Disney Trip 2013 (Day 4)---Part 1

8.18.13---We slept in this morning.  Everyone but me headed to the pool area as soon as they got up.  I went in search of some hot food for breakfast.  I ended up walking over to the Beach Club side of our resort because the Yacht Club side doesn't have a counter service place.  What a crock!  As much you pay to stay in a deluxe hotel in Disney, you should be able to get some quick eats in your own hotel.  Sheesh.  The Marketplace was an absolute nightmare.  It was crowded with rude people and screaming kids.  The line for breakfast was really slow.  I about lost my mind while waiting to pay for my food.  On my way out, I saw my family sitting by the pool and tried to go sit beside them.  That was dang near impossible.  I kept walking through doors out of the back of the resort and yet all of the walkways were blocked by fences and shrubs.  They are there to keep people that are just dining in the restaurants from entering our pool area (it is guarded from non-resort guests to prevent pool hopping).  I like that they prevent pool hoppers but geez, I shouldn't have such a hard time getting into my own resort's pool area.  I hopped a fence and still ended up having to walk a long way around to get into the pool area, I was ticked.  I sat down and Clayton could tell that I wasn't happy.  That's when he said the magic words that changed the fate of our entire vacation, "You can move us to another resort if you want."  Yessss!!  I had been thinking it but I would have never suggested it.  He had chosen this place and I didn't want to poo poo his decision.  I walked into the Yacht Club lobby and explained my dissatisfaction with staying there.  I was in tears and not happy.  It was a combination of factors that made this resort not for us.  

-For starters, the room was hard to get to thanks to the labyrinth of hallways and lack of stairwells.  It felt like we were trapped when we were in there.  
-The set of 4 small elevators in only one location (far from the room) was annoying.  We hated standing with the droves of people just to go up to our floor.  
-The pool wasn't that fascinating.  This resort supposedly has the BEST water park/pool on grounds but I disagree.  I enjoy Wilderness Lodge's pool more than this one.  Heck, the Polynesian's is small but better too.  The kids were not very impressed.
-There was no "magic".  Nothing about this hotel had the Disney magic, as far as I could tell.  It felt stale, boring, and just wasn't worth the money.  It is pretty inside, but without the magic, it is just any other hotel in my eyes.
-The view of a nasty rooftop was weird.  I know I didn't pay for a view, but wow.  It couldn't have been worse.  I wish I had taken a pic but I was too disappointed to.  There was trash on the roof and it just looked gross.  Paying more to stare at a parking lot view from the Polynesian is a better deal, if you ask me.
-The maids yelling down the hallways at 7am pissed me off.  I swear, that is rude!!  We know it was the maids because Clayton was sneaking out the door to get some food when he witnessed it.  That day was a sleep-in day so I was not happy.
-The night before was loud with hammering.  I was taking a relaxing bath to shake off a headache when I started hearing the beating and banging a few doors down.  It went on for a long time and it was close to 10pm.  Grrr...
-Transportation from YC stinks.  We opted for our car most of the time because taking a bus is just plain awful.  To get to the Magic Kingdom via the monorail, we would have to walk all the way to the front of EPCOT to catch it.  We hated parking at the TTC to get to the MK.  This is where we realized why we pay so much to stay in a monorail resort.  It is worth it!!  

I am sure that there are more bad things to say about the YC but I am going to quit talking about it and get to the good stuff.  We quickly packed up all of our belongings and made our way over to the Polynesian around 1:30pm.  The front gate guy greeted us with "Aloha!" and we knew we made the right choice right then.  There was a hula lesson going on when we walked into the Great Ceremonial House and the smell of tropical flowers smelled so delightful.  It was the magic we were looking for.  We went straight to our room and found it to be dirty.  It was never cleaned.  I called the front desk and they moved us next door.  It wasn't clean either.  Hmmm...  We were a little taken aback by that.  I called the front desk again and they ended up moving us to a different long house.  They also upgraded us to a Magic Kingdom view!  Yes!!!  Just so you know, that is a HUGE deal.  The weekend rack rate on that room is $610 per night and a regular room is $452 nightly.  That is a big difference and I would never pay that much just to look at the castle.  I made sure to watch Wishes multiple times from the balcony since this type of room will most likely never happen again for us, lol.  Oh, and to make matters even better, we were never charged the $497 up-charge fee for switching from YC to the Poly. :)

The newly refurbished rooms at the Poly are very pretty.  It looks small in the pics but I assure you that the room was quite large.  I wish I had taken a pic of the dresser/tv area on the opposing wall but oh well.  There's always next year. ;) 

The newly designed bathrooms are soooo much better than the way that they once were.  They expanded them somehow from one small sink area to a sprawling 2 sink area with a huge countertop.  The first photo is to the to the right of the door, the second is straight ahead, and the last is to the left.  The shower area looked much nicer in real life.  The tile was really pretty (much better than the hideous dark green from the past).  BTW, the huge box under the counter was from our espresso machine.  Clayton just had to bring it, lol.

Our amazing Magic Kingdom view!  The castle looks so far away in the photo but it is just the camera.  It was very easy to see and watch Wishes at night from our balcony.  Only 6 rooms in our longhouse had MK views and we were lucky enough to be upgraded to one.  Love it!  If you have never been to Disney World, that pretty white hotel to the left is the Grand Floridian.