Paradise Pier Concierge vs. Grand Californian Standard?

[Meghatron]

We are APs and considering getting a room at one of the resorts for DDs birthday. When we splurge on a room, we usually stay at the Grand Californian. For the AP price of a standard room there, however, we could do concierge at Paradise Pier. How much pull does concierge give you? If we requested a WoC view through the concierge team, would we get it automatically? Can you ask for things like preferred viewing of Fantasmic? How much would we miss the GC entrance/exit and the really nice pool?

 

[skiingfast]

You get breakfast, snacks, regular drinks, wine and desserts in the lounge.
The view is either DCA or pool, as it is with all PPH rooms just higher up.
DVDs for your room.
Also the rooms are bigger, because PPH has bigger rooms.
And a special check in.

That's about it. Usually the PPH CL rooms are priced about the same as GCH standard rooms. If you usually do GCH maybe you should try it out.

But, as you note will you miss the short GCH walk. Maybe. So if you plan being in the hotel more you might want PPH, if you plan to be going to the parks more then GCH.

 

[where's_my_prince]

i was faced with this problem in December...i chose the PPH option and i'm really glad i did!!!!!!

they have chocolate covered strawberries, mini desserts, snack you can take with you to the park, drinks...and when you return back to your hotel room mickey rice krispy treats are waiting for you inside the room!!!!

it was seriously amazing!!!

 

[Dobie]

I would vote for GCH. The short walk and pool are the big sellers for the Dobies. We get tired of concierge snacks after a while, and we usually are in the parks when most of them are offered.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

Given the choice, we always go with the PP concierge. For our family of four, we like the larger rooms and the longer walk doesn't really make a difference to my kids. My daughter loves the chocolate covered strawberries, so she normally eats quite a few of them. They also love the slide. To them, the PP pool beats the GCH pool, but I don't agree. It is nice to stop back at the hotel for the evening offerings and a couple of glasses of wine. Then we normally grab a coffee and head back into the parks for a while.

With your dd, the longer walk might make a difference.

We are staying PP concierge before our cruise and GC villas after. We have the best of both worlds!

 

[summer0407]

We are in the same boat. What time are the concierge snacks offered? I have never stayed at the grand or PPH only DLH so I have no idea what to do.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

We had the same decision to make for our April trip. We chose the Grand. I'm sure if we were taking our kids we might have preferred PPH. That would have made it more of a value. For just us (mom and dad), we thought the location and amentities were hard to beat.

I think the length of your stay is also a factor. We are going for a short 3 night trip. I'm sure if our vacation was longer we would have chose PPH.

I would rather spend $3 for a bottle of water than spend the time walking back to PPH for one. Park time is important to us.

 

[yupikgal]

For us with 2 teens, who love to snack all the time, the PPH concierge level was perfect! It was about the same as paying for a normal room at the GCH, which we've never stayed, but I've heard the PPH has bigger rooms anyway. I guess it's a personal preference. I also heard/saw on TA that they are in the process of upgrading all the rooms at the PPH, which is awesome! New bedding, carpets, lamps and more...here's a link to a thread that I just posted pics of the goodies at the lounge, we loved it, but again, it depends on how much you will take advantage of it. We loved not having to worry about going somewhere to get something to eat before heading to the parks, also the concierge staff is so nice and helpful, they can make you priority seating/reservations for different things, and we also had special balloons/gift baskets waiting for our kids in the room one afternoon, our daughter graduated from high school last year, it was so much fun! They also left mickey krispies dipped in chocolate in our room, and my husband & kids had some rose petals spread all over our bed in a heart shape for me since I worked so hard on getting everything perfect for our trip! It's not that much further to get to the GCH/private entrance to DCA/DD, btw. My understanding is that even if you stay at the GCH, you may be further from the park entrance which would make your walk a bit longer anyway! Good luck with your decision!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2677147&highlight=concierge+paradise+pier

 

[Briarrose1306]

We are in the same boat. What time are the concierge snacks offered? I have never stayed at the grand or PPH only DLH so I have no idea what to do.

I've been considering the CL at PPH too, but wondered what the time windows were for their snacks and such.