wideeyedwonder
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 1,002
We checked in for our first stay the The Villas at the Grand Californian (at the Disneyland Resort) Sunday, September 27. We checked in at the GC front desk at around 10:30 am, and after being assigned a room on the 5th floor, we gave them our phone number (so that they could send a text to us when the room was assigned and available), and we went on our merry way for a day at Disney's California Adventure.
This was our very first DVC stay (ever!), and we had invited another family to join us in a 2BR lockoff.
The 2BR lockoffs have 2 entrances, and can function as both a 2BR, and as seperate 1BR + Studio.
When we left for CA, we were told by the front desk staff at the GC that the rooms could be ready as early as 3pm, but 4pm would be "the latest".
After a good half day at CA, we are ready to go to our room(s) and relax a little, have bell services bring up our luggage, etc. It's 3pm, and we haven't recieved a text message, but we weren't too worried, as it was still "early". I did call the number provided though, in the off chance that the rooms were assigned and ready. They weren't, but we were told, however, to expect the rooms to be ready by 4pm.
At 3:50pm we still haven't gotten a text message. I call again and I'm told that they are at this moment working on cleaning the room, and that it would be another 20 minutes. We think, OK, fine, no big deal, at least the rooms are almost ready. We hang around the gift shop at Grizzly Rapids for the 20 minutes, waiting for the rooms to be finished.
At 4:30, still no text message, so I call again, and this time I ask for the specific room numbers (they must be at least assigned by now, right?), so that if we split up with our guests, they can at least know what room to go to. At this time were were told that the rooms were assigned and ready, so we go on up.
At 4:50 (we dilly-dallied getting up there), I enter the studio portion, and it looks great! Clean as a whistle! It looks just like the model, with an AWESOME view. I think to myself "our guest family is going to love this".
However, it was a differnt story when I entered the 1BR portion (where my family would be staying). It was a bit too warm, and it smelled a little. Wait a minute, why is the bedding pulled off, the sofa bed open, a used serving tray on the counter, and wet towels on the floor? And used shampoo and soap in the bathrooms?
Long story short, from 5pm-5:30pm (I may have the timing off by 15 minutes), we called guest services/housekeeping 3 times to get someone over to clean the room. After two replies of "we will send someone right over", we finally had a clean room (with the the help of 3 housekeepers) by 5:45pm.
In the big scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal (like I said, the rooms are AWESOME), but it was our first DVC experience, and it was a bit of a pain to have to wait an additional 1-2 hours to even settle in. What it sounded like was that when housekeeping was done with the studio portion, our reservation was marked as "done", even though the 1BR portion was still a mess:
It was only after we informed them that the studio portion was clean, but that the 1BR portion it was not, that they relized that the 1BR portion needed to be cleaned (fast!) as well:
The GC CMs ended up offering us a complimentary meal at one of the resturants for our trouble, so that was a nice guesture. However, as of now, I haven't actually RECIEVED any vouchers.
I'm hoping that they can work out the housekeeping with the lock-offs soon.
This was our very first DVC stay (ever!), and we had invited another family to join us in a 2BR lockoff.
The 2BR lockoffs have 2 entrances, and can function as both a 2BR, and as seperate 1BR + Studio.
When we left for CA, we were told by the front desk staff at the GC that the rooms could be ready as early as 3pm, but 4pm would be "the latest".
After a good half day at CA, we are ready to go to our room(s) and relax a little, have bell services bring up our luggage, etc. It's 3pm, and we haven't recieved a text message, but we weren't too worried, as it was still "early". I did call the number provided though, in the off chance that the rooms were assigned and ready. They weren't, but we were told, however, to expect the rooms to be ready by 4pm.
At 3:50pm we still haven't gotten a text message. I call again and I'm told that they are at this moment working on cleaning the room, and that it would be another 20 minutes. We think, OK, fine, no big deal, at least the rooms are almost ready. We hang around the gift shop at Grizzly Rapids for the 20 minutes, waiting for the rooms to be finished.
At 4:30, still no text message, so I call again, and this time I ask for the specific room numbers (they must be at least assigned by now, right?), so that if we split up with our guests, they can at least know what room to go to. At this time were were told that the rooms were assigned and ready, so we go on up.
At 4:50 (we dilly-dallied getting up there), I enter the studio portion, and it looks great! Clean as a whistle! It looks just like the model, with an AWESOME view. I think to myself "our guest family is going to love this".
However, it was a differnt story when I entered the 1BR portion (where my family would be staying). It was a bit too warm, and it smelled a little. Wait a minute, why is the bedding pulled off, the sofa bed open, a used serving tray on the counter, and wet towels on the floor? And used shampoo and soap in the bathrooms?
Long story short, from 5pm-5:30pm (I may have the timing off by 15 minutes), we called guest services/housekeeping 3 times to get someone over to clean the room. After two replies of "we will send someone right over", we finally had a clean room (with the the help of 3 housekeepers) by 5:45pm.
In the big scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal (like I said, the rooms are AWESOME), but it was our first DVC experience, and it was a bit of a pain to have to wait an additional 1-2 hours to even settle in. What it sounded like was that when housekeeping was done with the studio portion, our reservation was marked as "done", even though the 1BR portion was still a mess:
It was only after we informed them that the studio portion was clean, but that the 1BR portion it was not, that they relized that the 1BR portion needed to be cleaned (fast!) as well:
The GC CMs ended up offering us a complimentary meal at one of the resturants for our trouble, so that was a nice guesture. However, as of now, I haven't actually RECIEVED any vouchers.
I'm hoping that they can work out the housekeeping with the lock-offs soon.
Anyway, we never did get the toiletry kit but we did get charged for it. Of course, they took it off our bill. There seems to be seperate procedures for all CM working with GC guests vs. VGC 
It just might work. Enjoy your stay
