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

[XMom]

We have ten full park days so we'll be taking some time to do the little things and have some down time. The day we arrive and check in is not a park day so we'll spend time wandering around DTD, looking for our brick and hopefully chillin by the pool. I keep imagining my kids doing things at DL (DS1 riding Peter Pan, DS2 meeting Jake, DS3 chasing Mickey..) and I get butterflies in my stomach and tears in my eyes So happy to be going back to my happy place

Since you will be able to slow down and enjoy, my kids favorite thing to do is to go to the animation academy and turtle talk with Crush at CA Adv. We spend hours in there on hot or rainy days. Another thing not to miss in my opinion is the Aladdin show. The best seats are the second section after the big aisle on the floor. We try to grab a front row in that section and you can see everything included in the show much better (don't want to give away specifics). Since you are staying at The Grand a great place to eat is Whitewater Snacks. We always get our chicken nachos fix and my hubby loves their burger that has pastrami on it.

Let us know what other questions you come up with!

 

[TLPL]

I can't wait till they replace Goofy Sky School with something quieter. We stayed there during one of the Grad Night and those kids screamed all night. Our other home resort is AKV, i remember they actually have a card in the room reminding guests to keep it down at night because of the animals. I guess in California it is OK to be as loud as you want in the middle of the night right in front of people's bedrooms.

 

[Nonsuch]

I can't wait till they replace Goofy Sky School with something quieter. We stayed there during one of the Grad Night and those kids screamed all night.
...I guess in California it is OK to be as loud as you want in the middle of the night right in front of people's bedrooms.

It is perfectly acceptable for guests (grad night or anyone) to scream on an attraction like Sky School.

The easiest way to avoid the screams is to request a pool view, since Goofy Sky School is unlikely to change anytime soon (the re-theme is only 2 years old).

 

[XMom]

I can't wait till they replace Goofy Sky School with something quieter. We stayed there during one of the Grad Night and those kids screamed all night. Our other home resort is AKV, i remember they actually have a card in the room reminding guests to keep it down at night because of the animals. I guess in California it is OK to be as loud as you want in the middle of the night right in front of people's bedrooms.

We stay park view often and it has never bothered us. It seems to add to the excitement of the theme park view. I'm sure what you experienced was isolated to Grad Nights. Try to remember back to when you were18 years old and were out later than ever and are celebrating a great accomplishment. It would be strange to tell a bunch of people that they can't scream as loud as they want on a roller coaster. Maybe check if it is Grad Night Season before your next stay and if it is, choose a pool view. Hopefully you were still able to enjoy the rest of your nights since Grad Night is usually Thursday & Friday nights only.

 

[TLPL]

I am saying this is a bad park design. They knew there will be a deluxe hotel right there at the edge of the park, why did they place a roller coaster (not an enclosed one) right in front of it? You Story maniac, dark rides.... Things like that would be a much better choice.

 

[5ofus]

I am saying this is a bad park design. They knew there will be a deluxe hotel right there at the edge of the park, why did they place a roller coaster (not an enclosed one) right in front of it? You Story maniac, dark rides.... Things like that would be a much better choice.

I thought the DVC wing was added well after the park was built? The roller coaster has been there since DCA opened hasn't it? Under a different name? It'd be more due to bad hotel design than park design if this is the case.

Sorry the noise affected your stay

 

[carissa1970]

I thought the DVC wing was added well after the park was built? The roller coaster has been there since DCA opened hasn't it? Under a different name? It'd be more due to bad hotel design than park design if this is the case.

Sorry the noise affected your stay

Yes, it was added much later.

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[TLPL]

Yes, it was added much later.

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Yes it was built much later, but the expansion pad was reserved for it since day one. They planned the whole laid out of GC along with the DCA. It didn't just happened that they have a piece of land that just happened to be in between the pool and the edge of the theme park.

 

[Breyean]

Yes it was built much later, but the expansion pad was reserved for it since day one. They planned the whole laid out of GC along with the DCA. It didn't just happened that they have a piece of land that just happened to be in between the pool and the edge of the theme park.

Maybe they had it all planned, but then why didn't they just build the DVC wing when the hotel was built?

That area used to be a nice big grassy area. In fact, when the hotel rearranged the locations of some of the facilities that ring the pool, I recall going to that area and using the temporary gym that had been moved there, under tents.

They certainly didn't plan that out too well.

And you'd have to think it would have been a lot cheaper to build the "addition" as part of the original hotel than doing it separately a few years later.

As another poster said, the problem is easily solved - just don't take a theme park view. But I'll tell you, the pool can be noisy, too, since the noise has no where to go and sort of bounces off all the walls of the hotel.

You might try the Challenge Trail view. We had that once last year and it was quite nice. Looked out over the GCH entrance to DCA and the trees in the Challenge Trail. We could sort of hear WOC (I think all of Anaheim hears WOC) but not like in the room facing the park.

 

[TLPL]

Dont get me wrong, I like hearing the sound of the park and the scream and laughter from our room ..... during the day! But Not at 2 o'clock in the morning!!
This year was the first time they move the Grad Night after hour private party to DCA. I think they should do better with the planning of the event next year. May be close the Sky School roller coaster at mid night. Remember California Screaming has sream sheilds, GSS does not.

And the reason why they did not build the DVC wing at the first place was the same reason why did not build Cars Land or Tower Of Terror or Bug's Land....rtc. when they first open DCA.

 

[XMom]

Dont get me wrong, I like hearing the sound of the park and the scream and laughter from our room ..... during the day! But Not at 2 o'clock in the morning!!
This year was the first time they move the Grad Night after hour private party to DCA. I think they should do better with the planning of the event next year. May be close the Sky School roller coaster at mid night. Remember California Screaming has sream sheilds, GSS does not.

And the reason why they did not build the DVC wing at the first place was the same reason why did not build Cars Land or Tower Of Terror or Bug's Land....rtc. when they first open DCA.

They just released the information for Grad Night 2014 and it is planned to be the same. The kids will receive park hopper tickets then will continue the party over at DCA until 3am after DL closes. There will be 17 scheduled dates throughout May and June. They are typically Thursday and Friday nights so beware of any reservations you are planning. I don't particularly like to go to the resort at all on Grad Nights as many of the kids are loud, disrespectful and have foul language that my young ones don't need to learn.

 

[Breyean]

And the reason why they did not build the DVC wing at the first place was the same reason why did not build Cars Land or Tower Of Terror or Bug's Land....rtc. when they first open DCA.

What's the reason? What's the connection?

I'm missing something here.

 

[TLPL]

What's the reason? What's the connection?

I'm missing something here.

Budget constraint, market condition at the time, demand, all the basic financial considerations. You cannot build everything all at once. The land for the new wing was always there since yhe begiining , reserved for the expansion. You can go Google it, I did not made it up. I can't give you the exact reason because i am not the CEO of Disney. I am just a fan!!

 

[Disney Princess]

We haven't been to our west coast home in two years, and I've been feeling a bit homesick. We were supposed to go in February, but the PAP deals that were offered to us from WDW caused us to return there. We're hoping to make it out west in 2014.

 

[maburke]

Checking in tomorrow

I know you'll all think I'm nuts, but I'm hoping for a ground floor room. My DS is terrified of the upper floor beautiful views, so we're hoping for easy access to the pool and grill.

Haven't been to our west coast home in 2 years, so we're pretty excited! Last time, they were just testing Goofy's Sky School, but it wasn't open yet, so even if it's noisy, we're looking forward to that.

 

[Nonsuch]

I know you'll all think I'm nuts, but I'm hoping for a ground floor room. My DS is terrified of the upper floor beautiful views, so we're hoping for easy access to the pool and grill.

The ground floor HA villas (studio, 1 bedroom) are often available (or the last villas to be assigned). Several times, I have been offered a HA villa when the originally assigned villa was slow to be cleaned.

Good luck with your request and welcome home.

 

[maburke]

The ground floor HA villas (studio, 1 bedroom) are often available (or the last villas to be assigned). Several times, I have been offered a HA villa when the originally assigned villa was slow to be cleaned.

Good luck with your request and welcome home.

Score! We got room 1505, which is a great location for us. Many, many thanks, Nonsuch, for your help: We checked in a 7am, and even though we had to wait until 4:30 for the room to be ready (and we never got the promised text ) I used your info on how to figure out our room number from the sign-in paperwork, and your map to see which room it was. So all day at the parks, at least I knew it was worth waiting for! And when we got it, it was sooo easy-access to the pool.

BTW, we are in a dedicated 2BR, so since the HA unit is not on the ground floor for these, I didn't think we'd get that.

 

[wbl2745]

I love the ground floor. You walk straight to your room without an elevator wait. You have a patio instead of a deck and can walk out the back door if you want. I've never checked to see whether you can get into the pool area through the gate accessible through the back. We always ask for the ground floor, but don't always get it.

 

[czmom]

Score! We got room 1505, which is a great location for us. Many, many thanks, Nonsuch, for your help: We checked in a 7am, and even though we had to wait until 4:30 for the room to be ready (and we never got the promised text ) I used your info on how to figure out our room number from the sign-in paperwork, and your map to see which room it was. So all day at the parks, at least I knew it was worth waiting for! And when we got it, it was sooo easy-access to the pool.

BTW, we are in a dedicated 2BR, so since the HA unit is not on the ground floor for these, I didn't think we'd get that.

Glad you got a great room!! How do you figure out your room number from the paperwork?

 

[franandaj]

Glad you got a great room!! How do you figure out your room number from the paperwork?

Yeah, I would be interested to know this too!