Pics and Mini TR From our stay at a studio at VGC 9/29-10/2

[justkeepswimmin]

Hello everyone,

Just returned from our first ever DVC stay at the Villas at Grand Californian hotel. We had a wonderful stay and I took a ton of pics of the studio. As I mentioned in a pp, it was little cozy for our family of 5 but since we have one that is under 3 we still meet the occupancy limits for the studio so we booked it to save some points.

Our traveling party included:

Me: Disney crazed mom of 3 girls
DH: Less Disney crazy but a good sport.
DD 9: No longer into Princesses but a thrill ride junkie
DD 4: In the heart of the Princess phase, refused to do any thrill rides on this trip, it was all about autographs.
DD 2: Our youngest is a ball of energy, been to Disney before but this is the 1st trip where she would have character recognition (Mickey, Nemo, Little Einsteins)

Travel Dates: Tuesday 9/29- Friday 10/2 Halloween Time at the Parks!

Pre Disney arrival we spent 3 days in San Diego and had a wonderful time. That was supposed to be our whole vacation but we added the 3 nights in Anaheim at the last minute so we could check out our first DVC resort and were pleased they were available.

Up next, Day 1 and pics

 

[wideeyedwonder]

Looking forward to the mini-trip report!

 

[justkeepswimmin]

Day 1-Tuesday 9/29
We left San Diego (where we started our vacation) at about 8 am and were surprised by the lack of traffic up to Orange County. Already the day felt sprinkled with Pixie Dust.

ARRIVAL: We arrived around 10 am. The cool thing about your arrival is that the new wing is the first thing you see. That was kind of cool. The CM at the entry gate to the resort could not have been more cheerful and gave us our first ever "Welcome Home" She also gave us a pass for our van that indicated we were DVC guests. This also triggered another welcome home from the parking attendant helping us with our bags.

We knew the room would not be ready so we had the bell desk store all of our items and Jon went and self parked the van across the street. Free valet or underground parking privileges would have been nice but it was not a huge deal for us. I think if I was not new to DVC and used to this perk it would have probably mattered more.

CHECK IN: While Jon parked, I took the girls to the check in desk. I kind of wish there was a DVC dedicated check in. The woman that helped us was very nice but seemed a little shaky checking us in as if she was trying to remember the proper procedures. She did say "Welcome Home" so that was our 3rd greeting so I was on . I had requested a theme park view and while she was not able to tell me our room number, she did circle the general section our room would be in on the map. This was also my first time using pre check in where they "text" you when your room is ready. LOVE that!! The text tells you your room number, activates your keys and you are all set. I asked her if the room would be ready around 3 and she gave me a very shaky "uh hmm" .

In addition to the map, she gave us a folio with pluto that said "Welcome Home". I assume this is the standard DVC folio. Inside was the standard hotel information and schedule of daily hotel events. I also inquired about purchasing APs with our DVC discount but was told they could not do that at the hotel and that I would need to purchase them through the main ticketing area.

Here is a pic of the map she gave us which I actually took earlier today, hence the wrinkles and smudges. The group of rooms she circled indicated the general area where our room would be located. The other smaller circle indicates where the elevators are located.

Up next, our walk through the new wing.

 

[Brave teacher]

I am looking forward to hearing more! We have recently had discussions of maybe trying out DL soon.

 

[justkeepswimmin]

After check in, we decided to walk around the resort and check out the new addition. The Grand Californian Hotel is really beautiful. The new wing blends perfectly with the original structure. They did a nice job with this.

Our first stop was the 6th floor viewing area.

This was the door and sign. There is no keycard access but there is another door after this one and it was locked. This was a standard key lock not a card access set up so not sure what future plans are for this yet.

View from the 6th floor hallway window, adjacent to the view deck entry door. This looks out onto the Disneyland Hotel area.

As we were walking to the elevators, there was a security CM walking the floor so we asked him about the deck and he seemed clueless and said we should have key card access. My dh explained it was locked like a regular door would be and not with a key card system and he seemed surprised. Oh well, I expect these things will be worked out in time. I did stop in the 6th floor elevator window bay and took these pics of the pool area view from the 6th floor:

A quick note about the elevators in the DVC wing-they are fast!! Seriously, I love them. We never waited for an elevator our entire stay. There are 3 of them for the wing and they are wonderful!

Here is a pic of the entry area for the elevators:

 

[justkeepswimmin]

So Just to give you an idea of how accessible the new wing feels, these are the doors leading out of the main lobby. The Guest services desk is immediately to your right as you enter these doors and the front desk/ check in is immediately to the left.

As you walk through these doors to the new wing, this is what you will see to your right. In addition to Pinnochio's Workshop and the Arcade, there are restrooms on this side of the building.

To your left, the walkway meets up with the new pool and spa fencing as seen below.

Here is a close up of the new directional sign on one of the stone pillars. As I mentioned, the Villas feel extremely accessible and not at all removed from the resort.

Just outside the doors of the lobby that lead to the new wing of the hotel with the Villas, you will find this outdoor fireplace to your left, against the wall of the lobby. Now I am sure this is not new but we had never seen it before as so we thought it was really cool. There are rocking chairs to sit at just like the one inside but it seemed more private and it is very accessible to the Villas. As you can see, my girls loved them. At this point, I was not even sure we would make it to the parks we were having so much fun exploring the resort!

Here is a picture of the separate path from the outdoor fireplace as it meets up with the path to the new wing of the hotel. As I said, very accessible.

Up next: Path to nowhere/ search for the cool grills I saw pics of on these boards!

 

[justkeepswimmin]

After checking out the outdoor fireplace, we went back into the new wing to find the grills. I believe we exited straight through the 1st floor elevator bay and this was directly outside.

The kids thought it was so cool how close this was to the Mullholand Madness ride. They joked about riding it and calling out to their dad to throw them a burger. I thought it was pretty cool too. You can really hear the sights and sounds of the park from this location and I cannot imagine a better way to grill.



Here are a couple more pictures of the grills.

I also took the path that continued on from the grills and found that it lead to an emergency exit to the pool. Since there was a card reader at the gate, I did try and use it but my key did not open this gate.

As I turned back on the path, I took this quick shot of the view of the World of Color observation deck and grill area. This is a nice little "in the know" treat for dvc members. There was certainly no mention of these grills at check in or anywhere else I could find.

 

[El&Asmom]

Thanks so much for the report and pictures. It's great to see so much of the resort.

 

[DenLo]

Thanks for the great trip report and photos. They were great and VGC looks fabulous. Did you have a gift in the room?

 

[Grumpygrandpa]

Thank you so much justkeepswimmin! Your pics have given me the best idea yet of how the resort feels. It's like you took the shots I was most interested in. Now I know just where those grills are located. It is nice how seamlessly the new addition blends with the original hotel. Good job!

 

[justkeepswimmin]

Thanks for the great trip report and photos. They were great and VGC looks fabulous. Did you have a gift in the room?

No, we didn't. Should we have? Our guide did call our room and left us a welcome home message.

 

[justkeepswimmin]

Thank you so much justkeepswimmin! Your pics have given me the best idea yet of how the resort feels. It's like you took the shots I was most interested in. Now I know just where those grills are located. It is nice how seamlessly the new addition blends with the original hotel. Good job!

No problem! I was really surprised at how connected the villas seemed. I truly thought they would feel more remote or isolated from other parts of the hotel so this was a great surprise.

More pics of inside the studio to follow...

 

[LyndaC]

No, we didn't. Should we have? Our guide did call our room and left us a welcome home message.

We were there the on the 23rd through the 26th. No one got an opening day gift, although they did have a wine and cheese reception for us in one of the grand villas.

 

[justkeepswimmin]

After spending a good amount of time walking around the outside of the hotel, we made our way back into the beautiful lobby. I did not take as many interior lobby shots as I probably should have, but if you have never been it is really breathtaking. My middle daughter just wanted to hang out here and watch cartoons in the little kids tv area pictured below.

Near the kids TV area, there was a little table set up for coloring ans sending Mickey Fan Mail. They even had a mail box set up to place the finished colored pics/ fan mail. I meant to take the girls back here and put a picture with our room number in the box as the sign instructed but it never happened so I will have to try it next trip.

I think it was at this point, it dawned on me that this would be our Disneyland "home" from now on for me, Jon and the girls. This lobby would start to become a place of familiarity for each of my girls and a place where they would start to create memories. It was no longer something we just walked through on on our way someplace else or a once in a while "treat". I cannot really put into words how special that moment felt to me but I will never forget that feeling.

 

[justkeepswimmin]

We were there the on the 23rd through the 26th. No one got an opening day gift, although they did have a wine and cheese reception for us in one of the grand villas.

Ooh, that sounds nice. I would have loved to see the inside of the Villas. The CM from the bell desk who brought up our luggage was just raving about them. Hope you had a wonderful trip.

 

[justkeepswimmin]

At this point, we had probably spent an hour or more just exploring the hotel and my oldest was getting antsy so we headed to the parks. For those of you not familiar with the Disneyland area, that means we literally walked outside of the GCH an we were in the heart of Downtown Disney. If you look to the right and above the shops in these pictures, you are looking at actual hotel rooms at the Grand Californian. The location is unbelievable!


This is a shot of my girls as we walked through DTD to the main ticketing area of the resort. We like having a 9 year old that can push the baby stroller for us old people .

The Halloween Time banners on display throughout Downtown Disney

At ticketing, we were able to purchase 4 deluxe annual passes with our DVC discount, no problem. The park looks great for Halloween. Disneyland, in particular has amazing detailing.



Here are a couple Halloween time shots taken on Mainstreet.

The Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy overlay was very popular. We got FPs for it and I rode it with my oldest before going back to the hotel to wait for our room. My middle daughter was clearly not prepared to ride

Up next, waiting for our room at the GCH pool and studio pics. Hmm..this is turning into more than a "mini" report-sorry

 

[justkeepswimmin]

After lunch and a few hours of fun at Disneyland, we decided to head back to the hotel and wait for our room. It was close to 3 PM and I was a little anxious about whether or not it would be ready but I soon forgot my anxiety because our 2 year old fell asleep in her stroller and that meant we could enjoy the pool area a little more so I was in no hurry.

Jon, relaxing by the Mariposa/ DVC pool in the most comfortable chairs ever! In the right hand corner of this picture, you can see one of the cabanas. They do not seem to be operational yet but they do seem to be stocked with some amenities already and there were some "official" looking people having a little pow wow inside one of them while we were there.

My oldest swimming in the Mariposa pool. The main pool slide is in the background.

A shot of the pool facing Grand Villa.

Everyone really liked the lounge chairs.

A closer shot of the waterslide.

The pool area is very peaceful at the Grand. It does not feel as crowded as the Disneyland Hotel pool where we can never seem to secure chairs. Now, don't get me wrong, the Neverland Pool at the DLH is something I will really miss and my kids love it but I could get used to this pool too.

We received a text message at 3:30 stating our room was ready and providing our room number (3504).

We were enjoying the pool so much however, we did not rush right up to see it like I thought we would. Jon flagged down a pool server (a bit of a challenge but hopefully this was just a fluke) and we ordered a basket of fries for the girls and a couple of beers for us. We also went in the new jacuzzi and it is huge! The jets are also really strong but the water temp was great. We love using the hot tub after spending time in the parks and this one is about as convenient as you could hope for. We did not leave the pool area until close to 5!

 

[justkeepswimmin]

Okay, I took pictures of almost everything in our studio so if you are not into this kind of thing, you might want to skip some of these. I have also tried to resize these so they are not so big.

We hopped on the super fast elevators (push the button and the elevator appears, it was really like that the entire time for us) and headed to the 3rd floor.

Our studio (room 3504) was just outside the elevators . This is a plus for me as it makes it seem even closer to the action.

Here is the view that greeted us from the room. The picture is not the best quality as my digital rebel is in need of repair and I was working with a pretty basic point & shoot camera but you get the idea. My jaw just about dropped to the floor :

This is a shot taken from the balcony. As you have probably seen in other pictures, the view is even more impressive in the evening as the construction work is less noticeable and the Mickey Wheel has a dazzling color display.

This is another shot of the World of Color viewing platform as it appeared when I stood on the balcony and looked to the right.

 

[justkeepswimmin]

While jon called bell services, I started taking pictures of EVERYTHING! I knew once all of our crap arrived, I would never get a chance to photograph the room in "ready" condition again.

Here is a shot of the general room:

The very comfy bed

Close up of the headboard detailing:

The picture hanging next to the bed:

The very cool alarm clock on the nightstand

The MP3 connections for the alarm clock (I am a gadget junkie as is my dh so this stuff is important )

The table and chairs across from the sofa sleeper. This is where the ethernet cable can be found, which I found to be a lot faster than the the wifi.

Shot of the TV/ Kitchenette area:

Close up of the TV connection box:

 

[justkeepswimmin]

Close up of the upper cabinet in the kitchen area. The cabinets are really deep and hold a lot of food. The shelf had a nice metal ice bucket & tray.

This was what was inside the left side of the upper cabinet in the kitchen area (4 mugs & 4 drinking glasses)

And on the right side, upper cabinet:

A closer view of the items in this cabinet. There was a dish towel with a can opener and a wine opener on top of the towel.

And these were the paper plates, bowls, napkins and plastic utensils also found on this shelf.

The right upper cabinet door also had a studio amenities list posted inside the door. We were missing a few of the items it said we should have (vacuum & recycle bin) but overall we seemed to be properly stocked.

Close up of the microwave beneath the cabinets.

The Coffee maker and toaster. There was also a nice black ceramic sugar holder and small creamer server that I thought was a nice touch.

Close up of the coffee pot. I was SO happy it was full sized. We are major coffee drinkers and promptly had to brew a pot once our stuff arrrived from the bell desk. Sadly, we forgot to get filters so we had to do the paper towel trick.

The sink, with the poorly placed paper towels on the corner. There was some serious water pressure in that sink so we soaked half the roll of paper towels before eventually relocating them. Loved the little bottle of dish soap and sponge .

The area underneath the sink. There was an extra roll of paper towels provided.

The very decent sized mini fridge. It was so much bigger and better than the standard sized mini fridges you find at most hotels.

Here it is, partially stocked after our cooler arrived. You can fit a half gallon of milk in the door.

DVC sign explaining how housekeeping works. I have to admit, with three kids to pick up after, I did kind of miss having daily housekeeping but I will get used to it.