Room Service at the Grand Californian

Although I was concerned about money and had brought bagels for our breakfasts, I thought it would be good to try room service once. There are restaurants in (and near) the Grand Californian, but you can also fill out a menu at night with your order and the delivery time. Hang it out your door before midnight and breakfast will arrive warm and promptly, with a knock at your door.

That is an important detail. My previous experience with room service had been on a cruise, where they can leave the food on your door. As everything is included with the fare, and any errors or completely new orders can be resolved with a simple phone call, this works well.

Here, you are paying for this breakfast. That makes it not only reasonable that there is a higher level of service where you will have your attendant bring in the cart, but also practical that he will left the covers so you can inspect your meal and make sure everything looks right.

As reasonable and practical as that is, it did not occur to me until later, therefore - despite my setting the time for them to come - I was in my nightgown and my mother was still in bed. The staff isn't going to act like they even notice, but I was aware.

The food was pretty good, and there are nice little touches. The leftover butter and jam for the toast made the next day's bagels fancier, there was a bowl of marshmallows for the cocoa, and there was an adorable little bottle of Tabasco. We didn't use it at all, but it was still so cute!

The tray was actually a rolling table that they leave. In theory you can put chairs around it. For our room it was a little snug between the beds and the dresser, so I ended up carrying the plates to the table already in the room and using the chairs already there. I am sure some people take their food onto the balcony.

When you are done, they request that you call the front desk and let them know you are putting the table out. I do remember the cruise ship passageways being full of trays and plates. Visually that is not the image that Disney would want, but there is also a practical issue with having the hallways clear for access. That is something I love about Disney - they consider all of the details.

I would not have wanted to do it every morning, but I am glad we did it once.