Grand Californian Villas- Studio?

[AZMermaid]

If they are willing to give you enough points for a 1 bedroom, those are easier to get than studios at 7 months. Bit there’s still not many of them. I’d book paradise pier with cash as a back up and then see what happens with DVC. You can use points to stay at PP, but like posters says, it’s a final transaction. It’s also roughly the same amount of points as a one bedroom villa at VGC.

 

[DebbieB]

"Could we book Paradise Pier when the calendar gets released and then try to book GC at 7 months?"

I would. Make your Paradise Pier reservation and at the 7month window book any available days(if any) and waitlist the others. You'll have a fun (anguishing) 6months to see if your waitlist comes through! Good luck!

I’ve stayed at Paradise Pier on cash and liked it. It is the cheapest of the 3 DL resorts. We usually splurge for a park view.

The only thing is they no longer let you cut through GC to get to the parks. You have to go down to the Downtown Disney entrance by Earl of Sandwich.

 

[chrisaman]

If it were me, I would be looking to rent out my points and then use the cash to reserve a cash room at the resort of your choosing at Disneyland. That would be the only way you are going to be staying there on the week of Thanksgiving. It would most likely be hard to get that reservation even renting points. Yes, the cash from renting out my points would not cover the whole cost of a cash room, but it would lower the out of pocket cost.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

If you pay $95 (total) on top of your points, you can rent a regular hotel room at Grand Californian Hotel (not their DVC rooms) using your DVC points via the Disney Collection. So at least an option if you'd like to stay at that property (which I *love*). I think their regular hotel rooms are similar to a DVC Deluxe Studio. On the DVC website, go to Destinations, All Destinations, Scroll past the DVC properties down to the Disney Resort Hotels and find Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. On the next page, Read the fine print at the bottom of the page with language about the $95, etc. You can view the points chart via that page too. Grand Californian is a spendy property for sure. I've not done this before so correct me if I'm wrong. Have a Magical Day.

 

[AZMermaid]

The $95 is actually waived for DL properties- probably because it’s so hard to get DVC rooms there