats were not lit up). Those floats had loud speakers were synced with the music. The bungalows were also synced with the music. I saw pictures of the fireworks on Instagram that were taken from the Poly beach the next day. They were awesome. There was a roped off VIP viewing area on the Poly beach. Being in a bungalow on NYE was definitely a once in a lifetime event. I took a time lapse of the sunset on 12/30 from the bungalow. At the very end of the time lapse, you can just see the start of the NYE firework (to the extreme right of the video) as they ran on 12/30 as well as 12/31
How about trying a new resort for your last night? We did that several years ago and tried the Beach Club. We walked into Epcot from BC, which was pretty cool and thoroughly enjoyed Stormalong Bay. On the day we checked out, we spent the whole day in the pool relaxing in the lazy river while my daughter had a blast on the pool slide.
Small world! I’m in Charleston SC too!! The snow here is crazy!
Have you seen the 8th available at all? By itself or in combination with other dates? If it shows any availability, call. I was booking this November for Next November, over a year out. All my dates were available(individually or in various combinations) but it would not let me book the span I wanted (Nov 24-Dec 1, standard view). I called and yes, the CM could only see what I could see. BUT, he was able to put me on hold, call Guest Services, and override. So it can't hurt to call. But be prepared for a long call. First the usual hold time, then the CM had to check all the different configurations like I did, then the hold for guest services. But it was worth it!
Have you checked booking on Cheap Tickets or another discounting site? Oftentimes it has rooms when none show on the Disney site. You can always call Disney--that inventory changes constantly too. 
