We just got back from our wonderful split stay at WL CL and then BC CL. I am just going to give some thoughts on our stay along with comparing it with our first stay two years ago at AKL CL. We are from MA, it was my W and 2 D's, 11 and 8. We are not ones that are Disney fanatics, ie not traveling here more than once a year. Maybe we will be back in two years, maybe not, we like to try different things. Since we dont come to Disney all that often we try to pack quite a bit in, although we dont do rope drop (try as we might we cannot get ready and have breakfast in time) and we dont plan out every minute, we do our FPs and mix in dessert parties and TS restaurants but not every night.
We stayed at WL CL for the first five nights. Before leaving I received an email from a CM at the club welcoming us and asking if there were any special requests. She was able to put in the system our request for bunkbeds. Then a day before I received a call from a CM again just checking in to see if we needed anything. Upon arrival we checked in at front desk (the room text did not come through, said for us to go to the desk, they had to do something with our MBs) we were met at the front desk by the CL CM who brought us up, gave us a tour of the lounge and then brought us to our room. Very nice welcome.
The room was on the seventh floor, courtyard view, but with the high balcony you can only stand to get any view. We were just a short walk from the lounge. Room 7055. You can see the HEA fireworks from the balcony of the lounge. The lounge is very nice, tables spread out along the edge so you can see the beautiful lobby, or you can choose a table with a view of the lake. The lounge was not overly busy when we were there. The food offerings were quite good. Breakfast had muffins, danishes, meats (alternated daily, ham, turkey, and then a salami or prosciutto) and oatmeal. Fruit mix of melon. Afternoon snacks of the usual CL offerings, chips, gummy bears, goldfish etc. Yes, they do have water bottles of Dasani, small size, and you could take them with you, right in the fridge with the cans of coke, so we did take advantage of that. Dinner offerings we had roast chicken with vegetables, shepherds pie, shrimp pasta, and usually they had a small offering in a cute, small mason jar like one night was a chicken vinaigrette. To clarify you only had one choice of those main offerings, just saying what we saw during the stay. Desserts were delicious, again they would use the cute mason jars, there was a lemon curd, a smore offering (graham cracker mousse then chocolate and then marshmallow cream on top), usually a warm offering of a berry cobbler or apple cobbler. We are not drinkers but seemed a good selection of wines and beer, I had a draft of their lager.
Cannot say enough about how convenient it is to stay at WL, so easy to get around. We loved, loved the boat to MK or CR or FW. It is quick and relaxing, no comparison to the buses. For example, Saturday night MK was open to 12 (not EMH), we left the park at 11:02 and our heads hit the pillow at 11:38. The boat just opens up flexibility to get around to the other resorts for your dinner reservations. We also had a quick trip to HDDR, which was also Sat night, we just decided to go to MK afterwards because it was so easy.
The CM's were very nice at WL CL, and it was well staffed. Could have nice conversations with them and not fell rushed. The mousekeeping was great, we had nightly turndown, did not request it but it was done every night. The room was small and probably needs a refurb, the dark furniture just makes the small room feel even smaller. The furniture was scratched up and the outlets on the desk did not work, and no USB outlets. We did have nightly printouts of our itinerary.
The transfer to BC CL, we planned Universal for that day so didnt matter when the luggage arrived. Fyi, dont do Universal, lol, complete waste of money for us. So BC CL never had any contact from them before arriving. Not a big deal, but interesting to note. Upon arrival the front desk CM escorts you up to the fifth floor and introduces you to the CL concierge who gives a quick overview of the resort. No tour of the lounge and no escort to the room. The room was fairly far from the lounge. Standard view, looking to the front of the resort so overlooked the lower roof, not a good view. I dont really care about room views because we dont spend that much time in the room, but if you do care about the view then you want to avoid the even number series starting at 57, we had room 5706.
The lounge was large, the serving area was very roomy. There is zero ambience to the room, could be a Hilton or Hampton Inn. If you have stayed at AKL or WL then you will be disappointed at the feeling of the lounge. This was not a room that you linger in and I did not see any one linger. It was busy here, a lot of families with kids so was much louder. The CMs were nice but very little interaction with them as they are so busy here, they seemed to have the same number as WL despite it being much busier at BC. The food selection was great, much better than WL. There would be three different types of muffins, as WL would have one. They always had one hot offering in addition to the oatmeal. There was a mini quiche with bacon, mini french onion tartlet (kind of odd for breakfast), and crepes last day (unfortunately I make really good crepes so these were disappointing and the kids would not eat them). Along with Melon, there was watermelon, and strawberries. No water bottles to take, you could ask for assistance to fill personal water bottles.
The room was much larger than what we had at WL or AKL, which was nice. The decor is kind of bland. But they had plenty of outlets and USB outlets everywhere. We had turndown service two nights out of the four. No printouts of itinerary, not a big deal but can be a nice touch.
Of course the pool was excellent, no comparison to WL or AKL. And excellent access to Epcot and HS. My family could not believe how quick the walk was to EP. And it was just a short boat trip to HS.
Overall experience we would say WL CL wins over BC and AKL. Looking back at AKL, it was very nice and a unique experience. But we now realize we used the lounge a lot more on this trip. I am sorry but I think being on a separate floor from the AKL CL is a huge drawback, it is a long walk there. It is nice to just grab a drink on the way out at WL or BC, we never did that at AKL. Also, the travel from AKL is a chore, especially if you are new to Disney. It is not just about getting to the parks, its about getting to your dinner reservations or other special events. It takes a long time, you simply have more options when you stay at the MK or EP resorts, we were able to get a lot more done on this trip which is important if you do not come here often. If you come often its no big deal if you miss out on riding some headline ride since you can just do it next time but for people that dont visit often that makes a difference. AKL was just exhausting. The other night at Teppan Edo I sat next to a Dad who was exhausted after getting there from AKL, he had three kids. He said it was just a lot of work to get around, and I told him our experience was the same. We did enjoy AKL, and you should stay there at least once but I would do a split stay or keep it short. The animals are great but honestly after seven days they lose the exciting appeal, and the kids did not even notice them after awhile.
Sorry for the long review, any questions just ask away.
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