The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Owners Group

[Nonsuch]

Does the studio actually have a tub or has it been replaced with a roll-in shower?

Based only on the Condominium Plans, the studio appears to have a tub.

The 2-bedroom has a roll-in shower.

The Grand Villa has a roll-in shower.

 

[Disney Princess]

Your post has me thinking about booking for May 2011. I love staying over Mother's Day as well as later in the month for F&W events. It's hard to decide this far out which dates to choose! So when are you going? You will love the VGC, they are so beautiful.

We are going May 19th-24th. My in-laws are joining us from the 19th-22nd. We (I) figured we'd stay on a couple of extra days for some relaxation. We went in May 2009 over Memorial Week to celebrate our anniversary. The weather was lovely and the crowds were busy, but manageable. We are so excited to get back. We loved the models when we walked through - of course the add-on came three months later! Now we finally get to stay!

 

[franandaj]

Based only on the Condominium Plans, the studio appears to have a tub.

That is very cool! But one has to sacrifice the possibility of a park view for the HA Studio...I'll keep that in mind for our future reservations. We stayed in 1514 and there was an island in the kitchen, but for the studio stays we've always gone with a regular studio. For our next stay we have standard 1 br. I'll have to compare that to the HA 1 br (the bars on the toilet were nice for DP).

 

[thelionqueen]

Just booked our Mexican Riviera Cruise for March 20, 2011! I guess I should book Spring Break week immediately right? This will be our first trip "home" for all of us and I want to make sure we get in. Can't wait!!!

 

[Nonsuch]

...We stayed in 1514 and there was an island in the kitchen

Being there is much better than just looking at the floorplans

 

[Nonsuch]

Just booked our Mexican Riviera Cruise for March 20, 2011! I guess I should book Spring Break week immediately right?

Yes! book ASAP.
Your cruise schedule means your travel dates are not flexible.

 

[franandaj]

did I miss something??? Dinner and seating?? What is WCT???

Wine Country Trattoria, and you don't actually get "seating" you get Preferred entrance to the WoC show. That means you don't have to get to DCA when the park opens and stand in line for an hour and a half while everyone gets their FPs. You pay $30-40 pp, and get fed, most reports are that the meals are fairly mediocre, and after you pay your bill they give you a FP. You head over to the line up section and you get to stand in an area and watch the show. You can also buy a picnic box lunch for $15 and do the same thing.

I have reservations for Ariel's Grotto next Thursday night.

 

[blackjackdelta]

After thinking about joining for 3 months now and talking to "guides" about joining, I get more and more confused. I can not get a handle on the R.O.I. I want the home to VGC and I need about 200 points, so is there a good complete refference that I may use for buying or resale. I can pay cash if things work out.

Thanks again for your help,

Jack

 

[thelionqueen]

After thinking about joining for 3 months now and talking to "guides" about joining, I get more and more confused. I can not get a handle on the R.O.I. I want the home to VGC and I need about 200 points, so is there a good complete refference that I may use for buying or resale. I can pay cash if things work out.

Thanks again for your help,

Jack

Hi Jack,
Good for you with researching and getting a good understanding of everything. I'm thinking by ROI you are referring to ROFR??

Right of first refusal is Disney's option to buy any DVC contract that is sold on the resale market to hold its value. For instance, if someone wanted to sell their BLT contract for $50. They are required to send the contract to Disney's ROFR (Right of First Refusal) department for review. Disney then looks over the contract to see if they want to purchase it. If it was a BLT contract for $50 a point, they would surely buy it to protect the value of DVC. At that point, they would cancel the contract between the buyer and the seller, and buy the contract themselves under the contract agreement with the same terms. This prevents DVC from losing it's value, or at least is in place to do so. With the economy, the resale market values are the lowest they've been in many years.

If you are set on buying GCV, I have read that it is nearly sold out and the price is increasing. I don't remember the exact details but it is here on the DIS as well as dvcnews. There are definitely not as many GCV contracts on the resale market as other properties as it is fairly new. If you can find a GCV on the resale market, it looks like they are going for $100-110 per point, which is about the price (right now) with incentives through Disney.

I've read that there are only September UY's available for GCV if that matters to you or not. If you are on the fence, since it is close to sell out, I would probably go through Disney, but that's just me. If you can save substantially and get what you want on the resale market, that is likely going to save you $$..it's whatever works best for you! Good luck!!!!

 

[thelionqueen]

Just wanted to let everyone know I just booked a studio for Spring Break 2011!!! What a treat it will be to get off the cruise and go "home" to GCV for 5 days!!!

Just FYI, when I booked she said there was 1 studio available, which is what I booked for that time frame. I am SO glad to be an owner there, there is no way I'd be able to get this room/time frame at 7 months!!

I think booking anything @ 7 months @ GCV will be a challenge, especially once it sells out.

I LOVE DVC and GCV!!!

 

[Nonsuch]

After thinking about joining for 3 months now and talking to "guides" about joining, I get more and more confused. I can not get a handle on the R.O.I. I want the home to VGC and I need about 200 points, so is there a good complete refference that I may use for buying or resale. I can pay cash if things work out.

R.O.I. = Return On Investment
I don't think of DVC as an investment, but rather a prepaid expense.
There are many threads debating the "value" of DVC, but I have found the 1-bedroom VGC to be much better than a 1-bedroom suite.

If you want to buy VGC, NOW might be the time.
VGC is "close" to selling out, with some Use Years already gone.
There is some speculation that the price might increase from $112 to $120 on July 1.

Signup and watch the webcast for this Saturday.
New Owner Webcast
During the webcast, call or chat to find out special incentives for VGC.

The add-on prices for current DVC members are:
VGC - $112 Point
50pts - $10 Per point
100pys - $17 Per point
125Pts - $19 Per Point
250Pts - $22 Per point
New member prices will be slightly different.

 

[Snurk71]

After thinking about joining for 3 months now and talking to "guides" about joining, I get more and more confused. I can not get a handle on the R.O.I. I want the home to VGC and I need about 200 points, so is there a good complete refference that I may use for buying or resale. I can pay cash if things work out.

Thanks again for your help,

Jack

Jack, most of us loosely self-described financial wizards calculate a break-even at 6-12 years. There is a range there for what kind of accommodation you're comparing to (regular hotel room from X resort to DVC studio, regular hotel room to 1BR, 2 regular hotel rooms to a 2BR, etc), how much time value of money you assign to the deal (financing rate, or the rate you would earn on the cash if you didn't buy DVC and invested that money instead), and whether you include maintenance fees into the equation.

For us (family of 3), I compared BLT 1BR stays to a GF regular room since that is where we had been staying for years (both rack rate and a reasonable discount rate, which we didn't always get) and had our breakeven in the 8-10 year period.

You can look at it another simple way too - forecast your total cash outlay for DVC over 45 years (I don't remember the exact number of years VGC is good through) compared to regular cash stays for 45 years. For me, I looked at a 5 night studio stay needing around 130 points. The total cost of 130 points over 45 years is about $61,000 ($12,610 up front at $97/pt + $4/pt maintenance fees growing at 3% every year). Compare that to the cash cost for 5 nights in a GC room at $350/night with the same 3% annual increase in rate as the MFs and the cash room cost over 45 years is $162,000.

Us numbers geeks get off analyzing stuff like this in different ways.

 

[franandaj]

After thinking about joining for 3 months now and talking to "guides" about joining, I get more and more confused. I can not get a handle on the R.O.I. I want the home to VGC and I need about 200 points, so is there a good complete refference that I may use for buying or resale. I can pay cash if things work out.

Thanks again for your help,

Jack

Are you talking about RCI? Where you can trade your points out for other vacations? I wouldn't take that into consideration as a reason to buy DVC, you buy DVC because you want to stay at the DVC Resorts. Many people will tell you that you do not get your value for your points when you trade out into the other offerings. From what I have heard RCI is confusing and the hotels are not nearly as nice as the DVC resorts.

 

[cseca]

Hi Jack,
From my number crunching exercise, I find that the break even points for owning GCV is a lot different than other DVC properties. Mainly because of these reasons:
1. Points requirements are MUCH higher at GCV than other resorts
2. Offsite hotels are as close if not closer than GCV to the parks and mostly readily available for much cheaper. Not saying anything about the quality of those offsite hotels. Just stating the price and availability.

I agree with Snurk that my WDW DVC points has a BE of somewhere between 5-10 years. But my numbers show that my GCV points will BE in 20 years based specifically on these assumptions:
increase MF yearly by 3.5%
Purchase price: averaged out to $94.xx
# of points: 150
Average studio points: 17/night
# of nights in a year: 8

My conclusion is: If you normally spend at least $1400/year in DL lodging then 150 points GCV ownership might be a good thing for you. If you spend less... then I wouldn't bother.

I did these numbers quite awhile back, so I might be rusty in remembering the details.

Your numbers will change depending on your assumptions of course.
Good luck in making your decision!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Jack, most of us loosely self-described financial wizards calculate a break-even at 6-12 years. There is a range there for what kind of accommodation you're comparing to (regular hotel room from X resort to DVC studio, regular hotel room to 1BR, 2 regular hotel rooms to a 2BR, etc), how much time value of money you assign to the deal (financing rate, or the rate you would earn on the cash if you didn't buy DVC and invested that money instead), and whether you include maintenance fees into the equation.

For us (family of 3), I compared BLT 1BR stays to a GF regular room since that is where we had been staying for years (both rack rate and a reasonable discount rate, which we didn't always get) and had our breakeven in the 8-10 year period.

You can look at it another simple way too - forecast your total cash outlay for DVC over 45 years (I don't remember the exact number of years VGC is good through) compared to regular cash stays for 45 years. For me, I looked at a 5 night studio stay needing around 130 points. The total cost of 130 points over 45 years is about $61,000 ($12,610 up front at $97/pt + $4/pt maintenance fees growing at 3% every year). Compare that to the cash cost for 5 nights in a GC room at $350/night with the same 3% annual increase in rate as the MFs and the cash room cost over 45 years is $162,000.

Us numbers geeks get off analyzing stuff like this in different ways.

I think one of the things that these number show is that the difference between buying direct and resale are probably not going to make or break your decision to buy DVC versus paying cash or renting points. So first, decide if you should buy DVC and if you decide ot buy, find the best deal that works given your situation.

Much as I would love to buy at VGC, my alternative room is one at the Sheraton or PPH for about $150 per night. At that price, usign the above methodology, the cash cost over 45 years is about $68,000. So buying DVC is better, but not a lot better.

I could add in the intangible of a better hotel, but would have to subtract the need to plan so far in advance. This is reason I am still on the fence about buying. I think I am hoping that our stay next week will push us over the edge! -- Suzanne

 

[thelionqueen]

Hi Jack,
From my number crunching exercise, I find that the break even points for owning GCV is a lot different than other DVC properties. Mainly because of these reasons:
1. Points requirements are MUCH higher at GCV than other resorts
2. Offsite hotels are as close if not closer than GCV to the parks and mostly readily available for much cheaper. Not saying anything about the quality of those offsite hotels. Just stating the price and availability

I don't know which resort, either on or off site is closer to the parks than GCV

 

[ACDSNY]

Jack,
The main factor that pushed us over to the VGC side was we always stayed on site (GC or DL) and we typically had 4 - 8 of us on each trip so we were getting multiple rooms. I much prefer the VGC 1 or 2 bedroom units over 2 hotel rooms anytime.

Unless you find a wonderful deal on the resale market I'd go direct through Disney and soon.

 

[Snurk71]

More of my $.02...

Reading Jack's posts on the DL board, he reads like a DL/GC guy. So I wouldn't recommend buying SSR on the cheap via resale and hoping for VGC at 7 months. A lot of us homers believe VGC is going to be tough at 7 months and will be sitting back enjoying our 11 month window.

I would also recommend going via Disney vs. resale on VGC for a few reasons. 1) You name your Use Year (almost - a few are selling out) and exact number of points. 2) There isn't much on the resale market for VGC to choose from (picking UY and points), and the resale prices aren't that much more attractive than Disney's pricing (contrast to SSR on the resale market vs. Disney). And I don't see a lot adding on to the resale market for VGC in the near future because the resort mainly sold after the economy took a dump (so not as many people got in over their heads, like SSR) and there are less contracts able to hit the resale market with the size of the resort.

Jack, I've read a lot of your posts on the DL boards - VGC is calling your name.

 

[cseca]

Hi Jack,
From my number crunching exercise, I find that the break even points for owning GCV is a lot different than other DVC properties. Mainly because of these reasons:
1. Points requirements are MUCH higher at GCV than other resorts
2. Offsite hotels are as close if not closer than GCV to the parks and mostly readily available for much cheaper. Not saying anything about the quality of those offsite hotels. Just stating the price and availability

I don't know which resort, either on or off site is closer to the parks than GCV

If you are asking closer to DCA then yeah, GCV is the closest you can get.
But if you are talking both main entrances (DL and DCA) there are other hotels closer, BW Park Place Inn, Tropicana, etc.
See this map below which is a link from DL board.
You can't see the walkway to DL/DCA entrance very well but it's pretty much in front of BW Park Place Inn.
And distances from the compared to GCV, those hotels are closer.
I'll try to find another post about mileages between each hotels to the main entrances if I can find it again.
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/556/11450dlgoodneighbormap1.jpg

Well, after some searching apparently the map was posted on geocities and it was trashed by yahoo.
This is the next best thing.
http://www.anaheimoc.org/pdf/hot_1205.pdf

Again, the pedestrian walkway to the main entrances is in front of Tropicana and BW Park Place Inn area.

 

[blackjackdelta]

If you are asking closer to DCA then yeah, GCV is the closest you can get.
But if you are talking both main entrances (DL and DCA) there are other hotels closer, BW Park Place Inn, Tropicana, etc.
See this map below which is a link from DL board.
You can't see the walkway to DL/DCA entrance very well but it's pretty much in front of BW Park Place Inn.
And distances from the compared to GCV, those hotels are closer.
I'll try to find another post about mileages between each hotels to the main entrances if I can find it again.
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/556/11450dlgoodneighbormap1.jpg

Well, after some searching apparently the map was posted on geocities and it was trashed by yahoo.
This is the next best thing.
http://www.anaheimoc.org/pdf/hot_1205.pdf

Again, the pedestrian walkway to the main entrances is in front of Tropicana and BW Park Place Inn area.

Thanks for doing that. I have been going to DLR resort since 1955 opening day. Going to stay in a 1 bedroom villa this august for 6 days. Not the closeness it is the comfort vs a suite. Family loves the grand, the reason I am reseaqrching.

Jack