GF room at SL question

[A whole new world]

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to a GF lake view room at SL. Now that they no longer do the character breakfast I'm wondering if it's worth doing. For a 6 day stay it works out about £400 extra.

I understand I'll get the lounge for snacks / soft drinks, breakfast in a separate room and a fastpass, but are there any other advantages of it?

I can't seem to find any information on what sort of snacks are served either.

If anyone has stayed there I'd be really interested in what you thought of the GF rooms, and if you thought it was worth it.

Thanks

 

[DLPDreams]

We stayed Halloween weekend for the first time - the hotel was totally full. The main advantages over non GF were:

- dedicated check in desk - the queue for normal check in was very long

- no time slot for breakfast and taken in a separate room which was never busy - but we ate early both mornings

- snacks/afternoon tea

- coffee machine in your room

- bell hop for bags

- one VIP FP per person, per day

Having said all that, tbh I didn't rate it as much as I thought I would and I'm not sure I would bother paying the extra again unless it was a good price. Mainly because:

- the check in CM was hopeless - he didn't explain anything about breakfast or where it was, about EMH or anything (it was different that weekend as it was in the Studios, if I hadn't read it beforehand, I wouldn't have known). I should have been more switched on and asked, but tbh I'd been up since 4 am and was on my own with 2 young children who were desperate to get changed and into the park.

- afternoon snack - consisted of small cakes/madeline type cakes and some fresh fruit - oranges were nice and tbh cakes were nice but small and I didn't feel comfortable going and refilling our plates. However, there wasn't a huge selection and when we asked for a second drink, we were told it was one per person each visit! I was never made aware this was the case. I was made to feel like we were asking for something that we weren't entitled to etc and I felt embarrassed. In addition, unless you felt you were going to be going back to the hotel for that time period, it isn't that worth it tbh.

- I found the lounge for snacks very dark and not that inviting tbh. I know the hotel is dark anyway (but I quite liked that), just wasn't keen on the lounge or breakfast area.

- I believe they do a few hot items now in lieu of characters at breakfast, so this may be better, but the breakfast wasn't anything to write home about when it was just continental - but nothing awful and probably the same as the usual hotel breakfast. We saw only Pluto and Goofy on our two mornings at breakfast when it was characters and they were in normal attire btw - no funky costumes like advertised.

If I were staying again, I'd probably pay for a main building, lake view room but wouldn't bother with the GF bit. The only reason I would think twice would possibly be having a timeslot for breakfast as it could be an issue at busy times. Overall though, I really liked the hotel, just not fussed on GF, and I would definitely consider staying again if we do go back in 2-3 years time. We've always stayed at the DLH prior to this, but while it wasn't as luxurious as the DLH, I really liked the feel of the lobby, bar area and the hotel in general .

 

[torsie24]

From reviews I've read I'd personally choose to stay at HNY or DLH for the extra money rather than upgrade to GF.

Which is a shame as I love SL and was very excited at the prospect of a club/concierge level. We've stayed CL in WDW and it was incredible. Hot food buffet 5x per day. Staff to help with everything. Unlimited drinks 24/7 etc. So it's got a long way to go to be worth the money for me.

 

[Jonjo]

I'm staying in a GF room in June, and looking forward to seeing what it's like.

 

[PrincessSparkle]

Hi Everyone,

We are just back from a 4 night / 5 day stay at the Golden Forrest and we had a great time. This is our first visit to the Sequoia Lodge so having never stayed in a standard room we have nothing to compare it to but i'll list what we thought were the pro's of the Golden Forrest anyway.

Room
We had a room on the 6th floor with lake view, with a kettle & 2 cups, cappuccino machine, Iron & Ironing Board, Safe, and a Hairdryer.

Breakfast
Breakfast was fantastic, the food was replenished from 7 to 10.30am but a few mornings we didnt turn up until 10.30am and didn't leave until after 11am and we never felt rushed the staff were all lovely.

They had...

Tea, Coffee & Hot Chocolate (All Varieties)
Fresh Juice (Pineapple, Orange, Apple)
Cereals - Frosties, Special K , Miel Pops, Chocolate Shells.
Yoghurts - Numerous Varieties.
Fruit - Chopped Fruit Salad and a basket of whole fresh fruit.
Breads - Sliced White, Croissants, Crusty Rolls & Various other french breads.
Spreads - Marmalade, Apricot Jam, Strawberry Jam, Nutella Spread , Butter & Margarine, Honey, Maple Syrup, Ketchup, Mayonaise.
Hot - Scrambled eggs, Sausages, Bacon, Potato Fritters. Pancakes.

We ate so much at breakfast we had to cancel all our lunch reservations because we were totally stuffed.

Looking out our window watching everyone going for breakfast downstairs reminded me of a cattle market with large crowds every morning, our lounge was always lovely and quiet.

Lounge
The Lounge was open from 12 to 10.30pm serving hot & cold drinks, you could stay and they would bring your drinks to your table or they would put them in paper cups to take away which was great at night to take a few hot chocolates up to our room, the staff were always really friendly.

The treats were nice but really nothing to write home about, there was a few Madeleine's and other pastries to have with your cuppa and a few sweets for the kids but they were usually cold & hard, but the pastries were all self service so you could eat as many as you wanted.

Private Reception
With so many people opting for Golden Forrest most days the Golden Forrest Reception was just as busy as the regular reception especially around check-in time.

Overall we had a great time, we have stayed at the Newport Bay and the Disneyland Hotel and for location the Disneyland Hotel wins hands down but for everything else my family all preferred the Sequoia Lodge Golden Forrest.

I think what made it great for us was the lounge for free drinks throughout the day but as all the hotels will soon offer this to all guests of their club rooms i might be tempted to try the Hotel New York next time x

 

[HonestSon]

Just back from our trip. In contrast to other commentors we really enjoyed the teatime treats (4pm-6pm), so maybe we were lucky. There was a decent choice of cakes and biscuits, and no limit on drinks.

The GF staff were absolutely lovely. For drinks/treats you go into the lounge, show your pass and are shown to a table. They take your drinks order and you help yourself to cakes. It really felt like a special experience and it was lovely to have a calm place to go. The unrushed breakfast was a lovely way to start the day - you're shown to a table then left to get your own food and drinks. Table clearing was prompt and buffet was continually refilled.

You don't get a whole lot of extras with GF but for us (a group of four adults) they added a lot to our experience.

 

[A whole new world]

Thank-you for all your replies. We have booked the dining plan for next year, so we don't think we will use the day time treats or drinks. Were definitely going to book the Montana room with a lake view, but I think we will probably leave GF as were going during a quieter week.

Save the extra towards the next Disney trip

 

[PrincessSparkle]

Thank-you for all your replies. We have booked the dining plan for next year, so we don't think we will use the day time treats or drinks.

While we were there last week we all thought the lounge and free drinks were great and all said we would definitely be going back to the Golden Forrest again next year but since coming home we realized that after heading to the parks after breakfast we never once returned to the hotel during the day so we didn't use the lounge until after the parks were closed then we popped in for a few drinks before heading to our room so we are now starting to question if it was worth paying the extra.

We booked 2 rooms and the difference between the Montana room and the Golden Forrest was an extra £240 so now we are thinking now we maybe should have just used that extra money to stop and have a few hot drinks in the park during the day x.