Golden Forest - worth the extra?

[ParisinMarch]

I'm tempted to upgrade from our standard rook booking to GF. Grateful for any thoughts, especially from those who've stayed/considered GF recently-ish.

Trying to weigh things up -

Breakfast: we've currently got a half board plan and def plan to fill up in the morning! Am I right in thinking it's literally the same buffet, but served in a different (and slightly less hectic) room? Are there any differences in terms of needing to book a slot etc?

Coffee machine: in GF, nespresso. Great! If no GF, what am I drinking? Is it self serve / order from server at breakfast? I have read of some magic involving free coffees from machines in hotel hallways, too! I will be a happier human if I can have a coffee first thing, before dressing and combing and bag-packing and shepherding children around.

Fridge: I've read conflicting things about this. I could stash a carton of oat milk in it, right? Otherwise I imagine I'm on either black coffee or tolerable soya milk coffee, which is a shame. Or maybe I'm underestimating Disney's vegan provision and i can get an oat milk coffee at breakfast anyway?

Drinks in the lounge: available pretty much all day? I think I've read older accounts of these being individual bottles/cans you could take away, and more recent accounts of these being poured out so you can really only drink whilst you're there. Can anyone confirm/correct this?

Snacks in the lounge, between 4-5.30: What kind of stuff is this? We're doing 4 nights and it'll be 11pm fireworks, so long days. Plus I'm hoping to avoid paying out of pocket for much food/drinks on top of our half board. So I could see us finding the time to pop back for this during the busier time (then getting back to the park just in time for the parade!). But a glass of lemonade and a couple of biscuits maybe makes GF more expensive and less useful than just filling our water bottles and sharing a portion of chips...

Luggage service: does this mean when we check in, we leave our suitcase at the desk and head straight to the parks?

Location: I can't really decide on this... previously, we stayed in a standard room and actually being in the lodge was really nice, we had a view of the little river and it didn't feel inconvenient being a bit further from the restaurant or very slightly further from the parks. Am I missing something?

Are there other factors to consider?

I feel like this mainly hinges on how useful the drinks/afternoon tea are, and what my non GF coffee options are! The upgrade price is (based on dummy booking) looking like quite a lot just for the coffee 😂 but nonetheless the idea is stuck in my head now...

[rking89]

Have done GF half board and in the lodges with no meal plan. This is my take away from it all.

Breakfast: we've currently got a half board plan and def plan to fill up in the morning! Am I right in thinking it's literally the same buffet, but served in a different (and slightly less hectic) room? Are there any differences in terms of needing to book a slot etc?

When we did GF in 2019 it was go any time and in a different room on the ground floor as appose to in the main dining. We did a standard room in the lodges in March 2022.

Coffee machine: in GF, nespresso. Great! If no GF, what am I drinking? Is it self serve / order from server at breakfast? I have read of some magic involving free coffees from machines in hotel hallways, too! I will be a happier human if I can have a coffee first thing, before dressing and combing and bag-packing and shepherding children around.

They have vending machines dotted around the hotel (or in the side door opposite the swimming pool if you're in the lodges) which serve coffees and hot chocolates. Not sure on quality as don't drink coffee. Otherwise Earl of Sandwich (€5 for a coffee with Croissant or €6 with a muffin) or Starbucks in the village.

Fridge: I've read conflicting things about this. I could stash a carton of oat milk in it, right? Otherwise I imagine I'm on either black coffee or tolerable soya milk coffee, which is a shame. Or maybe I'm underestimating Disney's vegan provision and i can get an oat milk coffee at breakfast anyway?

No fridge in the standard rooms but a fridge in the GF rooms.

Drinks in the lounge: available pretty much all day? I think I've read older accounts of these being individual bottles/cans you could take away, and more recent accounts of these being poured out so you can really only drink whilst you're there. Can anyone confirm/correct this?

Again 2019 they did cans which were help yourself. This changed in the last 12 or so months to bottles they pour for you and can't take away.

Snacks in the lounge, between 4-5.30: What kind of stuff is this? We're doing 4 nights and it'll be 11pm fireworks, so long days. Plus I'm hoping to avoid paying out of pocket for much food/drinks on top of our half board. So I could see us finding the time to pop back for this during the busier time (then getting back to the park just in time for the parade!). But a glass of lemonade and a couple of biscuits maybe makes GF more expensive and less useful than just filling our water bottles and sharing a portion of chips...

For snacks there is a shop in the train station and also the garage behind the Santa Fe (a 10 minute walk down the river from the lodges) if you don't want to go back to the hotel for snacks every day. Its cheaper than the parks (just) but also less hassle then going back to the hotel if you stock up in the morning.

Luggage service: does this mean when we check in, we leave our suitcase at the desk and head straight to the parks?

Exactly that. We arrived at 11am. Checked in dropped our bags at concierge and off you go, collect them when you get the rooms at 3pm.

Location: I can't really decide on this... previously, we stayed in a standard room and actually being in the lodge was really nice, we had a view of the little river and it didn't feel inconvenient being a bit further from the restaurant or very slightly further from the parks. Am I missing something?

Again done GF and lodges. Actually found the lodges more convenient as you can walk straight down the river to the village. Never used the busses and when we did Half board we ate most of our evening meals in the parks.

Hope this helps with your decision. My 3 year old was happy with a Croissant that we bought from home for breakfast and we had either this or an Earl of Sandwich for breakfast. If you get a good price for an upgrade for GF then it might be worth it but no real right or wrong answer.

[ParisinMarch]

Thank you, really helpful to read.

Still keen to hear additional views on this as I try to make up my mind!

[Lola]

We did Golden Forest and it was the best decision of our trip. The concierge service and the lounge were worth the extra on their own

[mskitty]

Things might have changed but when we did GF the breakfast had hot items as well as the usual continental selection.

We loved the lounge on an afternoon and evening. The lounge staff would also get drinks for us from the bar and even went down to the restaurant for a bottle of wine that we liked but couldn't get at the bar.

[ParisinMarch]

Ah I think I'm gonna do it! It's not looking cheap tbh but I think a lot of it is stuff which will really make a difference to us - decent cup of coffee first thing, getting checked in and off to the park with minimal waiting around, knowing that the afternoon tea stuff will be available if it suits us to pop back for it. Even 'just' that stuff feels worth spending the money on.

Then the other, more variable, stuff might just be a bonus if it works out that way (it'd be great if we were able to take drinks away with us, it'd be preferable to be able to show up for breakfast any time rather than have a fixed half-hour slot, it'd be amazing to have a bit of a view of the fireworks if one/both children can't manage to hold out til 11pm some days!).

[Gill H]

You don’t have to have a fixed slot for breakfast anyway. Anyone can go any time. It just means if it is busy, those with that time slot get priority.

We always turn up just before 7am and go straight in.

Hot items are available in GF and standard.

You can still leave your luggage in the luggage room with standard.

I have never done GF but main differences for me would be having a fridge and coffee machine.

Going standard we take mugs and those kenco 2 in 1 sachets, and ask reception for a kettle.

[ParisinMarch]

That's a good tip about breakfast, Gill. When we had a slot previously I assumed we were bound to it (and i suppose didn't fancy trying at a different time only to get sent away!).

Re: luggage, my understanding of the difference is that in standard rooms you can leave your stuff in the bag room and collect later, whereas in GF you can leave your luggage and it magically appears in your room later. Happy to be corrected!

[Gill H]

I haven’t heard that. Would be nice if so!

[Rachv38]

I've also booked GF room for our next trip in Feb half term. We've never done club level before so looking forward to it. I've since added the half board meal paln on so I know all meals will be covered. We've always had it in the past, this time I was just going to have the afternoon tea but my kids are always hungry. We will try and get back around 4pm then eat later on.