Hi everyone! I'm here at the Poly now. We arrived Thursday night. I had requested Samoa. I did the touring plans fax, had a request on my reservation and requested it with online check in. Lol. I didn't request anything else. Just anywhere in Samoa. It's busy here so I knew we probably wouldn't get it. We checked in and got Aeoteroa(sp?). I really wanted to be at least near the pools so I asked if they had anything on the other side and that I really, really wanted Samoa. They were very kind and looked for me. They had a room in Rarotonga for the night, and then could move me to Samoa the next day! I said that would be great as we arrived late so it wasn't a big deal to move. Moving was very easy. We had to call the night before to confirm we'd be moving which we did as soon as we got to our room. In the morning, I called bell services, they took our bags to store for us, we went to MK rope drop & I brought our bathing suits with us in case the room wasn't ready when we got back. After they took our bags we just left. No need to stop at front desk or anything.
The monorail was pulling up when we got there so it was literally about 10-15 minutes from leaving the room to MK! We caught the welcome show at 7:40am (first time in so many trips we've been able to actually catch it!). We went straight to Mine Train. It took about 20 minutes to ride which was not bad. Then we saw the step sisters headed for the carousel so we hopped on with them! My kids sat right in front of them.
After that we did fantasyland, had breakfast, did our FP's and headed back to the hotel. It was about 1:45 by now.
Our room wasn't ready so we went to the pool. While at the pool we got the room ready text so my husband went to get our bags delivered to the room. His band didn't work. He waited at the front desk while they tried to fix it. They finally let him into the room while they fixed his band. He got our luggage and stuff while they did that. They fixed his band and later we realized my bands didn't work. After much back and forth, they managed to fix my bands too. While they worked on that, I was able to unpack so it wasn't a big inconvenience other than the first time when my husband had to wait in the lobby for a bit. After the third try they managed to fix them and because of the inconvenience they gave me a $200 credit for the room! i was so grateful, I couldn't believe it! We got the magical deal so that basically comped one night of our trip!
I thanked him profusely.
Our room is great! It's first floor which is really convenient. We love the patio and the quiet pool is steps from our door. My pictures are too large and I don't know how to fix them so I can't post pics of my view. Maybe while I lounge on the cabana I'll try to figure it out. Oh yeah, and as of now the cabanas are still empty in case anyone is wondering about how hard it is to get one.
After staying the night in Rarotonga, I would definitely be happy with that building for a future stay. I think that'll be my next request. It's literally steps from the GCH and the food and mug refills. And there's an entrance to the pool right there too. The CM also mentioned that in the near future Disney would be changing the pricing so Samoa would be an additional charge. I don't know how true that is but that's what the CM said.
Oh, and I got a refillable mug and I love the design without the handles. To me it makes the cup so much more useful! It fits in my stroller cup holder and in the car cup holder which is great! Now I'll actually take the cup with me to the parks because I have somewhere to put it. So it's great if you use cup holders. I think they should keep both designs and let the guest decide what works best for them.