any downside to dual US/Polish citizenship?
 

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Not really. I have both and I can explain a lot more detail later today. If you have any questions on how to take care of it, I can help as I took care of mine 3 years ago and am now doing it for my brother. There are a lot of pluses to it. Time may be plenty but the cost is little (well little if your already in Poland :) )

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I would also be interested in any advice you can offer.

If you are EU legal then you should be able to stay in the EU as long as you want and not be hit with the 90 day out of 180 rule,

but if you are young you might get pulled in for military service or other weird things you are not prepared for !

Rally

Yea, watch out, Poland has a tendency to be run over by east and west. Historically, probably one of the most mobile borders in Europe. And don't expect much help. I'ld go for a diffferent EU country citizenship. Why not a neutral stable country.

They don't just give citizenships away. Generally you either have to live in the country concerned, or have some ancestral link. The OP says he is eligible for Polish citizenship, and that's what he is looking into.

Yes, military service is one to watch out for if you are young.

The other thing to consider is that when you have dual citizenship Country A's embassy can't do anything for you when you're in Country B. In Poland you're a Polish citizen and a Polish citizen only, you can't rely on the American embassy to get you home if anything goes wrong.

Sorry for the delay, fell asleep after all the classes today. :)
I did it by bloodline as both of my parents are Polish and have kept their Polish citizenship. I see only 1 downside as a dual citizen and that is what Aviatrix pointed out, if I am on Poland and have some law issues, I will be tried as a Polish citizen, I cannot ask for US help.
There are many benefits to have dual citizenship, incl EU. Traveling in the EU is a lot easier, there is no max time limit. Also you do have EU health care coverage as all EU nationals. I travel a lot on my Polish passport and have never had any issues. I enter/exit USA on my USA passport and enter/exit Poland on my Polish. When they ask for a visa, I show them my USA passport and when USA asks me for a visa for a longer stay than 90 days I show them my Polish. Other than that I don't show both.
Dual citizenship is acknowledged by USA and by Poland.
Again, I would really recommend it. Are you registered for the USA draft? Did you do any military time? How old are you (may I ask)? as a Polish citizen you have to get registered here for the draft, but I did not have to do it as 1. I am already on the USA draft list (as every man needs when they turn 18) and 2. I am in school and university students are exempt from war.

There are 2 ways to do it. 1 way is through a Polish consulate (Chicago) or embassy (DC). This is the "easier" route but very time consuming (can take many years) and also not the cheapest (I think a few hundred USD). I did it via the Poland way but basically it breaks down to the following
Every Polish citizen has a PESEL - ID number similar to a SSN. Without one you cant do crap. Thats the first step is to get that. But before that you need to put in your birth certificates into the town registry. Then after that you are "born" and you can get a PESEL. Paperwork I needed was my parents marriage certificate from Poland and since they were born in Poland their birth certificate was not needed of theirs and only my USA one was needed, cases my differ. I had to fill out some paperwork and also my parents were checked to see if they ever renounced their citizenship THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM NOW! A lot of people left Poland, renouncing their citizenship and want to come back now but cannot. This paperwork takes some time but you will get a birth certificate in Polish (speaking of which all the paperwork needs to be translated into Polish by a official translator). With that I applied for the PESEL and after a month or so got it. Took that PESEL and applied for a national ID card. Here is where it can go 2 ways and there is a catch 22. To get a national ID card you need to be registered in a apartment or house or some dwelling in Poland. Any relatives can do it for you or if you have a place but you do not need the card BUT you cannot pick up the passport without this card in Poland. You would have to go through the US consulate for a passport only with your PESEL. If you go the full way, you would apply for the national ID card and then the passport (can be same day) and get them in about a month. Cost for all this I think came out to be maybe 100USD or so and time about 8 months to do for me. Consulate can take years and cost a few hundred, but it can be made faster if you took care of the first part in Poland and rest in USA.
If you have a national ID card and passport your all set for anything here in Poland or the EU. It seems quite complicated and trust me it is. Poland legal and system is very interesting and complicated to take care of anything, but once you do, your done. I think passport and ID is valid for 10 years so you got some time before you need to renew which you can always do in a US consulate or actually I think now via the internet.
Also, do you speak Polish? Cause it would really help if you had a Polish speaker to help you with it. But don't let all the paperwork discourage you, it is worth it to do at the end.
If you have any other questions, let me know. I am not sure what town you were looking into doing or where if you do have relatives and/or family living in Poland still.

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They should still be technically Polish citizens. In your case though I would call up the Polish consulate and ask them what paperwork might be needed.

This might be a bit tricky. If they were born before 11 Nov 1918 (assuming yes) it will be difficult. I would recommend you to call up the division for application of citizenship 646-237-2120. Here is a page from the US consulate in NY http://www.polishconsulateny.org/index.php?p=123
Issue is that you get your citizenship from parents.

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I would def try. It doesn't hurt!

Luckily, Poland is ending conscription next year, as I understand it.

In most countries, health insurance rules are much more complicated than "has EU citizenship".

Not necessarily true. As a UK citizen who is not resident in the EU, it is my understanding that I am not entitled to free healthcare when I ma visiting the UK.

Yep....the rules are set by your country of residency and you need an EHIC card to have coverage. There are definitely folks who illegally maintain fake addresses, etc. in order to try to maintain coverage in lax jurisdictions (works in the UK, not so easy in Germany).