Disneyland DVC

[chrisgeraci]

I was wondering if anyone had stayed in a Disneyland DVC room yet? I tried to make a reservation for the Grand and was told there is nothing available after December 2009. Not sure what that was about. But the choices are Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier. I have stayed many times in both but just in regular hotel rooms and the Paradise Pier is my favorite. Is there a difference in rooms? Views? I know PP is a few less points and if you get a Park view, it is loud since Disneyland Drive is such a busy road. Thanks.

 

[bwvBound]

The Grand California Villas aren't open yet? However as they are scheduled to open later this year (later this month??) -- we will no longer be permitted to book hotel rooms at the GC starting 2010.

 

[erionm]

The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian are scheduled to open on 9/23. With the DVC units opening, you will no longer be able to use points at the hotel portion of the Grand Californian.

 

[chrisgeraci]

Oh so they were trying to put me in a regular room on points. So If I wait until after September 23, I should be able to get a villa? That's what we want anyway. I heard the Grand California Villas have bunk beds?

 

[DebbieB]

I wouldn't call it "bunk beds". In the 1 or 2 bedroom, there's a pulldown bed under the TV in the living room.

I've stayed in a park view at PPH, I don't think there was any road noise. I could hear the people screaming on California Screamin' and Maliboomer.

 

[nunzia]

There are bunk beds in some of the Grand Californian hotel rooms, but what the Villas offer, as the op said, is a pull down bed under the television in 1/2 bedroom units.

 

[kerickson]

Oh so they were trying to put me in a regular room on points. So If I wait until after September 23, I should be able to get a villa? That's what we want anyway. I heard the Grand California Villas have bunk beds?

You don't have to wait until after September 23 to book. If your stay is after September 23rd but within the 7mo window you should be able to call and book now. Given VGC is so new, there seems to be availability under the 7mo mark (I just booked a 3 night stay in a studio for Feb...), but that may not always be the case given there are only 50 units...
And, the points are much less than the hotel points and you won't be charged the $95 fee....

 

[SuzanneSLO]

You don't have to wait until after September 23 to book. If your stay is after September 23rd but within the 7mo window you should be able to call and book now. Given VGC is so new, there seems to be availability under the 7mo mark (I just booked a 3 night stay in a studio for Feb...), but that may not always be the case given there are only 50 units...
And, the points are much less than the hotel points and you won't be charged the $95 fee....

Has DVC announced that there will be a $95 fee to book PP or DLH next year? Thru 2009, there is no such fee for any of the DL resorts. -- Suzanne

 

[kerickson]

Has DVC announced that there will be a $95 fee to book PP or DLH next year? Thru 2009, there is no such fee for any of the DL resorts. -- Suzanne

no, you're right. I haven't heard about any change yet to the current policy of not charging the $95 fee for DLR bookings.

 

[DebbieB]

Has DVC announced that there will be a $95 fee to book PP or DLH next year? Thru 2009, there is no such fee for any of the DL resorts. -- Suzanne

I don't think anything is showing on the 2010 point charts for DL.

 

[kerickson]

ouch, just looked at the 2010 points charts for DLH and PPH. The points pretty much went up at least 2-5 per night... VGC purchase is looking better every day...

 

[bumbershoot]

So far we've gotten a DCA view at PPH twice, and we've never heard the street.

DLH pool view is pretty loud, but of course it quiets down once the pool is closed.

There are bunk beds in some of the Grand Californian hotel rooms, but what the Villas offer, as the op said, is a pull down bed under the television in 1/2 bedroom units.

And it's a pretty cool pull down bed, in our opinion!


OP I don't know when you're going, but you will want to get your rooms asap. We couldn't get into the villas for my b'day trip in October b/c of the holiday weekend. Lots of events happening in anaheim that seem to be slowly filling up the place.

And if you just decide to book a hotel room, you can't later change it to a villa, b/c the points *change*...they go from Vacation points to Reservation points, and can't go back, and you can't use Reservation points on villas.

 

[rangermom]

And if you just decide to book a hotel room, you can't later change it to a villa, b/c the points *change*...they go from Vacation points to Reservation points, and can't go back, and you can't use Reservation points on villas.

We are experiencing that right now. I booked the GCH using points for our Dec trip about 1 1/2 weeks ago never thinking we would add on right no. Well, we added on with VGC this weekend at the LI event(we couldn't pass up the great deal we got) but still have to use the reservation points. Oh well, we will just have to go again.

 

[CarolynK]

Last week we made spring break reservations for a 1-br at VGC (3/28-4/3) and we are SO excited! Granted, we called exactly at the 7-month window, but the MS CM told me that availability was wide open.
We can't wait to stay in a villa at Disneyland!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Actually, they let me convert my points for the DLH in October over to a villa. It took them a few days but they did do this for me. My MS person had to get the okay but sure enough, today I checked my online vacation details and it was changed. So it can be done. I think for one thing, when I made that DLH reservation, the villas werent' open yet. So this may be a brief thing they are willing to do. I am thrilled. Six weeks out I was able to convert over and get into a one bedroom for 8 nights. I love it that they sleep five (my nephew will be with us this trip so we have five). I'll actually miss the DLH since its my favorite but for this trip, having the extra space and two bathrooms is going to be very nice. It took about two and half times the points over my DLH reservation but they did do it for me.

So it can't hurt to ask! They need to get approval and it can take up to 7 days but it can be done. But again, I am betting that this is something that you may be able to do now, while things with the villas are new.

 

[kerickson]

It took about two and half times the points over my DLH reservation but they did do it for me.

2 1/2 times more points going from a DLH room to a 1BR villa? Doesn't seem correct. The standard DLH room in Oct is 22 and the 1BR VGC is 34....? Even weekend is 33 vs 60...? And that's comparing a standard DLH room, if you had a View room booked it would be even less of a difference... 2 1/2 times would be 55 points...?

 

[bumbershoot]

That is pretty cool, Amy. Not to be expected, but since we got a little "we'll do this for you" pixie dust (in a different way) from MS when I booked our own October trip, I believe that they could do it. Always a bummer when you're the person they hold firm for, though!


And I was wondering about the points, too!

 

[Amy&Dan]

2 1/2 times more points going from a DLH room to a 1BR villa? Doesn't seem correct. The standard DLH room in Oct is 22 and the 1BR VGC is 34....? Even weekend is 33 vs 60...? And that's comparing a standard DLH room, if you had a View room booked it would be even less of a difference... 2 1/2 times would be 55 points...?

Big sigh, let me clarify since I didn't do that too well up above! My DLH room was 143 points for six nights. I added two more nights at VGC and the total cost is now 324. So not quite 2.5 I guess but more than twice as much. I cancelled two offsite nights to stay all the time in the villa. So I guess I wasn't quite clear on that. I was really just saying that it was worth it to me to pillage my points to stay in the one bedroom for the whole time. And that it can be done to go from a Disney Collection to a DVC in rare instances if you can get them to do it for you.

If someone wants to do this, call MS and ask and say you heard from another disboarder it can be done. I called Tuesday and today I called back to see if they could please get it switched so that I could verify online for sure it had been done. Dh had to hold about 15 minutes but they got it taken care of, I cancelled my BWPPI on Expedia and got very excited. They had told him on Tuesday it was all set, and I could see some nights for SSR I had booked for March off my "vacation details" page and back in my inventory but it was still saying DLH for my October trip. It was making me nervous!

I actually just remembered that another time they were set to do this for me. Back in 2008 my mom died four days before we were set to go to the DLH on points. I called DVC and asked if I could cancel and when they found out what the deal was, she said I could and that they would put those points into my inventory and allow me to use them at a DVC resort (I was set to go to WDW later in my use year and could have used the points to upgrade to a two bedroom or something along those lines). I ended up keeping the reservation and we went but it was nice to know they were willing to work with me. Now that was an extreme circumstance but its just another reason to always try since sometimes pixie dust will find its way to Member Services.