Disney Vacation Club Opens 200 Stunning Mary Poppins-Inspired Rooms at Disney World’s Grand Floridian
Disney Vacation Club (DVC), Disney’s more flexible take on the traditional timeshare, officially opened its expanded Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa at Walt Disney World on June 23.
The expansion introduces a new DVC room category — the Resort Studio, adding an additional 200 DVC rooms. DVC has also refreshed the resort’s existing studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom villas.
The new Resort Studio configuration is unique to the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and is a departure from Disney Vacation Club’s traditional Studio Villas configurations, which sleep four to five (depending on resort) and include a queen-sized bed and queen-sized sofa bed, with some resorts also including a pull-down single bed to accommodate a fifth guest. Resort Studios don’t include the kitchenette area that’s standard to Studio Villas, though microwaves are being added to the rooms at guests’ requests.
While the Resort Studios may lack some of the kitchenette amenities DVC members are used to, like a toaster and wet bar, they come out far ahead as some of the most beautiful rooms on Walt Disney World property. The decor brings a new level of elegance to the Grand Floridian, already Walt Disney World’s grand dame hotel, introducing a modern take on the resort’s existing Victorian theming with colorful, floral motifs and playful, subtle nods to the Mary Poppins film franchise.
“The inspiration for the rooms and for most things at the Grand that you’ve been seeing lately with the reopening of Citricos is that we continue to bring in that garden feel,” says Shawn Moore, resorts portfolio design manager for Walt Disney Imagineering.
“We brought the Victorian garden from the exterior to the interior so it’s really those embellished gardens that you feel, and the natural tie for this room was bringing in Mary Poppins because of the film’s architectural scenes, the garden feeling — and we already have the penguin fountain in the DVC lobby.”
Artwork features Mary Poppins flying into Cherry Tree Lane and guests will spot penguins parading around the room’s chandelier, and silhouettes of umbrellas, penguins and other characters on decorative pillows, lampshades and wallpaper.
The Resort Studios are in the hotel’s Big Pine Key building and were previously traditional hotel rooms. Guests who’ve stayed in the former iteration of the rooms will be struck by the bright cheeriness the update brings.
“We really focused on bringing that outdoor feeling to the inside and then also making it lighter and brighter so it has more of that summer day feeling where you really want to sit on the patio and relax, and it’s also really relaxing when you come back from the parks,” Moore says, noting that other recent resort room refreshes, like the Incredibles-themed room update at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and a Moana-inspired enhancement to rooms at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, have all made the rooms significantly brighter.
“All of our most recent rehabs have taken that general strategy to make them a bit brighter so that when you come back to the room, you feel refreshed.”
Beyond the stunning decor, Resorts Studios will particularly appeal to guests who prefer two queen beds rather than the queen and sofa bed offered in a traditional DVC studio villa, or king and sofa bed in a one-bedroom. The rooms are extremely spacious, with plenty of closet and drawer space, and offer a desirable new option for members.
In addition to the new Resort Studios and refreshes to the existing DVC villas at the Grand Floridian, Citricos restaurant recently reopened with a Mary Poppins Returns-inspired overhaul. Also at the Grand Floridian, Walt Disney World’s most elegant fine-dining restaurant, Victoria & Alberts, is reopening on June 28.
The 2020 addition of a walking path to Magic Kingdom Park from the Grand Floridian has made the resort, already connected to Magic Kingdom and EPCOT by both monorail and boat, an even more desirable home resort for existing and prospective DVC members.
New Disney Vacation Club Points are now available for purchase at the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.
Disney Vacation Club Also Announces the Return of a Popular Member Benefit
Also revealed on June 23, Disney Vacation Club announced the upcoming reopening of Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The members’ lounge will reopen with a new theme — “Villains Lair” — and will feature portraits and accessories left behind by Disney Villains who took over the lounge during its pandemic-era closure, so the story goes.
The lounge will feature a villain-inspired menu, with dishes like the “Cherna-Board” of meats and cheeses, “Unfortunate Souls Shrimp” to “Lair-Made Hummus” and “Who’s Afraid of Pork Belly Sliders.” Cocktails get the wicked treatment too, with names like “The Other Side,” “The Underworld” and “Mirror Mirror Moonshine.”
The lounge is open from 6 pm to midnight and offers incredible views of Magic Kingdom’s nighttime spectacular, Disney Enchantment.
Access to Top of the World Lounge is available on a first-come, first-served basis to Disney Vacation Club members and their guests staying on that member’s Walt Disney World Resort hotel reservation.