The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Owners & Lovers Group - 3.0

[NVDISFamily]

Is there something specific you want pics of?

Thanks for sharing. Glad to see the bathroom still has the mosaic tiles.

I'm sure we would appreciate anything you can share. Pictures of the kitchen, any artwork. Who is in the murphy beds?

Hope you like it and enjoy your trip.

 

[bluecruiser]

Did the one bedroom always have two bathroom? Last time we stayed here we were in a studio so I don’t know and am curious.

VGC 1-bedroom units have always had two bathrooms. Other 1BR with 2 bathrooms include AKV-Kidani and BLT.

 

[NVDISFamily]

VGC 1-bedroom units have always had two bathrooms. Other 1BR with 2 bathrooms include AKV-Kidani and BLT.

VDH and Poly Tower too. Spoiled to have both in ca have two.

 

[bluecruiser]

VDH and Poly Tower too. Spoiled to have both in ca have two.

Thanks, I'm obviously not up-to-date on the newest DVC buildings.

 

[ajiuo]

Wow. So after 14 years… VGC didn’t get a referb… it got another refresh… with Murphy beds.

Not impressed at all. They didn’t really do anything..

Don’t some of the dues get saved for these referbs?

Doesn’t look like they touched the bathroom. No new rain showerheads or anything.

Hotel rooms got a much nicer referb with the upper lighting and chip and dale. They also got updated bathrooms.

I wonder if this is actually a refurbished room or one of those rooms that they were testing a Murphy bed in about a year ago? This can’t be the referb. Very low budget if so… it really seems like a refresh. They did the rooms really fast for a full referb as well

I hope AKV (My other home resort) turns out to be more substantial then this. This is perhaps the most underwhelming full referb I have ever seen. They could have at least brought it up to hotel standards.

 

[Royal Consort]

If this is the refurbishment it's embarrassing, pathetic, and insulting. I will wait to see further but my immediate response is this is not acceptable. Especially with the delays. Especially when being told dues increases were to pay for the hard goods refurb.

 

[LilyJC]

I’m on the 5th floor. How new is this reburbishment that disboards doesn’t have pics yet?

Did the one bedroom always have two bathroom? Last time we stayed here we were in a studio so I don’t know and am curious.

I took a few pics. Let me see if I can post them. Is there something specific you want pics of?

Oooooh, thank you for sharing! If you have time, are there any more usb ports? Is the tub still jetted? Is the dining table set up exactly the same? This is a very strange “refurb”…

 

[ajiuo]

If this is the refurbishment it's embarrassing, pathetic, and insulting. I will wait to see further but my immediate response is this is not acceptable. Especially with the delays. Especially when being told dues increases were to pay for the hard goods refurb.

That is not a hard referb. They didn’t even change the bathroom hardware.

I’m really PO’d

 

[NVDISFamily]

Something is a bit off. The bathroom pics have really thrown me off would love to see the kitchen to know more. Only crazy thought is they could be doing different parts of the villas in sprints and perhaps killing the water for the bathroom gut would be later. Doesn’t make sense to me. I was hopeful to keep something like the mosaics but not the same ones. Also every villa we have stayed in had pits in the granite tops on the vanity. Some worse than others. That vanity looks very familiar……..

Hope and level of excitement lowered. Praying some suit didn’t do the let’s phone this in game….. can’t have these look great against the tower we need to sell across the street….. that would be no bueno.

 

[Royal Consort]

Hope and level of excitement lowered. Praying some suit didn’t do the let’s phone this in game….. can’t have these look great against the tower we need to sell across the street….. that would be no bueno.

Been my concern for some time but told myself that was being irrational as VGC has few rooms and unlikely to be competitive with VDH. And yet..

Considering the resort has few members, annoying us would be a drop in the ocean.

 

[ajiuo]

If this is seriously the full referb, VGC owners should be absolutely outraged.

Can you imagine how bad of shape and moldy the bathrooms are gonna be in another 14 years when we’re due for a full referb.

I seriously want to see some sort of accounting on how much of the dues over the past 14 years have been allocated for this and what was actually spent.

There is something seriously wrong here, if this is the complete product. I can’t point to one other example of Disney doing something like this on another full referb project. If it wasn’t for the Murphy beds, this would barely even qualify as a refresh.

I’m not even sure if they changed the drapes.

- Murphy beds
- Carpet
- they did replace the pads on the headboard with a much cheaper looking material… and I think the benches in the kitchen.

Is this seriously what Disney qualifies as a full referb now?

 

[AstroBlasters]

I would withhold judgement until they tell us everything is done.

 

[ajiuo]

I would withhold judgement until they tell us everything is done.

Do they ever tell us that it’s all done?

I’m having a hard time thinking of an example of when Disney partially did a room and then let people stay in it and then did more work on it. Replacing carpet and fabrics would generally be the last thing that they do.

 

[NVDISFamily]

Having a lot of family who is in the trades in CA (most still working in that area/So Cal) nothing is normal in CA and I could think of more than a handful of reasons things could be weird. I agree and I'm concerned but willing to wait a bit before I call my guide and think of other ways to raise a big stink......

Also with what has been going on recently in the area I could think of a lot of reasons why competent trades people will be pulled away to do other things. What if the people who do the plumbing and tile work were delayed significantly but the others were good to go and Disney said I guess we'll just eat the cost of hosting people at VDH twice to do a 2nd sprint. Unlikely but I've seen stranger things with jobs over the years......

 

[NVDISFamily]

Another random thought is there is also a logistics bottleneck of just where do you put all of the stuff vs in WDW/FL there is so much more room. they also have half of the GC/VGC parking lot still blocked with Downtown Disney construction staging. Just another small potential support for why they might do it in phases.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Having a lot of family who is in the trades in CA (most still working in that area/So Cal) nothing is normal in CA and I could think of more than a handful of reasons things could be weird. I agree and I'm concerned but willing to wait a bit before I call my guide and think of other ways to raise a big stink......

Also with what has been going on recently in the area I could think of a lot of reasons why competent trades people will be pulled away to do other things. What if the people who do the plumbing and tile work were delayed significantly but the others were good to go and Disney said I guess we'll just eat the cost of hosting people at VDH twice to do a 2nd sprint. Unlikely but I've seen stranger things with jobs over the years......

That was my thought as well.

Let’s give them a bit of grace before pitchforks.

Personally, I love the tile work in the bathrooms. But, I would expect them to replace the jetted tub and close off the window between the bathroom and the main bedroom like they have in every other resort…..

So maybe this thing goes in stages….

 

[BlueGreen5]

and close off the window between the bathroom and the main bedroom like they have in every other resort…..

Why would you expect that? It’s such a useful and obviously logical feature that has never made me wonder “***?!?”

 

[BlueGreen5]

Even another rational explanation: maybe they had damage to the couch in that particular room where the couch NEEDED to be replaced. They have the Murphy beds and carpet on hand now, so they wouldn’t replace with a new couch. This could have been something as simple as a band aid in a room that won’t be taken offline for a couple of weeks.

 

[ajiuo]

That was my thought as well.

Let’s give them a bit of grace before pitchforks.

Personally, I love the tile work in the bathrooms. But, I would expect them to replace the jetted tub and close off the window between the bathroom and the main bedroom like they have in every other resort…..

So maybe this thing goes in stages….

Why give them a grace period? I’m going to ask them what’s going on now. If they have a good explanation then great. They are less likely to fix it if you wait… if there is nothing to worry about then they should have a decent explanation.

I’m not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt any more. I think this is the referb. They have clearly been getting cheaper and cheaper with the referbs. Newer stuff like VDH is falling apart already. I even noticed on boulder ridge that they recycled a lot more then normal, but at least they still got updated bathrooms.

They started construction on the 5th and 6th floor and have now moved on to the 4th. They would not go in and replace carpet and fabrics first and then go back in a month or two later and gut the bathrooms. They have never done that before and no contractor in their right mind would conduct a major renovation in that manner.

Besides all that Disney said in their blog that the hotel rooms and DVC rooms would be getting a “refresh”… I pointed that language out. Unfortunately my concerns have been realized.

VGC owners likely just got the shaft big time. These rooms are going to be so outdated 14 years from now. There are definitely things that could have been recycled. But there are also a lot of things that are not meant to go that that long with they type of use that the rooms get.

 

[ajiuo]

Even another rational explanation: maybe they had damage to the couch in that particular room where the couch NEEDED to be replaced. They have the Murphy beds and carpet on hand now, so they wouldn’t replace with a new couch. This could have been something as simple as a band aid in a room that won’t be taken offline for a couple of weeks.

No. The room is on the 5th floor. The 5th and 6th floors were under construction, and construction recently started on the 4th. I don’t think that’s the case