Moana Mickey's Arcade now closed at Disney's Polynesian Resort

Mar 31, 2014 in "Disney's Polynesian Resort"

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Posted: Monday March 31, 2014 7:15am EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

Moana Mickey's Arcade is now closed at Disney's Polynesian Resort.

It is not clear yet if the closure is permanent, or for a refurbishment, however the video game area closed March 30 2014. Arcade areas remain available for guests to use at the nearby Grand Floridian and Contemporary Resort hotels.

Disney's Polynesian Resort is undergoing major changes to accommodate the addition of the Disney Vacation Club Villas at the resort. Closures of Captain Cook's, the main Nanea Volcano pool, and extensive changes to the lobby are all set to begin soon.

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ford91exploderApr 02, 2014

Just one more cut in the year of a thousand cuts, Air hockey is FUN and now there is even LESS to do at the Poly, No pool, No monorail most of the day, No Cap'n Cooks, No waterfall, Yet it's still priced at 5 star resort money, Madness!

alphac2005Apr 01, 2014

There used to be Skee-Ball machines when they had real arcades like the Fiesta Fun Center. Their current arcades are already a major step down from what they used to be.

Captain NeoApr 01, 2014

It's because Disney knows most of their clientele's knees don't work anymore because of how...ahem..."large" they are

LuckyApr 01, 2014

I have one in my basement, but I've never seen one at WDW.

wedenterprisesApr 01, 2014

Is there anywhere at WDW that has SuperChexx bubble hockey?? I recall the Contemporary having one a long time ago...

BairstowApr 01, 2014

These days, the arcade games at the various resorts' arcades are very uniform- you see the same stuff at every location. They typically all have an air hockey table (some, like the one at Space Mountain, have the really neat multi-puck "Pac-Man Smash" table) a guitar hero setup, a big fruit ninja touchscreen, and lots and LOTS of sit-down racing cabinets. Disney really likes sit-down racing cabinets for some reason.

tl77Apr 01, 2014

I don't recall a lot of skee ball or air hockey at the Disney arcades, mostly the Pac-Mac style video machines

BairstowApr 01, 2014

Sad to hear it. I have good memories of Moana Mickey's as a kid. Before I was old enough for my parents to turn me loose in the parks, the resort arcade was one of the few places I could get away from them on my own for a while. I remember Moana Mickey's had two games I really liked: A Taito "Space Gun" rail cabinet (scary) ...and a really wacky Sega "Time Traveler". This thing really blew my mind as a kid. It was really nothing more than a Dragon's Layer-style laserdisc game, but it used a cleverly-placed curved mirror to create a "holographic" display that appeared to make the images float in 3D. I've never seen one of those machines anywhere else.

surfsupdonApr 01, 2014

Air hockey and pinball are for our family. We used to use the arcades after meals, with the change we were given. When the arcades went to "reloadable cards," we stopped using arcades altogether. Gone was the simplicity of saving your dollars and quarters to play a game after a meal at the food court. It was a much more simple time.

VitaminjTXApr 01, 2014

I couldn't agree more. Whenever we would go by an arcade and would see air hockey, my daughter and i would play a game or 3.

alphac2005Apr 01, 2014

Arcades are far from limited by video games. I never play(ed) video games at arcades, rather pinball machines, skeeball, air hockey, and there aren't too many kids that don't love a stuffed animal claw machine. None of those are screens, they can't fit in your pocket, and most are very hard to come by on a daily basis. The arcade is just a fun nugget to have on vacation and I echo exactly what @eastvillage said about the Fiesta Fun Center. It's rather sad and cynical that every answer seems to be that "Well, with an iPhone and screens, who needs an arcade?" That's kind of missing the point of what the arcade is and the experience. It's about a whole lot more than screens and video games.

eastvillageApr 01, 2014

I started visiting WDW as a young child in the 70s. I have so many memories of the Fiesta Fun Center at The Contemporary. My parents would take my brother and I over there regardless of whether we were staying there or Poly, Ft Wilderness, etc. We'd spend hours enjoying ourselves. The shooting gallery fascinated me. It was those touches, the way they went above and beyond what'd you'd ever expect in an arcade, much less a hotel arcade, that made Disney so magical. If you didn't find me there, you'd probably find me over on Main Street at the Penny Arcade looking at the mutoscopes and questioning my future with the fortune teller or giggling at trick gum, a fly in an ice cube, and whoopee cushions at the Magic Shop. :inlove: :joyfull: :happy:

GrumpyFanApr 01, 2014

With the proliferation of small, portable electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets, most kids have more and newer games at their availability than even the biggest of arcades ever had. Plus, when you consider the amount of space they take up, and the overhead and maintenance to keep them running, it just wouldn't seem to make sense to continue operating them. If Disney isn't considering getting rid of them, they really should. I don't see that they would be missed much at all.