The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Owners & Lovers Group - 2.0

We stayed in 5504 a studio this past sun- tues. Fabulous view. We didn't request anything, and got that great view of DCA. We made coffee, and went down to the gas grills to watch DCA start up it's day. While sipping our coffee, we saw the same guests riding Goofy's Sky School over and over. The CM's were letting them stay in the same car, fabulous.
 
Hey, I recall you and I were looking for VGC contracts around the same time.

We stayed there for THREE trips last year - 4th of July, Labor Day (for the 1/2 marathon) and Christmas.

You are going to love it there.

I just wanted to mention, our July and December trips I booked about 3-4 months out, and actually used my OKW points. It IS possible to get a several nights together even that close to arrival if you are aggressive and lucky using the on line booking system. That's how I lucked out last year, and it saved my VGC points for our next big trip there this Labor Day, again for the 1/2 marathon.

Even so, we are waiting on ROFR for another batch of VGC points because we'd love to be able to do 1 bedrooms consistently.

Good luck to you and have a great time there!

I remember you too! Good luck on your ROFR. I know that it can be done, it just didn't work out last year. My resale came with some points that had to be used by the end of August and there was nothing at VGC within that time frame when i first looked and waiting for something to open up put those points at risk of being lost or being sold at bargain prices. I did ultimately sell those points through Davids. I also sent my daughter and friend to Aulani for a week. Aulani was also booked when I first looked but -like you said- it opened up so I could book it in two segments/reservations. Then we booked a week at AKV in December where my daughter had always wanted to stay. So we have made great use of our DVC points just not at the home resort. I think that in future for WDW trips, I may try to purchase a block of points that someone will transfer to me. There are so many options at WDW at the seven month booking window that I hate using my VGC points to book them.
 
We are going to the Grand Californian for the first time in about 11 weeks... We are SOOO excited, and this thread has been an invaluable source of information. Over the past month or so, I have read through most (but not all) of it, so I hope you can forgive me if this question has already been asked and addressed.

We will be staying in a Grand Villa for four nights; it will be a "family reunion" of sorts, so we needed lots of sleeping places. Am I correct in understanding that there is a two car parking limit per villa? It seems crazy to me that you are allowed the same number of cars for a studio as you are for a grand villa that sleeps up to 12 guests...:crowded:

Is my understanding correct -- we will only be allowed two cars? Based on the current plans, I am expecting all of the guests combined to have four cars. What is the best way to deal with this limitation?

Thanks to all in advance.
 
We will be staying in a Grand Villa for four nights...
You will love the Grand Villa :thumbsup2
Is my understanding correct -- we will only be allowed two cars? Based on the current plans, I am expecting all of the guests combined to have four cars. What is the best way to deal with this limitation?
While the rule might be 2 cars, in practice there is no limit :yay:
Every room key will be printed with "SELF PARKING" and can be used to access the self parking lot. The parking lot attendant will check the room key when leaving the parking lot, but the key is not scanned or logged.

A 2 car limit is unreasonable for the Grand Villa, so just: Don't ask, don't tell :goodvibes
 


You will love the Grand Villa :thumbsup2
I've been looking at the pictures I can find on-line, and they look unbelievable! But I worry that the wait is going to kill me. Now is one of those times I wish I had a time machine to the future...:hourglass
While the rule might be 2 cars, in practice there is no limit :yay:
Every room key will be printed with "SELF PARKING" and can be used to access the self parking lot. The parking lot attendant will check the room key when leaving the parking lot, but the key is not scanned or logged.

A 2 car limit is unreasonable for the Grand Villa, so just: Don't ask, don't tell :goodvibes

Thank you - this is what I was wondering. I really do not like the idea of "taking advantage," so I hope that is not what we will be doing... We're not going to be there over a weekend, and I understand early May is not incredibly busy, so hopefully we won't be inconveniencing anyone else. I just can't see us having to ask half of our guests to pay for vallet parking.:guilty:
 
You will love the Grand Villa :thumbsup2

While the rule might be 2 cars, in practice there is no limit :yay:
Every room key will be printed with "SELF PARKING" and can be used to access the self parking lot. The parking lot attendant will check the room key when leaving the parking lot, but the key is not scanned or logged.

A 2 car limit is unreasonable for the Grand Villa, so just: Don't ask, don't tell :goodvibes

So I guess I broke the "don't ask,don't tell rule cuz when I asked the CM @ the driveway gate of The Grand back in May for my stay IN THE GRAND VILLA the response was" 1st two cars free then 3rd $15 and process starts over again-" I STILL PAID XTRA $15 PLUS MY OWN VALET FEE! :confused3

Really feel like a broken record by explaining on this subject like a million times now!:rolleyes1
 
We are going to the Grand Californian for the first time in about 11 weeks... We are SOOO excited, and this thread has been an invaluable source of information. Over the past month or so, I have read through most (but not all) of it, so I hope you can forgive me if this question has already been asked and addressed.

We will be staying in a Grand Villa for four nights; it will be a "family reunion" of sorts, so we needed lots of sleeping places. Am I correct in understanding that there is a two car parking limit per villa? It seems crazy to me that you are allowed the same number of cars for a studio as you are for a grand villa that sleeps up to 12 guests...:crowded:

Is my understanding correct -- we will only be allowed two cars? Based on the current plans, I am expecting all of the guests combined to have four cars. What is the best way to deal with this limitation?

Thanks to all in advance.

While we're on the subject of The grand Villa & parking - If you hold a big party & worried about parking issues your guests they may park @ DTD and get validation for few more xtra hours. Also if your guest want to pay separate valet they said no it is usually charged on to the credit card who made the reservation. My DFIL tried to get charged separately & they would not do it so from now on I just tell people to just pay me back.
 


Really feel like a broken record by explaining on this subject like a million times now!:rolleyes1

Sorry! As I said, I tried to look through to see whether this had already been answered, but I did not find anything...:guilty:

While we're on the subject of The grand Villa & parking - If you hold a big party & worried about parking issues your guests they may park @ DTD and get validation for few more xtra hours. Also if your guest want to pay separate valet they said no it is usually charged on to the credit card who made the reservation. My DFIL tried to get charged separately & they would not do it so from now on I just tell people to just pay me back.

We're not planning to have a really big party... In honesty, we are expecting about 12, maybe 13 people for dinner one night. Considering that a grand villa is designed to accomodate up to 13 guests, I didn't think that would be pushing it too far. There will be 7 or 8 of us actually sleeping there and staying for all four nights.

Thank you for letting me know how the valet parking works. I would have assumed each guest could pay in cash, so at least now I won't be caught by surprise.
 
Sorry! As I said, I tried to look through to see whether this had already been answered, but I did not find anything...:guilty:



We're not planning to have a really big party... In honesty, we are expecting about 12, maybe 13 people for dinner one night. Considering that a grand villa is designed to accomodate up to 13 guests, I didn't think that would be pushing it too far. There will be 7 or 8 of us actually sleeping there and staying for all four nights.

Thank you for letting me know how the valet parking works. I would have assumed each guest could pay in cash, so at least now I won't be caught by surprise.

floribr1,
Please do not be sorry... I guess it's just me whining. ;) I like to share my experiences with others as they share with me but sometimes I feel like this one subject ALWAYS comes up and others deal with it quite differently than I & that's okay too!! :thumbsup2 As far as having many guests in your villa for a party it was just an FYI moment but if others have anything else to add to this - ALSO GOOD TO KNOW! ;) The more we know, :teacher: the better time we shall have!! :yay: Hope you have a great time!! :flower3:
 
Thanks to everyone for all the information and pictures posted here. My VGC waitlist just came through and was added to our stay for a total of 5 nights in June. Because of what I learned here, I did send my email room # requests to Member Services. We are arriving on a Wednesday, so I don't know what that does for our chances of a high floor Paradise Pier view, but they are certainly better than if I didn't send the email request. This will be our third stay at VGC, but the other two times I didn't request a view till check in. Thanks again!!
 
I was wondering if VGC sells any resort specific merchandise. If they do and if anyone has any pictures of the most recent items, could you please post them? I would love to get something to add to my other resort specific merchandise I have at home :goodvibes.
 
I was wondering if VGC sells any resort specific merchandise.
I have not seen any merchandise specifically for the Villas, and selection of DVC merchandise is very limited.

A pin was release for the grand opening:
pin73244

(buy on eBay or pin trading sites)

A framed lithograph was given to "founding" owners:
vgc_litho.jpg

The same print (in a different frame) hangs in each villa.
 
I was wondering if VGC sells any resort specific merchandise. If they do and if anyone has any pictures of the most recent items, could you please post them? I would love to get something to add to my other resort specific merchandise I have at home :goodvibes.

There has always been GC merchandise - usually a shirt or two, a sweatshirt, mug and maybe a couple other items. But nothing that is Villas specific.
 
Thank you Nonsuch and KAT4DISNEY for your responses. Too bad, it would of been cool if we could of gotten something (was thinking more of a pin to add to our pin collection) when we stayed there....no worries, I'll just check out the merchandise for GCH instead :goodvibes.
 
Okay it worked! We checked in about 11am today and told them that we made list of requested park view rooms & asked if they were honoring it? Answer " YES it is a park view but not sure what it is...." So BEFORE I signed the registration form I CHECKED and sure enough there was one of my 1 bedroom requests....RM # 5502!! Had 5 choices on my list! He said "Oh your way ahead of me... We are not supposed to mention the exact room number but remenber I did not say it." I think he was joking but surprised I knew what I wanted & how to look for it! The room wasn't ready and the usual "will text you when ready" was the response. SO we drove back home (20 minutes) to wait to be texted! Really we did have to come back anyway to pick up my kid from band practice this afternoon!

Back from our ONE night in VGC and a little bummed :sad1: that we could not get our park view room request fullfilled by using our method from LAST time(instead pool view # 5507) BUT never-the-less we SO ENJOYED our room!! :thumbsup2 It made such a BIG difference when you get use to the space AND it was our 1st time to stay OFF property for two days in a row & drive back in forth into DLR! Since they added the weekend Annual Passholders Early Entry we took advantage of husband's Platinum Elite Priority Member points & stayed @ the Crowne Plaza to be closer to the parks. Nothing wrong with the place or service just that we MISS our VGC!! ;) It was kinda strange driving around Harbor Blvd (al la hotel row) & watching all the people walking to DL while knowing we too are stay somewhere else for our Disney fun time! I know we could have just came from home for the morning time but so hard to get my lazy crew up & going from the house so this is the next best thing! I don't regret it cuz we got to ride the one's we love the most 2 times with NO LONG LINES! :cheer2: I think the lines for DLR guests were longer.
Also would like to add that a ONE night stay (NOT ENOUGH) in the villas is SUCH a TEASE!!! That was our 1st time doing this cuz we usually stay at least 2 or 3 days but I DID make this reservation on kinda short notice! Believe it or not I actually miss the light cooking I sometimes do while in the villas! :scratchin :lmao:
Still a SHORT weekender for SURE but a great one at that!!! :cool1:
 
Back from our ONE night in VGC and a little bummed :sad1: that we could not get our park view room request fullfilled by using our method from LAST time(instead pool view # 5507) BUT never-the-less we SO ENJOYED our room!! :thumbsup2 It made such a BIG difference when you get use to the space AND it was our 1st time to stay OFF property for two days in a row & drive back in forth into DLR! Since they added the weekend Annual Passholders Early Entry we took advantage of husband's Platinum Elite Priority Member points & stayed @ the Crowne Plaza to be closer to the parks. Nothing wrong with the place or service just that we MISS our VGC!! ;) It was kinda strange driving around Harbor Blvd (al la hotel row) & watching all the people walking to DL while knowing we too are stay somewhere else for our Disney fun time! I know we could have just came from home for the morning time but so hard to get my lazy crew up & going from the house so this is the next best thing! I don't regret it cuz we got to ride the one's we love the most 2 times with NO LONG LINES! :cheer2: I think the lines for DLR guests were longer.
Also would like to add that a ONE night stay (NOT ENOUGH) in the villas is SUCH a TEASE!!! That was our 1st time doing this cuz we usually stay at least 2 or 3 days but I DID make this reservation on kinda short notice! Believe it or not I actually miss the light cooking I sometimes do while in the villas! :scratchin :lmao:
Still a SHORT weekender for SURE but a great one at that!!! :cool1:
One night is definitely too short!

What's this about the AP EE? That sounds great! Hope they continue it! I've been planning trips to Florida for the last year so haven't been on the DLR boards as much recently.
 
I haven't been to my home resort since Carsland opened and its starting to feel too long without a reservation.:hyper: A girlfriend of mine whose son was born on my birthday is planning on going to DLR on her son's and my birthday weekend in early December, so when she invited us to join her I couldn't resist the temptation!

Unfortunately the studios are completely sold out, as are the 2 bedroom lock-offs. Only 1 bedrooms and 2 bedrooms available ... if anybody wants to let go of any nights in a studio the weekend of Dec 6-8, let me know! ;) Currently waitlisted and will have to check in sporadically before the 7 month window opens up.
 
One night is definitely too short!

What's this about the AP EE? That sounds great! Hope they continue it! I've been planning trips to Florida for the last year so haven't been on the DLR boards as much recently.

Since January they have been letting AP holders have Early Entry on weekends until April 15 (with exception of a few specific weekend) which is @ opposite parks of the DLR guests! Although it seems to benefits the Premium APer's more than the others! Okay by me! :thumbsup2 I'm milking all I can get from my PAP considering it expires at the same time this promotion end!
:yay: It will be the end for us @ DLR until 2015 - going to WDW for the next 2 years & out of points til then!! :sad: What will we do without VGC OR Disneyland? :eek: :faint: Oh well, just have to keep coming here on the disboards to get my fill ! :hug:: :yes::
 
We are staying at the Dvc villas, and last night we had our verry first hotel fire alarm ever! They emptied us all out into the parking lot, and we were outside for only about 15 minutes before they let us all back in. An interesting experience, especially when you and your family are groggy and half asleep. ;)
 

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