Conciege Level vs. Room with Kitchen

The problem with getting a villa or condo with a kitchen is the same as it's benefit. You have to fill that kitchen with groceries. That can be either good or bad.

The bad of having a kitchen.
Time and effort spent:
Buying groceries,
preparing food,
doing dishes,
taking out the trash,
wasting food/money,
having to finish food to avoid wasting it.

The good of having a kitchen.
Getting exactly what you want, especially good when you have picky eaters,
Possibly saving money, although the Goodings Grocery Store in LBV is prices like a 7/11,
Your kitchen is open 24/7,
You can bring back left overs, order pizza or keep any carryout in your fridge,
ICE CREAM!
Alchohol!

An alternative to paying for a kitchen in your villa is getting a regular hotel room that grants you access to the Concierge Lounge.

With Concierge Lounge you can get:
Cold breakfast,
Drinks and cookies all day,
Appetizers at night,
beer, wine, brandy, at night,
deserts at night,

We have really enjoyed Concierge Level, although results vary by resort. To wake up, have a bowl of cereal or danish and go is great. Our kids had non stop milk, water or apple juice. We could take a large bottle of evian back to our room each night. We could grab some fruit or fill up plastic cups with cheerios to take into the park as a snack. Each night, I could easily drink two or three glasses of wine before either heading out for dinner or heading off to bed. And the appetizers were sometimes enough to act as a full dinner.

One caveat of concierge level is the schedule they keep. Breakfast doesn't start until 7am. Sometimes our kids have woken up earlier than than. And the apps/desert schedule at night is strict, they begin taking that food away a few minutes early whether you've had enough to eat or not.

At any concierge level, you will find, as you might expect, a concierge. They can book dinning reservations, help with special requests, and answer questions. They handle your checking in and checking out. Upon arrival, you are escorted right past the lobby to the concierge club level for VIP check in. Pretty nice!

Not all are equal. I'll rate quality of concierge level here only.

Grand Floridian (GF) Concierge level is the nicest. We stayed in the Sugar Loaf Key building. There is also a concierge level in the main GF building. We recommend the ground floor in Sugar Loaf Key, it's closest to the lounge. The security in this out building seemed somewhat porous with automatic doors on both ends and nobody attending to them. But the food was ample and very high end. One night we had crab cakes! And the staff was exceptional.


Boardwalk Inn Concierge level is 2nd best in my opinion. The food is provided by restaurants from around the Boardwalk area. So the appetizers at night were somewhat less than the GF. The walk to get to this area was long at the end of the building, but the security was very tight, there was one secure key card door to pass through attended by a staff member at all times.


Contemporary Concierge Level. We liked this one a lot. Most if not all of the Contemporary has been refurbished. And the food was lower key, we had riblets and wings or meatballs and chicken fingers. And plenty of PB&J. The best part of the was the concierge lounge was located on a high floor with a view of MK, so each night, the kids could watch Wishes Fireworks over MK in their pajamas and then go straight to bed. I would definitely go back.


Wilderness Lodge Concierge Level. For some reason, somebody thought that the menu each night should reflect the theme of the lodge. The wild wild west. So we would have chili one night, or franks and beans the next, or pulled bbq pork with corn bread, or more chili. I'm not kidding. By the end of the week my stomach had more holes than a block of swiss cheese. Bring some tums if you stay here.


Concierge Level costs roughly $100 extra per night for the rooms we stayed in. So it's a benefit you definitely pay for. As a consequence we spent less on food and drinks inside the park. And skipped expensive dinners on many nights. So I can say that it does add some value. We did zero dishes, and everything was available to us.

As an example of the convenience, we returned from the parks late one night, and the lounge was already closed, so Jacki phoned the concierge from our room with a request. Within two minutes, there was a knock at our door, we were presented with two cups of whole milk with lids and straws. The kids finished their milk, brushed their teeth, and then went right to bed. And all we had to do was make a phone call.

Another example, our concierge handle fedex packages for us and stocked their fridge with special soy milk for our niece.