Help me choose where to stay!!

Out of the three I've only stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. I really liked it there. It seemed very peaceful and nice. I'd definately return

Welcome Wendy. You've come to the right place. You will get a lot of great advise on these resorts. I wish I could help you, but I haven't stayed at these resorts.

I love POFQ and we walked thru POR.

But.....if this is your anniversary I say step it up and go with the luxury!

As much as I would love to stay at AKL when I go back...for your anniversary I'd side with you on Poly.

Why?

You are on the monorail to MK. Easy for MNSSHP
Go to Poly's beach for the Electric Water Parade at night
Tonga Toast from Cookes Counter Service in the morning
Lapu Lapu and Backscratcher drinks at night from the Bar

Perhaps still wander over to AKL and grab lunch at Bomas where your hubby can
watch the animals while you dine?

Whatever you decide...I am sure you both will love it!

We've never stayed at the Poly or AKL, but I can tell you that POFQ is our go-to moderate resort. We love the theming, the grounds are gorgeous, and it's incredibly peaceful and romantic at night. We've stayed in buildings 1 and 6 with river view rooms overlooking the Sausagola River.

Pricing does play a factor for us. Rooms can be pricey at the Deluxe resorts, so the moderates are great alternatives if you still want to watch your budget. And I think of them all, POR or POFQ are the best moderates for a romantic occassion. Just my opinion.

Of course, after telling you all that, for my upcoming 50th birthday trip, we booked a Deluxe (Beach Club) for something special.

I'm a huge fan of Port Orleans French Quarter. Its so quaint and romantic. If you're looking to save on the resort so you can splurge on other things...I highly recommend POFQ!

AKL with a savannah view is great! It's really nice to wake up with animals right outside the window. I really liked to sit on the patio and watch the animals.

Hello Wendy and welcome to WDWForGrownups! My DW (scrappy) and I are huge Poly fans. Stay there every chance we get. I need to know one thing, are you talking this October? 2013? If you are , I would say no, don't stay at the Poly. They are supposed to be in the process of going DVC (not confirmed by Disney yet) and there will be a whole lot of construction there for the next few years. I do not think you would enjoy that and it might ruin your opinion of the resort to see things boarded up and a lot of noise going on.

We have also stayed at the AKL savanna view, it's really nice and would reccomend it highly, but you don't want to be on the top floor, it up to high and you don't get as good of a view of it he animals. The resort it self is fabulous. It's got a great main pool, it's enormous.

Never stayed at Port Orleans, so you will have to take other opinions into consideration.

Check out these webs site regarding the Poly and you will see what I mean. We are staying at the Poly this October, but that's because we had a book back offer and booked it in January before all this started.

http://www.tikimanpages.com/tiki/

https://www.facebook.com/Tikimanpages

Hi Wendy and welcome! I'm new here myself but it's a fun forum for sure!

We've only stayed at moderates so far, CBR twice and POR twice. POR is absolutely great in my opinion. Very peaceful and tranquil. The restaurant and food court are excellent. Loved getting up in the morning and walking to the main building for coffee. The grounds are beautiful. We've visited all of the resorts just to check them out and POR is our favorite moderate by far! You can't go wrong staying there.

Only thing to watch out for is the tour groups stay at this resort too. This shouldn't be an issue for you in October, but just a general "beware". They are usually put up in the mansions. We were placed in a mansion room right in the middle of a floor of teenagers and let's just say it wasn't a good fit. LOL. So we moved to Alligator Bayou and it was nice and quiet. If we were to stay at POR again, we would want to be in Alligator Bayou.

This photo is from our morning stroll for coffee, and I think it shows what it's like there:

Our next vacation is 10 days from now and we'll be staying at our first deluxe, the BWI. We're looking forward to seeing what it's like being close to the action and being able to walk to Epcot, our favorite park.

POFQ is amazing! We love it because it is smaller with less crowds and beautiful walkways to take a nice stroll! Very quiet and peaceful. It's close to Riverside and easy to catch the boat to DTD for a nice dinner.

HI Wendy! Welcome to the forums!

I think that all of those resorts are fabulous places to stay. Poly is amazing, but rumors suggest it's about to begin a big construction phase. Nothing has been announced yet though so the extent is largely unknown.

AKL is amazing, luxurious and romantic. The rooms are spacious and the restaurants are fantastic. It's my home resort for DVC and I love it. For a great savanna view request a lower floor.

If you want a ton of atmosphere with a lower price point Port Orleans is a great option too.

We have stayed at all three and cant go wrong with any of them, the poly is just amazing no matter which view you get, but if Mr. Hubs is right and he usually is I would agree with him about holding off til construction is done. I loved animal kingdom savanna view last year, but found that most of the time we were at the room it was dark and could not see the animals anyway except first thing in the morning, but we spend a lot of time in the parks we are there from after breakfast til park closing so you may not have the same issue, I did find traveling from there took a while so I would rent a car if I were to stay there again.

Wendy I can't say Poly will be a hassle, but if there is a lot of construction, it may not be as magical. The contemporary is a great resort also, on the monorail line and the MK view rooms are spectacular. Checkout the pictures on my FB page, link is below. There are a Contemporary & Poly pictures both.

Out of those 3, I would say Poly. The overall theme is very romantic!

There are other great deluxe options that are the same price point as Poly: Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Y&B Club, Boardwalk, and Wilderness Lodge. Any of those would be great and are all romantic in their own fashion.

Well, I'd say if you have the cash now, then go for the Poly.

It's like our situation sort of. We really like POR, but decided to splurge a bit on our upcoming trip and stay at BWI. It will be our first deluxe stay.

We may buy into DVC (resale) but won't decide until after we experience a deluxe resort. But, if we don't buy DVC, we'll probably go back to POR again for the price (about $1,000 cheaper).

If I were you, I'd go with the Poly this time as you have the means to do so.

It's your honeymoon. Splurge. Yes, there could be construction, but as you get closer, you can find out where the construction is and request a room far away from it so it's as out of sight, out of mind as possible. And they are doing the construction on the outside, so you'll still get to enjoy the beautiful lobby and the decor in the buildings (and in reality, they are almost always doing construction somewhere in Walt Disney World, but Disney does a really good job of trying to minimize the impact and eyesores for guests). Port Orleans is awesome,but if you have a family in a few years, you might end up there as well for the family fun type atmosphere, as opposed to the romantic tiki atmosphere the Poly offers. (If I could afford it, I would ONLY stay at the Poly. Alas, since my mortgage company doesn't accept pixie dust for payment, I'm a moderate type of girl.)

Completely agree with JMUDukz!

Wendy if you have your heart set on it, go for it. I just didn't want to recommend it and then have you be disappointed. No one knows exactly where they will start with the construction. And we all know Disney, they could change things last minute. We are still a staying there in Oct. and are booked for Jan. too. I just checked in on line.

If you want the poly, you better book NOW. I just checked online, there are only garden view rooms left, and not many. Because possibly two longhouses will be closed in October cutting the amount of rooms drastically.

The Wilderness Lodge is a gorgeous resort (especially in Fall). Out of all the deluxe resorts, that has the cheapest prices as well.

We love Port Orleans Riverside. I fell in love with it just walking into the lobby. The music totally took me in. I love the relaxing feel of the resort. We have stayed both Alligator Bayou and Magnolia Bend, I love both, my Husband likes Magnolia Bend better.

I have never stayed at the Poly or AKL. Poly is my dream though! I LOVE the theme of that resort!

For a honeymoon trip I'd splurge for the Poly for sure if you can make it work. While AKL and POR are both fabulous as well, as someone else mentioned the Poly just screams romance to me and I'd rather save POR or AKL for a future family trip.

I think you can have a really great time at the Poly if you follow Tikiman's advice on how to avoid the construction. Do not however count on Disney working extra hard to help you avoid it. Construction is construction and there is only so much they can or are willing to do these days.

I just want to point out that the only place staying at the Polynesian gets you to faster is the Magic Kingdom. You will still have quite a ways to travel (easily 30 min or more) to get to EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and to downtown disney.

Staying at a Deluxe Resort if you are able to is fantastic !! We have stayed at the Polynesian a long time ago and it was beautiful. My Hubby and I just stayed at
The Yacht Club in 2011 for our 25th. Everything was just perfect!! While not on the monorail, you can walk to Epcot or just a short boat ride to Hollywood Studios and The Boardwalk. This November we are trying out POFQ. So excited !!
Wherever you decide, have a wonderful trip !! Don't forget to get your Happy Anniversary Buttons !!

The resort monorail loop includes the Grand Floridian, Magic Kingdom, Contemporary, and Ticket and Transportation Center, in that order leaving from the Poly. That loop takes 20 minutes to make one circle.

From the TTC you can transfer to the Epcot monorail. That route is about 25 minutes one way and that doesn't include the time it takes to transfer from one monorail to the other.

You can also take a bus directly from the hotel to any of the other parks or to Downtown Disney. The buses take about 20-30 minutes in travel time, but you also need to consider that it could be up to 20 minutes waiting for the bus at the resort and even longer if there's a line at the parks. AT the end of the night it's not unusual to wait an hour for the bus back to the hotel.

I always plan on 60-90 minutes travel time from hotel to park and back. The exception to that will be if you are just staying on the MK monorail loop.

And you can take a boat from the Poly to the MK and GF as well!! The Poly has a ton of transportation options to the parks!

You can walk to the Ticket and Transportation Center from the Poly to get on the Monorail to EPCOT faster then you can take the Monorail from the Poly around the loop to the T& TC.

We pretty much always use the water taxi when going to the MK from the Poly, its usually quicker.

Also, make sure you are getting on the resort monorail and not the express monorail when leaving the MK if you are going back to the Poly. The Express Monorail only stops at the T&TC & the MK. Remember the resort Monorail is on the lake side (the inside loop), Express side is closest to the MK (outside loop).

Glad we could help Wendy! Keep us up to date on what your doing.