Disneyland Paris Compass Club Room Experience @ Disney’s Newport Bay Club
Overview
In November 2019 I made my second visit to Disneyland Paris. This trip I stayed in a Compass Club room at Disney’s Newport Bay Club for 8 nights with a standard view. The hotel is located on Lake Disney and is a short walk to the Disney Village and under 15 minute walk to the theme parks. There is also a free shuttle bus to the train station area, where you then have a shorter walk to the parks. Disney’s Newport Bay Club is a four star resort which places it between the three star Sequoia Lodge and five star Disneyland Hotel alongside the other four star Hotel New York at Disneyland Paris. For a look around the hotel here are some picture posts looking around the Disney’s Newport Bay Club Lobby & Pool as well as at the Bay Boutique at Disney’s Newport Bay Club.
The Compass Club offers additional amenities similar to a concierge level that regular rooms do not, see below for a listing and then some of my thoughts on them. Disney’s Newport Bay Club was completely renovated in 2016 so the rooms and common spaces were relatively new during my visit.
Amenities
Below are listing of the standard amenities and Compass Club additional amenities
Standard Amenities
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Compass Club Amenities (In Addition to Standard Amenities)
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Our Standard View Compass Club Room
Compass Club rooms are on the top floors of the central part of the building so your walk to the elevators is relatively short. Our room was located on the 8th (top) floor in the dead center looking out over the front entrance of the hotel. We were the furthest from both sets of elevators you could get and it was not bad, below is the floor map for reference.
The view over the front lawn of the resort and the area beyond was nice for a standard view option. Here are more pictures of my Standard Room View @ Disney’s Newport Bay Club Given the amount of daylight hours we were planning to spend in the room it did not make sense to pay a premium for the lake view rooms to us. Below are some pictures of the room. For a more here is a post with pictures of our standard view Compass Club Room at Disney’s Newport Bay Club
My biggest complaint with the room was the shower. First there were temperature control issues. It could not hold a steady temp. It would fluctuate from what you wanted to ice cold to scolding hot during your shower. Like many showers in Europe the glass only goes about about 1/3 to ½ of it and the glass was short so water could go everywhere. Then to top it off the head on ours did stay up so you had a choice of a shower for a 4ft tall person, holding it, or getting a little creative and wedging something in to hold it up high.
There were some Disney touches in the room. The border around the room featured some characters and the bedspreads included Mickey designs.
Hotel First Impressions
Disney’s Newport Bay Club reminds me a lot of Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts at Walt Disney World. Both resorts were designed by Robert Stern and feature a New England look/feel to them. The similarities only extend to the exterior and feel, the rooms and interiors are different. The exterior facing Lake Disney is impressive to walk up to and the parking lot side has some nice planters/gardens too. The interior of the resort has a slightly upscale feel to it but not quite to the same level as the Yacht Club at WDW. I felt the resort was lacking common interior spaces to relax in. The lobby felt small and a bit cramped and there were very few public spaces to visit outside of dining locations.
As with all the hotels at Disneyland Paris security is very present including large security barriers at the driveways and all bags are x-rayed to enter and guests wanded.
This is a four star resort and it was nice but I am not sure it was substantially better than the Sequoia Lodge we stayed at last time which is considered a three star resort. The rooms were remodeled only 3 years before our stay but felt a bit dated. The television was on the small side and there were no USB power ports for example. Power outlets were at a premium in general. The beds were comfortable and the size of the room was sufficient. The desk was on the small side with my laptop taking up the entire desk with no real space around it. There was only one chair in the room at the desk.
We opted not to do a vacation package like our first trip and instead purchase our park tickets and food separately from the room. We went this route because of pricing. Even with the specials/discounts the price for a package with half board or full board was substantially more than if we went on our own. Instead we decided to splurge for the Compass Club level. In the end this saved us a substantial amount of money but we did find ourselves opting to skip eating in the park and venture out to the Disney Village where as with the dining plan last trip we were more willing to try a location.
Thoughts & Observations on Amenities:
Free Wifi – This is the only standard amenity I want to comment on since it is important now a days. The wifi was troublesome. When the parks were open and guests were out it worked good. You had ok speeds and no real hiccups. But once the parks closed and guests returned to the resort the speeds slowed to a crawl and many times just stopped working. This was a daily occurrence and was a bit frustrating. Also if your plan was to stream anything, good luck. I had mixed results with streaming even during the daytime hours with guests gone or early morning hours when most guests were asleep.
Private reception desk (7am to 10:30pm) – The Compass Club desk was just to the right when you walked in the front door of the hotel. This was very convenient for checking in and was much nicer than the Sequoia Lodge Golden Forest Club check in area. The cast members working there were very friendly and helpful the couple times we interacted with them. This reception desk doubles as the concierge desk too as the cast members are there to help you with anything you need during your stay. This is a bit awkward as the desk is located nowhere near your room nor near the lounge. The check in and check out process was smooth and we encountered no delays. We had to do this process twice since when we booked the room they would not allow for more than 7 nights on one reservation and we wanted 8 nights so we had to break it into two reservations and then link them. It meant halfway through the trip we had to check out and in but we were able to keep the same room so it was just a few minutes of paperwork and nothing more.
Access to the exclusive Compass Club Lounge for private breakfast, drinks and afternoon snacks – The Compass Club Lounge was a located on the lobby level of the hotel. It was in a bit of an awkward location being on the main level and nowhere near your room and in the middle of a busy common/public walkway. The lounge is on the interior of the building so there are no windows or views. I would have really liked to have seen it on a higher floor looking out over Lake Disney. Out of the Disney Hotels we have stayed at I thought the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel Magic Kingdom Club had the best lounge and view.
Compass Club Breakfast
Each morning from 7am to 11am what they described as an American buffet breakfast was served in the Compass Club Lounge. I thought the options were typical for a breakfast buffet and on par with what we experienced at the Sequoia Lodge last visit. My biggest complaint with the breakfast is it never changed. You had the same choices every day. For a four star resort I would expect a little variety maybe Mickey waffles one day, pancakes another, French toast a third or something. Here are a couple pictures to get a feel for the breakfast. For more visit this post Newport Bay Club Compass Club Breakfast or the full picture sets (Day 2, Day 3, Day 7) which have an exhaustive look at the offerings.
Compass Club Soft Drinks
From noon until 10pm daily there were soft drinks available in the Compass Club Lounge. A cast member was on hand by the refrigerator and an assortment of Coke products were available. It was nice to be able to have something to drink when coming back from the parks. Also several days I carried something with me to the parks. The selection also included several Minute Maid juices which I ended up taking the night before and having at breakfast the next morning because I was not a fan of the fresh juice choices with breakfast.
Compass Club Lounge Tea Time
From 4:00pm to 5:45pm daily the Compass Club Lounge hosted a tea time with sweet and savoury snacks. I did not find a lot at this offering that I cared for and only attended it once. Others in the group went a couple other days and said the selection was the same. It is a light dessert/snack offering. Not a full meal or even heavy snack type selection. Also beverages were limited as it was a tea offering plus sodas and not a cocktail hour offering .
Below are some pictures here is a picture post – Compass Club at Disney’s Newport Bay Club daily tea time or visit the full picture set from Day 1 for a more in depth look the offerings.
Disney Hotel Fastpass –
Each person received a paper voucher for each day you are there that you could exchange at any Fastpass attraction. The vouchers are dated and supposed to be good only on that one day but we found cast members would accept them with no problem any time. Also interesting since we had two reservations on the day we had to check out and in we received two sets of vouchers. In the end we came home with quite a few vouchers because they were not needed. We experienced the attractions we wanted, several a couple of times and still had vouchers left.
Conclusions
I had a great stay at Disney’s Newport Bay Club. The hotel grounds were pleasant, the room what we expected and the Compass Club level a nice extra. The level of service and amenities were on par with what we experienced at the Sequoia Lodge last visit and similar to other concierge level offerings. I thought they fell short compared to higher end concierge floors though. For example there were no extra activities, such as bed time stories or character greetings. The concierge cast members did not feel as accessible because of the location of their desk. The breakfast offering was good but the food selection the rest of the day was extremely limited compared to other hotels we have stayed at. Having the lounge separated from the rooms and on the main walkway was not ideal.
Frequently Asked Questions (since returning I have received some questions in the same vein, here is a running list, feel free to submit a question via a comment to the post, email, tweet, etc.)
Is the Compass Club worth it?
That is really in the eye of the beholder and the deal you can get on the rooms. You pay a premium for Compass Club rooms but if you find a decent deal and factor in breakfast and beverages it may be worthwhile to you. We choose to go with a Compass Club room over a better view and thought it was a good choice for us.
How would you compare your experience with the Sequoia Lodge to Newport Bay Club?
The experiences were very similar to me. Nothing jumps out as substantially better or worse at one vs the other. Neither hotel, location, or club experience stood out as far superior to the other. It really comes down to which hotel would you prefer staying at. There is a cost difference with the Newport Bay slightly more expensive. We did not really use the resort facilities so hard to comment if it was worth it from that perspective.
Related Posts:
Did you book directly through Disney or an outside source? When I try to book direct, it makes me purchase a package with a set number of park days, and I wish to do my tickets separate as we don’t want to do that many park days, if that makes sense. Any tips would be appreciated, thank you!
For the 2019 trip we were able to book a room only through Expedia, but there was a limit on the number days so I had to do two bookings.
But nobody tells how to get into the compass club? What, where, how? Is it a secret?
Compass Club is a type of rooms, just like concierge or a specific type of view may be. So you book it just as you would a regular room but select that category from the website or wherever you are making the reservation.