Just Back From Copper Creek/Polynesian/Grand Floridian/Animal Kingdom Lodge

[HairyChest]

I posted a trip report on the DVC trip report boards but I thought posting my impressions of all the resorts I just stayed at during covid here would be relevant for you guys that are being moved from your original hotel bookings to DVC resorts.

I just got back from a 2 week trip as a first time DVC owner and I had an AMAZING time! 3 adults traveling and we wanted to try the different resorts to see what we liked.
We took a flight from California and it was lovely having the middle rows blocked off with extra room to stretch our legs.
We took the magical express and it was just us on the bus (8am). I was happy to see we were seated on a normal magical express bus and not a little mears van that I heard some people got. We missed having our luggage show up in our room without us waiting for it but it is what it is.

We stayed 3 nights at Wilderness Lodge copper creek studio with walk in shower. we got the 5th floor like I requested because I wanted to see the lake but didnt want an enclosed balcony on the very top floors, and it was an amazing view!! What a wonderful resort. The only downside was that the room was small but still we HAVE to visit on our future trips if we dont stay there which, I would still love to stay there. Im a big fan of the lodge theme/frontier land/ trains so this really spoke to me.




1 night at Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo in a Value studio. This was our least favorite. On a side note, Disney still moved our luggage from resort to resort as normal which was great as always. We had a pool view which was nice. The lobby was quiet (no music) and only the pool was open. If we wanted food or shopping we had to go to kidani which we knew in advance so Im not holding that against it, however coming from copper creek with so much to explore and views of the lake, and lobbies (boulder ridge and copper creek) with geyser point, AKL paled in comparison. It seemed small and didn't offer as much exploration. The savannah was nice and so was the pool area but it didn't wow us like Wilderness Lodge did.




1 night at Grand Floridian Villas- Lake View...or so we thought. When we got to the room we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom lagoon view!!! It was so beautiful and amazing! I also used the tub (it cleans itself!) and we never left the room. I will say that our family likes bieng together in a hotel room and not in different rooms, but it was nice to have extra space. I also didn't like the fact that the boat launch, narcoosees, and the quiet pool was blocked off for the NBA. Also the main resort lobby was dead, no piano, etc. I personally wouldn't stay there until the actual hotel opens to give it some life. But wow that 1 bedroom is something special.



The rest of our stay was at the polynesian-lake view studio. Now THIS is where its at. The room was the best (colors, magical feeling, roominess) and just walking into the resort you feel vacation/relaxed and really happy with the tropical vibe/beach/tiki torches. We could see the castle and lake from our room and that hands down beat the view we got in the Grand of the poly (and the bright mk parking lights at night). Even though the actual hotel rooms aren't open, this resort felt alive, normal, people around and we felt that we are staying in the main resort rather then separate from the main resort like the Grand Floridian villas gave us a feeling of. This is where Id like to stay on every trip. Also that pull down bed was a nice option to have.
(First night we were on the first floor then moved to the second floor for better views)



The masks weren't as bad as I thought they would be. After an hour we didn't think about it being on our face. The heat on our body was felt more then the heat on our face from the mask so it wasn't a big deal. We also took advantage of going in shops/food areas which helped with cooling us down with the A/C.

*AKL didn't have music in the lobby, the Grand had very low music playing in the lobby, but both wilderness lodge and poly had normal level music in the lobby and the grounds which was perfect*

The only things we missed is seeing the parks at night with all the pretty lights and eating late in restaurants (most restaurants we wanted to eat in closed at 8. We are late risers and like to eat dinner at epcot or disney springs at 9-11pm.

If you arent an at risk individual, I wouldn't hesitate to go. Unless this is your once a few years trip.

 

[HairyChest]

Some things that were affected because of the shortened hours, Epcot, the issue was even though they closed at 9, the restaurants closed earlier. Specifically Via Napoli had a last seating at 7:45. I don't know whats happening with the restaurants there when Epcot is closing at 7. will last seating be at 5:45? I hope not. Otherwise we were really glad Epcot was open until 9 and gave us somewhere to visit at night.

Magic Kingdom was difficult because we like the nightime lights there, couldn't see that. And if a ride went down , say at 5 due to weather or technical difficulties, it wouldnt come back up because the parks were going to close soon. And we really missed the plaza ice cream parlor, which wasnt open at all.

Animal Kingdom was a huuuuge blow to us because we LOVE Pandora at night. It also caused the rainforest cafe thats outside of the park, to close at the same closing time (6pm). We love it there for dinner.

Hollywood Studios, again it was open until 8 which is better then 6 however we still didnt see much lit up.

The main issue is when visiting for vacation, especially onsite, the best thing is going to a park in the day, pool and rest in the afternoon at the resort, back in the park in the evening for dinner. We could barely do that this trip. We will be able to do that AT ALL with the extra short hours.

Another HUGE issue was and will be even more so the transportation. Because the boats, skyliner, and monorail and busses are only open usually for an hour after a park closes, we couldnt take them at night to visit different places, resorts, or just take them to experience the beauty. That was a huge issue.

 

[lotsohugginbear]

Thanks for the great review! I agree that late ADRs at the parks can be tricky. We had a late Yak n Yeti reservation, and they were sweeping and cleaning tables while we ate. Needless to say, we skipped dessert! I love the Poly, but hate the bungalows. We haven't stayed since they put them in and ruined the views.

 

[maryj11]

Some things that were affected because of the shortened hours, Epcot, the issue was even though they closed at 9, the restaurants closed earlier. Specifically Via Napoli had a last seating at 7:45. I don't know whats happening with the restaurants there when Epcot is closing at 7. will last seating be at 5:45? I hope not. Otherwise we were really glad Epcot was open until 9 and gave us somewhere to visit at night.

Magic Kingdom was difficult because we like the nightime lights there, couldn't see that. And if a ride went down , say at 5 due to weather or technical difficulties, it wouldnt come back up because the parks were going to close soon. And we really missed the plaza ice cream parlor, which wasnt open at all.

Animal Kingdom was a huuuuge blow to us because we LOVE Pandora at night. It also caused the rainforest cafe thats outside of the park, to close at the same closing time (6pm). We love it there for dinner.

Hollywood Studios, again it was open until 8 which is better then 6 however we still didnt see much lit up.

The main issue is when visiting for vacation, especially onsite, the best thing is going to a park in the day, pool and rest in the afternoon at the resort, back in the park in the evening for dinner. We could barely do that this trip. We will be able to do that AT ALL with the extra short hours.

Another HUGE issue was and will be even more so the transportation. Because the boats, skyliner, and monorail and busses are only open usually for an hour after a park closes, we couldnt take them at night to visit different places, resorts, or just take them to experience the beauty. That was a huge issue.

Oh the transportation closing an hour after the parks along with restaurants is what I’m not going to like. I was planning to have a dinner reservations at a resort after we leave MK. If restaurants are open later I guess the only way to get back to our resort would be Uber or Lyft. We don’t like using them.

 

[HairyChest]

Oh the transportation closing an hour after the parks along with restaurants is what I’m not going to like. I was planning to have a dinner reservations at a resort after we leave MK. If restaurants are open later I guess the only way to get back to our resort would be Uber or Lyft. We don’t like using them.

Yea we had to use uber 1 night. we were at disney springs eating dinner at boathouse. When we left it was around 11:20. When we got to the bus station, one of the workers there said bus operations closed at 10 and we would have to get a taxi or uber. So we had to walk across a bridge to this huge dark employee parking lot and wait for an uber. It was a really bad experience that took us out of that vacation feeling.

 

[lotsohugginbear]

It seems very un-Disney to strand people that way. A good heads up to have those apps ready! I live in Maine -- Uber and Lyft aren't doing huge business here! I only use them on trips.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

It also caused the rainforest cafe thats outside of the park, to close at the same closing time (6pm). We love it there for dinner.

Could you go to the DS Rainforest Cafe instead?

 

[jphilips]

Thanks for the helpful review!

 

[HairyChest]

Could you go to the DS Rainforest Cafe instead?

Rainforest cafe in DS last seating was at 8. We were staying at animal kingdom lodge that night. We pretty much wouldve had to leave at 630 to make it by 8. the bus drive to DS from AKL is long and then the walk to the other side of DS from dropoff wouldve been a long travel time. I havnt been into the one in DS but I love the huge beauty of the one in AK, and we have great memories there.

 

[mickeynut1]

I posted a trip report on the DVC trip report boards but I thought posting my impressions of all the resorts I just stayed at during covid here would be relevant for you guys that are being moved from your original hotel bookings to DVC resorts.

I just got back from a 2 week trip as a first time DVC owner and I had an AMAZING time! 3 adults traveling and we wanted to try the different resorts to see what we liked.

Thanks for your detailed review and pics. Glad you had a great time .

 

[Blondie58]

Excellent review that took time to post. We appreciate.

 

[Eastern]

Nice review thanks for posting.

 

[Tess]

Some things that were affected because of the shortened hours, Epcot, the issue was even though they closed at 9, the restaurants closed earlier. Specifically Via Napoli had a last seating at 7:45. I don't know whats happening with the restaurants there when Epcot is closing at 7. will last seating be at 5:45? I hope not. Otherwise we were really glad Epcot was open until 9 and gave us somewhere to visit at night.

We have an ADR for 6:45 p.m. in October at Via Napoli and the park closes at 7:00 p.m. That was my latest option and I just changed it from an earlier time (made before they decreased the hours).

 

[kmc]

Is the monorail running from the TTC to Epcot yet? Staying at Poly in a few weeks and it was a main draw for my decision.

 

[HairyChest]

We have an ADR for 6:45 p.m. in October at Via Napoli and the park closes at 7:00 p.m. That was my latest option and I just changed it from an earlier time (made before they decreased the hours).

Oh boy. I'm glad it wasn't 5:45. We went 2 times on our trip (we missed closing by a couple minutes 2 of the 4 nights we were to eat there because we love it). So we ended up timing ourselves to see how long it takes us from our room at the polynesian to get into the door of Via Napoli via the resort bus. We pretty much have to leave our room 1 hour before our reservation to make it on time (during covid). It was about a 20-25 minute walk to Italy from the bus drop off in front of epcot. The bus drive is about 12 minutes from the Polynesian. The longest we had to wait for a Epcot bus to show up at the Polynesian was 15 minutes, and the walk from our room to the bus stop was 7 minutes.

 

[HairyChest]

Is the monorail running from the TTC to Epcot yet? Staying at Poly in a few weeks and it was a main draw for my decision.

Not as of today