Club level good value?

[mmmears]

It's hard to say if it's worth the money.

At AKL, CL is not much more than savannah view, so to me it's definitely worth the money.

At the Poly, it's alot more money to stay CL. You just have to weigh the benefits against the cost at your time of year.

-- enough breakfast items that you dont need to go out for breakfast
-- lots of appetizers at dinner-time
-- a guarantee that you'll be in the Hawaii building
-- the pre-trip planning services of the Poly IPO

We love to stay concierge, but it depends on how much money it costs us. Food is so easy to find at WDW that the lounge is convenient but not necessary. Now that they dont have water bottles (just cans of soda) to take, it's less enticing to us. That said, we're booked to CL at the Poly & AKL for our upcoming trip -- I just want to try it out there!

 

[west&east]

We are staying at akl cl in January. The services of the IPO have been great for us so far. They got us all our adr's including a wishes cruise, chef mickey's, and california grill. Also, there is a sunrise safari at ak that is exclusive to akl cl guests. I saw some posts on another thread that shows the club has a couple of unique hot items at breakfast too. Here is the email they sent with the times of things in the club:
Kilimanjaro club Hours of Service: Concierge Desk
7:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. unless there is an early safari.
Food offerings:
Macheo (Sunrise Offerings)
For our early risers...coffee and assorted juices.
6:30 a.m.
Miamko (Adventurous Awakenings)
Start your adventure with an assortment of fresh fruits, juices, pastries and cereals.
7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Vitafunio (Safari Snacks)
Take a mid-day break and enjoy a selection of African snacks and beverages.
11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Chai (Afternoon Tea)
Sit back and relax with imported teas, freshly baked scones, cookies and treats. A daily must in Africa!
3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Kisikusiku (Twighlight Offerings)
After and exciting safari, take pleasure in an array of wines, hors d'oeuvres, and savor African specialty appetizers from our resort restaurants, Jiko and Boma.
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Rehema (Evening Indulgences)
Revisit your day's activities or plan for tomorrow while treating yourself to a sampling of fine desserts and a variety of premium cordials.
8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

 

[Mouse Man]

We stayed at BWI concierge a couple of years ago. It really wasn't worth it for my family. We made great use of the breakfast, but weren't around much for the other offerings. We did not like having to plan a day around "offerings", so we pretty much skipped it. If you spend a lot of time at the resort, then the value is there.

We stayed at Universal's Hard Rock Hotel Club Level during the same trip and found that we enjoyed it much more than Disney's. Not many places open for a quick breakfast at Universal. The parks there aren't as massive so we found more time spent in the hotel.

 

[Tiffany]

I know it's like 600 dollars more for the concierge level but i'm thinking that the food would cover us for breakfast and lunch and that could save us some money. We'd be doing it at the Poly. What do you guys think?

Club level services are never a good "value" as they are not intended to be for value minded vacationers. They are convience services. The breakfast items are just cold food items and there is no actual food during the afternoon it is just snacks. Club level food offerings are not meant to be meal replacement.

 

[missycj96]

Poly concierge is fantastic. You need to decide how you plan to vacation - if you want to spend time around the resort, it is great to have. For us, we had breakfast there in the mornings. And also, when we had the evening snacks, we certainly could not then go out for a full dinner. So if you were looking forward to going out to dinner every night (like with DDP), this might not work out for you - depending on how much you can eat. Also, while you will certainly end up not paying for some meals, I don't think that concierge will be "worth it" just in terms of saving money on food and drinks - its a luxury. You get a guarantee of a great building, and a really nice vacation. But in terms of money the $600 will buy you plenty of food at disney world.

 

[thesupersmartguy]

CL is great! It covers Breakfast and Dinner, lunch is nothing but goldfish and cookies.

 

[liane89]

Sorry, I haven't read all the replies, but here is my CL review....
We LOVE CL, we've been doing it for 5 years now at Poly. (Feb 09 we are going to try GF CL).
Every year before we book we say, "AHHH We're going to save money and stay at a Moderate or Deluxe without CL"....come time to book, we just can't give it up.
We usually book in Oct-Nov for Feb so it is basically a short notice trip, so we don't have the luxury of booking ADR's that we really want (they are all booked already), but the PERK of CL is that the will get you your ADR's, even at CRT !! We've been lucky enough to eat at CRT, for breakfast, lunch or dinner for the last 5 years (and this trip coming up too). They are able to make any "special" request happen. We usaully celebrate one of our son's birthdays while we are there and there CM's always have something cute waiting in the room for him.
The food.....while having the dining plan and the CL, it tends to be a lot of food, it give us more options. If we have ADR's for one night and the kids are just exhausted, we'll head to the CL lounge and pick up something there instead. The ability to take soda to the park with you, snacks (fruit, etc) with you, and also sometimes (before the Dining Plan days) we would pick up a PBJ for each of the kid to save a bit of $ in the park.
For us it is PURE convience and the thought of this is our once a year big trip for my husband and I to feel spoiled for the week (our 3 kids are spoiled all the time) so we enjoy it and look foward to it every year.
I don't think we will (or can) stay with out the CL rooms for us it is well worth the extra $$$$ !!
Go for it and enjoy !!!