Club Level Rooms worth the extra???

[timsueshd]

Are club level rooms worth the extra money?

For the time we will be there, the extra cost comes to $130 more a day.
There are three of us (2 adults and 13 DS), we would probably only use it for breakfast and if we come back in the middle of the day. It closes at 10, so I am afraid we will get back to late from the parks to be there by 10.

Also, are you able to take items back to your room or do you have to eat / drink in the lounge only?

Besides the food, what other benefits come with the club level rooms?

Thanks!

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

We stayed at club level at the Polynesian once. It was the same price as rack rate for a room in the garden wing of the Contemporary, so we decided to go for it.

My husband and kids tend to sleep in on vacation, so I would go to the lounge for a pastry and coffee first thing in the morning. Later, the kids & I would go back to eat breakfast. We grabbed a couple of beers anytime we went through so my husband could have 'stock' in the room fridge, especially for those nights we got in late. I went to the lounge late at night to watch the fireworks and drink wine. We got water and non-alcoholic drinks there almost every time we went through.

I loved the lounge. I don't nap and wake up earlier than my husband, so I'd hang out there when everyone else was looking for quiet in the room. It made up for the fact that we didn't have a balcony.

At Poly, club level is in the Hawaii building, which was a great location. The main pool was right there, and it was a nice short walk to the boat to MK. We were on the 2nd floor. I missed the balcony, but loved being on the same floor as the lounge.

I don't think we got an extra $130 worth of food & drinks by staying at club level. We definitely enjoyed it though.

 

[The Fox Menagerie]

Last time we visited in June of 2017, we leveraged club level quite a bit. We would hit the club for breakfast and head to our first park. We either ate in the lounge and did take food and drinks back to our room. After returning from the parks we would get snacks and drinks from the lounge to take to the room or to the pool. We would hit the appetizers at about 5, sometimes have beer or wine also and then go to our evening park. We only made it back to the lounge for desserts twice. The concierge cast members helped with reservations and questions, we also leveraged them for scheduling activities before our trip. We emailed our request and they took care of it. We are two adults and one teenage daughter. Did we use $130 each day, maybe on some days, less or more on others when all added up. Would we have spent an equal amount had we not leveraged club level, likely not. We like the experience and access and I like having breakfast, snacks and drinks already included in our hotel expense.

 

[disneyvoice]

We did CL once and, for us, it was a waste of money. We had no use for the concierge services since I always make our own ADRs, FPs, and any other reservations. We were at the parks when the food was out. I don't know if we would have eaten any of the food even if we hadn't been in the parks - we don't eat a lot of snacks and doing 1 TS meal a day and then splitting a QS meal is typically enough for us. We aren't really breakfast eaters so we didn't even do breakfast in the morning. We tried CL thinking that we would enjoy the food but it would have been very inconvenient to leave the parks and head back to the resort. Turn down service is just not something I care about at all although we did like the little chocolates they left on our pillows! We did get a glass of wine our first night but, honestly, we didn't really think much of atmosphere in the CL lounge - we prefer to sit in one of the WDW bars and have a few drinks. My DH and I often do trips where we spend more time relaxing at the resort than at the parks but I still don't think it would be worth for us to do CL on those trips. We just found we enjoyed eating and drinking at WDW restaurants and bars more than in the CL lounge, and didn't like being tied to the food service schedule.

 

[Luckybee]

Are club level rooms worth the extra money?

For the time we will be there, the extra cost comes to $130 more a day.
There are three of us (2 adults and 13 DS), we would probably only use it for breakfast and if we come back in the middle of the day. It closes at 10, so I am afraid we will get back to late from the parks to be there by 10.

Also, are you able to take items back to your room or do you have to eat / drink in the lounge only?

Besides the food, what other benefits come with the club level rooms?

Thanks!

I'm of 2 minds on this and imho it depends on your wants/needs. Dh and I have stayed CL level at Disney in the past and from a serice perspective we had been sorely let down. That said, for our upcoming trip we decided to do so in order to book the extra fp's available to cl guests. With that cam the surprise of signature services which was not previously available when we booked club. With SS came the absolutely amazing concierge serices which included getting us into a restaurant that we could simply not get a booking for at the exact time we wanted and just this week rejuggling one day of regular fp's and getting us the times we wanted which were not available when I tried to change them. To me these things alone were worth the price of admission!
So for these reasons for us it is worth it. But in terms of the CL food and ambience...meh!

 

[buzznina]

We did CL once and, for us, it was a waste of money. We had no use for the concierge services since I always make our own ADRs, FPs, and any other reservations. We were at the parks when the food was out. I don't know if we would have eaten any of the food even if we hadn't been in the parks - we don't eat a lot of snacks and doing 1 TS meal a day and then splitting a QS meal is typically enough for us. We aren't really breakfast eaters so we didn't even do breakfast in the morning. We tried CL thinking that we would enjoy the food but it would have been very inconvenient to leave the parks and head back to the resort. Turn down service is just not something I care about at all although we did like the little chocolates they left on our pillows! We did get a glass of wine our first night but, honestly, we didn't really think much of atmosphere in the CL lounge - we prefer to sit in one of the WDW bars and have a few drinks. My DH and I often do trips where we spend more time relaxing at the resort than at the parks but I still don't think it would be worth for us to do CL on those trips. We just found we enjoyed eating and drinking at WDW restaurants and bars more than in the CL lounge, and didn't like being tied to the food service schedule.

We also found it was not for our family on how we vacation and what we like. The breakfast is continental and after a few days our whole family wanted a real breakfast with eggs, bacon and mickey head waffles The rest of the day they just have snacks out and from 5-7 is when the appetizers are available, but we seem never to get back from the parks that early. If you spend a good deal of time at the resort and like adult beverage's then I can see how it could be worth it. They could not help us with an ADR we were trying to move, they tried but could not find any openings. The CM's were great and we did take advantage of the deserts they put out at night, but we could do a lot more with that $$$.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

It really depends on how you utilize it, IMHO. We've stayed CL at all deluxes except BC and they were all fine. We certainly didn't eat or drink enough to justify the cost. We stayed WL CL last August and it was the first time I really felt like we got value for the money spent. First of all, WL CL prices out less than the other CL options (as does AKL CL). The standard view rooms have a view of the MK fireworks, the food and beverage options were unique and the CM's there were fabulous. I would definitely consider WL CL again. I wasn't a fan of Poly CL. That longhouse tends to be really loud due to it's proximity to the MK fireworks, ferries and the electric water pageant. When staying at Poly, I much prefer staying at a longhouse away from the water just for the noise factor alone. The only other reason it could be worth it is if you want to take advantage of the extra FP+ that CL guests can book 90 days prior for an extra $50 per person per day.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

To me, it depends. For one, not all CLs are created equal. Sometimes CL may have a room/view/locational advantage, sometimes not.

Do you mind if I ask which resort/CL? That impacts my opinion to some extent.

 

[rwdavis2]

Not for $130 a day. No way.

 

[timsueshd]

To me, it depends. For one, not all CLs are created equal. Sometimes CL may have a room/view/locational advantage, sometimes not.

Do you mind if I ask which resort/CL? That impacts my opinion to some extent.

I am looking at Animal Kingdom.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I am looking at Animal Kingdom.

Ahh, ok - that’s one I have not tried. You may also want to ask your question on the CL thread, there are a lot of knowledgeable people over there with experience with AKL CL that may be able to offer some perspective.

 

[mickeynut1]

We don't stay CL every trip, but when we do, it's more for the lounge than the food offerings. The food offerings are a nice perk, but that's not the main reason we stay CL. Sometimes we're there for apps and desserts, sometimes we're not, but we don't make a point to go back to the resort just to be there during those times. We love having the lounge for another place to sit and relax other than in our room or around the resort, so CL is worth the extra cost to us even if we don't take advantage of the food offerings. With that said, if the extra cost is doable, I think I'd give CL a try. Good luck!

 

[nascargirl]

We usually stay CL at either the BWI or Beach Club. We enjoy having breakfast in the lounge before we head out to the parks. When we go to MK, we do not make it a point to come back in the afternoon for snacks unless the weather is not good or we just had enough of the crowds. We tend to make our dinner plans around 7pm so we can enjoy the evening appetizers. The nice thing about staying CL at the EPCOT resorts is, you can head back to the resort and regroup.

 

[starry_solo]

I think it depends on whether you will make use of the services. When I stayed at AKV Concierge (through the DVC component), we (two of us) had a relaxing stay during the time of the concierge. We didn't make it back for their afternoon snack (which is fine), but we used the breakfast, "dinner" (appetizers) and dessert times daily (3 nights).

Here are pictures of what they had available when I was there (May 2017). There is a computer screen that loops through what offerings they have.

 

[starry_solo]

 

[starry_solo]

I actually made it back towards the end of the afternoon tea offerings and only saw scones on 1 day.

 

[starry_solo]

 

[starry_solo]

 

[starry_solo]

Neither of us drink a lot, just on occasion, so I think my companion had one of the signature drinks (the sunrise Sangria). We took a red eye flight from LAX to MCO so we could enjoy the full day of concierge activities (and a quick nap in the lounge [one at a time, lol]) while waiting for the room to be ready. They are supposed to provide you the Kilimanjaro Mimosa upon arrival, but as the concierge desk wasn't even open at that time (we arrived shortly before 7 am), the front desk let us up.

We ate lunch at one of the other resort restaurants (I forgot which).

 

[OneinThree]

The consensus among people who have stayed CL (including myself), seems to be that no, it's not technically "worth it" in the straight financial sense. There are subjective factors to consider as well I think, such as convenience.