Disney's Club Level (CL) Information & Questions

[dansdad]

That's what I meant. We didn't request and we still got it, just a month ago.

This is a very new change, like within the last week.

 

[Regan117]

This is a very new change, like within the last week.

That's what I was asking. Thanks.

 

[AliceIn]

Not discontinued, but as @TigrLvsPooh stated above you have to request it. It's not automatic any longer.

On the website, the AKL doesn't show turndown as a club amenity. The GF and Poly definitely still show it.

 

[karasmom]

We had an over the top amazing, extra special, pixie dust dusted, overly accommodating stay at the Tower Club last September. This was the first stay during which my husband freely and happily agreed to book for the following year and said "just book and I'll make it work" (he is active duty military and he can't easily just take vacation when he "desires"). After each visit before he was "over" going to Disney and I had to really talk him into it...
I will be really sad if we come back in 166 days and we will have to "fight" to get turn down service or just will have to deal with less than happy CM's (I couldn't blame them honestly). For now I am choosing to believe that all will be well on the 14th floor as it is such a small, intimate setting... The CM's knew our girls by their names after a few days, knew what drinks and cookies they liked at snack time, were more than accommodating with anything imaginable ("just take the plates to your room and put them outside your door - I'll walk by later and get it" FYI I did NOT take them up on this - I was perfectly capable of carrying it to the little kitchen area). They had water bottles waiting for us when we left for the park "so the girls wouldn't be to thirsty while we are on the way"... It was Mickey Sticker and Balloon Gallore every single day... I mean... It truly felt like they actually cared about us and our girls. (Some CM's mentioned they appreciated that our kids had manners and we didn't let them go crazy and throw food on the floor (??) - to me it is "normal" that they say please and thank you and pick up after themselves... Anyways ... so I guess it doesn't take much to get on their "good" side when you have halfway decent behaved kids...they are nuts but at least they have manners
Long story short - if we get there and it will be impersonable rubbish, turndown only on request that then may or may not happen so I will end up having to call for extra towels - I will be sad. And I really liked the foot rub gel stuff on my achy feet... They better still have that too :/ *footstomp*

 

[Dispro1]

Let me be the first to say: As a longtime owner of DVC 18+ years, I never once thought of Club Level Reservations. I tend to travel to Disney every 6-7 weeks as a break from the world of business and I am so thrilled that I opened this thread one day and said: Hey…let’s try Club Level. Yes I have read every post on every page because knowledge is key. Thank you TigrLvsPooh...this page makes a difference!

We tried our first stay at the end of Jan at Yacht Club. Wonderful experience. We had room 5195 which although has a King Size bed only and is a corner room (you are looking at your corner neighbor straight on) has a great view of fireworks. It overlooks roof and part of SAB. Food was fantastic in the CL lounge. Service from all the CM’s was great. Friendly, took time to chat, remembered you with likes for beverages, what not. Having someone man the drink service at night was really not a big deal, but it definitely could be intimidating to others. The CM’s would actually bring a second round while we were snacking which was such a nice touch. Room was clean, housekeeping spot on, no issues. We received our welcome gift and large size toiletries including the foot lotion and sun gel aloe. IPO was helpful but we are self-sufficient so we took care of things ourselves.

My husband took advantage of the bounce back offer in the room while we were in Disney to book the stay we just came home from Thursday. Only 6 weeks have passed between visits. He received a great price on BC CL but decided since I have never stayed at Poly, to pay the additional $700 and stay there.

I welcomed the adventure. We had a glitch with our online check-in. We contacted every possible person to let them know we would like a ground floor or 3rd floor room since we no longer, after 100’s of trips, need to rush off for the parks. I am there to golf and relax. Wouldn’t you know we received the text: 2nd floor. My husband immediately contacted the IPO and asked for a room change. We then received interesting texts. First text they had upgraded us to a theme park room, but then 25 minutes later, we received another text with a different room in the Standard Category. Not a good start. The upgrade was not granted at check-in. We should have tried the door but we are not like that. We went to the CL CM’s and explained what happened. Lawrence did not grant the upgrade sent via text. OK no Pixie Dust!

I will sum things up for Poly CL this way:

We did receive a welcome gift and I asked the young woman who delivered it where were the upgraded toiletries. She said you do not receive them in resorts that are not DVC…I was going to mention--yes this is a DVC resort--but chose not to embarrass her. Just the plain old small bottles. Negative check mark for me love, love the nice lotions!

Food: We are aware of cutbacks. If you compare Poly to Yacht club a month ago….OMG what a difference between the 2 resorts.

NO proteins like meat cheese at breakfast to supplement balance of a bagel or croissant. For snacks they served Conch fritters and Spring rolls…not warm/ Chicken Wings and Mushroom Risotto balls/ Bacon wrapped meat and Pierogis …same 3 cheeses every night and same three crudité items. Kids had PBJ crustables and turkey corndogs one night.

Drinks…they are self serve…which was very nice. During the day you could get a drink if you hunted down a CM. One night a young man did monitor the drink area…I just looked at him and engaged a bit of dialogue. I felt I paid a great deal for that glass of Sangria. He was a bit too serious and chased a guest up to the 3rd floor he thought was young. The man was about 30 years beyond drinking age. LOL One thing that drove my husband crazy was the tables were left filthy! The only person we ever saw clearing was IRV(?) in the morning. Very nice elderly man. He knows service. It was borderline gross. I should have brought my own cleaning bottle and moppine to wipe down the table. I like a clean dining area. This is a huge glitch in their service protocols at Poly.

Desserts were yummy not elaborate.

Bottom line:

CM’s were not that friendly here. No one engaged any of the guests that we observed. They hid quite a bit back in the kitchen prep area. I introduced myself to the chef so I could inquire about July 4th visit, and he shared his pending menu. He was very gracious.

I am returning with my daughter for 4th of July at Poly CL because I promised, since she could not travel this time. My husband is a harder sell to tear away from work. He was very disappointed in CM interaction/service and Food snacks. He said he will go back to Yacht Club eagerly.

Turn down service was excellent…above and beyond Disney service standards! Housekeeping was excellent.

Location is the selling point if the large $ difference doesn’t matter to a guest. View was wonderful. Lounge was never really busy after the first day.

I know this is long winded but reading peoples thoughts are how I learn and determine my plan of action. Hope I am helpful. If you have any questions and I can answer: ask away.

I'm sorry to hear that your CL trip was disappointing this time Honestly, I'm not sure the Poly's food selection has too much to do with the cutbacks since I found the food to be lacking compared to other CLs when we were last there 1 1/2 years ago. We don't go to Disney as often as you (lucky person ) but we've been averaging 4 per year, so we spend a lot of time at the resort, and we love visiting with CMs in the lounge! I met several really nice CMs last time we were at Poly, so I do agree with GADisneyDad that every time you go to a particular resort, your experience can be quite different! That being said, I do think the CMs are friendlier at BC, BWI, and GF...but I may find that I'm wrong about that when we are there this summer. I do think that the best thing Poly has going for it is the view from the lounge! And I'm very excited about the new Oasis pool too! We will have just stayed in RPC a little over a month before, so I will be going into Poly with low expectations as far as food and service (I will miss the 4th FP, but it will probably be too hot to stay in the parks that long anyway ). I am really encouraged by the other Poly enthusiasts, so I am not too worried about having a good time because you really don't ever know what you are going to get! At the end of the day, I know I will have something for breakfast and snacks, but more importantly, a great view, Island Sangria, wine, and desserts!! And a couple other DISers will be there at the same time too!

On a side note, although every trip to a particular resort may be different and "you never really know what you're going to get," one does come to expect a certain level of service at least, without asking for it (like turn-down service)! I think most of us stay CL because we don't want to worry about certain things while on vacation, and I for one would not want to have to remember to ask for turn-down service! I could live without the chocolates, I suppose, but we always have dirty dishes in our room or need extra towels, etc too!

 

[karasmom]

I think most of us stay CL because we don't want to worry about certain things while on vacation, and I for one would not want to have to remember to ask for turn-down service! I could live without the chocolates, I suppose, but we always have dirty dishes in our room or need extra towels, etc too!

This is a very good point - I don't want to ASK for it... Asking for it makes it seem like I am "greedy" or like I want them to do me a favor... I just want it to happen...
And of course we can live without the chocolate but at what they charge per night... We should not have to compromise unless they will also lower the price (and we all know that won't happen).

 

[baler31]

This is a very good point - I don't want to ASK for it... Asking for it makes it seem like I am "greedy" or like I want them to do me a favor... I just want it to happen...
And of course we can live without the chocolate but at what they charge per night... We should not have to compromise unless they will also lower the price (and we all know that won't happen).

Thisl... You should know what you are supposed to receive and are paying for. You should not have to ask for it. I am very sensitive about appearing to be entitled and don't like to have to ask for service that was previously included.

 

[mickeynut1]

Just returned from a wonderful week at the YC. We were in room 4201 which is a deluxe room/junior suite. I had a hard time finding information about this type of room prior to our stay, so I wanted to report back a little bit about the configuration. It is essentially an oversized sleeping quarter with two queen sized beds, and then a smaller sitting room with a pull-out couch. As it currently exists, there was no daybed in this suite. The balcony access is through the sleeping quarters only, and the bathroom access is through the sitting room only. This was a little trickier for us than the set-up in the Wilderness Lodge Deluxe rooms where you can access the balcony from the sitting room and the bathroom from either the bedroom or sitting room. For us it is nice to put our little one to bed in the sleeping quarters, but still be able to access the bathroom and balcony without disturbing her sleep. Our balcony was overlooking SAB. We had a good view of illuminations, and an outstanding view of symphony in the sky. It was a real treat to be able to enjoy these beautiful displays nightly with a glass of wine from our balcony. The club lounge is looking fresh and clean. This was our first Regatta Club stay, and to us, compared to OFC it felt a little small, but we never had difficulty in getting a table. The food was very good and continually replenished. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful. They went out of their way to chat with us and make us feel welcome. The pool slide was down for most of our visit, so I can't report on the progress with that. There was no greeter at curbside for club level, but the Captain actually took us upstairs himself, which was kind of fun. All in all a wonderful visit. I'm happy to answer any questions if I can

Glad you had a great time and enjoyed YC CL. Anytime I've looked, I've never had any luck finding much (if any) information on the YC deluxe rooms, so thanks for posting information about it .

My purple magic band arrived today along with a green one for DH. It's happy dance time.

 

[CMAG38]

If I use the IPO, am I guaranteed getting the dinner reservations I want? By nature, I want do it myself; however, if it eliminates online hassles, hiccups and gets us in definitely, then I should take advantage of it... right?

 

[Eastern]

If I use the IPO, am I guaranteed getting the dinner reservations I want? By nature, I want do it myself; however, if it eliminates online hassles, hiccups and gets us in definitely, then I should take advantage of it... right?

No, you are not guaranteed. I prefer booking myself.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

If I use the IPO, am I guaranteed getting the dinner reservations I want? By nature, I want do it myself; however, if it eliminates online hassles, hiccups and gets us in definitely, then I should take advantage of it... right?

No guarantees or anything like that. They see and have access to the same info you do. If Be Our Guest isn't available at whatever day / time you put down, just as an example, they don't have any magic pixie dust to make it happen. I used IPO once and was generally pleased with it, but the control freak side of me can't get used to it so have tended not to use them. I like being able to monitor and adjust on the fly in case certain ADRs aren't available. It's hard to set up "Plan B" or "Plan C" with IPO when those circumstances come up.

 

[mmmears]

If I use the IPO, am I guaranteed getting the dinner reservations I want? By nature, I want do it myself; however, if it eliminates online hassles, hiccups and gets us in definitely, then I should take advantage of it... right?

I used to book all my own ADRs. I finally decided to let IPO do it for me, several years ago. I have never been disappointed. If I gave them my list before the 180-day mark, I always got what I asked for, including 'Ohana, BOG, etc, pretty much for the time I asked for (give or take 30 mins). If, much closer to the date, you want to change something, like add 'Ohana for next week, then they can only look it up and see if it's available. They don't have some magical power to get an ADR when nothing is available. With the time change, I'd have to be booking at 4am (and yeah, I used to have to do this to get CRT when my DD was very little), so I'm happy to have the IPO office book our dining for us. But if you want to do it yourself I understand... it's my natural inclination as well.

 

[prgal0715]

If I use the IPO, am I guaranteed getting the dinner reservations I want? By nature, I want do it myself; however, if it eliminates online hassles, hiccups and gets us in definitely, then I should take advantage of it... right?

I threw caution to the wind and used IPO for all my ADR's this time around and they did not disappoint. In fact, I was really impressed that they made me two 'Ohana ADR's for the same night so I could choose which time I wanted more. (I asked for 6pm and was given the option of 5:45 or 6:30) Two ADR's for the time frame is just not something I can do myself!

 

[TJA]

On our last day here at POR and checking in tomorrow to RPC! Let's just say I'm more than ready to get to RPC.....we've blown through so much money these last few days -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks....and DH hasn't even had a beer lol....we can't get to RPC fast enough. i'll post back how check in goes tomorrow.

 

[pas130]

On our last day here at POR and checking in tomorrow to RPC! Let's just say I'm more than ready to get to RPC.....we've blown through so much money these last few days -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks....and DH hasn't even had a beer lol....we can't get to RPC fast enough. i'll post back how check in goes tomorrow.

I missed your sendoff! I'm so sorry! Here's some RPC pixie dust and DH deserves a beer or three for sure!!

 

[TJA]

I missed your sendoff! I'm so sorry! Here's some RPC pixie dust and DH deserves a beer or three for sure!!

It's ok lol. I haven't posted much cause we're starting off our trip at POR...it's nice but we really, really miss CL - even DH commented on that. We are all ready for RPC tomorrow for sure!

 

[compshu]

We are staying in the GF outer building CL in a couple weeks. This is our first CL stay. Is it weird that I haven't contacted the IPO at all? I mean, I already have all of the ADRs I want, booked Senses for the wife, and already know what we want and can do.

 

[Dispro1]

We are staying in the GF outer building CL in a couple weeks. This is our first CL stay. Is it weird that I haven't contacted the IPO at all? I mean, I already have all of the ADRs I want, booked Senses for the wife, and already know what we want and can do.

That's not weird at all for us, but I would call IPO to put in a room request if you have one. Other than that, we usually don't use IPO much. We do use the CL concierge once we arrive if we need to change something, and definitely make sure to take advantage of the texting service for a fourth FP+ since GF CL does that!!

 

[compshu]

Not too concerned about rooms; this is our second stay at GF, and any room there seems like it'd be great for us. What is the texting service for the extra FP+ all about?

 

[PackYourPixieDust]

Have any of you used a babysitting service for a date night? My son would be almost 3.