$500 a night and no running water. Updated with news on page 5

Sincerely feel awful this had to happen to anyone. Same when weather and other elements spoil a Disneyland trip and there are no refunds.

AustinTink said:
The water was turned off for 2 of our 3 nights at the Grand Californian. This sucks, but what sucks more is not knowing it was going to happen and really needing water.

Imagine our surprise when we closed down the parks and got back to our hotel room around 1am and wanted to take showers. Hot and filthy after a day of parkhopping, we were quite surprised to say the least. When I called down to the front desk to ask if our room was having issues, I was told the whole hotel was under maintenance from 1-5am... no water. Apparently, every other room in the hotel had a letter slipped under the door alerting guests of the upcoming maintenance. We didn't get a letter!! Had we known, we would have planned accordingly and returned to the hotel in time to get cleaned up before bed.

It was one gross and sticky night.

Just a word of caution for night owls like us who might be heading to the Grand in the near future. Ask the front desk if you will have water for all 24 hours of your nightly stay.
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emmybee said:
We received the same note last week with one day's notice of the shut off. It was placed on our bed w/ the turn-down service. I mistakenly thought that it was for that very same night... thank goodness that wasn't the case!
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The note was slid under the door while we were out, sometime between 4PM and 11PM Monday evening. The shutdown is Wednesday morning, so a full days notice.
 


We had that note last week as well, along with some bottles of water they left on the dresser. But we had a message later that night on the phone stating that it had been cancelled and water would not be turned off. Guess they switched to this week...
 
We had this happen at a hotel back in 09 I think, no notice or anything. At least they did reimburse us in full. I was glad we were only a few hours from home.
 
Wait, last week's water shut off was cancelled? We were there and never received notice that it was cancelled. We rushed back from the parks at night and hurried to shower, etc. We were given notices on each bed the day before, again on the day off but never heard about cancellation :(

We were cracking up, first we had the 2 fire alarms on Saturday night, then the water shut off. We were wondering what was next :)
 
we had x2 letters slipped under our door while at our stay at the VGC, from September 26-October 2 warning of the water shut off, and then upon our early return to our room, we had voicemails on the room phone stating that they "will not" have maitnennce that evening and there will be no water shut off... cut our stay at the parks a little short that night, but no worries, thats what downtown disney is for!! and oh...yes.. the fire alarms....LOL!! In 3 or 4 different languages!! our kiddo's didn't even wake!! i was given orders (by the wife) to call downstairs and see what this was about... Unfortunately it appears that the North wing of the Grand Californian was made to evacuate "twice"...We where on the south end, but our instructions over the PA never said to evacuate.. i called the front desk, and was informed by the cast member that we should be "evacuating" as instructed but he Fire Dept. So i opened the door, and literally like clock work, it appears every "father" was instructed and ordered buy their significant other to do the same!! LOL!! As i exited my room, a very polite Australian man peaked out of his door, and asked "Is this how its done in the States?" i chuckled at the comments with the other three dads who seemed to open and exit at the same time, and invited him to join us as we all made our way down to the front desk. We where all walking in zombie mode, trying to rub the sleep from our eyes. The hallways where empty, and no "evacuation" seemed to be taken place. Just as we made it to the front desk, it seemed everything was cleared by the fire department and guest where being allowed back to their rooms.... A cast member that saw all 5 of us in a group appearing like a scene from the "Walking Dead", approached us and said in a very Disney cheerful voice, "Everything was clear, and sorry about the alarm"....LOL!! she seemed so Disney-like at 3am... It seems that some joker threw a towel on one of the accent lights on the hotel, thus it catching fire, and causing smoke setting off the alarms....after making it back to the room...had a cup of coffee and hit the treadmill... ehh..... 3-5 hours of sleep aint bad.
 
We also got written notification about the water issue last week (& subsequent voice mail stating it wasn't happening). We are earlier risers/early to bed, so it would have had no impact on us. (We get up early, but not 4AM early!) Pretty sure we didn't get any bottles of waters on our dresser or nightstand.

NMCowboy, you were lucky you didn't have to evacuate completely out! We checked in that Saturday night, and we were close to the Napa Rose elevators. The first time (1:30AM or so?), we were a bit disoriented and didn't look at the map on the hotel door. Ended up going down a long hallway before getting to a stairwell. DD was freaked out and retching from the stress (6yr old). Her twin brother wasn't phased. We only made it one floor down & saw people carrying luggage down the stairs (people, that is not cool in an evacuation). Got the all clear & went back to our room. DD needed cuddle time before going back to sleep. So when the alarms went off at 2:30 AM, we were a bit more prepared! Found the closest stairwell on the door map, grabbed a towel for our again retching DD, and were evacuated out of the hotel via the GCH's entrance to DCA, and from there they opened a gate out to DTD. Spent the next 30 min sitting at La Brea Bakery for the all clear at around 3AM. Took at least another half hour to get back to sleep. Needless to say we didn't do EMH later that AM. The following night, DD was getting freaked out that the same thing would happen again (she's normally not a fearful kid). Thankfully she was ok the remainder of the trip. DH did inquire later, and had been told that the fire/smoke had set off sensors on two floors, and so it took a while to narrow down the source (& why we got the all clear the first time and yet evacuated an hour later). It certainly was not our typical stay at the GCH. Got a cell phone picture of us entering DCA turnstiles at 2:30AM, for our earliest entry to the park ever! (Can laugh about this now)
 
Cats2 said:
It certainly was not our typical stay at the GCH.
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Funny thing is, this is our typical stay at the GCH! Of the last 7 stays at GCH, we have been evacuated 4 times! We have come to expect it and was quite surprised that it did not happen this last trip 10/3 to 10/9. It sounds like we just missed it! The last time was Christmas Eve in our PJ's in DTD....we definitely laugh about it all now, but middle of the night trips to DTD or the one time we were sent to Taste Pilots grill in DCA are frustrating with little ones. I don't understand how this happens so often!

PS. We did get the letter about the water and I think we had the privacy tag out that night when they turned down the bed and gave out the bottles of water. Did not impact us at all, as we were sleeping the entire time :)
 
We had the water turned off one night when we were there August 2014 and again this May. 2 out of 2 times. I got extra water bottles and was kind of annoyed about washing my face and taking out my contacts. It's def good to plan ahead and fill a bathtub for hand washing and stuff. Definitely annoying but I didn't think about trying to get anything for it. Good to know.
 
Hofmanns4 said:
Funny thing is, this is our typical stay at the GCH! Of the last 7 stays at GCH, we have been evacuated 4 times! We have come to expect it and was quite surprised that it did not happen this last trip 10/3 to 10/9...
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Wow, you have had bad luck. We have never been evacuated!
Our recent visits overlapped, so clearly my good luck cancelled out your bad luck :goodvibes
 
Wow! I feel for you that had to evacuate that far. But must have been cool going into the parks when it was empty. We were on the 2nd floor down the hallway from the stairs so it wasn't bad for us. We just had to go to the front parking lot by the entrance. But we could barely hear the fire alarm notification. Once I opened the door it was blaring though. My dd8 was kinda freaked out too. Every night she would say, hope it doesn't go off again. First evacuation, we realized we did it all wrong and didn't feel the door for heat, etc. So 2nd time around we used it as a learning walking through experience for her. But we aren't too smart, first time we didn't take anything with us, not even a phone. Realized our mistake that we should at least take some money, 2nd time, forgot to take stuff again. Ugh! We would have had to stay in our pi's forever had it been a real fire. lol I was amazed at all the people with their big luggage. Not sure how they got it together so fast. Glad everyone was safe and all good :) That's all that matters!!
 
Hofmanns4 said:
Funny thing is, this is our typical stay at the GCH! Of the last 7 stays at GCH, we have been evacuated 4 times! We have come to expect it and was quite surprised that it did not happen this last trip 10/3 to 10/9. It sounds like we just missed it! The last time was Christmas Eve in our PJ's in DTD....we definitely laugh about it all now, but middle of the night trips to DTD or the one time we were sent to Taste Pilots grill in DCA are frustrating with little ones. I don't understand how this happens so often!

PS. We did get the letter about the water and I think we had the privacy tag out that night when they turned down the bed and gave out the bottles of water. Did not impact us at all, as we were sleeping the entire time :)
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This was our 8th stay, and our first time being evacuated, along with the first time receiving notice about the water issue. 4 of the stays have been one week visits, the remainder have been shorter. Guess we've been lucky. We grabbed only our phones and wallets (& a towel for retching DD) when we evacuated the 2 times. So does that make my stats now 2 evacs/8 visits? We really felt sorry for the mobility impaired guests who were in some cases being nearly carried down the stairs. Kailuagirl, I completely forgot to check the door for heat!
 
Nonsuch said:
Wow, you have had bad luck. We have never been evacuated!
Our recent visits overlapped, so clearly my good luck cancelled out your bad luck :goodvibes
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Maybe we should always plan our trips at the same time so your good luck always wins...LOL!! Another funny note, we originally were booked the previous week (when the evacuations took place) and had to change to the week after due to our daughter's marching band rehearsals! So that was a close one!!
 
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