Resort Thread Disney's Club Level (CL) Thread

[MagicalAdventures]

Thanks so much for your review GADisneyDad. We are booked to stay club level at the poly on the 29th and 30th dec. Our first visit to wdw. Do you think it would be better to watch the practice fireworks from the club lounge, poly beach or try and get tickets for the desert party with plaza viewing. We have two children 8 and 10.

Also is it possible to watch the fireworks at midnight from the club area on the beach then go into magic kingdom for emh from 12 to 2 or 3am?

Thanks

 

[SmithSmith]

I will be at AKL-CL the first week of February for my annual birthday trip! I have spent 11 of my last 12 birthdays there (2017 I was in Australia & New Zealand) so I think it’s officially my “tradition”!

If I can figure out how to post photos from my iPhone I will post photos of the Lounge offerings. I just haven’t figured out how to do it since the last Dis update several years back!

Anyone have any advice?!

Holy moly! Can I “like” this a million times?!

That would be beyond awesome! I don’t know what else to say...

I hope you have a fabulous birthday trip!

 

[mickeynut1]

Just booked our next stay beginning May 4th for Tower CR Club. Coming for daughters cheer competition and adding on some days!

Hope you have a great time!

I just got back from staying Poly club level—-and have to admit it was pretty amazing. That view they have with floor to ceiling windows and two stories was fantastic. It was SO nice to have such an awesome view of the fireworks all the time.

Glad you had a great time! We are trying Poly CL later this year and I am very excited to spend time in the lounge with that view .

OMG! I thought I had 55 days until I check in to my dream CL stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, but no, I was wrong! Just logged on to MDE and it says 53 days! That’s awesome! I think that’s akin to finding an extra 20 bucks in a coat pocket.

The days will go fast and you will be arriving before you know it!

I will be at AKL-CL the first week of February for my annual birthday trip! I have spent 11 of my last 12 birthdays there (2017 I was in Australia & New Zealand) so I think it’s officially my “tradition”!

Hope you have another great birthday stay .

 

[NicoleLarson]

I will be at AKL-CL the first week of February for my annual birthday trip! I have spent 11 of my last 12 birthdays there (2017 I was in Australia & New Zealand) so I think it’s officially my “tradition”!

If I can figure out how to post photos from my iPhone I will post photos of the Lounge offerings. I just haven’t figured out how to do it since the last Dis update several years back!

Anyone have any advice?!

I'm in your same boat, I don't understand the resizing thing. I have a bunch of pics from our Oct. trip if you want me to email them to you. They now post the menus for the whole week so I have pics of all of those, along with the alcohol selection. If you have any other questions please let me know. I'll be looking forward to your posts since we will be staying there later in the month for my DD 9th birthday.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I'm not any sort of photo pro and I'm sure there are easier ways to do it, but here's what I do. This applies to a PC.

1) Save the photos in a folder of your choosing (for me, I download them from Apple iCloud and save them to my PC).

2) Right click over the file and click "Edit" - see below.




3) This opens the Windows "Paint" program. Click the "Resize" button circled below.




4) This box pops up, click "Pixels" and change to "1200 x 900" (it doesn't have to be 1200 x 900, really just anything smaller than its native size).



5) Hit save - and done! Doing the above will dramatically decrease the file size and allow for DIS posting.

 

[NicoleLarson]

Ditch the kids and do Tower! No debate.

I can find my Tower Club posts from earlier this year if helpful. It is fundamentally different than any other resort/CL combination we have tried... really loved it there.

Haha! As I was typing that I knew this would be your answer. Maybe not the ditching your kids thing but Tower CL. Its definitely on the bucket list so it's very tempting.

What he said!

You’ve got to do Tower CL!
The most personal attention from CM’s ever!
Did you ask for a double queen room? They do have 2 of them in the Tower CL. So maybe it would work even if you bring the kids.

Feel free to ask anything you would like to know

I will ask about the 2 queens! Thank you.

You sound like you want bc cl. I only tried it once and the new lounge was large, there is a bathroom there for checkin/out days too. There was lots of great food options that were pretty mainstream vs foo foo ones.

The location foe Epcot , having SAB are pluses.

Biggest downside was the lounge is so far from pool it was/could be awkward to take items to the pool from lounge like you can at poly and gf sl .

Long winding halls but all std rooms on same floor.

Good luck, it is always hard to choose.

I'm probably leaning towards this because it seems the most practical. Good points, thank you. How winding are those halls? We've stayed at YC, non CL and was in a room that looked at the dolphin, that was a super long walk. I thought I read somewhere that the CL floor wasn't as big at BC and YC or maybe I just made that up?

I would pick that but what happens when the kids decide to come and those rooms don't sleep 5? I can't fit my family of 4 in 2 beds so I would then have to scramble to move and choices may be few.

I need to try Tower! You people keep talking about it lol..maybe my next pin I'll call for pricing

That's exactly what I'm afraid of, my parents take our kids often but they are notorious for changing their plans at the last minute. I've learned it's best to always have a backup plan.

 

[trishadono]

Haha! As I was typing that I knew this would be your answer. Maybe not the ditching your kids thing but Tower CL. Its definitely on the bucket list so it's very tempting.



I will ask about the 2 queens! Thank you.



I'm probably leaning towards this because it seems the most practical. Good points, thank you. How winding are those halls? We've stayed at YC, non CL and was in a room that looked at the dolphin, that was a super long walk. I thought I read somewhere that the CL floor wasn't as big at BC and YC or maybe I just made that up?



That's exactly what I'm afraid of, my parents take our kids often but they are notorious for changing their plans at the last minute. I've learned it's best to always have a backup plan.

See the difference between floor 3 and floor 5 where the std cl rooms and lounge are located? It's not too bad . It's just poly and gf sl were easier to manage in comparison.

Weird I'm looking at map and my "long walk" doesn't look it. I think because you can't "see" down the halls/not straight it appears confusing in person lol.

 

[trishadono]

I'm not any sort of photo pro and I'm sure there are easier ways to do it, but here's what I do. This applies to a PC.

1) Save the photos in a folder of your choosing (for me, I download them from Apple iCloud and save them to my PC).

2) Right click over the file and click "Edit" - see below.

View attachment 292944


3) This opens the Windows "Paint" program. Click the "Resize" button circled below.

View attachment 292945


4) This box pops up, click "Pixels" and change to "1200 x 900" (it doesn't have to be 1200 x 900, really just anything smaller than its native size).

View attachment 292946

5) Hit save - and done! Doing the above will dramatically decrease the file size and allow for DIS posting.

Awesome

 

[Eastern]

I will ask about the 2 queens!

My parents stayed there with a military discount this past November. When booking, they were told that the discount applied to the tower king room only, so they couldn't choose any other room location.

I would still ask though; you never know.

 

[Eastern]

Can't believe I'm about to say this. Some of these small plates are getting too exotic for me... almost like they are trying 'too hard' to be fancy. Sometimes I do find myself thinking back to the basic Hawaiian meatballs and sticky wing days.

Actually I agree! I would rather serve myself from a larger tray then deal with all those little clanking ceramic plates. Plus I don't need all of the little details that are so labor intensive; I hate lines in the buffet because people are waiting for the chef to refill.

I really got my parents excited about staying at Poly and in the end, they didn't care for the food: they thought it was 'too fancy'. ( I think they also said, 'weird flavors')

They were much happier when they stayed at YC CL.

I am guessing that with the increased fancy and the decreased kids selections they are aiming for a certain demographic to fill their CL rooms. Seems like a testing phase. Then next week they will have mini hot dogs and chicken nuggets (honestly the most popular snack at CL, from what I have observed).

 

[Babsy]

DW stayed in one of the Deluxe Rooms on the 3rd floor last year. As @CogsworthTN described, these rooms have a larger balcony than the 4th floor. She described their room as being relatively far from the lounge. She actually didn’t like getting to the lounge at all until she found the “secret staircase” which made it more convenient, although it still wasn’t that close, generally speaking (keep in mind we’re used to the MK resorts where the lounges are much closer than some of these Epcot resorts).

She loved the room though. Only small complaint was the noise of carts (presumably maintenance or cleaning?) rolling over the boardwalk outside quite early in the AM).

Here are some pics in case helpful.

OK, so it looks like the third floor rooms are immediately below the 4th floor rooms...based on the view at least. Is that right?

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Hurray - I uploaded a picture! Thank for the tutorial, folks! It's no longer relevant since I had wanted to upload it regarding some questions ages ago that I no longer recall, although it does illustrate the need to juggle multiple small plates of shrimp ceviche (I believe) from the lounge...ah, what a view!

ETA: That's a YC lagoon/pool CL room, in case anyone is wondering...

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Couple of things I forgot to mention in my posts yesterday regarding Poly CL NYE. I don't like to be too negative around here but I do feel the need to nit-pick a little bit. None of these are really complaint-worthy things, just observations more than anything.

• I found the CL CMs actual knowledge of NYE resort and CL events pretty lacking. No one ever mentioned a reserved CL section on the beach. No one mentioned extended CL offering hours on 12/31. CMs didn't seem to know basic scheduling information, such as the early fireworks were at 6:30PM both nights. I felt like I knew far more about what was going on than some CMs. (We had this same observation over 7/4 as well)

• Might have just been my timing, but I found the lounge relatively crowded around apps on 12/31. It was chilly out so I think maybe more people were indoors than normal, which made for lines in the lounge. It wasn't the end of the world, just a bit different than usual. The food service areas in the lounge can only accommodate so many folks.

• Wrist-bands were left in our room 12/31 with no explanation. I figured they were for Poly guest identification, but it would have been nice to have a note or something to explain.

• There was some sort of mix-up on the color of said wrist-bands. When I tried to get into the CL reserved beach area showing the wristband, the CM gave me a hard time. Had to go through a big ordeal with my name, room number, looking it up on his sheet, etc - took more time than it should have. All the while he was grumbling that "they screwed up the wristbands." Disney management and organization at its best.

• I get the sense that WDW staffing is stretched thin on special dates like 12/31 - we noticed this all around, from restaurants, to bars, to CL. New faces, people filling in shifts, people not doing their normal job. For example, someone from the resort recreation department was clearing tables in the lounge late on 12/31. My impression is the more tenured CMs take that day off. I have NO idea if this is an accurate statement, just making an observation from what we saw.

Again, all-in-all we enjoyed our NYE experience. There are just some parts of the experience that aren't quite as 'crisp' as one could argue they should be at - if that makes sense. But as always, the locational benefits of staying Poly CL are huge for things like fireworks viewing, lounge views, etc.

 

[RachelTori]

I email my pix to myself sized small . Then use the upload button when posting. Then later I erase my 2nd picture so my phone not so full.

Pm me if need more.

Happy Birthday too!

Thanks!

I will have to spend some time testing to see if I can get that to work! I will PM you if I have issues -- thank you for the offer!

Hey @RachelTori!

Happy New Year!

I do what @trishadono said if I’m just doing one or two and need to do it quickly.

When I do most of my photos (which are taken on an iPhone).... I go to iCloud on my PC, download en masse the ones I want, and “Edit” the files in the Paint program to re-size them.

I can be more specific on any of those steps if needed. Obviously only applies if you have an iPhone & PC.

There are other services - like Flickr - that operate like Photobucket, but I’m not sure exactly how they work.

Hope that helps!

Happy New Year to you too!

I have an iPhone, iPad, and a PC. Everything on my phone is saved to iCloud, but......... I have no idea how to get to the Cloud!!! I may need more specifics from you!

I don't use any of the photo storage services (Flickr, Photobucket, etc.) All the photos on my iPhone get automatically backed up to Google Photos and I can view them on any of my devices. Evidently, they get backed up to iCloud too, but I have never attempted to go there!

 

[Momoftwins+1]

My parents stayed there with a military discount this past November. When booking, they were told that the discount applied to the tower king room only, so they couldn't choose any other room location.

I would still ask though; you never know.

The military discounts this go around were pretty minimal and last go around if they booked after a certain window from opening that may have been the only selection left for military discounts at CR. They only give so many in each category , if any for the mil discount. Most jump on the reservation the day it becomes available.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

View attachment 293002


Hurray - I uploaded a picture! Thank for the tutorial, folks! It's no longer relevant since I had wanted to upload it regarding some questions ages ago that I no longer recall, although it does illustrate the need to juggle multiple small plates of shrimp ceviche (I believe) from the lounge...ah, what a view!

ETA: That's a YC lagoon/pool CL room, in case anyone is wondering...

Those apps look YUMMY! Wow!

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Those apps look YUMMY! Wow!

We were really impressed with the apps, I have to say! I'll have to look back through my pics now that I can size them, lol! Besides the small plated things, there was a hot item and several cold salads that were all delicious. And seriously, that view was so much fun - great for people watching! That night, we had planned on walking into Epcot, but we were having so much fun on our balcony, that we just stayed there! Very relaxing and fun!

 

[Eastern]

The military discounts this go around were pretty minimal and last go around if they booked after a certain window from opening that may have been the only selection left for military discounts at CR. They only give so many in each category , if any for the mil discount. Most jump on the reservation the day it becomes available.

I would say they booked this 5 or 6 months in advance.

 

[RachelTori]

If this worked, this is a photo of Chef Redgie in the BWI Club Lounge on 12/11/2017

 

[gwynne]

The military discounts this go around were pretty minimal and last go around if they booked after a certain window from opening that may have been the only selection left for military discounts at CR. They only give so many in each category , if any for the mil discount. Most jump on the reservation the day it becomes available.

I would say they booked this 5 or 6 months in advance.

I've also noted the military discounts are harder to find this year. However, even this year I found that availability changes. It's always worth keeping an eye out and calling.