Live from the Polynesian
So I started to write my trip report from the Polynesian so you could see how things were going in real time. I have been back for a while now and still need to put down the notes I took and post the photos. I will have the full trip report and photos in the “Trip Report” section of my web site for you to see all that went on those two weeks.
For now I wanted to write down some of the highlights and review the resort. In the past couple of years the Polynesian has been adding some things and taking some away. I still feel more has been added then taken but I felt there were some areas they were falling short in. Some of the service and friendliness of the resort had gone and management did not seem to know how to fix it or did not care to fix it. Also they were not keeping the rooms and longhouses very clean and the new rooms seem to be getting beat up from the guests but not repaired. Well I am happy to say that I saw a lot of things being done to address these concerns. Now I obviously was not in every room of every longhouse and did not interact with every Cast Member but I can only tell you what I and the other guests that I know observed.
One of the big problems at check in was the outsourced valet misdirecting people or not helping them at all. I found that this visit they were very friendly and helpful. They also have a new system where they give a tag to club level guests at the security booth as you drive in to give to the valet so they know you will be checking in at the Hawaii longhouse and not at the lobby. Now this worked well even though we did still have one of the guys tell us to go check in at the Great Ceremonial House. Someone at the bellmen/ concierge check in desk came over and told us they would have our luggage on a cart and take us to Hawaii. Hopefully having this tag will help them direct the guests better.
All week I noticed repainting of the buildings, replacing of lighting and maintenance to the rooms. The day we checked in they were replacing all the filters in the rooms and I noticed some of the rooms where we knew people were going to be checking in that day, they had a maintenance cart outside the room fixing lighting, replacing door locks that were damaged and they had small buckets of paint to touch up the doors and walls from scratches. They were also cleaning everything down to the canned lighting in the halls. One day they even ripped up the carpet to the concierge lounge and replaced it in one afternoon. There was even quite a storm just before we got to the resort and I guess many of the first floor rooms in Hawaii and Tahiti were flooded. Must have been a bad one since I have been through a few bad storms there with a first floor room and never had any water come in. Well they had the rooms re-carpeted and cleaned up in an afternoon. We also had a broken base to our bed at check in and it was fixed as we sat by the pool. It was good to see so much work to keep the place up. I know some people don’t like work going on when they are there but it was not noisy or distracting and was only on a few of the days. I read a report on one of the forums from someone that was there the same time as us and they were complaining about things including how the Polynesian shut down the quiet pool for days while it was so hot that week. Well the pool was being cleaned and the pool deck was being worked on for part of one day and was back open that night. Just goes to show you that you can’t believe many of the reports you read.
The staff was very friendly and helpful during the week. The concierge lounge offerings were as good as ever and while some things have been taken away due to cutbacks there was plenty of food. They did stop serving the pineapple and caramel but I hardly missed it with everything else that was offered. Those fresh baked cookies are still the best and I think we paid for the club level difference just in beer. Beer was $6 out at the pool bar. Chef Dick had some amazing evening offerings while we were there and even when we thought we were going to eat somewhere we sometimes ended up having enough in the lounge and did not go eat.
There were many new activities throughout the day at the resort. I spent a few days just at the resort and not even going into a park and there were many fun things to do for kids and adults. One of the coolest new additions is the Wii games at the pool. They roll out a cart with 4 screens and 4 different games that you can play. One day they were going to have a Tikiman trivia but the threat of rain made them have to bring the microphone and equipment inside.
I also tried the Grand Floridian spa and fitness center for the first time. I actually think the walk from the Polynesian is easier and closer then the walk from the Grand Floridian. It is right next to the Wedding Pavilion in its own building and was very nice. The equipment is in the room facing the lagoon and a hallway behind it goes to the men’s or women’s areas that have a sitting room with fresh fruit and then into a large bathroom area with showers. Off that room is a sauna and hot tub room. It was a nice jog over to the building in the morning and before about 8:00 AM it is not too busy. Before 6:00 AM you would have it to yourself.
There were times that the Polynesian was very crowded from people just checking out the resort or people there for the luau and we were told that many of the guests from the Grand Floridian who were there on a convention were coming over to the Polynesian to use the pool but I would say that I really enjoyed the resort and I was happy to see the improvements from my last visit.
If you want some more details check out my trip reports page and see the report for Tikifest 2009. If it is not posted yet it will be soon.
Fake Tikiman page
I wanted to send out a warning for anyone who may do a Google search for “Tikiman Polynesian” and get the wrong address. Especially with my old address being gone now there may be people out there that just do a Google search or often I see on forums people suggest to Google “Tikiman Polynesian” Well someone set up a site that comes up as Tikiman Polynesian Resort the photo shown.
It is not my site or address and it contains a virus. If anyone wants to go to my site or suggest someone to go have them search for “Tikimanpages” or tell them to go to www.tikimanpages.com
My site has never contained any virus so any alerts you see that say it does are talking about this other fake site. If you are reading this you obviously have the right link but if you can help me spread the word without freaking everyone out. I just wanted to try and keep someone from going to the wrong place.
New Longhouse floorplans
Some other last minute news since I leave tomorrow morning for Disney World, is that there are new floor plans up on the Longhouse pages. They are bigger and hopefully easier to read. They also fixed some of the room categories that were wrong on the old ones. You can go there to see the layout of the buildings including elevator, ice and soda locations and see the different category of rooms and where they are at. Also added are the locations of the Handicap Accessible rooms. If you look on the longhouse pages under the details of the longhouse you will also find the room numbers for the Handicap Accessible rooms and if they are roll in shower or just tub rail rooms. Not all longhouses have H.A. rooms so you may not see any room numbers on some longhouse pages. You can also see room numbers for Lagoon, Magic Kingdom and Garden view rooms if the longhouse has a mix of room categories.
I also have been slowly adding photos to the different trip reports. I almost finished the Tikifest 2007 report photos.
