Anyone stay Gran Destino club level? Update: Trip Report

Welcome back and sorry to hear about your year. I know that feeling only too well, so sending hugs your way. Hopefully things start getting better from now on.

I have friends who swear by Gran Destino when they run out of points. I’ll ask if they’ve done CL recently.

We haven't stayed at Gran Destino Club level either, but I did want to welcome you back! I've missed reading your posts. So sorry your year has been so tough... I hope that this year will be better moving forward!

That said, I just talked to my friends who stayed club level and they said it was very nice. Modern, bright, much larger than AKV Club, but also much busier than the AKV club during the morning and evening hours. They said the food was excellent with more variety than AKV. They said breakfast was similar in that they have both hot items and cold, more than enough for breakfast. Drinks worked similar to AKV. They said the happy hour food offerings were more extensive than at AKV but without the chef's regional offerings. They said the desert items were almost the same. They loved the views from the club and did not miss the fireworks the 2 nights they were there. They said the staff was great, but they were not recognized as they have been at AKV. Hope this helps a little!

Welcome back. So sorry for the shittiness, and especially for your loss. Best wishes that everything improves as soon as possible.

Welcome back! So sorry for your loss and the crappy year. I have heard only heard wonderful things about Gran Destino, but I don't think I know anyone who has done CL there

We've done AKV club level several times. And have another night coming up in Sept. SO I am looking forward to comparing the Gran Destino club lounge to the AKV lounge. We had 2 not great times at the AKV lounge but the last few times have been excellent. I think different CMs and maybe new manager since those 2 irksome visits early on (not long after they re-opened from covid times).

We also did a treehouse villa recently. With our 2 DDs and one's partner. They are so cute and a great use of points. But they are in need of a reno. Think it's slated for next year. ANd you are only allowed to park 1 car over there. There's no way for them to track it but that's the rule. You can sleep, what, 8 people in those but only get 1 parking spot. We had 2 cars and had to park one over at SSR. From our villa it wasn't a bad walk but ours was near the path so it could be a hike for others. And in the heat. Yick! The DH hated all that part. He prefers SSR and parking right at our villa.

Speaking of SSR. We book that a lot. It's a top choice for us. We also have that coming up in Aug so we can see the drone show without being in the masses at DS. My sis in law and some family will be down then so we plan to watch together. We haven't seen the drone show yet. I am up north currently. Been up here way way more than planned. Part of the horrible no good very bad year. From June 2023 to June 2024 I was in MD 25 weeks. Nearly half the year and that was NOT our intent when we moved to FL (plan was like 12-15 weeks). Not only that but we've had to travel back and forth almost bi monthly. And on one drive back home we were rear-ended hard in backwoods SC and our car was totaled (all people were ok). We started taking the auto train after that, one way and drive other. Love that auto train!!! Anyway, hopefully I will be back down there for these new experiences and won't have to cancel. The medical stuff with the 'rents has been off the charts. Specifically my mom. Already had to cancel a cruise recently (which I lost money on, with trip insurance too...FYI if you do upgrade bid and get the upgrade, you need to up the cost of the trip insurance to cover more expensive room). Hoping to get next experiences in (have another cruise in Sept...Aug and Sept we have a LOT planned). At least, fingers crossed, we won't be sick for any of it since it's summer and we got all the germs over the winter. Was the sickest winter since I was a kid. Really looking forward to the Gran Destino club stay. I read a report last night and it looks nice. We may not even do the parks that trip and just hang at Coronado the entire time. I assume it's like AKV club in that we can use lounge check in day as well as all check out day too. All Disney club lounges are probably the same in that way.

So I am home in FL now and we did the Chronos club level at Gran Destino last night. Here is my quick summary and photos for anyone interested....

We arrived around 9am and as we were parking we got our room ready text. Man, that is the earliest ever. We went into lobby and up elevator to 15th floor. Got checked in at the desk in the lounge and sat down to have some breakfast. They had 2 coffee machines (can do cappuccino and all). They had some juice and fruit water and a fridge/cooler with bottled drinks including water bottles (at AK Kilimanjaro club you have to ask for water bottles). We were asked if we wanted anything and so we asked for mimosas (they have several types, I recommend the POG one). The food was pastries/bagels/breads, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, oatmeal, cut fruits. They had a bowl of little oranges. They also have cereal and yogurt. Then this morning they did not have the potatoes and bacon but had sausage and they had hard boiled eggs as well as the scrambled (maybe they had them yesterday too but I didn't recall that). The pastries were different too (pistachio bread yesterday and a coffee bread today for example but also others different too). I should have taken photos of all the food and drinks but I didn't. They were kind of spread out in 4 areas/stations. They also, with the bowl of oranges, had a basket of Kind bars and bowls of candy. They have a bin of all kinds of teas if you like hot tea and they have several pumps of flavors for your coffee too.

The staff is uber friendly and helpful. Anything you need, that they have, they will get it. The views....the views are phenomenal. We could see HS and Epcot and all the resort areas and off property resort areas. Then we walked to our room and could see even more and at the ends of the hall, one side we could see MK and other side we could see AK. At night, we watched fireworks from the lounge and could even see a sliver of the drone show at DS. Everything all lit up at night was just amazing to look at and when we went to bed I laid there with the blinds open and just watched the view for another hour before going to sleep.

The room was lovely. Modern and with the large picture window to look at the view. It had 2 big beds (I think they said king but they seemed more queen size to me). One negative is they also had the bath products in the big pumps in the shower. You'd think for club level you'd get personal containers of products. But they did have a little box with Q-tips, cotton pads and a nail file and a little bottle of mouthwash which DVC doesn't provide. They also had a keurig which I also wished DVC would have. There is no kitchenette, but I like that as we don't really use it. Rather this set up with a long desk with drawers and stuff than the kitchenette area.

One worry I had was when we came in after going to HS and were resting in the room I could hear CMs in the hall going in and out of the room next to me. The door was opening and slamming, opening and slamming....non stop. I went into hall and saw a CM almost standing guard outside the door. At one point I saw them bring a cart full of food and beverages into the room. So maybe they were setting up some special thing for someone. But it was a lot of hustle and bustle going on for a good while and I worried something would also be going on last night when we would be sleeping but it didn't. It was all quiet after that whatever was going on in the afternoon.

Speaking of HS...we bought the LL multi pass and tried to pre book rides. I was aiming for like 11ish to 3ish for the in between times of the club lounge offerings. We have good friends in town and added them to our reservation so they could hang with us last night for the 5pm offerings. My 1st LL was Muppets. My Tier 1 I could pick was Slinky Dog at 2:30. So then I could get the 2 Tier 2 rides and I did Star Tours at like 1 and so Muppets was all I could do at 11. There was only a handful of rides we are interested in and most are Tier 1. So we get to HS, pretty quick from Gran Destino and head to Muppets to find it not running. The CMs tell us we can try to modify our pass to another attraction or leave it and come back whenever Muppets was back up. So we sit in the sun and try to modify and there wasn't really much to get. I could switch to Star Tours but we'd have to wait 30 mins for 11:30. And Star Tours was like 10 min standby so we did that and then came out to see Muppets was back up. We go to do it and are waiting and waiting when they tell us it was broken down again. We were unable to grab anymore Tier 2's and that's really what we wanted but because we could scan in for our 1st pass it wouldn't let us book another ride. So we could wait around for 2:30 Slinky Dog but what would we do. Typically we'd eat and drink but we had the club lounge with free stuff and just preferred to wait for that. So we went to the blue umbrella CM and asked to get a refund. We hadn't used the LL at all and with the Muppets thing, she was very understanding and kindly refunded us. So we left and went back to the lounge for cold beers.

They had afternoon snacks. Thinks like bags of chips, veges and dips and cookies and rice crispy treats. And little half uncrustables. You could ask for the booze drinks and they'd bring them to you. We walked around the resort a bit and then went to the lounge for a couple beers/mimosas and eventually some snacks and went to rest in the room before our friends arrived. That's when all the hubub was going on next door to us.

Our friends came and we grabbed the last window table in the lounge so we could look at the view and chat and drink with our friends. The lounge was busy at this time. It was like 4:45. For breakfast and afternoon snacks, there was only like 1 other party in there with us. Very empty. But the evening offerings were busy, but not as busy as at AK Kilimanjaro. The food was veges and dips. Two cheeses and a salami. They had mini corn dog nugget things and salmon (little pieces) and a verde gazpacho soup. They had beer and wine station and would make the many types of mimosas and a couple other drinks. Plus have cordials (really good in the coffee). Not a lot of food, really. Kilimanjaro has a more substantial offering. Club lounges are supposed to be a tide over and not really a full meal but we can make the AK one a full meal. This one, not so much. In fact, I was thinking we'd trade in again to do other club levels around the property, like maybe Yacht Club next. But it is a $95 fee plus it was 50 points. Not really worth it. We can just grab the AK one every once in a while (we have it booked twice in the future already). Less points, better food and no $95 fee.

Desserts were the minis like at AK but they were not all that good, honestly. They had cookies too which are pretty decent. They also don't have the Mickey ice creams like at AK. The lovely CM did say he could scrounge one up for me but I didn't need an ice cream so I declined. We sat at our window table until almost 10. Watched the view and fireworks. Chatted and had some drinks and snacks. Nice little stay overall. Had breakfast this morning and went home. Plan was to go back for dinner time but since it wasn't super exciting food, we won't bother.

Will add pics...have to remember how

can't figure it out (photos)