The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Owners Group

[JimmyJam838]

The DVC office is located behind the Disneyland Hotel. If you are going to Disneyland or DCA, stop by one of the kiosks and ask about DVC there. They will call over to the office and set up an appointment. We were able to do ours right away, and they sent over a van to pick us up. They gave us a few fast passes for taking the tour. Sometimes they have a gift card incentive for taking the tour. I'm not sure which model they currently have, but had VGC last spring when we were there.

 

[Nonsuch]

If you are going to Disneyland or DCA, stop by one of the kiosks and ask about DVC there.

You can't walk 5 feet without bumping into one of those kiosks, there is even a DVC desk in the lobby of the Grand.

The DCV office is shown as "Disneyland Resort Center" on page 2 of this map.

The models were still VGC when I was there the second week of December.

 

[Grumpygrandpa]

Hi, all.

I had heard that they were going to change from VGC (since they're open now) to Aulani (new name!) at some point - have they?

TIA!!

Aulani is the name of the new DVC in Hawaii.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hi, all.

We'll be at VGC in a month for our first trip to our CA home. My sister and family will be with us, and would like to tour/talk to a guide there. Where is the DVC "office" and which model do they have there now? I had heard that they were going to change from VGC (since they're open now) to Aulani (new name!) at some point - have they?

TIA!!

Where is Ravensdale? How silly that I've never heard of it.

Oh yes, you won't be able to walk far without bumping into an opportunity to set up a tour/talk.

If you have little kids, see if they still have the little kidcare room. While hubby and I sat and had coffee and water and listened to our guide talk, DS was in the kidcare room, having fun and watching movies (Shrek, which caused an interesting conversation later of if they should be showing Dreamworks movies, LOL). It was a very relaxing couple hours (our guide is talky and so am I!), and about 1.5 years later we bought in.

 

[Tandelothien]

Yes they still had the kidcare room in December, my DS stayed in it while we met with our guide

 

[Caropooh]

Where is Ravensdale? How silly that I've never heard of it.

Oh yes, you won't be able to walk far without bumping into an opportunity to set up a tour/talk.

If you have little kids, see if they still have the little kidcare room. While hubby and I sat and had coffee and water and listened to our guide talk, DS was in the kidcare room, having fun and watching movies (Shrek, which caused an interesting conversation later of if they should be showing Dreamworks movies, LOL). It was a very relaxing couple hours (our guide is talky and so am I!), and about 1.5 years later we bought in.

Ravensdale is out near Maple Valley and Enumclaw, I believe.

 

[SpaceRangers]

Where is Ravensdale? How silly that I've never heard of it.

Oh yes, you won't be able to walk far without bumping into an opportunity to set up a tour/talk.

If you have little kids, see if they still have the little kidcare room. While hubby and I sat and had coffee and water and listened to our guide talk, DS was in the kidcare room, having fun and watching movies (Shrek, which caused an interesting conversation later of if they should be showing Dreamworks movies, LOL). It was a very relaxing couple hours (our guide is talky and so am I!), and about 1.5 years later we bought in.

East and a bit south of Maple Valley. North east of Black Diamond.

 

[mopee3]

So how do you GCV people get from John Wayne to the resort?

Taxie, is there a shuttle like Magic Express?

Going end of April and renting a car at DTD but need to get to the GCV first.

Moe

 

[thelionqueen]

Hey my GCV family! To spare a very long and pity party story, I am in need of a reservation in a Studio from June 30-July 3rd @ GCV. I had the majority of the reservation booked, but MS didn't complete the reservation in time, and I lost one of the days (right in the middle..ugh).

I know this is a total long shot, but if anyone has a reservation for this time in a studio they will be canceling, can you please let me know? TIA!

 

[ACDSNY]

DVCNews has posted the 2011 point chart for VGC. For our Fall trips of 4 nights (weekdays) we went up from 180 points to 208 points. Good thing we just added-on more points.

On the other hand it's less points for our weekend nights after our Panama cruise.

 

[ACDSNY]

So how do you GCV people get from John Wayne to the resort?

Taxie, is there a shuttle like Magic Express?

Going end of April and renting a car at DTD but need to get to the GCV first.

Moe

We typically rent a car at the airport or take a taxi.

 

[ACDSNY]

Hey my GCV family! To spare a very long and pity party story, I am in need of a reservation in a Studio from June 30-July 3rd @ GCV. I had the majority of the reservation booked, but MS didn't complete the reservation in time, and I lost one of the days (right in the middle..ugh).

I know this is a total long shot, but if anyone has a reservation for this time in a studio they will be canceling, can you please let me know? TIA!

Hopefully your waitlist will come through...here's some faith, trust and pixie dust.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks for the info on the WA city!

So how do you GCV people get from John Wayne to the resort?

Taxie, is there a shuttle like Magic Express?

Going end of April and renting a car at DTD but need to get to the GCV first.

Moe

Grayline's Disneyland Express is one option. It's not run by disney, and it costs some money. It's a coach bus.

There's also Super Shuttle. There are others but those are what we've used.

You might want to just check prices renting from the airport...I've never noticed great prices from the DTD Alamo.

 

[mopee3]

Grayline's Disneyland Express is one option. It's not run by disney, and it costs some money. It's a coach bus.

There's also Super Shuttle. There are others but those are what we've used.

Thanks, can you guess what the shuttles might cost?
Mollie read the message you sent.

Thanks

Moe

 

[preedymtnwest]

Thank you all for the info on the DLR DVC office and the kid room! We bought out of WDW when we were there in early 2008 and they have the same amenities at the office at SSR (PLUS a full-service old-fashioned ice cream parlor at the end to "sweeten you up" before you go!). Our kids didn't want to leave either. So funny about them showing "Shrek!"

How nice to see all of the WA DISers chime in! You're right - Ravensdale is 15 miles due south of Issaquah, 3 miles east of Maple Valley (4 Corners), and east of Covington about 6 miles. I had lived in Bellevue for 12 years before I met my husband at the U of W, and when he said he was from Ravensdale, I said, "is that in Washington???" so don't feel bad if you've never heard of it. And now I live there.

We bought into SSR with the promise of VGC opening in the future - I love both DLR and WDW for different reasons, but let's face it, it's a heck of a lot easier and usually cheaper to fly to DLR from WA, especially for a long weekend. We'll be there in 3-1/2 weeks for the first time "home" (but who's counting). We're taking my sister and her family for the second time (last Feb. we went to WDW and DCL together) and they so want to join the fun, but need to figure out the money. She just mentioned last week that she was interested in taking the tour while we're down there, and that was the most serious I had heard her talk about it.

So thanks again for the info - especially good to know that her 5 and 10 year olds would have something to do (unless they stay with us, which is fine, too).

 

[nunzia]

DVCNews has posted the 2011 point chart for VGC. For our Fall trips of 4 nights (weekdays) we went up from 180 points to 208 points. Good thing we just added-on more points.

On the other hand it's less points for our weekend nights after our Panama cruise.

I just saw these.. I already was mulling over in my head how many more points I need, now I need to re-evaluate....again...and then of course they will change next year..again...

 

[ACDSNY]

I just saw these.. I already was mulling over in my head how many more points I need, now I need to re-evaluate....again...and then of course they will change next year..again...

I know what you mean, I'm glad we did the 100 pt add on with $17 discount per point. I was going to do a lower amount to just get by based on the 2010 point chart, but decided to up it to a flat 100 points to offset the 100 SSR I put up for sale.

 

[tjkraz]

I just saw these.. I already was mulling over in my head how many more points I need, now I need to re-evaluate....again...and then of course they will change next year..again...

Well, if there's any silver lining I don't see how they could make further changes to the weeday/weekend split. About the only place they could go from here is to make the costs identical. That would wreck havoc--particularly at DL where locals are more apt to gobble up Thursday-Sunday nights. DVC charged the same for a Friday night as a Wednesday night, those weekdays would be consistently empty. There needs to be some premium for the weekends.

In fact, if DVC continues to monitor trends it wouldn't surprise me if weekdays got a bit cheaper at some point in the future. Right now I wonder if they didn't over-compensate.

They could still tweak the seasons a bit, but VGC is so new and has many variations in the charts compared to WDW resorts that it should take a few years to make any educated changes.

 

[kerickson]

Well, if there's any silver lining I don't see how they could make further changes to the weeday/weekend split. About the only place they could go from here is to make the costs identical. That would wreck havoc--particularly at DL where locals are more apt to gobble up Thursday-Sunday nights. DVC charged the same for a Friday night as a Wednesday night, those weekdays would be consistently empty. There needs to be some premium for the weekends.

In fact, if DVC continues to monitor trends it wouldn't surprise me if weekdays got a bit cheaper at some point in the future. Right now I wonder if they didn't over-compensate.

They could still tweak the seasons a bit, but VGC is so new and has many variations in the charts compared to WDW resorts that it should take a few years to make any educated changes.

I was surprised to see the changes made to VGC for the reasons you mention above. I wonder if the are looking to even out the weekday/weekend point values to ease their ability to trade out to RCI and other groups? Not sure if that matters unless they start offering nightly trades out of DVC

 

[Nonsuch]

In fact, if DVC continues to monitor trends it wouldn't surprise me if weekdays got a bit cheaper at some point in the future. Right now I wonder if they didn't over-compensate.

I think they did over-compensate
I like to avoid the weekend crowds, so the weekday increases look bad to me

I'm a "semi-local" driving to VGC from Northern California so my weekday trips will need to shorter, or I need more points (DVC would like that).