Resort Thread Disney's Club Level (CL) Thread

[TJA]

Ok I'm going to review the AKL CL portion of our stay. We were there for 2 nights last week (April 10 and 11). Our flight down was delayed, unfortunately, so we missed our ROL FP! But, I'm always looking for a bright side to things, and we got to fly during sunset with some magnificent views!


Arrival at AKL was late (10:07pm). I had received my text room number (way earlier - we were driving to the airport!), so after finding a CM to ask directions we finally found our way to our room. We had Room 4215 Kudu Trail. We thought this was a perfect location! It was near the rocks/water, but we loved that view plus a view of animals at the same time - two great views in one!


Straight ahead/slight right:




To the slight left:



Getting around wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be. Our room was on the 4th floor and the lounge on the 6th floor. In a nutshell, there is a large open lobby down below like at the GF RPC and WL. So when exiting our room, we walked towards the lobby noise and just traced the lobby until we got to the elevators to go up to the lounge or down to restaurants/pool/lobby.

However, we found an easier way for lounge access! There was actually a staircase closer to our room than the elevator was. And it led right up to the lounge (the side part where there are a few tables and charging station - opposite to where the CM desks are located. I believe @trishadono got a perfect picture of this location in her January trip pics in this thread). Maybe this staircase is what is known as the "secret stairs" that I’ve read about on here? They led to the 5th floor where the gated entry is. Go through the gate and then down to the 4th floor where our room was not too far from that!

Just tap your MB to use the gated entry:



There was also a different staircase just a few doors down from our room, and this was a beautiful staircase that led down to everywhere else. So glad we found this!




> A small gesture of a welcome gift goes a long way: (trail mix inside, along with CL and resort info, bday pins)



> The large toiletries (and small too):



> Large complimentary water bottle:



> Very cute and cozy room:



> A small perfectly-sized nook (adjoining door) to keep our luggage:



To be continued....

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

@DisneyFansInNYC Nice to see you on the thread! Do you have a trip planned for this year?? I always love your videos!

Yes - I have been off the Disboards for a while with tax season. Thank you so much for the compliment. We too love to make the videos. The one we made last summer for our DDs 21st birthday - was so much fun. Yes we are going for two weeks this summer - The BWI CL and the Poly CL. I can't wait. We were trying to take a smaller trip but probably won't make a video. Thanks again. It is fun to be back on the Disboards.

 

[TJA]

Continued AKL CL pics/review:

> Close quarters in the bathroom! Bathroom door barely cleared the toilet and tub:




Before going onto the CL food, I just wanted to touch on a few things. We loved this AKL CL so much, but there are some resort drawbacks for us. (1) the buses! We are used to what we're used to (monorail, walking path, boat) so it's hard for my family to stay at a bus resort. However, for just going to AK park it's great. We did have to stand both times on the bus, but it's a very short drive so not a big deal. (2) the beds! We are a family of 4 with 2 teens. DH and I are used to a king bed, while my kids each have their own queen bed. These beds at AKL felt like double beds? They were very small and hard! At least compared to what we're used to. Next time we stay there, we will most likely pack some sort of air mattress. Otherwise, AKL CL was an awesome experience! And we'll definitely stay there again!

Now back on track to the good stuff! Given our flight delay down, we only truly had one full day/night, but we made sure to hit breakfast, snacks, dinner apps, dessert! We were back and forth to AK park a few times that day/night...

> Dinner apps:

Chef’s station: Sausage stew first (very good!)



Chef's station: Bunny stew (didn't try it)


Chef's station: Bad quality picture but I couldn't find a good time to take this picture!


Food was really good for my taste - loved the stew and different sides like eggplant and olives:















To be continued....

 

[TJA]

Continued AKL CL pics/review:

> Afternoon sugar snacks were great - wow! Loved all 3 of these. I think these were out at dessert time too??




Breakfast is a blur to me. I had DD take a picture of the refrigerator which contained the greek yogurt that I ate. We were in a major rush and lounge was jam packed, so I didn't get pics of the food station. They had all the normal stuff (hard boiled eggs, fruit, pastries, oatmeal....) - same things as posted by @trishadono in her January pics!




> Drinks were great (loved the sangria!), but we were not fans of the alcohol setup (or non-setup). Having to find a CM in a busy lounge to ask for drinks wasn’t overly convenient, sad to say. Not a deal breaker for us, though! Just wish they'd reconsider.



Loved the larger to-go cups here at AKL CL. Note: GF SL had the smaller to-go cups.




Side note: the health club is VERY nice! I wish I had thought to take some pictures. Not really conveniently located to where our room was, but since we only had one real day there, we were fine with it! Only thing I thought was odd - no filtered water in the health club. Just a water fountain.

So in conclusion, AKL resort itself has a couple obstacles for my family (buses and beds), but the CL part of things was very impressive. For what it's worth, my kids (age 14) didn't love the CL dinner apps. I, on the other hand, was in heaven with the eggplant, olives, stew, and sangria! DH can eat most anything and was happy with the choices. But we've all agreed that the price is definitely right for AKL CL and we'll be back for another split stay sooner rather than later!!

 

[MGTDisney]

Tax season is over!!! We're a family whom includes a CPA too, so today is great day! We're at RPC next week to celebrate!!!

Yes - I have been off the Disboards for a while with tax season. Thank you so much for the compliment. We too love to make the videos. The one we made last summer for our DDs 21st birthday - was so much fun. Yes we are going for two weeks this summer - The BWI CL and the Poly CL. I can't wait. We were trying to take a smaller trip but probably won't make a video. Thanks again. It is fun to be back on the Disboards.

 

[trishadono]

So glad you had a great trip!



Yay! So glad you had a better experience!!

GADisneyDad please continue to post pictures!!

Okay question.....Disneyland hotel recommendations....venturing into a new world.
My 17 year old wants his graduation gift to be a trip to the west coast....Well you know how I interpret that....Do they offer same type room only discounts? How is CL?

Thanks. This would be for next April. Probably fly into Phoenix and do the Grand Canyon and Sedona for a few days then head to Cali...

I will pm you later or tomorrow. If I forget bug me! I did dl hotel last march 2016.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

I see from this thread that they changed the offering at the BWI CL. Can anyway give a review of what the BWI CL offered recently?

Thanks in advance.

 

[gottalovepluto]

My 17 year old wants his graduation gift to be a trip to the west coast....Well you know how I interpret that....Do they offer same type room only discounts? How is CL?

Thanks. This would be for next April. Probably fly into Phoenix and do the Grand Canyon and Sedona for a few days then head to Cali...

My neck of the woods! West Coast is the best Coast!

Discounts: a little different out here. Room-only yes, there are no dining plans. Discounts vary from 15%-25% on select (usually premium) rooms valid Sun nights to Thurs nights and are released a couple months out. If you are going to do it even without a discount I'd go ahead and book the hotel you want and then call to have the discount applied when it gets released. I haven't heard of anyone being told they don't have anymore discounted rooms left under the promotion like at Disney World. If you travel over Easter you might not get a discount at all because they do black-out popular travel dates.

CL: we love Grand CA CL! And the hotel is undergoing a MAJOR refurbishment this year, including the CL. There are rumors the lounge will be reworked to make offerings nicer in quantity at least (they are about half of what you see at a WDW CL I've been told). GCH has tea time, DLH does not. DLH has beautiful views of the DL fireworks from the lounge, GCH lounge can only see the top half of the fireworks show. I haven't had the chance to stay DLH CL but have heard good things, we always stay GCH CL because we LOVE the location and have wonderful service. Seriously there's nothing quite as great as getting soaked on the River Rapids and being back in the room a couple minutes later (I love water rides- but hate wet clothes). All the photos you see of the hotel insides will change lots over this year as the refurb is bringing a whole new look to the rooms. Lounge should be done around Oct, fingers crossed, so you should be able to get some reviews on that well before your trip to help you evaluate it.

ETA: DLH has bigger rooms if that's important to you, GCH rooms are similar in size to AKL.

 

[firsttimemom]

Ok I'm going to review the AKL CL portion of our stay. We were there for 2 nights last week (April 10 and 11). Our flight down was delayed, unfortunately, so we missed our ROL FP! But, I'm always looking for a bright side to things, and we got to fly during sunset with some magnificent views!
View attachment 232054


To be continued....

My sisters and I were at BWI a couple weeks ago and got back to the lounge after a long morning/afternoon of touring. I really wanted sangria one afternoon but was too tired to go find it. We were able to make some using a glass of pinot grigio, some strawberry lemonade and a splash of gingerale. LOVE staying club level.

Our first club level stay (and really DH and my first adult WDW trip) was AKL in Nov 2001. They gave my DD a wooden giraffe for her birthday. She took it with her to college this year. We have a soft spot in our hearts for that resort.

 

[firsttimemom]

Sounds fabulous! I'm excited - our only main goals for this trip are to visit F&G and to see Wishes one last time - so we plan to be at the resort for all of the offerings possible in the 36 hours we are there! Lol!

A bloody Mary bar???

it really made me wish I liked bloody marys.....

 

[firsttimemom]

I can't tell you how many times I've said I'd never go in the summer and now we are looking at 4th of July week (one kid in college with a different spring break from the one in HS, one plays a fall sport, one plays a spring sport and a December cruise so this is our only chance). I had a great girls trip to BWI so we def. want to go back there for part of our stay. I was thinking about doing poly CL for 7/3-5 but DH has mentioned wanting to stay at GF. We have never stayed at this resort. It's about $140 difference btwn outer building standard view and main building standard view (both of which are cheaper than the TPV at poly which is only thing available with my dates/code). Would love opinions on SL versus RPC. Thanks in advance!!

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

I can't tell you how many times I've said I'd never go in the summer and now we are looking at 4th of July week (one kid in college with a different spring break from the one in HS, one plays a fall sport, one plays a spring sport and a December cruise so this is our only chance). I had a great girls trip to BWI so we def. want to go back there for part of our stay. I was thinking about doing poly CL for 7/3-5 but DH has mentioned wanting to stay at GF. We have never stayed at this resort. It's about $140 difference btwn outer building standard view and main building standard view (both of which are cheaper than the TPV at poly which is only thing available with my dates/code). Would love opinions on SL versus RPC. Thanks in advance!!

We have never stayed RPC but we did stay SL. It was our first DW CL many years ago and didn't care for it. The food was plentiful but did not like any of the CMs. They were not friendly at all. Even when we checked in. It also was a lot of walking for my parents when we went to get to the buses or Monorail. The SL building has a "cold" feeling. Poly CL is by far our favorite. From when you first walk in the CMs have always been friendly. The atmosphere is so relaxing. We love to end any of our stays at the Poly. I would pick Poly or any other CL over SL. If I was going to do GF - I would do RPC.

 

[mmmears]

I can't tell you how many times I've said I'd never go in the summer and now we are looking at 4th of July week (one kid in college with a different spring break from the one in HS, one plays a fall sport, one plays a spring sport and a December cruise so this is our only chance). I had a great girls trip to BWI so we def. want to go back there for part of our stay. I was thinking about doing poly CL for 7/3-5 but DH has mentioned wanting to stay at GF. We have never stayed at this resort. It's about $140 difference btwn outer building standard view and main building standard view (both of which are cheaper than the TPV at poly which is only thing available with my dates/code). Would love opinions on SL versus RPC. Thanks in advance!!

Sugar Loaf has the same food and snacks as RPC, but it's in an outer building, so you miss out on the ambiance of overlooking the main lobby and listening to the band in the evenings. SL is much more convenient to the pools, though, and also to the boat to the MK. RPC is, of course, closer to the shops and the monorail. I've stayed at all 3 (SL, Poly TPV, and GF RPC) and personally I wouldn't pay more for the Poly than for RPC even though I do love the view from those rooms. If you are planning lots of lounge time, then RPC may be worth the $$$ difference to you. If you will just be grabbing a quick bite and leaving for the parks I think you could do that in SL and save the money. It's a tough call - one that I was grappling with last week, too. RPC is definitely feels more special, but then again you have to pay for that difference and only you can decide if it is worth the difference or not. The rooms are the same, by the way. Hope this helps.

 

[chimo2u]

Well, I've jumped ship (BC CL) and went with the men's vote for our trip (hubby and DS21/ DS25) decided to go back "home" and chose AKL CL for our November trip.... it's the family favourite, they love the buses and the unique quiet beauty of AKL. I love the CL lounge.... so we decided to go back. I feel at peace and believe we've made the best decision for everyone, we're only there for 5 days/ 1 Park per day so I think buses will be fine, if not I can uber it in a pinch. I've read many wonderful things about AKL CL and hope it's as wonderful as we remember in Jan 2008, and Sept 2009! ☺since those stays I've done BC CL Feb 2011
POLY CL Oct 2012
WL/ PO Fq Dec 2013
BWI CL Oct 2015
Each place, I've longed for our first love - AKL, maybe it's the magic of being our first resort on our first trip in 2008 -- maybe it's just AKL charm and beauty, don't know what it is but even my teen/ now adult boys always beg to go back to AKL!!! So I'm going home ☺I feel for my dear sweet TA, I've jumped from 4 seasons to YC to Beach Club Villas to BC CL and now to AKL CL! She's been a doll and humoured me through this agonizing journey to find the perfect place to stay this trip with my adult boys -- I think we finally got it right ☺

 

[menotyou21]

Yes - I have been off the Disboards for a while with tax season. Thank you so much for the compliment. We too love to make the videos. The one we made last summer for our DDs 21st birthday - was so much fun. Yes we are going for two weeks this summer - The BWI CL and the Poly CL. I can't wait. We were trying to take a smaller trip but probably won't make a video. Thanks again. It is fun to be back on the Disboards.

Happy Tax Day! My dad has a CPA firm and my whole life always revolved around tax season!! I hope you get some rest now.

 

[mmmears]

chimo2u, I totally understand your feelings about AKL CL. It's a really special resort and the lounge is just wonderful. Sometimes we really prefer to be tucked away in our own little world and I feel like a stay at AKL is a real getaway. Enjoy! :

ETA: And I can relate to your struggles to choose where to stay. I think I've made at least 6 changes to our reservations since I first made them a month ago...

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I can't tell you how many times I've said I'd never go in the summer and now we are looking at 4th of July week (one kid in college with a different spring break from the one in HS, one plays a fall sport, one plays a spring sport and a December cruise so this is our only chance). I had a great girls trip to BWI so we def. want to go back there for part of our stay. I was thinking about doing poly CL for 7/3-5 but DH has mentioned wanting to stay at GF. We have never stayed at this resort. It's about $140 difference btwn outer building standard view and main building standard view (both of which are cheaper than the TPV at poly which is only thing available with my dates/code). Would love opinions on SL versus RPC. Thanks in advance!!

If this were me, for July 4th I would choose Poly CL over GL RPC or SL no matter the cost (within reason). Head on view of the fireworks, reserved area on the beach for CL guests, etc. I have not stayed there July 4th but it's on my list sometime soon. There are several folks around that are Poly CL regulars on July 4th who can probably comment bettter than me.

As to your RPC vs. SL question, my vote would be a strong preference for RPC. I've been struggling with my own assessment of SL since my trip two weeks ago. I really liked the location of SL better than RPC, and the price was certainly materially better (cheaper rooms = more Disney CL trips, which is a big consideration for me).

But I agree with nearly everything @DisneyFansInNYC said above, particularly the comment about the CMs and cold feeling of the building. I had a lot of the same reaction. @mmmears has made some excellent points to consider as well.

I 'think' my ultimate conclusion about the GF CL's is it's RPC or bust for us. In some ways I found myself thinking I'd rather stay in a non-CL GF outer building over SL - which was an odd feeling because I'm a big CL fan.

I really hate to sound so down on SL. Like I said, I've been struggling with my own opinion. I would stay there again. We just didn't walk away with that "I don't want to leave" or "this was worth it" feeling like we have at the other MK resort CLs.

 

[mmmears]

Oooh! GADisneyDad14 makes a good point about the fireworks from the Poly on the 4th of July. That would swing things for us towards that TPV... Some of our best memories from Poly CL are watching the fireworks from our balcony.

 

[trishadono]

My neck of the woods! West Coast is the best Coast!

Discounts: a little different out here. Room-only yes, there are no dining plans. Discounts vary from 15%-25% on select (usually premium) rooms valid Sun nights to Thurs nights and are released a couple months out. If you are going to do it even without a discount I'd go ahead and book the hotel you want and then call to have the discount applied when it gets released. I haven't heard of anyone being told they don't have anymore discounted rooms left under the promotion like at Disney World. If you travel over Easter you might not get a discount at all because they do black-out popular travel dates.

CL: we love Grand CA CL! And the hotel is undergoing a MAJOR refurbishment this year, including the CL. There are rumors the lounge will be reworked to make offerings nicer in quantity at least (they are about half of what you see at a WDW CL I've been told). GCH has tea time, DLH does not. DLH has beautiful views of the DL fireworks from the lounge, GCH lounge can only see the top half of the fireworks show. I haven't had the chance to stay DLH CL but have heard good things, we always stay GCH CL because we LOVE the location and have wonderful service. Seriously there's nothing quite as great as getting soaked on the River Rapids and being back in the room a couple minutes later (I love water rides- but hate wet clothes). All the photos you see of the hotel insides will change lots over this year as the refurb is bringing a whole new look to the rooms. Lounge should be done around Oct, fingers crossed, so you should be able to get some reviews on that well before your trip to help you evaluate it.

ETA: DLH has bigger rooms if that's important to you, GCH rooms are similar in size to AKL.

@HBGdancermom

Above was a great review!

We loved traders out by the pool for during the day. We enjoyed the mix of poly and CR touches to the resort. Dh cl lounge reminded me of CR with the views up high.

Dd and I walk to/from CR several times to MK per day. However to DLH it was just that much farther we only did am and pm . If I go back I want to try Gc for location.

It was nice tho that you walked through DTD to get to/from the parks. Dd was always wanting to stop somewhere!

The hardest thing for this east coast mom was eating on cali time! 5pm appetizers were really 8pm to me. So I didn't really enjoy them because I wasn't used to eating so late/ not hungry. I also had to wait for coffee since I was up at 4am!

I love cl but think I might like to do breakfast room service and getting my own snacks during the day if I go back. My body just could not adjust to eating on cali time!

 

[trishadono]

Continued AKL CL pics/review:

> Close quarters in the bathroom! Bathroom door barely cleared the toilet and tub:

View attachment 232073


Before going onto the CL food, I just wanted to touch on a few things. We loved this AKL CL so much, but there are some resort drawbacks for us. (1) the buses! We are used to what we're used to (monorail, walking path, boat) so it's hard for my family to stay at a bus resort. However, for just going to AK park it's great. We did have to stand both times on the bus, but it's a very short drive so not a big deal. (2) the beds! We are a family of 4 with 2 teens. DH and I are used to a king bed, while my kids each have their own queen bed. These beds at AKL felt like double beds? They were very small and hard! At least compared to what we're used to. Next time we stay there, we will most likely pack some sort of air mattress. Otherwise, AKL CL was an awesome experience! And we'll definitely stay there again!

Now back on track to the good stuff! Given our flight delay down, we only truly had one full day/night, but we made sure to hit breakfast, snacks, dinner apps, dessert! We were back and forth to AK park a few times that day/night...

> Dinner apps:

Chef’s station: Sausage stew first (very good!)

View attachment 232080

Chef's station: Bunny stew (didn't try it)
View attachment 232081

Chef's station: Bad quality picture but I couldn't find a good time to take this picture!
View attachment 232082

Food was really good for my taste - loved the stew and different sides like eggplant and olives:

View attachment 232083

View attachment 232084

View attachment 232085

View attachment 232086


View attachment 232087

View attachment 232088


To be continued....

The sausage stew was one of my favs! I had 3!