Is booking Disney’s club-level rooms worth it?

Club level is not available at every Disney resort, but you will find it at these Disney Deluxe and Moderate properties:

With a club-level room at Walt Disney World, you are not only assigned a club type of room, but you also have access to a club lounge and the hosts within that lounge. These hosts can help you fix your park reservations, troubleshoot basic tech support issues with the app, give advice on planning your day and generally make your stay more personalized and, dare we say, magical.

What are Disney club-level benefits?

When you arrive to check into your Disney club-level room, you’ll likely be personally escorted to the club lounge to complete your check-in, which will cover everything you can expect from the lounge and your various club benefits. In fact, it’s possible a Disney cast member will be waiting for you in the lobby to greet you by name if you enter via a security gate by car, as that helps them phone ahead to the club-level rooms to let them know you’ve arrived.

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The club rooms are often centrally located, so you usually won’t have to worry about being at the far end of a spread-out resort. For example, at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, staying in a club-level room means you’ll be in the atrium, close to the restaurants, monorail and, of course, the club lounge itself.

The most tangible benefit of Disney’s club level is the club lounge, where you’ll have access to food, drinks and snacks from morning to night.

Of the options available, breakfast and evening appetizers are typically the most substantial offerings. In fact, those are the two meals you could make out of your lounge access if you feel so inclined. Be sure to leave room for dessert, as the options are consistently tasty.

When my kids were little years ago and I first booked the club level at the Contemporary, the agent on the phone told me I was in for a treat and that I had to make myself a plate of dessert, grab some wine from the club and retreat to my theme park-facing room for my own personal fireworks viewing party.

He was right. Having the show’s music playing in the background via my TV while enjoying my selection of snacks was every bit as much of a treat as he said it would be.

I do have to say that the unlimited ice cream sandwiches — including Mickey bars — at the Grand Floridan may have been a highlight of that club’s grab-and-go offerings.

But no matter which Disney club lounge you’re staying at, around 5 to 7 p.m. is when the “good” stuff comes out.

Whether you want a snack to tide you over before heading back to the parks or are aiming to put together a “dinner” with this food you’ve already paid to be able to access, you can accomplish either goal at the lounge … so long as your crew isn’t too picky. There are a handful of hot options each evening, usually from one of the hotel’s restaurant kitchens.

It’s also common to find some kid-pleasers such as nuggets, tater tots and rolls next to more adult-oriented favorites like short ribs, soy-glazed salmon and serrano-wrapped melon.

At the Grand Floridian’s club, we recently loved the hearty potato cakes with prime rib, the pineapple coconut shrimp ceviche and the salmon cakes, to name a few options.

My advice for the best experience in the club lounges each evening is don’t wait until right before the plates are cleared at 7 p.m., as the selections are generally a little better stocked if you don’t wait until the last second.

After the evening snacks (or dinner, as the case may be) are finished, the lounge shifts its focus to desserts and drinks, which are available from about 8 to 10 p.m.

These options are the perfect way to unwind after a busy day at the theme parks, especially if you time your snack consumption just right to coincide with watching the fireworks from the lounge or your room, particularly if you have a theme park view.

The desserts may consist of cookies, cupcakes, tarts and cakes, among other sweet treats.

Adult beverages are included, too. In the Disney club-level lounges, you can expect a selection of a few different wines in the evening, along with a variety of bottled beers and/or a beer or two on tap. Grand Marnier, Baileys, Kahlua and Frangelico are some of the most common cordials I’ve seen on offer.

Speaking of adult beverages, a fun touch at the Grand Floridian’s club lounge was this daytime mimosa bar, complete with a plastic cup option for taking the beverage to the pool.

How much does Disney’s club level cost?

Depending on the resort and time of year, expect Disney club-level rooms to cost between $500 and $1,500 per night. The Gran Destino rooms are often the least expensive because they’re the only Moderate club-level resort option, while the Grand Floridian, the Contemporary and the Polynesian club-level rooms are typically the most expensive since they are located right on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

I’ve seen Disney club-level rooms start at about a $200 nightly upcharge over nonclub rooms. However, I’ve also seen the price difference between the entry-level room and the club-level room be $300 to $500 per night, especially in cases such as the Grand Floridian and the Contemporary, where the main building’s rooms are just inherently pricier than the outer buildings.

However, if “worth it” means you’re spending more in one area to save in another (aka on food and drinks), then the answer is: It depends. You’re unlikely to ever truly save money by booking a club-level room, but there are situations where the extra money you are spending for the club-level amenities and service can help you trim other expenses here and there.

For example, if you’re a family that’s going to make good use of the food and drinks in the lounge, then it’s not unreasonable to make up a portion of that room price difference by dining in the lounge instead of at the theme parks, where food and beverage prices are notoriously high.

Of course, ordering essentials and having them directly delivered to Disney via a grocery service is still probably cheaper, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t save some on dining expenses by staying in a club-level room.

But beyond that, there’s the extra-extra magical service you’re more likely to receive in a Disney club-level room.

On our recent stay at Grand Floridian’s club level, there was an issue with some of our booked Lightning Lanes. Typically, that means waiting in line in the parks for some help, but while seated in the club, I asked the concierge there if she might be able to help get our issue sorted. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to — but she tried and ultimately was successful, which saved us time and a lot of hassle. That kind of intangible perk is hard to put a value on but really does elevate the trip to a whole different level of service.

As with all Disney resort rooms, there’s another way you can shave a little more off the out-of-pocket cost: credit card rewards.

For example, with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, the miles you accrue can be used to offset any travel charge on the card or any Disney booking made within Capital One’s travel site. The Bilt Mastercard® (see rates and fees) also has a travel portal that lets you use rewards for Disney resorts.

Bottom line

Unless you have a very large budget, a long stay in a Disney club-level room may not make sense. However, choosing this type of accommodation for a few days of a trip or for a shorter trip can be worth it, especially if you plan on limiting your meals outside of the club and aren’t set on spending every waking moment in the parks.

Be smart about when you reserve this kind of room. Aim to lock it in when the nightly price differential is no more than $300 above the room you would otherwise book so you can get more value out of the experience and then enjoy what it feels like to have access to Disney’s extra-extra magical spaces and service.

To help your family maximize time at Disney World, here are some articles to get you on your way: