Grand Californian Observations

[surfer_ed]

First visit to DL and loved it. Grand Californian was very nice. Liked how close it is to the parks and grocery store. Overall enjoyed the resort very much.

A few things:
Internet Service was really bad and we called every night to be told it was something different and it would be fixed the next day. After 5 days it was still not working. Finally they told me they only guarantee a wired connection not wireless. With a iPad, Iphone and Playbook who has wires? Never had an issue with a Disney Resort.

Why is there no online check in and the parking is not great.

Finally I was told most room view the Theme park, my view was really bad. Basically the bushes by the pool.

 

[hakepb]

Thanks for the report.. I'd like to hear more (as I'm planning a DL trip.

I wish the WDW resorts still had available wired Internet connections.(I think they've been removed). At least with a wired connection, you can bring an Airport or a travel router and be guaranteed a connection....with wireless only you need to buy a hotspot and a data plan to be guaranteed a connection.

 

[joelnkelly]

parking isnt great a GCV, stinks that its accross the street but considering we didnt travel to our car but a few times during the week it wasnt much of a factor.
Views can be hit or miss i guess. There are only a limited # of park view rooms, otherwise you are going to be looking at the pool or trees. to me this didnt really matter as the room itself was great.
In regards to the wifi, we never really had connection issues on our ipads. The speeds werent lightening fast but they were enough to be able to surf the web and do what we needed.

I loved our stay there and cannot wait to go back.

 

[abdgeek]

I'm not sure why GCV doesn't have online check-in, but it probably has something to do with it being Disneyland. They don't operate the same way WDW does. Even the meal plan is different.

I've stayed at GCV four times and I love it! I always request a theme park view room and have had various views: tower of terror, paradise pier view, and swings view. Because of the view I request, I'm usually on one of the higher floors. Yes, I also have a view of the pool and trees.

I've never had a problem with internet or using devices to link to it. The internet in the lobby area does seem to be a little bit faster, but who wants to go there every time you want to surf the net.

The lot across the street is small, but it seems to fit the number of people driving cars. I've only rented a car once(Alamo is in the lot also) when I went to DL and didn't find parking too tight. I only came back once when it said the lot was closed, but I talked to the attendant and told him I was staying at GCV and he told me to go on in. If I ever really couldn't find a spot, I would just valet park.

 

[DebbieB]

First visit to DL and loved it. Grand Californian was very nice. Liked how close it is to the parks and grocery store. Overall enjoyed the resort very much.

A few things:
Internet Service was really bad and we called every night to be told it was something different and it would be fixed the next day. After 5 days it was still not working. Finally they told me they only guarantee a wired connection not wireless. With a iPad, Iphone and Playbook who has wires? Never had an issue with a Disney Resort.

Why is there no online check in and the parking is not great.

Finally I was told most room view the Theme park, my view was really bad. Basically the bushes by the pool.

I've had issues with internet there, I was glad they still have wired. On my last trip, I brought my router and hooked it up, it made faster wireless.

Most of the rooms are not direct theme park view.

I don't know what they can do about parking, it's the closest empty space.

 

[surfer_ed]

I understand that it is the land issues thing and some free parking is better than no parking.

DL was great, my wife did not enjoy it as much as there was rotating ride shut downs for some reason. In 3 days we had to go back to 8 attractions. Not sure I had those many attractions temp out of service in all my trips to WDW. Splash, Thunder and Small world were out for referb, which understand, but the other were a bit of a mystery. Seems like they would go down for 30 minutes and then come back up:

Pinocchio (2x)
Roger Rabbit (2X)
Space Mountain
Radiator Springs
Autotopia
Can't recall the last one.

I suspect it might be staff shortages and them having to cover breaks or something???

I loved the history and beauty of Disneyland. Also Radiator Springs and World of Color are all they say and more. For a long time WDW visitor it was a nice refreshing change.

It was after Aulani...which blew us away and we actually did not want to leave for Disneyland (believe it or not) but it was worth it.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Thanks for your review. We will be at VGC in June (first time to DLR) and we are very excited about it. I have requested a Theme Park View with a high floor. I even went as far as requesting specific room numbers because I really would love to have a WOC view so we can watch it from our balcony at night, of course I know it is just a request therefore I am crossing my fingers on that one .

 

[hjgaus]

Thanks for your review. We will be at VGC in June (first time to DLR) and we are very excited about it. I have requested a Theme Park View with a high floor. I even went as far as requesting specific room numbers because I really would love to have a WOC view so we can watch it from our balcony at night, of course I know it is just a request therefore I am crossing my fingers on that one .

I wish you all the good luck on getting your room view PoohsFan1 cuz it did not work for me this time around - got pool view but that' okay too!

 

[DonnaL]

We were at DL for the first time in mid January and loved it...we're WDW veterans of many years. We were at the VGC, 3rd floor, park view.....can't remember the number....DH thinks it ended in 08....not sure. Our view was awesome, however, we could not see WOC totally......and I'm really not sure you can get the full effect of WOC from the angle of the hotel facing the park...we definitely could see WOC from our balcony...but not the full effect....however, we did go to the park one night (and we were there during the cold spell in January!) to view WOC and it was amazing viewing it from the park viewing area. Many similarities and many differences....that's the way I would describe WDW vs. DLR. We love both and as we quickly approach retirement I'm quite sure we will visit both equally.......

 

[joelnkelly]

I will suggest if you want to get that Park view room get to the hotel early to check in. Seems the later you check in the worse your chance will be at getting your request.

 

[DonnaL]

We didn't find the time we checked in to be a problem with getting a park view room...we arrived at approximately 8:30 p.m. and were assigned a 3rd floor park view room directly looking at the Mickey wheel....great views....granted if on a higher floor we would have been able to look down into the park, but, we still had a great park view. And, I did not request specific room numbers on my reservation.....simply stated higher floor/park view.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I will suggest if you want to get that Park view room get to the hotel early to check in. Seems the later you check in the worse your chance will be at getting your request.

We didn't find the time we checked in to be a problem with getting a park view room...we arrived at approximately 8:30 p.m. and were assigned a 3rd floor park view room directly looking at the Mickey wheel....great views....granted if on a higher floor we would have been able to look down into the park, but, we still had a great park view. And, I did not request specific room numbers on my reservation.....simply stated higher floor/park view.

Thanks for the tips....we will be checking into VGC pretty early because we will be at the DLH the night before. Our plan is to have Disney take care of transferring our bags from DLH to VGC as we are having breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen that morning (I know that our bags will probably not arrive to the second hotel until later in the day). Then after breakfast we will head over to VGC and check in before heading to our first park. I have been reading some conflicting information on whether or not checking in early gives you a leg up to getting the "perfect" view. My main concern is that we get a Theme Park View on a high floor, and a WOC view on top of that would just be an added bonus (FYI--I haven't told my family that I put in a specific room number for a WOC view, so if we do get it it will be a surprise ).

 

[mdsd8700]

We will be at VGC in June (first time to DLR) and we are very excited about it. I have requested a Theme Park View with a high floor. I even went as far as requesting specific room numbers because I really would love to have a WOC view so we can watch it from our balcony at night, of course I know it is just a request therefore I am crossing my fingers on that one .

We will also be in VGC in June, our 5th time to DLR, but 3rd stay in Grand Californian, 2nd in the villas. Our last trip (2010) we requested just as you said Theme Park/High Floor (no specific room/floor) and we were right over Paradise Pier (5th floor), it was amazing!! The music was on the TV and we could see WOC but it was definitely a side view and agree with PP that at least for us it wasn't the full effect. Not sure what the closer rooms are like. We did do the dining package for WOC so we did see it once up close and in full view. So when we watched from our room other times, it was good enough for us.

 

[heartsy77]

We stayed at GCV Feb 27- March 2. Our 1 bedroom STUNK! like sewer the whole time! I called 3 times they sent a maid to spray some smelly stuff that masked the smell for a few hours and gave us a free breakfast. The smell was coming from the drains in the bathrooms! It was gross but we just lived with it.


They did offer to moves back to our room at the GC but I just didn't want to move again!

I'm not sure if I should have complained more or not?

 

[hjgaus]

What was the room number of this smelly 1 bedroom villa?

 

[Starr W.]

Didn't make a room request for our trip in November but we got a great view of WOC from our room. Stopped and watched before we unpacked.

Found the wifi fine, and I will say VGC are probably the nicest DVC villas in the system.

 

[heartsy77]

What was the room number of this smelly 1 bedroom villa?

It was on 3rd floor and the room number ended in a 5; it was right off the elevator.

 

[las3888]

I really do love GCV--LOVE the proximity to the parks, DTD. The views are not great. We have had the theme park view before which is pretty nice, but it is pretty LOUD. We like to sit on our balcony in the late afternoon and while we got used to it, it's just not a relaxing atmosphere by any means. However, the view is pretty neat.

I am not a fan of the lack of nearby parking either, but given the lay of the land at DL, not much we can do.

My biggest pet peeve at GCV is that it seems NO rooms are every available before 4:00. It seems every time we go (mind you it's during the summer when it's probably pretty busy), we get checked in and do the dreaded lobby wait for hours. By 4pm there are so many tired and cranky travelers stacked up in the lobby that there are usually no chairs available. Once 4pm rolls around, SLOWLY but surely people are informed of their rooms being ready. We noticed this was the case every day of our stay (as we would walk through the lobby). I know that they don't guarantee the rooms any earlier, but I can't believe the maids can't start cleaning those early checked-out rooms by 8-9am???? We were out of our room by 6am the day we left!

For our next trip, we are looking at flights that don't arrive too early because we know the room won't be ready any time sooner than 4!

 

[PoohsFan1]

My biggest pet peeve at GCV is that it seems NO rooms are every available before 4:00. It seems every time we go (mind you it's during the summer when it's probably pretty busy), we get checked in and do the dreaded lobby wait for hours. By 4pm there are so many tired and cranky travelers stacked up in the lobby that there are usually no chairs available. Once 4pm rolls around, SLOWLY but surely people are informed of their rooms being ready. We noticed this was the case every day of our stay (as we would walk through the lobby). I know that they don't guarantee the rooms any earlier, but I can't believe the maids can't start cleaning those early checked-out rooms by 8-9am???? We were out of our room by 6am the day we left!

I have a question about this. We will be checking into VGC pretty early in the morning. The previous night we will be at DLH and the next morning we are planning on taking our bags over to Bell Services at DLH and then head over to VGC to check in, afterwards we are going to go to DCA. I know our room will not be ready that early in the morning. I'm just curious if VGC will contact us when our room is ready while we are at the park. When we go to WDW, they will either text or call you when your room is available, you just have to make sure you are checked in first. I wasn't sure if VGC does the same thing.

 

[DebbieB]

I have a question about this. We will be checking into VGC pretty early in the morning. The previous night we will be at DLH and the next morning we are planning on taking our bags over to Bell Services at DLH and then head over to VGC to check in, afterwards we are going to go to DCA. I know our room will not be ready that early in the morning. I'm just curious if VGC will contact us when our room is ready while we are at the park. When we go to WDW, they will either text or call you when your room is available, you just have to make sure you are checked in first. I wasn't sure if VGC does the same thing.

Yes, they send a text.