Month: April 2014

Construction Update at the Polynesian

This post is from April. Check out the latest version here: https://www.wdwtools.com/blog/polynesian-village-resort-construction-update-october-27-2014

Correction, Apr. 28, 2014: The Nanea Volcano Pool is not closed for refurbishment. This article originally contained pictures of the closed pool under the assumption it was closed for refurbishment. The closure we saw was simply a brief maintenance closure. The refurbishment is not due until later in the summer.

Aloha! Many vacationers with reservations at the Polynesian have been unsettled by recent news of aggressive construction. This is an overview of the construction ongoing at the resort as of this week, April 21-25, 2014.

We start at the walkway from the TTC to the Poly. Almost the entire thing is tarped.

Entrance to TTC->Poly walkway

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Tahiti building under renovation

IMG_4693 IMG_4710 IMG_4713 IMG_4714 IMG_4716What’s behind all this tarp? Take a look, as seen from the TTC->Poly monorail.

Giant machinery behind tarp


IMG_5581As you can probably tell, this section of the Poly is pretty noisy right now between the big machinery and the renovation of Tahiti.

Someone might suggest that you get a room on the other side of the resort to avoid that noise. We’ll get to that later.

Fortunately, the resort’s interior walkways are minimally impacted:

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IMG_4729One of the big controversies in this renovation is the refurbishment of the Great Ceremonial House, home to major dining attractions like ‘Ohana and an unassuming but widely-loved water feature in the center of the lobby. At the moment, the majority of the GCH remains intact:

Great Ceremonial House Entrance Water feature: still here

IMG_5613 IMG_5636 IMG_5662Construction is beginning to encroach from the rear of the GCH, however. Moana Mickey’s Arcade is closed.

IMG_4746Worse, Captain Cook’s, the Polynesian’s 24-hour counter service restaurant, has been shuttered and relocated into a cast break area underneath the staircase:

IMG_4741 IMG_4754 IMG_4736 IMG_4755 IMG_4762 IMG_4758The rest of the GCH remains intact for now.

Earlier we discussed the possibility of locating a room on the opposite side of the resort to avoid construction noise. That’d be a neat idea, except…

IMG_4831 IMG_4822 IMG_4791 IMG_4795 IMG_4806 poly_cons_beach_4812_sm IMG_4820 IMG_4827 IMG_4814the legendary beach on Seven Seas Lagoon is also experiencing heavy construction. Most of it is being consumed by new DVC villas, some of which even jut into the water. There is not much room left for viewing fireworks. It seems inevitable that this beach will be hard to access unless you’re staying in the DVC properties being raised up.

Not pictured here is construction on the parking lot or construction on the Neverland Club. The parking lot construction is mostly a big tarp around the lot and the Neverland Club was closed but did not have externally visible signs of construction when I swung by.

Here’s a map showing current closures and construction areas. You’ll have to click to blow it up and see the detail.

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Lots of people have been unhappy about the construction and asking to be moved to another deluxe resort after check-in. From what I’ve heard, most people have had success with this approach. Disney does not seem to be accommodating requests to move prior to check-in, so just plan to ask after you’ve checked in and gone to your room for a few short minutes.

… Mahalo everyone.

Food Review: Quick Breakfast at Gaston’s Tavern

After an early rope drop and a few headliners, a Disney dreamer may work up a hunger ahead of lunch time, but many eateries in the Magic Kingdom are closed until 11am or later (and the places that are open are likely swarmed (looking at you, Main Street Bakery)). Even most snack carts are unmanned for the first couple of hours of park operation! So where can one find breakfast without blowing a huge hole in the touring plan?

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Gaston’s Tavern is a counter service eatery in New Fantasyland, with a menu primarily focused on a giant pork shank. Located deep in the park just east of Be Our Guest Restaurant and conveniently nearby the forthcoming Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Gaston’s is usually fairly quiet in the morning and offers breakfast-passable faire.

Breakfast at Gaston's

The cinnamon roll is a major staple at Gaston’s, a popular dish served all day. As seen in the photograph, it is quite large and should satisfy the voracious appetite generated during a rope drop day. Multiple icings of lightly distinguished flavors are strewn atop a fluffy complex of cinnamon-laden bread-cave-maze. This cinnamon roll was obviously constructed to impress, but its beauty will likely be overlooked as parkgoers ravenously cram their face with food so that they can beat the crowd to Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. This is a good cinnamon roll. Unfortunately, the marvel of its craftsmanship was degraded by serving temperature; the roll I received, herein pictured, was positively room temperature, causing the icings to congeal into a slightly-less-pleasurable sugary paste. The roll would’ve been much better if it was 10-20 degrees hotter.

Cinnamon Roll FINAL SCORE: 6/10, points deducted primarily due to bad serving temperature.

Sadly, such glowing descriptions cannot be rightfully ascribed to the other elements of this breakfast. The pictured “fruit cup” was pulled from a refrigerator where it probably sat for years. The mass of the “fruit” was very hard, while the external skin was pure mush from soaking in the slow, eeked excretions from a bunch of fruit that’d been refrigerated in the same plastic container for an extended time period. I’ve had this same experience with other “fruit cups” at Walt Disney World, and that’s really sad. If you want to eat fruit cups in the parks, bring your own. This type of fruit cup is the universal fruit cup sold at WDW.

Fruit Cup FINAL SCORE: 1/10, 1 point because it was fruit at least at some point, but disgraceful and embarrassing. Almost not real food anymore. Disney can and should do better. Maybe someone should send a sample to the health department for testing.

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LeFou’s Brew was a respectable showing, but ultimately it just wasn’t my bag (or, brew?). The menu described it in detail that made it sound appetizing, as I enjoy both frozen apple juice and toasted marshmallows, but the fusion of these with a passion fruit foam blend caused deep confusion and conflict among my tastebuds. It didn’t immediately register as disgusting, as each flavor was distinguishable and I liked the apple juice and marshmallow parts, but I found the passion fruit mixture encroaching and overtaking the other flavors. This gave rise to a naturally-occurring revulsion as I ate. My brain would say, “OK, I need a drink now”, but my tongue would try to create a diversion and say, “Hmm, that’s nice, but I really don’t want this thing anymore”. My attempts to override my natural repulsion were ultimately failures and I dumped most of the brew and replaced it with water.

That said, this is one of the unique menu items that makes Disney dining a noteworthy experience and defies the conventional wisdom regarding “theme park food”. Disney should keep trying to provide custom foodstuffs like this. They should just make them taste better.

LeFou’s Brew FINAL SCORE: 4/10, some people may think it tastes good but I just couldn’t stomach it. It was a nice try. 4 points for effort.

All of this cost me 20 bucks.

Thus passed my breakfast at Gaston’s Tavern, in New Fantasyland, in Magic Kingdom Park, in Walt Disney World Resort, in Orlando, Florida, in the United States, on the planet Earth. It wasn’t that good, but I liked the cinnamon roll.

BREAKFAST FINAL SCORE: 4/10, 4 points for a mostly edible cinnamon roll and a good try with LeFou’s Brew.