Back again!
So in sum, here's what I'd say about our BWI/GF SL split stay...
I wish we could take the food from the GF and have it served in the BWI lounge, because then we could stay in a garden cottage at the BWI on all of our adults-only trips and have the perfect stay. For us, as shy introverts, we really prefer the quiet and privacy of the garden cottage, and we also prefer the quieter, more intimate setting of the BWI lounge. But...I think we also prefer the CMs at the BWI because they always manage to pull us out of our introverted shells...so many of them are just so sweet and gregarious and friendly and folksy that we just can't help but open up a little and act like regular humans, lol. There was nothing wrong with the CMs at the GF...they were perfectly competent and polite...but they never tried to talk to us or engage with us other than "may I take away your plates?" (and there were a lot of those!). And that's fine...perhaps they were "reading the room" and realizing that we are shy and quiet and and uncomfortable with anything more than that. But it's the little things about the interactions with the BWI CMs that just really made us feel like wanted guests instead of customers being served...does that make sense? For example, one day I was wearing my "#ROBBED" with a fleur-de-lis in the place of the "O" t-shirt (if you are a New Orleans Saints fan you will understand!!!), and one of the CMs came and high fived me and we had a conversation about the non-call and the game (H and I saw the game in person at the Dome on the day which will live in infamy). Another CM noticed my H had an obscure Star Wars reference on an Etsy shirt I'd bought him and started talking to him about SWGE, and it was a real conversation like you'd have with a friend. Everybody we encountered there was super cool and friendly and just regular folks, KWIM?
And I don't mean to knock the food at the BWI...it's delicious, and Chef Redgie is amazing. But in terms of sheer variety and amounts served, and for us as vegetarians, the BWI doesn't compare. We could (and did) make full breakfasts out of the CL offerings there, and sometimes lunches, but not really dinners...which is fine, and we appreciate that CL isn't intended to be a meal replacement. And in a weird way, we actually really like that about the BWI offerings, because we weren't too stuffed to eat at our ADRs, which we really look forward to.
We did stay in the Deluxe King rooms in the GF's main building about 15 years ago (I think they were called the honeymoon rooms back then...they had a jetted tub), and we'd consider staying in one on our next trip, but last time it still didn't have the same sense of peace and quiet and being in a home that the BWI cottage did. Sooo...all that to say, I think it's the BWI for us from here on out for the adults-only trips! My H actually said, "Let's never stay anywhere else." Ummm...done, lol.
Oh, and
@QueenElinor ...you were right about what you said about those first class seats...currently plotting how we can swing them for our next trip, and all the ones thereafter...