I'll give a quick down and dirty assessment of the GF on a by-category breakdown. Here you go!
Customer Service- A+. From the time we checked in to the time we checked out, the GF staff were courteous, polite, attentive and most importantly, quick to respond to our needs.
Resort Amenities- A-. The positives; buildings and grounds/pool areas immaculate and well kept, Christmas theming was on-point and not gaudy (we visit it all the time when staying at other resorts). Neutral/Possible Negatives. Gasparilla was closed, forcing us to change our dining plan breakfast plans to either eating granola bars that we brought or kinda wasting a QS credit at Mezner's. Mezner's should've stocked more stuff while Gasparilla is closed. One can only eat *so many* delicious cinnamon rolls before they need something else.
Room- B. Positives; The room was clean and in good condition. We were in Boca Chica, so the view to the lagoon was awesome and relaxing to go out on the patio in the morning and take in the muffled sounds from around the lagoon and watch the wildlife. Negatives; the bed was lumpy and weird, and created a U in the middle where my wife and I (and our 19 month old son) would roll into the middle of it in our sleep. We called to have it looked at and all they did was replace the top pad and not the mattress (when it was a mattress problem, not a pad problem). Shower and water. The shower wouldn't drain. After 5 minutes in it, you were standing in a puddle up to your calves. Also, the drain plug wouldn't work, making it impossible to bath our kid without constantly refilling the tub. Maintenance came and fixed both on day 2. Water temp, HORRIBLE. It would take 5-8 minutes to get warm water out of the shower. Then when it kicked in, it would scald you for a couple minutes then slowly taper off back to cold. Not a good trait for a 5-star hotel. A normal 5-7 minute shower (for a guy) would take 15-20 minutes due to the water flux, not good when you're trying to stick to your set in stone Fastpass+ Disney day. Lastly, no clocks in the room. That's pretty petty. Our other pet peeve is that not ONE Disney resort (we've stayed at pretty much every Deluxe Disney resort in North America) has microwaves. That's pure Disney greed folks. Sometimes I'd like to not spend $30 on breakfast for 2 people and a toddler and just warm up something I brought with us. Next time we go, I'm buying a cheap $50 microwave and hiding it in the closet during the day.
So, an A- overall.
All in all, it was an enjoyable stay. Even with some very rude and noisy New York/New Jersey neighbors, we thought that we got a pretty good value for our money spent there. Sad to see the rope fences blocking the beaches as we walked back and forth to the Poly a few times. Amazed that the Poly is more money than the GF to stay at. Growing up my parents always stayed at the Poly, so it's near and dear to my heart (hate to see the lobby without the waterfall), but the GF really does set the deluxe standard for Disney resorts.
