My family stayed at Poly in the Pago Pago building from Aug 18-22. This was our first time at the Poly.
The resort grounds and main building are lovely. Pago Pago is very underrated, IMO. We LOVED being so close to the TTC. Plus, having our car parked just outside was both convenient and saved us money on valet parking. We stayed in room 3119 which had a garden view. I will request that building and view next time, if ever we make it back.
Room 3119 was a studio villa and we really liked the layout, size, and decor of the room. Cleanliness was not up to my standards for such an expensive room. The bathrooms were just not very clean. Kitchenette sink was also not cleaned well. Fortunately, the beds, tables, and carpets all seemed clean, so it was not uncomfortable to stay there. I did not rent DVC points, so the housekeeping was regular.
Captain Cook's service was pretty good - the CMs taking your order were efficient and courteous. The food was...not very good.
On the plus side, they had a few refrigerated cases with drinks and pre-made food. The pre-made food was better than anything "fresh" they served us. There was also a little bakery case next to the refrigerated section which had a lot of tasty looking treats (brownies, croissants, muffins, cupcakes, etc.) I didn't try any of them, so I can't comment on quality. They seemed to alternate each day between mickey cupcakes and minnie cupcakes.
The Lava and Oasis pools were usually crowded. The Lava Pool hours are 9am-11pm, and the Oasis pool opened at 7am but closed a bit earlier (I think it was 10pm.) We never had a chance to try them.
We did try the Kiddie Splash area and my kids loved it. Two downsides: no shade and no lockers.
We originally wanted to do Kona breakfast, but our plans changed so we ended up going there for dinner instead. The pineapple bread with macadamia butter was addictive. I had also heard good things about the sushi, so I ordered the California Luau Roll. My sushi was AWFUL. Inedible. Worse than grocery store sushi. It was made with poor quality rice and had NO flavor except the fishy taste of canned tuna (I'm guessing they used canned crab). The combination of the fishy tinned taste and pineapple was...gross. Everything else that we ordered was good.
On our last night, we went out to the beach to watch Wishes. I ended up carrying my son back to the room because he'd fallen asleep, and somewhere along the way, I lost my iPhone. I'm not sure if it fell out of my pocket, or if I left it on the beach chair. I didn't realize it was lost until the next morning. We spent our last morning hunting all over our room, the walkways, and the beach for it. It has never turned up, though we did fill out a form with Lost and Found right before we left. Kind of a bummer, since I had a few dozen vacation photos and videos that I will not be able to recover. If anyone discovers an iPhone on the beach during their upcoming stay, message me, lol.
Thanks to the Poly Information thread for helping us plan our fun vacation!
Aloha!