Grand Floridian - Is it really worth the cost?

[honey2741]

Hello Everyone! Who knew it would be so difficult to choose a hotel! I wanted to know for those who have stayed at the Grand Floridian, did you think the level of service and the decor of the room was worth the money they charge? What was your positive or negative experience staying at the Grand Floridian? Thanks!

 

[tiggerrifficheidi]

I answered your other post about concierge.

But, I am so glad we stayed at the GF for the wedding (almost all of our events were centered around there). It made life simple, plus it felt luxurious to be staying there. There were plenty of dining options if we didn't have plans elsewhere. And the monorail gave us access to guests staying at the Contemporary.

In retrospect, I would have stayed in a standard room or gone deluxe concierge.

I will say that a honeymooner at the GF doesn't garner as much attention as at one of the other resorts. When we stayed at the VWL in June 08 for our Escape wedding, we found a surprise in our room every day. This was not the case at the GF.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

Heidi: Thanks for the info!

Personally, we want to stay there for the wedding part of the trip purely for convenience. We are getting married at the WP, so it only makes sense (at least to us). Not to mention I have been telling DF since we were dating that when we get married we are staying at the GF. If you're only gonna do it once (that you can for see) go all out.

However, I've also considered doing a split stay b/c honestly for the price of GF we could stay longer some place else.

decisions decisions decisions

 

[OceanGdss]

We stayed there for the 2 nights prior and 2 nights after our wedding (switching to BWV for the rest of our stay after the wedding). I have to say that it was nice to have the luxury for a few nights, but the room was very small, our view was terrible (back of a tree) and we received NO special suprises. We were walked to our room (waayyyy away from the main building) by a concierge CM, she opened our door, and that was about it for special service. We didn't really expect anything though. Which is good, because we would have been disappointed.

Also, the night of our wedding, we came back through the lobby in our gear (wedding gown/tux) and we did not get the 'spotlight' i had hoped for. When we walked in one CM started clapping trying to get others around him to participate, but the other CMs just looked at us then went back to their conversations with each other. It was kind of a let down (though we really appreciate that one CMs enthusiasm!!) We even stopped for a FP photo in the lobby, but only guests stopped to look at us, everyone kept going on their way.

I think weddings are such common place at GF that the CMs are simply 'used' to them. While at BWV afterwards we received a lot more 'goodies' and 'suprises'.

As for the resort itself, it wasn't anything too special. It was nice to walk to V&A the night after our wedding and walk back, and it was neat to get up and ride the monorail after breakfast, but if we could do it all over again we might choose to stay at BWV the entire time or even AKL.

jmo though I know others have LOVED it!! :

 

[lurkyloo]

I agree with the previous posters - I think the GF is waaaay overrated. We had a decent stay there, but it is not so much nicer than the other Deluxe Resorts that it is worth the extra cost.

And when you consider that you could stay at an actual luxury resort, like the Four Seasons or the Ritz-Carlton, for the same rack rates, it makes the GF seem like even less of a value.

That said, we had a fine time on our free night (except for the belligerent smoker in the next room) and enjoyed the concierge lounge, but we would never pay to stay there.

 

[alwaysdisney]

Heidi: Thanks for the info!

Personally, we want to stay there for the wedding part of the trip purely for convenience. We are getting married at the WP, so it only makes sense (at least to us). Not to mention I have been telling DF since we were dating that when we get married we are staying at the GF. If you're only gonna do it once (that you can for see) go all out.

However, I've also considered doing a split stay b/c honestly for the price of GF we could stay longer some place else.

decisions decisions decisions

I just came back from seeing the GF Wedding Pavillion on 06/12/09 and it is very beautiful. They also have 2 seperate rooms in the bridal area, I would imagine 1 for the bride and the other is for her bridesmaids. The grooms have their own waiting room. I am planning an Escape Wedding, as we do not have that many people between our 2 families. We plan on spending our wedding night at the GF but then switching to another resort, as we also are planning a 7 day cruise and would rather have the extra money to spend on our shore excursions.

 

[tommymomo]

I kind of laugh when I read peoples reviews of anything. If you look for something to dislike you will find it. I have always stayed at the GF, and I plan on doing do for my wedding. Here is the deal is it too expensive for what it is, of course it is, but every hotel in disney is too pricey for what they offer. If you have the money, by all means stay at the GF you will not be disapponted, the place is incrediblly clean, most of the staff couldnt be nicer to you, the views of the magic kingdom from the grounds are fantastic,the monorails, and to put it bluntly(and I am sure I will make people mad with this statement), you arent dealing with the caliber of people that you somtimes deal with at the cheaper hotels .

Its your wedding, if you can afford it, are you really going to cheap out now??

 

[ChristmasElf]

I kind of laugh when I read peoples reviews of anything. If you look for something to dislike you will find it. I have always stayed at the GF, and I plan on doing do for my wedding. Here is the deal is it too expensive for what it is, of course it is, but every hotel in disney is too pricey for what they offer. If you have the money, by all means stay at the GF you will not be disapponted, the place is incrediblly clean, most of the staff couldnt be nicer to you, the views of the magic kingdom from the grounds are fantastic,the monorails, and to put it bluntly(and I am sure I will make people mad with this statement), you arent dealing with the caliber of people that you somtimes deal with at the cheaper hotels .
Its your wedding, if you can afford it, are you really going to cheap out now??

Wanna bet? The Grand Floridian is way over rated. Before we moved into this house, we stayed at the Grand Floridian for a 10 night stay and you wouldn't believe how some people act at this upscale resort.

One night we saw a bride have a tantrum in the hallway because a family was taking too long taking pictures on the staircase.

Another day we saw a Mother have a meltdown because her 2 year old wouldn't cooperate and sit still for the artist to draw their portrait.

People ate at Gasparillas and would allow their children to run wild between the video games, leave food all over the floor and just generally make a huge mess before they walked off.

Little kids running all over Park Fare instead of sitting with their parents. CM's had to dodge these kids while trying to take care of people.

There was also a fair share of crabby, not wanting to be there cm's.

I don't think it's fair to think that an upscale resort is always "better" or a "better class of people" than say at a moderate or a Hyatt.

 

[lurkyloo]

I have to agree - the caliber of person in the room next to us on the Concierge Level at the Grand Floridian was "belligerent smoker who got into a shouting match with DH after hotel managers repeatedly reprimanded (and fined) him for breaking the hotel's smoking rules"

You are going to find goobers everywhere, but I have never met anyone with such a sense of entitlement at a Value resort.

 

[Starr W.]

I have to agree - the caliber of person in the room next to us on the Concierge Level at the Grand Floridian was "belligerent smoker who got into a shouting match with DH after hotel managers repeatedly reprimanded (and fined) him for breaking the hotel's smoking rules"

You are going to find goobers everywhere, but I have never met anyone with such a sense of entitlement at a Value resort.

Ha! sense of entitlement? You have to see some of my fellow DVC owners in action! I haven't yet checked in during our 5 stays at the WDW locations, that an owner hasn't been hogging someone at check in whining about something, and it always ends with "but I'm an owner!" Usually it's room location, which is only a request.

I stayed at GF when the industry organization I was involved in had a Board of Directors meeting there. It was also to check out to see if a WDW hotel would be a good place for the annual meeting. Was not impressed with the service on either the convention or hotel side of things.

Ended up scratching the GF or any WDW hotel and ended up at one of the Marriott's if I remember correctly.

 

[UK Princess]

no-one got anything good to say!?!?

 

[tommymomo]

listen I wasnt looking to insult anybody about my comments(sometimes my NYer comes off the wrong way), and yes just because you have money doesnt mean that you can't be a "goober" (thats a new one for me). I can only talk from my expeirence at the hotels. However a smoker, a stressed mother,kids running around a character meal, and a bridezilla isnt all that bad in my opinion. Quite frankly, thats kind of par for the course at disney.

 

[CNPHILLY]

I agree with most everything Tommymomo said. We stayed at the GF for our wedding and for a week after before we left on a cruise, and it was fantastic. It is a notch above other Disney hotels in facilities, service, and location. I always enjoy staying there, and looking back on it I am so glad we stayed for our wedding and for the week after.

 

[lurkyloo]

no-one got anything good to say!?!?

Here's a link to an entire 62-page thread dedicated to the good things people have to say about the Grand Floridian:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2158108

 

[ElleBren]

I enjoyed staying there since it was so close to the events. However I wish I had stayed one more day so I would not have been so rushed and crazy. Also I most likely won't be staying club level anytime soon as I feel it was such a waste of money(thank goodness it was free & one night was a gift).

However had my wedding not been at the GF or the welcome dp there as well I would have probably been ok to stay just about anywhere. We split our stay with OKW and I have to say I really enjoyed having more room than the GF.

 

[dhay]

So here is my opinion FWIW.

Am I happy I stayed there? Yes. We always wanted to every time we went to Disney but could NEVER justify spending the money until it was our honeymoon.

BUT we were disppointed. We enjoyed the BW and BC more. GF is overrated. We spent so much more money and the CM were rude, the wait staff was loud and woke us up. 2x they mixed up our billing inof and called us at 6am to come to the fornt to correct it when ti was their mistake.

We won't ever pay to stay there again, but we are gald that we did because we would still wonder about it if we had not. Looking back I would have booked 1/2 my HM at the GF and the other 1/2 at the BC or BW.

 

[PirateBride08]

I am not a fan of the GF in general. They have the smallest rooms and the whole Victorian decor isn't me. We almost always stay at the Poly and that's where we stayed for the wedding. We had 6 women, 1 child and 2 hair/make-up girls in our room at one point and we all fit. The Poly rooms are pretty big. We were still close to the WP and all that for pre-wedding and wedding day events.

 

[disprincessatheart]

We stayed there the week of our wedding and loved it. We'd stay there on every trip if we could. We did get 2 small surprises in our room that week from the staff, but that's not what made it a great stay. We didn't get a free room or even an upgrade, but we got exactly what we paid for and loved it. We loved the location, the feel of the resort and the convenience of being there. We were also lucky enough to have our request for a King bed come thru. We did have some very nice CM's congratulate us on our wedding all week, and some nice fellow guests as well. To us it just felt romantic and we enjoyed our entire stay. DH is also a huge fan of spending time in the lobby enjoying the music. It was a great way to unwind after the parks.

If you do choose to stay there, I highly recommend renting a poolside cabana for a day. I think we paid $160 to have it for 8 hours with an attendant, soft drinks, fruit, a tv, a sattelite radio and nice comfy chairs in a prime poolside spot. It was a great way to unwind from a week of wedding insanity!

Really the only thing I regret is that we didn't stay longer. At the time I was concerned about spending $400 a night, but a year later I wish I'd splurged a little more on an extra couple of nights since we paid cash for everything anyway. It would have been nice to stay a couple nights after our guests left and really enjoy the resort!

BTW, I don't think the previous post about the smallest rooms is at all accurate. I'm not sure they're the absolute largest, but the value and mods definitely are smaller rooms than the GF.

 

[pezaddict231]

Only you can say if it's worth it for you. You will get a million different opinions on any resort. I think you need to ask yourself if the resort appeals to you and will it be a financial hardship to stay there. Disney is full of great resorts. We are at the GF now and we love it. We've stayed at WL (courtyard view) and AKL (Savannah View) and the GF is our new favorite. I do find the service to be better than at the other resorts we've stayed at, the resort is beautiful, really compact and being on the monorail is so convenient. We got engaged the day before we checked in and they sent up a small bottle of champagne and a card from Mickey. Every CM we pass says hello or good afternoon. I love the turn down service, they also will bring you new towels and straighten up a little for you. We took a walk over to the Poly today and while it was very pretty we preferred the atmosphere by the GF. Personally I would do a split stay GF / YC or BWI.

 

[PirateBride08]

What I meant about my smallest rooms comment was not meant to be compared to every Disney Resort there is. For $400 a night, they are small and would not have worked for my wedding. Our hair and make-up girls complained about the GF room sizes as did our MK Photo Shoot Photographer. The Value resorts are the smallest on property however they are also a lot cheaper than the GF. The Poly rooms are huge, same general area and not as expensive as the GF.