Poly/Grand Floridian Split Stay

[Bobby2443]

Hi everyone

Here’s my thoughts after a split stay at Grand Floridian and Polynesian. A little about me, we’re a family of four, I have a 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter. This was our first trip to Disney since after the pandemic so we had a lot of points saved up for this trip. We ended up having enough to do a Polynesian Bungalow for the first half of our stay and a Grand Villa at Grand Floridian for the second half of our stay. Here are my thoughts on each resort:

Polynesian

• Overall great resort. The grounds are beautiful, the lobby is great and the proximity to MK and Epcot were really good.
• Dining: I preferred Poly to the Grand Floridian options. My family prefers to do take out and eat in our room so for us having two choices of Captain Cooks and Kona Café was better than the Grand Floridians option of Gasparilla Island Grill.
• Proximity to the parks: For us the walk to TTC was closer than going to the great ceremonial hall to catch the monorail which meant we would take the express monorail to MK and we could easily get to the Epcot monorail. This was a big perk for us as we had several dining reservations at Epcot.
• Pool: My kids love the pool here, felt very similar to the grand Floridian pool
• Pros of the bungalow: It’s nice having your own separate unit versus feeling like you’re in a hotel. My kids loved the little pool on the back deck. The view of the fireworks from the deck is great.
• Cons of the bungalow: Not as big as a grand villa at VGF for the same amount of points. Walking to MK was too far for us from the Poly.

Overall I think the Poly is a great resort and I look forward to the new tower being built so there are more room configurations available. For our family we would normally want a two bedroom unit which leaves the bungalow as the only option for us at the Poly. The other thing I would point out is the walking the path from Poly to VGF you need to be careful crossing the street. There’s crosswalks there but I would say cars stopped 50% of the time and didn’t feel that safe.

Grand Floridian

• I love this resort. I think the grounds are beautiful and around Christmas time I prefer this resort to the Poly for the decorations and lobby.
• Dining: We would eat regularly from Gasparilla and did a couple of room service meals. I thought the food was good but it would be nice to have one more option to choose from. One thing we did every morning was my kids wake up at 6am so I would take them to Gasparilla to get some bakery items and we would eat them outside in front of the restaurant with views of the castle, this was great each morning.
• Proximity to the parks: I liked walking to MK but there were times we preferred the monorail. My complaint is how long it takes to get around with the resort monorail. At Poly it was much faster taking the express monorail and walking to our room, but for VGF by the time you loop around it was a good 20 minutes most days. Also to get to Epcot it was way too long to resort monorail to TTC then Epcot monorail from there, so we ended up driving to get to Epcot. I preferred being at Poly so I could walk to TTC and then get on the Epcot monorail from there.
• Pool: Very similar pool as the Poly, my kids loved it
• Pros of the grand villa: First of all it is huge, there is no shortage of space. I was on the 4th floor so I could see the fireworks from my balcony (but no direct view of the castle).
• Cons of the grand villa: Honestly nothing, I would love to stay here again but it’s a ton of points so we will probably be back to a two bedroom at future trips.

Overall both resorts are great with pros and cons. If Grand Floridian was in the same location as Poly to get to TTC I would choose Grand Floridian as my favorite, and if the Poly had all of the room types (1 and 2 bedrooms) I may choose the Poly.

Other random thoughts:

• Best character dining: Garden Grill
• Best dining for Mom & Dad: California Grill
• Best quick service at the parks: Satu’li Canteen
• Genie plus thoughts: This was the first trip where I really felt like there was a big gap in experience depending on whether you wanted to spend the money on genie plus and individual lightning lane (compared to the old fastpass system). I bought it everyday because my kids don’t have the patience for hour long lines but without it we would not have had nearly as good of a time. I think this is a must have if you’re budgeting. Also refresh the app lots throughout the day, I was getting hard to get rides randomly in the middle of the morning with a return time for an hour later (eg slinky dog dash, remy, test track)

That’s my recap, we had a great time and will be back next year

 

[AC168]

This is great and very helpful! Thank u!

 

[pinkxray]

Sounds wonderful, thanks for sharing. GF and Poly are my top 2 resorts so a split stay with both sounds perfect!

 

[RanDIZ]

We just did a AKV/POLY split 1st week of Dec. It was our first time at Poly and loved it! As you mentioned, the walk to TTC is much easier than Grand Ceremonial. We utilized this often whether using the monorail or ferry. Lava pool was amazing! Capt Cooks was a good QS too.

We did Grand Floridian Cafe and was not a good experience. Checked in our ADR at 11:46 and table ready 12:19. We didn’t get our food until 12:45. By time we left it was after 1 and felt like we just wasted an hr and a half for an easy eggs Benedict and pancake meal.