Horizon Explorers Travel Co.

Club Level at Disney World sounds like a splurge, and it definitely can be. But on our recent stay at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, I actually booked Club Level partly because I thought it might save our family money on food.

We were celebrating our daughter’s 6th birthday, so I also wanted the stay to feel a little extra special.

Here’s the math:

Regular Savanna View room: $473
Savanna View Club Level room: $691
Actual cost of upgrading to Club Level: $218

For that extra $218, our family of four ate almost everything we wanted for essentially two days in the Club lounge.

What We Actually Ate

We started our check-in day with breakfast in the Kilimanjaro Club lounge: ham quiche, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, pecan cinnamon rolls, fruit and more, plus specialty coffees like cappuccinos and mimosas for the adults. The kids also had special beverages with gummy worms.

For comparison, breakfast at Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge is currently $39 per adult and $23 per child. For our family of two adults and two kids, that’s $124 before tax and gratuity for one breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to Typhoon Lagoon, taking advantage of the complimentary water park admission Disney Resort guests receive on their check-in day.

Rather than buying lunch at the water park, we returned to Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Club lounge had ham and cheese roll-ups, Uncrustables, Boma Style olive salad, the BEST curry noodles, vegetables and several types hummus with breads, fresh fruit and other snacks, which was more than enough for us to call it lunch…especially by adding several Mickey Ice Cream Bars and Mickey Ice Cream Sandwiches 🙂

Then we spent some time sitting on our balcony with wine and the kids’ special gummy worm drinks watching the animals on the savanna have their lunches before heading to the pool.

The room! I provided the surprise birthday decorations on the bed, and Disney Housekeeping left a surprise card for Lilly.

The view from our balcony

And then there were the snacks.

Our family ate at least six Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bars during the stay. 😂 At Disney prices, that’s nearly $40 in Mickey bars alone!

Dinner, Drinks & Dessert

That evening, the lounge offered BBQ meatballs, African Shrimp Pearl Couscous, South African-style chicken corn chowder and other warm selections, which was plenty for us to use as dinner.

One thing I thought was especially cool was that several of the dishes served in the Club lounge are similar to offerings you’ll find downstairs at Boma. Dinner at Boma is $58 per adult and $34 per child ages 3 to 9, so dinner there for our family of four would have been $184 before tax and gratuity.

Now, I’m definitely not saying the Club Level evening spread is the same thing as eating the entire Boma buffet. But for us, it completely replaced the need to purchase dinner that night.

Wine and beer were still included, so we grabbed drinks to go and headed down to the pool. The kids rode Animal Kingdom Lodge’s awesome water slide and joined the dance and playtime activities hosted by a Disney Cast Member.

Later we came back for desserts and after-dinner drinks, including liquor and cordials (They had Amarula!).

After eating breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner and dessert, the grand total we spent purchasing food that day was:

$8.

On what you ask? One kids’ pizza from the Mara that the kids split after the pool games and before dessert. 😂

And We Weren’t Done Yet

The next morning, we went back to the lounge for another full breakfast, along with specialty coffees and mimosas.

Using Boma as a comparison, breakfast for our family of four would cost about $124 before tax and gratuity.

Two breakfasts?

$248.

Remember what we paid to upgrade our Savanna View room to Club Level?

$210.

So the comparable cost of two Boma breakfasts alone was already $38 MORE than our entire Club Level upgrade.

And we hadn’t just eaten breakfast.

That $210 also gave us lunch, dinner, at least $40 worth of Mickey bars, other snacks, desserts, specialty coffees, mimosas, wine, beer, liquor and specialty drinks for the kids.

So, Did Club Level Save Us Money?

For our family, ABSOLUTELY.

Could we have packed sandwiches, brought our own snacks and ate the least expensive quick-service meals? Of course.

But that’s not how we wanted to vacation at Disney this time.

We were already booking a Savanna View room for our daughter’s 6th birthday. The question was whether it made sense to spend $210 more for Club Level or book the $480 room and pay separately for all of our meals, snacks, coffees and drinks.

After experiencing it, I’d happily spend that $210 again.

For us, that extra $210 didn’t just buy Club Level access. It replaced a significant amount of packing, preparing, and spending we would have done anyway and made our daughter’s birthday stay feel like a splurge at the same time.

That’s a Disney math equation I can get behind.

If you’re considering Club Level for your next Disney World vacation, Horizon Explorers Travel Co. can help you compare the actual room rates for your dates and figure out whether the upgrade makes sense for your family.

Love, Alicia