Polynesian resort rooms are some of the largest standard rooms on Disney property. Even the smaller of the two floor plans is much larger than most of the other Deluxe Resort rooms.You can easily fit 5 in these rooms and you can do 6 if one is in a crib and under the age of 3. Check out the rooms to help you decide what to book and request.
Most of the rooms are the same. The rooms in all of the original longhouses including the Hawaii Club Level longhouse are the same layout and size (415 sq-ft) except Tonga suites. The newer longhouses (Tokelau, Pago Pago, and Moorea) have slightly larger rooms (465 sq-ft). Yes the rooms are 465 sq-ft and not the 447 sq-ft that Disney has it listed as on the web site. This is not the first time Disney has labeled the rooms as the wrong square footage. Based on the construction plans and actually measuring the room is how I came up with the 465 sq-ft. All of these larger rooms are now Disney Vacation Club Deluxe Studios.
Original Longhouse rooms
The original longhouse rooms are all the same unless they have ADA items (like a roll in shower or tub rails) or they are a king bed room. The king bed rooms were at the resort years ago but for the last few decades all the rooms use to be just 2 queen beds and a day bed. In 2013 they added king beds back into some of the rooms. You can see which rooms are king bed rooms on the longhouse pages. These original construction rooms are all the same size and are considered the smaller rooms at 415 sq-ft but even they are larger than most of the other Deluxe Resort rooms on property.
The original longhouses have smaller hallways and no balconies on the second floors. The glass door still slides open but there is no balcony to walk out on if you get a second floor room. Third floor rooms will have a balcony and first floor rooms will have a patio. During the 2013 room renovation they added in double sinks to the bathrooms in all the rooms. All the original Longhouses that were built in 1971 are now the only rooms that are not DVC.
Tokelau Longhouse (1978 expansion)
When they added Tokelau in 1978 they built larger rooms (465 sq-ft) into a larger building with wider hallways. Also there use to be different configurations in Tokelau but during a past room renovation they converted all the rooms over to the same floor plan. During the 2013 renovation they added in double sinks in the bathroom but since the sinks are on the same wall as the toilet you get a smaller counter than you would have in the other longhouses. There are some nice sitting areas in the middle of all 3 floors in Tokelau. These renovated rooms in Tokelau never lasted very long because shortly after opening they were closed and cleaned out to be turned into more DVC Deluxe Studios (opening Summer of 2015).
Moorea and Pago Pago (1985 expansion)
Moorea and Pago Pago were built after one of the models done in Tokelau and have always had the double sinks in the rooms. They are the same size as Tokelau and the buildings have the larger hallways. Moorea has sitting areas like Tokelau but Pago Pago does not.
Pago Pago does have a main entrance right off the east parking lot. If you noticed before the renovation the parking lot use to look like it has a drop off loop and a nice main entrance. Rumor is that at some point that was going to be a second area of check in to the resort. In 2014 the parking lot was expanded towards Pago Pago and the driveway was removed.
These two longhouses were scheduled to be renovated along with all the other longjhouses but the company renovating the room left the property in September without renovating those rooms. Why? Because they were converted over to Disney Vacation Club studios that opened April 1, 2015.
These DVC Studios are the largest studios in the DVC collection and while people comment that the two bathrooms don’t leave much of a living area, I think that is a false perception. The area left for the living area (beds) is not much smaller than an entire Value resort room and the living area in the studio is about the same size as what you have in the living area of the regular resort rooms as you can see by the room floor plans.
The drawings of the rooms are to scale so you can see the difference in size.
All longhouses have ADA compliant rooms. Look for the icon next to the room on the room floor plans on each longhouse page. More information about these rooms can be seen on my Disabilities page.
All longhouse rooms were all completely refurbished in 2013. They redesigned the rooms to change the entire look. Also the outside of all the buildings had been redone with new materials and paint. Rooms go through rehab every few years to replace damaged items, add new paint and clean them up.
Deciding on a room type might start with cost. Below are the cost of the Non-club level rooms. For Club level rooms go to the Hawaii Longhouse page. For Prices on Suites go to the Tonga page where each suite has its own page.
Many of the rooms have balconies or patios (ground level) with the exception of second floor rooms in the original longhouses (Aotearoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Niue, Rarotonga, Samoa and Tuvalu). The newer longhouses have balconies on the second and third floor with a patio on the first. The Balconies give you some extra room outside your room but the railing can be a problem when sitting since it is at eye level so you either have to stand up to see or look through the railing. Second floor rooms with no balcony have a railing up to the sliding glass door that still opens up the same as the other 
rooms. Patios are on the ground floor which some don’t like but most of the patios are open to walk off of and to the beach or the garden areas. There are some patios in some longhouses (like Fiji marina side) that are enclosed by plants and you cannot walk beyond the patio.
These newer longhouses are Tokelau (1978), Moorea and Pago Pago (1985). More than 40% of the rooms at the Polynesian are the larger rooms in the newer constructed longhouses but these are also all Disney Vacation Club rooms.
All the Polynesian rooms have a day bed but as of 2013 some have king beds and the rest have two queens. The rooms with 2
queens and a day bed sleep 5 (6 if one is under 3 and in a crib) King beds are only located in Samoa, Rarotonga and Fiji. There are no king bed rooms with a Lagoon or Theme Park View and there are no king beds in Hawaii Club Level. All rooms have an iron, ironing board, hair drier, Disney sundries, coffee maker refrigerator and a safe that was much larger than the safes found in some of the other Deluxe Resorts and even an Ipod dock built into the clock radio. Microwaves are available by request and are limited. There is a daily charge for microwaves. As of Late 2011 the resort offers free Wifi in all areas of the resort.
The soaps and lotions in the rooms of the Polynesian are now by H2O Plus. Now in the room you will have:
- Shower Gel
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Lotion
- Facial soap
- Bath soap
You can request a crib, high chair, or bed rails for smaller children.
For the disabled there are rooms with roll in showers and tub rails. There are elevators in all longhouses except Niue. To get to Niue’s second floor you must use the elevator in Rarotonga. but it is not far from the longhouse. It is located right across an elevated walkway, just inside the door to Rarotonga.
in 2013, all the room were stripped down to nothing and new carpet, paint, electrical, plumbing, and even furniture and fixtures were added. The hallways had all the remaining asbestos removed and the halls were all redone.
In the rooms they kept some of the same items like the closet area with different glass inserts, the dresser/ TV, the desk and end table and the chairs were recovered as I saw in the test room. The beds and bedding are new and the headboards got a slightly different (lighter) look. The major change is in the bathroom with it now having two sinks and a larger open area.
As of March 2019 they are creating test rooms to try out a new room design. Based on the past that will mean that it will be another year or two before work starts on transforming the rooms to the new design a few at a time. This will close downs sections of longhouses or entire longhouses for about 1 to 3 years if we go off of how long past renovations have taken to complete all the rooms. This should go faster now that part of the resort is DVC rooms that will not be part of this renovation.
