July 24 – 28, my family had the opportunity to do something that my wife Cindy and I had thought we likely wouldn’t do until we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in 12 years: we were given an opportunity, along with our daughter Sophie, to stay at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the signature resort in Walt Disney World, and some would say, the signature resort at any of the Disney parks.
I’m not going to debate which resort is better than the other — although, a comparison between the Grand Floridian and the Grand Californian, which we had the pleasure to stay at in June, is in order — but for today’s post, I’m going to give you a review of room 5511, which is where we stayed for our four nights at the resort.
The picture you see above is of building 6, which is directly opposite the building we were in, which was building 5. One of the neat things about where we were staying is it was right by the area where you could rent the boats to take on the Seven Seas Lagoon, but even cooler than that, it had a great vantage point of Cinderella Castle, and we could see the fireworks from the seating areas they have right there.
Upon entering our room, though, we were struck by the old world charm that the Grand Floridian gave us. We weren’t in a hotel — in fact, the argument could be made that we weren’t even in a resort anymore. All of a sudden, we had walked into an English bedroom, although with two queen size beds, but it had a sitting area also, and a place to work, and watch TV.
Although it felt to me like we had left the world of Disney and had transported back to old world England, the picture above and the two below reminded us that our Disney touches were still to be experienced!
One of my favorite parts of the whole room was this wonderful chair and ottoman. They were very comfortable, as was the bed, by the way, and I enjoyed winding down from our day in the parks by relaxing in the chair while the girls were getting ready for bed.
The bathroom was your standard bathroom, except it had double sinks which was nice, and in a first for me, it had a phone in the bathroom by the shower!
One side note about the Grand Floridian — the towels were bigger than the towels that we had seen at other resorts. They were softer than those, too, but overall, they were still just standard hotel towels in my opinion.
In addition to the room, which was really nice, we were within a really short distance from the Gasparilla Grill, which is the equivalent of a counter service restaurant. It’s open 24 hours a day, though, so you can go for a snack at any time!
The lobby of the Grand Floridian is absolutely incredible. It almost is worth taking the monorail over to it just to see what it’s like. Words don’t do justice, so I’m going to close by sharing these photos. I hope you have enjoyed looking at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, and that you plan on staying there once. It’s definitely worth adding to your Disney Bucket List!
It really is a beautiful resort, Mike. But, when I’m visiting there, I always feel slightly uncomfortable and somehow out of place – it’s too white for me. When I get rich and can afford deluxe, I’ll opt for the Poly. :) Thanks so much for sharing your pictures.
You are right Mike, the lobby is magnificent. I have stayed at the Contemporary, the Polynesian, but my favorite resort is the Grand Floridian. The rooms are so cozy and the grounds are beautiful. We’ll be staying there again on our next trip, but this time in the main building.
What great pictures and I am sure your family had a wonderful time. This is my dream hotel I long to be able to stay there soon!
Thanks for sharing
Sandra
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