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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, click here.

THEMING AND ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

Disney’s Grand Floridian is one of 8 official Disney owned and operated deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World.

In their recommended order for first time family visitors, they are

1. Polynesian
2. Wilderness Lodge
3. Animal Kingdom Lodge
4. Contemporary
5. Grand Floridian
6. Beach Club
7. Yacht Club
8. BoardWalk Inn

Many of these also offer Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) studios and villas, all for rent to the general public–see this for more on the Disney Vacation Club resorts. At the Grand Floridian, the DVC offering is The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

THE THEMING OF DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa opened in July 1988, and saw its last major renovation in 2014. While this refurb was not all that long ago, the most recent Disney World hotel refurbs have outclassed its rooms a bit in terms of powerpoints, TVs, storage, bath privacy and other dimensions of livability. For a photo tour of a Grand Floridian room, see this.

When it opened, it replaced the Contemporary Resort as Disney’s flagship resort, and remains Walt Disney World’s most expensive and loveliest resort. (Some cast members at the Contemporary call the Grand Floridian the “red roof inn”; in turn, some Grand Floridian staff refer to the Contemporary as “the toaster.”)

According to Disney World’s website, the Grand Floridian is

“a Victorian-style Disney Deluxe Resort distinguished as the flagship hotel of Walt Disney World Resort and offering world-class dining, entertainment and luxurious accommodations in its 6 striking red-gabled buildings. This magnificent hotel sits along the white-sand shores of Seven Seas Lagoon …With its gleaming white exterior, intricate gingerbread trim and gorgeous stained-glass domes, the Resort is an architectural marvel.”

The theming is sometimes claimed to reflect the design and grandeur of Henry Flagler’s Florida hotels, which were meant to attract well-off Ohioans and northeasterners to his Florida East Coast railroad. Anyone who has seen, for example, the remaining Flagler hotel buildings in St Augustine, will understand that this is nonsense.

The Grand Floridian is a creation of the Disney imagineers, and more influenced by southern California hotels (especially the Hotel del Coronado) than any Flagler edifice. It is the only hotel at Walt Disney World fundamentally designed by Disney’s imagineers, and they did a glorious job with it.

It is remarkable for not only its beauty but also its serenity. To relax at the main pool, surrounded by the glorious buildings, is to fully take advantage of the ability of architecture to add peace to life.

The vaulted lobby is also a favorite, and there’s a group that returns to the Grand Floridian every year in November to watch its famous Christmas decorations be re-created here.

The resort is also popular for weddings and honeymoons. As noted on the first page of this review, the interior decor is conventional and somewhat dull, and the resort has no particular kid-appeal. But for adults who welcome, or can overlook, the dull interior decor and lack of kid appeal, the Grand Floridian is a wonderful place to stay.

The Grand Floridian is a step above other Walt Disney World deluxe resorts on a couple of dimensions, with architecture, dining and minor amenities–such as robes–being at the top of the list.  What it is not is a peer to world-class luxury resorts such as the Four Seasons.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

All Disney deluxe resorts have standard rooms; concierge rooms, which Disney calls “club” rooms; and suites. (See this for more on suites at Walt Disney World.)

At Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, multiple room types exist. Standard rooms, and most club/concierge rooms, sleep either four or five, five in two queens and a fold-down day-bed. A floor plan for a standard five person room is above, and a photo of such a room is below.

For a full photo tour of a room at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, see this.

“Dormer” rooms sleep 4 in two queens, are a little smaller than standard rooms, have much smaller balconies, but offer a vaulted ceiling. King bed rooms are also available.

The Grand Floridian also has multiple types of deluxe rooms and a ton of suites. I’ll return to these in a minute.

I generally advise against special room types for first-time visitors, as they won’t be spending much time in their rooms. However, they may be well worth it for families intending to spend more time at the Grand Floridian Resort than implied by this site’s itineraries.

TikimanPages.com has a great discussion of the value of club/concierge rooms here. Though focused on the Polynesian, it applies to any deluxe resort. Moreover, in an experiment for 2018, certain club level rooms that meet specific requirements (mostly, paying more) have access to extra FastPass+ that are bookable at 90 days from departure and free of tiering restrictions.

Standard and club rooms come in three view categories, Lagoon, Theme Park, and Garden.

Lagoon views mean you can see the Seven Seas Lagoon from your balcony.  Theme Park views mean that in addition to the lagoon, you can see the Magic Kingdom, and most importantly, the evening fireworks show–although views of this are off center.

There’s two different types of club rooms, outer building and main building. Outer building club rooms are in Sugarloaf Key and have their own, somewhat noisy and underwhelming club lounge. Main building club rooms are more expensive and have another club lounge.

Most Grand Floridian club rooms are the same size as the rest of the resort’s rooms. However, there’s also several types of “Deluxe” concierge rooms, and more than two dozen one and two-bedroom suites.

Deluxe rooms (and most one-bedroom suites) don’t offer any more sleeping capacity–some offer less–they just give you more space, and more separate spaces, for your family to live in.

Most one bedroom suites are two bays wide, and most two-bedrooms three bays.

Two bedroom suites are often a near-standard queen and a near-standard king room on either side of a central parlor room, with connecting doors. This permits the queen and king rooms to be booked separately if there isn’t demand for the suite, or the king and the parlor rooms to be booked as a one-bedroom suite. See the image.

Exceptions in the main building include the Walt Disney Suite and Roy O. Disney Suite, the equivalent of 4 bays each, and the Presidential Suite, also known as the Grand Suite, about five bays.

These are each folded into main building turrets–very cool.

See the image for the Presidential Suite floor plan.

The two Outer Lodge Hospitality Suites on the first floors of Conch Key and Sago Cay are four bays each. They have the usual standard king and queen connecting rooms at the end, separated by a two-bay living space.

These two suites, often used for convention special events, each also have large private outdoor patios, perfect for watching Wishes.

As you can tell…suites at this resort are quite different.  Work with a travel agent if you are interested in suites at the Grand Floridian. Kelly B is the travel agent I recommend. Call or text Kelly at 980-429-4499 or request a quote below.

For more on suites, see this, and for more on larger families seeking deluxe options, see this.

Note that to all the capacity figures above you can add a child under three in a crib. In standard rooms, a crib fits nicely between the dresser/TV and the closet.

PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD ROOM AT DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

This review continues here.

PAGES IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

• Overview and summary of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• Theming and accommodations at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• A photo tour of a standard room at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• Amenities at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• Dining at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
• The pools at at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 160+ stays in them

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For a limited time–at least through the end of June, everyone who buys the paperback version of
The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit can get the Kindle edition–which we will update–for free!

Got yours yet?  Click here to buy!  And once you’ve gotten the paperback, see Josh’s post here on how to get the free Kindle version!

The Kindle version–besides being updated–is also handier in many ways, since it will travel with you not just on your Kindle but also on on your laptop, phone, etc.

On the other hand, you can’t get Anna and Elsa to sign your Kindle…

…and you will miss the strange romantic effect The easy Guide has in the parks–note this shot of its mysterious powers from the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train queue.

To get the paperback, click here, and for the Kindle, click here.

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OVERVIEW: JANUARY 2015 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews January 2015 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours; adds a few other notes; and ends with week by week summaries.

Early January 2015 will be dominated by holiday crowds and prices, but after the 3rd, most days will see low crowds and low prices–with upticks around the Marathon (weekend of the 1oth) and the Martin Luther King Day three day holiday weekend.

Late January has some of the lowest crowds and prices of the year at Walt Disney World.

Even so, January is not recommended for first-time visitors who may never return, because of ride closures.

New Year’s week–ending in 2015 around January 3–has among the highest crowds and prices of the year. Park closings to additional guests are common in this period, as are 8a openings and daily morning Extra Magic Hours.

[Read more →]

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JUNE 21 TO JUNE 29, 2014

The material below details operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

The same stuff is in the image, but organized by park, not by topic.

For more on June 2014 at Walt Disney World, see this.

[Read more →]

Chapter 5 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit covers “Where to Stay.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2,  Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.)

Where to stay matters a lot.  The biggest issue is budget, but also you will spend more time in your hotel and its grounds than any other place during your Disney World visit, and another large use of your time is getting back and forth from your hotel to the parks.

The hotels vary tremendously in their prices, convenience, adult appeal, and kid appeal, and change all the time. As a result, hotels are the weak spot of most other guidebooks and Disney World websites and discussion boards, simply because it takes an enormous amount of effort to keep up with them. For example, just in the Disney-owned resorts there’s more than forty major variants among the standard rooms.

Between us we’ve got your Disney World hotel choices covered.  In the last two years or so I’ve stayed in every major room variant (including sixteen different rooms so far in 2014!), with almost every one of those room visits my third, fourth, fifth or tenth visit to that particular room type at that particular resort.

See the excerpt.  Our stuff on where to stay at Disney World is the best that you will find, anywhere.

Even Anna likes our book!

Check it out: The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit!

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Chapter 4 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit covers “When to Go.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.)

When to go is the most important decision, as it determines the base level of crowds and prices you will face.  Advice on it is, I think, the first way both Josh and I became known.  Sad, that…we have so much more to offer…

See the excerpt.  Our stuff on when to go to Disney World is worth the whole price of the The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit!

But wait, there’s more!!  As Josh announced yesterday, not only will the Kindle edition be out soon–end of this week, we hope–but also those who buy the paperback in June will get the Kindle version for free as a “Kindle Matchbook.” We’ll be updating the Kindle version every now and then as stuff changes at WDW (and we find more typos…) so this is a really good deal!

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