Concierge rooms at Grand California are surprisingly popular. We had some freebie points from a recent Disney Vacation Club purchase and decided to splurge them on a concierge room for our President's Day weekend visit. 2 of the 3 nights we wanted were sold out when I booked a room back in December, so they processed our reservation as two separate stays--2 nights in a standard room and 1 night in a concierge. What actually happened was that we stayed in the same no-view room for 3 nights on the 6th floor, but for the last night, we received 2 separate card keys for concierge lounge access. We were able to maximize use of the lounge by requesting access as early as 9 am on our concierge check-in day, so we had breakfast there on check-in day as well as check-out day.
For breakfast, their fruit tray was a hit with my family. DH was ecstatic that they have his beloved New York Times in the Lounge. LA Times and USA Today are also available. DS and DD got in some neopets and webkinz time at the Lounge computer. We went back to the Lounge at around noon time and they were serving tea sandwiches, uncrustables, chocolate covered strawberries. The sandwiches were pretty bland and did not interest my kids at all, so we ended up eating lunch inside the Park. Evening appetizers were most eagerly awaited. Between 5 pm to 5:45 pm, every table in the Lounge was occupied. Conciege staff confirmed they were completely sold out of concierge rooms on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday over the President's Day weekend! For appies, they were serving samosas, veggie tray, cheese and crackers and dinner rolls. You can order wine or beer. They finish the day with a dessert, milk and cookie session from 8 - 10 pm. Story-telling is from 8:15 pm - 8:45 pm.
For our family, it's fun to be able to do concierge once, especially if we don't have to pay the hefty cash price. Whether it's worth it depends on how often you can or want to go back to the Lounge multiple times to eat and drink there. If all you want to do is just to hit ride after ride after ride, then it's almost a hassle to have to plan your day to come back to the Lounge multiple times. Having a split stay with no concierge the first 2 nights and concierge the last night actually worked out really well for us as we concentrated on rides the first 2 days and had a more relaxing "down" day while we had concierge access--DD had a Libby Lu makeover while DS had fun in the hotel pool.
We still have some freebie points leftover, so I'm already itching to go back in June. Called for availability of a concierge room in mid-June yesterday--guess what, they are sold out on all 3 nights of our travel dates! No wonder they can keep the rates so high!