Grand Californian Super Thread

[sierranevada]

Hi everyone, we are going to Disneyland in July - it will be our first ever summer trip. We are staying at VGC. We are travelling with an 8-week-old for the first time and are adjusting our typical vacation plans accordingly. So I have two questions for y'all:

1. Because we're needing to have a more relaxed trip we are thinking of renting a pool cabana. Does anyone know if we can do this ahead of time? and if so who should I contact? The hotel concierge?

2. Our baby LOVES our rocking chair and I am trying to remember whether I've previously seen rocking chairs somewhere in the GCH lobby or if I am just imagining it . . . If she's fussy it would be nice to be able try and use those if I'm desperate.

I'm crossing my fingers for a smooth trip with baby!

thanks!

We rented a pool cabana last year - it was awesome. I had vacation planning do it because they were also doing some other reservations for us. But you can call the hotel concierge directly and book it. They take bookings at 10 days prior.

Rocking Chairs - if they had them it would be in the fireplace area - just can really recall if they are there. Hopefully someone else has noticed.

Have a great time.

 

[Kauinohea]

Wondering if there are bunk bed rooms with Park View? If there are...any suggestions on bunk bed rooms with a good view? We'll be celebrating my son's 4th birthday and hope to be able to request a "magical" room

 

[Kauinohea]

bump

 

[marts35]

bethy

Our baby LOVES our rocking chair and I am trying to remember whether I've previously seen rocking chairs somewhere in the GCH lobby or if I am just imagining it . . . If she's fussy it would be nice to be able try and use those if I'm desperate.

There are wonderful Rocking Chairs in the Fireplace area where we have spent many relaxing happy hours. The piano player is often there playing lovely music which also might be soothing for the baby.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[VallCopen]

Wondering if there are bunk bed rooms with Park View? If there are...any suggestions on bunk bed rooms with a good view? We'll be celebrating my son's 4th birthday and hope to be able to request a "magical" room

Yes there are bunk rooms with a Pier view, my cousins family had one last year on the 4th floor (the new wing). Let them know it is his birthday and he would love a park view in the new wing and see what happens, it also helps to check in early because they can almost always change the room location if your early. Have fun, we are here now for a few weeks and celebrating my daughters 4th birthday too. OFF to the park!!!

 

[Kauinohea]

Yes there are bunk rooms with a Pier view, my cousins family had one last year on the 4th floor (the new wing). Let them know it is his birthday and he would love a park view in the new wing and see what happens, it also helps to check in early because they can almost always change the room location if your early. Have fun, we are here now for a few weeks and celebrating my daughters 4th birthday too. OFF to the park!!!

Thank you so much for the info! Have a great trip and extra special 4th Birthday Celebration!

 

[blackjackdelta]

We rented a pool cabana last year - it was awesome. I had vacation planning do it because they were also doing some other reservations for us. But you can call the hotel concierge directly and book it. They take bookings at 10 days prior.

Rocking Chairs - if they had them it would be in the fireplace area - just can really recall if they are there. Hopefully someone else has noticed.

Have a great time.

We always use Vacation Planning, so much easier.

Jack

 

[frank808]

jack was your party at the pool cabana closest to the lobby today? I was looking for somewhere to put towels and clothes down because the pool was so crowded today. I thought it was crowded when we came back from the park for a siesta at 2:00pm but it was even more crowded at 4:00 pm.

 

[blackjackdelta]

jack was your party at the pool cabana closest to the lobby today? I was looking for somewhere to put towels and clothes down because the pool was so crowded today. I thought it was crowded when we came back from the park for a siesta at 2:00pm but it was even more crowded at 4:00 pm.

Frank:
We do not get to the parks until 7/31 and we have a cabana rented for 8/3. It will be interesting.

Jack

 

[IUTBAM]

We just returned from a 5-night stay at the GCH, and I *LOVE* that hotel for the convenience! We had faxed the resort a few days prior requesting a standard room over the entryway (which we had heard was larger), and they gave us one. Holy cow, it was HUGE! Easily as big as our room at the Polynesian at WDW (and that's a big room). Room 4105, two queens and a daybed, super-cold fridge (no problem freezing water bottles in the small freezer compartment), and a nice view of the front of the GCH, with DLH and PPH in the background. I wasn't overwhelmed by Whitewater Snacks, but one tip I can give is if you eat there with your family and you want to drink milk, the 1/2 gallon jug is a MUCH better deal than buying the individual pints (they have cups). We did enjoy the chicken nachos there, but breakfast was not great.

Oh, and my DH found $70 in the washing machine, so that made him extremely happy! lol

 

[PoohNFriends]

We just returned from a 5-night stay at the GCH, and I *LOVE* that hotel for the convenience! We had faxed the resort a few days prior requesting a standard room over the entryway (which we had heard was larger), and they gave us one. Holy cow, it was HUGE! Easily as big as our room at the Polynesian at WDW (and that's a big room). Room 4105, two queens and a daybed, super-cold fridge (no problem freezing water bottles in the small freezer compartment), and a nice view of the front of the GCH, with DLH and PPH in the background. I wasn't overwhelmed by Whitewater Snacks, but one tip I can give is if you eat there with your family and you want to drink milk, the 1/2 gallon jug is a MUCH better deal than buying the individual pints (they have cups). We did enjoy the chicken nachos there, but breakfast was not great.

Oh, and my DH found $70 in the washing machine, so that made him extremely happy! lol

I've been meaning to post the same thing about soda/pop/coke/soda-pop, depending on your preference ! The afternoon DBF and I enjoyed some nachos there we decided to go for a 2 liter diet coke - we love fountain soda, but our 2 liters we ordered from Vons was low in the room. Anyways the price for the 2 liter is about the same as the 20oz you can get from the vending machines.

 

[disneyfan67]

We rented a pool cabana last year - it was awesome. I had vacation planning do it because they were also doing some other reservations for us. But you can call the hotel concierge directly and book it. They take bookings at 10 days prior.

Rocking Chairs - if they had them it would be in the fireplace area - just can really recall if they are there. Hopefully someone else has noticed.

Have a great time.

I'm thinking of doing a half day cabana rental for my upcoming trip and it does sound tempting. This thread is making me think more and more about it.

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

I personally think that renting a cabana is very subjective ... it completely depends on your own family requirements. When we stayed at the GCH in March/April with 3 younger kids the cabana would not have been helpful to us, the reason being that my kids were always going on the water slide which was quite far away from the cabana's and therefore hard to supervise. We also found that we wanted more time in the parks and really had to push hard to find time to go to the pools. I wish we had had more time to relax at the pools, but with DLP and DCA right next door it's hard to do!

 

[tiggeroo42]

Here are some pictures from our stay 6/11/11 - 6/15/11. We were in room 1503, which is a standard view room. This is located on the first floor by the elevators at the end of the DVC wing by the pool, arcade, and Pinocchio's Workshop. It was a very convenient location, not to mention on the first floor which was helpful with the stroller!

 

[Nonsuch]

Here are some pictures from our stay 6/11/11 - 6/15/11. We were in room 1503, which is a standard view room. This is located on the first floor by the elevators at the end of the DVC wing by the pool, arcade, and Pinocchio's Workshop. It was a very convenient location, not to mention on the first floor which was helpful with the stroller!

Did you request a ground floor room?
The original hotel did not have any ground floor rooms, but 15 ground floor hotel rooms were added during the VGC expansion.

 

[helenb]

Neat! Do any of those new ground floor rooms have the daybed?

 

[Nonsuch]

Neat! Do any of those new ground floor rooms have the daybed?

Unlikely, since the daybed rooms are larger than regular hotel rooms.

 

[blackjackdelta]

I'm thinking of doing a half day cabana rental for my upcoming trip and it does sound tempting. This thread is making me think more and more about it.

Since the family decided the cabana would be great since most of the time the pool is open it is packed. I most likely will be somewhere else.

Jack

 

[hjgaus]

Since the family decided the cabana would be great since most of the time the pool is open it is packed. I most likely will be somewhere else.

Jack

Our stay was may 4 to 8 at VGC with an original renting of all day sat 5/8 but then changed to half days (fri 2- 6 & sat 9-1) day one was great with warm weather but day two not so much. 10 people (4 being teenagers) in our group with half in and half in front of cabana on lounge chairs. If you plan on spending lots of $ on ordering drinks & food in a timely manner from the vip service they provide then the cabanas are a great ideal.

 

[hjgaus]

Day 2 in the morning was due to having a dinner res @ 5 pm. The weather did not warm up but by then it was to late to cancel. Although group decided to cancel the dinner res and eat in. Father in law brought down truck load of food from Costco (stayed in the 3 bed grand villa) and didn't want to spend extra $. This also was the case with the drinks at cabana and wanted to bring there own wine which they said no they could lose their Liquor license. So again if you really don't need the personal attention then maybe cabanas might not be needed for some people. My husband and I enjoyed taking care of everyone (drinks etc) for the time their but I guess it made others feel uncomfortable to spend $