I just returned from a stay at the Newport Bay Club Admiral's Floor and wanted to add my report.
I've heard stories of dirty and poorly kept rooms. However, our room was very clean and well stocked with towels, shampoo and soap. Perhaps they are renovating rooms one by one and it is hit-or-miss on a good room. Perhaps Admiral's Floor rooms are given priority, I don't know. I believe hair dryers are available upon request. We arrived late on Thursday evening (about 8pm) so the regular check-in wasn't too crowded, but still there was a bit of a queue. The separate Admiral's Floor check-in was much appreciated, as there weas no one in line ahead of us.
The Cape Cod buffet was fine for breakfast, but only if you get there by 7:30 or maybe 7:45. After that it starts getting swamped. I didn't find this to be much of a problem, though, since we wanted to be at the park by 8am anyway.
We had dinner one evening at the Yacht Club restaurant, and it was quite good. The service was excellent, too. Certainly that depends on your wait-staff, but our waitress there was absolutely the freindliest and most helpful of any that we had during our 2-weeks of travelling around the Loire Valley and Paris.
Complaints? Crowded and noisy come to mind. Just noisy in the public areas, though. The room was nice and quiet except for the street sweeper truck out front at 5am one morning. But this didn't bother us much, as we didn't spend much time in the hotel.
The three things that bothered me the most were:
1) Difficulty in getting service by phone during peak hours. Consierge desk and sometimes housekeeping were extremely difficult to get on the phone. Surely this is due to the sheer numbers of guests.
2) Laundry service is outrageously expensive. After travelling for a week in the Loire we planned on doing laundry at Disney. That was a mistake. The nearest self-service facilities are apparently a bus ride and a walk away, and the hotel fees for laundry ran in the area of 4 Euros for a pair of socks.
3) The main elevators (lifts if you prefer) did not allow you to get from your room directly to the exit leading to the lake and path to Disney Village and parks. You had to get off at floor 2 and catch another ride down to 1 or take the main staircase down one floor to the restaurants in order to get out and walk to the parks.
I wouldn't mind staying there again in the future, but I'm all about convenience. I'd much rather stay in the
Disneyland Hotel (it was booked when we made our plans this time). Maybe the New York is a bit closer, but still requires a walk through the Village. I hope this helps those who are considering a stay at NBC soon. Have a good trip!