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

[pineapplepalms]

We had one where the hardware that becomes the leg of the bed was pretty beat up.

Yep, with the one in our room the bar came all the way out on one side when I was setting it up.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Couldn’t get a studio at 11 months out, you always hear people say 11 months priority is all you need and commercial renting isn’t an issue.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Couldn’t get a studio at 11 months out, you always hear people say 11 months priority is all you need and commercial renting isn’t an issue.

VDH is better for studios, VGC is better for Villas…. Supply and demand.

 

[VGCgroupie]

VDH is better for studios, VGC is better for Villas…. Supply and demand.

Yeah I paid so many points for a 1 bed. Also just figured out booking rooms when it’s in 2 use years isn’t easy to do while on the go.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Yeah I paid so many points for a 1 bed. Also just figured out booking rooms when it’s in 2 use years isn’t easy to do while on the go.

You own VGC in two separate UY’s?

 

[VGCgroupie]

You own VGC in two separate UY’s?

No but it’s a Feb UY and I was trying to book March 31 to Feb 2.

 

[LilyJC]

No but it’s a Feb UY and I was trying to book March 31 to Feb 2.

A tad confused about your dates, but I assume you meant 1/31-2/2. Studios are currently gone because runDisney peeps are anticipating that will be the Disneyland 1/2 weekend again in 2026.

runDisney has not released the official dates yet though - I’m hoping due to a change since it ends up being the same weekend as another extremely popular event in Huntington Beach. I would waitlist for the studio asap though if you can figure out the split UY situation.

 

[VGCgroupie]

A tad confused about your dates, but I assume you meant 1/31-2/2. Studios are currently gone because runDisney peeps are anticipating that will be the Disneyland 1/2 weekend again in 2026.

runDisney has not released the official dates yet though - I’m hoping due to a change since it ends up being the same weekend as another extremely popular event in Huntington Beach. I would waitlist for the studio asap though if you can figure out the split UY situation.

Hahah!! Yes Jan 31st through Feb 2nd. Since my UY starts Feb 1 I couldn’t book it all together in one reservation, said I had to call MS to book.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Hahah!! Yes Jan 31st through Feb 2nd. Since my UY starts Feb 1 I couldn’t book it all together in one reservation, said I had to call MS to book.

Ooooooh, now I get it! We really need another word than UY…. it’s so difficult to determine if people mean calendar year or membership ID….

 

[ehh]

Hahah!! Yes Jan 31st through Feb 2nd. Since my UY starts Feb 1 I couldn’t book it all together in one reservation, said I had to call MS to book.

I've had this challenge before, but with late Nov/early December at WDW...another peak time of year to travel.

The 1hr delay until MS opens after online booking means it's not a viable way to book the rooms, as you unfortunately found out.

For the future, you can book both reservations yourself online at 5am then call later to have MS merge them.

 

[AZMermaid]

Couldn’t get a studio at 11 months out, you always hear people say 11 months priority is all you need and commercial renting isn’t an issue.

So annoying. I’ve had this happen too for Memorial Day weekend. I’d advise waitlisting if you haven’t. If there’s walkers you should get it. Ihave pretty decent luck with one night waitlists and piecing things together- although it involves some flexibility in point management to cover the what ifs.

I recently got Mothers Day Saturday studio from a 7 month waitlist. It did take like 4 months to come through though. We didn’t decide we wanted to go until close to the 7month mark so I just used my Aulani points. I booked the Friday at 7 months. Then I booked a HCA studio for both nights which I then released when Sat came through.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I just don’t want them to replace it with fiberglass that looks like fake tile or marble.

Can confirm VDH is tile in both types of showers.

 

[ajiuo]

I’m sorry to say but I I got an email back from DVC today with wording that heavily confirms that what we are seeing is the full referb…

I feel that us members of VGC have definitely been ripped off with all the dues that have been paid over the past 16 years… I guess they feel like they are going to pull a fast one over on us by giving us another soft goods referb.

I think this is a first in the history of DVC. All I can say is dang! The bathrooms and certain other aspects of these rooms are gonna be so outdated in another 14 to 16 years… ehh.

I wonder if they’re trying to push people into selling and buying in it the Disneyland hotel.

They even did a higher than normal dues hike a couple of years ago to help prepare.. I really want to know how all the dues collected over the past 16 years that have been saved for this project amount to a soft goods referb…

And I honestly think everybody should be concerned. I also own points at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is starting a hard goods referb. I wonder if they’re going to try the same thing there. If they get away with this, I’m sure they will.

They don’t need to gut everything out of the room there’s certain things that could definitely be repurposed and refurbished.. but the bathrooms, regardless of how nice the tile was for the time, are outdated and don’t have the same modern amenities as other resorts that have undergone a hard goods referred.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I’m sorry to say but I I got an email back from DVC today with wording that heavily confirms that what we are seeing is the full referb…

I feel that us members of VGC have definitely been ripped off with all the dues that have been paid over the past 16 years… I guess they feel like they are going to pull a fast one over on us by giving us another soft goods referb.

I think this is a first in the history of DVC. All I can say is dang! The bathrooms and certain other aspects of these rooms are gonna be so outdated in another 14 to 16 years… ehh.

I wonder if they’re trying to push people into selling and buying in it the Disneyland hotel.

They even did a higher than normal dues hike a couple of years ago to help prepare.. I really want to know how all the dues collected over the past 16 years that have been saved for this project amount to a soft goods referb…

And I honestly think everybody should be concerned. I also own points at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is starting a hard goods referb. I wonder if they’re going to try the same thing there. If they get away with this, I’m sure they will.

They don’t need to gut everything out of the room there’s certain things that could definitely be repurposed and refurbished.. but the bathrooms, regardless of how nice the tile was for the time, are outdated and don’t have the same modern amenities as other resorts that have undergone a hard goods referred.

You do know they already did a soft refurb, right? So it hasn’t been 16 years of dues just for this refurb.

Also appliances, couches, beds, etc. That’s a hard refurbishment, not a soft refurbishment.

I agree that we very much need to see how much what they did cost vs how much was put into reserves and that this feels “half done”.

 

[ehh]

Just checked in to a non-refurbished room.

Planning to take as many photos as I can with my Good Camera to document the ‘before’.

Among what I’m going to photograph, I’m going to turn on all the lights and used fixed camera settings to try to awkwardly compare nighttime room brightness vs. a future stay in a refurbed room with the same lens and settings.

Anything anybody wants documented/photographed in particular?

(if you want to see the photo sooner rather than weeks from now when I sit down and process them, just say so and I will use my phone lol)

 

[ajiuo]

You do know they already did a soft refurb, right? So it hasn’t been 16 years of dues just for this refurb.

Also appliances, couches, beds, etc. That’s a hard refurbishment, not a soft refurbishment.

I agree that we very much need to see how much what they did cost vs how much was put into reserves and that this feels “half done”.

A soft goods referb would not have used all of the funds collected in the first 7 years… it was a very light refresh… some of that would have rolled in to the full referb that was suppose to happen at 14. The actual referb is also happening at 16 which is 2 extra years.

 

[AstroBlasters]

A soft goods referb would not have used all of the funds collected in the first 7 years… it was a very light refresh… some of that would have rolled in to the full referb that was suppose to happen at 14. The actual referb is also happening at 16 which is 2 extra years.

Correct on both points.

But, new appliances and a Murphy bed are not soft goods.

 

[eticketplease]

Murphy bed are not soft goods.

Normally that is the case but they were added at PVB and VGF during their soft refurb. They were also recently added to VB but I can’t remember if that was a hard or soft refurbishment.

 

[MikeOhio]

When you compare this to other hard refurbs like boardwalk and boulder ridge it’s a massive disappointment. Would love to hear a full explanation of where all the money went.

 

[mrandmrsthomas0618]

We are new DVC members as of 12/30. We are very excited that we were able to get a 2 bedroom at the Grand Cal for 9/26-9/28. Have a family coming with us that's their first time to disneyland. Can't wait to show them around. Excited this is our first trip as DVC members!