I don’t usually like to admit even to myself how much I’ve spent on a room at WDW. It’s always about getting the best rate possible, but lots of time the best rate is still pretty expensive. Especially when you want to stay at the Polynesian Resort. And it’s not value season. And if it’s over a weekend. And you want a view of the lagoon.

And you want club level.

Let’s say you do want all of those things and you have gotten the best possible rate, still not what you’d call a bargain. As an example, if you wanted to go to WDW in October 2008  for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, without any discount at all a lagoon view club level room weekend rate is $670 a night. You stay, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and for a grand total of, holy tonga toast,  Batman! $2110.00 just for the room!

I’ve stayed in one of those rooms and never paid full rack rate, but even with the 40% off I’ve gotten with an annual pass discount, it’s still over $400.00 a night. I have to ask myself the question I usually avoid asking myself - is it worth it?

The perks are seductive. Let’s face it, WDW can be overwhelming, crowded, hot, and loud. If you are spending that same money at a place like the Ritz Carlton, for example, you are greeted with serenity and pampering from the minute you get out of your car.

Arrival at WDW is fun, but not always so relaxing. You enter the Great Ceremonial House and it is usually a great ceremonial madhouse, kids running around high on pixie dust and the line at check in a mile long.

With club level, you can completely bypass the normal registration process and head straight to the club level longhouse, “Hawaii”. Bell services takes your bags, they give you a ride there, and you are pretty immediately checked in, seated, with a cool glass of tropical fruit juice. If you want dinner reservations or tickets for something, they’ll take care of it right there for you, in fact, call them ahead of time and it will all be waiting for you upon arrival. To me, it seems like this is the kind of service that  everyone gets with a standard room in other really nice hotels - you really don’t have to spend extra to get your ass kissed at the Ritz Carlton, for example, they pucker up for all of their guests. When we are not at club level at the Polynesian and I’m standing in that line waiting to be told that my room will not be ready until sometimes 4:00 or 5:00 I can’t help thinking that for the “mere”  $200 - $300 I am paying, someone should be doing just a little ass kissing. I don’t dwell on it - I’m happy to be there at all.

And then there’s the club level lounge. Although it is nice to have a place to grab a soda, a piece of fruit,  or a coffee whenever I like, I never really  use it enough to really make it worth the price of admission. They put out a light breakfast, snacks at lunchtime, a hot buffet at dinnertime, deserts and cordials in the evening, and drinks and fruit all day long. You can watch the fireworks with the audio from the lounge through huge windows that look out to the castle.

If only it were as lovely as that sounded. We are at WDW, after all, the family destination and so it is teeming with kids, sticky with peanut butter and littered with appetizers with single bites taken out of them. Hannah Montana is usually blaring on the TV, babies are usually crying, and someone is usually spilling something. The staff members usually have looks on their faces as if wanting to say, “Oh come on! Are you kidding me?” .  I usually just grab an apple, a coffee or a glass of wine and head back to the room.

There’s turn down service, again something most nice hotels offer for all rooms, and a little added security (you have to use your room key to access the building, but I think that is really to keep the peasants away from the buffet in the lounge more than it is for my safety). I don’t know, are these things enough to warrant the extra couple of hundred dollars or more a night?

Honestly, I don’t think so. I can tough it out in the long registration line. I can toss in a couple of extra bucks for a lagoon view room and watch the fireworks from my room if I am even at the resort at that time, which I’m usually not. I can and do make my own dinner reservations. I can watch Hannah Montana on the TV in my room and if anything is sticky in there, at least I know it is something I spilled myself.

A good source on all things Polynesian is the Tikiman, the unofficial Polynesian Resort expert. His website (http://tikiman2001.homestead.com/)  is down sometimes it seems more than it is up, but it is worth taking a look at.