TikimanPages - The Unofficial Polynesian Resort Pages

The year is 1999 and I had been seeing my girlfriend for a while but we had known each other for years. We were both at the point in our lives where we wanted to have a family and a home and responsibilities.

It was September 1999 and I had talked to my parents and her parents about asking her to merry me but I am not one to do things in a boring way especially when it is something I do once in a lifetime. Little did I know that the decision I was going to make about a purchase would change my whole life. Things like my web pages, trips to Disney parks and even my son would come from the decision to purchase something I saw on the back of an old wrinkled up receipt from a stay at the Polynesian Resort.

What was on the back of the receipt? It was an ad for purchasing a “Walk around the world” brick. These are the bricks that they were just starting to put in around the Seven Seas lagoon. You could have the bricks customized to say different things or have your name. I decided that I was going to put the proposal on a brick and have it there for a trip that was not even planned yet. I also started working on getting a custom ring made like one that my girlfriend had seen in a window one day.

Well Holidays like her birthday, Christmas and New Years went by and there was no hint that I wanted things to get more serious. She was very disappointed and felt that things were not going to move forward.

Her brother was going to be getting married in Michigan so I told her we should plan a vacation to go along with traveing out to Michigan. I talked her into going to Disney World and she just thought it was another Disneyland. I tried to explain how big it was but I still don’t believe she understood. We live near San Francisco and I explained it was as big as the SF city limits.

We decided to do the trip and I was one step closer to my plan. I did not tell anyone else including the rest of her family just so I did not have to worry about her finding out on accident. My parents got me a video camera for the trip so I could capture the whole thing on tape since no one else would be there. The ring was done being made and the trip was booked. So far so good. I also had a plan for how she would find the brick. I told her that a friend purchased this brick when he was there the year before but since they take months to have put in he did not get to see it. The story was that we needed to go find the brick and take a photo of it for him.

Months go by and June is here. We are packing for the trip and I had to put the ring somewhere. I had nightmares of me getting stopped at security with the ring and her seeing it. I put the ring in a balled up pair of socks that went into my checked luggage. I went into my room at home where my luggage was and she was looking for something and she had the pair of socks in her hand and was putting it off to the side. I freaked out and thought for sure she felt the lump of the box. Luckily she did not.

So off we go to Michigan. I still never told anyone in Michigan so this whole time I am busting at the seams to get to Disney World. The day after the wedding Tara gets sick and we might have to skip the trip and fly home. Heart attack number 2!!!!

After going to the doctor in Michigan and getting antibiotics she is feeling a well enough to continue the trip.

June 28, 2000 We get to Florida and Tara is amazed at the size of Disneyworld and we are not even all the way in yet. We get to the Polynesian resort and we go check in at the front desk. The front desk tells us our room is not ready but we have been upgraded to concierge. We go sit in the lobby and relax and I tell her I was considering trying concierge but that I did not book a concierge room. I booked a standard lagoon view room. I was thinking a family member called and told them about the engagement and Tara was thinking it had to do with my birthday being that week. I did not know anyone at the Polynesian at that time and I never told anyone at the resort about my birthday or the engagement. We later found out that we were both wrong because no one at the resort knew about either thing. It ended up being that lagoon view rooms were overbooked through some online travel (like Expedia or similar) so the people that paid the full rate were upgraded to the next available lagoon view rooms that happened to be in the concierge building.

We waited a while and than we went over to the Hawaii longhouse to check in. We were greeted by two CMs that later would become like family to us. I took Tara to the room and we walked in and I walked her over to the drapes and pulled them back to show her a direct view of the castle. This was her first time setting eyes on Cinderella’s castle. She looked like she would cry and the feeling I had was like the first time I had ever gone to Disney World. I knew the next few days would be exciting as she discovered everything that Disney World had to offer. The only thing that comes close to the feeling I had of walking her through every park was the feeling I had Christmas 2006 when my son entered his first Disney World park and his face lit up as he watched the Christmas lights and the monorail going by over head inside Epcot.

June 29, 2000
I got up early to go check out the brick since I had not seen it myself. I told Tara I was going to go for a morning walk while she got ready. I walked all the way over to the TTC with the map that they give you and I found the brick and headed back fast. Luckily the walk is only about 5 minutes. We were headed to the water park early so I put the ring in my board shorts pocket and we headed out to find my “friends” brick. I took the video camera and filmed the walk from the room to the TTC. Once we got close Tara was having trouble finding it and went past where it was but I could not let her know I knew where it was. She finally figured out which way to go and I zoomed in on her as she looked in the area it was at. She paused and turned around with this shocked look on her face. I put the camera on the planter box next to her and got down on my knee and pulled out the ring. People were walking by and looking and pointing but a monorail could have fallen off the tracks and I would not hear anything other than Tara’s voice answering my question. Shaking and crying she said yes. The brick said “Tara will you marry me? Steve”.

The feeling I had overshadowed the feeling of being in Disney World but what a place to be and walk around with the feeling of starting a new life. Especially with the feeling of the new Millennium and all the Millennium celebrations going on. The whole Millennium  experience was such a big part of  it and Illuminations had such a big impact on the trip that two of the songs were in our wedding.

Being in the concierge building allowed more one on one interaction with the CMs. We even got to sit and talk about the engagement and they shared in our excitement. Right off the bat they felt like friends and family. From this trip and the CMs that went way beyond with making our visit special I went home and created a web page about the Polynesian and Tara even made one with the story of our trip. That web page turned into people asking about the resort that was so magical to us. There were so many questions about details that I got to the point where I could not write fast enough. So I took what was a trip photo album and started to turn it into a web page about the resort.

From that web page I have had emails from all over the world and I have made friends who are as close as family. The CMs that started it all are still very special to me and might never realize how much they changed my life.

Some of the friends I have made through contacting me about my pages are so close that we now travel together on vacation (even non-Disney vacations) and many of them I keep in touch with all the time.

Disney won out on this also because after that trip we were visiting Disney World every year and staying for longer than a week. After getting a taste of concierge we booked it every visit. We have even gone as far as purchasing Annual Passes.

That one decision to upgrade us by one person turned into magic that I try to pass along to others through my site. Every time I get an email saying that I helped someone have the best visit of their life means that I passed along what was given to me.

I take that magic and pass it along to people that have never considered the Polynesian and now won’t stay anywhere else.

I have passed it along (with the help of other great Cast Members) to help a little girl dying of cancer be able to experience the magic of the Polynesian.

I passed that magic along to my own Aunt knowing that it might be her last visit to Disney World and knowing that the memory would live strong until her last day.

I have passed it along because I feel that in receiving it I have that responsibility. I have no doubt that some of those people have also passed along that magic to others.

That just goes to show you that one small decision to give some magic to someone can have a huge impact. I hope that Disney will realize this so the magic can continue.

Just think it all started with a brick.