10 Days at the Polynesian 🌴 Trip Report Sep 2024

Ten days at the Polynesian sounds perfect to me. Enjoy!

10 days sounds fabulous! Enjoy the trip!

We have stayed as long as 16 days, but not at the same resort. We had family with us for part of the trip. For us, we always book a bit extra time to ourselves AFTER our company leaves. We have stayed 10 days at Poly before. I love it. You don't feel so rushed to get to doing things and I enjoy the down time I rarely get.

DAY 2 - Magic Kingdom & Epcot - Sep 2, 2024


We had originally planned on going to Animal Kingdon on the 2nd, but after getting up later in the AM and a relaxing, lazy morning, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom. It is always our first park and since we did not go on the 1st, we decided to go over, shop and catch the parade. We slept in until 9:30, which was a 10-hour siesta. Much needed to recharge the batteries. We rarely get 8 hours at home, due to various things, so it is a treat when we can sleep until we want.

We ate breakfast in the room and both worked for an hour, as we are business owners, so we never can truly get away. But I would not trade it for the world! Our businesses are what afford us the ability to spend 30+ days in Disney, plus other vacations, events and fun things. We typically do an hour in the AM and an hour in the PM, just to make sure our key people are all set.

We decided to take the boat over to Magic Kingdom. As we were walking to the boat dock, the boat was literally coming in. More pixie dust for us. The new tower was in full view. I thought it looked ok but DW said it was hideous. LOL I am waiting to see how it turns out. Being a Poly owner, any new restaurant will be a plus and bonus. Lines were very short at the entrance, so walk up, scan and in. We wanted to walk a bit and stretch our legs, so we just casually strolled a bit around the park, going left toward Club 33 (one day I'd love to be a member). We were hoping to get on the Jungle Cruise but for some reason, it was closed. I did not hear about any closures, so not sure why. We walked over and checked out Tiana. Looks like they added a few flowers on the outside. We chose not to ride as we were just walking. Lines were not long though. But, the clouds were coming in since we got a late start, afternoon showers were forming.

We stopped by the DVC booth in Frontierland, as I wanted one of the magic band thingies and have never been there when they had any. I was rewarded yet again with the pixie dust and they had them!! Plus, Ed gave us some Chip and Dale buttons. He said they were secrets!! LOL Bet he says that to all the girls. He also asked us if we had done a member update and we were clueless. He explained they were doing them in Riviera up in the 3-bedroom. We decided what the heck, we don't want any more points but would love to see those rooms and so we signed up for a 4 pm time. Then kept on strolling.

We ended up at Mickeys Philharmonic, which was as good as always. As we left, it was raining cats and dogs! I always find it funny how they cancel parades and such as it is unsafe in that weather, but when you exit a ride, they send you out into the crazy weather regardless. So we decided to duck into the store to avoid getting soaked. We shopped and DW found a shirt she liked, so we bought that and then decided to duck back into the Philharmonic as the radar showed another 30 minutes of rain. After the show, we headed out as it was just a few drops at that point.

We decided to go to Caseys for a dog. As we were walking, DW said what is wrong with your heels? Seems my new shoes + new socks were causing quite the ruckus with my heels. They had hurt a bit but I did not know I had full-on blisters. So, we decided to eat before heading over to first aid. We got two dogs and a coke. We knew we were going to Epcot, so we did not want to fill up. After eating, I got some bandaids and mole skin from First Aid. There are free things at Disney!! No charge for blister care products, I was told to stop in if I needed more.

I applied the band-aids and moleskin to the shoes. Then I hoped for the best. Spoiler alert, it did not go well and by end of day I was in severe pain and had blisters on top of blisters. But still made it another 8 hours!

After first aid, we heard that the parade was cancelled, so we decided to head to the Riviera early, check it out as we had only been there once before and just rest my heels a bit. We took a bus from MK to Riviera. It was a decent ride over there. Once there, we strolled through the shop for a bit, then sat in the lobby for a while. The tour was right at 4pm. It was on the 8th floor and the 3-bedroom is SO NICE. The guide at one point mentioned the room was ONLY 140 points a night. What a deal. We will likely never stay there but it was fun to see the room.

The update was pretty boring. Nothing we needed to hear about. They were pushing additional bonuses for buying from an appt set from that event. More discounts on the cabins than Riviera (an extra $1k). We passed setting up and appointment. They gave us a couple of DVC shoulder bags. They will work for when we want to just go out at night without the need for a full backpack. They will go in our Owners Locker. We left the Riviera and headed to the Gondolas to get to Epcot.

We came in the back gate and went into the shop right there to grab the Remi sticker game. We enjoy doing that and usually give the prizes to nieces or nephews. This time around, they are bowls that we will keep and add to our locker. We decided we would get the Remi and Figment bowls, but did not want to lug them all day, so passed on getting them right away. Once up at the crossroads, we decided to go right and head toward France. DW got the escargot bread bowl. She said it was just ok. Nothing special. We found Remi and checked the ride wait time, which was 45 minutes. Since we have a LL Multi on Wed, we decided to skip it.

We continued and stopped into Morocco and Japan, where we found Remi. In Japan, we looked through the stores. Nothing appealed for F&W at either stop. So we wandered over to America. Remi found, we then checked on the Eat to the Beat and it was Sugar Ray, who was literally just taking the stage (more Pixie Dust). There were great seats a couple rows from teh back, which was fine by us. They were wet so we took out our raincoats to sit on. The show was good and everyone sang along to the hits of Sugar Ray! Mark McGrath was all over the audience and very interactive. It was a good show. It started sprinkling a bit at the end but that was it.

Next up was Germany, where we got beers (me a Grapefruit hefeweizen and DW a Dunkel), plus the bread pudding. Mmmmm that bread pudding! There was plenty of seating, since it was getting dark. To be honest, the parks all seem pretty light in terms of crowds. That may be because the last trip was April during Spring Break! Those crowds were crazy, so maybe that is why these seem light. Not complaining at all. We sat there about 30 minutes, enjoyed our beer and pudding, then just watched people. When we were done, we decided it was time to wander back to the front and head back to Poly.

The walk back to the front was not comfortable with the heel issue, but I suffered through it. Ended up taking the moleskin off, as it was at that point part of the problem. I feared that this was not going to be a good thing - day 2 of 10. My arch in my foot was also pretty tender. Who buys new shoes and then wears new socks with them on a trip? I am still mad at myself. I do love the new shoes though, cute pink Aesics!! LOL

We took the monorail back to TTC, and walked from there to the room. Since we are at the very end of Tokelau by the beach, it is an easy walk. We got back around 9:30 and went to our room. I wanted to get the tennis shoes off. We wer about to jump in the shower when we heard the MNSSH fireworks start. DW said you want to go watch? It was 10pm. So, we trekked right outside the door and up onto the hill (think that is the handicapped viewing area). There were only 5 people up there (dust falling again). So we watched the firworks in full view and then walked back to room. The fireworks were good. And even up on that hill, the sound is there.

I showered, then doctored my heels - applying some peroxide we keep in the locker. I then added some antibiotic and a bandaid and hot they hay around 11. I read for about an hour and lights out at midnight. It was a great day. We did not go on a lot but just relaxed and were together, not working. We work so hard, our Disney time is the only time where during the day, the devices are off and we shut off the work world. That is har dto do as a business owner. Looking forward to tomorrow, which if we do as planned, is Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Great day, this is my happy place.

Except for your heels - sounds like a great start!!! Thank you for taking the time and sharing.

New shoes/sandals on vacation/especially walking all day...definitely a no no - take care of them so you can enjoy the rest of your trip or have some other comfortable shoes that won't effect your heels make them worse the next day or so.

Ouch on the feet! I hope you have a spare pair of shoes that don't rub where the blisters are.

I remember one time I had on a pair of sandals and I got a cut right thanks to my luggage right where that specific type of sandal rubbed. Wearing bandaids only worked so far because they would just get wet and fall off. So I wound up buying a pair of shoes the nearby mall that I could wear and not rub where the cut was. Now I'm always good about bringing multiple styles of shoes.