Resort Thread Disney's Club Level (CL) Thread

[Runnsally]

Just back from a long Columbus Day weekend Poly CL trip. Had a great time as always! Couple of random notes/thoughts on the trip:

Room
Had a LV reservation...requested first floor, close to the lounge end of the building. Was in Room 1515, so first floor but at the end of the building away from the lounge. At first I asked to be changed which they couldn’t do the first night but could if I moved the next day. I initially agreed but once I got in the room and thought through the logistics of moving, I waived it off. We ended up loving the room... great view with a line of sight to the castle in between some trees/bungalows. Loved sitting on the patio while the kids played on the beach. With my kids loving to play on the beach more these days, I think I may be more of a LV convert going forward. Just so nice to sit there with a great view and the lovely Poly soundtrack playing.

We did get some very heavy rain a couple of times and this room was sort of at a low spot that collected water on the patio just a bit. But no big deal really. It drained quickly.

Room maybe had a bit more wear/tear than some others, but nothing complaint worthy.

Fireworks Sound
I have been unimpressed by the volume of the fireworks at the Poly beach for at least a few years. At times it has been inconsistent or so low that you really needed to be close to a speaker. At the moment, they have the volume cranked up in front of Hawaii BIG TIME. Like almost blowing the speaker/causing distortion. Plus they play the great intro music that starts in the parks 5 minutes before the show and the full exit song. A++

We walked out to the water’s edge the first night (towards the pool) and could hear just fine. Watched from our patio a second night and the volume was blaring. So glad they seem to have addressed this issue for the better.

In-Room Amenities
CL giveth, CL taketh away. No chocolate arrival gift (although did have the standard “welcome” note). No daily bottle of water in room. Only basic toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion), no foot scrub, sun lotion, some of the other fancy lotions, etc. Also very stingy with the daily refills!

Turn-Down Service
Had it nightly, no complaints. Except they come too early for my tastes (5-6ish). Also stingy with the chocolates. Some nights just one per bed, some nights two. Not that we really need any more, just an observation.

Electrical Water Pageant
I had read some of the floats were damaged in Irma. Not sure if that is true, but they are running a shortened version of EWP right now. It’s basically just one set of floats and it doesn’t move as it goes by Poly. I’m not sure exactly which segment wasn’t there? Just FYI if you’re a big EWP fan.

CL Food/Beverages
These continue to impress me this year, especially evening apps. Poly will never win the best CL food award, but it is better than it has been in prior years. Just wish they would rotate something else for the kiddos besides cut up uncrustables.

The convenience of beer/wine availability during the day at Poly really cannot be beat.

As has been reported by others, Blue Moon is gone. Bud Light is back, much to my delight (bring on the criticism!). They have also added a Kona “Hanalei Island IPA” which has elements of passion fruit, orange, and guava. Had never had it but it was absolutely delicious.

CL CMs
Personally I think Poly CL is benefitting from a corp group of generally very good CMs right now. Many familiar names/faces from prior trips that make the trip more enjoyable.

Texting Service
Maybe just me but I continue to use this somewhat frequently and very much appreciate it as an amenity. Glad Disney seems like they are going to keep it around (famous last words).

Minnie Van Service
Used this on Saturday to go to/from Poly/DHS. REALLY great service, worked perfectly. Regular uber is cheaper but for those like me that need car seats, it is a very welcome amenity. Plus they pick up/drop off from the bus stops which are closer than the uber/taxi drop offs/pick ups for most of the parks. I waited <5 minutes each way for a Minnie Van to arrive. I did try to take one home from Epcot Friday but the wait was 14 minutes, so we just did the monorail instead.

Oasis Pool Bar/Grill
So my Disney opinions usually slant positive, but I’m bringing the hammer down on Poly for this. I have always enjoyed the Oasis Pool Bar/Grill since it opened. I have found the service quick, food fresh and tasty... overall just a very pleasant place to have lunch with reasonably healthy options.

They recently closed the walk-up ordering window (CM said they did it a month ago). Now you have to sit down at the bar or tables to be served. Only one bartender, one server. Took forever to be served and there was only ONE other table occupied. They have done something to their salads.... the preparation has changed. The chicken is pre-cooked out of the bag - not freshly made. Cheap lettuce. Drowning in dressing. We ate there again on another day and I tried a different salad - same result.

Hopefully a fluke with the kitchen on my particular days, but I was pretty bummed out by my experience this time around.

Columbus Day Thoughts
Really liked Thursday/Friday. Pool crowds were low, park crowds manageable. Saturday/Sunday were very stout crowd wise!! The Lava Pool became people soup later in the day... which isn’t all that unusual but can take away some of the fun a bit.

I didn’t take many pics this time as I was pretty focused on the fam... but I have some I’ll try to post later today.

Happy to answer any questions!

Very helpful as always...thanks!
How were the car seats in the Minnie Van? Quick and competent set-up?

 

[prgal0715]

There’s supposed to be a second set of floats after that one that has dolphins, a dinosaur, a crocodile, and King Triton. Music includes “Everyone do the dinosaur”... “Crocodile”... and a short Under the Sea snippit, maybe something else. That’s the part that was missing when I was there, unless I’m going crazy.

For my nights, it was just the below. Usually once this segment ends this part moves over in front of the bungalows and the next segment slides in. This night, they cut straight from this to the America / Red White Blue part then it ended. :-(...
View attachment 275695

FWIW - that's all I saw of the EWP in August, too.

 

[GoGoBeans]

As has been reported by others, Blue Moon is gone. Bud Light is back, much to my delight (bring on the criticism!).

Let me give you this just for fun!

Seriously though, glad you had such a fabulous trip! Thanks as always for the reports.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Very helpful as always...thanks!
How were the car seats in the Minnie Van? Quick and competent set-up?

Good question.

So driver #1 was excellent. She whipped those bad boys out and had them installed nice and tight in just a few minutes. I was a happy parent.

Driver #2 was not quite so excellent. He stumbled/bumbled with the car seat for DD, the booster for DS was OK but those are a lot easier.

I sound like a helicopter parent saying this but I was not happy with his installation of the car seat and had to do some adjusting on the angle and tightening the straps myself. Really not that big a deal and it just took a few seconds to correct, but it wasn’t quite as professional as I had hoped for.

He even made a comment about how they had 8.5 hours of training in sort of a “can you believe they made us train over 8 hours on these” kind of way. I was thinking to myself, yeah, hope you paid attention because this is serious stuff here buddy!

I actually wonder if the car seat thing might be the ultimate problem with the service as currently offered by Disney. Every child is different and the nuances of proper car seat installation are so particular to that child’s height, weight, etc. As parents, we all know our own car seats very well and likely have them setup pretty darn close to “by the book.” Disney lawyers somewhere up the chain must be cringing at this.

It’s sort of hard sitting there in the hot Florida sun outside a theme park, with tired/cranky kids, to get a car seat installed and sized/angled just right by a stranger.

Re-reading the above, it sounds worse in writing than it was in reality - but it’s something to pay attention to for sure.

Hope that helps.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

FWIW - that's all I saw of the EWP in August, too.

Well Boo to You guys! That was before Irma, guess that’s not the reason. I’ve always feared Disney could do away with EWP someday, despite tradition, hope that’s not the beginning of it!

 

[Ferrentinos]

Well Boo to You guys! That was before Irma, guess that’s not the reason. I’ve always feared Disney could do away with EWP someday, despite tradition, hope that’s not the beginning of it!

Hold your tongue! They can't get rid of that too! I'd be so sad - but it would make us take yet another trip down to say goodbye to something! LOL!

Glad to hear that you had such a great long weekend - jealous that you were able to return so soon! We've just scheduled a long weekend in February but to save $$ we are staying at POP - which is our favorite value - but we will miss the Poly!

 

[Runnsally]

Good question.

So driver #1 was excellent. She whipped those bad boys out and had them installed nice and tight in just a few minutes. I was a happy parent.

Driver #2 was not quite so excellent. He stumbled/bumbled with the car seat for DD, the booster for DS was OK but those are a lot easier.

I sound like a helicopter parent saying this but I was not happy with his installation of the car seat and had to do some adjusting on the angle and tightening the straps myself. Really not that big a deal and it just took a few seconds to correct, but it wasn’t quite as professional as I had hoped for.

He even made a comment about how they had 8.5 hours of training in sort of a “can you believe they made us train over 8 hours on these” kind of way. I was thinking to myself, yeah, hope you paid attention because this is serious stuff here buddy!

I actually wonder if the car seat thing might be the ultimate problem with the service as currently offered by Disney. Every child is different and the nuances of proper car seat installation are so particular to that child’s height, weight, etc. As parents, we all know our own car seats very well and likely have them setup pretty darn close to “by the book.” Disney lawyers somewhere up the chain must be cringing at this.

It’s sort of hard sitting there in the hot Florida sun outside a theme park, with tired/cranky kids, to get a car seat installed and sized/angled just right by a stranger.

Re-reading the above, it sounds worse in writing than it was in reality - but it’s something to pay attention to for sure.

Hope that helps.

Thanks. Car seats are my nemesis - surprised when I heard Disney was willing to take them on. But sounds like Minnie Vs are worth a shot, esp for the long Poly to AK ride...

 

[Dusinberre]

During our last stay in May we used Uber + car seat daily. It was such a time saver and worth every penny! We even used it on the opening day of Pandora. I tell my coworkers that my best Disney tip is to use Uber and Express Transportation. Unfortunately they did away with Express Transportation. We only have one kid so we don’t need two car seats. For that reason and also the price, we will probably just stick with using Uber this coming February rather than the minivans. All the Uber drivers were great with setting up the car seat.

 

[Metz172]

In-Room Amenities
CL giveth, CL taketh away. No chocolate arrival gift (although did have the standard “welcome” note). No daily bottle of water in room. Only basic toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion), no foot scrub, sun lotion, some of the other fancy lotions, etc. Also very stingy with the daily refills!

Is this something that is happening at other CL's? We last stayed CL at AKL 2 years ago and loved the sunburn relief gel that was in our room. Heading back this May and was hoping to get some more.

 

[PackYourPixieDust]

Sorry for the late response to your post. I have done WDW solo with DS ages 4-7 several times over the last few years. If I’m being totally honest, our solo trips are more fun!

CL is GREAT when it’s solo with the kids. Honestly I don’t think I would want to stay non-CL... that little extra convenience factor (especially for breakfast) really helps a lot.

Our solo trips are a bit more fun now at 6-7 than they were at 4-5, mainly due to stamina, energy, height, etc. But DS has always been a great traveler so going to WDW has been a breeze to some extent.

And as far as number of trips.... I’m in the @trishadono camp.... you can never have too many!



This exactly. We enjoy our family trips, don’t get me wrong, but my trips with just the kids tend to have a different flow, we sometimes get more accomplished, we seem to enjoy the parks more, we can be more flexible. It’s hard to explain or put into words here for sure.

This is great thanks!!! I'm 99.9% sure I'm going to go in Jan. I'm taking him to my aunts in Denver for the weekend st the end of the month and that can be our test for how we do quasi solo. (Because once we arrive we will be with my and uncle.) assuming it goes well, he and I will Takle AKL. Can't wait!

The savannah view rooms on the Zebra Trail (especially 4407-4437) are the closest if you want to be near both the Mara and the lobby. The first block of rooms on the Kudu Trail (4211-4225) is also very close to the lobby, but a little farther from the Mara. When I stayed CL at AKL earlier this year, I also booked savannah view and my only room request was "Near lobby." We ended up getting the first room off the lobby in the Zebra Trail wing, room 4407. We liked this because it was just a short walk to the elevator to the CL lounge, or a short walk in the opposite direction to get to the elevator to the pool, Mara, etc. Hope you have a great trip!

Thanks for this info as well. It will come in handy.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Following up on my post earlier, some random pics of our Poly CL trip this past weekend.

Room 1515, which is a Lagoon View room. First floor towards the end of the building away from the lounge. I normally prefer to be closer to the lounge (just a personal preference) but this room had a great view. Arguably one of the better LV rooms given castle visibility.

Looking straight ahead from the patio. That's the castle right there in the middle, although a bit hard to see in this pic.


Looking right....


Looking left....


I am finding that I really enjoy these LV rooms since I can keep an eye on the kids while they play in the sand. The beach is a pretty empty place these days. Makes for a fun place to play.



Good fireworks view from this room. Fantastic audio, super loud. Also could hear the Poly soundtrack during the day very well.




Bad pic because of the torches, but it's a beautiful view.

 

[MaggiesMomNJ]

I'm laughing because we discovered tonight that we could stay at the grand Floridian for the entire 9 nights stay but it will be in an outer building ( that is all that's available right now without jumping to a super expensive room in the main building )... or I can stick with our split stay of six nights at the grand in an outer building room w 3 at AKL concierge ( for the same exact price )... and keep trying for GF Sugarloaf. After reading all of your feedback, I think I would be seriously missing out if we left club level AKL!

Thank you for the feedback on what view to request.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

A bit of then and now....


July 2017 - bottle of water replenished daily.....


October 2017 - nothing....


July of this year....


May of this year....


And now....


Old alarm clock... (which was only added sometime in the last year +/-)....


And now a new, annoying iHome alarm clock. Not sure if they are adding to all rooms or if this is a relic? This sounds so incredibly picky but I hate these things. One, not everyone has iphones. Two, iphones with any sort of case typically don't fit. Big, ugly, sort of worthless. There is a USB outlet on the side though. This one is so bright I had to turn the display totally off at night.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Some Poly CL food/lounge pics....

Fridge. Beer is put out starting noonish every day, if not earlier. No more Blue Moon, but they have added Bud Light and a really yummy Kona IPA. It was really, really good.


There are typically 4 apps per night, two hot and two cold. This was one night. Must not have liked whatever the fourth option was!



The regular pot-sticker... but serving it on a single plate makes it fancy. The pastry thing was a chick pot pie type of dish, I think??? It was OK but nothing to write home about. I think they try too hard with some of these dishes.





Last night... more BBQ....


Some shrimp pastry thing. OK/interesting, won't blow you away.


A very good edamame salad. Two thumbs up.


The last night also had a random "Taste of Food & Wine" dish. I was skeptical... F&W leftovers???


But it looked pretty darn good. Decent sized chunks of salmon.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

A closer look...


Turned out to not be very good, for my tastes at least. Lacked seasoning and the green dollop of whatever that is had an odd taste to it. I liked the effort/something new though.


As a parent one of my current gripes is the kids app selections. It's always cut up uncustables. For picky eaters, you're sort of stuck with this.

Bonus points to anyone that can tell me what those things are in the background and where they came from.


Some misc lounge pics....








View from the lounge windows looking right...


Best CL view on property. Also the lounge is a GREAT place to be when weather rolls in, like it did a few times for me this trip.

 

[MaggiesMomNJ]

A closer look...
View attachment 275833

Turned out to not be very good, for my tastes at least. Lacked seasoning and the green dollop of whatever that is had an odd taste to it. I liked the effort/something new though.
View attachment 275834

As a parent one of my current gripes is the kids app selections. It's always cut up uncustables. For picky eaters, you're sort of stuck with this.

Bonus points to anyone that can tell me what those things are in the background and where they came from.
View attachment 275837

Some misc lounge pics....
View attachment 275843

View attachment 275844

View attachment 275845

View attachment 275846

View from the lounge windows looking right...
View attachment 275847

Best CL view on property. Also the lounge is a GREAT place to be when weather rolls in, like it did a few times for me this trip.
View attachment 275848

You are making me laugh and also making me hungry ...

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Last post.... couple of misc Poly pics...

Current Lava Pool hours. Official Oasis Pool hours are 7AM-11PM....


Monorail hours are pretty consistently starting at 7AM these days, but always check the Times Guide. Also running nice and late on this night, which was a party night. Surprisingly late, actually.


Watched HEA from right up close to the water fence one night. Before you were in danger of not hearing very well from this location, but the current audio level is super loud and makes this a great place to watch.


They added this bad boy at some point during my stay. Just the poles were up when we arrived, no net. The net is themed and has a Poly logo on the two ends. Shocked they choose to spend money on themeing the Volleyball net!



Boarded up Oasis Grill food ordering window and menu removed. Still so incredibly disappointed with the salads this time.



One more... an in park pic from MNSSHP. Boo to you everyone!

 

[mickeynut1]

I decided to just let signature services do our dining reservations. I don't feel like waking up at 5 am. I hope that is a good decision.

Outside of Ohana I don't think there's anything on our list that's that hard to get. I did put Beaches n cream but it is not a "MUST' for us. I'd be happy to do something else instead. I'll let everyone know how it goes. (we are there 4/8-4/16 so not THAT busy of a time.

I hope DSS gets everything you want .

Following up on my post earlier, some random pics of our Poly CL trip this past weekend.

Great pics, as always! Thanks for sharing .

And now a new, annoying iHome alarm clock. Not sure if they are adding to all rooms or if this is a relic? This sounds so incredibly picky but I hate these things. One, not everyone has iphones. Two, iphones with any sort of case typically don't fit. Big, ugly, sort of worthless. There is a USB outlet on the side though. This one is so bright I had to turn the display totally off at night.
View attachment 275823

I don't like them either .

 

[cgh]

I'm happy to report I got ALL my reservations! They were in MDE when I checked at 11:15 eastern time. These include the plaza, beaches n cream, 'ohana, California grill.

So so nice.

ETA: ( 15 reservations!)

 

[Babsy]

GADisneyDad14,

Ooooohhh! Those pics help me get through the wait till our next visit!!! They are simply awesome!

Thank You so much for posting!