Lizzy
05-22-2012, 01:13 PM
I have been looking forward to a trip like this for years.
When my oldest son was younger, and it was just he and I we used to go stay on property at least once a year, but usually 2-3 times.
They offered the FL resident 3 day pass this year for $99. So I took advantage of it and worked in a trip to the Poly. I have never stayed at the poly before and was concerned because of how much it is.
The Polynesian is now, by far the best resort I have stayed at on Disney property.
My trip includes: Myself, my SO Scott, My ODS Jacob-13, YDS Paul--, and my DD Abigail-19 months.
Day 1:
We got up early Saturday morning and hit the road at 8 am. We arrived at the Poly shortly after 9. We went to check in and the cast member recognized our address. Turns out he lives 4 streets away. He talked about the high schools graduations on Friday and about how he knew my son would be going to Bayside. he had just retired from teaching for 30 years. It was kinda cool but at the same time, I was there to escape. I wanted as far away from Palm Bay as possible for the weekend.
Our room was ready and waiting for us! It was great to be able to put our stuff in our room right away before heading to the MK. And in true Disney fashion they left a nice huge mickey made out of a towel on our bed. The kids loved it. The room was huge. A made a quick call down to the front desk as the Pack N Play was not in the room that we requested. They brought it up so fast I don't think that I even had time to hang up the phone before they were coming with it. We were in room 1945 in Tokelau. Our room faced the quiet pool but the plants all around the back porch thankfully blocked the view. Even with the Pack N Play set up the room still fit all 5 of us comfortably. I could not for the life of me figure out how to fold the couch bed part down, but my 4 year old didn't care.
We got the diaper bag in the stroller and we headed off to the monorail. We rode monorail silver over and I was too busy looking at everything else that I kept missing Avengerail. We go through the bag check and through the turnstiles and I just felt elated. It has been since 2009 since I have been here at the MK, and that trip was quick since we had just a day pass and we were with family. This trip, we planned for two days in the MK and to just take it slow.
Good thing we did. So we headed down Mainstreet and I got a photopass and made Jacob pose with me. We ride the Haunted Mansion first. The ride looked good but here's where the HM disappointed me. The cast members just don't do what they used to. I remember the HM cast members being the most in character CM in the MK. The guy we walked past was like "this line's faster, that ones through the graveyard" in the most boring voice ever. The ride itself is wonderful as always, and I loved the upgraded hitchhiking ghosts. The ghost for Scott's doom buggy blew balloons in his face lol. Mine was sitting on top the doom buggy.
After that we decided to just push through Fantasyland and go to the Barnstormer and work our way back through. Barnstormer was only a 10 min wait, but it said 30. We did the baby swap and I took the boys on first. Scott took Abiagail on Dumbo thinking we would be longer. I hope they open the second dumbo soon, and the water play area would have been nice to have open this weekend.
Scott went on Barnstormer with the boys next and I looked around at the fantasyland expansion a little. It will be great when it is done, but oh man is it a mess right now. There are so many fences and bottlenecks that it was frusterating me. It's an eyesore. You can tell that it will look great when it is done but right now, it's ugly.
We realized that the fastpasses for Pooh are all the way over by Mickey's phillarmagic. We got the double fast passes and we were ready for Mickey's first. I love this show but think the 3D should be updated, maybe even some of the animation now that CG and 3D have come a long way since this attraction opened. We ended up having to sit near the back and my littleones couldn't see very well what was going on. The seating needs to be a little more stadium like IMO.
We still had time to kill before our FP opened for Pooh, so we went on Snow White. It's bittersweet. It's sad to see old attractions going away, but at the same time it needs to be done.
We did a quick bathroom break and I felt horrible for the lady next to me changing her baby's diaper while I was changing Abby. Her baby had the most horrible rash. I tried to help her, and explain that the FL heat is going to irritate it. But she didn't speak very good English. :(
I wanted to go on the carousel next. While we were in line there was a guy in front of us that started talking to us about the fast pass times being inforced now. He was complaing about it but at the same time was wearing a Save Snow White's Scary Adventures shirt. Just struck me as odd. We got lucky and got a whole row of horses to ourselves.
When we got off is when I first noticed you can see the other castle now. It's was weird to see two castles in Fantasyland. Cinderella's castle and the new one for the FLE. It is smaller and at a distance but still strange to me.
We were ready for Pooh now. I see they added some things for the stand by line. We got right on and my little ones totally loved it. Abby was pointing at Pooh the whole way through.
Afterwords, Paul was desprate to ride the train. So we walked back over to the train station at Circus area, and parked the stroller and decided to ride the train the whole way around. The cast member's had to yell at people the whole way. "car 3 get your feet down" "Car two please sit" It ruined the moment.
We got off the train and took the back walkway through to Tomorrowland. We were going to get fastpasses for Space Mountain but return time was well after we planned on being in the park. It was about 3:30 now, so we decided to save the rest for Sunday since we would be there all day. We wanted to enjoy the pool and give the baby a chance to nap since our dinner reservations weren't until 9:30 that night.
We did a little shopping on our way out, and caught the end of the parade. We got on the monorail back to the hotel and I missed Avengerail again. Oye
We stopped at Captain Cooks for a quick bite to hold us over until dinner. We go to the room and the boys and I change and Scott decides since he worked till 1 am the night before that he was going to stay behind and take a nap with Abby .
I took the boys to the volcano pool. Jacob spent the whole time going down the slide over and over. The pool is very shallow so I didn't worry about having Paul in there at all. he can't swim. I saw some kids with the vests from the Marina so I took Paul over to see if we could get one too. We didn't have our room key so they wouldn't give us one.
Paul and I swam a little longer and then went back to the room. We got cleaned up and woke up Scott and Abby. Jacob stayed at the pool. We decided to look around the hotel and do some shopping. We got shot glasses with the polynesian on them. We went back by the pool to find Jacob. He was carrying around 3 small children. Apparently he was being adopted by another family who thought he was a great babysitter. Then another woman offered to trade me two of her kids for him.
Jacob got cleaned up and caught up with us in the upstairs store. I bought the kids some toys and we took them back to the room. We thought the kids discovery area on the map would be a playground but it was the water area. But we were just in time for the Campfire and the marshmellow roasting. Scott and I had a drink from the bar and we all just hung out on the beach for a long time. It was fabulous and relaxing. We lost track of time and then realized it was already 9:00 and we needed to get up to Ohana!
We checked in exactly 20 min before our 9:30 reservations. We were seated around 9:45. We had a great view of the castle and the fireworks from our table. They brought out the salad and the drinks. then the Pork Won Tons and the chicken wings and all the sauces. Then they started bringing the skewers around and brough the noodles and broccoli. I was a little disappointed in the lack of variety that they had compared to what I remembered them having. The food was still delicious and we pigged out. Except my 4 year old. The server noticed he was not eating and brought him chicken nuggets and fries. This made him happy. She also brought us seprate bowls of ice cream and chocolate cupcakes for the kids in addition to the bread pudding and ice cream. Scott remembered me talking up the lapu lapu and the backscratcher before our trip and ordered me one of each. They were way strong so Scott volunteered to drink the lapu lapu for me.
We were beat after dinner and went back to the room. I still could not figure out the couch bed, but Paul laid down and passed right out anyway. All 3 fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.
Scott and I sat out back and enjoyed talking about how much we like this hotel. He only had the Beach Club to compare it to and he definatly loves the Poly. This made me so excited because now we have a new "home" hotel to go to on these trips that we both love.
When my oldest son was younger, and it was just he and I we used to go stay on property at least once a year, but usually 2-3 times.
They offered the FL resident 3 day pass this year for $99. So I took advantage of it and worked in a trip to the Poly. I have never stayed at the poly before and was concerned because of how much it is.
The Polynesian is now, by far the best resort I have stayed at on Disney property.
My trip includes: Myself, my SO Scott, My ODS Jacob-13, YDS Paul--, and my DD Abigail-19 months.
Day 1:
We got up early Saturday morning and hit the road at 8 am. We arrived at the Poly shortly after 9. We went to check in and the cast member recognized our address. Turns out he lives 4 streets away. He talked about the high schools graduations on Friday and about how he knew my son would be going to Bayside. he had just retired from teaching for 30 years. It was kinda cool but at the same time, I was there to escape. I wanted as far away from Palm Bay as possible for the weekend.
Our room was ready and waiting for us! It was great to be able to put our stuff in our room right away before heading to the MK. And in true Disney fashion they left a nice huge mickey made out of a towel on our bed. The kids loved it. The room was huge. A made a quick call down to the front desk as the Pack N Play was not in the room that we requested. They brought it up so fast I don't think that I even had time to hang up the phone before they were coming with it. We were in room 1945 in Tokelau. Our room faced the quiet pool but the plants all around the back porch thankfully blocked the view. Even with the Pack N Play set up the room still fit all 5 of us comfortably. I could not for the life of me figure out how to fold the couch bed part down, but my 4 year old didn't care.
We got the diaper bag in the stroller and we headed off to the monorail. We rode monorail silver over and I was too busy looking at everything else that I kept missing Avengerail. We go through the bag check and through the turnstiles and I just felt elated. It has been since 2009 since I have been here at the MK, and that trip was quick since we had just a day pass and we were with family. This trip, we planned for two days in the MK and to just take it slow.
Good thing we did. So we headed down Mainstreet and I got a photopass and made Jacob pose with me. We ride the Haunted Mansion first. The ride looked good but here's where the HM disappointed me. The cast members just don't do what they used to. I remember the HM cast members being the most in character CM in the MK. The guy we walked past was like "this line's faster, that ones through the graveyard" in the most boring voice ever. The ride itself is wonderful as always, and I loved the upgraded hitchhiking ghosts. The ghost for Scott's doom buggy blew balloons in his face lol. Mine was sitting on top the doom buggy.
After that we decided to just push through Fantasyland and go to the Barnstormer and work our way back through. Barnstormer was only a 10 min wait, but it said 30. We did the baby swap and I took the boys on first. Scott took Abiagail on Dumbo thinking we would be longer. I hope they open the second dumbo soon, and the water play area would have been nice to have open this weekend.
Scott went on Barnstormer with the boys next and I looked around at the fantasyland expansion a little. It will be great when it is done, but oh man is it a mess right now. There are so many fences and bottlenecks that it was frusterating me. It's an eyesore. You can tell that it will look great when it is done but right now, it's ugly.
We realized that the fastpasses for Pooh are all the way over by Mickey's phillarmagic. We got the double fast passes and we were ready for Mickey's first. I love this show but think the 3D should be updated, maybe even some of the animation now that CG and 3D have come a long way since this attraction opened. We ended up having to sit near the back and my littleones couldn't see very well what was going on. The seating needs to be a little more stadium like IMO.
We still had time to kill before our FP opened for Pooh, so we went on Snow White. It's bittersweet. It's sad to see old attractions going away, but at the same time it needs to be done.
We did a quick bathroom break and I felt horrible for the lady next to me changing her baby's diaper while I was changing Abby. Her baby had the most horrible rash. I tried to help her, and explain that the FL heat is going to irritate it. But she didn't speak very good English. :(
I wanted to go on the carousel next. While we were in line there was a guy in front of us that started talking to us about the fast pass times being inforced now. He was complaing about it but at the same time was wearing a Save Snow White's Scary Adventures shirt. Just struck me as odd. We got lucky and got a whole row of horses to ourselves.
When we got off is when I first noticed you can see the other castle now. It's was weird to see two castles in Fantasyland. Cinderella's castle and the new one for the FLE. It is smaller and at a distance but still strange to me.
We were ready for Pooh now. I see they added some things for the stand by line. We got right on and my little ones totally loved it. Abby was pointing at Pooh the whole way through.
Afterwords, Paul was desprate to ride the train. So we walked back over to the train station at Circus area, and parked the stroller and decided to ride the train the whole way around. The cast member's had to yell at people the whole way. "car 3 get your feet down" "Car two please sit" It ruined the moment.
We got off the train and took the back walkway through to Tomorrowland. We were going to get fastpasses for Space Mountain but return time was well after we planned on being in the park. It was about 3:30 now, so we decided to save the rest for Sunday since we would be there all day. We wanted to enjoy the pool and give the baby a chance to nap since our dinner reservations weren't until 9:30 that night.
We did a little shopping on our way out, and caught the end of the parade. We got on the monorail back to the hotel and I missed Avengerail again. Oye
We stopped at Captain Cooks for a quick bite to hold us over until dinner. We go to the room and the boys and I change and Scott decides since he worked till 1 am the night before that he was going to stay behind and take a nap with Abby .
I took the boys to the volcano pool. Jacob spent the whole time going down the slide over and over. The pool is very shallow so I didn't worry about having Paul in there at all. he can't swim. I saw some kids with the vests from the Marina so I took Paul over to see if we could get one too. We didn't have our room key so they wouldn't give us one.
Paul and I swam a little longer and then went back to the room. We got cleaned up and woke up Scott and Abby. Jacob stayed at the pool. We decided to look around the hotel and do some shopping. We got shot glasses with the polynesian on them. We went back by the pool to find Jacob. He was carrying around 3 small children. Apparently he was being adopted by another family who thought he was a great babysitter. Then another woman offered to trade me two of her kids for him.
Jacob got cleaned up and caught up with us in the upstairs store. I bought the kids some toys and we took them back to the room. We thought the kids discovery area on the map would be a playground but it was the water area. But we were just in time for the Campfire and the marshmellow roasting. Scott and I had a drink from the bar and we all just hung out on the beach for a long time. It was fabulous and relaxing. We lost track of time and then realized it was already 9:00 and we needed to get up to Ohana!
We checked in exactly 20 min before our 9:30 reservations. We were seated around 9:45. We had a great view of the castle and the fireworks from our table. They brought out the salad and the drinks. then the Pork Won Tons and the chicken wings and all the sauces. Then they started bringing the skewers around and brough the noodles and broccoli. I was a little disappointed in the lack of variety that they had compared to what I remembered them having. The food was still delicious and we pigged out. Except my 4 year old. The server noticed he was not eating and brought him chicken nuggets and fries. This made him happy. She also brought us seprate bowls of ice cream and chocolate cupcakes for the kids in addition to the bread pudding and ice cream. Scott remembered me talking up the lapu lapu and the backscratcher before our trip and ordered me one of each. They were way strong so Scott volunteered to drink the lapu lapu for me.
We were beat after dinner and went back to the room. I still could not figure out the couch bed, but Paul laid down and passed right out anyway. All 3 fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.
Scott and I sat out back and enjoyed talking about how much we like this hotel. He only had the Beach Club to compare it to and he definatly loves the Poly. This made me so excited because now we have a new "home" hotel to go to on these trips that we both love.