We just returned today from a split stay at the Grand Floridian, Royal Palm Club, and the Boardwalk Inn, Innkeeper's Club. I am posting the GF photos & information in the GF FAQ thread, but thought I'd post the BWI information here.
Room:
Our room was a standard room, with two queen beds:
Since we were there for an anniversary trip, it would have been nice if they had given us a bedroom with a king bed, but they did not. While the staff at the GF did several things to mark our anniversary, we did not get even a card from the BWI staff. Little touches like that are what make staying club level a special experience, and our BWI stay was noticeably devoid of any of these touches.
Here is the vanity area of our bathroom; again, just a standard bathroom:
Mousekeeping:
The Mousekeeping staff at the BWI were very stingy with the H2O toiletries. When we used the shampoo and conditioner, they did not replenish our supplies. This is pretty unusual, as even the housekeeping staff at places like a Quality Inn will replenish the toiletries without being asked.
We also had problems with the Mousekeeping staff and the turndown service. Since we were going out to dinner on our first night there at 7:00, we called Mousekeeping and told them that we were ready for turndown service as we were leaving. No problem, they said. When we returned, at 9:15, our room still had not been turned down. I don't know what time is customary for BWI guests to retire for the evening, but evidently it is well after 9 pm. We called again, and the woman on the other end of the line seemed surprised that we hadn't been turned down yet. She sent up a housekeeper within 10 minutes or so, while we went to the concierge lounge to hang out.
We did get one towel animal from Mousekeeping. I'm not sure what it is, but it's definitely a female, and it definitely has two tails:
Food offerings:
On our first evening there, the 5-7 pm hors d'oeuvres were from the ESPN Club. There were two hot dishes: clam chowder and pulled pork. In addition, there were raw veggies, some pita bread, and a few cheeses: sage, caraway, cranberry, brie, and herbed goat cheese.
My husband had the pulled pork, which he enjoyed. He said that he'd expected it to be dry, but it wasn't, though it wasn't anything special. The clam chowder was very good: creamy with nice, big, tender clam pieces. It could have done with a little salt, but I enjoyed it very much.
The next day, the evening offerings were from the Flying Fish, and these were much better than those from the previous day. The polenta was extremely flavorful and creamy. It was a prince among polentas. The fish was a haddock in a tomato & olive sauce. This was okay, but not wonderful. Neither of us is a huge fan of tomato sauces on fish, though the sauce itself was, again, very flavorful.
For dessert, there were deliciously light and fluffy cheesecakes, coated in chocolate and topped with a raspberry. There were white chocolate strawberries, and small lemon tarts. My favorite was a coconut/butterscotch/chocolate chip dessert, topped with chocolate icing. It was extremely rich and incredibly decadent.
For breakfast, there were fresh fruits, pastries (chocolate filled pastries, strawberry pastries, cinnamon rolls), bread for toast, yogurt, and cereals. The only juice offered here was orange juice, though there were three kinds of milk: whole milk, lowfat milk, and chocolate milk. This was disappointing to me, since I'm more of a juice fan.
Overall, since we're a party of two adults, we like the food offerings at this resort better than those of any other resort at which we've stayed club level. The GF offerings were uninspiring, and we much preferred the BWI foods.
Walls:
I am not sure what they make the BWI walls out of, but papier mache would be my best guess. Our room did have one of those connecting doors to another room. Because of the door, we could hear our neighbors snoring all night long.
We could also hear their cell phone ring, which it did, at around 11:30, then after midnight, than at 2:40 a.m. then again around 4 a.m. then finally at around 6:30 a.m. Lovely.
Though we did not share a connecting door with the room on the opposite side of us, we could hear their television and also had a great listening station when the kids decided to play a game of soccer around midnight. We did not appreciate the screams and the repeated banging on the wall. Only after calling the BWI staff to speak to them, and then calling them ourselves, did they decide to call it quits on the soccer game.
In my opinion, any room in which I can hear my neighbors snoring is a poorly constructed room.
Guests:
Some general etiquette classes might be nice for certain guests here. There was a family with teenagers who decided to have a round of horseplay while in line getting food. The boy (around 16-18 years old) apparently got poked by his sister who appeared to be his age or maybe a year or two younger. He threw his entire plate of food on the floor, and then, laughing hysterically, he and his sister ran off to change clothes. They did not pick up the food, though their mother did pick up part of it. Because it was the evening offerings, there were olives ground into the carpet, tomato sauce splattered on surrounding guests, etc.
The other problem was, as I previously mentioned, guests who receive cell phone calls all night long (at least set the phone to vibrate!) and guests who play midnight games of soccer with all the accompanying screaming and banging of walls. We have never experienced these problems with our fellow guests at other club level stays in different hotels. A little courtesy goes a long way.
Itinerary Planning Office:
The IPO staff was very quick to return calls and e-mails. We appreciated this, especially in comparison with the non-responsive GF IPO staff.
Overall:
We found the staff there to be very friendly, though the Mousekeepers were lacking. We enjoyed the food offerings very much, but the extremely thin walls at this hotel outweighed everything else. When the weather is 96 degrees out and you haven't had a nice sleep, it makes for general grumpiness. Solely on the basis of the paper-thin walls, we will not be returning to this resort.
Cheers!
Heather W
Room:
Our room was a standard room, with two queen beds:
Since we were there for an anniversary trip, it would have been nice if they had given us a bedroom with a king bed, but they did not. While the staff at the GF did several things to mark our anniversary, we did not get even a card from the BWI staff. Little touches like that are what make staying club level a special experience, and our BWI stay was noticeably devoid of any of these touches.
Here is the vanity area of our bathroom; again, just a standard bathroom:
Mousekeeping:
The Mousekeeping staff at the BWI were very stingy with the H2O toiletries. When we used the shampoo and conditioner, they did not replenish our supplies. This is pretty unusual, as even the housekeeping staff at places like a Quality Inn will replenish the toiletries without being asked.
We also had problems with the Mousekeeping staff and the turndown service. Since we were going out to dinner on our first night there at 7:00, we called Mousekeeping and told them that we were ready for turndown service as we were leaving. No problem, they said. When we returned, at 9:15, our room still had not been turned down. I don't know what time is customary for BWI guests to retire for the evening, but evidently it is well after 9 pm. We called again, and the woman on the other end of the line seemed surprised that we hadn't been turned down yet. She sent up a housekeeper within 10 minutes or so, while we went to the concierge lounge to hang out.
We did get one towel animal from Mousekeeping. I'm not sure what it is, but it's definitely a female, and it definitely has two tails:
Food offerings:
On our first evening there, the 5-7 pm hors d'oeuvres were from the ESPN Club. There were two hot dishes: clam chowder and pulled pork. In addition, there were raw veggies, some pita bread, and a few cheeses: sage, caraway, cranberry, brie, and herbed goat cheese.
My husband had the pulled pork, which he enjoyed. He said that he'd expected it to be dry, but it wasn't, though it wasn't anything special. The clam chowder was very good: creamy with nice, big, tender clam pieces. It could have done with a little salt, but I enjoyed it very much.
The next day, the evening offerings were from the Flying Fish, and these were much better than those from the previous day. The polenta was extremely flavorful and creamy. It was a prince among polentas. The fish was a haddock in a tomato & olive sauce. This was okay, but not wonderful. Neither of us is a huge fan of tomato sauces on fish, though the sauce itself was, again, very flavorful.
For dessert, there were deliciously light and fluffy cheesecakes, coated in chocolate and topped with a raspberry. There were white chocolate strawberries, and small lemon tarts. My favorite was a coconut/butterscotch/chocolate chip dessert, topped with chocolate icing. It was extremely rich and incredibly decadent.
For breakfast, there were fresh fruits, pastries (chocolate filled pastries, strawberry pastries, cinnamon rolls), bread for toast, yogurt, and cereals. The only juice offered here was orange juice, though there were three kinds of milk: whole milk, lowfat milk, and chocolate milk. This was disappointing to me, since I'm more of a juice fan.
Overall, since we're a party of two adults, we like the food offerings at this resort better than those of any other resort at which we've stayed club level. The GF offerings were uninspiring, and we much preferred the BWI foods.
Walls:
I am not sure what they make the BWI walls out of, but papier mache would be my best guess. Our room did have one of those connecting doors to another room. Because of the door, we could hear our neighbors snoring all night long.
We could also hear their cell phone ring, which it did, at around 11:30, then after midnight, than at 2:40 a.m. then again around 4 a.m. then finally at around 6:30 a.m. Lovely. Though we did not share a connecting door with the room on the opposite side of us, we could hear their television and also had a great listening station when the kids decided to play a game of soccer around midnight. We did not appreciate the screams and the repeated banging on the wall. Only after calling the BWI staff to speak to them, and then calling them ourselves, did they decide to call it quits on the soccer game.
In my opinion, any room in which I can hear my neighbors snoring is a poorly constructed room.
Guests:
Some general etiquette classes might be nice for certain guests here. There was a family with teenagers who decided to have a round of horseplay while in line getting food. The boy (around 16-18 years old) apparently got poked by his sister who appeared to be his age or maybe a year or two younger. He threw his entire plate of food on the floor, and then, laughing hysterically, he and his sister ran off to change clothes. They did not pick up the food, though their mother did pick up part of it. Because it was the evening offerings, there were olives ground into the carpet, tomato sauce splattered on surrounding guests, etc.
The other problem was, as I previously mentioned, guests who receive cell phone calls all night long (at least set the phone to vibrate!) and guests who play midnight games of soccer with all the accompanying screaming and banging of walls. We have never experienced these problems with our fellow guests at other club level stays in different hotels. A little courtesy goes a long way.
Itinerary Planning Office:
The IPO staff was very quick to return calls and e-mails. We appreciated this, especially in comparison with the non-responsive GF IPO staff.
Overall:
We found the staff there to be very friendly, though the Mousekeepers were lacking. We enjoyed the food offerings very much, but the extremely thin walls at this hotel outweighed everything else. When the weather is 96 degrees out and you haven't had a nice sleep, it makes for general grumpiness. Solely on the basis of the paper-thin walls, we will not be returning to this resort.
Cheers!
Heather W
DD and I do not drink orange juice. If I am remembering correctly, the BC lounge had cranberry,apple, and grapefruit juices. That's strange that the BWI would only have orange.
