Resort Thread Disney's Club Level (CL) Thread

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

I arrive Friday, can’t scare me away!

Are you there til the 14th???

Never mind I saw it now, I’m on my phone currently and didn’t notice til I switched it sideways..........

 

[AngiTN]

I thought AKL CL was one resort that stopped turn down service unless it's requested

 

[Sandi]

I thought AKL CL was one resort that stopped turn down service unless it's requested

is it to be requested thru DSS or housekeeping?

 

[Maxie86]

I ha

I had mine cleaned out at GF by a cm. However I still have issues. I think having trips with different family members doesn’t help. Seems one of us has a problem each trip.

I did the same at the YC in December. I'm not convinced that is the problem anyway they just use it as an excuse... like medical offices blaming billing demands on the accountant. Every trip there is one park my band doesn't work to enter the park and I have to reset my finger each time...yup I am the one holding up the PH line...yes I know how to do this and yes I am using the same finger that I used a couple hours ago to get into another park and on every other trip.

I haven't gone the IT route. I'm fearful I'm close to having the do the "MDE start from scratch" thing and I don't want to!

As an aside... I did the "decline MB" option during online check-in for this trip.... and two lovely grey bands were awaiting my arrival at AKL.

I decline bands too and they just send gray ones in the mail and or have them waiting at the resort for us. Note to Disney: When we decline bands it doesn't mean we don't want a colored band it means we don't want any band!!

I had the CL CM delete our old bands at the YC in December. I deactivated them before we went so all I had to tell him was to delete all deactivated bands..easy peasy and we didn't even have to wait while he did it since they were already deactivated. Seems safer than doing it over the phone. Still had problems getting into one park which is nothing new I have always had that problem even before MB's. At least now you don't have to go to GS and spend an hour in line waiting.

 

[Sarahslay]

We have been greeted out front for prior AKL stays, but not this time. Checked in down at the front desk and they walked us up / handed us off to CL CMs. Our experiences with the desk CMs at AKL have always been quite positive and my impression is there are several 'regulars' who care greatly about the guest experience, but not in an over the top way.

We had significant MagicBand issues this trip. We normally have a band or two that won't work on a room door at the beginning of each trip - a quick visit to a CM and all is cleared up, no big deal. Our issues this trip migrated around on a daily basis. First wouldn't work for the room.... then it wouldn't work for charging.... then it wouldn't work in the elevator to get to the lounge.... one time DW couldn't get in the park. It was like they'd fix one problem and another problem would pop up... and I'll be honest, it became annoying. While the epitome of an inconsequential problem that really isn't that be a deal, being locked out from being able to get up to the lounge and having to wait at the very long front desk line wasn't all that fun.

We only received turn-down service one night. We also returned around 4:45pm one day to find our room being serviced (kinda late in my book). I am starting to sound really whiny here, I know , but when we got in the room we saw what had to be the worst housekeeping job we've had at WDW. Disheveled towels on the racks, the bed sloppily made, pretty sure the floor had not been swept. It just didn't have that freshly made-up room feeling.

As mentioned above, breakfast at AKL CL is amazing, in my humble opinion. We'd stay here for the CL breakfast alone. Tons of options, abundant variety.

Evening apps were also abundant. They have a chef station prepping/plating (note, not necessarily cooking) two items nightly, plus the wide variety of other items normally available. While CL is almost never a true dinner substitute, definitively more meal-like here than perhaps some other places these days. We've never found the lounge to be particularly crowded - with the buzz of the lobby below and the dimming sunlight outside, evening apps here is a lovely experience.

We were at WDW for the Princess Half runD weekend races - from that perspective AKL was the perfect spot for our adults only trip. Casual, relaxing, good food/beverage - that was why we booked AKL and it fit the bill. It was also convenient enough access to the races each morning.

The HA room and MagicBand issues - while of course relatively small in the grand scheme of things - did impact our stay. With one exception I don't think we've ever asked to move rooms once one is assigned, but I think if I were to ever get a HA room again at AKL, I would ask to move. DW says she definitely would as 3 days of sharing a sink with me was not her idea of vacation.

Anyway - kind of a mixed review I guess. Still love AKL and AKL CL. We will return someday armed with our experiences from this trip.

Happy to answer any questions.

I had MB issues during my trip as well, and it is a pain when one of those issues is not being able to get to the lounge since they can fix it easily...but you have to be able to get to them. The front desk also told me they have done away with having CMs meet CL guests for now and all guests should go straight to the front desk to check in and be escorted. I don't really mind that, but I know some would.

I didn't have a HA room but I still found the storage to be pretty bad. I had two robes that took up the entirety of the good hanging space. I had another small/short area I cold hang things but my clothes dragged the ground (and I'm not tall). The doors on my closet were also already broken, and they got rid of all the really nice under sink storage space :/ . I was about 6 rooms down from you, right past the hallway that juts off there, and I normally didn't get my room serviced till almost 5pm (and usually the person doing turn down service came within 20-30 minutes after).

I sound whiney too lol, but at least the CMs are super friendly and the resort relaxing.

 

[mickeynut1]

I think a majority of king rooms are HA rooms. Goes hand in hand with 1 bed having more room in the room for a wheel chair.

This makes me nervous because I just switched to WL CL king room for our upcoming trip in a few weeks. It's been a lot of years since our WL CL stay and I've been wanting to stay again since they redid the lounge. With that said, I won't be happy if we're assigned a HA room .

Does anyone know how many HA CL kings there are to regular CL kings at WL?

 

[AngiTN]

is it to be requested thru DSS or housekeeping?

Hmmm... good question. Personally, if it was something I wanted, I'd tell both.
And I'm not 100% on that either. I am pretty sure I read that it was the case but things are so fluid with CL that it may well be back to a normal thing. There would be no harm at all in telling the CL staff when you arrive that you want to make sure you get turn down each day.

 

[AngiTN]

Ya'll, I have to say, I'm already impressed with WL CL. I mean, we've stayed there before last few times have been with an add on to a regular room. It's been quite a while since we were on the CL floor.
As has been discussed throughout the thread, they are one CL that personally emails out to incoming guests to check if anything is needed. This email is not from DSS but from the OFC staff. I got the email for our tomorrow arrival earlier this morning. In the email they ask about arrival time. I explained that we would be arriving tonight, late (after 10:00) and out early in the morning for EMM. Since we won't do services tonight I had booked a standard room tonight. We'd get breakfast tomorrow no matter where we stayed but we aren't going to utilize the CL since we'll be at EMM. The only thing I asked was we'd love to have a room ready early tomorrow morning so we could move our stuff right from tonight's room to the CL room. If they couldn't, we'll store our things but figured, I'd ask since they reached out. I know they are just starting to book the CL rooms, with last night being the first available to check in so I think the odds are good they aren't booked up tonight.
Well, they came back with an upgrade for tonight to CL so we don't have to move rooms AND they'll leave snacks and drinks in the room since we arrive after service hours. Including my husbands beloved Coke Zero
That folks, is why we do Disney and why we love CL. Little things like that.
I think all the staff should email out guests like that. Most of them only have a few rooms and only a few arrivals on a given day. They have the staff to take care of things like this. It won't take much time for the staff to set a few items in our room.
I'm going to put a bug in Lene's ear next time we are at BWI as something she may look to implement or at least bring up to her bosses.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Well, they came back with an upgrade for tonight to CL so we don't have to move rooms AND they'll leave snacks and drinks in the room since we arrive after service hours.

That was really nice of them. We think the staff at the Old Faithful Club is great. They are very friendly and it seems like they always have time to stop and chat.

 

[Ariel620]

One thing I forgot to mention is that our AKL room was on the third floor. I “thought” all the CL rooms were on the fourth floor, but I guess I was mistaken? Or maybe the King booking category can be anywhere?

Was the AKL CL lounge crowded? I ask because I wonder if they are adding more CL room destinations on the 3rd floor? When all used to be 4th floor.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Was the AKL CL lounge crowded? I ask because I wonder if they are adding more CL room destinations on the 3rd floor? When all used to be 4th floor.

It was not empty, but it wasn’t crowded either. One time we arrived for evening apps and had only one table to choose from. I sometimes wish they didn’t play a movie on that really nice TV screen which is front and center in the lounge, it promoted a few apparent squatters just judging from observation. Granted they have every right to be there that I do, but sometimes CL works best if you sort of cycle through folks, if that makes sense. Man, I hate how negative sounding I’m being about AKL, that’s not really my intent.

I do suspect with a smaller room count situation like the bookable King rooms that it is either routine or perhaps a simple overflow solution to use other floors on occasion. Although that’s just me speculating.

 

[auntfrannie]

Ya'll, I have to say, I'm already impressed with WL CL. I mean, we've stayed there before last few times have been with an add on to a regular room. It's been quite a while since we were on the CL floor.
As has been discussed throughout the thread, they are one CL that personally emails out to incoming guests to check if anything is needed. This email is not from DSS but from the OFC staff. I got the email for our tomorrow arrival earlier this morning. In the email they ask about arrival time. I explained that we would be arriving tonight, late (after 10:00) and out early in the morning for EMM. Since we won't do services tonight I had booked a standard room tonight. We'd get breakfast tomorrow no matter where we stayed but we aren't going to utilize the CL since we'll be at EMM. The only thing I asked was we'd love to have a room ready early tomorrow morning so we could move our stuff right from tonight's room to the CL room. If they couldn't, we'll store our things but figured, I'd ask since they reached out. I know they are just starting to book the CL rooms, with last night being the first available to check in so I think the odds are good they aren't booked up tonight.
Well, they came back with an upgrade for tonight to CL so we don't have to move rooms AND they'll leave snacks and drinks in the room since we arrive after service hours. Including my husbands beloved Coke Zero
That folks, is why we do Disney and why we love CL. Little things like that.
I think all the staff should email out guests like that. Most of them only have a few rooms and only a few arrivals on a given day. They have the staff to take care of things like this. It won't take much time for the staff to set a few items in our room.
I'm going to put a bug in Lene's ear next time we are at BWI as something she may look to implement or at least bring up to her bosses.

I would love to see more consistency among the CLs. But only if they take the best of the best ideas and not the haphazard things we hear about from some CL stays.

 

[AngiTN]

I would love to see more consistency among the CLs. But only if they take the best of the best ideas and not the haphazard things we hear about from some CL stays.

I will say I do my best to tell the staff at one when something at another really leaves a positive impression

 

[ninafeliz]

Ya'll, I have to say, I'm already impressed with WL CL. I mean, we've stayed there before last few times have been with an add on to a regular room. It's been quite a while since we were on the CL floor.
As has been discussed throughout the thread, they are one CL that personally emails out to incoming guests to check if anything is needed. This email is not from DSS but from the OFC staff. I got the email for our tomorrow arrival earlier this morning. In the email they ask about arrival time. I explained that we would be arriving tonight, late (after 10:00) and out early in the morning for EMM. Since we won't do services tonight I had booked a standard room tonight. We'd get breakfast tomorrow no matter where we stayed but we aren't going to utilize the CL since we'll be at EMM. The only thing I asked was we'd love to have a room ready early tomorrow morning so we could move our stuff right from tonight's room to the CL room. If they couldn't, we'll store our things but figured, I'd ask since they reached out. I know they are just starting to book the CL rooms, with last night being the first available to check in so I think the odds are good they aren't booked up tonight.
Well, they came back with an upgrade for tonight to CL so we don't have to move rooms AND they'll leave snacks and drinks in the room since we arrive after service hours. Including my husbands beloved Coke Zero
That folks, is why we do Disney and why we love CL. Little things like that.
I think all the staff should email out guests like that. Most of them only have a few rooms and only a few arrivals on a given day. They have the staff to take care of things like this. It won't take much time for the staff to set a few items in our room.
I'm going to put a bug in Lene's ear next time we are at BWI as something she may look to implement or at least bring up to her bosses.

If they did things like that on a routine basis I, and I suspect most everyone else, would be singing Disney's praises right and left. However, in my experience, hearing something like that just makes me more disgruntled when all I get is "sorry, we couldn't honor your room request" without even a phone call to check on the possibility of moving or to see if they even knew our request, when we get the opposite of what I requested. I mean, that's just an example, I do know they are just requests, I'm just meaning that some people get above and beyond and others seem to get serviceable and minimally polite. It should be consistent, particularly now that everyone reads stories of what others get all over the internet and social media.

 

[AngiTN]

If they did things like that on a routine basis I, and I suspect most everyone else, would be singing Disney's praises right and left. However, in my experience, hearing something like that just makes me more disgruntled when all I get is "sorry, we couldn't honor your room request" without even a phone call to check on the possibility of moving or to see if they even knew our request, when we get the opposite of what I requested. I mean, that's just an example, I do know they are just requests, I'm just meaning that some people get above and beyond and others seem to get serviceable and minimally polite. It should be consistent, particularly now that everyone reads stories of what others get all over the internet and social media.

I was meaning that they contact guests and that I think all CL should do that. Not really that we got a nice bit of dust. Really I wouldn’t have cared about tonight. I just wanted in the room early. I only got very lucky that the rooms aren’t booked yet because they didn’t release them till last week for check in this week. I don’t think many plan trips that quick

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

If everyone got Pixie Dust every time it wouldn’t be Pixie Dust.

Those that go more often I’d suspect are more likely to get that once in a while, just by chance, we’ve had our moments and hopefully will have more in the future.........

Sometimes the resorts are full and what you paid for is what you get and sometimes you might expect to be in a regular room and get a massive 2 bedroom suite and be family of the day.............

 

[AngiTN]

I haven't gone the IT route. I'm fearful I'm close to having the do the "MDE start from scratch" thing and I don't want to!

As an aside... I did the "decline MB" option during online check-in for this trip.... and two lovely grey bands were awaiting my arrival at AKL.

Lol
I switched to a new account kicking and screaming. Let me tell you. But in the end, it’s been the best thing. Knock on wood all issues have been eliminated

 

[amuse-bouche]

I think a majority of king rooms are HA rooms. Goes hand in hand with 1 bed having more room in the room for a wheel chair.

Do you think that's true even when the king room is a separate booking category? They're usually more expensive. I'd hate to pay extra to get a room I find annoying.

 

[AngiTN]

Do you think that's true even when the king room is a separate booking category? They're usually more expensive. I'd hate to pay extra to get a room I find annoying.

I don’t know
Honestly. In my opinion. Yes
It’sa way for Disney to attempt to get more for the room
I don’t know that everyone is bothered by them. We are not. So ensuring we get the king bed is worth a few bucks
But I don’t know for a fact what the odds are

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I think all the staff should email out guests like that. Most of them only have a few rooms and only a few arrivals on a given day. They have the staff to take care of things like this. It won't take much time for the staff to set a few items in our room.

I don't disagree that it sure would be nice if they all did that, although I suspect it is immensely easier for WL CL to "handle" such outreach with only approx 35 CL-eligible rooms/suites/deluxe rooms. Compare that to say, Poly, which has approx 108 eligible rooms/suites, that's a big difference in daily guest check-ins/outs.

Granted those are the two extreme ends of possible CL rooms counts (ignoring special situations like Tower Club), WL is still relatively tiny compared to the others.

Looking forward to your review of the new WL rooms.