Booking GC Villas as a cash guest (non DVC member)

[DLgal]

Can this be done? If so, how? The villas don't come up on the Disneyland.com site when looking for a hotel room. Looking to get a villa for 2 nights in July.

 

[mitchwebb]

Don't think it is possible. I know at seven months i stalk to get a room with points and it is very hard.

 

[tlovesdis]

I'm pretty sure you can't. You would need to try and buy points from a member.

 

[Nonsuch]

Can this be done? If so, how? The villas don't come up on the Disneyland.com site when looking for a hotel room. Looking to get a villa for 2 nights in July.

Villas have never appeared on the disneyland.com site (and likely never will).
Disney can book villas for cash inside 60 days (and perhaps a few other reasons), but I have not seen a single post about a cash booking.

The only viable approach is to rent points from DVC owners, directly or through an agent (Davids DVC or similar).
Read the Rent/Trade board (here on DIS) to learn more.

 

[hawkfam]

We have the 3-bedroom Grand Villa booked for Nov 2016. We aren't DVC members nor did we buy points and actually bought it directly through the website. But, we had to book it in Aug 2015. Unless the Grand Villa is not what others are considering villas being available online? Not trying to be smart about it, just that we did book it online so as far as we've experienced it is possible. I think it's just a matter of the small number of villas actually available and how many need to be held back for actual DVC owners. Even booking 15 months out we still only got the only room available at that time so really the only advice I can give knowing it can be done in my experience is that you almost have to book them at least a year in advance.

 

[Nonsuch]

We have the 3-bedroom Grand Villa booked for Nov 2016. We aren't DVC members nor did we buy points and actually bought it directly through the website. But, we had to book it in Aug 2015. Unless the Grand Villa is not what others are considering villas being available online? Not trying to be smart about it, just that we did book it online so as far as we've experienced it is possible. I think it's just a matter of the small number of villas actually available and how many need to be held back for actual DVC owners. Even booking 15 months out we still only got the only room available at that time so really the only advice I can give knowing it can be done in my experience is that you almost have to book them at least a year in advance.

That is quite interesting. I'm surprised Disney can make a VGC cash reservation that far in advance (VGC owners can only book 11 months in advance), but the DVC contracts are long documents (with many details in the fine print).

There are only 2 Grand Villas, perhaps the best rooms in the entire resort!

 

[tlovesdis]

3 bedroom suites are available to book on the website but I have never seen the villas available online before!

 

[sherilaine]

We have the 3-bedroom Grand Villa booked for Nov 2016. We aren't DVC members nor did we buy points and actually bought it directly through the website. But, we had to book it in Aug 2015. Unless the Grand Villa is not what others are considering villas being available online? Not trying to be smart about it, just that we did book it online so as far as we've experienced it is possible. I think it's just a matter of the small number of villas actually available and how many need to be held back for actual DVC owners. Even booking 15 months out we still only got the only room available at that time so really the only advice I can give knowing it can be done in my experience is that you almost have to book them at least a year in advance.

I didn't think the Disneyland Resorts website allowed you to enter a day which is over a year in advance - for example right now you cannot book past December 31, 2016. Is it the actual https://disneyland.disney.go.com/ website you booked from?

 

[starry_solo]

It can be done, although it is rare. As with most timeshares, DVC owns a certain # of points at each of their resorts that don't typically become available for cash reservations right away (mainly, they need to be kept separate from the DVC points owned by people so in case of an emergency like a maintenance issue).

 

[hawkfam]

To be even more specific (which I suppose is warranted in this case) I actually booked a 2-bedroom villa and a one-bedroom studio all online via Disneyland.com. Then, I checked daily to see if/when the 3-bedroom Grand Villa became available and after about 2 weeks one appeared. As soon as one did I then immediately booked the Grand Villa online (I believe phone holds were over an hour that day due to a half-marathon sign up/questions going on around the same time??) and I wanted to ensure we got it so I actually held both reservations at the same time. I then called Disney to have them cancel the 2-bedroom villa and studio and had them refund my initial deposit for the first rooms and merge both of the reservations/names back into one. So, not only did I book two different sets of villas online, I then had phone contact with Disney and was never questioned whether or not I was a DVC owner.

So, based on other responses it definitely looks like it's a very rare occurrence to have villas available to book online so it doesn't appear to be the norm, but I was able to book multiple sets of villas online. I too was surprised they were options, especially that far in advance and personally knowing 2 different DVC owners and what they have to do themselves to get rooms but we'll definitely take our good luck! So, at least in our situation, no renting of points or anything special I had to do another than watch the website like a hawk (pun intended!)

 

[DLgal]

Thanks for the replies. I think we will just book two rooms then. MIL will be joining and we wanted to be together. But separate.