We are safely home after a very emotional week of not knowing what would happen. Our flight was one of the last scheduled to leave MCO on Saturday evening and we could not decide if we were better off staying in our room or trying to get out on that flight. If it were cancelled, we were not thrilled with the idea of being stuck at the airport. In the end, we decided to go for it and the flight took off on time from an eerily empty MCO and we made it home on time.
We loved Poly. love, love, love. We had an amazing experience and can't think of a single bad thing to say about the resort or the staff. We had a few minor issues but that's normal anywhere.
Let me start at the beginning... we used TP fax service to request Samoa first floor. My kids like to swim and having never stayed at Poly before I didn't realize how small it is and that being that close to the pool didn't really matter like it does at POR and CBR. So we landed and the two other families with us nearly IMMEDIATELY got their room assignments. All of us requested Samoa and they were both given rooms in Aotearoa. But we didn't get ours. I kept checking and checking and checking. They had theirs around noon and I was still waiting at 2:30. When you are traveling with a group and you are the only one without a room, it can make you feel a little lost and emotional, especially after having been stuck on the plane on the runway for 1.5 hours due to a technical issue. I was teary eyed and exhausted and just wanted to get into our room. I was getting really frustrated. I KNOW that check in is 3 and they just got lucky but they were sending me texts "Surprise! We got a castle view!!!!" and I was feeling more and more sad. Then FINALLY so long after them, we got our room number:1222. Walked in and immediately saw that we also had a castle view!!! It was spectacular.
(Funny note: on our room charges we were billed at our "magical rate" but it was listed as a Lagoon View. Our friends were in 1221 next door and theirs was listed as a theme park view. But most nights they came to our patio to watch the fireworks because they said the view was slightly better from our room. Not sure why our room was not considered theme park. But if you book lagoon view, request 1222, the castle view is perfect). The room was also accessible, with a door that stayed open and bars in the tub, etc.
We watched the fireworks from our room most nights. One night we went to the pool where we could hear the music. One night we went to HS to see their fireworks. And one night we did the fireworks dessert party at MK. Honestly the view of the projects was better in the reserved area at the party but the view of the actual fireworks was better from our room. Being further back, you could see them all without being distracted by the projections (I like the fireworks more than the projections).
The staff was above and beyond my high expectations. With all the confusion and emotions and decisions to be made in regards to Irma, they were so helpful and caring and informative. We had so many questions as we dealt with not knowing if our flight would get out (our flight was at 4pm on Saturday so it was borderline for being canceled). They were all so calm and seemed to honestly care. Communication was clear and easy to follow as prep went on and decisions were made. I've seen complaints that it wasn't but I am certain those people missed something because we always felt we knew exactly what was going on.
We enjoyed the pool. I think it was slightly smaller than I expected but it never felt over-crowded. The big kids loved the water slide and my little one loved the kids area. We loved the hot tub. We spent far too much time playing that Connect Four pool game. haha.
We ate at Captain Cooks often, Kona once, and Ohana once. We had a terrible experience at Kona. The staff was lovely but the food was not. My husband's eggs were cold. I got the polynesian pancakes and just felt they were nothing like the description. The kids weren't thrilled with their choices either. But oh well. Everything at Captain Cooks was great and Ohana was amazing (my son asked for bacon, which is nOT on the platters and the server brought him a platter of JUST bacon!). One bad meal is something I can live with. Oh and we had far too many dole whips at Pineapple Lanai. So yummy.
Everything was clean and cheerful. Staff greeted us every time we passed them anywhere at the resort. Our mouse keeper danced with my little guy, it was adorable. We LOVED the new security system at the monorail. So much easier because you never have 500 people show up to the monorail at once, while it happens constantly at the parks. So simple.
On Mondays the monorail to Epcot does NOT run early enough to get there for rope drop. My friends were all also going to Epcot on Monday and we all asked different people how to get to Epcot around 8:15 and we got three different answers. NOBDOY ON STAFF knows the right answer to that question. It was chaos. We were told to go to the bus stop. One family was told to walk to TTC and one family was told she had bad info, the monorail would be running at 8. I am not sure what the deal is with that issue. In the end, the correct answer is to go to the bus stop. Our bus was labeled "Epcot Monorail" and the screen with the times very clearly said that the bus was coming... and it did. So if you have been wondering about that, just go to the bus stop. Don't ask anymore. You will get a different answer every time.
By the time we left at 11 on Saturday, they were tying everything down and draining the water feature out front. It was getting breezy but hadn't started raining.
I have so much more to say but that's my summary for now. I used to say I wanted to stay at every resort at least once but I'm out. Poly's it. I'm done trying new places.