The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Owners & Lovers Group - 2.0

[Snurk71]

Allowing DVC to book cash rooms does not devalue your membership in actual dollars. Your value is that you have locked in and know approx how much you will pay for your room at VGC for the next 49 years and says nothing about how it will compare to the cost of other rooms at the hotels. There is more value to me personally to have this option back than to not have it even though I may never use it.

I think it does (or at least could) devalue the rental value of VGC points. If someone really wants to stay at VGC when there's only 48 units available - supply and demand should dictate that the rental cost expectation would be higher for VGC than someone willing to rent/stay at SSR. If a member (or renter) can use SSR points to stay at GC and the 11 month booking window isn't as exclusive, the rental market value of our VGC points has decreased. By the way, I've never rented out points and don't have immediate plans to.

I'm fine with it being back too - I just expect the points to be outrageous like they are for DLH to keep up my perceived VGC point value.

 

[bigAWL]

So what are VCG resales going for these days?

 

[Snurk71]

So what are VCG resales going for these days?

There's not as much resale activity going on for VGC, likely because of the smaller number of points and that a lot of sales occurred after the crash. But the listings I've seen are in the mid 90s, pretty comparable with BLT (maybe just a hair higher).

 

[the donut]

There's not as much resale activity going on for VGC, likely because of the smaller number of points and that a lot of sales occurred after the crash. But the listings I've seen are in the mid 90s, pretty comparable with BLT (maybe just a hair higher).

I think you're right that VGC prices are just a touch higher than BLT. Disney is actively ROFR'ing for VGC which should keep the prices up.

 

[Snurk71]

From what I hear/read, Disney has a good-sized waitlist on points for VGC too. So it would seem like a slam dunk to ROFR in the mid $90s when you already have a buyer in waiting for $130. Talk about easy money.

 

[ACDSNY]

I'm all for having the GC hotel rooms available on points. These work great for last minute trips when there is no availability in the villas. I didn't buy my points to rent out, so I'm not concerned with the rental value.

 

[ToodlesRN]

ugh, have a vent to make, usually we plan our trips out a year ahead and we decided to make a day trip in February called and nope no availability on the 2 days we choose. I know this was going to be a problem when we bought points for GCV that spur of the moment trips will mostly never have rooms available. Before GCV we used our AKV points to stay at GC and that was great, so looking forward on seeing what the point system will be to book at GC room? The last time we went we stayed at the hojo because the points are high to stay at the PP or DLH close to double, and I don't like using my points that way. Wish DVC had more resorts like WDW so if one is resort is full we keep going down the line in preference until we find one with our dates! Plus it's fun to stay at the other DVC resorts to check them out.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

ugh, have a vent to make, usually we plan our trips out a year ahead and we decided to make a day trip in February called and nope no availability on the 2 days we choose. I know this was going to be a problem when we bought points for GCV that spur of the moment trips will mostly never have rooms available. Before GCV we used our AKV points to stay at GC and that was great, so looking forward on seeing what the point system will be to book at GC room? The last time we went we stayed at the hojo because the points are high to stay at the PP or DLH close to double, and I don't like using my points that way. Wish DVC had more resorts like WDW so if one is resort is full we keep going down the line in preference until we find one with our dates! Plus it's fun to stay at the other DVC resorts to check them out.

We were able to add a night to our trip in October at the last minute, but I figured that was a huge fluke. Also, it was a dedicated 2br, so that may have had something to do with it. The benefit for owning at GCV is that 11-7 month window, without a doubt. We love GCV and can understand why so many people love to stay there.

 

[blackjackdelta]

Looks like rental points are going to be tighter for our August trip this year. We may be relegated back to a double queen in the hotel. We hopefully be dropping my youngest off for the Disney College program.

Jack

 

[BlazerFan]

Yes, the points are in my 2012 UY (we are June on our main contract so it'll be easy to put them back).


I have a question about this. Do you have 2 different UY? If you borrowed 2012 points, I thought you couldn't move them back. I'm relatively new to DVC and haven't borrowed yet so I'm curious. We have a June UY and visited in May in 2010 and 2011. I've never had to cancel but I have worried if we had to cancel I'd end up losing those points. We have to bank by the end of January.

Thanks for any clarification.

 

[jaurban]

Can DVC members staying on points utilize the vacation planning services offered to Disney hotel guests?

 

[taaren]

Yes, the points are in my 2012 UY (we are June on our main contract so it'll be easy to put them back).

I have a question about this. Do you have 2 different UY? If you borrowed 2012 points, I thought you couldn't move them back. I'm relatively new to DVC and haven't borrowed yet so I'm curious. We have a June UY and visited in May in 2010 and 2011. I've never had to cancel but I have worried if we had to cancel I'd end up losing those points. We have to bank by the end of January.
Thanks for any clarification.

We have two contracts, one is June, one is October. The points I used for the June 17-19 reservation is in a June 2012 UY contract/points, so that is the first month they are available. So they are current UY points for that reservation, not borrowed. I have until February 2013 to bank those. Not that we will since I never have enough points.

 

[BlazerFan]

taaren,
Thank you for the clarification. I thought you might have 2 UY based on what I understand about the banking window. I have multiple contracts (addonitis!!) but they are all on the same UY. I could see a benefit to different UY, although it may get confusing.

 

[mopee3]

For all you VGC groupies.
We are staying in a 2bd DVC room on April 29-May4, and wondered about which rooms we should ask for. Do you have a good view of WOC from 3522 or do you need to be higher. We realize you can not request and get a assigned room and I have requested a Paradise Pier view and high as I can get just thought I would ask for a specific room #.

Thanks

Moe

 

[bigAWL]

For all you VGC groupies.
We are staying in a 2bd DVC room on April 29-May4, and wondered about which rooms we should ask for. Do you have a good view of WOC from 3522 or do you need to be higher. We realize you can not request and get a assigned room and I have requested a Paradise Pier view and high as I can get just thought I would ask for a specific room #.

Thanks

Moe

I made a request using this room priority list.

1. 3522
2. 5506
3. 4506
4. 3506
5. 6500
6. 5500
7. 4500
8. 3500
9. 5518
10. 4518
11. 3518
12. 3513
13. 5503
14. 4503
15. 3503

Maybe overkill. I was trying for the best view of WoC available, and I got my top choice. Not sure if it's the best, but it was pretty good. It's got to be either 3522 or 5506, though.

 

[the donut]

I made a request using this room priority list.

1. 3522
2. 5506
3. 4506
4. 3506
5. 6500
6. 5500
7. 4500
8. 3500
9. 5518
10. 4518
11. 3518
12. 3513
13. 5503
14. 4503
15. 3503

Maybe overkill. I was trying for the best view of WoC available, and I got my top choice. Not sure if it's the best, but it was pretty good. It's got to be either 3522 or 5506, though.

The trees are starting to get pretty tall in front of the villas. When did you stay in 3522? Was it starting to get obscured?

 

[kikiq]

We just returned from an one night stay in 5502 (one bedroom). This is the first time we've ever gotten a room higher than the third floor. We loved the view BUT have to say that we like the WOC view from 3506 better. My DH and I noticed that we were not able to see any water projections as some have said about watching from the 6th floor observation deck. When we stayed in 3506 (2 bedroom) in May 2011, we were able to see the water projections from both balconies and from the living room window.

Just by coincidence, my DH wondered about the tree heights after noticing that our balcony luckily was higher than the tree that was right in front of 4502 and 3502. He also noticed that there were 2 trees not growing straight up in the 3522 area curving over right in front of a balcony. We had the Zephyr in our line of sight from 5502. I attempted to take pictures with my ipad and they didn't look as great as the pictures from 3506.

Our villa was spotless. If there has to be some negatives, we didn't have any face towels in any of the bathrooms, which we didn't notice until late at night. Plus the only frying pan was a small 6 inch one. I know we've used a larger one in the two bedroom villa. Do all one bedroom villas have the smaller pan? I know that doesn't matter to you folks that don't cook, but we do use the kitchen a lot.

 

[Nonsuch]

We just returned from a 3 night stay in 4504. The trip was only booked on December 1, with 2 days available. The waitlist for the third day came through on December 17. This was our first stay in a Studio, and my wife and I found the room layout much better than a normal room at the GCH.

My room request was: 6504, 5504, 4504, 3504...
4504 is only third on the list, so clearly an effort is being made to meet request
We registered around noon and the room was ready at 4:30PM.
The cast member will not disclose the room number during registration, however the room number is printed on the registration card

The villa was clean, the only minor issue was a missing glass and only one robe. A call to Guest Services, and the items were delivered in 5 minutes.

The WOC view was quite nice, although I neglected to take any pictures. This is the daytime view:

 

[bigAWL]

The trees are starting to get pretty tall in front of the villas. When did you stay in 3522? Was it starting to get obscured?

We stayed in July 2011. Looking back on my photos now, it does seem like the view is obscured by trees. This one shows the view before the WoC show.

This one shows that the projections are obscured by the trees.

This one gives a sense of what the bigger parts of the show look like.

 

[Nonsuch]

We stayed in July 2011. Looking back on my photos now, it does seem like the view is obscured by trees. This one shows the view before the WoC show.

The Grand Villa 4522 is high enough to see over the trees along the fence, although the trees will block the view as they grow. The tall trees inside the park at back edge of the viewing are another obstruction.

This photo was from June 2011