76: Disney's Polynesian Village Resort Review

This week we talk share what we love about the Poly including some observations from our most recent trip.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to Whistle While You Work podcast.

(00:15):
This is episode 76, Disney's Polynesian Village and Resort.
Just resort.
I don't know.
Review.
Just the Polynesian Village Resort.
So we call it the Poly so much that I'm like, I don't know if I can get all those words
into this intro.
Do you even live there?
I mean it is home.
That is true.

(00:36):
They tell me welcome home when I live there.
I live there for a few days a year.
And I really wanted to do this episode because that is where we stayed a few weeks ago when
we went as a family.
And I realized that I don't think we've ever done an exclusive episode about this resort.
We've talked about it in passing and highlighted certain things but I just wanted to go a little

(00:58):
bit more in depth.
Yeah, we've talked about it.
We've compared it and we've compared other resorts to each other but I don't know that
we've ever just dedicated a few minutes to talking about the Poly.
And it's awesome.
I'll just lay it off with that.
It's really awesome.
Yeah, and I think the other thing is if you're a history buff, you feel like it's 1971 and

(01:22):
this was one of the hotels, I think it was one of two, maybe three when Disney World
opened.
It was contemporary Polynesian and maybe wilderness lodge?
I don't know about that one but I do know this was one of the OGs.
Fun fact about this, do you know that it's not where it was originally planned to be?
Well, I do but maybe our listeners don't know why.

(01:44):
So interestingly enough, the Polynesian Village Resort was originally envisioned to be much
closer to the Magic Kingdom.
In fact, it was supposed to be right outside of the Jungle Cruise ride.
And that was the idea is, you know.
Close to the Tiki Room, Adventureland.
Tiki Room, Adventureland, all of that.

(02:06):
They really wanted the resort hotels to kind of match the theming that you have there.
And so interestingly enough, you notice that the contemporary is right outside of Tomorrowland.
Right.
It's in with that theme.
But the problem was, it just wasn't going to work.
Yeah, I think the land, wasn't it too sandy?

(02:27):
There was issues with soil, with all sorts of things.
And the reality was, it just didn't quite look right either, I think.
It was just going to be too close.
Yeah, I felt like it would have hid, I don't know, I know they have it hidden in a way
that you can't see a lot inside of the park from out of it.

(02:49):
But anyway, I think we can just skip right ahead to the new thing that we saw there that
was really in construction, which is the new DVC tower.
I don't know what they're going to call it.
The Polynesian Tower.
The Polynesian Tower.
And I mean, can you imagine if they had that over in that area where Jungle Cruise?
I mean, that would have just.

(03:09):
That would have been an eyesore.
Yeah.
In my opinion.
I mean, I think most people think it's an eyesore already where it is.
So it would just really be.
I will say this about that, and we're already way off topic because this episode is not
about the tower that's still under construction.
We don't know a whole lot about.
But yeah, it doesn't.
I was just really surprised that they decided to do is build a tower with the Polynesian

(03:31):
Village Resort, which is just a three story little building.
Yeah, three stories.
Yeah, right.
They and they're they're themed in a particular way.
And if you're not in one of the three story buildings, you're out on one of the bungalows
that is literally out on Bay Lake.
And if you stay there, we'd like to know what you do for a living and how you afford that.
Yeah, my goodness.

(03:51):
I mean, talk about talk about pricey.
And that that's even it's even pricey from the DVC experience.
A number of points required per night just to me seems mathematically impossible.
But I guess not for some folks.
Right.
I think that's like our year's worth.
Right.
And for one night.
It's more than that.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Anyway.

(04:12):
So, yeah, we don't have a huge contract, though.
That I did definitely want to talk about the the layout of this resort.
So every Disney World hotel has a different arrangement.
It's not like copy and paste, but there are some consistencies like at most of the moderate
resorts, it's very spread out.

(04:33):
There's lots of buildings and there's lots of bus stops at the Polynesian.
There is we it is spread out to different buildings, but it's not as spread out as the
Caribbean beach or something like that.
Yeah.
So there's one bus stop.
There's one bus stop.
I would say that that is an interesting thing.
Right.
The Polynesian is a deluxe resort.

(04:55):
It is not geographically huge, which I kind of love.
I just but but it it takes care of a lot of people.
Right.
You can get a lot of people there, but like geographically, especially compared to the
other resorts.
Right.
Like if you were to think of Coronado Springs, for instance, like you could be walking around
there for days and never figure out where to get to bus stop number five.

(05:17):
Right.
And I recently was working with with a travel client.
I booked travel for Disney and other places as well.
But anyway, I was talking to her and I found what I thought was a really good deal at the
Coronado.
It was in the tower, too.
Oh, yeah.
And she just had such a bad experience last time because at at those moderates at the

(05:41):
bus has to go to all six every stop before it can go.
Or when you come back, you have to be.
So she just to her, that was like that.
I want a vacation.
Why don't the deal with that?
Now, some people have a higher tolerance and don't care.
But it's just it's just little things like that that really help you appreciate the deluxe
category and what it offers.

(06:03):
Yeah, that's absolutely right.
You know, you know, a little sidebar there, I found having stayed in both spots at Coronado
Springs when I stayed at Grandestino Tower, it was easier for me to just call an Uber
and get to whatever park I needed to rather than try and wait on the bus service and go
to all those stops.
You know, the deluxe resorts, there's not a ton of them.

(06:24):
First of all, they even have space for people after they go to six stops like, you know,
I would just think it would fill up.
But anyway, yeah.
But and I and I say this, the deluxe resorts and I'm going to put a little asterisk next
to it because technically Grandestino Tower at Coronado Springs is the deluxe.
The rest of Coronado Springs is a moderate, right?
I think so.
I've never been clear on that.
Yeah, that's that's one of the interesting things about it.

(06:46):
But the other deluxe resorts, we're talking about Polynesian, we're talking about the
Grand Floridian, we're talking about contemporary, we're talking about the Riviera Wilderness
Lodge.
You find that the amenities and the ability to enjoy the resort, I think, just is accentuated
on a higher scale.
Yeah.

(07:07):
Yeah.
So I mean, we can even we can take it to the very beginning of this trip.
But we've had this experience multiple times.
We took an Uber from the airport.
That was our desired way to get to the resort.
And we you know, they come right to your the Bell Bell Service people.

(07:28):
They come right and try to help you with your bags.
And then just a beautiful atmosphere walking into the hotel.
We go into the hotel, you guys kind of go off to the chairs in the lobby and move stuff
around because we're going to go right to a park.
And I went and waited to check in just because I wanted to have us in rooms that were adjoining.

(07:52):
And so it was just I was standing in line and I didn't even have to go up to the desk
before someone left the desk, came around me, came around to me with what are those like
an iPad type of thing?
It is an iPad, an iPad, mobile check.
And he just started helping me.
I think I could have even gotten a lay if I wanted.

(08:12):
I was kind of like, I don't really need a lay.
But if I wanted one, I could have had one of those flower lays.
And he just started helping me and I was, you know, it did take a little bit of time
because our kind of our joke is they have to call somebody that has to call somebody
that has to call somebody to figure out how we can get adjoining rooms.
I think I should have called ahead of time and managed it better.

(08:34):
It's the most un hotel like hotel experience, I think.
Right.
It's very interesting because you're staying in what is clearly a hotel.
There's all those amenities.
But some of the things that you would find at another hotel, right, like you call down
to the front desk and they can just do whatever you need or something's wrong with your room.
Like they can just fix it on the computer.

(08:54):
They just punch it up and there you go.
That's not how it works at any of the Disney resorts that I've ever been to.
If there's an issue with your room, it usually requires multiple phone calls.
But I just was so impressed that he came to me and I didn't have to like I didn't feel
like I had to wait very long at all in line before someone was there helping me.
And there wasn't a long line behind me either.
And I think that's actually the key, though, is there's all those extra steps when there's

(09:17):
a problem, because there's usually not a problem.
Right.
That was very unusual.
And actually, our rooms and I think there's location services on the app.
And so as we were walking into the lobby, I got notified that my room was ready.
And so I think that made it even trickier because they had assigned us rooms that were
next to each other, but not adjoining.

(09:39):
We had our four kids with us.
I wanted to be able to just easily go in and not have to go in the hallway.
Exactly.
And so anyway, this that was just kind of the highlight.
One of the highlights for me was just the check in process of not a giant line and very
helpful, friendly service.
And I want to talk about just walking into that lobby.

(10:00):
First of all, for me, it's one of my favorite things because you walk in and there is a
distinct scent.
Yes, that is the Polynesian.
And you get it right away.
But this just it's just this gorgeous lobby and the the building you enter is called the
Great Ceremonial House.

(10:20):
So remember, the theme here is Polynesia.
And so you can kind of imagine yourself as if you were walking into a Polynesian village.
And this would be the big ceremonial house in that village.
This is where everyone would gather together and they would share meals.
And you know, maybe there's that's where the ruler is going to pass down judgment on somebody

(10:43):
or whatever it's going to be.
It's big and it's grand.
And in the very center of it is this huge tiki.
Yes, yes.
Just, you know, on this pile of lava rocks and the flowers and the flora and the fauna
is just absolutely gorgeous.
It all goes together so well.
It's the kind of place that to tell you the truth, and there's a lot of seating there

(11:05):
in that lobby where you could just be happy, in my opinion, just sitting in the lobby,
just sitting there.
Yeah.
And again, the smell is it's very distinct, but just lovely.
And we we use the Monterey, which is on the second floor of the ceremonial house.
There's also a Hanna, which is a famous restaurant and Kona Cafe.

(11:28):
But we would go in and out of the ceremony house a lot because we were using the ceremonial
house is great.
And you know, some some things to point out there, you've got actually Trader Sam's, which
is the main gift shop there.
It's one of the it's one of the largest gift shops of any of the Disney resorts.
Right.

(11:48):
Why the other ones are not monopolizing.
Some of them are very, you know, like if you go frankly to the one at the Grand Floridian,
it's very disappointing how small the actual kind of, you know, Disney themed gift shop
is.
There's others.
Other stores there.
But this is the main one there.
Also downstairs, you have Captain Cook's, which is a quick service food stop.

(12:12):
Some of the best things you've heard me talk about before the pulled pork nachos.
That's where you get them.
And right outside that one, I feel.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
And right outside going towards the pool, you'll actually even find a quick service
stop where you can get yourself a dual whip.
And so that's all on the ground floor.
And then upstairs, you've got two restaurants.

(12:32):
Right.
And then you have Ohana and you have the Kona Cafe.
Those are ADR restaurants.
Some great stuff.
There's actually even a bar right outside of Ohana where you could walk up and drinks
and stuff.
But then my favorite part.
Oh, by the way, there's actually a second gift shop upstairs as well connected to the

(12:54):
Moana Market.
Moana Mercantile is what it's called.
And that's where you'll get some of your sundries and your food.
You know, milk is available there.
Ships, medicines, whatever you need.
But my favorite thing, actually, you mentioned it is the monorail stop because one of the
best things about staying at a monorail resort is your ability now to skip the regular security

(13:16):
screening lines that you're going to find at the Transportation and Ticket Center.
Get on a monorail that will take you directly to the front steps of the Magic Kingdom.
Yeah.
So the first morning that we were there, we did Hollywood Studios.
And so, no, it was no, I'm thinking of.

(13:36):
I feel like we took the monorail from the Transportation and Ticket Center to Epcot.
That was that first day.
So we walked and that was the only time because it is walkable and pretty close.
Yeah, that's the other thing is you can actually walk directly to the Transportation and Ticket
Center.
No problem.
But definitely just use the resort monorail because the security line.

(13:58):
Yeah.
But if you're going to Epcot, you just walk next door and it'll take you straight there.
No bus required.
So one of the biggest reasons I wanted to do this episode was I guess I'm old or I don't
know.
Maybe I appreciate things that I didn't as a kid and you just don't appreciate it.
But I just could not get over the beauty, the smells, the plants, the flowers, just the

(14:20):
lush gardening throughout that whole resort.
I don't even know if I can put it into words.
I just think it just made my experience so impactful.
People don't go to Disney World for plants, I guess, but I just that is something that
well, our friend back does.
He goes, he goes for the plants.

(14:40):
It's incredible because those purple trees.
Remember the trees?
I do.
I do.
I mean, you'll see some great stuff out there.
It is very, very well maintained.
So you know, it's interesting as you have this tropical feel and if you spend some time
in tropical areas, you know that some of the stuff frankly just gets overgrown really,

(15:01):
really quickly.
Right?
Yes.
They do a tremendous job of maintaining everything and keeping it good.
There's nothing that's dead or dying.
The grass looks great.
The walkways are all clean.
And you want to know it's also really interesting.
The walkways are nice and clean and big and it's even themed like you feel like it's lava
rock.
You totally do.

(15:21):
And what's amazing about that is in addition being a deluxe resort on Bay Lake, there actually
is a beachfront area with white sand beach to it.
You can even play volleyball out there if you want.
But even that doesn't really mess up the whole experience.
It doesn't get messy or dirty despite the fact you got all this sand right there.
Yeah, which is amazing.

(15:42):
Sand is can be so difficult.
They do a great job taking care of it.
And that sand is soft.
Henry and I went out there one morning, I think it was, and just walked in the sand
and it was just so soft.
You know, like I think you were saying, yeah, well, it's Florida sand.
It's better than other places.
They got good sand in Florida.
Yeah.
So I mean, you know, we don't have to spend all this time talking about plants, but like

(16:06):
literally there were trees that were blooming purple flowers.
I just it was just beautiful.
And just the palm trees.
And we decided to stay one more day rather than get so we could have used more points
and had a lake view, which we have had that before.
We've actually always had that before.

(16:27):
Yeah.
This is the first time we didn't have a lake view.
Right.
And so when we've had like you can see Cinderella Castle from your room, which is pretty dang
cool, which also means that you can actually and you can do this from elsewhere in the
resort, but you can watch the fireworks show and hear it or which they pipe in the sound
that goes to it while you're watching it.
It's pretty cool.

(16:48):
You can watch happily ever after and not be shoulder to shoulder comfort of your resort.
Right.
Now, obviously it's a much further away view.
Right.
So the fireworks, I'm always going to tell you it's better to be right underneath it.
But I think that's one of the most amazing things of any resort you can get to is sitting
on the beach at the poly watching happily ever after and listening to it at the same

(17:09):
time.
And like I said, this trip, we decided to stay another day and have a garden view, which
I was like, oh, I bet we're going to be looking at a parking lot or something ugly.
And I was actually pretty happy.
No, we didn't see Space Mountain or Cinderella Castle from our room.
But like it was just this lush, beautiful green area to look at that, you know, Disney,

(17:32):
it can suck you a little bit, you know, and I think just that recharge, that feeling of
home that just beauty kind of reenergizes me.
So anyway, maybe people that were listening to this episode weren't like, oh, I can't
wait to hear about the plants.
But just just the atmosphere.
Certainly this is a price consideration, something that, you know, people would need to budget

(17:55):
for.
It's not inexpensive.
But to me, it is a deluxe resort, right?
You know, it's so it's at the it's at the upper tier of, you know, cost and expense.
Yeah.
And I will say that the rooms, I mean, inside the room, it's not heavy on Disney theming.
There is a little bit of like a Little Mermaid reference and Lilo and Stitch is very subtle,

(18:21):
very subtle.
So it's it's more Polynesian than Disney.
But you get a combination of both.
Let's talk just briefly about the carpet in the hallway.
It was so pretty.
I mean, who pays attention to carpet?
But like there was this pink, green, blue section of the carpet which which merged with
this orange brown thing.

(18:43):
And anyway, it just it just worked.
And it kind of had that vibe to me of like 1971, that brown orange.
They loved that back then.
But then it had that modern pop of color, which is actually kind of the color scheme
the rooms changed to.
So you know, we've only ever.
So full disclaimer, we've only ever stayed in the DVC rooms, which which is a little
different from the regular hotel rooms because there's a small kitchenette in there.

(19:08):
And they recently refurbished all of the DVC rooms.
And by refurbished, what we really mean is they changed the colors.
The couch is now the couch is now just easier pull down bed.
Yeah.
So so previously there was a queen size bed and then there was a queen size pull out couch.
Yeah.
Right.
So they call it a Murphy bed or something similar to that where you pull it down from

(19:31):
the wall.
It actually has a much more substantial mattress.
It's almost basically you're really sleeping on just a second bed and then you can put
it away and the couch comes right back out when you're done for easy convenience.
Pretty cool.
It's very magical, very Disney like.
And then there's another like Murphy type bed actually in the television kind of console.
So underneath the television hangs on the wall and underneath that there's big kind

(19:55):
of you know, you'd almost think it was a dresser.
It's not.
The drawers are under the bed, but you pull this down and there's a single sleeper bed.
So the room actually sleeps five on on legitimate mattresses.
Yeah.
So let's just briefly talk about the pool.
There's two pool options.

(20:16):
There's kind of a quieter pool with like a bar.
I guess both of them have a bar.
And and then there's the volcano pool with the slide.
And that was a little bit more rowdy.
There's a splash pad, a very cool themed splash pad, just great amenities, giant hot tubs.
Those are important.
The other thing I'll say is getting we talked about the monorail, but there is you can walk

(20:42):
to the transportation and ticket center.
There's a bus.
And then the fourth way is the boat launch.
So you can take a boat to Magic Kingdom.
So lots of options.
Just a fond place in my heart.
And I feel like even if it wasn't nostalgic, where I didn't have these memories with my
family there, I just I think it's gorgeous and definitely worth considering staying at.

(21:06):
Yeah, I give it a five out of five.
I mean, it's it is it is my favorite resort to stay at.
We've stayed at, frankly, many of them.
Yes.
I would say most because there's there's actually a lot, but we've stayed at probably we've
stayed at more than we haven't stayed at.
I would say 60 percent of the and and we've stayed at.

(21:28):
Well, you have stated all of the deluxe resorts.
I have not yet stated the contemporary, but but this is my favorite out of all of them.
And we've stated some spectacular places, right?
I mean, we've had great suites at the Grand Floridian at Beach Club.
You know, we've had a beautiful room in the Riviera.

(21:48):
But in terms of like the resort, the whole experience, everything top to bottom, this
is my favorite place to go.
Yeah.
And I think if people are going to Disney, maybe only for a few days, I think that it
would be a waste to not go to Magic Kingdom.
So if you want something close to Magic Kingdom, this is definitely worth considering.
So now the downside to it is this, right?

(22:10):
You know, again, the room sleeps five.
Depending on the size of your people, you know, that that could become a little more
challenging.
We obviously have four sons and at least one of which is the biggest person in the family
is the tallest one, at least.
And so that for us actually presented some challenges this time, even having two rooms
that were adjoining.

(22:31):
He slept diagonal on a Murphy bed.
He didn't have to, but that's what he chose to do.
But it was just one of those things where they all had their own bed, though, you know,
everyone, everyone is a little more closely quartered here this way when you do it.
There are not two bedrooms, suite options other than the bungalows on the water at the

(22:52):
Polynesian.
So you so everyone's kind of in a studio room.
The new tower will have some of those, but we don't know about that yet.
So that's just something to keep in mind.
You know, but definitely if it's if you're going on a couples trip or something like
that, you definitely can't go wrong.
And by the way, didn't even mention this, but at least in the DVC rooms, there are there's

(23:14):
one and a half bathrooms and the half bathroom is actually a shower bathroom.
So there's two showers, one toilet in each of those DVC studio rooms.
So smart.
People know how people get ready.
Those designers are starting to get more savvy with that.
So anyway, if you want more specific dates and prices and all that stuff, I'm happy to

(23:36):
quote that for you for free.
I don't charge any extra fees.
Book with me, book with directly with the Disney website.
It's the same cost.
But if you book with me, then you get me and all of my information.
And I'll tell you right now, tell you more about plants than you want to know.
But or not know.
Anyway, have a good one.

(23:56):
And Aloha, Aloha.
It's appropriate.