Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

We have been to this hotel a number of times over the last few years. We love the hotel but this time we were disaponted. This was due to work being carried out on the outside of the building from 9 - 5 each weekday. We had paint fumes and noise for the whole of our stay. For us who have been to Disney 25 + times and don't spend all our time in the parks , we chose a Magic Kingdom club level room so we could enjoy time on our balcony. We could not spend any time there at all. We asked to be moved to another hotel but all were full. The trip was for our 50 th wedding anniversary and was noted on our booking, we were very disappointed that no-one mentioned this at all. In our opinion Food quality had gone down in Disney itself and in the hotel restaurants. Most did not even have ice cream. Chef Mickeys did but it came out as liquid. The actual hotel room was good as was the lobby area. Royal Palm room was excellent as were the staff in The Royal Palm. Hotel and room were spotless and housekeepers friendly. I have rated the hotel as a three due to the problems we had this time, normally we have had a wonderful experience but our 14 night stay did not have the magic we expected.

This hotel is just stunning in every way. Attention to detail is high and location is perfect for early theme park day trips. We spent a week at this resort with all out friends (10 rooms total) and were married on a tuesday 4/4/18 at the wedding pavillion at 5pm Weather was fantastic as was the reception. Loads to do and see and very kid friendly obviously being disney. Not cheap though! 4.5k a room for the week plus park passes

We recently spent a special weekend in early May split between the Grand Floridian and Grand Floridian Villas, during which my wife and I got married at the Wedding Pavilion on the property. Even putting aside the wedding excitement, we had a great stay at the resort and it is easily now our favorite Disney resort. There are some potential areas for improvement, but overall, it’s a lovely hotel. Our 4-night stay began with a single night in a King Deluxe Club Level Room in the Main Building with access to the Royal Palm Club. Although this is one of the more expensive rooms at the resort, we were lucky that this night was complimentary as part of our Disney wedding. After the first night in the Main Building, we moved to the Grand Floridian Villas for 3 nights, where family members had booked a number of studio villas for the weekend, and we chose a one-bedroom villa for the duration of our stay. We booked all of the villas by renting Disney Vacation Club points on dvcrentalstore.com (which I highly recommend to save money). Booking villas can be quite competitive, so we booked them as soon as we could at the 11-month mark prior to the trip. Arrival Experience: We completed online check-in for both portions of our stay prior to our arrival (I recommend taking the time to do this), and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a text message by noon on our arrival day that provided our room number and instructed us to go directly there with our MagicBands for entry. I was also happy that the next day, the villa that we were moving to was also ready by noon. When we arrived at the lobby in our rental car, a member of the valet staff greeted us quickly. I asked if I should leave the car somewhere near the lobby while we took our luggage to our room, or if I should park the car in self-parking right away, and then go up to the room. This didn’t seem like a crazy question, since we had just dropped my parents off at the Grand Floridian Villas, where you are permitted to leave your car near the lobby while taking your luggage to your room. It took the cast member several minutes and asking multiple colleagues to find out that we should unload our luggage, self-park the car immediately, and then go up to the room. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was a bit odd to pull up to Disney’s best resort and immediately have confusion over something so simple. Once we had parked our car in the self-parking lot (which is close to the main lobby and had lots of empty spots all weekend), we were on our way to our room with a bellhop to assist. This cast member was quite knowledgeable and welcoming, and he helped us find our room. Most of the King Deluxe Rooms in the Main Building, including ours, are hidden in a small hallway on the 2nd floor that is tricky to access. From the main lobby, you have to take the elevator to the 3rd, 4th, or 5th floor in the Royal Palm Club first, and walk past the rooms on that floor until you find a separate elevator. You then take that elevator down to the 2nd floor, which is where the row of the King Deluxe Rooms is hidden. The first time we went to our room, it seemed like quite a trek, but it was easy enough to find once we knew our way around. The bellhop told us that this hallway wasn’t initially intended to be used for hotel rooms, but was converted from offices after the hotel was first built. That section of rooms is also very quiet. When leaving the building from this hidden hallway on the 2nd floor, you can take the separate elevator straight down to the ground level and exit to the grounds by the marina and Gasparilla Island Grill, but you can’t get back in that way, since the exterior door is always locked from the outside. Main Building Room: The King Deluxe Rooms are advertised as being larger than regular rooms, and our room was noticeably large. Otherwise, the room was definitely nice, but not as impressive as one might expect at the Grand Floridian. The décor feels a little upscale, but it also felt a little generic at the same time. It wasn’t significantly better than what you find at the other Disney Deluxe Resorts, and certainly not at the level of what you’d expect at a luxury brand like a Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton, for example. We did like that the Main Building room came with turndown service, something we’ve never gotten at a Disney resort in the past. I was a bit disappointed in the bathroom. Although the bathroom was a nice size, and appointed in marble, we could immediately tell that it had not been renovated in many years. The fixtures and décor looked old, and the tub in particular had seen better days and was very discolored on the bottom. I appreciated that there were more than enough towels and that a hamper was provided to hold the dirty towels. The bathroom was also clean and well stocked, including an array of toiletries that many Disney resorts don't include, like aloe, sunblock, and foot scrub. The other main part of the room that we were excited about was the balcony, since our room had a direct Magic Kingdom view of Cinderella Castle. We were excited to sit outside and take in the view, but we were unable to do so. As soon as we arrived, we noticed that a worker was on the balcony doing some sort of painting work, and that a cherry picker was set up directly in front of the room, largely blocking the view. Beyond the loss of outdoor space, it was also annoying to feel like we were staying in a fishbowl with no privacy. Although the work ended at some point in the early evening, we were unable to use our balcony at all during daytime hours, and there was a variety of painting equipment left on our balcony overnight. Unfortunately, the exact same thing resumed in the morning. Even though we had gotten this night for free, we had been really excited about the view and balcony, and it didn’t sit right with me that Disney hadn’t even notified guests about the work that was technically occurring in a portion of the room. I called Guest Services in the morning, which annoyingly always goes straight to an offsite call center that I’ve always found to be useless when you have any issue at Disney. I asked to speak to a manager on site at the Grand Floridian about the construction, and I was initially told I would receive a call back from a manager in 5 minutes. After waiting over 30 minutes, I called back, and was told there was no one available to talk to me and that the best they could do was call our Disney wedding planner, who has absolutely nothing to do with rooms at the Grand Floridian. With more persistence, I was able to finally get to a manager at the Grand Floridian. I spoke with one of the managers, Doug, who was very kind and understanding. After I explained what we were unhappy about, he immediately apologized for our bad experience and seemed especially apologetic that we had an issue at the beginning of our wedding weekend. I was very surprised when he offered us a complimentary night in the same room type in the future, so that we can have the experience we were supposed to have on this trip. We were really happy with this solution, since we know we’ll be back at Disney, and a complimentary night in the Main Building is a luxury we won’t turn down. Doug said that we’d receive an email with the full details of our complimentary night within a few days. After a couple weeks, we hadn’t received anything, so I ended up emailing the hotel to inquire. I received a response that was apologetic and even added two one-day park hopper tickets to compensate for the further inconvenience. Soon after that, we received an email with all the details about booking our future stay. We were very happy with the way that the management at the Grand Floridian listened to our concerns and made sure that we left the hotel happy. I would have preferred not to have the construction issue, but given that it occurred, I was surprised how they went above and beyond in inviting us to come back and try the room again to make up for the bad experience. Royal Palm Club: We absolutely loved having access to the Royal Palm Club on the 4th floor of the Main Building for the food offerings throughout the day. On our arrival day, we were there for the afternoon snacks (soups, chips, cheese and charcuterie, cookies) and afternoon tea (warm scones, tea, small cupcakes and other desserts). They had a good array of foods that have a wide appeal to many ages and tastes, in a beautiful setting overlooking the main lobby of the hotel. It was a special treat in the late afternoon when the Grand Floridian Society Orchestra started playing below. We were sad to miss the evening offerings, but we were back in the morning for breakfast. Breakfast was mostly cold options, like fruit, muffins, yogurt, croissants, etc., but there were a couple of hot items too, like oatmeal and mini frittatas. Breakfast was perfectly good and filling. I’m not sure I could justify the high cost of staying on the Club Level on most trips, but we really enjoyed the experience for that one night. It’s just like a Club Level at a non-Disney hotel, but I actually thought the food offerings were more substantial at the Grand Floridian than what you normally find elsewhere. If you plan to spend all day every day in the theme parks, upgrading probably wouldn’t be worth it, but if you spend more time at the resort, it’s a great option. We love to build in time at the resort on our trips, and access to a club lounge can really help make that time even more enjoyable. The only thing I didn’t love about the Royal Palm Club was the staff. I generally found the staff to be unfriendly. They did the basics like refilling food and clearing plates, but they didn’t do the little extras you’d expect at a luxury hotel, like making sure to say hello to guests or even simply smiling. I found the attitude to be similar on the 3rd Floor, where the concierge desks are located for the Royal Palm Club. We had one simple request to have a one-page document printed, which the cast member did, but without a very friendly response. One of the other buildings at the resort, Sugar Loaf Key, also has its own club lounge for a slightly lower cost, which I’d be curious to try as well. Guests staying in one Club building don’t have access to the other, so Main Building Rooms only use the Royal Palm Club in the Main Building, and Sugar Loaf Key guests only use the Sugar Loaf Club in that building. Villa Experience: After our one night in the Main Building, we moved to the Grand Floridian Villas, which are part of the Disney Vacation Club (DVC), for the rest of our stay. All of the Villas are in one building on the side of the property closest to the Wedding Pavilion. We were a little nervous that we wouldn’t like leaving the convenience or grandeur of being in the Main Building. However, we ended up really loving the Villas, which are connected to the Main Building via a fully covered sidewalk (something no other building at the main hotel offers, and which was a huge lifesaver on our wedding day when it started pouring and we needed to get to the Main Building for pictures). The lobby at the Villas, while less impressive than the Main Building, is still quite nice, with a whimsical Mary Poppins penguin fountain in the center. It was also nice that the lobby in the Villas always had complimentary coffee and water available. The Villas also had a very friendly bell staff at the entrance that helped us on numerous occasions, even at one point running over to the Main Building to find my wedding tuxedo pants that had been delivered there by mistake. There are also a couple of front desk/concierge staff members stationed in the Villas during the day, who were nicer than the staff we encountered at the Royal Palm Club. Later at night, the Villas aren’t staffed and the building gets locked, requiring a MagicBand to enter. However, you can always go to the Main Building if you need anything. Villa Room: We truly loved our room in the Villas. We splurged on the one-bedroom villa, and it was well worth the cost to have the extra space for getting ready and organizing wedding items. Our other family members all rented studio villas, and we heard positive things about those as well. We were so impressed when we first walked into our villa. It was huge, and absolutely felt like we were staying in someone’s beautifully decorated home. I felt that the décor totally fit with the Grand Floridian’s theme without being as bland as the room we had in the Main Building. Although we barely used it, the full kitchen was really nice and well equipped, with a booth-style table and even little upscale touches like appliances covered in wood cabinet panels. Having a washer and dryer right in the villa was also so helpful for getting laundry done with ease. The bedroom was a great size, with a very large walk-in closet that was helpful for storing our luggage. The bathroom was the best surprise, with two large separate vanities that each had a lot of storage, a pretty freestanding tub, and a huge walk-in shower. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer room, and the large balcony overlooked the fountain behind the villas, the Main Building, and the monorail, which was a nice view for being in the Standard View category (I don’t think any room at the Villas has a really bad view). All of the studios our family members booked were also Standard View, and they all overlooked either the back fountain area like us, or the monorail and front entrance of the Villas facing toward the Wedding Pavilion. Since daily housekeeping service doesn’t come with the Villas (unless you book directly through Disney without using or renting DVC points), we did have to be a little more aware of hanging up our towels, making the bed, and taking out the trash to the trash room down the hall. However, these were small prices to pay for being able to stay in a room that was so nice. Hotel Amenities: We didn’t experience too many of the resort amenities during our stay, since we were busy with wedding events. Just sitting in the main lobby and enjoying the pianist or the band playing was a highlight. We also loved any time we spent wandering the grounds. The resort has two pools and a kids’ water play area. We only had a chance to visit the kids’ pool area with our nephew, and it looked like a lot of fun. There is also a marina with various boats for rent, and a gym and spa near the Villas. The hotel’s walking paths also continue past the Wedding Pavilion to the Polynesian Village Resort, so it’s great that you can also easily walk over there as well. Dining: We tried several dining options at the Grand Floridian and had positive experiences at all of them. We went to Citricos for dinner on our first night, which we were very eager to try after having had a very nice dinner at the Grand Floridian’s other similarly priced restaurant, Narcoossee’s, on our last trip. Narcoossee’s is on the water with Magic Kingdom views, and focuses more on steak and seafood with a nautical feel. In contrast, Citricos is on the second floor of the Main Building and has a more airy feel, with a menu that feels a bit more gourmet and inventive. We really loved our meal at Citricos (even more so than our previous nice meal at Narcoossee’s). Even with a large group, the service was great, and virtually all food and wine options our group tried were delicious. We were seated right by the open kitchen area where desserts were being made, and we couldn’t help but try some of the desserts that were so artistically presented. Some members of our group had afternoon tea at the Garden View Tea Room, and the atmosphere by the lobby was the main draw, even more than the food or tea itself. My wife felt that it was a solidly decent afternoon tea. It wasn’t the best she’s had, but it was filling and pleasant, especially with the option that includes a glass of Veuve Clicquot champagne. On our final day, we went to the character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, which is on the ground level, off of the lobby and next to Grand Floridian Café. I was pleasantly surprised with the breakfast buffet offerings. The buffet was stocked with interesting items that I haven’t seen at other Disney restaurants, such as the chilled strawberry soup and cheese blintzes, in addition to every other breakfast option one could want. The food we tried was good, and the characters that visited were a fun group: Mary Poppins, Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Pooh. Tigger was also available for pictures, but didn’t come around to each table. For a character meal, the experience was pretty nice, and I’d be willing to try it again in the future. Transportation: Since we were mostly focused on wedding events, we only used the complimentary resort transportation to the theme parks a couple of times. For getting to the Magic Kingdom, the Grand Floridian has the best possible location, since it’s the final stop on the resort monorail line before the park. You can be in the Magic Kingdom in no more than 10-15 minutes from leaving the lobby. Coming back from the Magic Kingdom, especially at busy times, is more of a pain. The resort monorail coming back seems to take forever, with slow stops at the Contemporary, Transportation Center, and Polynesian, before finally reaching the Grand Floridian. I’ve read that the boat from the Magic Kingdom can be a faster option. However, we tried the boat once on the way back from the park, and found it to be similarly slow. There only seemed to be one boat running, making things very slow and keeping our wait very long for a spot on the small boat. By monorail or boat, it easily took 30-45 minutes to get back to the Grand Floridian from the Magic Kingdom. When traveling to Epcot on the monorail, you need to budget at least an hour from the Grand Floridian, between the slow ride on the resort monorail to the Transportation Center, and then the process of transferring and waiting for an Epcot monorail from there. Overall: Overall, we had a great stay at both the Grand Floridian and the Grand Floridian Villas. Even though the resort doesn’t have the modern style of most hotels, it’s lovely because it’s so different. The pastel color scheme and Victorian style would look outdated and out of place at many places, but since it’s the theme of the resort, it works well. You feel like you’re stepping into a bygone era the minute you step into the lobby and see all the fresh flowers and take in the lovely scent. We found our rooms in both the Main Building and the Villas to be nice, although the Villa rooms definitely win out for being more updated and fresh, with décor that feels more upscale. However, the Main Building was no slouch either, since we loved the Royal Palm Club. The convenience of being right by the main lobby, with access to dining, the lobby, and the monorail just steps away can’t be beat. Looking objectively, there are some things about the Grand Floridian that could be improved. The hotel could use updated bathrooms in the main hotel, and they need to avoid issues like the construction surprise in our first room. Service could also just be tightened to a consistent standard across the property. The Royal Palm Club seemed to have the worst service at the hotel, in contrast with the friendly and down-to-earth staff at the Villas, or the main lobby staff, who quite literally rolled out a red carpet for us on our wedding day and stood in a line clapping as we walked into the lobby for wedding photos. However, even if service isn’t necessarily consistent, which probably makes the hotel a bit overpriced, there is something about the Grand Floridian that still feels special, and the location is ideal, just a stone’s throw from the Magic Kingdom. We will definitely be back to the Grand Floridian, not only to re-visit the place where we got married, but also just to experience the unique resort again.