Grand California Villas ?

[Disneygrl36]

Hi!
We are doing the DIS exclusive Backstage Magic next June & want to stay over 2 night at the Grand Californian Villas using points. I am planning ahead for the 7 month window which will open up in November. Couple of questions.....
1. How easy is it to get in there at the 7 month window? I know it is a fairly small number of villas so just wondering what our chances are.
2. Now that you can do reservation requests on-line-when would that 7 month window open up-is it like DCL & opens at midnight EST?
Thanks in advance for any advice/help.

 

[zavandor]

Easy of reservation greatly depends on period. I saw a lot of availability in the last months at the 7 months, but oftrn that availability was gone after a few hours.
So I suggest to be ready to book on the members website at 8:00am as soon as the window opens.

 

[tjkraz]

There are only a maximum of 23 Studio Villas in the Grand Californian and owners have that 4-month booking advantage.

Honestly I don't see how anyone could effectively handicap your odds. Even if the online system is showing availability for owners now at 7+ months, there's no way of knowing if there are 10 Studio villas unbooked, 5 villas or just 1.

June is not typically a high-demand time and members have had success booking at 7 months. But there are not hundreds of vacancies at 7 mos--just a small handful of rooms. If there's some event occurring around the dates you wish to book, it won't help the odds.

Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Good luck!