"I think I'm in love, and her name is Polynesia..." an Aug/Sept '15 TR (NEW TR link @ end!)

[skier_pete]

Really enjoyed your trip report(s). We also travel with teens so can totally relate to your experiences. Thanks for writing.

Thank you so much! I am already sick of having a teenager - and she's only 12.

OK, I read this from my phone a couple days ago, and hate to comment from the phone so I didn't, but I have an even bigger revelation for you, but first my comments!

Sounds like you got a lot done in your morning at the MK. I too am liking the 7DMT more and more as I ride it. I just wish too that the lines would go down. Maybe eventually when SW land opens. Your meal at Tony's looks even better than other folks who have posted pictures, and I think you warned us that you weren't even using a DSLR camera??? The Chicken Parm and the Scampi both look delectable. I just wish someone would order the Canneloni! That is my all time favorite Italian restaurant dish. I even have quite a few homemade ones in the freezer so I can have them whenever I want because there are hardly any places in Long Beach that serve this wonderful dish!

OK so to the revelation. Remember how your text kept becoming "hot" in your posts? Your write yours in MS Word don't you? I do too, and I had that happen with one of my posts a couple back. I tried to fix it while I was posting and couldn't. So on my update today, it happened again. Determined NOT to let it happen, I copied the text from the post AFTER the linkage started out of the post window, posted the update and then copied the remaining text into a new window thinking that this would fix the problem. I Previewed it and the problem was still there, so I deleted that text and decided to go back to my Word Document, and try to get brand new text for the new post. And then I discovered what had been going on.

You know how when you are writing in the Word Document and you hit the Enter button and the text from your Picture code turns into a hyperlink? Well that is almost "death" for posts on the DIS. When you copy those MS Word posts to the DIS that's when your whole post turns into a link to the photo and no one can quote your text from your post. So you need to make sure that whe you are inserting your links to the photos that you have enough trailing carriage returns after the link to photobucket so that you don't accidentally make your photo links "hot" inside your word doc. That's how those trailing things show up at the end of your pictures!

Yay! We figured it out!

What i found (I think @khertz might have turned me onto the solution - but I could have the wrong person) is that another way to solve the issue is in the message window here - you right click and select "Paste as Plain Text". This disrupts those links coming from WORD as well. I can't be bothered to go back and fix the problem, but it should be eliminated from now on!

Yeah - the meals were really good a Tony's, and they were presented nice. I'm sorry I didn't try the Canneloni for you. Next time you have to ask ahead of time!

 

[nimbuscat]

I just spent the last hour or two reading your entire TR...bravo! I really enjoyed it. We will be at the Poly in a deluxe studio in August (point rental), and I am REALLY looking forward to it, especially after seeing your pictures and hearing your experience. The one thing I am really not looking forward to is the August heat...oy! I will have a 5-year-old and a 20-month-old with me, so I believe we will be spending a lot of time at the water parks/pools and in indoor/AC areas. Thanks again, this was a great read!

 

[skier_pete]

I just spent the last hour or two reading your entire TR...bravo! I really enjoyed it. We will be at the Poly in a deluxe studio in August (point rental), and I am REALLY looking forward to it, especially after seeing your pictures and hearing your experience. The one thing I am really not looking forward to is the August heat...oy! I will have a 5-year-old and a 20-month-old with me, so I believe we will be spending a lot of time at the water parks/pools and in indoor/AC areas. Thanks again, this was a great read!

Thank you so much for your kind words - I really appreciate the feedback. I try to make it both fun and informative

This will be a great location for the heat of the summer. @nimbuscat I seriously recommend (assuming you have standard view) that you request a room in the Tokelau building. It is the closest DVC longhouse to the main building, and is immediately adjacent to the new "quiet" pool. It is very close to the bus stop and the beach, and the walk to the monorail station at the TTC to get to Epcot isn't too bad. (The other DVC buildings are closer to that, but further from everything else!) We were on the end nearest the bungalows on the top floor, which gives you an opportunity to get a view of the fireworks from your room, but really anywhere in that building would be my pick to stay. Since you are renting DVC points, you will have to contact the rental agent/DVC member that you rented from to make the request, but at minimum I would ask them to request Tokelau for you. The refurbed DVC rooms are so beautiful and the extra bathroom space will be great with the little ones.

The August heat is no fun at all! However, Disney is still survivable in the heat. We did it after all. Just spend your mid-days at the resort. The splash pad area at the Polynesian will be fantastic for your 5-year old, though the 20-month-old might be a little small for it. Hope you are at least going late-August when the crowds thin out.

 

[nimbuscat]

The August heat is no fun at all! However, Disney is still survivable in the heat. We did it after all. Just spend your mid-days at the resort. The splash pad area at the Polynesian will be fantastic for your 5-year old, though the 20-month-old might be a little small for it. Hope you are at least going late-August when the crowds thin out.

We will be there August 15-22. According to the crowd calendars I see online, the first couple of days will still be crowded, but should ease up mid-trip for us. We're planning parks accordingly!

 

[Teetah]

Can't wait to read your final post! Looks like you guys had an awesome trip, and I can't wait for your CA report!

We ate at Tony's for the first time last fall (still haven't gotten to that TR...) because we wanted to eat outside to watch FOF for the first time. We were able to pull that off, but I was not impressed with the view for FOF. I would have rather fought with the crowd to get a good spot...but it's not bad if you have seen it numerous times. We also found the food to be just ok, but not nearly as bad as I have heard. Although, to be honest, I wonder if my palate is maybe not as refined as I think it is.

We also at at Sunshine Seasons for the first time for breakfast...it was totally great! We have never done a character breakfast, but I would like to do Crystal Palace sometime. Love the WTP characters!

Have a safe next trip!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Good, but not great. That's how I rate Tony. I know it gets panned on the Boards by some; but I don't think its as bad as the truly bad reviews it seems to attract. I wouldn't rush back either but if there was nothing else I could get into at MK, I'd be happy to lock it in.

 

[skier_pete]

We will be there August 15-22. According to the crowd calendars I see online, the first couple of days will still be crowded, but should ease up mid-trip for us. We're planning parks accordingly!

That's about right - crowds start to ease up around between the 15th and 20th when all the southern schools start up.

Can't wait to read your final post! Looks like you guys had an awesome trip, and I can't wait for your CA report!

We ate at Tony's for the first time last fall (still haven't gotten to that TR...) because we wanted to eat outside to watch FOF for the first time. We were able to pull that off, but I was not impressed with the view for FOF. I would have rather fought with the crowd to get a good spot...but it's not bad if you have seen it numerous times. We also found the food to be just ok, but not nearly as bad as I have heard. Although, to be honest, I wonder if my palate is maybe not as refined as I think it is.

We also at at Sunshine Seasons for the first time for breakfast...it was totally great! We have never done a character breakfast, but I would like to do Crystal Palace sometime. Love the WTP characters!

Have a safe next trip!

We like Crystal Palace as far as character buffets go, but like the lunch better. However I would definitely pick the CP buffet over Ohana!

Your and mine assessment seems about right.

I'll be waiting for that TR!

Good, but not great. That's how I rate Tony. I know it gets panned on the Boards by some; but I don't think its as bad as the truly bad reviews it seems to attract. I wouldn't rush back either but if there was nothing else I could get into at MK, I'd be happy to lock it in.

Perfect description - good not great. Actually now that I think about it, it was your review from your last trip that helped make me decide to try it. I am honestly glad I did, as we DID enjoy the meal.

 

[NJlauren]

Thank you sharing your trip with us!

All your comments on the heat have me a little worried about my tentative Sept2017 trip......

Looking forward to your DL TR . So I can take tips for my upcoming trip!

 

[skier_pete]

Thank you sharing your trip with us!

All your comments on the heat have me a little worried about my tentative Sept2017 trip......

Looking forward to your DL TR . So I can take tips for my upcoming trip!

Thanks so much. I think it is all about being mentally prepared for the heat - and also being ready to take that time off to recover. It really wasn't THAT bad. I mean, I would prefer not to go at this time of year - but it's still Disney!

 

[skier_pete]

Day 11 - the final bit...

After lunch, we really had two FP+ left to do. One was for Jungle Cruise in about 30 minutes, so we decided to head again to Small World…unfortunately, the lines in FL continued to be massive, so instead we decided to watch the Tiki Birds again. (Ahhh….air conditioning!) We then were late enough to use our Jungle Cruise FP – which gave us a short wait and another ride on one of DDs favorites. (This is good because it appears that JC will be closed while we are out in DLR next month!)

It was getting into the heat of the day, and we were beyond over the heat and the sweating. However, we had our last FP – unfortunately it was for the Festival of Fantasy parade. Now, let me tell you something, I am not huge parade fan. They are OK, great when you have little kids that tend to be enthralled by such things. But while I enjoyed Spectromagic a lot, and also liked Jammin’ Jungle/Jingle Jungle over at AK, the daytime parade at WDW never did much for me. However, this being a brand new parade, we wanted to check it out.

The FP area is the circle at the entrance end of main street – back by Tony’s and the train station. I wanted to get an ice cream sandwich from the ice cream shop on the way there, but the line was way long. DD threw a fit about standing in line. (I think everyone is tired by this point in the vacation.) But I got my sandwich. We then went to our spot. While I would say there were places that were good to watch the parade, the problem was waiting in the heat was killing us, so we just sat in the little bit of shade that we could manage to grab. By the time the parade started, we didn’t have front row seats anyways.

One of the floats had a bunch of princesses and princes, with the sections of the float turning to face different directions. So at first you would see Belle and Beast.


…and then it would turn to be Tiana and Navin…


The center section turns as well – with Cinderella and her prince on one side…

…and Cinderella’s dress on the other…


And of course no parade would be complete without these two…


Seems like a lot of Princesses represented in this parade. However, I think there should be more Rapunzel in the park – I really like this movie…


Of course, nearly as all-pervasive as Frozen is of course Little Mermaid – which is pretty impressive for a near 30 year old character. (Yup – just made myself feel really old there.)


Peter Pan and Wendy sailing off on Hook’s ship


I couldn’t get a good shot of Tinkerbell, who was on the back of the float.


Keep the princess parade going.


Finally – the Malificent dragon. Clearly the highlight of the parade. I was unable to catch a shot of it breathing fire – but boy this was an impressive apparatus.





Lastly was the Fab 5 / Fantasia float. Very chaotically themed….


With Mickey and Minnie bringing up the rear.



The parade was quite good, though actually very short. Of course the highlight was the Maleficent dragon. Overall, a nice enough parade, though I certainly wouldn’t take the time at this time of year to sit in the heat and watch it. Next time I think we will not use a FP on it either. It’s better than any other MK daytime parade, or the DHS or DCA parades - but not as good as the defunct Jammin’ Jungle Parade at AK, nor as good as Soundsational in DLR – IMO. Glad we watched it, but not likely to become a highlight.

At this point, we had about an hour until our pickup at the resort – so all we had to do was travel back to the hotel, get out carry-ons out of bag check, and wait for the Magical Express pick-up. Other than these couple of pictures at the Poly….



Summing up the trip in the next post...

 

[skier_pete]

I will leave you with this final wrap-up:

Our first DVC trip was fantastic. Staying DVC was wonderful, the two resorts we picked were great. While the BCV room was not the most up-to-date, it was comfortable and the location was fantastic. The pool at Stormalong Bay lived up to its reputation, and the service at the Beach Club was second to none. The Polynesian then managed to blow that away with an incredible room with an incredible location. Fireworks from the beach, great food selection, a decent – if small – pool added up to an amazing 10 nights of staying. We don’t regret for one moment our DVC buy-in but only regret that we only bought 160 points, which are rapidly proving out to be not enough.

The switch to DVC led to us eating differently than we ever had. In the past we would always travel with free dining and take advantage of the dining plan. Now that we’ve tried many of the restaurants at the park, we actually really enjoyed scaling back on the dining. Eating a TS meal often takes near 2 hours and as we get older the amount of food is too much for us. We enjoyed trying the cheaper TS places this trip (Via Napoil, Beach and Cream, Tony’s) and getting more QS choices. We managed to keep our food budget to $150 a day, which sounds like a lot, but really food doesn’t go that far. Of the meals we ate, the only one I would probably not do again was the O’hana breakfast. The rest were all very enjoyable.

One big negative was of course the awful weather – which is not only not Disney’s fault, but also completely expected. However, the severity of it allowed us to really slow down this trip and spend more time relaxing in the room at the resort. We may have to go at this time of year a few more times, at least until DD graduates from high school in 5 years. At least going the end of August allows us to avoid the summer crowds.

In the future, I would flip the trip at this time of year, and focus on Magic Kingdom first. With the crowds coming in for labor day weekend, combined with the latter part of the trip getting tired, I think we did not spend as much time in MK as I would have liked. By going early in the week the crowds would’ve lessened and we would have spent more time at the pool at BCV.

The YES program, while helping us save some money on our tickets, was not really a winner. I would recommend it for 6-10 year olds, but was unimpressed with it for our 12 year old daughter. I also think it is better for a kid that hasn’t “done Disney” a bunch of times. Overall, while it wasn’t bad – I wouldn’t say it was a highlight of the trip, and that makes it a disappointment in my book. I don’t think we will try and work this in again.

I was also disappointed that for having a “Water Parks and More” pass we didn’t really take that good advantage of it, especially in the heat. With the great pools, it probably isn’t as necessary. Also, DD is outgrown the kiddie areas, but still won’t go on the big slides, so what’s the point. We’ll probably be more selective with our water park visits.

But – I have to say even though we usually don’t get the hopper and don’t really utilize it well, this trip we definitely did use it. I would like to think we won’t necessarily get it every trip, but especially staying at the Beach Club and Poly it was nice to be able to do multiple park stops. Our eventual plan (starting in 2017-2018) is to use the DVC/Annual Pass to discount our vacations further, taking multiple trips across a single year, and then staying away for a 12-24 months at a time. We’ll see how this actually works out.

Best of all - our near-teen daughter was still having a good time at Disney World. She even at times seemed not embarrassed to be seen with us, which was a big plus. It certainly is a different experience at all ages with a kid. The good news is we enjoy time alone at Disney as much as with her, so there is no doubt we will keep going.

Finally - I want to thank each and every one of you that has been reading along. This thread has passed 35,000 "views" which to me is unbelievable that that many people would care about what I have to say - I find it humbling and want to do the best I can to keep you all entertained. It's knowing people seem interested enough to read along that keeps me writing these trip reports!

So - for those that enjoy reading my trip reports, but haven’t been keeping up on the PTR (here) – we are leaving for DisneyLAND very shortly, and I will provide a link here once we return. It should be an interesting report, we have a few surprises along the way that I have to keep secret for now, but that trip will also include the WB studio tour, Legoland and Sea World San Diego, so I hope you will have the patience to join along. There's also a fall WDW trip that's in the works, but doesn't have a PTR with it just yet.

again!!!

 

[Teetah]

Great wrap day and report! I was really interested to hear on your initial verdict of DVC. I am always curious to hear what people think of it -I am glad you are finding it beneficial! Have a great next trip and when you get back, I will have my very late TR started, I promise! Stay safe!

 

[skier_pete]

Great wrap day and report! I was really interested to hear on your initial verdict of DVC. I am always curious to hear what people think of it -I am glad you are finding it beneficial! Have a great next trip and when you get back, I will have my very late TR started, I promise! Stay safe!

We are very happy with our DVC purchase. While the up-front cost is large - once you have that covered, the annual cost is very reasonable compared to what we were paying, and the deluxe resort stays feel like we will never get tired of them. (I NEVER would have imagined being able to afford to stay at the Polynesian, Beach Club, and Grand Californian in a single year!)

I would still not buy DVC direct, as the current price point is more than TWICE what we paid - and even though I LOVED the Poly, the more expensive points and the higher per point nights there make it too expensive to own or even stay at on a regular basis.

Like many, I am already wishing we had bought a few more points (maybe 200 instead of 160) as we are coming up a bit short on some future plans.Hopefully someday we will be able to buy more points, but that is not in the cards for at least the next 2-3 years. We would really like to start taking advantage of having multiple trips in a single "year" period (October - October) where we could take advantage of an AP. Unfortunately that won't work out just yet because of our DLR trip.

 

[rteetz]

I am kind of surprised you didn't think festival of fantasy was that great. I love the parade and make a point to watch it every trip. I think its the best MK parade I have seen. I of course haven't seen soundsational in person yet.

Glad you enjoyed your DVC stay. I know I loved Stormalong Bay.

Weather is always an unfortunate one but at least you made the best of it.

That is unfortunate that the YES program wasn't that great but at least now you know that.

I haven't done a water park since I was 6. I really enjoyed it but I wouldn't do another one until my next trip in the summer. My last two trips have been in January when swimming isn't all that great.

I love the hopper. I use that option every single time I can.

I am glad your daughter had a good time and she is still interested in Disney that means you can keep coming back!

I really enjoyed the TR and can't wait to hear about the Disneyland trip.

 

[skier_pete]

I am kind of surprised you didn't think festival of fantasy was that great. I love the parade and make a point to watch it every trip. I think its the best MK parade I have seen. I of course haven't seen soundsational in person yet.

Admittedly we were overheated, and as such weren't enjoying standing in the sun - our location wasn't great even with the FP+. So maybe we would like it more another time. We got to see Soundsational on the ADB trip, and Peter Werner got the two guys that designed the parade floats to come and talk with us about it beforehand - so that made it hard to beat because we knew about a lot of little details of the parade.

I haven't done a water park since I was 6. I really enjoyed it but I wouldn't do another one until my next trip in the summer. My last two trips have been in January when swimming isn't all that great.

Yeah - not sure I would do them in January, though honestly the water parks on a not-great day are a lot of fun because you have them to yourselves.

I love the hopper. I use that option every single time I can.

It was the first time I've been that I really felt we utilized it well. Perhaps because we were staying so close to the parks. I still would think long and hard about it. $200 is a lot of extra cash.

I am glad your daughter had a good time and she is still interested in Disney that means you can keep coming back!

You are presuming we need her there to come back!

I really enjoyed the TR and can't wait to hear about the Disneyland trip.

Thanks so much!

 

[Vernie822]

Pete, thanks for a great trip report! I really enjoyed it - just loved the Poly as well, and we would love to stay at BCV or BWV someday (we just bought into DVC, too). Looking forward to your DLR trip!

 

[DisneyJo]

Thanks for your great TR I've really enjoyed reading it

I'm currently planning our August trip, we're there for 14 nights with Labor weekend slap bang in the middle so I'll definitely take your advise and plan more MK the first week

 

[rdkeim]

I very much enjoyed reading about your trip! Looking forward to future adventures!

 

[skier_pete]

Pete, thanks for a great trip report! I really enjoyed it - just loved the Poly as well, and we would love to stay at BCV or BWV someday (we just bought into DVC, too). Looking forward to your DLR trip!

Thanks for joining in! I think it's great as a DVC member that you do have opportunity to try various resorts. Hopefully you will get to BCV or BWV soon.

Thanks for your great TR I've really enjoyed reading it

I'm currently planning our August trip, we're there for 14 nights with Labor weekend slap bang in the middle so I'll definitely take your advise and plan more MK the first week

I'm appreciate the feedback! Thanks for reading along!

I think the key is avoiding it over labor day weekend itself. (Sat-Mon) I think both before and after is the worst. I think what happens is a lot of "locals" (people within driving distance) come down for the long weekend. These same people of course because it's a short trip focus the most attention on Magic Kingdom. Do other parks over the weekend, save MK for either the days before or the days after. It's not like Christmas crowds or anything, but it is definitely more crowded.

I very much enjoyed reading about your trip! Looking forward to future adventures!

Thanks - our future adventures start shortly!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Great wrap up! Can't wait for our Poly DVC stay in a few weeks!!