Grand Californian - First week of June Tips

[mattnday]

We are so excited. We have been to disneyland a million times but this will be our first trip ever staying on site. Thank You WDWINFO and a very nice renter. We got a phenominal price that will allow us to stay 4 nights at the Grand Californian (M-TH) and 2 nights (Saturday and Sunday) for free staying at the Holiday Inn Express using points. We want to get the most out of our trip staying on site and are looking for any tips that might help us enjoy the experience more. We have the following questions and would love any tips you might have for staying at the Grand Californian.

1)Any tips on getting bunk beds for our son? Also, do the bunk bed rooms have a King bed?

2)Is there a cost for getting a refrigerator in your room?

3)I remember reading somewhere about a soda mug at the Grand Californian. does it still exist?

4)Nemo is supposed to open June 11th. What are the chances there will be a soft opening the week before. We will be there through June 8th.

5)Will we be able to check in early on a Monday or will we likely have to check/leave our bags in the car while we go to Disneyland for opening.

Anything else you might find helpful for us and our 5 year old to get the most out of this experience would be much appreciated.

 

[staley7580]

From what I have heard, the rooms all come with fridges, you can check in and leave you lugage with them, and they dont have the mugs anymore. Thats all I know, sorry. I will be there at the same time you will! But I will be at the Paradise Pier, the GCH is to spendy for our summer trip, we get to stay there in dec. though.

 

[disneydenisel]

We requested the bunk bed room on one our trips there and they were able to accommodate us. Just make sure it is noted on your reservation.

From what I understand, all the rooms now have refrigerators. We used to have to ask and they'd lug them to our room. I think everyone started asking and it became easier to supply them as standard versus on request.

Have a great time!

 

[dizzyami]

Unless the refrigerator thing has happened in the last two months - you may have to request one for personal use. All of the rooms come with mini-bar fridges, with a very tiny little compartment that is available for your personal use, but if you touch anything else - it is charged to the room (auto sensors). Our 1st trip we asked for a fridge, and they brought one to the room, it was a little out of place, but served its purpose, and it was free.

As for checking in early, it all depends. Our first trip we actually were not able to check in until 4:30pm (vs. 3:00pm, but it was Thanksgiving Day). Our last trip we arrived at noon and asked to check our bags, and they instead took us to our room, so it really just depends. If you cannot check in right away though, they will store your bags and bring them up once you have a room ready.

I know they have specific activities for kids, including a scavenger hunt. They will give you a listing of all events every night for the next day.

Sadly, as another poster mentioned, the refillable mugs are gone. I am though a huge fan of White Water Snacks, it is a little fast/casual dining place in the hotel, but right by DCA. They have excellent hot meals, excellent kids meals, and a bunch of other snack items. We pretty much ate there quite a bit - the food is very reasonably priced for Disney, large portions and very yummy.

 

[honeymom]

DO NOT GET YOUR SONS HOPES UP ABOUT BUNKBEDS. Unless the hotel isn't full when you go, I think that your chances of getting bunkbeds with 1 child are slim. We had requested bunkbeds. We got to the hotel at 10:30am on our trip in January figuring that by getting there early we would increase our chances. We have 2 children. They could not give us bunkbeds. Apparently, only 35 standard rooms have them (and that is the most of any section). Many of those are connecting rooms and they will not break them up if families have reserved the connecting rooms. The other ones are given in priority order to families of 5 first - otherwise someone in the party of 5 needs to use a sleeping bag on the floor. My guess is that a party of 4 will then get priority (although we did not discuss this with the cm, so I am only guessing based on the logic that we were given on how they assign the bunkbed rooms).

I will tell you that our CM tried really hard and checked all sections of the hotel for us. We did have the opportunity to switch midstay to bunkbeds. However, we felt it was better for us to settle into one room and stay in it.

If you were to get bunks, the other bed in the room is a queen. There are some rooms with daybeds in the hotel as well, but don't get your hopes up about these either. According to our CM, there are only 20 of these in the entire hotel. Oh well, at least the queen beds were comfortable and we were so tired at night that we all slept well.

 

[acpalmer]

Unless the refrigerator thing has happened in the last two months - you may have to request one for personal use. All of the rooms come with mini-bar fridges, with a very tiny little compartment that is available for your personal use, but if you touch anything else - it is charged to the room (auto sensors). Our 1st trip we asked for a fridge, and they brought one to the room, it was a little out of place, but served its purpose, and it was free.

The contract with the company that was supplying the mini-bars has expired and word from those who have stayed at the GC since the beginning of the year is that the contract was not renewed, therefore, there are no more mini-bars, just standard, empty refrigerators in every room.

 

[blackjackdelta]

We requested connecting rooms and they would not guaruntee them but would put them on or request list, same with bunk beds. A ressie CM told me yesterday that they are still upgrading the standard rooms to FP tv's and fridges but it will take awhile. Who really knows?

Jack