My site got a redesign
Aloha and welcome to the new version of my Tikiman Pages. When I said my old pages were going away I was telling the truth. I just did not remember to tell you that a new version of these pages was on its way. With the help of Matthew Turk ( http://www.turkmandu.com/ ) there is now a new and improved version of my site. If it were not for Matt’s help I don’t think I would still be doing this. He has done a great job giving the site a new look, feel and functionality
I figured as much as I loved the old site it was time to give it a new look. I also wanted to launch it on the 42 birthday of the Polynesian (and my wife’s birthday) October 24. The ceremony was the first official Luau for the resort and the luau dinner show would be out on the beach as it was until 1973 when Luau cove brought a cover and location to the show. Here is a copy of the original luau official opening ceremony from October 24, 1971. Many times you will see something in the lobby that the staff does to recognize the day. The opening ceremonies is what the Electrical Water Pageant was created for and it has changed and grown since then but still exists today. (photo from www.omniluxe.net/wyw/poly.htm )
There may be some bugs with the new site that we are still working on and some pages I have not finished formatting and some of the internal links will be broken until I get to redirecting them. There will be some new things like now you will be able to leave comments on pages or articles. Also many of the updated photos I have been saving (like for the rooms) have been added with the information being updated also. There are new room layouts and new floor plans for each longhouse that show every detail in the room including showing the rooms that connect. You will also see a new Disney Vacation Club section and Tahiti and Rapa Nui have been moved over to that section. I know as of today they are still in the standard inventory but soon they will not be. The DVC section will be where I will start putting some updates on progress and once DVC is announced we will have the details of that part of the resort. Since I am not a DVC expert and I like having people who are knowledgeable about things help me where I am not. Just like with discounts and Packages, I get help from Love the Mouse Travel who keeps up on the latest discounts and travel packages.
For my DVC section I have asked a friend of mine who have been very helpful with DVC information. He gives me the good and the bad and has a lot of experience in purchasing and using DVC. His name is Duane Lingle. I met him and his family for the first time at Tikifest 2007 and we have been friends ever since. He also spends time on http://www.Mouseowners.com . I found that to be a good place to ask questions and get good answers from knowledgeable people like Duane. Well most of them are knowledgeable. Duane will be a big part of sharing information on this site and answering the hard DVC questions that I cannot. I don’t like giving answers to things I don’t know very well but I trust he will have the information you need.
With all the changes coming up over the next couple of years it will be a struggle keeping photos and information up to date but many of you have been making that easier by helping be my eyes at the resort, sending updated photos and information and without that I would not have launched the new site. Many of you have been sending me photos and if I ever use it and forget to credit you, please let me know. I get so many photos that I lose track of who sends them to me once I move them into a folder to use. I hope you will continue to help and more people will get involved as the amount of readers grows. I will be continuing to update the info and new photos will start showing up in the galleries that are on the new pages.
I want to say thanks to Matt, and Duane for their help and Todd Hurley for his awesome photo used as the header to the site. You have seen some of his work on my Facebook Page and you should see more in here. You can find him at http://www.toddhurleyphotography.com . Thank you to all of you for visiting my site and supporting it for 14 years. I hope you enjoy the new site.
Ready to plan your trip to the Polynesian?
If you have never visited my planning section then that is where you should start to help you decide what to book at the Polynesian. It will help you decide things like to do club level or not, what view to pick, which longhouse to request and help booking your trip. http://tikimanpages.com/poly/the-resort/planning
Part of that planning page is something that a good friend’s site came up with. There are a lot of people I feel privileged to have met and work with since I started my web site back in 1999 but one whose skills never cease to amaze me is Len Testa. When he first contacted me about helping with the details on the Unofficial Guide book I had been reading another well-known guide book. Because of the lack of detail and updating in the guide book I had at the time I figured guide books were not worth much if you knew anything about Walt Disney World to begin with. When I saw how much effort the Unofficial Guide Book put into getting their facts right and up to date I saw something I liked. They wanted to know every little change there was at the parks and resorts along with input from guests and a large staff of people to go and check things out to gather data.
That same level of effort (if not more) has gone into Touring Plans. They have amazing people working for them and they gather up information on everything you would ever want to know. Once I got tired of trying to keep my menus updated (since I am out here in California) I asked if I could link to their menus because I saw they had people updating them all the time. They even ask me to send info when I am out at the resort because they want what is the most current. I can’t say enough good things about Touring Plans and now they came out with something I always wanted for my site.
When I first drew up my floor plans for each longhouse I wanted to have a way to link all the great room view photos people sent me to the maps so you could click on the room and get the view. Well Touring Plans did it and much more. They have a system that you can enter in things you want like view type, walking distance, king bed, handicap accessible, etc. and it will give you a choice of longhouses. Once you go to the individual longhouses you get the rooms and you can click on each room to see a view photo (if available). Along with that it will give you at the bottom of the photo a code that you can cut and paste to use for your request. The biggest problem people have after figuring out what to request is how to request. They often write too much, too little or something the computer system will not understand. There are only so many characters that can be entered and if you go over it will not even make it into the system. The code that comes up under the room photo was developed with the help of Disney to give you the right request for that room or ones like it. It takes the hardest part and makes it simple.
I spoke with Len about the effort involved. Len said, “Yeah, we were told that Disney’s only got 80 characters to use for room requests, so we made sure that everything we put, fits into 80 characters.
When we’re all done in December, we’ll have spent 18 months to collect photos, do the programming, and then do all the data entry to link everything together. The data entry thing was tedious. You know how when you’re looking at a room, we tell you what the room above and below are? All that’s entered manually. Rack rates. Walking distances. Sound levels. View categories. It takes some time. Plus, we got lots of cooperation from Disney. That ADA information? Not available to the public. And I think we’re the only ones to have a complete description of every hotel room on property.”
I try and pick people to work with that do the best job and Touring Plans has always been a great resource for me and to send my readers to. Make sure you see all that they have to offer.
To check out the map go to http://touringplans.com/hotel_maps/disneys-polynesian-resort?
Last minute construction update
I have tried to keep you updated as new information comes in and while we still don’t know when work on the Great Ceremonial House will start or when Disney Vacation Club construction will be in full swing here is a few thigns I have some idea on.
Sunset Pointe TreesWe have seen the fences go up and people are reporting that construction is not disruptive but construction has not even started. All they have done is started to close off areas and some depth testing out in the water. The real work has not even started. We did see some heavy equipment out at Sunset Pointe reportedly removing the palm trees and a barrier put out in the water. I still expect to see Tahiti and Rapa Nui close soon. I even moved Tahiti and Rapa Nui into a new DVC catagory on the new site. Staff at the resort have been expecting to have those longhouses cleared out since last month.
The latest word about the pool is that the January work will involve some resurfacing of the pool (not sure if that is a pool surface or the pool deck but I was under the inpression it was the pool itself. Also they have talked about adding the fence around the pool.
Later in March of 2014 is when the major work around the Volcano pool is scheduled to start (subject to change). I figured this would take a few months with all the changes I was told would happen but as of today I got information from a Disney source that said the pool might be closed as long as 8 months to a year. I am surprised by that but I have to go with what they tell me until I hear something else. All these dates could change as we move into next year.
Neverland Club is still planning on closing in January and reopening with a new theme and I am guessing new name by April 1, 2014.
