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

[allsaintsatx]

Allsaintsatx So glad you enjoyed the GF. It truly is a gorgeous place. Sounds like you had an awesome room as well! If you don't mind me asking, what room and building were you in? Did you have a garden or lagoon view? We are going on the 15 th of this month and trying to find a perfect room for us.

We faced the courtyard/quiet pool, on the top floor in one of the rooms with the cathedral ceilings. Honestly, except for a few rooms facing the backside of the pool bar, there didn't seem to be any rooms with bad views. We walked around the whole property and barring the few lower floor rooms behind the pool bar, I would be thrilled to stay in any room there. Pool view and monorail view, these were the "garden view" rooms and they all looked like excellent views. The lagoon view and theme park view rooms looked amazing as well (at least looking up at them!), but honestly all the views and buildings seemed top notch. There's no parking lots to look at or loading zones with delivery trucks that we could see - even the "cheapest" views are excellent IMHO. And the pool bar backside view rooms I saw aren't right up against it, there's some lawn, some manicured flower beds, a pathway, it's not like you can reach out and touch the pool bar or anything! It's just compared to the other rooms with SPECTACULAR views it's not as desirable.

We did our room requests over the phone with a CM and just asked for an upper floor/dormer room. We actually wanted to face the marina/monorail side (that was our second request!) because we thought the pool side would be too loud but it definitely was not! We like it quieter, so we usually request an upper floor. I would make any requests soon though, I think they start assigning rooms a week or so out? Somewhere in that time frame! Enjoy your trip!!

 

[butternut]

Thanks again Allsaintsatx for the great description of the room view! Do you remember the building name or room number! I'd like to make that call and give a request. You say you had a dormer room and it was huge. Some say they are smaller but I have always wanted to try one. Do they only have the small railed balcony though? Getting very excited to go!

 

[trishadono]

Well.............

Well......

You can come too!

 

[trishadono]

Hello. I just tried to do my online checkin. There is an option to enter request 1 and request 2. However, when I click the drop down box to make a selection, there are not options. It just says <select>. Has anyone else experienced this or know if may it is just a temporary system issue?

Thank you in advance!

Unfortunately that’s the way it has been for the last few weeks. The whole online check-in room request thing seems to be seriously busted. Best to call in your requests, use Touring Plans, or some other alternative method.

Good luck.

Also what is weird is the check in at 60 days does not apply. I was able to check in for January before that and just checked in for my May trip.

 

[dansdad]

Well......

You can come too!

Thanks. I so wish I could!

 

[LC102310]

Virgin Holidays just rang me to let me know that we won't be affected by the pool closure as the work doesn't begin until January? Which is very good news if true...

That is good to know as I received 2 post cards from Disney a few months ago telling me that the beach pool would be closed when I am there later this month.

 

[GraceMonica]

I just got back from my first GF stay on Wednesday! It was an amazing resort and I'm so very grateful I got to try it. Although my husband and I loved it, we won't be back anytime soon because I'm on a quest to try all the Disney resorts at least once, and repeating a resort at this time will not help my end goal.

Out of the 4 deluxe resorts I've tried, the grand might just be my favorite.

We ate at gaspirillas at least 4 times while we were there. Their breakfast didn't really impress us. The only good thing was the pumpkin spice waffles. For dinner, we tried the blackened fish Rueben and it was surprisingly amazing. We also got the chicken and mushroom pizza twice, which was good both times. My husband lived it up and ordered a side of house made chips and they brought over an entire plate full of them! They were also very good. After our bad experience with breakfast we were hesitant to try dinner, but we are very glad we did.

The clear winner of this establishment is the coconut pot de creme in the dessert case. We got it 3 times. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

We did encounter some people who thought they were too good to clean up after themselves. Two full tables of half eaten plates of food and cups. Just a huge mess. I wish I had confronted them, but I wasn't about to run out after them when I realized they were indeed leaving their huge mess behind.

Our room was a dormer style room. I remember reading that they are smaller than others. I haven't been in a non dormer style room to confirm, but it was definitely smaller than our room at the poly. If we had kids we would have felt cramped, but since it was just my husband and I, it was enough room. The room directly next to us was not dormer style and I noticed that our balcony was deeper by quite a bit so that's where our room lost its space.

The only thing that I regret about our trip is not bringing down another suitcase. It was our first time flying to Disney, so we packed one giant suitcase and one carry on. We could have checked a total of 4 suitcases free since we flew southwest. I didn't do as much shopping as I hoped since I didn't have room in my suitcase and I wasn't about to spend $160 on a new suitcase.

I'll try to get pictures up tonight!

 

[mrsap]

Hey guys - just saw this on dvcnews regarding the pool closure. It was posted today...


The Beach Pool at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is scheduled to close from January 2 through early-April, 2018 for maintenance. During this period, the entire Beach Pool will be unavailable to guests including the zero entry platform and slide.

The nearby Beach Pool Water Play Areawill be open, along with the resort's Courtyard Pool.

It is not known if Disney will take further steps to accommodate Grand Floridianguests during the maintenance period. In similar circumstances, Disney has allowed guests to utilize facilities at neighboring resort. At times, they have also provided resort guests with free admission to one of the Disney water parks.

Notices were previously sent to guests indicating that the maintenance would begin as early as mid-November, 2017. However, our sources indicate that work was pushed back to the January start date.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Hey guys - just saw this on dvcnews regarding the pool closure. It was posted today...


The Beach Pool at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is scheduled to close from January 2 through early-April, 2018 for maintenance. During this period, the entire Beach Pool will be unavailable to guests including the zero entry platform and slide.

The nearby Beach Pool Water Play Areawill be open, along with the resort's Courtyard Pool.

It is not known if Disney will take further steps to accommodate Grand Floridianguests during the maintenance period. In similar circumstances, Disney has allowed guests to utilize facilities at neighboring resort. At times, they have also provided resort guests with free admission to one of the Disney water parks.

Notices were previously sent to guests indicating that the maintenance would begin as early as mid-November, 2017. However, our sources indicate that work was pushed back to the January start date.

I am hoping they give pins that say sorry for the construction, because I'm a pin fanatic!

 

[mrsap]

I am hoping they give pins that say sorry for the construction, because I'm a pin fanatic!

They did give them during the WL construction! My kids loved them!

 

[Lovetherodent]

Gasparilla's was SO GOOD!!! That ham/brie/chicken sandwich was super tasty and the coconut pot du creme dessert was excellent too! The atmosphere in there was nicer than some TS restaurants!

I am also a big fan of Gasparilla's. We often skipped the lines for CS at the parks in favor of returning to the GF for a late, quiet lunch and then a swim before heading back out.

 

[meg8017]

Hey guys - just saw this on dvcnews regarding the pool closure. It was posted today...


The Beach Pool at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is scheduled to close from January 2 through early-April, 2018 for maintenance. During this period, the entire Beach Pool will be unavailable to guests including the zero entry platform and slide.

The nearby Beach Pool Water Play Areawill be open, along with the resort's Courtyard Pool.

It is not known if Disney will take further steps to accommodate Grand Floridianguests during the maintenance period. In similar circumstances, Disney has allowed guests to utilize facilities at neighboring resort. At times, they have also provided resort guests with free admission to one of the Disney water parks.

Notices were previously sent to guests indicating that the maintenance would begin as early as mid-November, 2017. However, our sources indicate that work was pushed back to the January start date.

I hope this is true!!! My kids were SO bummed when I told them the slide would be closed. (we leave in 3 weeks). Fingers crossed!

 

[PolyRob]

I am hoping they give pins that say sorry for the construction, because I'm a pin fanatic!

If this happens, I will have to add on a GF day to my BC/Poly split to get victorian Mickey with a wrench. The WL ones were so cute hahaha

 

[mickeynut1]

I just got back from my first GF stay on Wednesday! It was an amazing resort and I'm so very grateful I got to try it. Although my husband and I loved it, we won't be back anytime soon because I'm on a quest to try all the Disney resorts at least once, and repeating a resort at this time will not help my end goal.

Out of the 4 deluxe resorts I've tried, the grand might just be my favorite.

We ate at gaspirillas at least 4 times while we were there. Their breakfast didn't really impress us. The only good thing was the pumpkin spice waffles. For dinner, we tried the blackened fish Rueben and it was surprisingly amazing. We also got the chicken and mushroom pizza twice, which was good both times. My husband lived it up and ordered a side of house made chips and they brought over an entire plate full of them! They were also very good. After our bad experience with breakfast we were hesitant to try dinner, but we are very glad we did.

The clear winner of this establishment is the coconut pot de creme in the dessert case. We got it 3 times. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

We did encounter some people who thought they were too good to clean up after themselves. Two full tables of half eaten plates of food and cups. Just a huge mess. I wish I had confronted them, but I wasn't about to run out after them when I realized they were indeed leaving their huge mess behind.

Our room was a dormer style room. I remember reading that they are smaller than others. I haven't been in a non dormer style room to confirm, but it was definitely smaller than our room at the poly. If we had kids we would have felt cramped, but since it was just my husband and I, it was enough room. The room directly next to us was not dormer style and I noticed that our balcony was deeper by quite a bit so that's where our room lost its space.

The only thing that I regret about our trip is not bringing down another suitcase. It was our first time flying to Disney, so we packed one giant suitcase and one carry on. We could have checked a total of 4 suitcases free since we flew southwest. I didn't do as much shopping as I hoped since I didn't have room in my suitcase and I wasn't about to spend $160 on a new suitcase.

I'll try to get pictures up tonight!

Thanks for your review. Glad you had a great time and enjoyed the GF .

 

[jltdone]

I am wondering if anyone knows where the elevators are located in the villas. Like when you get off what room numbers are the elevators are closet
Thank you.

 

[caribbeandream]

Hey guys - just saw this on dvcnews regarding the pool closure. It was posted today...


The Beach Pool at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is scheduled to close from January 2 through early-April, 2018 for maintenance. During this period, the entire Beach Pool will be unavailable to guests including the zero entry platform and slide.

The nearby Beach Pool Water Play Areawill be open, along with the resort's Courtyard Pool.

It is not known if Disney will take further steps to accommodate Grand Floridianguests during the maintenance period. In similar circumstances, Disney has allowed guests to utilize facilities at neighboring resort. At times, they have also provided resort guests with free admission to one of the Disney water parks.

Notices were previously sent to guests indicating that the maintenance would begin as early as mid-November, 2017. However, our sources indicate that work was pushed back to the January start date.

When Disney allows guests to use neighboring facilities do they put it in writing or is it one of those "you have to know to ask" things? We will be there in January and our letter did not mention anything about being able to use another hotel's pool. They way the email was worded it implied that the hotel has another pool anyway so just go use that one.

 

[caribbeandream]

I am hoping they give pins that say sorry for the construction, because I'm a pin fanatic!

I LOVE pins! This would be so cool.

 

[Rachel GB]

When Disney allows guests to use neighboring facilities do they put it in writing or is it one of those "you have to know to ask" things? We will be there in January and our letter did not mention anything about being able to use another hotel's pool. They way the email was worded it implied that the hotel has another pool anyway so just go use that one.

@caribbeandream , this refurb was originally supposed to start later this month and affected our stay. Both we and our TA called to ask if we would have pool privileges at a neighboring hotel (Poly!!!), but were consistently told no. Hopefully they change this!

 

[Scott MC]

Hello!
Just dropping in to say "Hi." We stayed at the GF back in 2009, and again in 2014 and have decided to spend a portion of our Honeymoon here! We'll be staying from 8/16 to 8/23. We're usually YC/BC people, and will spend a bit of our Honeymoon at YC, but to be honest, the dog policy has pushed us to spending the bulk of our trip at GF, but we may adjust the exact amount of time at each resort as the policy and its ramifications make themselves more clear over the coming months.
But nevertheless, we're thrilled to be spending some of our special trip here!

 

[mrsap]

When Disney allows guests to use neighboring facilities do they put it in writing or is it one of those "you have to know to ask" things? We will be there in January and our letter did not mention anything about being able to use another hotel's pool. They way the email was worded it implied that the hotel has another pool anyway so just go use that one.

It doesn’t hurt to ask when you check in, but honestly when I thought the pool closure was affecting our November stay, I just figured we’d use the Courtyard pool. I find it more inconvenient going to another resort to swim, but if there’s only one pool, (and it’s going to be closed), I’d assume there’s no other option.