alissafalco
Well-Known Member
I know, right? I wasnt impressed with the Poly and probably wouldn't stay there again. Don't get me wrong there were a lot of nice things about the resort but it was hard to overlook the negatives that I saw.
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Polynesian Refurb
- Thread starter danlb_2000
- Start date
I know, right? I wasnt impressed with the Poly and probably wouldn't stay there again. Don't get me wrong there were a lot of nice things about the resort but it was hard to overlook the negatives that I saw.
Beuford
Member
It's amazing. When you have a favorite resort you overlook the small things and defend the negatives about the place. I for instance only stay at the poly, no rooms available, no trip to Disney. Conversely, there are resorts people love that you couldn't pay me money to stay at. It's just amazing the different tastes we all have. I actually like when people say they will never stay at the poly, keeps the crowd down. 
Mickey2minnie1
Active Member
I need an update. I am just bursting wondering what is going on there. Of course I wish I could be there to see or know first hand if anything has begun or not.
Beuford
Member
Here right now. No signs of any construction. New locks are everywhere. Some of the resort speakers are not working, sometimes they are on sometimes not. Other than that place is great. Pond needs some dredging to get rid of the swamp grass that's about it. Oh, looking at the water feature today, if they remove that, its like removing the castle from MK or SSE from epcot. It just belongs.
Tom
Beta Return
According to the schedule, they should be working on asbestos abatement in Building 2 (Aotearoa), with construction starting on Oct 7. But you're saying that Aotearoa is completely open and occupied by guests?
And yes, if they remove the water feature, it will be absolute sacrilege. It has more meaning to me than most people, because I personally know the guy who designed and built it when he owned a landscape company in Florida back in the 60s. On a side note, he and his kids met Walt, in person, at their hotel room when Disney was first handing out contracts for WDW work. That was shortly before Walt passed.
Beuford
Member
I didn't check to see if the building is open, but having been lounging at the resort all day since Friday, I have not seen one construction worker, vehicle or anything. Perhaps they are back to work Monday. I did see construction workers at GF dvc, while making the long walk to the gym in the tent. Not very nice, but they told me it is only expected to be there for 14 or so days. I went to saratoga this morning to use their gym, which is very nice, but if you want to use the sauna and locker rooms you need to purchase a 15 dollar day pass.
Tom
Beta Return
When they do begin work, they will work 7 days a week in 2 overlapping shifts (3am-noon, 7am-4pm). But again, they may very well be working in Building 2, but right now they're just doing asbestos abatement and demolition. Build-back was slated to start on Oct 7.
The staging area for the the buildings at the west end of the Resort is going to be in the little parking lot at the far west end of the guest parking area. On Google, it appears to be separated from the main guest lot by the secondary entry drive, west of the monorail platform.
The staging area for the the buildings at the west end of the Resort is going to be in the little parking lot at the far west end of the guest parking area. On Google, it appears to be separated from the main guest lot by the secondary entry drive, west of the monorail platform.
Mickey2minnie1
Active Member
Thank you for the updates. Keep us posted. We should be hearing from Tikiman soon.
Tom
Beta Return
I hope so. I know he's down there, and am anxious to hear what he's found out.
ProfSlim
Well-Known Member
Yesterday, I finalized my trip reservation for May and the Disney travel rep had specific (well, as specific as I've heard from anybody from Disney...) information about the renovations. Specifically for my booking, she indicated that the Club level building (Hawaii) would be under renovations and not available January through March. She had a document that listed all known caveats that could effect reservations. Take this information FWIW knowing that schedules can, and usually do, change. She did not have any detail on the type of renovations other than the building would not be available.
baymenxpac
Well-Known Member
that's a shame. that broken outlet plate makes me really mad. what's the excuse for that?! NOT ONE employee at the poly saw that? that's nothing a 5 minute trip to lowe's couldn't fix.
ugh.
Tom
Beta Return
Well, that lines up perfectly with the construction schedule that was published with the blueprints. Building 5 (Hawaii) will be closed from Jan 6 - Mar 8. Its lounge will be closed Jan 6 - Mar 1.
That tells me that they MUST be working on Building 1 right now, or else the information DRC has is already wrong....which I doubt, because they'd be in big trouble if they were telling guests the wrong closure dates for certain buildings.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
.59 cents really starts adding up when people keep breaking them off for a cheap souvenir.
COProgressFan
Well-Known Member
That's the type of thing that makes me nuts as well. Across property there are tons of little examples like this where I wonder how no-one ever noticed the dented or scratched door, broken outlet covers, fixtures filled with bugs and dust, etc.
LowesChevy
Well-Known Member
The Tonga concierge desk was refinished and reinstalled over this past weekend-September 28-30th. One of the CMs mentioned work on the lounge there and the work to be done in the Hawaii building.
bethymouse
Well-Known Member
I was disappointed as well especially since we wanted Samoa longhouse, but they were "renovating" that one.
Our room was clean, but I noticed some things had nicks and cuts in them like our sofa. They put the new locks in and so maybe we just picked the wrong time to stay at the POLY.
bethymouse
Well-Known Member
We were in Aotearoa 2nd floor from Sept. 23-29.
Mickey2minnie1
Active Member
Any idea when Tikiman gets back? I cannot wait to hear of his updates.
alissafalco
Well-Known Member
I was disappointed as well especially since we wanted Samoa longhouse, but they were "renovating" that one.
Well, we stayed in Samoa on the 3rd floor, did you see my pics of it from a few earlier posts? You're right, I guess we just didn't stay there at a good time. Samoa definitely needed a refurb.
tikiman
Well-Known Member
Just got back Wednesday. Needed to get back on West coast time and be off the computer for a while.
I will start with just some comments about damage at the resort. I walked every building, visited some rooms and myself stayed in Tokelau (switched from Tahiti). The week after the last room renovation there are rooms with scratched, damage and things broken. This can be blamed on guests and on Disney for going from onsite maintenance to outsourced housekeeping and maintenance. In their defense many times I have been there and they are going through every building and fixing, touching up paint and replacing items. I am sure the next day someone is going to slam their luggage into the wall and it will take a month or two to be fixed. As far as room conditions, most people never report to the Polynesian that they saw any damage and only complain online when they get home (not assuming that is what alissafalco is doing and this response is not directed at her either J ). People need to report things or make a list when they check out to give to the resort. Housekeeping should but don’t go over things careful enough and almost never catch things that are broken or damaged. Someone from the offsite company even explained to me that they are not even tasked with doing more than just getting the rooms clean. Also ever since the maintenance when offsite things just don’t get fixes as fast as they use to.
Another thing is I just got back and someone was warning people to not request Tahiti because it was a disaster. Well I believe that their room was but the building has 143 rooms (3 of which I saw inside) and they are not all in the same condition. I have even been in Hawaii and someone reported everything was a mess and the rooms were horrible. My room was 2 down from them and was perfect except for one light was broken. My point is that not every room will be in the same condition as the other. I did see the flooding over near Captain Cooks but I did not give it a second look. There was not a resort I visited (Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Beach Club, Boardwalk and Swan) while I was there that did not have standing water much worse than that but I don’t expect anything different in Florida when it rains. When I walked every building and every floor I noticed some things that need work or replacement but I can find that at every resort.
Now for a quick report. I will have more details when I write my report for the site. The room renovation is being put off until January 2013. They will start with Hawaii because it was already blocked out for club bookings and they did not want to have to change all that. I don’t know if they will continue the original order that they scheduled or go with a new order and no one else that I spoke to even knew the rooms were going in. No one has been able to see them and some did not even know the test rooms existed. I did get to see the test rooms and I will be writing up details on that on my site in my report. There was some info that I am not sure if it is true that the GCH work will not happen until 2018. That same person also said DVC was not going to happen but the next day I spoke to the person who works with the one in charge of the DVC project and they said it is still going ahead as planned. They basically told me that Disney will deny its existence even after it starts being built so don’t expect anyone to ever admit it is coming and in some cases I don’t think people know.
No one seems to know what will happen with the GCH but they do believe it will happen in phases and some believe that the luau will move into some part of the new GCH since it will be removed for DVC. There was some other interesting attention in the water area off the Tahiti beach believed to be some surveying or some sort of engineering analysis. I believe I know what it is but I can’t say more right now.
The hot tub was still planned for sometime this year but with the change in schedule for the rooms I would not be surprised if it gets pushed out.
I will start with just some comments about damage at the resort. I walked every building, visited some rooms and myself stayed in Tokelau (switched from Tahiti). The week after the last room renovation there are rooms with scratched, damage and things broken. This can be blamed on guests and on Disney for going from onsite maintenance to outsourced housekeeping and maintenance. In their defense many times I have been there and they are going through every building and fixing, touching up paint and replacing items. I am sure the next day someone is going to slam their luggage into the wall and it will take a month or two to be fixed. As far as room conditions, most people never report to the Polynesian that they saw any damage and only complain online when they get home (not assuming that is what alissafalco is doing and this response is not directed at her either J ). People need to report things or make a list when they check out to give to the resort. Housekeeping should but don’t go over things careful enough and almost never catch things that are broken or damaged. Someone from the offsite company even explained to me that they are not even tasked with doing more than just getting the rooms clean. Also ever since the maintenance when offsite things just don’t get fixes as fast as they use to.
Another thing is I just got back and someone was warning people to not request Tahiti because it was a disaster. Well I believe that their room was but the building has 143 rooms (3 of which I saw inside) and they are not all in the same condition. I have even been in Hawaii and someone reported everything was a mess and the rooms were horrible. My room was 2 down from them and was perfect except for one light was broken. My point is that not every room will be in the same condition as the other. I did see the flooding over near Captain Cooks but I did not give it a second look. There was not a resort I visited (Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Beach Club, Boardwalk and Swan) while I was there that did not have standing water much worse than that but I don’t expect anything different in Florida when it rains. When I walked every building and every floor I noticed some things that need work or replacement but I can find that at every resort.
Now for a quick report. I will have more details when I write my report for the site. The room renovation is being put off until January 2013. They will start with Hawaii because it was already blocked out for club bookings and they did not want to have to change all that. I don’t know if they will continue the original order that they scheduled or go with a new order and no one else that I spoke to even knew the rooms were going in. No one has been able to see them and some did not even know the test rooms existed. I did get to see the test rooms and I will be writing up details on that on my site in my report. There was some info that I am not sure if it is true that the GCH work will not happen until 2018. That same person also said DVC was not going to happen but the next day I spoke to the person who works with the one in charge of the DVC project and they said it is still going ahead as planned. They basically told me that Disney will deny its existence even after it starts being built so don’t expect anyone to ever admit it is coming and in some cases I don’t think people know.
No one seems to know what will happen with the GCH but they do believe it will happen in phases and some believe that the luau will move into some part of the new GCH since it will be removed for DVC. There was some other interesting attention in the water area off the Tahiti beach believed to be some surveying or some sort of engineering analysis. I believe I know what it is but I can’t say more right now.
The hot tub was still planned for sometime this year but with the change in schedule for the rooms I would not be surprised if it gets pushed out.