Disneyland Paris Golden Forest Club Room Experience @ Disney’s Sequoia Lodge
As part of my 2015 “World Tour” I decided to visit Disneyland Paris in the fall, since I did Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in the spring. Once that was decided the next question was where to stay. Disneyland Paris has six hotels plus a camp ground/ranch. There are also nearby partner hotels and Paris is less than an hour away by train. Being a disneygeek I knew I wanted to stay at a Disney hotel but which one. After digging around and looking at pricing I narrowed it down to two that I thought fit my budget and looked promising (if there is interest I could do another post on this process at some point). Disney’s Newport Bay Club was slated to still be under renovation during our visit so I opted for Disney’s Sequoia Lodge. With that settled next up was what type of room. The Sequoia Lodge consists of a main building and several smaller buildings.
There are three “standard”/non suite types of rooms. A standard room, Montana Room and Golden Forest Club Room. There are also view options. The standard rooms are in the smaller buildings that fan out from the main one. In the main building are the Montana Room and Golden Forest Club Rooms. I was able to find a spring deal that offered a decent amount off the standard room rates, park tickets, and a meal plan. We decided to treat ourselves with the Golden Forest Club Rooms because the difference in price was not that great and we were under budget because of the deal.
The Golden Forest Club Rooms are on the top floors of the main building of the lodge. The rooms have the same amenities as a standard room:
- Radio
- Disney and International TV Channels
- Telephone
- Kettle (upon request)
- Hair dryer
- Safety deposit box
- Air conditioning
- Free Wifi access
Plus a mini fridge.
The Club Level Amenities include:
- Private reception desk
- Luggage Service
- Free hot drinks, soft drinks and afternoon snacks in the private lounge
- American breakfast in the lounge
- Afternoon snacks are from 04:00 PM to 06:00 PM
- Complimentary tea & espresso facilities
- Disney Hotel Fastpass
A look around the Room:
Here is a quick look around our room. For a more detailed look be sure to check out my full picture sets from the trip.
Hotel First Impressions:
I had talked to several people who have visited Disneyland Paris as well as other parts of Europe and they all warned about hotel rooms compared to what I may be used to. They are on average smaller and simplified. So I had that in my mind as I approached the Lodge. The grounds were great to walk around and beyond what I had envisioned. You did feel like you were in a park setting with tall trees and natural looking paths throughout. The lobby was not grand like say the Wilderness Lodge but it was functional and looked nice. I found the hotel hard to compare/classify based on US (WDW) standards. It has many aspects of a deluxe hotel – price, grounds, gym & pool, several restaurants, and concierge level (Golden Forest Club). The room felt the size of a moderate. The bath towel size and feel were on more on par with value though. Also frustrating was there were two electrical plugs. One under the TV and one by the door. None by the desk! Also no clock in the room. The amount of drawer space and closest space was very tight.. Especially for three people for 9 days.. It felt more like a cruise cabin in that respect. To reach the theme parks or Disney Village you had the choice of a 10-15 minute walk around Lake Disney or a shuttle bus ride of nearly the same time because it stopped at other hotels too.
Disney’s Sequoia Lodge Grounds:
Here is a quick look around the hotel grounds. For a more detailed look be sure to check out my full picture sets from the trip.
Thoughts & Observations on Amenities:
The standard room amenities are what you would expect from a Disney Hotel. The one missing amenity was a clock though. The Wi-Fi access in the room was decent. It was not nearly as fast as Hong Kong, I was not able to do a lot of video, but it was stable and usable for pictures, reading email, etc…
The Golden Forest Club is sort of a concierge level but not quite.. There are a lot of services you would find on a concierge floor/service but not all. Below are some thoughts on each that Disney lists for the club..
Private reception desk – This area consisted of two desks and one to three cast members during its operating hours. You could use this area instead of the front desk and the cast members there were more than happy to answer questions and point you in the right direction. We found out though that they have limited hours and they really did not go above/beyond to aid you in requests like we had experienced at say the Yacht Club concierge at WDW. The other challenge is this space is relatively small and to check in if you have your luggage and carryons there is not enough space for you, those items and another party at the second desk to fit in the space.
Luggage Service – I am not sure what this entails.. We were not offered anything and took our bags up to the room ourselves and same for checkout..
Free hot drinks, soft drinks and afternoon snacks in the private lounge – This was a nice perk. On the lobby floor there was a lounge available throughout the afternoon and into the evening with drinks. You could take them with you so we would stop by and pick up water and/or soda for the next day to take with us into the park. They also had additional beverages and some food items available to purchase. The downside to this lounge is it was on the lobby level and not near the rooms. It was easy enough to stop in on your way to and from the parks or other destinations but was not as nice as having it on your floor. The lounge was open from noon to 10:30pm during our stay.
American breakfast in the lounge – This was a great benefit. I think all rooms (or at least all that are booked through the Disneyland Paris website) included a breakfast. But with the Golden Forest Club you had a different dining location from the rest of the hotel. It was a smaller set of rooms and the selection of food seemed greater than the main restaurants. Most mornings it was not crowded and fairly peaceful. The weekend was more crowded and more commotion came with these additional guests and their families. Breakfast was served 7am to 10:30am each day. If you were staying at the Lodge in a regular room you could pay 15 Euros per adult and 8 per child to eat in the lounge. Non Hotel guests could for 25 Euros for adults and 10 for children. I thought the food selection was ok and I never walked away hungry. The fresh bakery was great! I would have liked to have seen some variety from day to day though. Every day was exactly the same. For example swapping waffles or french toast for pancakes would have been nice.
Afternoon snacks are from 04:00 PM to 06:00 PM – I was disappointed with the snack offerings. I guess they are more traditional European but the two times I stopped by I did not find anything I wanted to eat.
Complimentary tea & espresso facilities – I am not sure if this is referencing the pots in your room or at the lounge. I do not drink either so I did not really investigate. But I do know they had both in the lounge available if you wanted it.
Disney Hotel Fastpass – Upon check-in for each night of the stay each person received a voucher. This was a FastPass that could be used at any FastPass attraction in either park. You could walk up to the FastPass entrance and give the cast member your voucher at any time without worrying about a return time or other FastPasses you held. When we went the lines were not bad and since I am not a big coaster person we did not use very many of these. I think I used one for Peter Pan and maybe Ratatouille. Each had a date stamp but the Cast Members did not seem to care and would honor it any day of your stay.
Summary:
I really enjoyed my stay at Disney’s Sequoia Lodge. After walking around the other hotels at Disneyland Paris I think I made a good decision and found the hotel that fit my tastes and budget. I would recommend it be one worth considering in your planning.
Club Level, was it worth it? — It was a 15% or so premium to stay in a Golden Forest Club Room over a standard room and about a 10% over a Montana room. Compare this to Walt Disney World where a Club Level room could run you over a 40% premium for the same view/room.
I thought it was nice and not overpriced but I would have liked to have seen a little more on the service side and maybe one or two different things in the room itself. From the pictures I have seen the rooms are identical. Starting off with breakfast and the beverage options throughout the day/evening were nice to have. If/when I go back will I do a club level? That really comes down to price. If there is a decent special running like we were able to take advantage of then I may consider the premium.
Visit my 2015 Disneyland Paris Trip Summary Page for more pictures, thoughts, observations & videos from this trip. If there is a topic you would like to see me explore more in depth like this post please do not hesitate to email, tweet, or comment.
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