Polynesian Village Resort Room #3818 (Rarotonga) – Oct. 29 – Nov. 3, 2017
My assigned room (#3818) for the next 5 nights was conveniently located in the Rarotonga longhouse, just to the right of the main building of the Polynesian Village Resort (called the Great Ceremonial House)…
This meant I was very close to the restaurants, shops, and the Resort monorail platform (to catch the monorail to the Grand Floridian, Magic Kingdom, or the Contemporary) that are located in the Great Ceremonial House, and also the resort’s bus stop (for a bus to Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Disney Springs), which was located just a few steps down this path next to the Rarotonga building.
So the furthest I walked during my 5 night stay was when I took the walkway to the Transportation & Ticket Center to catch the monorail to Epcot. Now I could have taken the Resort monorail to the Transportation & Ticket Center, but with stops at the Grand Floridian, Magic Kingdom, and the Contemporary before reaching the T & TC, I found that it was much faster to walk there. But anyway, my point here is that in terms of convenience, the Rarotonga longhouse is a great option if you have booked a standard view room at the Polynesian, as I did.
Now on to my room. Coming that day from Animal Kingdom, I arrived at the Polynesian by bus. They had sent a link to a map of the resort when they notified me by text that my room was ready, so I knew where I was going once I reached the Polynesian. I quickly located the Rarotonga building and entered it through its main entrance (closest to the Great Ceremonial House)…
My room was on the 3rd floor (which was the top floor) of the building so I took its one small elevator up there…
It’s probably hard to tell from my photos, but the elevator looked (and sounded) rather old and rundown. It made for a very poor first impression of this building, located in the second most expensive Disney World resort.
I was still hopeful though that my room would be more in line with what you would expect at a resort of this price point. Here is what I found…
The room itself was fine. It had one king size bed plus a full size couch (that I didn’t use). The décor was pretty boring…my least favorite of the three resorts at which I stayed during this trip.
And the view was fine for a standard view…
The path on the left in the photo above leads to the Bus Stop.
They did a great job of blocking the view of the parking lot with many trees…
A minor complaint though regarding the room was the closet space, which consisted of two small cabinets…
A look inside the first…
And the other, which held the safe, extra bedding, ironing board & iron…
This was fine for just me, but their rooms are supposed to accommodate 5 people (mine was only for 3 because of the king bed) so not enough closet space for that many people in my opinion.
But the real deal breaker for me here was the layout of the bathroom. First of all, the sinks were located inside of the bathroom with the toilet and shower/tub…
Again not a problem for me, since it was just me staying in the room this time. But if I was staying here with my family this would have been a big inconvenience. In all of the other Disney resorts at which I’ve stayed, the sinks have always been located outside in a separate area which makes life so much easier when several people are trying to get ready at the same time.
Another minor thing I didn’t like about the set up of the bathroom was the location of the towel rack. First there was no hook on the wall outside of the shower to hang your towel and allow for an easy grab without stepping out of the shower and then the towel rack was on the other side of the wall, above the toilet.
So getting a towel after showering was not an easy task, and required a departure from the warm shower while still wet. Not the end of the world, but kind of annoying.
Another minor annoyance was that, unlike at the other resorts, the bathroom door here did not have a full size mirror on the outside. So the only mirrors were the one above the sinks in the bathroom and the one above the couch in the room…
Oh, and then there was the biggest cockroach that I’ve ever seen in my life, which greeted me one evening when I entered the bathroom. And it was fast too, as it scurried across my bathroom floor trying to get out of my line of sight. But I got him (or her), however for the rest of my stay I worried that he might have friends and family nearby who might be out for revenge. 
Anyway, I know I probably sound like I’m nit-picking, but for me all of these little things added up and resulted in my overall dissatisfaction with my room at the Polynesian. Although I had gotten a very good room discount (somewhere around 40% off their regular room rate I believe), it was still the most expensive of the three resorts where I stayed this trip. Although the Polynesian did some massive renovations in the public areas (Great Ceremonial House) and DVC buildings, which included building these beautiful DVC bungalows out on the lakeshore…
I think they now need to attend to their regular resort rooms and public areas in their older longhouses, like Rarotonga. When paying those kind of prices you expect more…at least I do anyway. So until I hear of this happening (and also get a nice discount), I probably won’t be staying at the Polynesian Village Resort again. However, I do enjoy visiting…and will explain the many reasons why during the next 5 days of this trip report so stay tuned.
Taste of Disney 