It's true that one of the reasons I would avoid staying at the Grand Cal (other than the teeny tiny rooms) is that the facilities are really there for Disney Resort tourists rather than actual guests of the hotel. One of the prime perks - - proximity to the Parks - - sees to that.
Yes, actual guests have better places to spend their time at the hotel ... namely, their guest rooms that they've paid a pretty penny for.
But whether the Great Hall with its piano and fireplace was designed to entertain paying guests or paying tourists, the result was the same. People lounging in that hall tend to spend money on the premises. Discourage one and you've discouraged the other.
It's interesting to see how long it will take any hotel to go from a class joint to a seedy has-been. The five years mark is when - mark my words - the Grand Californian will be seen to have done the hotel equivalent of jump the shark.
(And the sofa removal is not the main culprit in my eyes ... it's the complete tackiness of not replacing the Great Hall custom carpet via the insurance proceeds they undoubtedly received for precisely that damage.)
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