A Grand Vacation: The 2012 Grand Floridian FAQ!

[trishadono]

Not the best views but room was ready at7:30am

 

[trishadono]

Pool side was good we just had a tree blocking it. Turned out fine because more private and could see around tree. There are 4 floors in SL and we were on 3. Top floors do have dormers if that matters to you.

More info on first page of thread if needed.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Pool side was good we just had a tree blocking it. Turned out fine because more private and could see around tree. There are 4 floors in SL and we were on 3. Top floors do have dormers if that matters to you.

More info on first page of thread if needed.

Isn't there something wierd about the dormer rooms? Something that people don't like?

I think I'd like a view of the pool.

 

[mickeynut1]

MickeyNut & Hope that you had a great weekend!!

Hi Blue . I did have a good weekend, thanks ......it just went too fast.....LOL.

Hey, GF lovers! I've been out of town for a few days, but I have a lot of the new thread finished. We are just about at the 250 page mark, so I may have to open it up to posts before I get all my photos uploaded. After I get some sleep, I'll try to get things ready tomorrow and open up the new thread.

You have done a great job with this thread . Hope you had a nice time out of town.

It's a beautiful day at the Grand! Checked into a garden view room on the 5th floor, Boca Chica, a dormer with a great view of the pool (exactly as requested via online check in). Splash area is closed right now for some reason. Fridge working.

Beautiful view.....Boca Chica is a great location . Glad you got your requests. The GF is such a beautiful resort....hope you're having a great time .

 

[trishadono]

Isn't there something wierd about the dormer rooms? Something that people don't like?

I think I'd like a view of the pool.

Fellow RC-er SueM says the balcony is a solid wall so if sitting can't see well vs other balconies.

Rooms are smaller but higher ceilings.

If look at pics on first page you can see the front of SL building and tree in front of my room. The rest if the views look to be great.

I want marina side due to dh loving boats

You have a year to do research so enjoy. Remind me later and I can check for you in January if any unanswered q's come up


Congrats on choice.

 

[JanaDee]

I just booked an outer building, lagoon view for part of our stay. Can anyone give me an idea of where those rooms are located?

Thanks!

 

[Tink rules]

This is the balcony on the dormer rooms (borrowed from Allears...)

They are higher balconies, built into the roofs of the Grand... but they also have higher chairs on the balconies... still you get a limited view. I love the dormers because it's usually just me... a nice size and I'm ok with the balconies...

 

[JenniD44]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question from last week. We went to the beach for a few days. We actually ended up leaving sooner than we planned because the weather wasn't very good. We'll put our savings toward our Disney trip!

Someone more knowledgable can help with the larger rooms, but I know for sure that all rooms get turndown service. Also, in my opinion, all rooms at the GF are lovely, and if you are out enough having fun in the parks, you probably won't miss CL that much. You will have a great view, free dining, and you saved $2000! Sounds like a win-win-win to me!

Yes the savings are pretty substantial which is why we made the switch.

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.

Thanks for your thoughts. We have been planning this trip for quite a while. Originally, I was going to go over this past spring break. DH and DS were worried about the crowds and the timing just was bad for us, so around January I switched to Thanksgiving week. Then I switched to the week after Thanksgiving since that's when we have gone before and the crowds weren't bad. We also got free dining that week a couple of times. When the discounts came out, our TA tried for a RO discount for the CL room we had, but it wasn't available. Since the FD was a bigger savings and I had started to worry about the kids missing a whole week of school, we switched back to Thanksgiving week with FD, but no CL. More info than is necessary, just to say that the only discount we were able to get was FD (although initially we could have changed room catagory with RO discount the first week of Dec, but my school worries were too much and now that's not an option.)

Before the discounts were released, I was planning on doing just what you said. Using the CL for supplementing our meals and doing meal sharing at restaurants. It's just hard to pay rack rate, when discounts were available so I felt we needed to do it. I do keep checking to see if CL opens up, so we'll see what happens. I do have some great dining reservations, so at least we will eat well with the FD.

I wholeheartedly agree with k&a&c'smom about the fact that the garden view rooms have much nicer views, in general, than the lagoon rooms. I usually book the vacations around here, but my DH wanted to surprise me with a family trip for my 40th birthday, and he booked a lagoon view room. The view was just ok, looking at the Poly, and we agreed it wasn't worth the extra money.

I think the deluxe garden room is a great idea. We three have hearty appetites and wouldn't be able to make do with the CL offerings as meal replacements...maybe a breakfast or two, but that's it. I think the savings you've snagged are pretty awesome!

Maybe I'll see about doing garden view since both you and k&a&c'smom think it's better than lagoon view. My TA just grabbed the lagoon view and I didn't really think about the other.

I don't have the room number but twice we were able to get a corner room in the end of Big Pine Key. It is larger with two balconies. The smaller balcony looks from the Polynesian around to the Contempory. The larger balcony looks from the Magic Kingdom to the Contempory. I think these rooms have the best views in all of WDW. The furniture is the same as other rooms, you just have more space. These rooms are not in a special category, just MK or lagoon view. That means that you can't reserve one. You just have to hope that the room assigner places you there. The first time we were randomly placed there. The next time we very nicely asked the front desk at check-in if that room was possible. We were paying for MK view.

Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll try to request that, but since I just have lagoon view I don't know that I'd get it.

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.

I agree with the DDP not being a very good deal anymore. The first time we got it years ago, I think you got an appetizer as well as dessert (too much food, but nice to sample things) and the tip was included, plus it cost less. Then it was a deal. If the FD weren't the only discount we could get, I would not pay for DDP.

 

[k&a&c'smom]

It's a beautiful day at the Grand! Checked into a garden view room on the 5th floor, Boca Chica, a dormer with a great view of the pool (exactly as requested via online check in). Splash area is closed right now for some reason. Fridge working.

Hope this pic isn't too big!

Beautiful photo, thanks! Glad you got your request, have a magical stay.

So pretty! I wonder why the splash area isn't open? I'm hoping it's open when we get there in 3 days!!

When I was there it was closed probably 50% of the time. It was new then and they were taking pictures, but then it would just be closed for seemingly no reason I don't think it will be closed the entire time you are there, but I would be prepared for it to not always be open. 3 days...I am jealous

Interesting about the splash zone. I wonder if they are closing due to needing a lifeguard? When we were there in April, I noticed a lifeguard patroling there, wondering if they aren't scheduling enough and have to wait for one to be available?

Sooooooo.....I am excited to say that I have changed next year's reservation from CR Garden Wing to Grand Floridian Sugarloaf!!!!

It will be our 1st time staying at the Grand. It's myself, DH and our two girls who will be 10 and 7 at the time. They always call this hotel "the castle" and I think it will be a great fit for us for our 8 nights (once they get past the lobby smell...I think it's the flowers, LOL!!)

I was wondering if there is anything I should request as far as a room goes. I am assuming there is an elevator in the building. I was thinking high floor overlooking pool. Is that doable?

Congrats! I think your girls will love the Grand.

When I book SL, my requests are "upper floor, non-dormer, non-connecting room". We get 2 out of 3, usually. Upper floor, overlooking pool shouldn't be too hard to acquire.

Yes, there are elevators in all GF buildings.

Pool side was good we just had a tree blocking it. Turned out fine because more private and could see around tree. There are 4 floors in SL and we were on 3. Top floors do have dormers if that matters to you.

More info on first page of thread if needed.

We've had a tree blocking the balcony both times we were placed on the pool side of SL. Like you, we first were disappointed but ended up liking it for the privacy.

Isn't there something wierd about the dormer rooms? Something that people don't like?

I think I'd like a view of the pool.

As trishadono posted, the dormer rooms have enclosed balconies, rather than open. The rooms are slightly smaller, many without daybeds. The vaulted ceiling makes the room feel bigger, though, so many people like it for that reason. There are some BPK dormer room photos in this link, posted by gilsan - scroll down to post #669.

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You have done a great job with this thread . Hope you had a nice time out of town.

Thanks, very sweet of you. Yes, I did have a nice time, went to visit my sister in STL.

I just booked an outer building, lagoon view for part of our stay. Can anyone give me an idea of where those rooms are located?

Thanks!

Congrats! There are lagoon views in Big Pine Key and Boca Chica for sure, there used to be lagoon views in Conch Key and Sago Cay as well - they may still have them, I haven't heard for sure. When they split the lagoon view rooms to "lagoon" and "theme park" views, it was unclear how many lagoon views were left in each building.

Clear as mud, right?!

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Hey, everyone, we have reached the dreaded 250 page mark, so please head over to the 2013 FAQ for future posts. I still need to add many more photos, but the majority is finished and ready for DISers.

See ya there!