Disney's Club Level (CL) Information & Questions

[pangyal]

I don’t know if this will help anyone in the future with the dreaded MB issues for split stays, but on the off chance it helps even one person...we were told a while back that physically checking out of the first resort and having the system “release” your bands provides a better chance for the MBs to work properly at your next resort. We’ve been doing that ever since and have only had issues once (at Beach Club, where we usually have issues anyway, lol).

 

[CogsworthTN]

I don’t know if this will help anyone in the future with the dreaded MB issues for split stays, but on the off chance it helps even one person...we were told a while back that physically checking out of the first resort and having the system “release” your bands provides a better chance for the MBs to work properly at your next resort. We’ve been doing that ever since and have only had issues once (at Beach Club, where we usually have issues anyway, lol).

This was what we were told to do as well. We did a split stay this past May and did not experience any issues with our bands when we changed resorts. The CM at GF RPC told us we needed to officially checkout to keep from any glitches occurring when we checked in at BWI club level.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Hoping to get some recommendations on resorts for an upcoming trip. We have stayed at Boardwalk Inn Club Level before and are looking to stay an extra 2 days after a family trip, no tickets just resort room club level. A week with 3 kids is exhausting so we want a little relaxation . We've ruled out Beach & Yacht club due to tastes but want some opinions on other resorts. Anything would be appreciated!

If not going to the parks, my thoughts would be AKL first, and WL second, imho.

 

[firsttimemom]

Come early July!

I have really liked the crowds that time of year the past two years.

(I acknowledge that was not an option in your question!)

I used to scoff at people that went during the summer. The heat! The crowds! But last year we did the week of July 4. And maybe bcs I expected it to be the 8th circle of hell, it wasn't all that bad. Of course a split stay btwn RPC and BWI might have helped a little....

 

[RachelTori]

This was what we were told to do as well. We did a split stay this past May and did not experience any issues with our bands when we changed resorts. The CM at GF RPC told us we needed to officially checkout to keep from any glitches occurring when we checked in at BWI club level.

I almost always do split stays (multiple times a year) and what I’ve found is easiest/quickest is to tell the “new” resort CM that we just left the previous resort and need to check out. They will check us out of that resort, then check us in at their resort!

 

[yaya74]

I used to scoff at people that went during the summer. The heat! The crowds! But last year we did the week of July 4. And maybe bcs I expected it to be the 8th circle of hell, it wasn't all that bad. Of course a split stay btwn RPC and BWI might have helped a little....

Summer is really not that bad at WDW. The weather is equally hot back in NJ where I live. So why not get the best out of the summer by spending it at WDW. Also the heat would give us no excuse but to spend more time at the resort and get the most out of CL offerings.

 

[NicoleLarson]

Hi everyone!

Staying CL for the first time in a few weeks at WL. Just had a couple of questions that I'm sure have been answered somewhere in here but I can't find them when I search.

What is the morning coffee setup? Will there be to go cups to bring to our room or to the bus stop? Could I bring our refillable mugs from last trip (not to try to use with any machines) and make our coffees in those? We have small kids so sometimes sitting and enjoying a slow cup of coffee is not in the cards

Also, if I have my information correct the lounge is on the 7th floor but not all CL rooms are, right? Would requesting a 7th floor room be a good idea? Again, we have the 2 kids under 2 thing going on right now so don't want to have to hike too far to get to the lounge if possible!

Any other helpful tips for our stay are also appreciated. Getting really excited now!

We were just there last weekend and had a wonderful time! You can bring any mug you would like to fill. The to go cups for coffee are small (~10oz) I usually took 2 with me. They have bigger cups for other beverages but they're plastic so wouldn't work for coffee.
You have two options for coffee, regular in a carafe or the Nespresso machine. The latter is much easier than it looks. Get a pod (decaf, regular, strong) put it in the slot, hit the button that correlates with the drink you want. Americano (far right) is like a cappuccino (you can add frothed milk ) the button on the left is an espresso, I forget the name.... They also have the flavored syrup to add. Irish creme, hazelnut, toasted marshmallow and vanilla.

I do remember someone awhile back saying they were put on a different floor, so I would request 7th floor, MK view. You will have a wonderful view of HEA. If you don't get an MK view and get a courtyard view instead, you can see HEA from the lounge and they pipe in the music. The hotel is very small now so the max you'll be is 5 minutes away from the lounge and that's only if you were on the 1st floor near the boat dock and that's highly unlikely.

If you have any other questions please let me know, have a great trip!!

 

[ninafeliz]

I don’t know if this will help anyone in the future with the dreaded MB issues for split stays, but on the off chance it helps even one person...we were told a while back that physically checking out of the first resort and having the system “release” your bands provides a better chance for the MBs to work properly at your next resort. We’ve been doing that ever since and have only had issues once (at Beach Club, where we usually have issues anyway, lol).

We did a 3 resort split stay in June and made sure we checked out of each resort before checking into the next one, and we still had a lot of MB issues at both of the resorts we moved to. So that might help, but it isn’t a guarantee. I wish it had worked, it was quite tiring always having to be messing with getting the bands to work. My DH thinks I should refuse all new ones and only have 1 active for each of us each trip, because he’s so tired of spending time at the concierge desk dealing with it. But that’s no fun... I like our matching ones and themed ones! I do wish they worked like they should, though:

 

[GoGoBeans]

Wondering if this wine is still being served in BC? It was a blend of some sort and quite good. Picture credit to the nice disser who took it for me last year. Also, do they still have sangria? All this talk of coffee cups, I’ll need to bring my insulated pool cup.
https://www.disboards.com/attachments/20170921_184858-jpg.272326/

 

[AngiTN]

We did a 3 resort split stay in June and made sure we checked out of each resort before checking into the next one, and we still had a lot of MB issues at both of the resorts we moved to. So that might help, but it isn’t a guarantee. I wish it had worked, it was quite tiring always having to be messing with getting the bands to work. My DH thinks I should refuse all new ones and only have 1 active for each of us each trip, because he’s so tired of spending time at the concierge desk dealing with it. But that’s no fun... I like our matching ones and themed ones! I do wish they worked like they should, though:

And conversely, we never check out of any of our rooms, split stay or otherwise. Rarely have issues. Would be nice to figure out what the root cause is. But I think it's a lost cause.

 

[AngiTN]

Thank you @AngiTN ! We booked a standard CL room, so that's perfect! I wasn't aware that you could add club level on at arrival. Besides the room location what are the differences in doing it that way? And thank goodness for informed people like yourself, the CM I spoke to wasn't sure of this answer. She wasn't a Signature Services CM but she tried to look up the answer and told me that I could put in a room request for 7th floor. Glad to hear I won't need to stress about having the request go through or not.

And thank you @kcpinwdw, we will be up with the sun so I will be making good use of the coffee service as early as they'll let me

Mostly, it's not guaranteed you can get it. There's a limit to how many they can add on to the rooms that are outside of the CL level. So far, no one has been turned down but it's not widely known so probably why.
This is a new feature and something that is only at WL so no one is really sure of the numbers. The theory is they've started this because they took half the rooms away when they converted half of WL in to CC DVC rooms.

As to the CM not knowing, well, unfortunately, the CM on the phones are woefully uninformed.

 

[mickeynut1]

Hoping to get some recommendations on resorts for an upcoming trip. We have stayed at Boardwalk Inn Club Level before and are looking to stay an extra 2 days after a family trip, no tickets just resort room club level. A week with 3 kids is exhausting so we want a little relaxation . We've ruled out Beach & Yacht club due to tastes but want some opinions on other resorts. Anything would be appreciated!

Another vote for the Poly. The tropical atmosphere is relaxing and you can't beat seeing the castle off in the distance every day .

Poly! The resort has such a nice and relaxing vibe.

Poly is a great choice if chilling at the pool is your bag. The lounge is only steps away from the pool so very easy to make a run to the lounge. Gorgeous fireworks views and silly fun over at Trader Sam’s. You can totally get away while at the Poly.

I agree with both of the above .

 

[yaya74]

Regarding the MB issues, my family did not have problem using our MB when we moved from Pop to GF. Pop res was made under my name and GF res was made under DH's name. We did not physically check out at Pop and we got to GF at 8am. To those who had trouble with MB, I wonder if the res was made under the same name or different names?? We only had 1 active MB in each of our account as well...

 

[Eastern]

I don’t know if this will help anyone in the future with the dreaded MB issues for split stays, but on the off chance it helps even one person...we were told a while back that physically checking out of the first resort and having the system “release” your bands provides a better chance for the MBs to work properly at your next resort. We’ve been doing that ever since and have only had issues once (at Beach Club, where we usually have issues anyway, lol).

We physically checked out of CR and when we got to GF, none of our bands worked. We were told that it was because we got bands for each resort, and we didn't use the 'right' bands when checking into the first resort.

I'm not sure that anyone actually knows why sometimes the bands don't work.

 

[ninafeliz]

We physically checked out of CR and when we got to GF, none of our bands worked. We were told that it was because we got bands for each resort, and we didn't use the 'right' bands when checking into the first resort.

I'm not sure that anyone actually knows why sometimes the bands don't work.

I certainly don't know why this happens, and even more oddly why it doesn't happen consistently, but I can assure you from years of following the whole MB issue this is NOT true. Any band works for any use, it has nothing to do with what resort stay you got them with. I have had many CMs tell me all kinds of odd reasons it happens, I think they either have no idea and do't want to admit it or they really think they have it figured out and just don't have the whole scope of things to realize why whatever they are saying isn't true.

 

[AngiTN]

We physically checked out of CR and when we got to GF, none of our bands worked. We were told that it was because we got bands for each resort, and we didn't use the 'right' bands when checking into the first resort.

I'm not sure that anyone actually knows why sometimes the bands don't work.

I certainly don't know why this happens, and even more oddly why it doesn't happen consistently, but I can assure you from years of following the whole MB issue this is NOT true. Any band works for any use, it has nothing to do with what resort stay you got them with. I have had many CMs tell me all kinds of odd reasons it happens, I think they either have no idea and do't want to admit it or they really think they have it figured out and just don't have the whole scope of things to realize why whatever they are saying isn't true.

The only thing I can say, in the CM's defense regarding "using the correct band" comment. Having gone through some issues early on, even without a split stay, I learned quite a bit about bands and resort access.
There is some validity to it in that the band has to be logged in to that resorts database. Each resort has it's own band/room access database. Normally, all bands assigned to a registered guest is logged in to that resorts database so it's not an issue. However, sometimes one gets left out. Especially when a guest has a lot of MB. Database can only hold so much info, entries and eventually, items get dropped off. Normally, it's never the one that is assigned to that resort stay. But even that isn't 100% foolproof. So, the comment the CM made was not 100% wrong even if most of the time, it really makes no difference. And even using the right band doesn't always mean you will be problem free.

This is why, when they are checking to see if the band will work, they'll check the numbers on the back and look to see if it's included on the access list. If it is, it works. If it's not, they can add it.

 

[AngiTN]

We physically checked out of CR and when we got to GF, none of our bands worked. We were told that it was because we got bands for each resort, and we didn't use the 'right' bands when checking into the first resort.

I'm not sure that anyone actually knows why sometimes the bands don't work.

And here, ladies and gentleman, we have the winner!

 

[akg1128]

View attachment 335177 Our BC CL standard view worked for me and was right beside the lounge.

Hi! I'm searching BC CL posts while looking for room location ideas for our stay in December. Do you remember your room number? We're standard view too and hoping to be near the lounge. Thanks!

 

[cwis]

And conversely, we never check out of any of our rooms, split stay or otherwise. Rarely have issues. Would be nice to figure out what the root cause is. But I think it's a lost cause.

Exactly what I am thinking. Disney's IT is such a mess…

On our first day at the YC CL there was an elevator that we couldn't use (MB didn't work). Turned out the CL staff told us that, even them can't use that elevator, and that it has been reported for months…

(For reference we could use that elevator once we had our room, but I wouldn't say there is a connection between those events. Glitches are so random…)

 

[AngiTN]

Exactly what I am thinking. Disney's IT is such a mess…

On our first day at the YC CL there was an elevator that we couldn't use (MB didn't work). Turned out the CL staff told us that, even them can't use that elevator, and that it has been reported for months…

(For reference we could use that elevator once we had our room, but I wouldn't say there is a connection between those events. Glitches are so random…)

Now, supposedly, that's is how it's supposed to work.
We've always been told, since even before MB (back when it was KTTW cards) that you couldn't access the elevator touchpad for CL floor until you used your card (and now MB) to enter your room. To always have everyone in the party use their card/band enter the room so that everyone could then use the elevator.
So there could well be a connection between those 2 events but the CL staff should have known that.