A Grand Vacation: The 2012 Grand Floridian FAQ!

[red712371]

we are doing a split stay next month and staying sl for the first time ever. we have asked for a marina view room. anything anyone thinks we should know for a first visit?

i have stayed in main building years and years ago, however my husband (he is the one who wanted to stay at gf) and son never have.

I would love to hear about this too! We just switched from Poly Club to SL for our December stay due to possible construction. We have stayed at GF garden view before, but this is the first time for Club Level for us at GF.

 

[mickeynut1]

we are doing a split stay next month and staying sl for the first time ever. we have asked for a marina view room. anything anyone thinks we should know for a first visit?

I would love to hear about this too! We just switched from Poly Club to SL for our December stay due to possible construction. We have stayed at GF garden view before, but this is the first time for Club Level for us at GF.

We had a marina view when we stayed SL and I loved going out on the balcony looking out over the marina . The SL building is pretty convenient to everything, IMO. Not that the GF is huge and spread out, but SL is pretty centrally located that it was nice being close to everything .

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Just checked in to the Grand for our two night pre-cruise stay. Had booked standard view at Sugarloaf. Were upgraded to RPC in a one bedroom suite that overlooks lake and waterfall pool. Can see/hear construction but I'm not going to complain about that with space like this IN the main building. Gotta love Pixie Dust! A great start to vacation.

For those asking about refridge - I can speak to this room. The bedroom has a working refrigerator but the fridge that was probably in the wet bar area of the living room has been removed.

What an awesome upgrade! Enjoy!

Thanks for the update on the fridge situation - how odd they replaced one, but not the other.

we will be staying at the grand in october. it will be me, my husband, my adult sister, her DD7, my DD3,and DD5. We have never stayed at the grand. My family has stayed at beach club villas and the poly concierge, my husband and I also stayed at the dolphin for a quick weekend trip last march. We loved the beach club pool of course, but our best stay so far has been poly concierge. WE LOVED the POLY!!! for this trip I got a great rate through a conference and we are staying garden view at the grand. It is my sister and neice's first trip, so I want it to be great. any advice? Will it be able to compete with the poly? Will we wish we had paid more to stay at the POLY or upgraded to a better room at the grand?

We love Y&BC, Poly AND the Grand! I've stayed at the Dolphin, too, and enjoyed it.

I know I'm biased, but I think you will love the Grand even more than the Poly. Of course, it is tough to compare a garden view room to CL at any resort, but we alternate between garden and club and enjoy every trip. When we plan to hit the parks hard, or want to partake of many restaurants (or there isn't a good discount), we book garden view. When we plan to spend the majority of our time at the resort, we go club. It's all good! When you are not in club, you can always buy gourmet snacks for the room and/or do private dining to make it seem more luxurious.

With so many girls in the party, you may want to do afternoon tea - or maybe look into the Princess Tea for the young ladies.

We've stayed GV, SL, and RPC and although RPC is my favorite, I wouldn't hesitate to book GV again. Our GV was in Big Pine Key that overlooked the courtyard pool, which was very nice. We are big Poly fans, but I do also love the Grand. I think you'll have a great time and will love the Grand .

we are doing a split stay next month and staying sl for the first time ever. we have asked for a marina view room. anything anyone thinks we should know for a first visit?

i have stayed in main building years and years ago, however my husband (he is the one who wanted to stay at gf) and son never have.

I have found the guys in our party love the Grand as much as we do. One year, my DD's BF went with us, so I booked WL - he is a big outdoorsman, I figured he would love the Lodge. He did, but when we visited the Grand, he said, "why didn't we stay here?!"

For your first taste of the Grand, be sure to make plenty of time for the resort. Spend some time in the lobby after 3:00 p.m., when the pianist and orchestra play. (they alternate every hour or so, from 3:00 to about 9:45) If you want to see Wishes from the resort, grab a drink and/or snack at Gasparilla's (or the lounge, since you are in SL) and snag a spot near the marina. Be sure to catch the Electric Water Pageant at around 9:20 p.m., in front of Boca Chica. You can see it from the boat dock, or the grassy area near BC.

I would love to hear about this too! We just switched from Poly Club to SL for our December stay due to possible construction. We have stayed at GF garden view before, but this is the first time for Club Level for us at GF.

As Mickeynut posted, the SL building is in a great central location. Close to the courtyard pool, marina, Gasparilla's. And I like that it is easily accessible to the main building veranda, if there is rain - just duck out the end door, walk a few steps and you are under cover.

You may know, the SL club offerings are identical to the RPC offerings. Same IPO and food service. The only real difference is location and ambiance; we like both.

k&a&c's Mom--- HEY!!! Thanks so much for looking up pictures of the tv's for me. I never even thought to google it! Duh me. I think we will be ok, doesn't matter how little they are, as long as the boys can catch the score! Score, schmore---- you're at the Grand, Mister!!

Hope you are doing well. Good to "see" you!

No worries, I only mentioned that I googled as I like to acknowledge when I'm using someone else's photos. I resorted to google as I was pressed for time and didn't want to scan all my WDW photo files. It is hit or miss when I go to the 'net for images of a specific thing at the World, I lucked out. I was so irritated with myself - all my current photos of the courtyard pool bar were either too dim behind the bar to see details, or the shutters were closed.

LOL about being at the Grand, you'd think the guys would be too consumed with vacation to worry about sports. I know, silly me.

We are all well, thanks - hope you are, too.

 

[jcjen519]

thanks for the information guys. we are planning almost 3 full resort days and looking forward to it. thanks for the fireworks tips and we will be sure to spend time in the lobby enjoying the atmosphere and music.

k&a&c'smom- according to my husband he has wanted to stay there for years. who knew?

 

[jd99]

What an awesome upgrade! Enjoy!

Thanks for the update on the fridge situation - how odd they replaced one, but not the other.


:

ok we just realized that there is also a fridge in the living room - that isn't in the minibar area. and it's fully stocked with soda and water. Who knew?

 

[mtnmomma3]

Hi everyone! Getting ready for our GF stay in September... We are staying RPC theme park view(not deluxe, regular room). Are all of these rooms on the same floor as the lounge or is that something we need to request? Traveling with our three girls (7 and twins 4 year olds) and would love the ease of being on the same floor as the snacks
Thanks in advance!

 

[k&a&c'smom]

thanks for the information guys. we are planning almost 3 full resort days and looking forward to it. thanks for the fireworks tips and we will be sure to spend time in the lobby enjoying the atmosphere and music.

k&a&c'smom- according to my husband he has wanted to stay there for years. who knew?

ok we just realized that there is also a fridge in the living room - that isn't in the minibar area. and it's fully stocked with soda and water. Who knew?

Cool! I'm glad you found it.

Hi everyone! Getting ready for our GF stay in September... We are staying RPC theme park view(not deluxe, regular room). Are all of these rooms on the same floor as the lounge or is that something we need to request? Traveling with our three girls (7 and twins 4 year olds) and would love the ease of being on the same floor as the snacks
Thanks in advance!

RPC TPV rooms are on the 3rd and 4th floors above Gasparilla Grill - furthest area from the lounge! The food servce is on the 4th floor, but there are seating areas throughout the 3rd and 4th with the children's area on the 4th. (photo below)

You can certainly request 4th floor (email IPO), but with the location of the TPV rooms it isn't really a big deal which floor you end up on. You have to pass the back elevator to get to the lounge, so hopping on to go up a floor is easy.

Adorable RPC children's area!

 

[red712371]

So excited! 119 days until Sugar Loaf! I'm ready to be spoiled. Hubby didn't know it, but last night I emailed IPO to ask them to book a Holiday Wishes cruise for us. I had to tell him this morning when they confirmed that they were able to get it for us. He was so excited - I actually cried a little! I know it is costly for something that I can see from the resort anyway, but I want this vacation to be special this year. Celebrating our 23rd anniversary and my birthday on this trip so I feel we should splurge. I seriously can't wait!

 

[Sue M]

JenniD44 - I understand your dilemma, it's hard to consider another kind of vacation when you have been so happy with the tried and true.

I have a few thoughts, don't know how helpful they will be. Your savings is partly due to booking a cheaper room category; did you have the 30% room discount on your prior booking? That saves nearly $200/night on the SL CL room cost in the first week of December, if available. The first week of December does not include the higher T'giving rate, so that would be a savings all by itself.

I know Disney is making it harder for families to consider vacationing without a dining plan (crazy high OOP prices), but have you looked at pricing your meals w/o DP? For DD and I, we end up money ahead or at least dead even when we pay OOP over the DP, I've run so many spreadsheets! We rarely eat dessert, so that is a waste for us on DDP, even without CL - with it, we eat our dessert in the lounge. We usually get one appetizer and one entree and split, the portions are so huge. We rarely have anything but water to drink in the restaurants - we need the hydration, and any soda/tea cravings are satisfied in the lounge.

I know you have 3 kids to feed, but do they really eat $59/each per day? (is that the going rate now? I don't even know!) With the CL food, we would waste food at the restaurants, we stopped booking so many table service and now only have 1 per day. Big breakfast in the lounge, lunch on the go or in a TS restaurant (cheaper costs at lunch time, bonus!) and split a QS meal or just eat in the lounge for dinner.

Do you have an AP? The 20% TiW discount helps off-set dining costs. Might be worth looking into getting one adult AP for those discounts, if you don't already have one.

You could play around with your dates, see if anything comes up with CL and free dining. (or, do they specifically exclude CL?) You could check each day to see if someone cancels and snag their CL booking. We are often able to get CL rooms last minute, or as the vacation approaches, people cancel all the time.

If none of this appeals to you, and you prefer to keep your current reservations, don't worry. You will still love the GF! We alternate between garden view and CL (btw, I would drop the lagoon and just go with garden if it's available - lagoon view isn't nearly as charming, IMO, and costs far too much extra) and always have a great time.

As to your question for more space - you could request a corner room, many of them are larger. No guarantee you would get one. Or, try to book the deluxe garden view rooms, more money but they have the extra sitting room area. You would have to ask for a rollaway, though, no daybed.

Good luck! It's a tough decision.

I agree. This is what we do too. We have APs. And share a TIW card with a friend who goes more or less the same dates, we meet up at WDW, and tour together. We load a GC for dining, calculating $50/day. Book our TS at lunch, and CS dinner usually. We also only drink water with meals, and don't do dessert after both lunch and dinner. If we want a dessert at the TS, we will split one. But generally we don't have one. Later on we may stop at a CS for some treat, like a cupcake at Staring Rolls. If we are eatting at Kona, I'm happy to go downstairs for a Dole Whip for dessert .
In total we always come in under what the DDP costs. When we are not staying CL, I get breakfast items for the room. Easy to throw in luggage bags of bagels, packets of instant oatmeal, etc.

We did get the DDP last january with the Stay,play dine promo. Because it was discounted. But we find its really too much food. And I like the flexibility of having what I want, where I want.
And I'm not paying for the 2 drinks, 2 desserts and 1 snack a day. When the only thing we may use is 1 dessert that we share.

IMO, DDP isn't the deal it once was.

 

[MommyGina]

After a lot of consideration, we decided not to purchase the DVC at the Grand. There were too many cons vs. pros. I actually feel much better about this. So we will be back at the hotel next year, not the villas and that's fine for us.

 

[trishadono]

After a lot of consideration, we decided not to purchase the DVC at the Grand. There were too many cons vs. pros. I actually feel much better about this. So we will be back at the hotel next year, not the villas and that's fine for us.

I don't want to purchase either however I did book a stay there because the 2 bedroom villa costs a lot less than a 2ndrm suite. We don't need club level privileges, just space with teens.

Downside, VGF won't be bookable with any discounts for a while.

 

[mickeynut1]

After a lot of consideration, we decided not to purchase the DVC at the Grand. There were too many cons vs. pros. I actually feel much better about this. So we will be back at the hotel next year, not the villas and that's fine for us.

We have looked into DVC a few times and every time when I thought we were ready to purchase, something just didn't feel right. It took us awhile, but we finally came to the conclusion that DVC isn't for us. We are a family of 4 and really don't need the extra space and I don't cook or do laundry on vacation, so it really wouldn't benefit us.

Downside, VGF won't be bookable with any discounts for a while.

I agree. I looked into a 1 BDRM for 2 nights in December and while rack rate was comparable to CR CL where we were considering staying, I knew VGF wouldn't be discounted, so we're sticking with the CR for something different. I'm hoping to some day stay in a GF villa as they look beautiful.

 

[jcjen519]

After a lot of consideration, we decided not to purchase the DVC at the Grand. There were too many cons vs. pros. I actually feel much better about this. So we will be back at the hotel next year, not the villas and that's fine for us.

i get it. we are members but its not really for us either. we hardly ever use the points at Disney anymore. we enjoy some of the owner perks but that is about it. we are comfortable with how we use them...banking sometimes and then doing a bigger visit to vero with friends and/or family. i don't see us buying anymore.

 

[MommyGina]

Bottom line is that we will be back to the GF in July. I will truly be on vacation and won't have to worry about enough towels, facial tissue, soap, beds made, etc. Thanks to all who listened! I won't hear "Welcome Home." Maybe I'll hear "Welcome to Vacation!"

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Sue M - we do dining much like your family.

Hope your trip is going well so far!

Mommy Gina - we looked into and decided against DVC years ago. Just doesn't mesh with the way we vacation, unfortunately.

You'll still hear "Welcome Home"! All the DVC resorts say it to all guests at the gate, in my experience.

 

[jojomickey]

We did decide to purchase now that our children are adults.,One recently got married and two rooms just isn't enough room for us.We will enjoy the extra space even though I don't cook or do wash on vacation, it is nice to know that if I have grandchildren some day it will be there for the grandchildren if needed I'm not worried about the soap or towels I will just pay for daily housekeeping.

 

[jillmc40]

Bottom line is that we will be back to the GF in July. I will truly be on vacation and won't have to worry about enough towels, facial tissue, soap, beds made, etc. Thanks to all who listened! I won't hear "Welcome Home." Maybe I'll hear "Welcome to Vacation!"

Timeshares are not for everyone, so it is GREAT that you realized that before pulling the trigger...Otherwise you would feel trapped and mad about it! It's not worth it to save a little money if you are not enjoying yourself! Besides, you could always rent the points to stay there if you want to try it out and not pay a crazy amount. Have fun in July...I am so jealous! I am really missing Disney these days...So are the kiddos

 

[Welcome Home]

What is your favorite non CL building and why?

 

[Hedobaby]

I know I keep asking but no one is answering lol.

Can anyone suggest a good room to pick in Boca Chica? We want to try to ask but don't know which one to request. I have looked everywhere for the room number we had last trip but can not find it. We are not magic kingdom view but lagoon view so hope to get a glimpse view of MK for the fireworks.

Can anyone give any advice pretty please?

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Sue M - we do dining much like your family.

Hope your trip is going well so far!

Mommy Gina - we looked into and decided against DVC years ago. Just doesn't mesh with the way we vacation, unfortunately.

You'll still hear "Welcome Home"! All the DVC resorts say it to all guests at the gate, in my experience.

I've been told "welcome home" at the value resorts. I don't own DVC but have been greeted that way many times.

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