Grand Floridian in September?

[WishUponAStar3]

Today was a very exciting day: I booked a last-minute trip to the World (combining business + leisure, with one of my best friends joining me!) for September 7-12 and I found a deal at Grand Floridian better than any I've ever seen for that hotel before!! (Between $492-$528/night with the 25% Summer Savings deal.) I booked it and celebrated, LOL, but then in thinking about how GF was cheaper than both Contemporary and Poly those dates, which is rarely ever the case, I started wondering if there is a catch. Will the rumored lobby construction be occurring during our dates? This will be my first time at GF, and if the lobby is going to be full of construction walls, should I switch to Contemporary or Poly instead? (We're staying on the monorail loop since attending the D23 event.) I'd be grateful for any intel you might have!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Today was a very exciting day: I booked a last-minute trip to the World (combining business + leisure, with one of my best friends joining me!) for September 7-12 and I found a deal at Grand Floridian better than any I've ever seen for that hotel before!! (Between $492-$528/night with the 25% Summer Savings deal.) I booked it and celebrated, LOL, but then in thinking about how GF was cheaper than both Contemporary and Poly those dates, which is rarely ever the case, I started wondering if there is a catch. Will the rumored lobby construction be occurring during our dates? This will be my first time at GF, and if the lobby is going to be full of construction walls, should I switch to Contemporary or Poly instead? (We're staying on the monorail loop since attending the D23 event.) I'd be grateful for any intel you might have!

I wouldn't worry about the lobby. There hasn't been any word from Disney about it. Even if there was some refurbishment, they wouldn't block off the lobby with construction walls.

The reason prices are low during that part of September is that it is a very low crowd period. Kids are back in school and families are busy with other things. And the weather can be very rainy. The crowds will come in October.

 

[Marthasor]

The lobby refurb is coming - we just don't know exactly when or what they will be doing. IMHO, anyone booking GF through the end of this year is throwing the dice. If the lobby is very important to you, you may want to have a back-up plan. IMHO, GF is beautiful with or without the lobby. I would consider how much time you are actually spending at the resort if you will be at the event most of your days. If your main focus is attending the event, I would take whatever is cheapest in the MK area (though I'm not a huge fan of CR!).

 

[leiaorgana]

Someone on another forum was told 1st June by a Club Level CM at GF for the lobby refurb to start but pinch of salt and all that….

 

[focusondisney]

Even with hot weather & low crowds, GF isn’t usually less than Poly & CR. It’s possible the most discounted rooms for those resorts are booked already. But it’s also possible the bookings at GF are down compared to those resorts because of the possible lobby renovations. Yes, nothing has been announced. But a lot of folks know it’s coming. There may not be construction walls, but areas will likely be curtained off & you may hear construction noise. It’s unfortunate Disney keeps things secret so long. It makes it so hard to plan.

And FYI, there is major construction at Poly too, with the new DVC tower being built.

 

[Anthony1971]

There is no Lobby date as of now. The rooms in the main building seem to be un bookable for the summer months but that can change also but it is known those rooms will be redone. Even when the Lobby is redone it could be just a change out of furniture and be overnight no one knows.... Personally there just is not that much they can do with that Lobby as it is already open with hard surface floors there is just not much to remove and I highly doubt they will adding any walls or anything like a fountain so most time may be a floor change? The best guess I have seem is they will re theme to more match the rooms. The 35th Anv. date is July 1 I would think they will have some type of celebration in the Lobby on that date.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I can see them painting the walls and changing the furniture. There might be some new carpeting, too. I could see some work being done to things like the check in area or the former tea room. But I would be surprised at a massive refurb.

 

[WishUponAStar3]

Thank you all so much for the feedback!! It sounds like I should stay excited, LOL, and cautiously optimistic that the lobby will be open and construction won't be a biggie? Also, when I booked my room it didn't show any building options on the website, it just said Resort View, Water View, etc. Is there a way to guarantee being in one of the renovated rooms?

 

[Mle8308]

Thank you all so much for the feedback!! It sounds like I should stay excited, LOL, and cautiously optimistic that the lobby will be open and construction won't be a biggie? Also, when I booked my room it didn't show any building options on the website, it just said Resort View, Water View, etc. Is there a way to guarantee being in one of the renovated rooms?

You can make a request, but there is no guarantee. I think all, if not, most are done, so you should have a good chance of getting one!

 

[focusondisney]

I can see them painting the walls and changing the furniture. There might be some new carpeting, too. I could see some work being done to things like the check in area or the former tea room. But I would be surprised at a massive refurb.

That’s what I’m thinking, paint, new furniture & rugs. The marble floors were redone a few years ago & are in excellent shape, so I don’t think those will be touched. But the 1000 Park Faire space & afternoon Tea Room might be redone as well as the GF Cafe and shops. Not sure if Gasparilla’s Grill has been done yet. When Yacht Club lobby was recently redone, they had large areas curtained off as they painted & redid the floors. So probably won’t be construction walls, just curtained off areas.

 

[gottalovepluto]

The deal is because it’s slow season. Disney doesn’t discount hotels undergoing refurbs.

I’m shocked by the optimism here. I thought Disney was gonna come in and gut the lobby and redo it all the way to jack hammering out the old looking tile- but with zero guidance from Disney on what to expect it’s entirely possible their whole new look will just be new carpet and furniture… I’m still wary of the optimism here though OP. The GF Cafe, Garden View Tea Room (and maybe 1900 PF?) all still need their refurbs (and if the Tea Room is out it needs to be integrated into the lobby or turned into something else). Why wouldn’t Disney make an access route through the construction to the second floor and essentially take the first floor offline to do all the updating at once? Sub part of the convention center for check-in.

At the end of the day if lobby construction would ruin the Magic I would stay elsewhere so you won’t stress about it Pre-trip. If you’re cool with the idea since you’ll be in a different building anyway then congrats on the deal!

 

[Steven212]

It seems like a great deal

 

[Dreams&wishes]

I wouldn't worry about the lobby. There hasn't been any word from Disney about it. Even if there was some refurbishment, they wouldn't block off the lobby with construction walls.

The reason prices are low during that part of September is that it is a very low crowd period. Kids are back in school and families are busy with other things. And the weather can be very rainy. The crowds will come in October.

When you say very rainy do you mean a quick shower and that's it or a whole day of rain?

 

[Wood Nymph]

When you say very rainy do you mean a quick shower and that's it or a whole day of rain?

Florida weather is very unpredictable and you never know what to expect, even if you check the forecast that morning. But you can almost guarantee at least an afternoon shower every day. You can have weather with a sunny morning, scattered showers later in the day, and a nice evening. Or you can have a hurricane come through. Just be flexible and bring a waterproof poncho, umbrella, or jacket with you at all times.

 

[kylenne]

When you say very rainy do you mean a quick shower and that's it or a whole day of rain?

Yes.

Seriously, both can happen. Most of the time the clockwork afternoon storms blow in and out but you can also get the torrential downpour that lingers for a couple of hours. It’s also peak hurricane season that time of year.

 

[focusondisney]

The deal is because it’s slow season. Disney doesn’t discount hotels undergoing refurbs.

No they don’t. But they do offer bigger discounts to hotels with softer bookings. So if people are avoiding booking at GF due to worries about lobby renos, the discount offered could be higher than what’s offered at CR or Poly. Or as I said, it could be the biggest discounted rooms are already booked at those resorts, making it seem like GF is cheaper than them.

Personally I would be concerned not knowing what is going on with the restaurants. We stayed at CBR during the whole skyliner/ lobby/ restaurant construction debacle. Because Disney hadn’t planned for guest complaints/ recovery at all, we ended up with an amazing free dining, nightly gift card, discounted room deal. Yes, we actually had 3 discounts for the whole week, but no option to move resorts with any discount. But there were very limited food options, disjointed lobby service & the resort was a physical mess. I would not ever knowingly do that again.

 

[Dreams&wishes]

Yes.

Seriously, both can happen. Most of the time the clockwork afternoon storms blow in and out but you can also get the torrential downpour that lingers for a couple of hours. It’s also peak hurricane season that time of year.

Thank you. But isn't a hurricane just a three day things and that's it? We will be staying two weeks and the end of September. I'm ok if it just rains a bit in the afternoon and that it or if we get an hurricane for three days, but I would like it to be reasonable weather for the rest of the time is this gonna be the case or will it be like England?

 

[toodycat]

That’s a great time to stay at the GF. The deals are good and the crowds are low. We’ve gotten very reasonable prices at the GF in September without there being any construction. I wouldn’t worry,

 

[OnThisMagicNight]

Thank you all so much for the feedback!! It sounds like I should stay excited, LOL, and cautiously optimistic that the lobby will be open and construction won't be a biggie? Also, when I booked my room it didn't show any building options on the website, it just said Resort View, Water View, etc. Is there a way to guarantee being in one of the renovated rooms?

You will definitely receive a refurbished room because they are the only rooms available now. You may want to consider a water or theme park view though if it's within your budget. One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread yet is the likelihood that the main building exterior will also be covered in scaffolding. This has been the case for every outer building that has been refurbished so far so I would expect this to occur with the main building also (they will want to redo the roof and freshen up the exterior, like they've done for all the other buildings.) The outer buildings all took about 3 months to complete and with this being a larger building, I'd expect it may take a bit longer (or hopefully they throw more resources on this phase and get it done as quickly as possible!) Based on all of the main building club level guests who have been told the construction is starting next week, I think we'll get a really good idea shortly of what's going to occur and you may be able to switch resorts if it's more than you can tolerate. If it was a once in a lifetime trip for me, I'd probably hesitate as I'd want to get the full resort experience with nothing closed/under refurbishment. But as a Disney regular - I just love the Grand, the new rooms are fantastic and there are so many other great amenities there. I think you can still have a great time.

 

[WishUponAStar3]

Ok, I have a bit of an update! I got an email from Disney Destinations warning about construction happening during my travel dates at the Grand Floridian, so I got nervous and called the main Disney World travel phone number. I spoke to a CM who looked into the construction schedule for September and said there is one building that will be under construction then, but it's not the lobby! He said during daytime hours we will be able to see and hear construction around the resort and we'd be able to see/hear it from the lobby, but no construction in the lobby itself. He also said all the amenities will be available. Sooo sounds like the main building will be okay in September?! Fingers crossed!!