TikimanPages - The Unofficial Polynesian Resort Pages

So now that you have decided on what level of service you want than you should decide what type of view and location you want.

The most asked question for new visitors to the Polynesian is "what longhouse should we stay in?" and "what view should we pick?" Hopefully these next few pages will help answer these questions.

Grab your map and lets check out the longhouses. If you need a map click here. This is an arial view of the Polynesian. The buildings in RED are Club Level (or King Kamehameha Club level for suites) Longhouses. The buildings in BLUE are Longhouses with Lagoon View and Magic Kingdom View rooms. The buildings in GREEN are buildings with Garden View rooms only.

The Polynesian has three classifications of room views when you make your reservations, Lagoon View, Theme Park view (aka Magic Kingdom view) and Garden View. The Club Level (or concierge level) has only two of these categories (Lagoon View and Garden View) As of 2010 club level rooms will add Theme Park view category to some of the Lagoon view rooms.

Lagoon View rooms are rooms that are facing the Magic Kingdom or the Seven Seas Lagoon but may have the castle partly or fully blocked. Some are blocked partly by foliage (mostly ground level rooms), tree-tops (mostly 3rd floor rooms) or blocked by Beachcombers Island off the shore of the Polynesian (rooms in Tuvalu).

Theme Park View (new as of 2006) are lagoon view rooms with unobstructed views of the castle. See longhouse pages for Aotearoa, Tuvalu and Tahiti for a list of Theme Park View rooms. All other rooms on the lagoon side of these buildings are considered Lagoon View

Garden View rooms are all rooms except lagoon view rooms. Your view in a garden view room could be anything from a partial view of the lagoon, a pool view, a marina view, a view of the garden areas, a monorail view or a parking lot view.

There were many questions when the Theme Park View was introduced and I had my own concerns. After finding out more about it I believe it is a good thing. The rooms that were selected to be Theme Park View were selected because they have an unobstructed view of the castle. The price for these rooms are about the same as a Garden View Club Level room and in the past that is what a standard Lagoon View room cost. Now a standard Lagoon View room cost less than a Garden View Club Level room. Also there are a small handfull of Lagoon View rooms that have quite a few plants blocking the view but most of the remaining Lagoon View rooms still have a great view and infact many still have a view of the castle.

Although some of the buildings are older than others, they were all completely refurbished in 1998 and additional refurbishing in 2001 and 2002. Completely redesigned rooms were added from 2005 and completed in 2006. Also when you hear a longhouse is one of the "new ones" the newest is still 23 years old, which is only 3 years older than the Grand Floridian. The Polynesian is constantly being kept up. You can see areas being refurbished all year with little impact to the guests. Since it has the highest repeat guests, it gets a lot of traffic. I have never seen any signs of wear myself but if you think there are areas that look worn, don't blame the Polynesian. Any areas of wear are from the traffic and abuse from the few thoughtless guests that are not respectful of the resort. The Polynesian staff works hard to keep the resort in excellent shape. With even the wood on the outside of the longhouses being replaced in the last few years much of what you see has not been around since it opened in 1971. I know many think it looks dated and needs to be redone but much of the resort is new and is again being changed in the next few years. The look and theme is what it is and what makes it special and you may not like it but you would be incorrect in calling it old.

If you have decided what level of service and what type of view you would like than that information will help you decide on a longhouse you might want to request.

At this point the decision of level of service and view is something you decide on and reserve. Other things to reserve would be a suite or a Handicap Accessible room (if available) click here for more info on accessible rooms.

Everything else you decide for this point is just a request. Requests are best noted at the time of the reservation by who ever you do your reservation through. Trying to call the resort later or fax them is a much less reliable way of getting your request noted. Also when you call the Polynesian number you are not calling the actual resort but a call center and remember the Polynesian Resort does not even see your reservation until about 10 days before you check in so even if you got in touch with them ahead of time they would not even know about your reservation. All requests are just that, a request for something but no guarantee. Things that are requested are Longhouse, specific room numbers. Connecting rooms (meaning that there is a door between them) or adjoining rooms (they are next to each other but not necessarily connected). Asking for non-smoking is no longer an option since all rooms are non-smoking. Also refrigerators do not need to be requested since there is one in every room. Cribs will need to be noted or asked for at check in.

Room Requests
For those of you who want to know how the Polynesian does room requests, here is some info.

Rooms are typically assigned in order based upon the following:

• Large Groups usually over 25 rooms
• Multiple room or Magical Gathering requests
• Any requests on the reservation and Faxed in requests
• no requests

Guests can fax a request and the request will get reviewed by the room assigner (obviously the earlier out the better) but, the request  still wont be assigned until they get the reservation about 5 days out.  Other factors affect requests like emergency/scheduled repairs. If they can’t get the request they will write on the reservation why and  offer a room change for the following morning. 

What Longhouse?

Alright, back to picking out a longhouse to request. If you have decided Club Level than you will be in Hawaii longhouse unless you have booked a suite. Club Level rooms do sometimes get discounts but suites DO NOT.

If you have chosen standard level rooms than lets talk about views. Garden view rooms will be your least expensive but not necessarily your worst views. As I described above the garden view rooms have views of many things and not just gardens and some even have nice views of the lagoon or even the castle.

Longhouses that have rooms with the category Standard Garden View are Tahiti, Rapa Nui, Tokelau, Samoa, Niue, Rarotonga, Fiji, Tuvalu and Aotearoa.

Now if you want to not take a chance on getting one of the parking lot views or you really want to see the water than you can book a Standard Lagoon view room. These rooms all face the lagoon and Magic Kingdom but some are partly blocked by plants. There are still many that see the castle with no problem so I would not shy away from booking a Lagoon view room, you just take the chance of getting one of the rooms that is blocked more than others.

Longhouses with Standard Lagoon view rooms are Tahiti, Tuvalu and Aotearoa. Technically there are two rooms at the end of Tokelau that they re-categorized as Lagoon View but since they do not directly face the lagoon and were not originally designated Lagoon view they are hardly booked as Lagoon View.

Your last choice of view is the most popular. These are the Theme Park View rooms. These rooms will have an unobstructed view of the castle and these rooms are only in standard level buildings. Not that you cannot get a clear view of the castle from a Club Level room but they just do not call them Theme Park View in the Hawaii Club Level building. Changes to Hawaii club level rooms will include Theme Park view rooms in 2010.

These Theme Park View rooms are located in Tahiti, Tuvalu and Aotearoa.