(2014-2020) Disney's GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT & SPA + VILLAS Information & Questions

[loveshak22]

Got a call from our TA, due to the construction.

Fun!!! I mean WL is really nice and we love the WL but GF LV sounds amazing! We are staying at GF our first time in November and can't wait!

 

[grannyminnie]

Buzznina, yay for you!! Lucky, lucky, lucky!! What you request depends on what is important to you: for example, if you have small kids, you might be interested in being near one of the pools. (tho walking from point A to point B anywhere on the property is not bad). My sister and I never request any more; we like to be surprised, and if the room doesn't suit, we ask to be moved.

Dispro, loved that sweet story about DD's response to "Be our Guest"!

 

[branv]

We're also being moved to GF lagoon due to WL. I honestly cried when I got the news. I've wanted to stay here since I was a young girl.

I do have some questions I haven't found the answer for despite a flurry of googling. We have a will-be two year old for our November trip who needs afternoon naps, and of course has a somewhat early bedtime. So we'd prefer a room that isn't too loud in the afternoons (thankfully at night he sleeps through even huge thunderstorms). But we'd also love even a partially obstructed view of the fireworks so we can maybe watch some of the MVMCP fireworks after he's asleep. I know some of the marina area rooms can have this view, but I'm worried about the noise of the boats (even with a fan, when we stayed right next to the lagoon boat path at CR, we could hear the boat horns). Is there a particular request you suggest I make to avoid a ton of noise while having a good view?

Also, you'll laugh, but at the other deluxes, a first floor room is great for a napping child bc if one parent wants to leave the room, they can exit via the balcony/patio and avoid that awful CLICK the door seems to make (no matter how hard you try!). Are the first floor balconies "exitable", or are they too obstructed? Or is a first floor prohibitive to the above view I mentioned?

Thanks so much. So excited!

 

[MaggiesMomNJ]

We're also being moved to GF lagoon due to WL. I honestly cried when I got the news. I've wanted to stay here since I was a young girl.

I do have some questions I haven't found the answer for despite a flurry of googling. We have a will-be two year old for our November trip who needs afternoon naps, and of course has a somewhat early bedtime. So we'd prefer a room that isn't too loud in the afternoons (thankfully at night he sleeps through even huge thunderstorms). But we'd also love even a partially obstructed view of the fireworks so we can maybe watch some of the MVMCP fireworks after he's asleep. I know some of the marina area rooms can have this view, but I'm worried about the noise of the boats (even with a fan, when we stayed right next to the lagoon boat path at CR, we could hear the boat horns). Is there a particular request you suggest I make to avoid a ton of noise while having a good view?

Also, you'll laugh, but at the other deluxes, a first floor room is great for a napping child bc if one parent wants to leave the room, they can exit via the balcony/patio and avoid that awful CLICK the door seems to make (no matter how hard you try!). Are the first floor balconies "exitable", or are they too obstructed? Or is a first floor prohibitive to the above view I mentioned?

Thanks so much. So excited!

I'm almost afraid to ask but did they make you pay the difference ? We switched from WL in May when they first announced and are obviously paying the difference. We were too afraid of an argument. I've heard a ton of people who were only given CR garden view or akl. Do you mind my asking if you were CL at WL?

 

[TinkerBellLiz]

Is swear I saw them in a picture of Boardwalk Bakery! I'm not certain, but TinkerbellLiz thinks they may have them at Boardwalk Bakery too!! She's going to be at BWI very soon, so I hope she will check it out for us I know Ill be checking it out in December!!

I've been staying away from GF so I won't feel like I'm cheating too much staying at BWI. Kook's wonderful BWI information shows pictures of the Boardwalk Bakery and there appear to be pecan buns! My plan is to take pictures of all the food there for future references and DH was drooling over that bun. I'll pop in with a review soon. 7 days to go!

Happy Planning and have a wonderfully Grand weekend!

Liz

 

[branv]

Maggiesmom, we are on a group rate for a standard room, and apparently they're moving those people en bloc for the same rate to certain resorts depending, it sounds, on time of year (I'm assuming the resort depends on just what was widely available at the time). I think they are doing it because is affecting people inside their rooms far more considerably. One person on the WL thread said they were told they're shutting down some rooms altogether.

 

[buzznina]

Maggiesmom, we are on a group rate for a standard room, and apparently they're moving those people en bloc for the same rate to certain resorts depending, it sounds, on time of year (I'm assuming the resort depends on just what was widely available at the time). I think they are doing it because is affecting people inside their rooms far more considerably. One person on the WL thread said they were told they're shutting down some rooms altogether.

That would be me At least that is what they told our TA. We will be there 11/20-11/28 for 8 GREAT nights. I have not broken the news to our DDs and I am not sure how they will react. After being stuck on the rail for over 3 hours in the middle of the night, 4 years ago, they have not wanted to get back on the monorail To this day, our oldest DD will say "There's that Red monorail" whenever she spots it.

I'm almost afraid to ask but did they make you pay the difference ? We switched from WL in May when they first announced and are obviously paying the difference. We were too afraid of an argument. I've heard a ton of people who were only given CR garden view or akl. Do you mind my asking if you were CL at WL?

Our reservation was WL standard view, so this was a huge upgrade. Now I would have also liked CR garden view, walking to MK would be great.

 

[flafan]

View attachment 110110
I don't even remember this one! It was going home morning and we walked the grounds to say goodbye GF!!

Love this pic. That is the SugarLoaf Building on the right and we were the middle room 3rd floor. I loved the location, only the room was a little noisy from the lounge. Thanks for sharing. I am planning on putting up some pics as soon as I have time to download them all.

 

[McKelly]

I'm another transfer from WL for Thanksgiving week! Can't believe I am FINALLY staying at the Grand Floridian. My daughter will be marching down Main Street with her band that week too! I kind of feel bad this is a girl's only trip (going with a girlfriend and her daughter). My DH is going to be VERY JEALOUS when I tell him where we will now be staying.....

 

[flafan]

I'm another transfer from WL for Thanksgiving week! Can't believe I am FINALLY staying at the Grand Floridian. My daughter will be marching down Main Street with her band that week too! I kind of feel bad this is a girl's only trip (going with a girlfriend and her daughter). My DH is going to be VERY JEALOUS when I tell him where we will now be staying.....

Thats awesome, you are going to love the Grand Floridian. It has been on my bucket list for 20years and I finally made it this summer. Worth the wait.

 

[Aurora0427]

Totally random post, but I was reminiscing this morning about the Grand. Who else remembers the old 1900 Park Fare character breakfast? I remember staying there in 2000, and we could simply walk down for breakfast every day. I remember Malificent making an appearance at breakfast. I was so excited- she's my favorite villain! I think Alice was there too, pooh characters, and even Snow White! Anyone else remember this breakfast???

 

[Aurora0427]

We're also being moved to GF lagoon due to WL. I honestly cried when I got the news. I've wanted to stay here since I was a young girl.

I do have some questions I haven't found the answer for despite a flurry of googling. We have a will-be two year old for our November trip who needs afternoon naps, and of course has a somewhat early bedtime. So we'd prefer a room that isn't too loud in the afternoons (thankfully at night he sleeps through even huge thunderstorms). But we'd also love even a partially obstructed view of the fireworks so we can maybe watch some of the MVMCP fireworks after he's asleep. I know some of the marina area rooms can have this view, but I'm worried about the noise of the boats (even with a fan, when we stayed right next to the lagoon boat path at CR, we could hear the boat horns). Is there a particular request you suggest I make to avoid a ton of noise while having a good view?

Also, you'll laugh, but at the other deluxes, a first floor room is great for a napping child bc if one parent wants to leave the room, they can exit via the balcony/patio and avoid that awful CLICK the door seems to make (no matter how hard you try!). Are the first floor balconies "exitable", or are they too obstructed? Or is a first floor prohibitive to the above view I mentioned?

Thanks so much. So excited!

We stayed in Sago in December on the side facing the monorail. It was extremely quiet during the day. I always request a room away from the elevators. I think this year we are going to try Conch Key facing the marina/monorail.

I'm guessing the rooms facing the boats may be a little bit louder- not sure. But I can vouch that Sago facing the monorail was very quiet! Touring Plans has a great map/layout/description of all the buildings and rooms.

 

[Dispro1]

Totally random post, but I was reminiscing this morning about the Grand. Who else remembers the old 1900 Park Fare character breakfast? I remember staying there in 2000, and we could simply walk down for breakfast every day. I remember Malificent making an appearance at breakfast. I was so excited- she's my favorite villain! I think Alice was there too, pooh characters, and even Snow White! Anyone else remember this breakfast???

You're very lucky to have that memory! Other than 3 or 4 trips in the 80's with my parents (when I was a kid), I didn't start my Disney binge until 2004 when my DDs were 6 (6th birthday trip) and 11 months. And unfortunately, we didn't even know character meals existed at that time! Oh well, at least I remember seeing the GF being built!

 

[mmmears]

Totally random post, but I was reminiscing this morning about the Grand. Who else remembers the old 1900 Park Fare character breakfast? I remember staying there in 2000, and we could simply walk down for breakfast every day. I remember Malificent making an appearance at breakfast. I was so excited- she's my favorite villain! I think Alice was there too, pooh characters, and even Snow White! Anyone else remember this breakfast???

We stayed there in 1999 and 2000 when my DD was very small. I remember seeing Alice and a few other characters at the PF1900 breakfasts. One time the Mad Hatter was in the waiting area and DD did not like him at all.

 

[Dispro1]

I've been staying away from GF so I won't feel like I'm cheating too much staying at BWI. Kook's wonderful BWI information shows pictures of the Boardwalk Bakery and there appear to be pecan buns! My plan is to take pictures of all the food there for future references and DH was drooling over that bun. I'll pop in with a review soon. 7 days to go!

Happy Planning and have a wonderfully Grand weekend!

Liz

I will be eagerly awaiting your report! You must be SO excited...7 days!!! I tried to avoid GF on our recent BC trip, but my girls wanted to eat a Narcoossee's our last night there, and it turned out to be awesome because instead of being sad about it being our last night, we got excited about our next trip...which would be to GF! I hope you have a fabulous trip to BWI (especially since I'll be "cheating" on GF in December-LOL)

 

[BabyFu18]

Hi everyone, I ended up switching our reservations from the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian, I just couldn't be sure about the construction at the Poly so we decided to try the GF and I know we will love it! Now I've got to do some research so I can be sure I know all about the GF before our trip.

A question though, I saw in photos there is a beach area by the newer pool, is that where you watch the EWP and fireworks? We will be in a garden view room so I'm sure we won't be seeing those from our room, but I'd love to know a place around the resort we could go to, in word to watch these nighttime festivities.

 

[bethclayton]

You're very lucky to have that memory! Other than 3 or 4 trips in the 80's with my parents (when I was a kid), I didn't start my Disney binge until 2004 when my DDs were 6 (6th birthday trip) and 11 months. And unfortunately, we didn't even know character meals existed at that time! Oh well, at least I remember seeing the GF being built!

i'm even worse than you! lol! i actually never went in my entire life until 2006, when i was 32 years old! dd was 6 and ds was 4. we have gone back basically every year ever since. i cried when i saw the castle for the first time, i had been literally dreaming my whole life of the moment! i had wanted to go forever and couldn't believe we were finally there.

 

[Dispro1]

Hi everyone, I ended up switching our reservations from the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian, I just couldn't be sure about the construction at the Poly so we decided to try the GF and I know we will love it! Now I've got to do some research so I can be sure I know all about the GF before our trip.

A question though, I saw in photos there is a beach area by the newer pool, is that where you watch the EWP and fireworks? We will be in a garden view room so I'm sure we won't be seeing those from our room, but I'd love to know a place around the resort we could go to, in word to watch these nighttime festivities.

I'm sure you will love GF! It's really beautiful Unfortunately, there's not much beach left since they added the villas, but we never watched EWP or fireworks from there anyway. My favorite place to watch these is from the veranda of Narcoossee's, but if you don't have a reservation there, then you can watch from the boat dock. The boat dock, IMO, would be your best view of the EWP, but you might prefer to watch the fireworks from the marina area in front of Gasparilla Grill. They pipe in the music from Wishes there, but for some reason they don't pipe in the music at the boat dock (unless they've added it there since I last watched from there). They do pipe in the music at Narcoossee's, but you can't really hear it well from the boat dock. HTH! I wish I were as close to my trip as you are! Have a wonderful time

 

[Dispro1]

i'm even worse than you! lol! i actually never went in my entire life until 2006, when i was 32 years old! dd was 6 and ds was 4. we have gone back basically every year ever since. i cried when i saw the castle for the first time, i had been literally dreaming my whole life of the moment! i had wanted to go forever and couldn't believe we were finally there.

Sounds like you love Disney as much as I do! And your next trip is in a month...lucky!! Have a great time

 

[tinaver]

Another transplant from the WL. We were booked for 11/28 - 12/3 and my TA emailed yesterday to say Disney was offering to switch us (at the same price) over to GF LV to avoid the construction. Woo-hoo!

Now, I was looking forward to WL, especially at Christmas. I think that would've been lovely. But, if Disney is moving people over to more expensive rooms for no additional cost, I have to imagine the construction will be pretty disruptive.

So, now we are on the monorail in a larger room at an absolutely beautiful resort. No complaints here! Looking forward to our GF stay.