Grand Californian Super Thread

[disneywith3boys]

How far is 3117 and 3118 from elevators? Do these rooms have a view of the courtyard/monorail?

000, 001 are really close to the elevator. Also outside your front door you will overlook the great hall. It's really nice because you can hear the piano player at night even with your door closed. He stops around 9:30 so you can actually sleep though. Also I like the 3rd floor because it has a very large hallway outside your front door (if you overlook the great hall). We were in 3117 and 3118 on our last trip and the hallways outside the front door was huge. So huge infact they put in a couple of sitting chairs out side the room. We'd use these to wait for the others while they finished getting ready. Outlide of 3003 and 3004 the hallway is so big they have another piano up there (ofcourse these rooms have a view of the valet parkers). 014 and 020 are just around the corner and with those you get a good look at the monorail as it comes right at you!. Don't go too far around that corner else you end up with a long walk to the elevator.. ask bumbershoot!

 

[disneywith3boys]

What is the closest room to the park entrance that have a standard view? I was just looking at the map on page 1 and can't really tell. Also, do the upper floor have the same room numbers as the map, only with the floor number in front of it?

 

[blackjackdelta]

Interesting experience...just called GCH to make a ressie for our last day at DLR, we have to move from the Villas to a standard room for the last night. The CM said the going rate for AP was currently 10% off(440-10%). He then asked if anyone was over 60, the rate then changed to $308/night for the senior discount. He then asked if I needed a daybed(did not have to request one.) I said yes, one daughter can sleep on the daybed.
Very smooth experience. He did say that the availability of the rooms for the summer were decreasing fast. The code on the ressie says CH S5, what ever that means.

Jack

 

[CrazyDuck]

How far is 3117 and 3118 from elevators? Do these rooms have a view of the courtyard/monorail?

oops I meant 3017 and 3018...

Outside 3017 and 3018 is a pool view so that would usually be more than a standard view. Although with the pool under construction the standard courtyard/monorail view would be better!

 

[CrazyDuck]

What is the closest room to the park entrance that have a standard view? I was just looking at the map on page 1 and can't really tell. Also, do the upper floor have the same room numbers as the map, only with the floor number in front of it?

Shortest walk to Disneyland would be 000 or 024 since they are right next to the elevators nearest the downtown disney entrance.

Shortest walk to DCA would be 401 or 325 since they are right next to the elevators by the DCA entrance

yes... the room numbers are the same for each floor just put a floor number infront...

 

[sierranevada]

CH S5, what ever that means.Jack

I believe S5 means 2 queens + day bed/sofa.

 

[nonzerosum]

What's your experience with getting connecting rooms when requested at time of booking. My kids are almost as excited about this possibility as Disney itself. We are going with grandparents, so connecting would be terrific. How abundant are they? Should I also call the GCH itself to request?

 

[nunzia]

What's your experience with getting connecting rooms when requested at time of booking. My kids are almost as excited about this possibility as Disney itself. We are going with grandparents, so connecting would be terrific. How abundant are they? Should I also call the GCH itself to request?

We had a connecting room last May..very nice, and another son was just a door away. I don't know how many connecting rooms they have, but it seems they try pretty hard to fill requests.

 

[sierranevada]

What's your experience with getting connecting rooms when requested at time of booking. My kids are almost as excited about this possibility as Disney itself. We are going with grandparents, so connecting would be terrific. How abundant are they? Should I also call the GCH itself to request?

Definitely call the GCH and request the connecting rooms. They are required to tell you that it is a request and can not be guaranteed but in 12+ years of staying at the DLR hotels, I have never not gotten connecting rooms when I requested them. They even connected a standard room to our 2 bedroom suite which they technically weren't suppose to do.

 

[CrazyDuck]

What's your experience with getting connecting rooms when requested at time of booking. My kids are almost as excited about this possibility as Disney itself. We are going with grandparents, so connecting would be terrific. How abundant are they? Should I also call the GCH itself to request?

A lot of getting the request for connecting rooms depends on what kinds of rooms you requested. If both rooms have 2 queens then you have a better chance of betting them connecting since something like 70% of the rooms are 2 queens.

Here is what I do to get my room requests...... First of all let whoever you book the room with know your room requests when you are booking the room... Next, think of something you would normally purchase in the parks (We always get new embroidered ears for the kiddos), then call Disney Vacation Planning and order them ahead of time and have them delivered to the room(s) before you arrive. Now be sure to let Vacation Planning know your room requests because they will have some control over the room assignments since they will be delivering stuff to your room way before you get there. Good Luck!

 

[sierranevada]

Now be sure to let Vacation Planning know your room requests because they will have some control over the room assignments since they will be delivering stuff to your room way before you get there. Good Luck!

Vacation Planning has some control over room assignments? I never have heard of that one and we use them all the time. Are you sure about that CrazyDuck? If so, I will now always mention it to them.

 

[CrazyDuck]

Vacation Planning has some control over room assignments? I never have heard of that one and we use them all the time. Are you sure about that CrazyDuck? If so, I will now always mention it to them.

I wouldn't say they have direct control over the assignments but they find a way to get me what I want every time... In 06 when we went I never put in a request when I booked my room, When I ordered my ears to be delivered to the room I mentioned to the VP person that I liked being close to the elevators.. She said "I can help you with that"... We checked in late that day around 8p because we were driving up from San Diego, and we were assigned 4024 right next to the elevator (almost too close) and the ears were inside the room waiting on the table... Since then I always make sure to convey my requests to VP as well as WDTC when I booked the rooms...

 

[sierranevada]

That's good to know - thanks for the tip!

 

[Nonsuch]

Ok, I'm getting conflicting numbers on the number of rooms the GC has.

disneylandresort.com says 745.
wdwinfo.com says 751.
kingdommagictravel.com says both 990 and 751.

Does anyone know which number is correct and if the first two websites take into account the new wing?

It's not easy to come up with an exact number.
745/751 is the count before the DVC expansion.

According to my DVC paperwork, the expansion includes 200 hotel rooms and 48 DVC villas. The 48 villas are: 2 grand villas, 23 dedicated two-bedroom, 23 lockoff two-bedroom (one-bedroom with studio). While the lockoff two-bedroom is considered 1 unit for DVC legal purposes, it could be counted as 2 "rooms" (a studio and a one-bedroom).

To further confuse things, the expansion did not add exactly 200 hotel rooms. By my count, the expansion added 195 standard hotel rooms (room numbers x2xx) and 8 studios in the VGC wing (x5xx).

 

[CrazyDuck]

It's not easy to come up with an exact number.
745/751 is the count before the DVC expansion.

According to my DVC paperwork, the expansion includes 200 hotel rooms and 48 DVC villas. The 48 villas are: 2 grand villas, 23 dedicated two-bedroom, 23 lockoff two-bedroom (one-bedroom with studio). While the lockoff two-bedroom is considered 1 unit for DVC legal purposes, it could be counted as 2 "rooms" (a studio and a one-bedroom).

To further confuse things, the expansion did not add exactly 200 hotel rooms. By my count, the expansion added 195 standard hotel rooms (room numbers x2xx) and 8 studios in the VGC wing (x5xx).

To make matters worse..... Can I add this.... According to the map, and the fact that there are 6 floors, I'm counting 48 studios, 30 1 bedrooms, 20 2 bedrooms and 2 grand villas. Now if you combine the 1 bedrooms with the adjoining studios you'd end up with 18 studios, 50 2 bedrooms and 2 grand villas.

 

[Nonsuch]

To make matters worse..... Can I add this.... According to the map, and the fact that there are 6 floors, I'm counting 48 studios, 30 1 bedrooms, 20 2 bedrooms and 2 grand villas. Now if you combine the 1 bedrooms with the adjoining studios you'd end up with 18 studios, 50 2 bedrooms and 2 grand villas.

The floorplan is accurate enough to allow guests to find their rooms, but does not show the differences between floors. The Grand does have 6 floors, but in the DVC wing (VGC) there are only 3 (or 2 depending how you count) rooms on the 6th floor: 1 two-bedroom, 1 one-bedroom, 1 studio.

I was curious about the exact location of all the VGC rooms, and walked through all the floors during my visit last week. I'll draw up a floor by floor map of the VGC this week.

 

[CrazyDuck]

The floorplan is accurate enough to allow guest to find their room, but does not show the differences between floors. The Grand does have 6 floors, but in the DVC wing (VGC) there are only 3 (or 2 depending how you count) rooms on the 6th floor: 1 two-bedroom, 1 one-bedroom, 1 studio.

I was curious about the exact location of all the VGC rooms, and walked through all the floors during my visit last week. I'll draw up a floor by floor map of the VGC this week.

Awesome... I was wondering why things were so off... Look forward to seeing the map!

 

[blackjackdelta]

Awesome... I was wondering why things were so off... Look forward to seeing the map!

I also.

Jack

 

[lulukate]

I tried to order with Vons before our holiday - I used the hotel address so could shop and put my order together which I did a few days before we left but then founds I could not pay for the groceries at all using a non-USA credit card - they required a billing zip code and I could not get it to work no matter what I used. It was so frustrating and of course I had left the payment piece until the night before we left so I could add things that occurred to me at the last minute so their office was closed so I had no way of ordering groceries and had to rely on what was available through Whitewater snacks. Oh well, will try to organize this further in advance next time. Does anyone know of a way around this or do I have to call them again.

Dee

That's good information to know! I thought I heard that everyone's first delivery was free, but I wasn't 100% sure they were still giving the free delivery. Glad to know they are. And it is also really helpful that seemingly most DIS-ers have been lucky with having their hotels - either the 3 DLR hotels or the offsite hotels - accept the delivery in their absence. That is really handy, as I am sure many DIS-ers don't want to leave the park at certain hours to come back and sort through groceries!!

Also, I should point out that from everythign I read on here, it sounds like the Vons delivery service is much better in Anaheim than it is where I am in L.A. They have made endless mistakes with my orders, but they seem to do a good job with the customers in Orange County (different stores, different shoppers, different drivers!).

If you can justify spending the $50 to place an order, it is really worth it for the water alone! Vons will have weekly sales, and often times a 24-pack of Arrowhead water, for example, will be on sale for $3.00 or even as low as $2.50. Usually the sales are around $3.50 or $4.00. In any case, that is much more cost effective than paying $3 or $4 for one little bottle of water or orange juice in DLR!!! On my last two trips to DLR, I stopped to get some OJ and some of those delicious, juicy pineapple spears at the end of the day - because I was dehydrated and parched! I could justify it for the spears because they are just so yummy, but the bottles of OJ nearly killed me with those prices - literally, the price of one bottle is about the price of a case of 24 bottles of water on sale at Vons! Yikes!!

 

[disnemimi]

We will be arriving the end of April for our first trip to DL and DCA and staying at the Grand California Hotel. Thank you for this thread for hotel information. I saw in one thread there is pool construction going on. Is this for an additional pool or the main pool? My granddaughter definitely wants to swim so this is important. Thank you for your help.
Karen