Someone asked about the best CL a while back, and I thought I'd throw in our two cents! We've stayed at all the deluxe resorts and all the CLs except for YC. Right now, we'd say WL CL overall. That's based on the atmosphere, lounge set up (love the tables that are both spread out and overlooking the lobby) and the friendly, genuinely helpful but not in-your-face CMs. In our opinion, BC and RPC win for food offerings. But our final decisions are a mix of resort and resort CL (if we're staying CL) so we still love to stay at a number of different resorts based on the discounts available, length of stay, purpose of the trip, etc.
The things I liked better about RPC- you get to hear the piano and band from the lounge and some of the rooms. Best part personally!! Then 2nd for me is once you've returned via monorail or bus, it's a quick walk to your room. (It is further though from the boat...)
I enjoyed RPC much more than I expected before staying there. And the band/piano is one of the reasons! Walking out of the room, to the room, and around the lounge was just plain relaxing. Probably one of the most relaxing to-and-fro room experiences at WDW. And for our RPC stay last year, I was traveling on my own with our three boys just days before I ran the WDW marathon. So saying that it was relaxing means a lot! Our boys don't love GF, so we're not likely to stay there in the near future, but I was so glad we decided to stay in the main building.
We're staying in a CL 1 Bdrm suite at BC from Oct 1-13. I've stayed CL before but this will be the first time that we are staying in a room that is not actually on the CL floor. Can I get some advice here? We like the extra room that a 1 bedroom suite offers but I can't decide if it is worth the extra "travel" to get to the lounge and the concierge desk. We use the lounge every morning for a quick breakfast so that we can schedule our character breakfasts later in the morning. We spend our afternoons at the pool, so we do stop by and get snacks and drinks before and after pool time, and sometimes before or after our evening park visits, so we do make use of the lounge quite a bit.
For anyone who has stayed in a room on another level, what are your thoughts? TIA
We've stayed at BC several times, including stays in a regular CL room, a deluxe CL room (another floor) and a 2-bedroom suite. My parents stayed in the one-bedroom suite one trip. So in our experience, it's a bit of a hike. We actually declined a complimentary upgrade from a regular CL room to a deluxe CL room at BC last year because we really wanted to be on the same floor as the lounge. It's not the walking - I'm a runner and I don't mind walking around at the parks or the resorts. It's just that when going to the lounge for coffee or a quick snack, it's nice to have it nearby. Also, the CMs seem to recognize us more easily when we're on the same floor. A friend of mine also stayed in the 2-bedroom suite at BC with her family and we agreed the CL CMs would always do a double-take when we walked into the lounge from the elevator. Not that they have been overly friendly when we've stayed on the same floor as the lounge at BC, but it's just a little bit more comfortable.
I should add that having a room on a different floor was a negative at AKL - not very convenient. But at RPC, we didn't mind at all. We could see the lounge from the exterior of our room door, so it was really just around the corner and up the short, carpeted stairs.