Just got back from a 6 night stay at the Poly (Club Level, Garden View) and thought I'd share a few thoughts while it's still fresh in my mind!
The good:
The room was beautiful and spacious--we got a 3rd floor CL room with a lovely view of the Oasis pool. We've never stayed CL before and found it especially convenient with kids--it was nice to be able to grab a quick snack or a soft drink or send them there to start breakfast if we were still finishing up getting ready. In addition, the concierge staff was very sweet and helpful when my son got unexpectedly sick our first parks day. They gave us coupons for Powerade and the info for a pharmacy that delivers and unprompted gave me a credit for 3/4 of my
Genie+ purchase that day (we only got to use it for one ride before he got sick). They also sent complimentary stuffies and merch to the room, which was amazing. When my son started feeling better but could only eat fruit, they went out of their way to accommodate that even if there was no fruit out. Having a kid be so sick at Disney was a truly miserable experience but it would've been even more so without the ease of the CL concierge and CL amenities so I was very thankful we happened to splurge on it for this trip.
As always, transportation was good to MK and Epcot, which is a huge pro. The buses could be a little hit and miss, especially returning mid-day, but they were good enough. And Ohana breakfast on our check-out day was good, although admittedly not needed food-wise due to the great CL breakfast (my favorite of the CL food).
The meh:
Housekeeping was surprisingly average. I wasn't expecting towel figures every day or anything like that (although thought we'd get them at least once!), but it was very basic. Some days they didn't even empty the trash can, which I thought was odd since it clearly had garbage in it. And attached is a pic of our phone on our checkout day, after receiving daily housekeeping. Not a dealbreaker of course and it's super tough work at a very busy time, but it was noticeable to me, especially due to the price point. We tipped every day regardless though.
I was also surprised by how much more hallway noise I noticed this time (the last time we stayed ground floor Aotearoa and I don't remember really hearing anything, maybe because our room then was close to the exit). People's regular convos in the hallway really carried into our room, so much so that I decided to teach my own kids that no matter the time of day, we're now silent or we whisper when we walk down hotel hallways since you never know who's trying to rest.
The bad:
The Ohana and Tambu lounge dinner food items I had! We checked in at 9pm (our initial flight for the day before was canceled at the last minute and we couldn't be rebooked for another day) and we were exhausted, grungy and hungry upon arrival. While the kids ate a Captain Cook's kids cheeseburger and watched the outdoor movie, I quickly stopped at Tambu lounge and ordered the noodles, ribs and pot stickers. The Ohana noodles I was served were some of the worst things I've eaten, lol--SO painfully sweet. And the ribs' only flavor was salt, and too much of it at that. I was so excited to eat and remembered liking Ohana dinner just fine the last trip (not amazing, but decent enough) but everything but the pot stickers was frankly inedible, and I was ready to eat almost anything at that point! I brought down the noodles to my husband, who is racoon-like in his ability to eat the food the rest of us leave behind and he literally spit them back out after taking a bite of them.
Final Poly thoughts: As you can see, this clearly wasn't the best trip for us, but obviously a lot of that wasn't really Poly specific. We didn't get to try Trader Sam's and we had much more limited pool/relaxation time than anticipated, since we lost a full day due to flight issues plus several chunks of days due to kid sickness. I did notice that the Lava pool was really crowded during the day, with no real way to get a seat during afternoon breaks. And I wouldn't count on waiter service at the pool if that's your thing. I really feel like the Poly should expand at least the seating area of the Lava pool (if not the pool itself!) before the DVC rooms are done (or is that going to have its own pool?).
The first time we stayed at the Poly I couldn't wait to return but after this trip, I'm admittedly excited to try a different hotel if we ever return to Disney. I think Poly could benefit from more kid amenities like a playground or a small arcade (like Contemporary and AKL have) and I want to try a hotel that offers a bit more than mainly pools for kid recreation. But again, this is after two 6-night stays at the Poly so I think it's reasonable to try something new, haha. I do want to add that we stayed at Universal's Portofino hotel for the final two nights of our trip and although we missed the Poly CL, that was a much more genuinely relaxing experience, which surprised me.
Hope this helps!