We did the Garden Suites for the first time late last year. This is going to be a bit of a stretch, but to me the Garden Suites have a bit of a CR 14th floor feel/vibe to the rooms themselves - here you are in the middle of one of the most crowded destinations on earth with chaos and stimulation all around, but you come back to one of the most remote, beautifully designed places on property basically isolated from everything else that’s really just steps away. It’s a great vibe, in my opinion, and such a unique accommodation style with room to spread out. With maybe a couple of nits, we liked the room design and renovations. I find the fact that these even exist rather fascinating, and would love to have been a fly on the wall of the architecture/design meetings way back when.
Very subjective of course, but we didn’t mind the extra steps to the room or lounge. No doubt it changes the way you utilize CL vs other resorts, but you can tend to easily adapt it into your daily comings and goings with no issue. Note we have no issue with walking/distance to the lounge, and don’t tend to be the ‘always using the lounge’ types, so that likely influences our opinion.
For no particular reason we never used the staircase, just walked to the elevator and up to the lounge floor.
I need to go back and look at what I had to say about them at the time because I’m wondering if I was more negative back then and I’m letting the passage of time influence my thoughts my on the positive end. So don’t yell at me if I’m contradicting myself - with maybe some exceptions I can usually find the good in most Disney resort things somewhere. That whole courtyard area really is such a lovely place.
I would like to try the version with the balcony on the second floor as I think I’d like that setup better.
April is a long time away - hope he doesn’t change his mind by then.