Booking Strategy for 3 nights in Studios at Grand Cal in Adventure Season

[Disn3yVision]

I am hoping to score a 3 night/4 day reservation during adventure season at the Grand Cal and would like some advice on the best way to do so as this is my first time making a non home resort reservation and I know VGC can be particularly hard to get. Ideally I would like 3 nights in a studio with one of those nights renting 2 studios (they do not need to be connecting or adjoining, the second room is for my mom who is just staying one night, and it can be any of those 3 nights). Since I live very close to disneyland I can go any time in adventure season but am avoiding MLK and would prefer to go sun-thurs to avoid crowds and use less points.

My plan now is just to try to start booking at 4am pst (is that what time I need to be online to book from west coast?) on June 3 and book anything I can get from Jan 3-6 and wait list the rest. If I get nothing I will create one wait list for those 3 days and keep trying for the single day in the additional room the next two days. If I can't get it I will waitlist it on the third night of my 3 day stay. If I have to wait list I will just continue checking every morning in case I find something.

Does this sound like a good strategy? Would you advise trying a particular week for better odds? Should I just give up on a studio and plan on getting a one bedroom? Or maybe just get a 1 bedroom for the night I want 2 studios ? Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Don't get yourself up too early. It's 5am Pacific time to do the online booking.

The nice thing is that cancelling is possible without penalty so if it doesn't work for the Jan 3-6 dates then you can try for a later time. I think the last week of January might actually be the easiest. The 3rd week might not be bad if you went Tue-Fri but 1st week might be ok too. The 2nd week will likely be the worst and already has dates missing due to the race weekend. It sounds like you're flexible and will likely have success because of that.

 

[MouseOfCards]

Remember, you can have 2 wait lists active per membership. And I would book some cash reservations somewhere as a backup.

 

[Disn3yVision]

Remember, you can have 2 wait lists active per membership.

Exactly, I am just not sure if I should use one waitlist for 3 nights straight and the other for the single night in the other room or just keep trying for the single night and save my second waitlist for a later week. Or maybe it makes more sense to just waitlist 1 or two days at a time and use both waitlists for the single room 3 day ressie. I guess it all depends what I can get without waitlisting first thing tomorrow so we'll see!

 

[Disn3yVision]

Don't get yourself up too early. It's 5am Pacific time to do the online booking.

PHEEEEEWWW, thanks for that vital piece of information! I don't know why I had it in my head 4am. I already wake up at 4:30 am so 5 is no problem but if this takes a couple tries I was dreading waking up at 4am morning after morning lol.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

In looking at things today I suspect you'll at least get your 3 nights and may very likely get your single night if not tomorrow then one of the other nights. Good luck!

 

[Disn3yVision]

In looking at things today I suspect you'll at least get your 3 nights and may very likely get your single night if not tomorrow then one of the other nights. Good luck!

Thanks Kat! Although we could do any week this first one is best for us as my wife is still off work and will not need to use any PTO, plus hopefully the christmas decorations will still be up! Fingers crossed!

 

[Disn3yVision]

Well, new DVC member lesson #1 has officially been learned... MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE RIGHT YEAR'S POINT CHART!!! I was planning by looking at the actual booklet DVC sent where 2016 and 2017 are on the same chart and of course i was looking at the seasons for 2016. Apparently they realized that a lot of Cali schools don't go back until the following week (plus Xmas decorations, etc) so they moved Adventure season a week back and its starts on Jan. 8th next year. So much for my master plan! I guess I am just going to try for the third week now but at least I had a trial run. From now on I guess I should check the points calculator online before making plans, smh.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Well, new DVC member lesson #1 has officially been learned... MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE RIGHT YEAR POINTS CHART!!! I was planning by looking at the actual booklet DVC sent where 2016 and 2017 are on the same chartered of course i was looking at the seasons for 2016. Apparently they realized that a lot of Cali schools don't go back until the following week (plus Xmas decorations, etc) so they moved Adventure season a week back and its starts on Jan. 8th next year. So much for my master plan! I guess I am just going to try for the third week now but at least I had a trial run. From now on I guess I should check the points calculator online before making plans, smh.

Ah - I had almost mentioned above that I thought the first week had better likelyhood of success this year because the point chart was higher than normal! I had noticed that back when the point charts were released and when asking was told about the schools.