Poly Club Level Help

[csmith157]

I will be heading back to Disney in 2010 for the half marathon in January. We stayed at CSR for it this last year. We enjoyed the resort buy my family had some problems with transporation due to the roads being shutdown for the racers and actually missed the finish. So for 2010, we are going to stay at a monorail resort, the Poly, and hope that works out better as far as getting around.

My question is this - is it worth it to upgrade to the Club level? What is actually included? Would you add dining as well or is that not really needed? We did dining before and it was a lot of food. It will be me, DH, and DD who will be 2 weeks shy of 6 years old.

Thanks,
Connie

[BiloxiMom]

We stayed club level at the Poly back in Jan. and we're staying there again this Oct. It's nice, but the rooms are the same as the other longhouses. We still used the dining plan, because while the food was nice, it wasn't "enough" for us to make a meal out of, nor were things my picky dc would eat. (They do have Uncrustables, fruit, and cookies.) It was super nice to have muffins, fruit, juice, and cereal for breakfast though. You can find the daily food listings somewhere on this site. We had a first floor, castle view room. It was nice to be able to open the doors and let the kids play on the beach. We made friends with some ducks who would come by everyday for goldfish crackers. Having the grass and sand right there made the room feel bigger in some ways. Is it worth the $$, for us, yes. It just depends on how much time you'll spend in your room and how much you really want to spend.

[Catzle]

Last year I would of said no, but we just got back and a few things they did away with are back.
We really enjoy it and so do the kids. Having the snacks and drinks at hand is really nice. Having "breakfast" there in the morning is nice. We also like knowing what building we are going to be in. Just little things that make it nice. Without a discount I would never spend the money but if you can get a good discount I would do it.

[mouseketeer mom]

Yes. Worth the upgrade on every level. The lounge, the views, the service, the food. It totally makes the trip. We stay club level almost every trip and if we don't, we miss it terribly. Nothing beats Poly club level in our eyes!!

[sisterslovindisney]

Love Poly Club! We found that the food offerings were plenty for our family and we are BIG eaters. We didn't have a lagoon view but loved watching the fireworks from the club lounge. If you can afford it definitely go for it. We will be in WDW the same time and if there are any room rate discounts we'll be at Poly Club too!

[Polynesian Dweller]

We wouldn't do Disney any other way than staying at the Poly Club level. There is food throughout the day starting with 'breakfast' service, snacks in the afternoon, larger items at dinner (like wraps, pot stickers etc) and tremendous desert type snacks and liquers at night. All beverages (pop/soda, coffee/tea, adult beverages (beer), water etc. are free though you have to ask them for some (they'll always get it. There is also a concierge desk that can help with your stay. For us, yes its worth it.

Adding the dining plan is a bit harder to give advice about. It depends to a large extent on how much you want to eat. For us, having breakfast everyday in the club lounge, we couldn't make the DDP pay for us. We don't tend to have TS every night anyway because for us its too much food. But others might find it worthwhile.

[tikiman]

It has been worth it to us even before we traveled with a kid. I would not suggest having the dinning plan with club level. I have heard from so many people that have used the dinning plan that they did not even use 100% of it that I can’t even imagine having it with the offerings in the lounge. Infact even this last weekend some random family tried to give us their vouchers because it was their last day and they said they got tired of trying to use all the credits.

Here is something I wrote for my site but I will share it here. It is a breakdown of what we would have spent on things we got from the lounge and I was very conservative on this. There is much more stuff I could have accounted for.

“broke it down as what we would have spent if we did not do club level per day and. This a conservative version of it. We would have spent much more than this but for this example I simplified it a little.
Breakfast average cost for a family of 3 (2 adults and one child) $30
Water throughout the day (approx 9 bottles) $18
Sodas or juice (approx 5 per day) $10
Snacks for the kid approx $20
Appetizers in the evening approx $20
Fruit throughout the day approx $8
Beer in the afternoon approx $12
Deserts in the evening approx $20
Wine or liquors in the evening $20
If that is for 7 days that is $1106 or $158 per day. That does not include any of the services you get from being in Club Level like the preplanning, extra amenities in the room or concierge desk service. Also I did not put in the savings from some of the nights that we don’t go eat dinner because we eat the evening offerings. Now every Club level is not created equal and the offerings are not the same so I would research what club level you are interested in first but we have been staying Club level when it was just the two of us and it was worth it to us. Now having a small child it is invaluable having the lounge just footsteps away from the room for our son to watch cartoons or enjoy the fireworks while snacking. It is also easier to run to the lounge for his milk or snacks instead of going over to the counter service to pay $10 for a milk and a snack. Other lounges or concierge desks at other resorts may not be as close to your room as they are at the Polynesian. We had to walk a very long way from our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge to the lounge.
Also those prices I wrote down were on the low side. Once I figured out how much we actually got from the lounge and it was about double what I have totaled above.
Just something to think about.”

[csmith157]

Thanks for all of your responses. We have decided to go for it and go a garden view club level room. We are not going to do dining. We just won't use it all. Now I just have to wait for the packages and rates to come out for 2010. I could book now through the marathon but I am hoping for a better deal.

Connie

[tinksmom02]

We're booked GVCL for September, and we went ahead and added the DDP, as well. We enjoy a sit down at least once a day...we're actually have 8 meals planned for the 7 days. Who knows...we've never done club level before, and I'm *pretty* sure we'll be stuffed to the gills, but I didn't want to take any chances, especially because we're traveling during free dining. :shrug: