Question - I need opinions. I have always stayed at MK resorts so the Epcot ones are new to me. If I wanted a room with a king bed and a full balcony on club level, which should I choose? Yacht, Beach or Boardwalk? Is there one that would have a better chance of receiving that request? TIA
Disney's Club Level (CL) Information & Questions
- Thread starter TigrLvsPooh
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DisneyLifePapioNe
UOAP
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2017
1. YC
2. BWI
3. BC
Oh your in for a real treat staying at these beautiful resorts!!!
gillep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2009
I wanted to come back to this thread to give my experiences in our Tonga Honeymoon Room #4.
First, this room was booked as a comped room due to some issues we had at the Yacht Club last year. We were supposed to have used these Poly days in April as a split stay with the Wilderness Lodge for the half marathon, but we had electrical issues at home and had to cut our trip short before we moved to the Poly. A very kind manager at WL took all our information and said she would get the comp nights back, which she did, and we booked two nights in a Lagoon view room to start out this trip before we moved to BCV.
While on our private Magical Express I checked MDE and that's where I saw that instead of Lagoon View our resort was listed as Honeymoon Room- Club Level. I had no idea what this meant until kind Disers let me know how awesome of an upgrade this was.
Room pics have been previously posted, but I wanted to post the view from the room as well as what is located in the wardrobe cupboards.
We checked in at the main lobby and then were whisked away to the Hawaii building where we met the CL CMs working the desks downstairs and then had a light breakfast prior to going to Epcot and Disney Springs.
Our room was ready when we got back (it was ready around 11:30am). We used our MBs to enter the Tonga building, met the CM working that desk and he gave us information on the building itself and the amenities provided to us, here are some pictures of the upstairs 'lounge' area in Tonga, including a closeup of the syrups in case you are wondering the flavors.
Will continue with impressions in the next post.
First, this room was booked as a comped room due to some issues we had at the Yacht Club last year. We were supposed to have used these Poly days in April as a split stay with the Wilderness Lodge for the half marathon, but we had electrical issues at home and had to cut our trip short before we moved to the Poly. A very kind manager at WL took all our information and said she would get the comp nights back, which she did, and we booked two nights in a Lagoon view room to start out this trip before we moved to BCV.
While on our private Magical Express I checked MDE and that's where I saw that instead of Lagoon View our resort was listed as Honeymoon Room- Club Level. I had no idea what this meant until kind Disers let me know how awesome of an upgrade this was.
Room pics have been previously posted, but I wanted to post the view from the room as well as what is located in the wardrobe cupboards.
We checked in at the main lobby and then were whisked away to the Hawaii building where we met the CL CMs working the desks downstairs and then had a light breakfast prior to going to Epcot and Disney Springs.
Our room was ready when we got back (it was ready around 11:30am). We used our MBs to enter the Tonga building, met the CM working that desk and he gave us information on the building itself and the amenities provided to us, here are some pictures of the upstairs 'lounge' area in Tonga, including a closeup of the syrups in case you are wondering the flavors.
Will continue with impressions in the next post.
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reluctantredhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2018
I would definitely book one of the Garden Cottages at BWI! They only come with king beds, so that part of your wish list would definitely be fulfilled. The other part would be the full balcony...most of the Garden Cottages have that, but others have a full patio instead (all of these rooms are two story), so you would definitely need to put in a request for that. However, most of the Garden Cottages do have the full balcony (I think I remember being told that only 2 or 3 don't), so more than likely that request would be granted.
The Garden Cottages are our favorite rooms on WDW property...we've stayed in them twice (once with the balcony, and once with the patio), and we have that room category booked for 3 upcoming stays as well. If you search my old posts you can see photos of both of the rooms we've stayed in.
gillep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2009
I have no idea why that one picture is both a full image and an attachment and I can't seem to fix it, I am having every problem posting pictures this morning.
Anyway, we spent the rest of Saturday just lounging around the Poly, we hung out at the pool, had many libations at the Trader Sam's terrace and watched the fireworks from the beach. The next morning we had Tonga Toast delivered and hung around the Poly more until brunch at CA Grill, then more relaxing until the Halloween Party. On our final morning we again had Tonga Toast delivered and hung out around the resort until we Ubered to BCV to do F&W at Epcot. I wish we would have been able to hang around the resort more, but we had no idea we were getting upgraded and had plans that were already set in stone so we worked around it to try and spend as much time enjoying our upgrade as possible.
These are just my opinions and feelings based on my past stays and the little time we had to enjoy all the Poly has to offer.
Room:
I have read a lot about how bad the Poly resort rooms are, the honeymoon room #4 in Tonga is in great shape, some of the fixtures like the light switches and hardware on the bathroom door look REALLY dated, but otherwise the room is in great shape and is awesome.
I have two room complaints and they sort of go together. 1) there were very few places to hang towels in this room. There is one fixture between the toilet and the spa tub but it is one of those fixtures that is stacked so if you want anything to dry you really can't use both or one wet towel will just be hanging on top of the other, completely defeating the purpose. There was nowhere to hang the towels on the back of the bathroom door, and the towel rack above the toilet is just shelves with no rungs to hang anything. We ended up getting creative but this was a little annoying, especially coupled with the next issue. 2) the shower door has no seal either on the bottom or the side, water was just POURING out the bottom of the shower onto the floor. We had to use the bathmat and then roll up a large towel to stuff there that of course got soaking wet and we had to figure out how to dry. There was a basket for wet towels in the bathroom, it just felt really odd putting a soaking wet towel in there, so this might just be a 'me' issue as I could have just thrown all the towels in there and grabbed fresh ones each time, that just seems so wasteful to me so I was trying to reuse things which wasn't a great option in this room.
The view/patio: I loved the view however, it felt very exposed compared to what I am used to, there were always numerous people passing by when I was out there, so I didn't spend nearly as much time as I usually do there, I even felt a little awkward applying my sunscreen on the patio.
Resort:
So much to do at the Poly, it is a fantastic resort in that regard. I don't like the monorail at all, and usually try to avoid it at all costs, but felt like I needed to use it for this trip and only had one minor issue, which was that the AC in our car didn't work, but it was fine because we didn't get stopped at all. The resort felt like there were more kids, and younger kids, than I usually encounter, which makes sense for a MK resort and also the way the resort is set up it just has a lot of open areas right in the heart of the resort outside the main doors that makes sense for kids to congregate and play!
We didn't really like the Lava pool, I felt like there was much less shade than the resort pools we are used to (Jambo and SAB), it also felt really small and very crowded. I wish we had spent more time at the Oasis pool, but we wanted to try the main pool. Definitely not a resort that I personally would look forward to for the pool, but it is still a great pool and the view obviously can't be beat.
Club Level Hawaii building and Tonga:
The Tonga lounge and food delivery was awesome, such a great addition for people in that building who may not always want to walk over to the Hawaii building!
This is only our third CL resort. We have stayed CL at AKL about 10 times and WL once. The building is awesome, great view, great location. I did not like the setup of the food service area though. It felt very cramped and like I was always in the way in that small area with so many things there, and with that island with the beverages right there, just not my favorite setup by far. The food was just OK for us, they seemed to have a lot more individually plated options than we are used to and fewer large platters and large dutch ovens of items. The oatmeal was also served late a couple mornings, usually not out until closer to 7:30/7:40. If I had to choose I would go with AKL for food, it is just more to our taste and we like how it is served better.
I also found the CMs here to be much less overtly helpful than both AKL and WL. When at either of these places CMs would often come and ask if we needed anything, but that never happened at the Poly, I always had to go up to someone to ask for a beverage, which usually meant that I had to stand around that already cramped service area to make sure they could find me again. It wasn't that the CMs weren't friendly, they were, I just noticed a very different style of service and it wasn't my preference. There were also often tables empty of persons but piled with dirty dishes, maybe they were short staffed these particular days, this is something that although I have had happen at AKL when it is really busy, I find isn't as regular of an occurrence there and never happened the few days I was at WL although the lounge was usually practically empty the days I was there.
Overall, we found that the Poly had a very different feel than we are used to. We both felt that it had a more energetic feel than we are used to and I think that makes sense being an MK resort. The minute we arrived at the BC lobby we both looked at one another and noted how much more relaxed we felt, although this could also just be familiarity on our parts. I was never sold on the Poly, it always seemed really hectic to me when we visited, but my opinion of the Poly greatly increased from staying there. I wouldn't want to spend a long trip there, but 2-3 nights as part of a split stay with an Epcot resort would be absolutely perfect for us. I don't think we would pay to stay in the Hawaii building, we just didn't like the food and service enough that it would make sense for us, although I would absolutely stay in that Tonga room again if the chance comes. If I am choosing a CL stay I would still choose AKL hands down, or try something new at YC or BC.
OK this is getting long. Thank you to EVERYONE in this thread for your well wishes and information on Tonga and the Poly CL, it was so helpful, you all are awesome! Truly one of the best threads on the Dis! I will be at AKL CL again in January and are looking forward to posting here again. Let me know if you have any questions.
Anyway, we spent the rest of Saturday just lounging around the Poly, we hung out at the pool, had many libations at the Trader Sam's terrace and watched the fireworks from the beach. The next morning we had Tonga Toast delivered and hung around the Poly more until brunch at CA Grill, then more relaxing until the Halloween Party. On our final morning we again had Tonga Toast delivered and hung out around the resort until we Ubered to BCV to do F&W at Epcot. I wish we would have been able to hang around the resort more, but we had no idea we were getting upgraded and had plans that were already set in stone so we worked around it to try and spend as much time enjoying our upgrade as possible.
These are just my opinions and feelings based on my past stays and the little time we had to enjoy all the Poly has to offer.
Room:
I have read a lot about how bad the Poly resort rooms are, the honeymoon room #4 in Tonga is in great shape, some of the fixtures like the light switches and hardware on the bathroom door look REALLY dated, but otherwise the room is in great shape and is awesome.
I have two room complaints and they sort of go together. 1) there were very few places to hang towels in this room. There is one fixture between the toilet and the spa tub but it is one of those fixtures that is stacked so if you want anything to dry you really can't use both or one wet towel will just be hanging on top of the other, completely defeating the purpose. There was nowhere to hang the towels on the back of the bathroom door, and the towel rack above the toilet is just shelves with no rungs to hang anything. We ended up getting creative but this was a little annoying, especially coupled with the next issue. 2) the shower door has no seal either on the bottom or the side, water was just POURING out the bottom of the shower onto the floor. We had to use the bathmat and then roll up a large towel to stuff there that of course got soaking wet and we had to figure out how to dry. There was a basket for wet towels in the bathroom, it just felt really odd putting a soaking wet towel in there, so this might just be a 'me' issue as I could have just thrown all the towels in there and grabbed fresh ones each time, that just seems so wasteful to me so I was trying to reuse things which wasn't a great option in this room.
The view/patio: I loved the view however, it felt very exposed compared to what I am used to, there were always numerous people passing by when I was out there, so I didn't spend nearly as much time as I usually do there, I even felt a little awkward applying my sunscreen on the patio.
Resort:
So much to do at the Poly, it is a fantastic resort in that regard. I don't like the monorail at all, and usually try to avoid it at all costs, but felt like I needed to use it for this trip and only had one minor issue, which was that the AC in our car didn't work, but it was fine because we didn't get stopped at all. The resort felt like there were more kids, and younger kids, than I usually encounter, which makes sense for a MK resort and also the way the resort is set up it just has a lot of open areas right in the heart of the resort outside the main doors that makes sense for kids to congregate and play!
We didn't really like the Lava pool, I felt like there was much less shade than the resort pools we are used to (Jambo and SAB), it also felt really small and very crowded. I wish we had spent more time at the Oasis pool, but we wanted to try the main pool. Definitely not a resort that I personally would look forward to for the pool, but it is still a great pool and the view obviously can't be beat.
Club Level Hawaii building and Tonga:
The Tonga lounge and food delivery was awesome, such a great addition for people in that building who may not always want to walk over to the Hawaii building!
This is only our third CL resort. We have stayed CL at AKL about 10 times and WL once. The building is awesome, great view, great location. I did not like the setup of the food service area though. It felt very cramped and like I was always in the way in that small area with so many things there, and with that island with the beverages right there, just not my favorite setup by far. The food was just OK for us, they seemed to have a lot more individually plated options than we are used to and fewer large platters and large dutch ovens of items. The oatmeal was also served late a couple mornings, usually not out until closer to 7:30/7:40. If I had to choose I would go with AKL for food, it is just more to our taste and we like how it is served better.
I also found the CMs here to be much less overtly helpful than both AKL and WL. When at either of these places CMs would often come and ask if we needed anything, but that never happened at the Poly, I always had to go up to someone to ask for a beverage, which usually meant that I had to stand around that already cramped service area to make sure they could find me again. It wasn't that the CMs weren't friendly, they were, I just noticed a very different style of service and it wasn't my preference. There were also often tables empty of persons but piled with dirty dishes, maybe they were short staffed these particular days, this is something that although I have had happen at AKL when it is really busy, I find isn't as regular of an occurrence there and never happened the few days I was at WL although the lounge was usually practically empty the days I was there.
Overall, we found that the Poly had a very different feel than we are used to. We both felt that it had a more energetic feel than we are used to and I think that makes sense being an MK resort. The minute we arrived at the BC lobby we both looked at one another and noted how much more relaxed we felt, although this could also just be familiarity on our parts. I was never sold on the Poly, it always seemed really hectic to me when we visited, but my opinion of the Poly greatly increased from staying there. I wouldn't want to spend a long trip there, but 2-3 nights as part of a split stay with an Epcot resort would be absolutely perfect for us. I don't think we would pay to stay in the Hawaii building, we just didn't like the food and service enough that it would make sense for us, although I would absolutely stay in that Tonga room again if the chance comes. If I am choosing a CL stay I would still choose AKL hands down, or try something new at YC or BC.
OK this is getting long. Thank you to EVERYONE in this thread for your well wishes and information on Tonga and the Poly CL, it was so helpful, you all are awesome! Truly one of the best threads on the Dis! I will be at AKL CL again in January and are looking forward to posting here again. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you so much! They all look beautiful. Normally I wouldn't be so picky but we are planning a more relaxing resort stay so club level combined with the room would be great.
gillep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2009
One more thing, this has nothing to do with Poly or CL but I know many posters here are frequent guests and may find this useful.
I have been having issues with my MBs the last couple trips, likely because I have too many in my account. When I was at WL the CL CM said she could remove some for me, but I had never heard of non IT CMs being able to do this so I declined with the plan to contact IT between trips, which never happened.
Both DH and I were having issues at BCV opening various doors while chatting with the front desk CM fixing it I mentioned my IT plan and she said she could remove any deactivated ones. I took her up on her offer as I had just gone through and deactivated the ones I knew I wasn't using with a plan to call IT and it worked! I went from 40 MBs and cards to 17 and all my MB issues went away!
I have been having issues with my MBs the last couple trips, likely because I have too many in my account. When I was at WL the CL CM said she could remove some for me, but I had never heard of non IT CMs being able to do this so I declined with the plan to contact IT between trips, which never happened.
Both DH and I were having issues at BCV opening various doors while chatting with the front desk CM fixing it I mentioned my IT plan and she said she could remove any deactivated ones. I took her up on her offer as I had just gone through and deactivated the ones I knew I wasn't using with a plan to call IT and it worked! I went from 40 MBs and cards to 17 and all my MB issues went away!
KrazeeK120
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 29, 2012
most of the garden cottages have a patio. I think there are 3 with a balcony.
mickeynut1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2007
.Is this picture in your room? I just wanna know if club rooms have free drinks in the fridge, and if they get replenished during your stay.
gillep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2009
Yes, that was in our room and stocked throughout our stay. Not sure if this is a Tonga specific thing or if the regular CL rooms have this as well. We have never had this when staying in the DVC CL rooms at AKL.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
It’s Tonga-specific. :-(
Although regular CL rooms obviously have access to the stocked fridge in the CL lounge. No bottled water there though.
trishadono
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2011
Enjoyed your review!
My fav foods are AKl, WL, BC . Yet Poly is my fav, I enjoy the “fun” or also called hectic of poly.
Ya, waiting for a drink is awkward. Tomorrow I’ll be at CSR cl and they beverages are out noon -10P . Easy peasy!
I haven’t had a bad experience at any cl but didn’t love BC, it was only one night , sterile lounge, unfriendly cm’s yet food was good.
Oh I have been going to the Oasis pool at poly for years. I love that space! Hawaiian music, infinity pool, drink my POGmosa sitting in the water.... ahhhhh....
PPFlight75
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2015
We just booked BWI CL for our 20th anniversary Yay!
We were thinking we would try something new, but we love BWI and the Epcot area so I think this will be perfect for us! We are really looking forward to it and hoping for some after-hour events!!
We were thinking we would try something new, but we love BWI and the Epcot area so I think this will be perfect for us! We are really looking forward to it and hoping for some after-hour events!!
reluctantredhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2018
Ack! Sorry I got it backwards! Thank you for correcting me.
AngiTN
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2011
I never do them and at this time never plan to
I do not want FP I can’t change myself
Besides that we’ve never needed more
They are times we’ve gotten bonus FP over our 3 and I can’t tell how many times we’ve let them go unused
AngiTN
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2011
The CL staff can remove them with no issues. They went in and removed all the ones I’d deactivated
Sarahslay
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2017
Only three of the garden cottages actually have a balcony, the others don't, I believe they are room numbers 1205-1207. The others have the nice little patio out front but no balcony. You can see them on a room map on touring plans, they are situated "long ways" as I would put it (don't know how else to describe it lol). I have one booked for January and have been doing a stupid amount of research on them considering it's just a hotel room.
Sarahslay
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2017
This might be a stupid question, I'm gonna ask it anyway lol. I stay CL all the time but have not taken advantage of the extra paid FP program before, I just had the thought of booking it for my solo trip in January since my 90 day mark is coming in less than a month, but is the program still running? I hadn't heard anyone talk about it so I wasn't sure and didn't want to waste a CMs time (or my own) calling about it if it's no longer available.
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