TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Beautiful resort. You can’t beat the monorail. The best pool I have experienced on Disney property. Everyone there was so friendly and helpful. Want to go back and we just left.

We stayed at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort in a Water View room in late July 2026 and were extremely disappointed by the experience for the price. We understand that you’re paying a significant premium for the Polynesian’s location, theming, and monorail access. But at $600–$800/night, we still expect a clean, well-maintained and reasonably quiet room. Ours felt much more like an overpriced motel room than a luxury resort. Our room was worn, the bathroom had visible mold and stains on the walls, there were moldy towels at the pool, and nearby construction was extremely disruptive—including noise before 6:30 a.m. one morning. We paid extra for a Water View room and ended up with a second-floor “Juliet balcony,” which isn’t actually a balcony you can step onto. Worse, our “Water View” looked directly over the construction area. Paying a premium for a view only to look out at a construction site from an unusable balcony was particularly disappointing. The resort itself was consistently crowded and hectic. After a busy day in the parks, it didn’t feel like a relaxing place to come back to. We were similarly underwhelmed by the dining options—ironically the grab and go had the best food and service. We did a lot of sit down dining at the parks and Ohana and Kona Cafe were the worst meals we had on our trip. The one real highlight was Trader Sam’s, which we loved. But in retrospect, we would have been much happier staying somewhere nicer and more relaxing and simply visiting the Polynesian for Trader Sam’s. The Polynesian is iconic and the location is excellent, but nostalgia, theming and a monorail stop can only justify so much of a premium. At $600–$800/night, the overall experience simply wasn’t worth it.

Good for monorail and theming, the music playing everywhere is relaxing. Bad for : Sleep. Sound proofing is non existent. If you need sleep, don’t count on it here, fireworks and noisy neighbours after said fireworks til 11pm, and if you’re unlucky monorail / delivery Lorries from 5-6am, and inter connecting doors means next doors kids are yelling in your room. Food choices are poor. Ohana is ok but not great quality you just go for the characters. Capcooks is really unwelcoming and crammed, far too few staff for the number of people. Wailulu and grog grotto are amazing - but you’ll be lucky to get a reservation once or twice in a two week stay and that’s IF you book 60 days out! Pools are good but completely un shaded (for a kid focused resort?!!!!) and rammed with people from midday onwards. It’s decidedly not luxury. If you’ve stayed in 5 star resorts, this is not it. It’s a glorified campsite with Disney attached, with those expectations it works, but for the cost it is insane to be so poor on the basics. Oh and yes I’ve raised all this with management, and … got a few chocolates ??

Mixed review here. When I started to book Disney I looked at both the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian. At the time the prices were more or less comparable. I ultimately choose the Polynesian for its history as one of the original Disney hotels. The property itself was of course impeccably clean but I found most common areas to be somewhat dated. Hotel lobby was fine but not as grand as I was expecting. Pool area was nice but relatively small and again, could use a refresh. Not sure what was up with the astroturf off the lobby. The building we were in was dated, hard to find at first, and had only one tiny elevator. But the rooms were very nice and more up to date. We were very comfortable in the room. Service was unremarkable. Disney pushes you to virtually check in which I found very impersonal. We did check in at the counter and it was fine. Young lady was nice but lacked any Disney zest. Felt that way about the rest of the staff we encountered as well. No one bad by any means; just no Disney magic. Found it odd that there was not a general concierge to answer questions. That was only available at the club level. Proximity of the hotel was outstanding. A mere few minute boat launch away from Magic Kingdom. At night, awesome views of the fireworks. Immediate monorail access was also great. One night for dinner we went to the Grand Floridian and it was beautiful. Totally made me second guess my decision. Would I stay again at the Polynesian? Probably not. But I did generally enjoy our stay. Although highly influenced by the amazing location and quick access to the Magic Kingdom.

Not a luxury accommodation or experience. Rooms are dated, walls paper thin, trash bins parked in hallways outside rooms, curtains with mystery stains, bugs, feels run down, over crowded.