I am also considering cancelling my club level stays because these reviews are confirming what I have noticed over my last three visits. I am lucky enough to live in Florida and visit on average every three months for a long weekend of three nights. I have stayed club level since 2008 and have been a regular visitor since 1974. I have stayed at most of the Deluxe Hotels CL and I now divide my time between Grand Floridian and Wilderness Lodge. These are my favorites.
I have thought long and hard about this since my last September stay at the Grand Floridian but didn't want to post a negative review and spoil CL for everyone else. But here goes my opinion of CL after many visits.
I always thought that club level was more of a convenience than a luxury. It just does not provide the level of service and the quality food offerings that you receive at a high end hotel. Wilderness Lodge has too much sugar at breakfast. It is in the cereal and the pastries and the yoghurt. They do serve a plain croissant and you can have a nice artificial butter spread with that if you like. Gummy bears and goldfish are not my idea of a fun afternoon snack. They do quite well with the cheese and crackers and some of the salads in the evening but their hot dishes have been terrible the last three times I have stayed. The beef stew was so fatty I could not eat it and the chicken chowder tasted like it was right out of a can. It has been a while since I was served that beautiful Salmon chowder that they used to make. The Grand Floridian has more food offerings but I still bypass afternoon tea upstairs for a reservation downstairs in the tea room. The last two stays I skipped the evening wine and cheese in favor of an early dinner reservation. The wine served in the evening could be better quality and they need to stop serving Bud Light and replace that with some of the craft beers everyone drinks now. I guess the food has not been the reason to stay club level, not for a while now.
The one thing that made it all worth it was the level of privacy but the WL lounge was the busiest I have ever seen it when I stayed Superbowl weekend. At the busiest times of breakfast and evening offerings, there was hardly a table to be found. And this was with some of the south wing rooms out of service. Someone on these boards mentioned that they did not expect to get a seat at the busiest times. Why is that? If you wanted to get your own food and stand around and wait for a table, why not go down to the quick service and do it for free. I don't expect the food to change much unless those that stay CL expect more and ask for it. And if nothing else, everyone should expect to have a comfortable seat in the lounge whenever they need it. A quiet place to get away from it all was what I thought club level was all about.
I love Walt Disney World and visit all the time. I always see great service from the CM's. I always see well behaved guests having a good time. The transportation is fabulous and there is good crowd control at the parks. I am always impressed at how well run this place is. I think that they fall short at Club Level. I have weekends booked for Fourth of July, Halloween and the week before Christmas. If I have concerns, I am going to express them at that time. If things don't get better, I am not booking Club Level anymore.
I appreciate your thoughts. I think CL is a matter of convenience for us too (like trishadono said). I have heard quite a few reviews on other sites say that food offerings at other places like Ritz Carlton are much better, but we only stayed off site once, and we said we would never do it again. It was still fun, but it was pretty stressful trying to get to the park in the morning...the traffic was terrible! But pretty much, the trip just lost its Disney magic!
We have never tried Wilderness Lodge because I prefer the grandiose feel of the GF. My kids would never go for beef stew type food either. Sometimes we like to stay at the Poly or BC for the tropical or beach feel of those resorts. I have heard people on this thread talking about cutbacks at WL, and the designated CL person in charge of drinks at BC makes me nervous. I do wish they would improve their offerings in CL, but unfortunately, I think they know they have us over a barrel because of their location (compared to the Ritz). I was hoping that the competition of having the Four Seasons so close to MK would make them step it up a bit, but I guess that's not going to happen.
That being said, I haven't noticed much change in GF RPC over the past several years, and we stayed in GF SL before that, and the offerings were the same. And I'm not a beer drinker, but my husband has always been able to get something better than Bud Light. It may not be the best beer (I wouldn't know), but he is always able to get the Sam Adams seasonal beers. I agree with you on the gummy bear thing at snack time. We stayed at the Poly for a couple of days before moving to GF (last October), and they only had gummy bears and wasabi snack mix! Even BC had chips and dip during spring break last year, so that was a disappointment. But according to an earlier post (either this thread or the BC thread), they have added deli meat to BC CL breakfast. So I am trying to stay positive. I guess I'll see for myself at the end of May.
I'm sure if I wanted a full breakfast, better appetizers, etc. I could go get it myself for the same price (or less if in RPC), but I like having it all there for me -no effort. If they do start cutting back significantly, they'd better realize that they risk losing their loyal, repeat customers... But I hope it never comes to that! It hasn't reached that point for me yet, at least. BTW, I was at RPC for Super Bowl weekend too, and I will say that EVERYTHING was crowded the whole time we were there (Jan. 27-Feb. 3rd). We didn't have a problem finding a seat in the lounge, but it was just me and my husband then. If my kids had been with us, we might have been in trouble. I'm hoping that when Avatar Land opens, some of the crowds will go there, but it will probably just bring more people to Disney! More crowds in the parks means more time spent in CL for me, so if they don't keep me happy in CL, I may have to find another favorite vacation spot - Beaches Turks and Caicos is awesome, and it's all inclusive...but also more expensive!
Sorry about the LONG post!
