The *NEW* Grand Floridian Resort and Spa FAQ thread (Nov 2007)

[mr.mike]

Great to hear everyone's comments!!

Mr. Mike....We are in northern IL - about a 20 hour drive to WDW and I smiled when I read what you wrote about the "forced interaction" in the car....I feel the SAME way! Stuck together in the car we have a lot of laughs.
It was fun, but now that my kids are older they were all kind of in their own little mp3 and DVD worlds....I missed the days w/out the earbuds and headsets. Enjoy!

Lives4Disney

I'm glad you understand. We are from New York and the trip is about an 18 hour drive if you don't stop. The first few times we used to drive straight through.
I'd argue with myself --- i already drove 12 hours--whats six hours more?---
I don't think i can do that anymore and I'm going to take 2 weeks off for our 1 week vacation.

I loved when the kids were asleep and my wife and I got to talk through the night and as the sun rose.
Even though you see mostly trees the whole way down its a nice drive.
Looking back I feel bad for the kids. When I had to stop for gas that was their only time to go to the bathroom and get any snacks from the gas station store. lol

 

[Jeanine3kids]

And I think I've decided to drive. We used to drive often but havn't lately. Plane tickets for 6 gets expensive and I love the forced interaction and conversation when we drive.[/QUOTE]

Mr. Mike:
How long does it take you when you drive I see it says your from NYC may I ask where i am from SI and I am going in August and plane tickets for 5 just cost me $1480 they have never cost that much I was thinking about driving next trip.

Jeanine

 

[Jeanine3kids]

Sorry I didn't scroll down to see the rest of the posts and you answered the question.

 

[Mbg98]

My wife and I are going to stay at the GF for the first time in July. We are celebrating our 10th anniversary. We didn't pay for the MK view but booked a Garden view but when we checked out it said we had a Landscape view. Can anyone post a pic of what kind of room we might get or know where they are. I never knew they had so many types of rooms at the GF. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

My wife and I are going to stay at the GF for the first time in July. We are celebrating our 10th anniversary. We didn't pay for the MK view but booked a Garden view but when we checked out it said we had a Landscape view. Can anyone post a pic of what kind of room we might get or know where they are. I never knew they had so many types of rooms at the GF. Thanks in advance for your help.

garden/landscape views can be in several buidlings. Did you get a conference rate?
If you go back to the first pages there is a map that you can look at.
I will see what I have for pics.

 

[goofygal531]

Does anyone know if the GF's gift shop sells the bag of Thomas' bagels?

I've seen them at the gift shop at the CB in Nov (right next to peanut butter and jelly).

My kids LOVE bagels (I guess it's a NYC thing!) at $2.50 each in the food court, it's just crazy how much we spend on bread in WDW!!! I didn't discover the Thomas' in the gift shop until the end of our vacation - figures, right!

Thanks,
mare

 

[Lives4Disney]

Does anyone know if the GF's gift shop sells the bag of Thomas' bagels?

I've seen them at the gift shop at the CB in Nov (right next to peanut butter and jelly).

My kids LOVE bagels (I guess it's a NYC thing!) at $2.50 each in the food court, it's just crazy how much we spend on bread in WDW!!! I didn't discover the Thomas' in the gift shop until the end of our vacation - figures, right!

Thanks,
mare

Hmm.....we do the $2.50 bagel thing. I have not noticed food in any of the GF giftshops.

 

[phyllis1966]

I have some GV pics...

This is the GV view of the main building from our room in Big Pine Key this past November:

This is a view from the marina side of Conch Key - also a GV room. It's scanned from my pre-digital days, so the quality's not great:

Here's another scan of a GV view of the quiet pool from our first stay at the GF - Conch Key again. This is the trip when we fell in love with the GF!

Enjoy your stay at this wonderful resort!!

 

[goofygal531]

Hmm.....we do the $2.50 bagel thing. I have not noticed food in any of the GF giftshops.

That's what we planned to do last vacation and $2.50 added up very fast with my 1 year old losing his bagel and needing a replacement before having a tantrum! Also, we couldn't always find bagels when we needed one! Having a bag would just be handy. I think it's due to his teething that he loves to knaw on bagels lately. My older son it's that obsessed with them as the little one.

I expected the GF to be in a league of their own and not have the items that the moderate resorts carry. (Which I never knew they carried until I had children!!)

I'll just pick them up at the Boardwalk General Store - they have everything due to the villas.

Thanks anyway!
Mare

 

[goofygal531]

So I lost out on the Club Level room, it was sold out We have a garden view room.

What building could I expect to be in?

The dormer rooms are smaller but have a private balcony, right? I'd prefer a larger room due to the crib and stroller. Would they put a family in a dormer room?

What type of room would they put a family of 4 in with a crib?

Just want to know what I should request.

Thanks!
Mare

 

[NEWireless]

In looking through the posts, it looks like you can get food at the pool if you're in a cabana. Can anyone help with planning for mid-day breaks:

1. Is there food service at the pools?

2. Do they serve any food at the pool bar?

3. Can you take food from Gasparilla's out to the pool?

4. How hard is it to find a shady spot at either pool mid-day?

Please let me know.

Thank you.

 

[goofygal531]

Anyone know where of a site that I can view photos and read about people's experiences renting the yacht?

 

[DisneyMomx7]

In looking through the posts, it looks like you can get food at the pool if you're in a cabana. Can anyone help with planning for mid-day breaks:

1. Is there food service at the pools?

2. Do they serve any food at the pool bar?

3. Can you take food from Gasparilla's out to the pool?

4. How hard is it to find a shady spot at either pool mid-day?

Please let me know.

Thank you.

We have had food service at the "quiet" pool. They had a rather limited menu but we just told them what we wanted and they had room service deliver it to us at the pool.

I think the themed pool bar offers a bigger food selection.

Yes you can take food from Gasparilla's out to the pool.

We never really had a shady spot at either pool, so I can't help you with that question.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

In looking through the posts, it looks like you can get food at the pool if you're in a cabana. Can anyone help with planning for mid-day breaks:

1. Is there food service at the pools?

2. Do they serve any food at the pool bar?

3. Can you take food from Gasparilla's out to the pool?

4. How hard is it to find a shady spot at either pool mid-day?

Please let me know.

Thank you.

They have sanwiches at the beach pool at the bar. DH went to Gaspy's and brought food back from there. I have never gone in peak season so I can't guess about getting a shardy spot by the pool midday... There aren't very many trees etc. to offer shade, but I know there are some lounge chairs by umbrellas.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Does anyone know if the GF's gift shop sells the bag of Thomas' bagels?

I've seen them at the gift shop at the CB in Nov (right next to peanut butter and jelly).

My kids LOVE bagels (I guess it's a NYC thing!) at $2.50 each in the food court, it's just crazy how much we spend on bread in WDW!!! I didn't discover the Thomas' in the gift shop until the end of our vacation - figures, right!

Thanks,
mare

I don't remember seeing any food items like that at the gift shop...

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

okay... so we arrive at the GF on Aug. 3rd... and I have 6:00 pm dinner ressies at 1900 Park Fare. How much time should I allot for dinner? an hour and a half? I'm trying to plan the rest of the evening w/o going to the parks...

 

[NEWireless]

We have had food service at the "quiet" pool. They had a rather limited menu but we just told them what we wanted and they had room service deliver it to us at the pool.

I think the themed pool bar offers a bigger food selection.

Yes you can take food from Gasparilla's out to the pool.

We never really had a shady spot at either pool, so I can't help you with that question.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

okay... so we arrive at the GF on Aug. 3rd... and I have 6:00 pm dinner ressies at 1900 Park Fare. How much time should I allot for dinner? an hour and a half? I'm trying to plan the rest of the evening w/o going to the parks...

I think that would be a safe guess...

 

[Alicnwondrln]

Welcome NE Wireless
I am in MA.

 

[mr.mike]

And I think I've decided to drive. We used to drive often but havn't lately. Plane tickets for 6 gets expensive and I love the forced interaction and conversation when we drive.
Mr. Mike:
How long does it take you when you drive I see it says your from NYC may I ask where i am from SI and I am going in August and plane tickets for 5 just cost me $1480 they have never cost that much I was thinking about driving next trip.

Jeanine

Jeanine,

Because of our 4 kids we always fly JetBlue. For my april trip which was planned just a month ago or so the cost was crazy.

For July I had more time to plan and flying in and out during the week and got rates of $189 per person which includes all the crazy taxes and surcharges. Anytime its under $200 I feel good.
Its get crazy when you have 6 people to fly so without even seeing prices for Decemeber we decided to fly. The worst part of driving is getting out of NY. We are in queens so we used to leave late at night or early morning.
I like to be out of NY before rush hour. Actually I like to be past Washington DC before rush hour. Thats about 4.5 hours away so we will probably leave 3 or 4 in the morning.

When are you going? We will be there starting the 18th.