20 years ago, almost to the month, I fell in love with Walt Disney World. It was my first visit to Walt Disney World as an adult, and my first time to stay in a Disney hotel on property — the beautiful Grand Floridian Resort. Yes, I started with the best! That first trip all those years ago in a Grand Floridian dormer room was magical, and I know a big part of what hooked me was the stellar experience I had at the Grand Floridian. Plush rooms, monorail/boat access, and being treated like I was “someone” all contributed to the magic spell I slipped under. I’ve since returned to the Grand Floridian four more times, even once staying in a turret suite with concierge.
So I was very excited when the opportunity presented itself to stay in the new Grand Floridian Villas — Disney’s latest Disney Vacation Club property. The Villas just opened on October 23, 2013. I had an extra night in Orlando and it seemed like the perfect time to stay somewhere so pricey! I forked over $613.13 for a one-night stay in a deluxe studio (standard view), which can sleep up to 5 people. This is the non-discounted, peak season price. Expensive? Yes. But it was just one night … and, I was hoping, a special night to cap off the end of our Disney land/sea trip! (To compare this price to a regular room at the Grand Floridian — a non-villa — it would have cost just about the same, maybe a few dollars less.)
We arrived at the Grand Floridian Villas early in the day, having just taken a port transfer from our Disney Magic cruise. Our Mears shuttle pulled up to the portico in front of the Grand Floridian Villas, which looked like this:
An empty portico at Disney’s Grand Floridian Villas
Where was everyone? We got out of the shuttle, waited perhaps a minute, and a bell services cast member showed up and offered to take our luggage. We explained that we weren’t quite sure of our plans yet that day and that we’d likely need to access our luggage again after we determined if a room would be ready. He stated the room probably would not be ready (which is fair), gave us baggage claim ticket, accepted our tip, and we headed toward the entrance. So far, so good — other than the lack of activity at the portico, this was a typical drop-off experience for us.
Walking into the main foyer of the Grand Floridian Villas, however, was nothing like the experiences I’ve had walking into the Grand Floridian Main Lodge. We stepped into the lobby, noticed the pretty fountain, and looked around for the check-in counters. We couldn’t see them. We walked around a bit, finally noticing three desks to the left of the doors we’d just entered — one was occupied with a cast member and a guest, one had just a cast member, and one was empty. I stood there, feeling a bit confused. I am not a Disney Vacation Club member, so desk check-in is unfamiliar to me. I expect counters. I have stayed many times at Disney Vacation Club villas (which anyone can do — you do not need to be a DVC member), and I cannot recall going to a desk to check-in. I inquired of the cast member who was sitting at a desk alone if this was where we checked in, and he said yes. A bit hesitantly, I stepped forward, still feeling unsure. The desk had two large, heavy chairs in front of it, but he had not invited me to sit, so I stood there. He asked for my identification, which I provided. After a few minutes, I felt a bit silly standing to the side of his desk and Alexander and I got bold and sat in the chairs. It’s true, I had not been invited to sit, but what else were the chairs for but to use? After a few silent minutes, he stood up and walked into a room off to the side. I figured he had to get something for our reservation, but to be honest, he had not said so. He came back with an envelope that simply had some basic Disney information brochures in it. Ok then.
One of the check-in desks; this is pretty much how the check-in experience felt, detached and blurry!
As I’m sitting there, feeling quite out of place at this point, I hear a guest begin talking to the cast member at the other desk behind me. She says she doesn’t want to complain, but there are several problems in her room — I hear something about missing screws, a door that doesn’t latch, a lightbulb that is out. She is not upset; she sounds like she is simply reporting an issue. Suddenly, the silent cast member who is checking us in (I think) speaks up (loudly) calling to the other cast member. He says, “<name>, I reported that problem earlier.” Seriously? I was so not impressed at this point.
Eventually the check-in cast member told us our room was not ready (as we expected) and we started the hunt for bell services to retrieve items for the parks. Before we went outside, another cast member came out of the backroom, putting on his dark gray jacket (he appeared to be a manager). He stopped us and explained that a room had just become available, but it was a handicap-accessible room. He said we were welcome to look at it and decide if we wanted it. I agreed to look at it, and our original cast member took us up the elevator.
The room — 1428 — seemed pretty decent to us. I explained that I really needed a tub, and the cast member poked his head around the corner into the bathroom, flipped on the switch, and said, “Looks like it has a tub.” We couldn’t see any issues and we agreed to accept this room. We had our luggage sent up and we proceeded to explore the villa. The deluxe studio was a pretty decent and upscale room, though I’ll admit I expected it to seem bigger than it did, especially after having been on a cruise for the past several days. The Grand Floridian’s deluxe studio isn’t the largest of all the studios (that honor belongs to Old Key West), but it is the second largest at Walt Disney World at 374 sq. ft. Sadly, it just didn’t feel very spacious. Oh well!
View from our Deluxe Studio at the Grand Floridian Villas
The pull-down bed under the TV in the Deluxe Studio.
The tub/shower combo in my accessible Deluxe Studio
Before we left the studio for the parks, we took a closer look at the bathroom. I knew it was handicap-accessible, so the many handrails were expected. It seemed rather odd in its design, however. It was a long, narrow room — tub/shower on the left, sink in the middle, toilet on the far end. So I took a moment looked up what the bathrooms look like in a non-handicap room. That was when I realized they have a nifty split bathroom with an extra walk-in shower! Now I was really bummed. I wish the cast member had explained what the differences were between this room and a regular room; I would have opted to wait for the regular room. The regular bathroom looked really cute. Oh well.
But wait, look … there’s a remote control on the sink. Could there be a mirror in the TV? Click. Click. Click. It doesn’t turn on. Now we’re disappointed and bummed! I call Maintenance and ask about the remote; I’m told it controls a TV in the mirror and I report it doesn’t work. They agree to send someone to look at it.
Alexander trying to get the TV remote control to work in the bathroom.So we did as told and got off at the TTC, where there was a cast member directing MK resort guests to a bus stop. There was another cast member stationed there who told us a “bus should be around at some point.” I won’t go into details here as I thought the whole thing rather inappropriate, but this cast member was decidedly grumpy. I thought at first he was doing that gruff old-guy routine to make us laugh, but I later realized he was actually dead serious. I had to help out another poor guest who was getting the run-around from him. The bus did come in about 15 minutes and dropped us off at the front of the Grand Floridian (after first stopping at the Polynesian). That was NOT fun. One of the big reasons to stay at the Grand Floridian is monorail service. If the monorail was down, I really expected there to be a direct bus.
Back in our studio, we discovered the maintenance had come by because the TV in the bathroom was now on. Sadly, the remote control still did not seem to work and we couldn’t turn OFF the TV now. Eventually we figured out how to do it — if you held the remote control so it was touching the mirror where the TV picture appeared, it worked. Was this working as intended? I certainly hope not!
A TV in our bathroom mirror … but how to turn it off now?
My Grand Bubble Bath
Alexander and I loved roasting marshmallows on the beach at the Grand Floridian
I called Housekeeping to ask about my request. I was told, rather pertly, that someone had come by earlier in the day and was refused. I reminded them that I’d called to request it after 6:00 pm and was met with silence. So instead, I asked for instructions on how to make up Alexander’s bed. They offered to come over, but as it was quite late and my poor little guy was laying on the floor, I declined. Alexander was more important than turndown service, of course. I found the pillows and blankets at the top of the closet and I made up his bed, attempting a little turndown for him. I did the same for my bed. I was determined not to let this ruin things, and I had hands, didn’t I? I think I did okay. 🙂
My turndown!
One rather significant issue I noticed was the space between the pull-down bed under the TV and the queen bed in the villa. Considering we were in a handicap-accessible room, I didn’t see how a wheelchair could have fit between those two beds. It seemed very tight, maybe 18 inches at most. I worried about just walking through there when he was asleep on the bed. Perhaps a narrow wheelchair would be fine. I’m not sure the placement of this bed was well thought out.
The next morning we had a breakfast reservation at 1900 Park Fare, so we left the room around 9:30. At this point, we were out of small bills for a tip for bell services and thought it rather silly to rush off to find some, so we decided to roll our luggage ourselves to the Main Lodge for storage. It felt wrong to not tip bell services. When we got to the lobby of the Villas, a Grand Floridian cast member noticed us pulling our luggage and said, “You know, we have folks at bell services who can help you with your luggage.” I thanked him and explained that I was out of small bills and I didn’t think it was right to use their services without a gratuity. He said, “I can understand that” and walked away. He took me at my word, which was fine, but this was also an opportunity to show me a Disney service moment and get someone over right away to help, gratuity or not. Again, I probably wouldn’t have minded this otherwise, but the experience had snowballed and it just left me feeling miffed and out of place. I was quite happy to leave the Villas and walk over the main resort, which felt comfortable and inviting.
Oh, I almost forgot … the new Alice in Wonderland water play area was closed for renovations during our visit. It was closed for just five days, and it seemed like a last-minute, emergency sort of situation. Still, it was yet another problem and another nail in the coffin. I can at least share a photo of it with you, thanks to PassPorter Author Cheryl Pendry who visited there:
The Mad Tea Party with water!
Concentrating on what you like (the view), and fixing what you can (turndown), goes a long way toward creating your own magic — no matter the circumstances!
Would I return to the Grand Floridian Villas again? I don’t know. I think I would have enjoyed a one-bedroom villa more upon reflection, but the customer service issues would have remained. Then again, this resort is only five months old — perhaps it needs more time to work out the kinks. I think if you wanted to stay there, it’d be a good idea to go for the one-bedroom villa or larger. The studio was decidedly mundane and uninspired, and most definitely not work over $600/night. I would, however, happily stay at the Grand Floridian itself again. I missed the posh Disney elegance I’ve come to expect from the Grand Floridian.
Thanks for sticking with me through this unusually long blog post! I’d love to hear about your experiences in the Villas!
(See more photos of the Grand Floridian Resort & Villas here and here)
I know a gal who arrived at the Grand Floridian the day you left. She had standard room for herself and 18 month old daughter. She was dismayed to find when she returned to the room for her daughter’s nap, that there was construction going on in the rooms next to theirs and the sound of pounding nails and power saws was really awful. She even made a small video and posted it; the noise was simply ridiculous. When she inquired at the desk to be moved, she was told they couldn’t do that, but suggested she could take daughter to Poly every remaining day of vacation and they would have a place for her daughter to nap! She asked to be moved to that resort, but again the answer was “we cant do that.” She was never offered any kind of discount, or any type of Disney Magic to make up for the situation. She even asked why she wasn’t informed before hand that there would be construction and she got a “Sorry, we cannot possibly keep each guest informed on this kind of thing.” It was their first visit. I cannot imagine how bad of an impression this treatment made on her, but I wonder if she’ll ever return again.
Oh my goodness … that’s much worse than what I experienced! I am so sorry for your friend!
We had a similar situation on our son’s first visit to DL, where we popped for the DL Hotel. We were rudely awakened at 6 am on our final day by people installing carpet down the hall. We did talk the desk people into giving us some sort of compensation, but we had to really insist, and then it was pretty measly. The experience was definitely less than magical, and we’ll probably never stay there again. When Disney drops the ball, it really ruins the mood!
I’m glad you shared your experience. Disney has the highest reputation for above and beyond customer service, and I would hate to see it diminish. Hopefully management can correct some of those “unmagical” attitudes.
My family and I had a similar experience at Bay Lake. We love the Contemporary and decided to skip Bay Lake in the future and return to the Contemporary.
Sitting here reading your words has made me physically tense up and stress out. I’m so sorry you and your son had this negative experience, as I know first hand how the little things add up to make or break your mood. You seemed to handle things well, but because you know the feeling of Disney magic, you felt its absense. I only hope the service improves, or I foresee a slip in attendence. After all, it’s the magic we want!
Thank you for this review. I’ve long contemplated staying at Grand Floridian and this may help me make my decision. Over the last five years I’ve noticed more of poor customer service experiences – which is sad. Thinking back to some of my first trips to Disney, we could single out one or two incidents on a week long trip. That’s not the case for me anymore. I still love my trips and still feel that the good heavily outweighs the bad. It’s just sad to see the decline, especially when I visit with family or friends that are not seeing or haven’t experienced the same level of Disney magic that I’ve experienced in the past.
We were disappointed in the GF itself on our last stay, very sorry to say. Our first stay there four years ago was altogether magical, this recent one much less so.
Because DH is tall and prefers the spaciousness of a king-size bed, we paid the extra charge for a Honeymoon Room, Castle view, king-size. They showed us to a double queen Honeymoon Room and insisted it was all that was available! This might have been understandable had we booked shortly before our arrival or it was a peak time. However, we had booked about 14 MONTHS in advance for value season and were told that should assure we’d get exactly the features we wanted.
We were furious that we were being told not once but by the head of housekeeping as well that the double queen room which barely had enough room for DH’s scooter to get between the beds and tv armoire was all they had. A room with plenty of space to park his scooter for charging was a specific, too.
So, one of the two CM’s insisting this was it put me on the phone with reservations whereupon I pitched a fit that we were not getting what we’d paid extra for and were NOT happy.
Finally, we were given the room type we’d paid for–and then discovered it had no bars whatsoever near the toilet, another must-have. Not a problem, we were advised; they could bring in one of those portable handrail devices with armrests that can attach to the toilet. Which they did while we were out reacquainting ourselves with our beloved GF.
And upon our return, we discovered that the end of one of the plastic armrests on the toilet rail gadget was jaggedly broken. Bumping that could easily have caused a cut! Completely unsatisfactory. So, that got fixed, and we thought that was that for disappointments.
Wrong! I decided a Jacuzzi tub soak with one of the Basin White bath bombs I’d bought would be just perfect before our Victoria & Albert’s dinner. And that’s when I discovered, towel-wrapped and dripping due to having forgotten to set the switch before getting in, that the Jacuzzi didn’t work!
We concluded that Disney’s customer service is not what it once was for sure!
Oh no! I would have been seriously bummed if the Jacuzzi didn’t work. Bath are VERY important, and I will often book a room just to get the nice bathtub. So sorry to hear about your sub-par experience!
Dear Jennifer, i would say your rant is a very gentle rant. Considering the rack rate you paid for your studio! I am glad you were so zen and didn’t let it spoil your trip.
Hopefully WDW will get on top of these problems. I’ve had a couple room problems over the years, but they were all resolved promptly and in 8 years of DVC have never had any disappointments. I have to say VGF isn’t on my bucket list anymore.
I probably will try VGF again, but it’ll be sometime down the road — probably at least 5 years. 🙂
I’ve been to WDW 3 times over the last 6 months while my daughter was in the College Program there and each time I noticed more and more that the customer service was lacking from past visits. It wasn’t any one major issue, like you and the other commenters said, it was a lot of little things that added up. My last visit was the most disappointing. We ended up with major car problems on the day we arrived (transmission died, $$$$ in repairs) that ultimately caused us to have to extend our stay by one day. The hotel we were in wouldn’t/couldn’t accommodate us and they never even offered to try to find us another room at another resort. When we pressed them to help us (feeling a bit desperate), they took a cursory look on the computer and said nothing was available anywhere – this was in January, at what is usually the slowest time of year! We managed to find a room ourselves (funny how we could but they couldn’t!) and let them know we found a room at another resort. They didn’t even offer move our bags to the new room and when we asked about it they offered a paid concierge service to the lobby of the new hotel. However, by this point my husband was fed up between this and all of the other issues, and we did it ourselves with help from a friend who lives in Orlando. This only added to the stress we were feeling over the car issues, and made for a far-from-magical experience for us. I was so disappointed between that and the other annoyances that I decided that its time for Disney and I to take a break from each other for a while, which is something I never, ever thought I would want to do. We did try to make things as pleasant as possible for our 2 small granddaughters who were traveling with us, and I don’t think they even realized that things were as difficult as they were, thank goodness!
99% of my experiences with Disney are excellent — take my stay at Fort Wilderness just a few days earlier, which I wrote about here. Every once in a while it’s not-so-good, and in this case — a new resort — it seems totally fixable. And I believe that in time it will improve. When I look back over my years of visiting Disney, I do not see a trend toward lower service — I see incidents here and there, but just sort of peppered over the years.
I’m glad you survived such a terrible ordeal. I would ask for a lifetime of free stays at the castle for that. Geez!
It wasn’t a terrible ordeal, and I’ve never asked for anything in my 20 years of visiting Disney. 🙂
Wow! I completely sympathize with the previous posts – nothing like even a couple small “glitches” to taint an already pricey vacation!! My family and I have been DVC members for only a couple of years – once vacationing with friends to experience DVC before buying into it ourselves. From these comments, and past experiences from our friends (life-long Disney fans), I am happy we have only visited in the past few years….not initially experiencing the over-the-top, magical service that one comes to expect (rightly so) from Disney.
Overall, I would agree that 99% of our trips so far have been fantastic….again, not being able to reference the “true Disney experience” from early years. To be fair, however, I will say that the difference IS in the small details. Whether it is a tv remote that isn’t working, or the need for assistance to find a room (or the right room), the expectation that you WILL get – without hesitation or question – the utmost service with a smile, to me is justified. After all, Walt’s idea was to offer families the absolute best possible experience and joy….with a smile!!
I think with most things, we expect to receive the “ultimate” when you are paying for it. I mean, we could all save a handful of our hard-earned dollars to vacation at ANY sub-par resort/amusement park/tourist attraction….am I right? But we want, and are willing to pay for, the magic of Disney!
OH, one last note….we are staying at VGF in June….fingers crossed 🙂
As a person who tries to give great customer service, constructive criticism should be accepted in order to improve. I am not perfect & evidently VGF’s aren’t yet either. They need to know this, especially when one pays cash to stay – that’s a lot of $$!! There is an expectation because of that. It’s met elsewhere in the many other Disney resorts. Why would you expect any less? I sure hope that you passed your less then ideal experience onto them so that they can be sure to remind those that weren’t up to par. I would go above the resort manager as well.
I’m sorry to hear you had a rough time when you stayed at VGF! 🙁 We were there a couple weeks before you in a 2BR on the same floor and had a great experience (especially the view as you mentioned). I totally agree with you that the monorail maintenance is being poorly handled and it makes the trip to Epcot ridiculously difficult and time consuming when they should just have a direct bus. I wish you could have experienced the Mad Tea Party because it really was awesome. Hopefully in the future!
Oh no I was hoping to stay at the GF DVC this winter but now I might just go with our old friend Old Key West. We have been there twice now and love it and the service has been amazing each time. The Disney magic was there for me. My first night after 14 hour drive and two sick kids I went down to Olivia’s. They have an amazing Key Lime Tart. I asked if i could order it to go which unfortunately they do not do to go. The nice desk lady said but if you don’t mind sitting here I can take your order. I said i didn’t have time to eat it here to which she smiled and said well technically if you order sitting then it is left overs and smiled again and said this means they don’t break policy. So I sat and she brought me a nice lemonade while I waited for my tart. She put it in front of me and asked me how it was, I took one bite and said it is as good as I remembered. She then said would you like me to box up the rest for you which she did but not only did I get that tart she included another one no charge. Well as i was getting ready to leave you could hear the sudden down pour. I laughed and said just my luck, to which she called over another desk person who took me back to my villa under a large umbrella which he left with us just in case we needed one. My husband had gotten the kids in bed the carseats in the washer while I was gone and we sat on the balcony that night listening to the rain eating the tarts and laughing about the adventure but it was all better because we were at Disney. Old key west might not be the nicest DVC but the service has always been top notch. Thank again I think I know after remembering this that I will book Old Key West and get my welcome “home” as they say when ever we check in.
Thanks for the Old Key West review. I have thought about booking it for years and now definitely will.
I found your blog doing research on the GF villas for our next trip and now am scared! We bought in DVC last year and GF is homebase. I hope by next June 2015, things are better. Does anyone have more positive experiences???? Help!