This was the first time we had stayed at GF for more than 1 night and gave me a better perspective on the resort as a whole.
The Grand Floridian is a beautiful resort. I don't think anyone can argue with that. We were there while they were assembling the gingerbread house and, so, saw it from start to finish. What an impressive structure. What I found interesting was that the "siding" was not made of big sheets of gingerbread but of individual "shingles". They had bins and bins of them. What a lot of work.
The staff was pleasant enough - nothing outstanding except for one. One night we stopped off at the lobby concierge to ask about behind the scenes tours. This cm was extremely friendly and explained everything and booked one for us. Then we asked him about dinner ps's for "right now" which was about 6:30 pm. He looked up what was available and showed us the menus for each restaurant. Then, once we selected what we wanted, it turned out the time slot had been taken. He got the phone and called the restaurant directly and they were able to squeeze us in. We ate at Narcoosee's and watched the fireworks from our table. The food was excellent and the service was good too.
We were staying in a lagoon view room. It was nice. Beds turned down every evening. In the morning they had coffee out in the lobby of our building for early risers. I'm not sure what time they set it up but they would take it away by 8 am.
The monorail and boat from MK were convenient.
One of my dislikes of this resort had to do with the upkeep. Don't get me wrong - it looked beautiful and well kept. However, there were cm's constantly roaming the pathways in those little carts. Porters and mousekeepers and service people and management. Honestly, you rarely saw anyone walking. I found it pretty annoying in that you were always looking over your shoulder for someone in a cart trying to get by. At first, we often would eat breakfast outside Gasparilla's because we just wanted something small. There's a beautiful view of the castle, but man, the hustle and bustle of those carts trailing other carts (some of which had loose wheels that made them very noisy) and the trucks nearby- yuck. It basically seems to be located around the service entrance.
(Sidenote: Eventually, we found ourselves walking to the Polynesian for breakfast. It is a beautiful little walk and you can pick up a "real" coffee upstairs near the Kona Cafe and, actually, we found that the cafeteria had a better selection of breakfast foods. To top it all off, the outdoor eating area was much more pleasant - surrounded by plants and quiet Hawaiian music wafting through the air and not a cart in sight.)
Another thing to do with upkeep is the practice of laying out the clean linens in the hallways outside everybody's door. Okay, the wicker baskets they were in lent a small air of quaintness to it, but, all in all, I thought it took away from the whole package. IMO, the effort it takes to keep up a hotel is supposed to be as invisible as possible.
Finally, we went to do laundry in the laundry room conviently located on the first floor of our building and found that there was no change machine. I believe it was $2 each for the washer and dryer. Who carries a pocketfull of quarters on their person? We had to go to the front desk to get change. The final blow came when the drier (after a 45 minute cycle) nicely heated our clothes without actually drying them. We're talking about half a load of t-shirts and underwear not a giant load of jeans and towels.
All in all, while I would not dissuade anyone from staying at the GF, I have to say it's a nice place to visit (tour the lobby, have a meal...) but I choose to stay elsewhere.
The Grand Floridian is a beautiful resort. I don't think anyone can argue with that. We were there while they were assembling the gingerbread house and, so, saw it from start to finish. What an impressive structure. What I found interesting was that the "siding" was not made of big sheets of gingerbread but of individual "shingles". They had bins and bins of them. What a lot of work.
The staff was pleasant enough - nothing outstanding except for one. One night we stopped off at the lobby concierge to ask about behind the scenes tours. This cm was extremely friendly and explained everything and booked one for us. Then we asked him about dinner ps's for "right now" which was about 6:30 pm. He looked up what was available and showed us the menus for each restaurant. Then, once we selected what we wanted, it turned out the time slot had been taken. He got the phone and called the restaurant directly and they were able to squeeze us in. We ate at Narcoosee's and watched the fireworks from our table. The food was excellent and the service was good too.
We were staying in a lagoon view room. It was nice. Beds turned down every evening. In the morning they had coffee out in the lobby of our building for early risers. I'm not sure what time they set it up but they would take it away by 8 am.
The monorail and boat from MK were convenient.
One of my dislikes of this resort had to do with the upkeep. Don't get me wrong - it looked beautiful and well kept. However, there were cm's constantly roaming the pathways in those little carts. Porters and mousekeepers and service people and management. Honestly, you rarely saw anyone walking. I found it pretty annoying in that you were always looking over your shoulder for someone in a cart trying to get by. At first, we often would eat breakfast outside Gasparilla's because we just wanted something small. There's a beautiful view of the castle, but man, the hustle and bustle of those carts trailing other carts (some of which had loose wheels that made them very noisy) and the trucks nearby- yuck. It basically seems to be located around the service entrance.
(Sidenote: Eventually, we found ourselves walking to the Polynesian for breakfast. It is a beautiful little walk and you can pick up a "real" coffee upstairs near the Kona Cafe and, actually, we found that the cafeteria had a better selection of breakfast foods. To top it all off, the outdoor eating area was much more pleasant - surrounded by plants and quiet Hawaiian music wafting through the air and not a cart in sight.)
Another thing to do with upkeep is the practice of laying out the clean linens in the hallways outside everybody's door. Okay, the wicker baskets they were in lent a small air of quaintness to it, but, all in all, I thought it took away from the whole package. IMO, the effort it takes to keep up a hotel is supposed to be as invisible as possible.
Finally, we went to do laundry in the laundry room conviently located on the first floor of our building and found that there was no change machine. I believe it was $2 each for the washer and dryer. Who carries a pocketfull of quarters on their person? We had to go to the front desk to get change. The final blow came when the drier (after a 45 minute cycle) nicely heated our clothes without actually drying them. We're talking about half a load of t-shirts and underwear not a giant load of jeans and towels.
All in all, while I would not dissuade anyone from staying at the GF, I have to say it's a nice place to visit (tour the lobby, have a meal...) but I choose to stay elsewhere.
!
We had no real problems with housekeeping, they where very nice, and helpful. rooms where well kept, and maintained. Just something after about 1 week started to slowly annoy us to the point we were very ready to leave at the end of the trip. The carts (but we go to the poly alot, and they have the same problem), the linen in the halls get old after a few days of steping over it. The walk to self parking unbeliveable, not to mention unsafe? BUT, I think the main problem was we just felt like we didn't fit in, or didn't feel comfortable there. Its ok for a couple of days, but not for any long stretches for us. 
