Grand Californian Super Thread

[nunzia]

Try to request a list of rooms: 6504, 5504, 4504, 3504
6504 has a balcony open on 2 sides

Do you mean other than the fastpasses?
The fastpasses are a special Summer promo, which ends on Sept 5.
If you don't need them, I'll take them off your hands

We just got back and had 4504

 

[nemofans]

We have a package booked staying at GCH for this Nov. When I received the email from Disney Travel Co with our ressie, my DS isn't listed on it. He is 2 yrs old, so I know he doesn't need a ticket. Shouldn't he still be listed on the ressie though?

 

[Nonsuch]

We have a package booked staying at GCH for this Nov. When I received the email from Disney Travel Co with our ressie, my DS isn't listed on it. He is 2 yrs old, so I know he doesn't need a ticket. Shouldn't he still be listed on the ressie though?

It will not matter in November, but it is nice to get the personalized room keys.

It is important during the fastpass promotions (which is about to end) to list all members of the party, since each registered guest receives 2 passes

 

[specialks]

WHEW! Finally made it thru all 161 pages! We have our 4th DLR trip booked for Oct and after always staying far offsite, my DH finally gave the go ahead to stay at the GCH! I am very excited and it will be a special treat for my youngest DD who will be turning 5 just after our trip. She has always wondered why we couldn't stay in "one of those hotels (as viewed from DTD and the parks)". We will be celebrating her birthday on our short trip. We are actually driving from Seattle and hitting the Redwoods on our way down and my husband is going to throw a day of work in at his Oakland home office on our way back home.

No height requirement just that they be able to swim by themselves out of the area the slide dumps into and no lifejackets. The lifeguard can/may ask the child for a quick swim test if they have any doubts - usually if they see it is a young child. So if all your kids swim well, they should be fine.

Can kids use "water wings" on the slide. They are those inflatable "bands" that kids can wear on their arms.

Also, very early I read that someone uses VP (DreamMakers) to have Ear hats delivered to the room upon arrival. Do they still do this or is there a "shopping fee" they charge (like the gift basket custom fee)?

Thanks!

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

Not sure if they allow those water wings or not, but when we were there in April they gave my very good swimmer DS5 a swim test that he passed no problem at all. I noticed myself that when going down the Redwood waterslide, you do get "dunked" under the water quite heavily, so if your child is not a confident swimmer, probably best to stick to the small slide.

 

[DmaxHawk]

WHEW! Finally made it thru all 161 pages! We have our 4th DLR trip booked for Oct and after always staying far offsite, my DH finally gave the go ahead to stay at the GCH! I am very excited and it will be a special treat for my youngest DD who will be turning 5 just after our trip. She has always wondered why we couldn't stay in "one of those hotels (as viewed from DTD and the parks)". We will be celebrating her birthday on our short trip. We are actually driving from Seattle and hitting the Redwoods on our way down and my husband is going to throw a day of work in at his Oakland home office on our way back home.



Can kids use "water wings" on the slide. They are those inflatable "bands" that kids can wear on their arms.

Also, very early I read that someone uses VP (DreamMakers) to have Ear hats delivered to the room upon arrival. Do they still do this or is there a "shopping fee" they charge (like the gift basket custom fee)?

Thanks!

Not sure if they allow those water wings or not, but when we were there in April they gave my very good swimmer DS5 a swim test that he passed no problem at all. I noticed myself that when going down the Redwood waterslide, you do get "dunked" under the water quite heavily, so if your child is not a confident swimmer, probably best to stick to the small slide.

Agreed

Specialks if you are looking for a floaty device, it might be better to use a vest instead of the arm bands. My reasoning is that since you do get "dunked" when you come out of the slide, the arm bands will only keep the child's arms up while the rest of them goes under. So basically all you see are 2 arms sticking straight up with floaty arm bands around them while the rest of the child is under water. This is why I say that the vest is better, it will keep the center mass of the child from going under, not just their arms. I've seen it happen before at other pools, just thought I would chime in

 

[specialks]

Good to know. My DD4 (the one we are celebrating her 5th bday) has been in swimming lessons and is very capable. However, she is a bit timid (not like my daredevil DD7) and she likes to wear the water wings at all the other pool waterslides we have been on at other hotels. Looks like I will have to do some advance warning that she won't be allowed to go on it wi the wings. She will also be coming off her fresh new level of swim lessons (in 12 ft water) and she can't wear them for those, so she should be fine. Thanks for the input.

So, to my other question:
Anyone know if you can call and have mouse ear hats or an autograph book delivered to your room for just the cost of merchandise? Or, is there a "shopping fee" charged like they do for custom gift baskets?

 

[goofycathy]

I just booked our stay in California for Oct 14th-22nd. We are staying Oct 14th-18th at PPH/conceirge level/premium view and then moving over to GCH/conceirge level/premium view from the 18th-22nd. My question is this....would it be possible with the options I have selected to request a king bed for DH and I? I guess I should also say that we have DD9 and DS14.

The issue I have is being able to request a kind bed but also have seperate beds for the kids? I know this sounds like a strange request but I was thinking the DS14 and the DD9 are NOT going to want to share a bed. We have never stayed on-site before and are CLUELESS as what to ask. Should I make this request now or wait until we check in or is this even a possibility?!?! Im not really sure which room to ask for even though it seems I have been reading this thread for months, lol

Can some of you wise GCH or PP regulars help a girl out?!?!?

Thanks so much in advanced!!

 

[XMom]

They have plenty of vests available in two sizes, so you don't have to worry about lugging your own from home!! We are here now and the pool was very busy yesterday and there were still plenty left to go around....now if it was only the same for the lounge chairs!

 

[TahoeMom]

I just booked our stay in California for Oct 14th-22nd. We are staying Oct 14th-18th at PPH/conceirge level/premium view and then moving over to GCH/conceirge level/premium view from the 18th-22nd. My question is this....would it be possible with the options I have selected to request a king bed for DH and I? I guess I should also say that we have DD9 and DS14.

The issue I have is being able to request a kind bed but also have seperate beds for the kids? I know this sounds like a strange request but I was thinking the DS14 and the DD9 are NOT going to want to share a bed. We have never stayed on-site before and are CLUELESS as what to ask. Should I make this request now or wait until we check in or is this even a possibility?!?! Im not really sure which room to ask for even though it seems I have been reading this thread for months, lol

Can some of you wise GCH or PP regulars help a girl out?!?!?

Thanks so much in advanced!!

I have a similar issue with DD16 and DS12 - they are not going to sleep in the same bed. We request a room with a daybed and hope we are lucky since there are no guarantees unless you have 5 people I think. We also call ahead to check in. Sorry - can't remember the number - it may be earlier in this thread - but we call first thing in the morning to check in and then our room is waiting for us when we get there. I am not sure if this helps us get a daybed or not but I am hopeful it will work when we are there in 4 weeks. If we don't get the daybed then my husband and I each sleep with a kid rather than have them sleep together.

 

[PrincessIM]

Good to know. My DD4 (the one we are celebrating her 5th bday) has been in swimming lessons and is very capable. However, she is a bit timid (not like my daredevil DD7) and she likes to wear the water wings at all the other pool waterslides we have been on at other hotels. Looks like I will have to do some advance warning that she won't be allowed to go on it wi the wings. She will also be coming off her fresh new level of swim lessons (in 12 ft water) and she can't wear them for those, so she should be fine. Thanks for the input.

So, to my other question:
Anyone know if you can call and have mouse ear hats or an autograph book delivered to your room for just the cost of merchandise? Or, is there a "shopping fee" charged like they do for custom gift baskets?

When we were there last year, they didn't allow the life vests on the slide. I would assume the water wings would probably be a no too but I could be wrong.

 

[goofycathy]

I have a similar issue with DD16 and DS12 - they are not going to sleep in the same bed. We request a room with a daybed and hope we are lucky since there are no guarantees unless you have 5 people I think. We also call ahead to check in. Sorry - can't remember the number - it may be earlier in this thread - but we call first thing in the morning to check in and then our room is waiting for us when we get there. I am not sure if this helps us get a daybed or not but I am hopeful it will work when we are there in 4 weeks. If we don't get the daybed then my husband and I each sleep with a kid rather than have them sleep together.

Thank you for the info, we plan on calling as soon as the plane touches down to check in and we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best, otherwise we'll be doing the same thing and share the kids, lol

Have a good trip!

 

[XMom]

We sort of have the same issue....we ask for a sleeping bag when we check in and they rotate nights sleeping in the sleeping bag, which comes with a nice sleeping pad. As long as I don't have to listen to the fighting I am happy!

 

[sonjaandsue]

We sort of have the same issue....we ask for a sleeping bag when we check in and they rotate nights sleeping in the sleeping bag, which comes with a nice sleeping pad. As long as I don't have to listen to the fighting I am happy!

They give out sleeping bags? Do we just ask at check-in? That would help us out quite a bit - 5 yo son is a bed hog.

 

[Nonsuch]

I just booked our stay in California for Oct 14th-22nd. We are staying Oct 14th-18th at PPH/conceirge level/premium view and then moving over to GCH/conceirge level/premium view from the 18th-22nd.

I recommend you stay in only one hotel. The gap from the 11AM checkout to 3PM checkin is only 4 hours, but in practice it can be much more. It is easier to checkout when leaving for the parks in the morning, but you will not have a room for an afternoon rest. I had a room (VGC 1 bedroom) not available until almost 6PM
There are conflicting reports about the availability of bell services transferring bags between hotels, so you might be stuck dragging your bags across the street. This is not a big deal, but does conflict with the "concierge experience"

My question is this....would it be possible with the options I have selected to request a king bed for DH and I? I guess I should also say that we have DD9 and DS14.

If you are able to get a king bed both your kids would sleep on the floor, so this seems like the worst possible room type. The best room would be 2 queens and a daybed, which is very rare at the GCH (39 out of 1000, and no view). 2 queens and a daybed is the standard configuration at PPH
Another option at GCH is a queen and bunkbed.

 

[goofycathy]

I recommend you stay in only one hotel. The gap from the 11AM checkout to 3PM checkin is only 4 hours, but in practice it can be much more. It is easier to checkout when leaving for the parks in the morning, but you will not have a room for an afternoon rest. I had a room (VGC 1 bedroom) not available until almost 6PM
There are conflicting reports about the availability of bell services transferring bags between hotels, so you might be stuck dragging your bags across the street. This is not a big deal, but does conflict with the "concierge experience"

IF a special comes out sometime soon, our goal is to do all 8 nights at the GCH but we'll see what happens. We know that not having a room ready for us that day could be a possiblilty but we also arent planning on going to the parks in the morning so it would be ok to check out of PPH and go to the park (after leaving our luggage with the GCH and picking up a few drinks in the conceirge loung) then come back when our room is ready then head back out to the MHP, that is our plan for the 18th, keeping our fingers crossed we can avoid all that hassle and just get an awesome rate and do ALL nights at GCH

If you are able to get a king bed both your kids would sleep on the floor, so this seems like the worst possible room type. The best room would be 2 queens and a daybed, which is very rare at the GCH (39 out of 1000, and no view). 2 queens and a daybed is the standard configuration at PPH
Another option at GCH is a queen and bunkbed.

I would be TOTALLY ok with a queen and a bunkbed, do they have those on the 6th floor? its my understanding that if you do the concierge level those are the rooms that are designated for that?!?! like I said, I have no idea! I sometimes think I know alot about DL and DCA but when it comes to the GCH, DLH or PPH I feel so out of the loop!

 

[SeansMom]

I would be TOTALLY ok with a queen and a bunkbed, do they have those on the 6th floor? its my understanding that if you do the concierge level those are the rooms that are designated for that?!?! like I said, I have no idea! I sometimes think I know alot about DL and DCA but when it comes to the GCH, DLH or PPH I feel so out of the loop!

Yes, they do. That configuration is on all floors.

We stayed on the 6th floor with two queens and the daybed, which worked great with 2 teenage boys. The "view" was over the parking lot and toward the DL and PPH, but that was fine, and nicer than I would have thought. I belive that is the view for all rooms configured this way, and it was 1) very quite and 2) very close to the elevators, so that was a plus!

 

[DmaxHawk]

Yes, they do. That configuration is on all floors.

We stayed on the 6th floor with two queens and the daybed, which worked great with 2 teenage boys. The "view" was over the parking lot and toward the DL and PPH, but that was fine, and nicer than I would have thought. I belive that is the view for all rooms configured this way, and it was 1) very quite and 2) very close to the elevators, so that was a plus!

I think they are also larger than the larger room. If you look at the map of the hotel you will see room number X101, X103, X105, X107, X201, X203, X205, and X207 all look larger than the rest of them. And they all have the parking lot view.

 

[goofycathy]

Thank you everyone for you all your help

 

[TahoeMom]

I would be TOTALLY ok with a queen and a bunkbed, do they have those on the 6th floor? its my understanding that if you do the concierge level those are the rooms that are designated for that?!?! like I said, I have no idea! I sometimes think I know alot about DL and DCA but when it comes to the GCH, DLH or PPH I feel so out of the loop!

We've had the bunkbed rooms before (and not concierge). You might ask about them in advance. This year they cautioned me that taller kids might not be comfortable in them - I guess they aren't quite as long or maybe because they have a footboard and headboard they may feel cramped.