Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

We ended up moving to the Grand Floridian for the last two nights of our stay after some unfortunate experiences at the Four Seasons. We stayed in a renovated 'Mary Poppins' villa room in Big Pine Key Building. The Service: Exceptional. Our bags were whisked away upon arrival (no one assisted us at the Four Seasons arriving or departing) Ross at the front desk was amazing. The fantastic service made such a difference. The Property: The grounds were pretty, but you definitely do feel the age at the hotel. We didn't use the pools, but they were more crowded, and maintenance staff was much more visible here. (One day, we saw someone using a leaf blower to dry the lobby carpet.) Gasparilla Grill was consistently amazing, and we loved the mobile ordering experience. The Room: I preferred the view at the Grand Floridian. It felt much more relaxing. The Four Seasons room was definitely more luxurious--softer linens, towels, a walk in shower compared to tub shower at the Grand Floridian, however it was quite bland and beige and definitely not worth over 2x the price (at least for us). The Mary Poppins touches and adorable chandelier had so much charm at the Grand Floridian. Even with the renos, you can still feel the age of the building, but as we were planning on spending most of our time at the park, it was more than fine. Transportation: Monorail/boat access was awesome. We went back and forth several times. It is such a convenience when visiting the park (especially with kids). The shuttles to Disney Springs were also really easy to navigate and had frequent departures. The incredible service and monorail access really made this a win for us. If we return to Disney for a special holiday event, we will likely head to the Polynesian (prefer the fun decor) or the Waldorf.

We had a fabulous time at the Grand Floridian for our first trip to Disney World. The hotel is beautiful, rooms are comfortable, and overall the staff is excellent. You also can’t beat the location/convenience to the Magic Kingdom. Side note… get Genie+. This vacation is already not inexpensive but the extra $20/day/person saves so much time and really allows you to plan your day around rides you want to go on. We were able to do 7-8 rides per day while only spending 3-5 hours in each park. It was awesome. My only knock on the Grand Floridian is we found the Club Level Concierge not very helpful. Almost every request we made for reservations, etc was just directed back to using the app to do it yourself. Would still highly recommend the hotel.

Our second stay at the Villas at the Grand Floridian was even more magical than our first 3 years ago. We stayed 6 nights in an upper floor 1 bedroom villa with a standard view of the main lobby and monorail station. Everything about this resort stay was amazing; breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe, the walkway to MK, the pools, the refurbished rooms, the ambiance, the proximity to parking, the walk way to the Polynesian, etc. I loved relaxing in the room at night with the doors open, and waking up to the view of monorails coasting by. The rooms are light and bright, and the new furniture is lovely. The lobby of the villas is gorgeous and the service provided by the cast members is exceptional. The penguins fountain is “practically perfect”! I plan to stay here again next May, and will no longer be doing a split stay with another resort. No other resort I have seen compares!

I have stayed at Grand Floridian in the traditional resort rooms a number of times and always had positive experiences. I’ve always loved the resort’s mix of grandeur and classic charm, and how you can feel like you’re in a perfect little world within the courtyard setup of the property. While my experience at VGF was fine and nothing to complain about, I did find that the villas weren’t quite as magical as the resort side and didn’t exactly live up to the hefty points/price tag. We stayed prior to the recent soft goods room refresh, so some things we noticed in the room may now be a non-issue. Our standard studio was spacious albeit quite worn, as evidenced in the walls and furnishings. The fixtures were high quality but had seen better days. My favorite part of the room design was the massive bathroom, which was spread across three separate areas and included both a walk-in shower and tub-shower combo. Though a small detail, I especially loved the TV built into the bathroom mirror as it was an addition that made the room feel a little more luxe than other DVC villas. From our standard studio balcony, we felt just feet away from the Monorail passing by (the coolest thing about this location), and had a view of the Wedding Pavilion and some snippets of Polynesian and the Seven Seas Lagoon. The location of the VGF building is on the outskirts of the property and closer to high traffic areas, such as the parking lot, the gym/spa and basketball court, the Wedding Pavilion, and the walkway to Polynesian. All of the coming and going around the area kind of felt like we had one foot in Grand Floridian and the other outside the resort’s “bubble”. With the location of the building, I felt a bit isolated from the main resort and outside of the things that make Grand Floridian so special. The walk back and forth to the main building/buses was pretty direct but the separation from all the happenings definitely felt more impactful when we experienced bouts of heavy rain and felt restricted to the villas building. Overall we had a good experience but I did leave feeling underwhelmed. Keeping in mind this is usually the highest points resort (and highest cash price resort, always excluded from discounts), if felt like there should have been more to VGF. It didn’t feel like the villas had many (if any) exclusive amenities, and I’ve definitely noticed more villas-exclusive amenities at lower points resorts (BLT or BCV, for example). I would be more likely to try VGF again in the future once the new resort studios on the main property are completed.

Went for a Birthday dinner at Narcossee. Food was amazing and service was excellent. But the valet attendant Micheal saw my mother had a hard time walking and he went out of his way to make things easier for her.