Extremely fishy to me! Book at 7 months

[artesian]

Me and the fam are to cali in Sept and plan on doing a day at DL. I've randomly search the 2 nights at the cali resort last few weeks and saw the days we open. So I went on yesterday and tried to book an low and behold only one night was available. Ok I wrote it off and thought nothing of it till this morning. At exactly 8am click search the 2nd night becomes waitlist. I found it very curious this happened to me twice back to back days. I can't imagine there was a line of people like me trying to book the same random day in Sept. Curious if anyone else see this because I find it all to be way too much of a coincidence.
Waitlisted both night going forward but given this don't have much hope it'll come through.

 

[LadybugsMum]

Are you talking about Grand Californian? If so, it's notoriously hard to get into at 7 months. It's the smallest DVC resort and only has 23 studios, 23 1bed, 23 2bed, and 2 grand villas. The studios will be the hardest rooms to get.

 

[supersnoop]

Me and the fam are to cali in Sept and plan on doing a day at DL. I've randomly search the 2 nights at the cali resort last few weeks and saw the days we open. So I went on yesterday and tried to book an low and behold only one night was available. Ok I wrote it off and thought nothing of it till this morning. At exactly 8am click search the 2nd night becomes waitlist. I found it very curious this happened to me twice back to back days. I can't imagine there was a line of people like me trying to book the same random day in Sept. Curious if anyone else see this because I find it all to be way too much of a coincidence.
Waitlisted both night going forward but given this don't have much hope it'll come through.

If the "same random date in September" is exactly at the 7-month window, there is absolutely a long line of people trying to book at the exact same time.

 

[erionm]

Are you talking about Grand Californian? If so, it's notoriously hard to get into at 7 months. It's the smallest DVC resort and only has 23 studios, 23 1bed, 23 2bed, and 2 grand villas. The studios will be the hardest rooms to get.

And all of those studios and 1-bedrooms are part of 2-bedroom lock-offs.

 

[Narcoossee11]

It is simple supply and demand. Resort is sold out every morning.
Supply is tiny, TINY.
Demand is huge.
Have a plan B set up now, today.

 

[sndral]

Welcome to trying to book the Grand Californian at 7 months along w/ the millions of other DVC owners who don’t own there but want to stay there for their DL/CA stay. Been there, tried that, waitlisted, stalked, failed & paid cash to Disney instead. Me - bitter? Naw.
It might get slightly easier once the new Disney DVC tower opens, but Anaheim & Orlando are very different & there just aren’t many on-site options for cash stays at Disneyland/CA never mind the only DVC option - the Grand Californian which is relatively tiny compared to most DVC resorts.
That said, it is a beautiful resort to stay in even if you end up paying the expensive cash rate for a room. I’ve stayed at all 3 Disney owned Anaheim resorts - Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier, & Grand Californian & like the Grand best.

 

[artesian]

Jeez I had no idea. I figured I had a shot if I did it at exactly at 8am. Appreciate all the feedback. I'll calm myself about the conspiracy theories now

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Jeez I had no idea. I figured I had a shot if I did it at exactly at 8am. Appreciate all the feedback. I'll calm myself about the conspiracy theories now

Also, you may have been competing for a single unit available with 4 people. So it doesn't even need to be a lot of people.

 

[Mexacajun]

Are you talking about Grand Californian? If so, it's notoriously hard to get into at 7 months. It's the smallest DVC resort and only has 23 studios, 23 1bed, 23 2bed, and 2 grand villas. The studios will be the hardest rooms to get.

I got grand cal at 7 months for mid July. I felt super lucky based on all these comments on the board.

 

[pineapplepalms]

Yep, VGC is very hard to book at 7 months, especially studios. We’ve had the best luck with 2BRs but they are point heavy.

 

[AZMermaid]

Are you looking for a studio? There are only 6 days with availability between now and Halloween, 18 from now to Christmas. So if there was some availinility showing yesterday for today… it’s very likely that there was only one studio available. Because studios are soooooo hard to get, one bedrooms also get booked- but not at the same rate at 11 months. But there’s also not a single day until 9/12- past 7 months from today. It’s a tough get.

 

[Gladys Belcher]

We also tried. We were fine staying at another "Main Gate" hotel on Harbor Blvd. Maybe try calling the 'Direct Line" and talk to a REAL person?

 

[sndral]

Jeez I had no idea. I figured I had a shot if I did it at exactly at 8am. Appreciate all the feedback. I'll calm myself about the conspiracy theories now

Good luck, when I didn’t get GC for last fall, I waitlisted a studio & a 1 br. for the entire 7 mo.s & stalked every couple of days & booked a cash back up hoping to grab a villa & cancel the cash booking. I didn’t get lucky - hopefully you’ll have more success.

 

[artesian]

Quick update.
I had waitlisted immediately after the unsuccessful booking and was able to score one night Sat-Sun in a 1BR. First time in forever a waitlist came through and did my happy dance this morning when I saw it.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Are you looking for a studio? There are only 6 days with availability between now and Halloween, 18 from now to Christmas. So if there was some availinility showing yesterday for today… it’s very likely that there was only one studio available. Because studios are soooooo hard to get, one bedrooms also get booked- but not at the same rate at 11 months. But there’s also not a single day until 9/12- past 7 months from today. It’s a tough get.

Dang....am I going to have trouble getting a studio at 11 months for our 6-night stay next summer???

 

[AZMermaid]

Dang....am I going to have trouble getting a studio at 11 months for our 6-night stay next summer???

No you’ll be fine! Just do it right at 11 months.

 

[AfricanLodger]

I got grand cal at 7 months for mid July. I felt super lucky based on all these comments on the board.

This. I got a 1 bedroom in June for our honeymoon at 7 months and didn't realize it was this difficult.

 

[pineapplepalms]

This. I got a 1 bedroom in June for our honeymoon at 7 months and didn't realize it was this difficult.

In my experience, summer has been the easiest time to book at 7 months, and 1BRs and 2BRs are the most likely. We have a week booked in July and another week booked in August. But race weekends are impossible (even owners got shut out), and other times of year like the holidays can be hard to get. I’m in the process of buying a VGC contract now because we want to guarantee holiday stays.