Resort Thread Disney's Club Level (CL) Thread

[tinabina919]

@mrsap Hahah my DH too!!!

 

[trishadono]

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Thanks for the pix! Have fun!

 

[TJA]

Sorry I’m late guys!
Evening offerings last night

 

[TJA]

This was sadly the only “kid” offering. This pot sat all alone….we will ask tonight if they plan to have more options in the coming days.

 

[TJA]

 

[mrsap]

This was sadly the only “kid” offering. This pot sat all alone….we will ask tonight if they plan to have more options in the coming days.
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I’d still eat that instead of everything else you posted.

 

[TJA]

Dessert last night

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I’d still eat that instead of everything else you posted. ☹

Right? I'm very blessed in many ways, but an expansive palate is not one of those traits. I know I'll never be able stay CL at GDT due to the food offerings. I'd have to import some chicken nuggets on most nights, lol. However, the rest of my family would absolutely love the offerings!!

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

Dessert last night

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I could definitely handle these dessert offerings!! Thank you for posting all of the pics!!

 

[TJA]

Breakfast this morning - I’ll post the only differences today from yesterday.

Cinnamon bread


Frittata


Bread pudding

 

[mrsap]

Right? I'm very blessed in many ways, but an expansive palate is not one of those traits. I know I'll never be able stay CL at GDT due to the food offerings. I'd have to import some chicken nuggets on most nights, lol. However, the rest of my family would absolutely love the offerings!!

Same here!!!! I’m a horrible eater! I’m content with the kids offerings, but the selections here overall are quite disappointing compared to what they offered pre-Covid. I don’t even see any of my favorite types of wine. *sigh*

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Is that the first Truly sighting in a CL lounge?

 

[jemtx]

Breakfast this morning - I’ll post the only differences today from yesterday.

Cinnamon bread
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Frittata
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Bread pudding
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The frittata and bread pudding bites look good. Glad to see that they have some hot items. The breakfast spread looks very nice.

 

[trishadono]

I’d still eat that instead of everything else you posted. ☹

I am glad I switched to akl cl for Jan. I am a fussy eater, those don't work for me either.

Everythink LOOKS wonderful at least. @TJA thanks for posting.

 

[mrsap]

I am glad I switched to akl cl for Jan. I am a fussy eater, those don't work for me either.

Everythink LOOKS wonderful at least. @TJA thanks for posting.

We really wanted to try GDT, since our reservation was canceled last year. I don’t want to be completely negative about it, the lounge is beautiful and I’m excited to at least try it. It’s still CL after all. I most likely will change our summer reservation, unless I get outvoted lol

@TJA thanks for the pictures! My DH is happy lol

 

[TJA]

Breakfast has been good both days. Dinner last night wasn’t great for me and DH. My girls loved the tuna and loaded up on that.

With afternoon snacks being from 12-4, I don’t think we’re going to make it any of our days. Our trip is short so we’re doing a lot of park hopping during that time.

Forgot from this morning - they added bags of apples and grapes and Perrier:

 

[Teloria]

I've got a question for those of you who are seasoned Club Level visitors. (Or just those of you who might have an opinion on this!) How many of your meals do you "plan" to be from the CL lounge versus making ADRs? What does a typical park day look like for you in terms of quick service, table dining, and club level lounge? I am really torn about how to plan our trip. We hit our two ADR windows this week and I booked a ton of stuff, but then looking at the pictures of the lounge, I feel like I'm "wasting" it.

For context, we are doing 4 nights at Poly CL, and 4 nights at AKL CL. We have 7 park days planned. (MK, EP, MK, AK, HS, EP, HS is the current order just based on the ADRs I got.) No park hopping. Two adults and a child in the room, but my local mom and sister will be joining us at the parks during the day. Some concerns with party members needing "breaks" which is why I initially booked a ton of ADRs.

This is my 7y/o's first Disney trip, and my spouse and I have not been in ~30 years so it might as well be our first time, too. We do not think we will do a trip "like this" again, but with a Disney employee family member, we will probably visit parks sometimes in the future when we come down to visit family.

Really interested in everyone's perspective on this!

 

[Ricguz]

I've got a question for those of you who are seasoned Club Level visitors. (Or just those of you who might have an opinion on this!) How many of your meals do you "plan" to be from the CL lounge versus making ADRs? What does a typical park day look like for you in terms of quick service, table dining, and club level lounge? I am really torn about how to plan our trip. We hit our two ADR windows this week and I booked a ton of stuff, but then looking at the pictures of the lounge, I feel like I'm "wasting" it.

For context, we are doing 4 nights at Poly CL, and 4 nights at AKL CL. We have 7 park days planned. (MK, EP, MK, AK, HS, EP, HS is the current order just based on the ADRs I got.) No park hopping. Two adults and a child in the room, but my local mom and sister will be joining us at the parks during the day. Some concerns with party members needing "breaks" which is why I initially booked a ton of ADRs.

This is my 7y/o's first Disney trip, and my spouse and I have not been in ~30 years so it might as well be our first time, too. We do not think we will do a trip "like this" again, but with a Disney employee family member, we will probably visit parks sometimes in the future when we come down to visit family.

Really interested in everyone's perspective on this!

Hopefully this will help you and I understand your situation. Having staying at BC/YC CL every other year for the past 8 years. The first two times we used a dining plan plus club level. That was an extreme waste of time and money. Too much food and wasting a lot of time eating at restaurants and not getting the value for the club level. So the answer I would give you the last two club level Disney trips, we did not do dining plans only club level with just few restaurants dining at night.
I think breakfast at club level is enough so you don’t need to spend money at that. If you want to do a special character breakfast once, that would be wonderful for your 7 year old.
At club level lunch time is pretty basic snack food and small PBJ sandwiches, so you will need quick service at the parks. Save money by not using ADR all week, it will cost you a ton and take up a lot of time on the parks.
For dinner I feel that CL food is enough to feed anyone. Others will tell you that dinner at CL should be just a taste for everyone not designed for eating dinner. I disagree especially when Disney is taking every nickel and dime we make today. I think it’s enough. I would supplement a couple of times during the week to eat somewhere special midday or close to dinner time so you could save a few of those ADR for that, but don’t buy dessert. Use CL for dessert at night. This will save you time and especially money.

 

[Teloria]

Thanks so much -- your reply makes sense. When I look at my list of ADRs, I see stuff that I wouldn't be heartbroken to let go of, but then I think if we dine in CL, those are meals my mom and sister cannot join us for since they are not staying in the room with us. And THAT has me think... well, heck... would it be cheaper to just add them both to our reservation even though they won't be sleeping there? Plus they would get to do early entry with us, then...

I am sure I am overanalyzing this whole darn thing. I do that way too much with vacations!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I've got a question for those of you who are seasoned Club Level visitors. (Or just those of you who might have an opinion on this!) How many of your meals do you "plan" to be from the CL lounge versus making ADRs? What does a typical park day look like for you in terms of quick service, table dining, and club level lounge? I am really torn about how to plan our trip. We hit our two ADR windows this week and I booked a ton of stuff, but then looking at the pictures of the lounge, I feel like I'm "wasting" it.

For context, we are doing 4 nights at Poly CL, and 4 nights at AKL CL. We have 7 park days planned. (MK, EP, MK, AK, HS, EP, HS is the current order just based on the ADRs I got.) No park hopping. Two adults and a child in the room, but my local mom and sister will be joining us at the parks during the day. Some concerns with party members needing "breaks" which is why I initially booked a ton of ADRs.

This is my 7y/o's first Disney trip, and my spouse and I have not been in ~30 years so it might as well be our first time, too. We do not think we will do a trip "like this" again, but with a Disney employee family member, we will probably visit parks sometimes in the future when we come down to visit family.

Really interested in everyone's perspective on this!

TLDR, sorry!

Even without CL, I bet you find yourself canceling (or wanting to cancel) some of your ADRs/plans along the way as you figure out how to “do Disney” to best suit the preferences of you and your crew. No matter how much time you spend planning it all now, inevitably you may find yourself wanting to change things up when there. So in some ways, I wouldn’t sweat getting it all ‘perfect’ and keeping your ADR plans probably makes the most sense. Heck, even now I over-do ADRs and start canceling somewhat frequently when there - overhauling what I had originally spent a lot of time figuring out! Opps!

But as to your question… you’ll get lots of perspectives. For us - CL breakfast is generally the only true meal substitute. We’ll almost always eat breakfast in the lounge, with an occasional exception for a special character breakfast (eg, Tusker House at Animal Kingdom) or something similar just to break things up if it’s a longer trip.

A ‘normal’ day for us would then often include a table service lunch out in the parks or a resort somewhere, then back to the resort for some pool or downtime. If we haven’t eaten out in the parks, then maybe a late pool lunch (love, love love, the food at the Oasis Pool at Poly, for example). If lunch has been big (which tends to be the case at many WDW restaurants), then we can sometimes get by w/ lounge apps for dinner. Many times we’re just not all that hungry by that point - small plates are plenty for the adults and the kids are fine with uncustables or chicken nuggets. Other times we do want a ‘proper’ dinner. It really just depends on the mood of the crew, weather, etc - and that’s what’s so hard to predict for us.

I probably skip or late modify dinner ADRs way more than I should admit.

Since CL offerings vary, whether what they have is ‘enough’ to pass for a dinner is going to vary by resort - and by personal opinion. We’ll have to see what Poly CL is like when it reopens, but in past times I wouldn’t really call it a dinner substitute, except for light bite/small plate eaters. AKL CL is a little more hearty, perhaps. But I’m probably splitting hairs there.

One thing we don’t do is ‘force’ our plans around the lounge schedule, other than breakfast. If we’re around for evening apps, great - if not, we don’t sweat it. We’ve had trips where we end up partaking nightly and others where timing just didn’t work out - sometimes it’s just part of the ebb and flow of a random Disney day, even if we didn’t take full advantage of CL. And if I need to bail on that coveted dinner ADR because we ended up content in the lounge, so be it.

Although it has taken years for us to figure out what sort of day works best for us… and even then that has tended to change as the kids get older (mine are 7 and 11 for reference).

The best thing about CL is that you have options and flexibility. Often CL CMs can help cancel ADRs last minute as well, which can be handy if you find yourself totally overhauling your plans when there.

Sorry that was long and winding, but just our perspective and how we use CL.

Have fun!