Help! I'm really torn. We're currently booked at the Poly, but since it doesn't have much of a discount I started shopping around. I found we can stay an extra night and save $2000 if we stay at POR. I've never stayed at a moderate resort before, will we be losing a lot of the convenience and food options by switching from Poly to POR? We're traveling with our two boys (4 and 6) and our nanny. Thanks!
We've stayed in all the deluxes, all mods except cabins and all values except movies. Our value and mod stays are almost always part of a split stay and usually because we end up arriving earlier than originally planned and don't want to spend a lot more. I mention this background to help you evaluate my advice! So I do think there is a significant difference between POR and Poly, particularly when traveling with kids.
1. The convenience of the monorail (both direct to Epcot from TTC and direct to MK) is hard to give up, especially with young kids. When staying mod or value, we never take an afternoon break because it just takes too much time to get to and fro the parks. At most deluxe resorts, we'll do a morning in a park, a break at the resort and then somewhere for dinner.
2. As for food, we far prefer something small like Captain Cook's, BC Marketplace or Roaring Forks over the food court environment. More limited selection at deluxe CS, but we feel like they offer a generally less hectic atmosphere.
3. The rooms at Poly and POR feel really different to us overall. As you know, you'll have much bigger rooms at Poly - larger bathroom, closet space, etc. But one of the biggest factors for me is the balcony. Even if we were assigned to a second floor room without a balcony at Poly, the sliding glass door to the outside is better for us than the configuration at mods and values. But we have always requested and received either a balcony or patio at Poly. Sitting out on the balcony in the morning or evening - or just for a few minutes during an afternoon break - makes it feel like we have so much more space!
If the Poly price isn't the best, maybe consider another deluxe. We booked BWI CL at a much better discount than what was available at Poly. While it doesn't have the proximity to MK, the quick walk to Epcot and DHS are great selling points for us. The rooms are more comparably sized and almost all have balconies or patios. We love the dining options in the Epcot area - so many TS restaurants and while the CS locations are set up a bit differently from the monorail resorts, we like the variety of options around Crescent Lake. I'd also suggest WL as an alternative, but not sure how you feel about construction.