Grand Floridian shouldn’t allow non hotel guests

[nuhusky123]

At gfv the hotel is all done up for Christmas and I can’t emphasize enough how unpleasant the main lobby is. The lobby is absolute chaos with non hotel guests. It’s so bad I’ve decided to never come back to gfv during the holidays

I believe a hotel should be welcoming and relaxing. Gfv is anything but relaxing. It’s just stressful

It’s not that the hotel guests are crowding the resort. It’s non guests

*edit below*
Post below added for more context. Taken from post I made on second page. The lobby to be clear is unpleasant but a symptom of the larger problem

Bit more perspective from my side

I bought vgf in large part so I could book Christmas there.

I’m a paid guest and I expect access to the amenities of the resort. Those include transportation, entertainment, food, retail

I pay for and subsidize those amenities.

Now Disney allows for sit down dinners access to the resorts but they pay for that privilege and in turn can access transportation retail and food. They should not get access to the pool for example. I think it’s great being able to visit hotel restaurants I’m not staying at and I accept the traffic this creates because it’s 100% limited in quantity to the number of dinner reservations

Then there are the non paid non dinner guests. They have paid nothing for these amenities but consume them in unlimited quantity and there is literally no cap to the number of unpaid guests who visit the resort

This unpaid group consume the amenities diminishing the paid guests access and value

To the comments go use the dvc lobby. Missing the point. You can’t get the monorail from the dvc lobby.

It’s no fun watching multiple trains go by not because it’s full from poly but because the line from gf is so long it wraps into the building. It’s no fun having to dodge people going from the train to the dvc building because there is next to no room to walk

Bottom line this trip showed me vgf is a place to avoid at Christmas and that makes me sad because it’s a beautiful resort and defeats a primary purpose of why I purchased at vgf

How to solve that’s disneys problem but there are ways like wrist bands we get at aulani or beach club pools. Why can’t there be priority access for hotel guests to the gingerbread house, quick service or train?

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm not sure how you seem to be able to identify people who are guests of the resort compared to those who aren't. I doubt you can actually tell who is crowding the resort. But it's a very popular lobby at a very popular time to visit. It's going to be busy and crowded.

 

[ftbaker1313]

feeling elitist lately?

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

Maybe Disney shouldn't put so much emphasis on the holiday decor and hype people up to come see it.

Its not the non guests fault. Its Disney's.
And its not just GF.
If you don't like it I'd suggest staying offsite.

 

[focusondisney]

At gfv the hotel is all done up for Christmas and I can’t emphasize enough how unpleasant the main lobby is. The lobby is absolute chaos with non hotel guests. It’s so bad I’ve decided to never come back to gfv during the holidays

I believe a hotel should be welcoming and relaxing. Gfv is anything but relaxing. It’s just stressful

It’s not that the hotel guests are crowding the resort. It’s non guests

Sure. Let’s see Disney pass up all the money non resort guests drop while looking at a Christmas tree. Maybe you should have done even a little research on your hotel before booking there during the holidays.

 

[kes601]

It's Thanksgiving week, one of the 3 busiest weeks of the year. What did you expect?

 

[TinkB278]

I stayed there last December and was completely miserable. Couldn’t get food in a timely manner from gasparilla and every bus and monorail was full of people not staying at the hotel who wanted to see the gingerbread houses. I decided never again.

 

[mort1331]

And to have to ride "our Monorail" with the Plebs from Poly...ughhh

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

 

[TinkB278]

I don’t think any of this is coming from an elitist perspective. It is physically uncomfortable not being able to maneuver a resort you are staying at or have access to services you are paying for. It was frustrating not being able to get on the monorail without a long wait or to have to wait for multiple busses to come to Disney springs before we could get on one because large groups of people were taking the bus to see the lobby.

 

[MyDogTink]

Wow. I wouldn’t classify OP as an elitist. If DVC sells VGF as deluxe villas and Disney books GF as a deluxe resort, what’s the threshold for inconvenience? There’s a discrepancy amongst Disney rules. A non-hotel guest can ride the monorail to the VGF lobby yet the same non-resort guest can’t park there to see the lobby. The same non-resort guest can’t crash the pool.

Yes, it’s a busy time of the year which is why I believe priority access to the monorail should be given to monorail hotel guests and possibly those with dining reservations.

I was there last April (after Easter so after the busy period) and it was frustrating to see CMs guide non-resort guests to the hotel monorail line at park closure. I work hard and save so that I can stay at a deluxe resort for what Disney advertises as convenience.

I can empathize with OP.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I think perhaps the title of the thread used by the OP didn't get the conversation off to a good start! I certainly can understand some frustration with the crowds impacting the lobby and resort transportation......

 

[FastPasser.]

As a former longtime Grand Floridian CM, I always enjoyed working there during the holidays. I didn’t have an issue with the lobby crowds. It was fun being in the middle of it all. People, for the most part, were happy and pleasant. Wish I could be there again.

 

[peder]

Strongly agree with OP, though not sure it’s realistic or even what Disney desires. I think both Poly and Grand Floridian are uncomfortably busy during the holidays, from quick service to simply walking around the resort. And Grand Flo is worse than Poly.

Contrast this with the Riviera, which has almost zero folks just loitering around. When we first stayed and then bought at Riviera, we assumed all resorts were similarly laid back and were very surprised when we first stayed at Grand Flo during the holidays. Unlikely that we’d stay there again over Christmas.

 

[matt and beth]

The comments . The restaurants are a draw from MK and it’s one of the busiest times of the year. We tend to avoid Poly because it’s next door to the TTC. Lots of people crashing the quick serve and pool. We love people just not that many people.

 

[AstroBlasters]

feeling elitist lately?

This comment is pretty condescending.

 

[davidhr]

I get the frustration, and it's one of the main reasons I don't own at Poly. But I personally wouldn't like to not be allowed to visit other resorts, so I accept there will be crowding.

 

[Cfabar1]

I hear you.... but I don't know how many people are just "loitering" compared to normal.... It does seem to me that the trees result in some furniture being removed, also they did open the garden view tea room as a seating area to allow for the overflow....

I would also point out that it appears, despite this being one of the busiest weeks, they still need people not staying at GF/VGF to fill the dining reservations - there has been plenty of availability in the system this week to dine at all the restaurants at GF... If they restricted that further to folks only staying at that resort well, I'm sure it would not be good.

I hear your frustration, but keep in mind this is one of the very busiest weeks - of the annual pass folks, two of the four types are completely blocked out and have been since Friday, and starting tomorrow only the Incredi-Pass has access to WDW for the rest of the week - that tells you something about where things are, and the waiting is bad everywhere - we have never seen AK as packed as it was during our visit yesterday!

 

[Genie+]

We stayed at Grand Flo the week before Christmas last year in 2023 and the lobby was cuckoo just after anytime MK closed at 6pm. You just need to avoid that 6-8pm at all costs lol.

We stayed the week before Thanksgiving this year and it was awesome! Never got anywhere near as crowded. I hit Gasperilla at least 6 meals and never more than 1 or 2 minutes waits at food counters or registers. We popped into GF Cafe 3 times somewhat last minute with no issue, and it was medium busy but calm atmosphere (weekdays though, weekends are much louder/busier).

December is likely to be very rough this year. There’s less weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year meaning 4 weeks of pre Christmas guests will be packed into 3 weeks.

I think the opposite affect made our Nov 16-23 trip this year fantastically low crowds, because there was that extra week between Halloween and Thanksgiving to spread Nov non-holiday week guests out. I just checked Touring Plans and they had parks mostly crowd level actually 1 to 3 (predicted 5-8). Honestly we were expecting maybe CL 3-6.

Our Grand Flo strategy is to avoid the lobby during peak times. It’s not too hard.

 

[DisnEElove]

As a home resort for us, I can agree. There should be limited hours for those to visit without a resort stay or dining reservation during the holiday weeks. People can still come sight-see, but only at certain times. That would help just as it does when they limit the pool to guests only and you have to get wrist bands.

Monorail resorts pay point premiums over other resorts supposedly for the added conveniences, which sucks if you can't really enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a buzzing lobby. But unless they add an additional monorail line for resort guests only and limit Gasparilla to guests during really busy times, limiting the sightseeing hours would be next choice. Some of us have schedules that only allow for mostly trips around the holidays. The answer can't be to avoid staying at your fave resort...