The *New* Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Frequently Asked Questions (FEB2004)

[TammiMcMan]

Janet, amazing pictures and I love the details you so thoughtfully add. You continue to be my idol . Even with the turret pics though, they don't seem to do justice to it. It is truly the most beautiful room that I've ever stayed in. Thanks so much for taking the time and sharing parts of your special vacations with us.

 

[Michelle2]

Last minute questions:
I leave in 3 days to stay at the GF for 10 wonderful days! It is my travel party's first trip to WDW!

I was wondering if any of you GF experts knew what brands of soda they have at Gasparilla's in their soda machines? I know that Disney has Coke products, but is all they have is the standard Coke and diet coke? My mom likes caffeine free diet coke. Does the GF have refillable mugs, and is Gasparilla's where we go to buy and re-fill them?
I have been there many times during our last stay, but its been 3 years so I cannot remember....

Also, if I have a grocery service drop by some cases of water and soda, do we have to be at the room to receive it, or does the GF have any way to receive it and take it to our room while we are gone? I know the service's policy on this but not the GF's.
Thanks so much for any help!

 

[soxnation]

Last minute questions:
I leave in 3 days to stay at the GF for 10 wonderful days! It is my travel party's first trip to WDW!

I was wondering if any of you GF experts knew what brands of soda they have at Gasparilla's in their soda machines? I know that Disney has Coke products, but is all they have is the standard Coke and diet coke? My mom likes caffeine free diet coke. Does the GF have refillable mugs, and is Gasparilla's where we go to buy and re-fill them?
I have been there many times during our last stay, but its been 3 years so I cannot remember....

Also, if I have a grocery service drop by some cases of water and soda, do we have to be at the room to receive it, or does the GF have any way to receive it and take it to our room while we are gone? I know the service's policy on this but not the GF's.
Thanks so much for any help!

we were there last week and got the refillable mugs. you standard coke products diet coke sprite coke water orange i believe it was just diet coke not the caffeine free kind also the only diet option was coke no diet sprite. the coffee was not too bad in the morning. have a great trip we are in withdrawal having to come down from being away from reality in the world

 

[tinkerrn]

I have been lurking on this thread for a while. I was wondering if they still have coffee service in the lobby of the outer buildings? If not, where can one get coffee in the morning, without making it in your room. How is room service? Do they still bring it on a linen cart? Thanks.

 

[peaches]

Great photos of rooms, Hope we are lucky enough to get a view of the water pagent. DS would love it. If not, is there specific viewing area's ?

 

[BCV23]

Michelle2, I don't remember for sure about Gasparilla's but many place at WDW do have caffeine free Diet Coke. We have a son with diabetes and when he was young, caffeine did a thing on him so this was always good news. And yes, Gasparilla's has the mugs and is the place to go.

Tinkerrn, you can get cofee at Gasparilla's 24/7. I have seen the service in the lobby of Conch Key during one trip but it was removed quite early...maybe by 8 or 8:30....so my suspicion is that it was an amenity ordered by a large convention which was obviously going on during our stay.

 

[Docsknotinn]

We just returned from five nights at the GF CL. Our stay was satisfactory but only just so. It has been some time since we stayed at the GF last. I can say that last spring we stayed at the Dolphin CL and it was every bit as good on the whole at 1/2 the price. I am typically not that driven by price point but there were some areas the GF really fell flat. Food service at the entire GF save for Narcoosees was simply not up to Disney standards. I am a chef so please understand I probably notice things others may not. I worked as a chef for Disney for several years and I do not give poor reviews lightly. The biggest change overall this year was the demeanor of cast members in general. A lot of out loud complaints and un-Disney like comments. Not directed at us but over heard. There were a LOT of mechanical failures and everything in general was just not very clean.
The GF CL check in was smooth and pleasant. We arrived on Tuesday. We were given a second floor room looking at the pool but directly over the service area (dumpster). Really a very poor view and my biggest dissapointment with that was that the hotel was nearly empty. The toilet in our room would gurgle, sputter and spit everytime it was flushed, The carpet in our room was FILTHY. If you walked bear foot across the carpet and got in the shower you could see the dirt coming off the bottom of your feet. Sheets were thread bare. The light in our closet did not work. We did receive nightly turndown service. I was not thrilled with getting nickeled and dimed. Local phone calls .75 each, internet service that tech support could not get to work, 10.00 a day. This was NOT a wireless service and they finally told me that in some rooms they just could not get the internet to work.
Food at the CL. Breakfast was very good and consistant. Lunch was chips, pretzels and dips every day. Some days it was displyed nice and the cookies were on a tray and signs were out for all of the items, other days the cookies were dumped in a pile and there were no signs. The 5 pm food was wonderfull the first night with an asian theme. Everything was just so and what we would expect from CL level. The following three nights the dinner time food service went from bad to completely terrible. Our fourth and fith nights the lobby area where the food was did not appear to ever get swept. There were litterally ground in fruit loops and brownies all over the place. Really disgusting. I'm not talking about one or two crumbs here but LOTS of food on the floor. This was a real shocker since they basicly did not serve lunch two days prior while they painted the food area and cleaned the carpets. The final day they decided to re-arrange all of the furniture in the eating area. They did have four couches and coffee tables plus a few small tables by the exit. They removed all of the coffee tables and arranged the couches in a U shape around the check in desk. There were no tables to set your food and drinks on. They started this at noon and with what appeared to be four Disney managers. They continued moving furniture through the dinner service (5 pm-7pm). We had to set our drinks on the floor, the really dirty floor, while we ate. It's perhaps a bit obtuse but they really would have been better off putting up signs that read "Please go away, we no longer want you to eat or drink here". Ok that was a bit of a stretch but it was very odd, rude and extremelly unprofessional to do this in the middle of service, especially on a Saturday.
The alcahol and desserts in the evening were basicly the same every nite except one evening that did not go out as the entance door card reader was broke and the doors were left open. Little things that were noticeable; They put sodas out in a bin and iced them down at noon but did NOT re-ice them all day so by dinner the sodas were in water. They did serve beer and wine with the dinner snack which was very nice. One day they served South western chicken breast slices with a roasted corn and black bean salsa. Two days later it came back all copped up as a Southwestern chicken salad. It looked really bad. There were some very odd items and the food was either a total hit or a total flop. There were two evenings that they food was basicly untouched by guests and two that everything was eaten. The inconsistancy was the real problem IMO.
We did receive a complimemtary split of champagne and a rose delivered to our room on our tenth anniversary. A very nice touch. There is a fantastic coffee machine in the CL and a nice tea selection.
Overall this did not detract from our experience until the last day. Would we go back to the GF CL? No, not at this time. Would I go back to the GF, It makes me really sad to say not until the rooms are renovated. I'm a much bigger fan of the Dolphin after this year.

 

[tinkerrn]

WOW!!! I am so sorry about your stay. That sounds so disappointing. Did you talk to the manager about your complaints?

 

[DisneySue05]

I am sorry about your experience. It is so disappointing to have a vacation not be all we want it to be when it could be avoided. I would have been greatly disgusted by dirty carpet. YUK! Did I understand that you had a room in Sugar Loaf on the second floor or in the main building? I too think that the rooms are due for an update!
My husband and I just returned from a ten year anniversary trip too!

 

[woodysgrl]

Wow, that is a sad report to hear about !

Still wondering if anyone knows if dormer rooms can be connecting ...
?????

 

[Lives4Disney]

Ugh. I hated to read that report. What a bummer. I am so on the fence about doing RPC this Xmas or just a GV room or a different resort now that I read this type of stuff, LOL.....

I have had such wonderful luck with RPC on our stays, but I will be so disappointed if it is not up to par for Xmas. I love the GF and thought Xmas there would be really special.

I know Disney is desperate for CMs and housekeepers and it sounds like it is now showing at the GF.

Lives4Disney

 

[Alicnwondrln]

it seems like wdw is desperate for people
and they have to take what they can get and they are getting people who dont care
but they also dont pay enough

 

[tammy]

I have just returned from my first ever stay at GF’s Sugar Loaf Concierge. It was wonderful. We spent 3 days/2 nights there. I wish we could have spent the whole vacation there.

While we had plans to visit the World we had reservations at All Star Sports I decided to split the stay. I made reservations for GF the day before I arrived and I fretted all night about spending that much money. While I have had SUCH a rough year (due to divorce and everything that comes with that), I knew I deserved it but it wasn’t until I arrived at that beautiful hotel that I knew I made a wise Celebration choice. I am in Love!!

I arrived at GF about 9:45 pm and was whisked right away to the Sugar Loaf building, I can’t remember the women’s name but she took me to Michael who appeared to be waiting for me to arrive. Michael checked me in and showed to me to my room. I was bubbling over with excitement. I was in room 6305 which was a dormer room and it was so nice. The room was a marina view and I could see Gasparilla Grill but the best part was I had view of WISHES and they piped in the music. I don’t know who was more excited me or Michael. I was on cloud nine. I should mention that I had one night to myself before my son Eddie was to arrive and the rest of my family would arrive on Friday, August 25.

I was in such awe that I didn’t take pictures or good notes like most of you do, but there’s always next time and there will definitely be a next time, perhaps early December. I do remember the wonderful sugar cookies gosh, I couldn’t get enough, and I wish I would have gotten the recipe. I didn’t go to any parks while at GF so that we could experience all it had to offer. I had breakfast there every morning, snacks in the afternoon and the wonderful afternoon tea. I loved the trifle, scones, and the sugar cookies. I was in heaven. I was only there for one evening selection which appeared to be a southwest theme I didn’t sample anything since we had dinner ressies at Artist Point. I don’t remember what the desserts and cordials were. That night Eddie and I sat in front of Gasparilla’s to watch WISHES. What a wonderful night.

I thought the staff was very good, Michael was the exception. I will say that the few times I would go the desk there were two cast members sitting there and they were in no hurry to acknowledge that I was standing there and they were not helping other guests. By the time were checking the staff was asking me if I wanted a job in concierge. They felt I was a knowledgeable vacationer. Imagine that!!

One last thing, on our last day there the afternoon snacks were late arriving and the cast members were all up in arms so to speak about where the cart was. It appeared they were pointing fingers at each other. Finally they discover that the cart was indeed delivered just left outside in the heat. Not sure what that was all about.

Okay a few more things…I absolutely loved the feel of concierge and can definitely see people do that exclusively. I felt so incredibly blessed to be able to experience it. I am afraid that a monster has been created. I have to confess that I never got why people chose the Magic Kingdom resorts and being on the monorail. But I loved it. I loved leaving the balcony opened to hear the monorail passing by and the ferry boats and sometimes the Magic Kingdom Railroad. What a joy.

I am done for now as this getting really long.

 

[steffali]

ANyone have pictures of the dormer rooms?

 

[Alicnwondrln]

thanks for the trip report tammy, i am glad you had a good time

 

[Lives4Disney]

Tammy - I enjoyed reading your report. Some parts sounded really good, others - like the concierge members that didn't quickly acknowledge you standing there....I don't like hearing that. They should be smiling and polite and ready to help!

Weird about the snacks being left outside. What's that all about?

Glad you enjoyed the GF. Concierge is great, isn't it!!??

Lives4Disney

 

[Docsknotinn]

We stayed at Sugar Loaf. I did not complain. None of theese things on their own were that terrible but things also seemed to digress through the week. Over all our experience was some good/some bad which equalled out to be about average. A bit dissapointing but not all doom and gloom. I should mention that I saw training groups every day at the GF so hopefully they are bringing the staff up to par. The staff seemed to "hang out" around the CL desk. I saw the person who keeps the food area clean setting behind the CL desk chatting with the concierge and other staff while there were dirty dishes out etc. The thing I thought was the worse was the filthy floors in the eating area the last two days and re-arranging furniture in the middle of service. They had four managers there and they all should have known better. We did enjoy our stay although I think I would opt for a standard room right now if I had to re-book the GF. They are just having too many staffing problems to be worth the extra cost at the moment. They really need a serious update. Wireless internet and flat panel TV's that actually get a few channels should be standard in every room at the GF. I remain puzzled as to why Disney does not sell on demand Disney movies in their rooms.

 

[steffali]

Oh No ! this will be our first time staying CL. I hope everything will be O.K. so I can convince my DH to stay CL every time

 

[Docsknotinn]

I am sorry about your experience. It is so disappointing to have a vacation not be all we want it to be when it could be avoided. I would have been greatly disgusted by dirty carpet. YUK! Did I understand that you had a room in Sugar Loaf on the second floor or in the main building? I too think that the rooms are due for an update!
My husband and I just returned from a ten year anniversary trip too!

Happy Anniversary!!!

 

[woodysgrl]

Steffali - Janet2k has photos on this thread, just do a search for
"dormer". It was back in Oct I think.

Tammy - Do you remember if your room had a connecting door ?

Thanks