Grand Floridian shouldn’t allow non hotel guests

[CWTC]

VGF is one of our home resorts and this is 100% why we wouldn’t stay there in December. I get why people go to look at the decorations and why Disney wants to attract people. But having to battle all those crowds for a bus or monorail would drive us cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. We though have the luxury of being able to pick a different home resort in December.

 

[Cfabar1]

For those of us who have VGF as a home resort our lobby is technically another building and no one is hanging out in there….

 

[tjkraz]

I mean, I get it. But it's also completely unworkable to suggest that Disney could effectively restrict access to a resort that can be reached by bus, car, monorail, boat and on foot. The only real solution is to not stay there during these periods.

 

[SugarSweetLee]

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.

It's an interesting premise, but outside of investing a lot of manpower $, I don't see any way you could enforce it. And the last thing Disney would want to do is spend money to get fewer people to spend money.

 

[vakamalua]

We were there Saturday 11/23 about 5 pm; not crowded at all.
Disney’s thrilled when it is crowded though, more people spending $ in restaurants & shops. Same reason they park crowd capacities are so high!

 

[Stargazer65]

This could easily be resolved with just a few armed security guards walking around asking to see everyones papers.

 

[TCRAIG]

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

That’s why I stay at Wilderness Lodge/Boulder Ridge this time of year…although I do admit I do a monorail crawl to look at the other resort decorations…I try and go after dark tho…

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

I watched a TikTok yesterday of a Florida local who parked at TTC and monorailed over to GF with her family to roast marshmallows at the fire pit.

She was promoting this behavior as free activities for Florida locals.

This is part of the problem.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I watched a TikTok yesterday of a Florida local who parked at TTC and monorailed over to GF with her family to roast marshmallows at the fire pit.

She was promoting this behavior as free activities for Florida locals.

This is part of the problem.

This is why we can’t have nice things…. just wrist band everyone like they do at Aulani…. and make the DVC-Y ones sparkly… IYKYK

 

[nuhusky123]

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?

 

[nuhusky123]

I watched a TikTok yesterday of a Florida local who parked at TTC and monorailed over to GF with her family to roast marshmallows at the fire pit.

She was promoting this behavior as free activities for Florida locals.

This is part of the problem.

So this isn’t a secret. Disney has a road sign on the road by poly that tells “gingerbread guests to park at ttc”

It’s literally an encouraged behavior

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

The solution is quite simple. Entrance only permitted with dining or resort reservation.

Main entrance - Security already checks here.

Boat - Provide the boat operator CM with a ticket/MagicBand reader. Guests must scan upon entering the boat.

Walking paths - One CM at each path (MK path and Poly path ones it reopens). Again, they do this during 4th of July. I was unable to walk from TTC to Poly on 4th of July because they had a CM checking for resort or dining reservation.

Monorail - Same as above. There’s already CMs at this location.

This will of course require ample signage and verbal warnings before Guests enter the monorail and boat.

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

So this isn’t a secret. Disney has a road sign on the road by poly that tells “gingerbread guests to park at ttc”

It’s literally an encouraged behavior

The gingerbread house is different than marshmallow roasting.

Marshmallow roasting is only for Guests staying at the resort.

Gingerbread house is available to anyone.

 

[davidhr]

Is the juice worth the squeeze in this situation? I mean, it's annoying, but it happens just during the peak of the holiday season.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

The solution is quite simple. Entrance only permitted with dining or resort reservation.

Main entrance - Security already checks here.

Boat - Provide the boat operator CM with a ticket/MagicBand reader. Guests must scan upon entering the boat.

Walking paths - One CM at each path (MK path and Poly path ones it reopens). Again, they do this during 4th of July. I was unable to walk from TTC to Poly on 4th of July because they had a CM checking for resort or dining reservation.

Monorail - Same as above. There’s already CMs at this location.

This will of course require ample signage and verbal warnings before Guests enter the monorail and boat.

Sorry, that doesn't sound quite simple to me.

 

[nuhusky123]

The gingerbread house is different than marshmallow roasting.

Marshmallow roasting is only for Guests staying at the resort.

Gingerbread house is available to anyone.

Did you read my prior post?

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

Sorry, that doesn't sound quite simple to me.

A Cast Member standing in a stationary position scanning for resort or dining reservation isn’t simple? Am I missing something?

If you’re referring to the issue of labor cost to have Cast Members do this, then that’s an entirely separate issue.

 

[vakamalua]

You all see this as a problem; Disney doesn’t.

 

[proudmomof4]

The solution is quite simple. Entrance only permitted with dining or resort reservation.

Main entrance - Security already checks here.

Boat - Provide the boat operator CM with a ticket/MagicBand reader. Guests must scan upon entering the boat.

Walking paths - One CM at each path (MK path and Poly path ones it reopens). Again, they do this during 4th of July. I was unable to walk from TTC to Poly on 4th of July because they had a CM checking for resort or dining reservation.

Monorail - Same as above. There’s already CMs at this location.

This will of course require ample signage and verbal warnings before Guests enter the monorail and boat.

This is completely doable, they call it "lockdown". They have to do all of this for Fort Wilderness during Halloween and Christmas due to so many people wanting to come in and see all of the decorations the campers have put up at their sites.

People will post on social media to go to Fort Wilderness for trick or treating, there were local residents crashing the Fort, as well as people from other resorts. After several years of pretty bad incidents and bad behavior, Disney instituted "lockdowns" for the dates around Halloween and Christmas/New Years.

Disney operates the gingerbread houses and receives revenue from the sales, as well as dining and the merchandise sold in the other gift shops. So, that is most likely the reason they do not use "lockdown" at GF. At Fort Wilderness it is the campers who decorate and buy all of the items/candy given out during Halloween and Christmas, not Disney.

 

[jppeek]

I absolutely love staying at the GF during the holidays, BUT I did find this issue myself last year. There was one evening I wanted to take my little guy back to MK in the evening and the line was so long we never made it. I waited 15 minutes and we still weren’t even close

Certainly understand how people paying the money it cost to stay at GF could be frustrated, but at the same time I remember how much I loved taking a trip to see the gingerbread house and decorations before I was in a position where I could stay at the GF so I would never want to see that taken away from anyone either.

My thought was maybe Disney could have it so every so many monorails would be express from GF to MK, so they drop off at other stops but don’t pick up. If they did this say every 4-6 monorails it would add a few extra minutes to others resorts BUT would eliminate GF ever getting backed up to the point your waiting 3-4 monorails at GF before getting one.

I’ve seen monorails be so full before the Christmas party they didn’t allow people on at the GF, so I can’t see why the reverse couldn’t work. Seems like it would be an easy enough fix

I don’t think anyone should blame or name call a person for spending money on a trip and not being happy with the inconveniences though. If you don’t know what to expect going in from previous experiences it could certainly be frustrating.

have a very Happy Thanksgiving everybody!