Would You Choose DLH or GC?

[DangerMouse]

1) I thought I read that no lifevests or swimmies are allowed on the slides. Is this the case? Are they allowed in the pool?

Life vests and floaties are allowed in the pool, but they won't let you go down the slides with them on.

2) Are there fridges in the rooms?

Yes, but quite small.

3) Anyone ever use the laundry facilities? Are they easy to get to? Anyone know the cost? (I think using them at Coronado Springs at WDW cost $2 per wash/dry)

Never used laundry facilities there.

 

[victorandbellasmom]

Thank you for the picture links - am looking at them now. A couple of questions -

1) I thought I read that no lifevests or swimmies are allowed on the slides. Is this the case? Are they allowed in the pool?

2) Are there fridges in the rooms?

3) Anyone ever use the laundry facilities? Are they easy to get to? Anyone know the cost? (I think using them at Coronado Springs at WDW cost $2 per wash/dry)

Thanks!

1) Yes, there are no life vests or any other flotation deviced allowed on the slides. If the child is young, maybe 6 and under the life guards may ask to have the child pass a swim test in order to go on the big slides. Children may use life vests and other flotation deviced on the little slide. Life vests and other other floatation devices are allowed in the pool, just no inflatable swim toys.

2) Yes there are fridges in the room.

3) There are laundry facilities. It's on the 2nd or 3rd floor using the elevators between Storyteller's and Napa Rose. I don't remember the cost as it was too busy for us to use and we didn't feel like waiting.

 

[Amy&Dan]

The laundry room at the GCH is pretty nice, I belive it was $2 to wash and dry last June. It does get crowded, its nowhere near as nice and big as the laundry rooms at the WDW resorts. However, it is way bigger than what the DLH has which is basically two washers and I think three dryers. The GCH one did sell detergent etc. I don't recall if the DLH had machines that do that or not. Paradise Pier doesn't have a laundry period.

The laundry room at the DLH is right near the pool, the one at GCH is a bit confusing to get to due to the maze of hallways. I seem to recall I had to use a separate elevator from the one near my room to get to it. But it wasn't too hard if I managed to find it!

 

[zukeeper]

2) Are there fridges in the rooms?

In the GCH, the fridge is a minibar. Once you remove an item from the minibar, it will automatically bill your room for the item. Imagine my friends surprise when her bill at checkout for minibar came to over $500!! Her husband is an accountant if that helps set the scence. They are very nice about it and will remove the charges (it happened to us as well, but we figured it out before checkout). We ended up asking for a fridge to be sent to the room and set it by the bathroom. It looked so out of place in the beautiful room, but worth having. I don't believe there was any charge for this. At DLH you get a really crackerjack fridge that doesn't stay very cold. I wouldn't keep highly perishable items in it.

 

[Lexxiefern]

Thanks again for all the answers! My DD is 6 and last summer she swam with only 1 swimmie in the deep end of our pool and no swimmies in the little end. I guess we will have to practice that this summer so she can go down the slide

Another question I forgot to ask: Do they offer any type of in-room babysitting? I am not one to use sitters I don't know, but we will be doing the half marathon together (DH and I) so I would need a babysitter.

Thanks again!

 

[luvdisney2006]

Just returned from DL Hotel. We were given a Downtown Disney View room. We walked in the room and could not believe how tiny the room was. There are 2 double beds scrunched into the room. One of the beds is almost right against makeshift balcony.

The view is very nice from here but a warning if you have smsll children and go to bed relatively early DO NOT request Downtown Disney view. They have sliding doors that go to the makeshift balcony (more like a railing right in front of window) and they don't close very well. You can hear everything! Because the beds are almost right against window and doors are only sliders it is VERY VERY loud! Music and live entertainment does not end til 11:00 pm or in our case for special events 1:00 am. My daughter cried herself to sleep (she is 7)

We requested to be moved and they moved us to another room facing the pool.

We walked in and said "boy this is more like it"

It was a room with 2 queen beds and a sleeper like daybed which was more like the normal size of a hotel room. This was a really nice room! It was also an adjoining room.

The gentleman who moved us told us the other room we were in was a standard room and most are like that in the hotel! Cannot believe that.

I can't imagine paying that much money for the other room we had ($289 AAA rate even more normally) I used points so that was better than paying that price. I am not even sure what the room we got was going for per night but it was much better.

I can't imagine staying in the other room with 2 children. I am not even sure of square footage but it was about the third of the size of the new room we were given.

We loved the pool and the whole grounds! The walk to Downtown Disney was awesome.

We loved how Goofy and Pluto were in lobby when we arrived!

We did take a walk around the Grand Californian and it looks really nice but the pool at DL is much nicer if you have children.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I have seen a couple of those small rooms. My parents got one that had two beds but was a good deal smaller than the adjoining room we had. And my husband and I on a trip without the kids got a smaller room with a King bed. It wasn't as small as the room my parents got but it was smaller than the other rooms we have had at the DLH. I asked about it when my parents got one and was told only a small number of rooms were like that and that they try to only assign them to singles or couples without kids. They offered to move my mom and dad but we decided it was fine for them and that having adjoining rooms was more important. So they do exist but they are not the norm. Most people that post about the DLH remark on how large the rooms are. But every once in awhile you see a post from some unlucky person that got one of the smaller ones. And I agree about the DTD view. It can sometimes be noisy, I prefer the pool view for that reason or the fountain views in the Bonita Tower. I am glad you got moved and it all worked out for you!