Grand Floridian Resort Royal Palm Club Review

We recently had the opportunity to stay at the Royal Palm Club at the Grand Floridian, and all I can say is WOW!

Over the past few years we’ve been working our way through all the club levels on Disney property, and I will admit, this is the one I was the most excited about. Between the easy access to Magic Kingdom, having a room in the main building with the lounge overlooking the spectacular lobby, easy access to some superb dining, and of course the overall beauty of the resort and grounds, this club level looked like it could be in contention for our favorite. But before we get into that, let’s talk a bit about the resort and the Royal Palm Club.

View from the Royal Palm Club lounge

The Grand Floridian is one of the deluxe resorts located on Seven Seas Lagoon and has easy access to the Magic Kingdom via either a boat, the monorail, or if you feel like getting a few extra steps in, walking. It opened in 1988 and is considered the flagship resort at Disney World.

The Royal Palm Club is the club level at the Grand Floridian. These days the Grand Floridian just has the one club level in the main building, previously they did offer a club level in an outer building, but nowadays it’s only the Royal Palm Club.

There are a variety of room types that are club level; from standard rooms to multi-bedroom suites. The vast majority are located in the main building, however a few suites are located in the outer buildings. The rooms have been decorated in a Mary Poppins theme, but are not as in your face as say the Contemporary with the Incredibles theme. We really liked the theming of the rooms, the decor was beautiful and if you weren’t looking for it, you could easily miss the theme as it was fairly understated.

We booked a resort view room for our stay, and lucked out by getting a room with a slightly expanded footprint. It was still just a standard room, not in the deluxe room category, but due to the layout of the building, we had an expanded entry and bathroom area. This room was amazing, I wish I could get this room every time we stayed there!

Upon entering there was a large entry table directly across from the door with a stool under and a large mirror on the wall, so it could easily work as a makeup table.

Entry area to the room at the Grand Floridian

To the left of the entrance was the door to the massive bathroom. The sink area was huge and separated from the main room, as well as the toilet and shower room, which was also quite large.

The bedroom area was fairly large compared to other Disney Deluxe resorts, we had not only a couch, but other chairs on the opposite side of the dresser just to fill the space.

Being club level, the closet did have robes and slippers for our use. We loved the Royal Palm Club embroidery on the slippers. I’ve heard that more club levels are starting to provide the club specific slippers these days, but so far the only ones we’ve seen have been here at the Royal Palm Club.

Our view was good, not quite as good as a theme park view, but we had a great view out over the grounds, villas pool, and even Seven Seas Lagoon. Bonus, we could see the Epcot fireworks from our room at night!

While we loved our room, the lounge at the Royal Palm Club is what really did it for us. Compared to the other club level lounges around property, this lounge is massive! It is three stories tall!

The main area where the food is served is on the fourth floor. There are a decent number of tables to eat at on this level, we never had an issue finding a table here, but if we did, it wouldn’t really be an issue since there are tables on the third and fifth floor as well! There are convenience stairs that go between the levels as well as an elevator if you want to find a table elsewhere. In addition, on the third floor they have outdoor patios with tables on both the front and back of the building.

Outdoor seating at the Royal Palm Club lounge

My one complaint from other lounges has been the size and number of tables. There have been times where we got food, but there was nowhere to sit to eat it. That was not a problem here at the Grand Floridian. Also, unlike other lounges where there is often a rush of people right at the start of a meal service, we never experienced that at the Royal Palm Club. I suspect that is because there is so much seating so you don’t need to get there early to get a seat. I know at other club levels we’ve gotten there just before opening to make sure we do get a seat, but here that wasn’t an issue, so the meal services overall felt more relaxing.

Speaking of meal services, this is yet another thing that the Royal Palm Club did better than other club levels with the midday/lunch service. Now, I will note, I have read that a few other club levels are ramping up their midday services as well, but so far we haven’t seen that ourselves anywhere but at the Royal Palm Club, but we will be staying at a few club levels soon so we’ll report back. Normally we don’t even bother with the midday service, for other club levels in the past few years the midday service has just been some crudité, cheese, Uncrustables, fruit, and some chips, but nothing to write home about.

At the Royal Palm Club the lunch offerings were expanded. Each day they had a soup, some tea sandwiches, the famous strawberry soup, and usually some other items beyond the standard offerings, for instance one day they had a chicken salad. We loved this since we are big fans of the midday break, and having a solid lunch offering at the club level makes our life easier since we don’t need to find lunch elsewhere.

Some of the lunch offerings at Royal Palm Club: Chicken Salad, Chicken Noodle Soup, Strawberry Soup, Sourdough Bread, a Brownie, and Pinot Grigio

Tomato Basil Soup at lunch another day.

Pumpkin soup and house made chips

The other meal services were pretty much in line with the other club levels. Breakfasts typically had an egg dish with some other protein like bacon or sausage along with fruit, oatmeal, breakfast potatoes, waffles, and some other standard breakfast fare like cereal, pastries, and bagels. They also offer pour your own mimosas during breakfast with POG juice, which we were a big fan of!

The dinner (or officially, the hors d’oeuvres service), had fairly standard fare, with roasted vegetables, typically two proteins such as chicken, salmon, beef, etc, and then usually some pasta and sauces along with some bread, cheese, salads, etc.

Around 4:00PM they also bring out the self serve wine and beer, which is a really nice touch. Some club levels have the cast members pour, and that can lead to long lines at times, but with the self serve it was quick and easy to grab what we wanted. Prior to 4:00 you could request any of the alcoholic beverages from a cast member.

The resort itself is stunning. We spent hours sitting in the lounge looking out over the lobby taking in the view. Also, at 3:00PM the pianist starts playing downstairs, and we loved heading to the lounge at that time to enjoy a glass of wine while listening to the music and enjoying the view.

Speaking of views, the views out the windows of the lounge were also nice, with the lounge overlooking the Courtyard pool with distant views of Magic Kingdom!

We were there in December, and unfortunately it wasn’t quite warm enough to enjoy the pool areas this trip, but we have in the past. There are two pools, the Courtyard pool and the Beach Pool. The Courtyard pool is the original pool and is set between the main building and outer buildings. The Beach Pool is adjacent to the Villas building and is the newer pool with waterfalls and a waterslide. There is also a Mad Hatter themed splash pad.

The resort also offers a variety of dining and drinking options. For a very special event, there is Victoria and Alberts, the only Michelin star Disney restaurant on property (there is another fantastic Michelin star restaurant, Capa, on property, however is not Disney owned). For something a bit less fancy, however still amazing, both Citricos and Narcoossee’s are great options. For a bit more casual, but still a sit-down, there is the Grand Floridian Cafe. If afternoon tea is more your style, there is the newly reopened Garden View Lounge. And if you are looking for Character dining, 1900 Park Fare has you covered. There are also bars and quick service available, such as the newly opened Perch in the lobby, the Enchanted Rose, and then Gasparilla Island Grill for some quick meals.

Overall, we absolutely loved staying at the Grand Floridian Club Level. I will note however, when we stayed at the Grand Floridian, but not club level in an outer building we weren’t quite as enthralled. While it was nice, being in the main building makes a huge difference. But for our club level stay, this is the place. We loved being just steps away from the Monorail so getting to the Magic Kingdom was a breeze. There are so many dining options right there at the Grand Floridian that we got to try something new almost every day. The lounge itself puts every other club level lounge on property to shame, it is massive and has more than enough tables for everyone staying there which is an issue at other club levels. Plus the expanded lunch offerings is a really nice touch. Another bonus that other lounges don’t offer is the live music! One of our favorite activities was sitting in the lounge listening to the pianist while enjoying some wine. It was so perfect and we loved it so much that while we were there we decided to book another club level stay there later this year! This is the only time we’ve ever done that!

At this point, this is by far our favorite club level on property. We still have two to go before we can put together our rankings, but I find it hard to imagine any other place beating out the Royal Palm Club.