Well, our Disney trip has come and gone and I’m already starting to think about our next trip… we go every other year and we look forward to it so much! Every year we stay at a different resort and this year we stayed at the Polynesian Resort, which had the best location of any other resort we’ve stayed at! We have also stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Beach Club in the past (we loved both of those, too!).
In today’s post I am going to share a little review on the Polynesian Resort and also how we spent our two rest days during our Disney trip. Our first rest day was the day we flew in and then we had another rest day midweek to give ourselves a little break from the parks. On our rest days we dined at Ohana, toured the Grand Floridian and enjoyed tea time there and we also did the Hoop De Doo Revenue at Wilderness Lodge… oh, and we did lots of swimming in the Polynesian pool!
The photo above was taken just outside the main entrance of the Polynesian, it is such a beautiful photo spot!
Rest Day One
We flew to Orlando with Southwest, which is such an easy airline to fly with. We didn’t get the earliest flight, because we had done that before and it is just pure torture when you have kids. We did the next earliest flight, which was at 8:45 a.m. and we still had to get up quite early, but at least we weren’t getting up at 2:00 a.m. this time to get to the airport on time! Lol!
The grounds of the Polynesian are just drop dead gorgeous. You can tell that Disney keeps this place up and tends to it well. The waterfront just adds to the beauty of the place. I loved the landscaping, flowers, lit torches at night, etc.
You can also see Cinderella’s castle from the Polynesian! It really has just a prime location and I think that is why it is so popular.
The pool is really nice, especially if you have kids. There is a volcano with a waterslide! I didn’t go on the waterslide, but Nathan said it was short and super fast!
If you love Dole Whips, like I do… then, you’ll be in Dole Whip paradise at the Polynesian! They have a quick service place that will whip one up!
The lobby is also breathtaking. From the lights, to all of the Polynesian decor. Just a beautiful place to walk through.
Gorgeous statue in center of Polynesian lobby.
The rooms in the Polynesian were just OK, definitely not as beautiful as the grounds. The furniture is dark and I wasn’t a fan of the green walls… I grew to like it more after the first night, though. The beds were comfortable and the shower worked really well. Our patio wasn’t private at all, there was a walkway that went right past our room and people were constantly walking by. For the amount of money we spent on this room, I was a little disappointed with the quality. If the grounds of the Polynesian hadn’t been so beautiful and if the location of this hotel hadn’t been so great, I don’t know if I’d consider staying here again. I really think you’re paying for the location and it really was easy to access all of the parks via monorail, boat or bus! So quick! This resort definitely got us to the parks quicker than any other we’ve stayed at. However, I did see that they have Villas and Bungalow rooms out on the lake and they aren’t much more… that is somewhere I would definitely consider staying at for a future trip! The Bungalows have a back porch with swinging chairs and even a jacuzzi!
Here is the bathroom. Two sinks, lovely toiletries (my husband uses these, but I always bring my own)… yet, so dark!
Mickey brought the kids Mickey Mail (a little surprise gift each day) and Autumn got a mermaid tail. She was so excited and had to try it on and have pictures right away!
Unfortunately, she tried to wear it in the pool and the lifeguard told her no mermaid tails were allowed in the pool. Lol! She was so excited to be in the pool, that she didn’t care! It was funny though, she got out of the pool and put her wet mermaid tail on the wrong chair and the guy next to it said, “I’m just not sure what to do with this!” LOL! It was so funny! Then he was kind enough to set her wet mermaid tail on the chair next to him (which was our chair).
We had lunch at Captain Cook’s our first day and oh my goodness… I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the Hot Beef and Cheddar, but it was DELICIOUS. I ate the entire thing within minutes. I really wish I could have had it a second time on our trip! Yum!
After our late lunch, we went back to our room and they had already delivered our luggage! We rested a bit and then headed out to the pool for a couple of hours. Sadly, this was the biggest chunk of time we had in the pool, because on our rest day a storm popped up at the time we had planned to swim. Darn Florida storms!
Dinner at Ohana
I scheduled a late dinner for us our first night at Ohana, which was one of my favorite meals of the trip! When you first get there, they take you over to the bread area and you get fresh coconut-pineapple bread with butter. So good! Then, you’re seated at your table and they take your drinks order and bring out the salad right away. Everything is unlimited, so you can ask for more bread, salad or whatever else.
Then they bring out this HUGE platter of noodles, BBQ chicken wings, potstickers and fresh vegetables. I could not stop eating the noodles, they were that good.
Then they bring out huge skewers of different kinds of meat, such as shrimp and steak. You definitely leave feeling stuffed!
The dessert is the best part though… They brought out bread pudding a la mode with a banana caramel sauce. I wish I hadn’t of been so full! The kids got adorable cupcakes, but there was enough of the bread pudding to share it with them.
Rest Day Two
On our second rest day, we had time to sleep in a little and go down for breakfast. These Mickey waffles were my favorite breakfast meal. We went back to our room and rested some more… two back to back days at the parks had worn us out!
Then we headed over to the Grand Floridian for tea time at Noon. We took the monorail over and it was the first stop! So easy to get there. I had never seen the Grand Floridian before, but it was gorgeous inside!
Of course, we saw the Basin White store inside the Grand Floridian and had to stop in. If you know me, you know I love LUSH stores and this reminded me of their products.
We stocked up on some bath bombs, we had to get the Mickey one! I also got their Pink Sugar Body Butter, oh do I love it!
Autumn loved the bar soap, but we don’t really use bar soap at home. It was really cute, though!
The tea time is offered in The Garden View Lounge inside the Grand Floridian. They also have a princess tea time, but that didn’t work with our schedule.
A view of the lounge.
They brought out the menu and even had tea and meal options for the kids.
This was the menu for just the teas. Brian and I got London Strand Earl Gray and the kids both got Nutty Chocolate, which was really good… especially with the dessert! Each person at the table can pick their OWN tea and gets their own kettle!
Here is my tea… I thought it was so cute that they put a cozy on the tea kettle!
There are three different tea options for adults and we went with The Cheshire Tea, which included a selection of cheese and fruits. We also added a glass of champagne. They offered Mrs. Potts Tea for Autumn. You also got to select your dessert option and we all went with the Delicate House-Made Pastries, except Nathan had the freshly cut strawberries topped with hand whipped cream.
Brian really enjoyed his tea! Ha, ha!
My tea (left) and the kids tea (right).
This was the fruit and cheese plate. It was SO good!
The sandwiches were all really good, too. There was a cucumber sandwich, egg salad, chicken curry and I can’t remember what the fourth sandwich was. There was also a sweet onion tart.
The dessert portion was… unbelievable. Macaroons, a swan filled with chocolate, chocolate covered strawberries, scones with dips and more! This was just for two people! Brian and Nathan shared another one!
Here I am with the kids, so glad they didn’t spill any hot tea on me here! LOL!
After tea time, Autumn wanted to go to Lilo’s Playhouse to check out some crafts. This is a play area for kids at the Polynesian Resort. So, we made sun catchers and she made a pillow. It was fun to have some girl time!
Here she is working on her pillow.
I realize this is getting to be a really long post! Geesh! Ok, so after Lilo’s Playhouse, we all tried to go swimming… got in the pool for 10 minutes and then had to get out due to lightening! Boo! Then we went back to the room and rested till it was time to go to the Wilderness Lodge for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue dinner! This is SO fun and I took more pictures 2 years ago when we went {check out post HERE}, so I didn’t take as many this time around and just enjoyed it more! They give you unlimited sangrias at dinner, probably why this counts as 2 dinner credits!
This show has been around for 40+ years! I can see why it is so popular. They really engage the audience and the food (served family style) is SO good. I love the corn bread and I always ask for fried chicken legs and they always bring me out an entire bucket of just the legs! You also get BBQ ribs, mashed potatoes, corn… salad. Oh, and baked beans. 🙂
A photo I took of the show. We had pretty good seats this time, last time we were a little further back.
At the end, they hand out all kinds of things to bang on and make noise with. Autumn always loves this part!
To get to the Wilderness Lodge and back to Poly, we had to take two separate boats. One to the Magic Kingdom and then one to Poly. We caught the electric parade on the way back to our hotel. It was so neat to see it from the boat! One perk at staying at the Polynesian is that you can see the electric parade and the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the resort. Once again, you’re paying for that fabulous location! Next week I’ll be sharing our day at Animal Kingdom and how much we enjoyed Pandora!