Review - The Polynesian Village at The Wedcot Center
Summary
The Polynesian Village is a large tropical themed resort, that sits next to the Wedcot Centre amusement park, which itself is inspired by Disney's RL properties.
Wedcot is obviously a real labour of love, and it's somewhere you might want to consider visiting.
However, this website is of course about hotels. And I left thinking that while the overall idea of the Polynesian Village was good and that the layout made sense, most of it looked and felt very dated.
Overall look and feel
The Polynesian Village does a good job at replicating the layout of a themed resort that you might find attached to an amusement park.
There's a main entrance area, where you can rent rooms at the front desk. Behind it you then get to the resort itself, which is restricted to guests.
That includes the rooms, situated in a series of two storey blocks, a large pool, beach and spa.
When walking around, I could sense that whoever built the Polynesian Village had been to similar places in RL. The way everything is positioned makes a lot of sense.
Unfortunately, everything also looks quite old. I know there is a debate on this point, but my personal view is that SL furniture and decor does not age well.
Overall - 2.5 / 5
The rooms
You can choose between adult rooms and PG (family) rooms at reception, which is a good idea as The Wedcot Centre clearly is aiming for a family audience.
I chose an adult room, which had a bed, a bathroom, a sitting area and a balcony.
Again, most of it seemed dated though the actual pieces of furniture appeared more current. The bed was a modified version of a Bazar one, and the shower being Crystal Falls (adult).
The cost is 500L a night, or 1000L for a suite. Given the decor, that's a lot.
To put this into some kind of perspective, 500L will get you the excellent VIP Suite at the Victoria and Eden, while 300L gets you a really nice safari lodge at the Kidaka Resort.
Overall - 2.5 / 5
The facilities
These include a restaurant, cafe (no RP, self service), a large pool, a beach and a spa / gym. There's also a gift shop in the top level of the main building.
As with other areas of the hotel, the range of facilities is good, but it's quite out of date.
Overall - 3 / 5
Other considerations
There's a monorail which takes you to the resort, quite a nice touch
Lag was no problem, I was getting 20fps on very high graphics on a macbook pro
Overall
If you want to RP a family vacation, where you combine the resort with the amusement park, this might be for you.
However, the price (based on what you get) combined with the dated decor, design and landscaping was a factor for me. You might be best going direct to Wedcot, which according to their Facebook page is being constantly updated.
Finally, I appreciate the amount of work that goes into builds like this and so if the Polynesian Village ever gets a refresh, then I'd be up for visiting again and doing a new review.
