Taste of Disney

It had been nearly 20 years since I last stayed at the Grand Floridian. Though I had stayed at both of the other Magic Kingdom monorail resorts in recent years, I couldn’t ever justify spending the extra money to stay at Disney World’s flagship (and most expensive for a standard room) resort. But this trip was special. Not only was I celebrating a special birthday during this trip but I had had to cancel my usual lengthy fall trip in 2020 due to COVID risks so had some extra money in my Disney trip account to spend.

Unfortunately, due to a flight delay, we didn’t get to enjoy our room and the resort as soon as we’d hoped and planned. Though check-in time was 3:00 and our room was ready even earlier than that, we did not get to our room until 12:30 a.m. on the first night of our 3 night stay. Bummer! But even though our day of travel had been long and stressful, we were still excited to discover that our assigned room was not the usual standard room. Instead our room was on the 5th/top floor and underneath one of the gables of Boca Chica, one of the resort’s 5 outer buildings. I’ve heard these rooms referred to as dormer or attic or gable rooms. Though I’ve read that some of these dormer rooms are located on the 4th floor of Boca Chica, all of the rooms on the 5th floor are dormer rooms. This photo of Boca Chica which I found online seems to verify this information…

But before I show you what our room looked like on the inside, let’s first talk about Boca Chica and where on the grounds of the Grand Floridian this building is located.

On the above map you can see that Boca Chica is Building #8 and is located to the right of the Courtyard pool, which is the resort’s main pool.  Here is what Boca Chica looks like from the outside…

It looks like all of the other outer guest room buildings here so you have to look for the sign in front of the building’s main entrance to help you identify it…

When you enter the building there is a lobby/seating area which looks like this…

From here we took the elevator up to the 5th floor.  Here is the view from that floor looking down upon the 1st floor sitting area…

Our room #8522 was conveniently located just to the right as you got off of the elevator (or by the lower right hand corner of the above photo).  

But the nicest surprise came when we opened the door to our room…

Notice the unusual shape of the vaulted ceiling. Also the balcony door was much taller than the standard 6′ 8″ door. Here is a photo of Andrew (who is 5′ 10″) standing at the door…

Let’s begin our room tour by going outside to the balcony…

Though the balcony was fairly large (probably one of the larger ones that I’ve had at Disney World)…

It seemed smaller because of the solid walls on all 3 sides.  So though it felt more private, the walls obstructed the view. And the view was quite nice, you just had to stand to see it over the balcony wall.

Here was the nighttime view from our balcony…

And the daytime view…

Now let’s go back inside…

Our room had two comfortable queen size beds.  Additionally there was a sleeper sofa…

This contradicted some information I read online regarding the dormer rooms which said that they sleep only 4 people.  

Other furnishings include this nightstand which reminded me of something you would see in the Beast’s castle (Beauty & the Beast)…

Notice the patterned carpeting in the above photo.  As Disney refurbishes its hotel rooms, it seems to be removing the carpet and replacing it with wood laminate flooring.  So out of curiosity I did some research to see when the Grand Floridian rooms were last refurbished.  From what I can tell this last occurred in 2014, so 7 years ago.  With the rooms at the Polynesian, Contemporary, and Wilderness Lodge resorts all receiving updates this year, I would think the Grand Floridian should be next up on the schedule…hopefully in 2022.  With the higher prices you pay to stay there, Grand Floridian guests deserve an updated, top of the line, cream of the crop type of room.  

Ok, now back to the room tour.  There was a desk and chair in the corner of the room…

Unfortunately this was unusable as a desk because it held both the Keurig coffeemaker and the ice bucket.  There was though a small table underneath the desk which could be pulled out.  But speaking of the coffeemaker and ice bucket, etc., in the other Disney deluxe resorts where I’ve stayed, these are usually located at the top of a separate cabinet, with the mini-fridge underneath.  In this room, the small refrigerator was stored in the dresser…

Just inside the room’s entrance door and to the left was a standard size closet…

The contents of the closet were the usual safe, luggage rack, and iron & full-size ironing board.  However, the closet also held two robes, which is something I’d only recalled seeing before in the Club Level rooms at the Disney resorts.  Also of note, is that many of the other Deluxe resorts now have closet cabinets rather than regular closets.  A great example of this is the large, sectioned cabinet in the Yacht Club rooms.  See my March 2021 Yacht Club room review for photos.  LINK TO REVIEW

And that just leaves the bathroom, which was located to the right as you entered the room, opposite of the closet.  There was a separate area for the vanity, which had two sinks and a granite countertop…

It did not have any storage shelves underneath, where you typically find a hair dryer. There was a hair dryer though, which I think I found in the closet.

I was happy to see the small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and other toiletries on the bathroom counter…

Sadly I think Disney is replacing these with large shower dispensers of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the rooms that have been remodeled recently.

An unusual addition to the bathroom was a hamper for your dirty towels…

I noticed that some guests placed their hamper in the hallway outside their door.  

The toilet and tub/shower were located in a separate room with a pocket door…

There was still a shower curtain here, instead of the plexiglass shower doors that I’m seeing now in the refurbished Disney resort rooms.   While I’m good with that change, I was disappointed to see that the shower doors in the bathrooms of the refurbished (and rethemed to the Incredibles) rooms at the Contemporary resort are not frosted.  That combined with the fact that the sink area is not separated from the tub/shower in the Contemporary bathrooms, means only one person can use the bathroom at a time if you want some privacy.  Boo! 

So that’s it for the room.  No major complaints but I definitely think they are in need of an update.  I liked the “uniqueness” of the dormer room and am happy that I had the opportunity to stay in one.  As far as the resort itself, the Grand Floridian is beautiful, from the lobby to the grounds.  And, in my opinion, the restaurants there are some of the best on Disney property.  Plus now, in addition to being on the monorail line, there is also the added convenience of being able to walk to Magic Kingdom via the new walkway.  So I have no regrets about staying at the Grand Floridian for part of my birthday trip but probably won’t be staying here again for awhile.  With the recent renovations at all of the other Magic Kingdom resorts, I’m excited to stay at all of those first before returning to the Grand Floridian.