Things I wish I knew BEFORE I bought into The Villas at Disneyland Hotel

[RickNJane]

I have been toying with this for a while. We bought VDH sight unseen the first week it was open. We are West Coast so adding on at DL was very compelling. Especially since even direct VDH was more affordable than VGC. However there are a few things I should have or wish I researched a bit better. Here they go in no particular order.

• TOT. Seeing the TOT chart almost gave me a heart attack! Really did not look into this, but it can be a huge expense.
• Views. Very hit or miss. Even preferred view can be pretty industrial
• Noise. Back stage areas can be very noisy in the morning for deliveries, etc
• Walk. If the pools are not open, not a good way to get to the tower from the lobby
• Walk to Parks. When the monorail is not running, you must thread your way around DTD. End of day this is killer
• Availability. DVC is withholding inventory keeping rooms pretty scarce at times. Sometimes VGC has better availability, which seems insane to me.
• Number of "Commercial" contracts. Looking at the ownership, some owners have a huge amount of points. Could be corporations that give stays to employees as rewards or perks, or.......
• Death of early entry . Now no one could have seen this coming. Pretty much breaks my heart. I threw this in because I dont think I would buy now until this comes back.

Dont get me wrong, I don't have buyers remorse. We loved our stay. The room was great! Our view was of the quiet DVC pool and the mountains. However we also overlooked the backstage area for the convention center. This gets busy and loud early. The long walk back at the end of the day is killer. We are not near as young as we used to be. We have since added on at VGC. Would I sell all my VDH points and buy VGC? Hard to tell. We have a spit stay coming early next year, so stay tuned.

Anyone else have items for this list?
Did I get anything Wrong?
Did I get anything Right?

 

[stat]

I'd add the resale restrictions for completeness.

 

[atthebeachclub]

Death of early entry . Now no one could have seen this coming. Pretty much breaks my heart. I threw this in because I dont think I would buy now until this comes back

I really don’t have any proof of this, but I have to believe this is temporary and it will come back.

 

[KPeterso]

Availability. DVC is withholding inventory keeping rooms pretty scarce at times. Sometimes VGC has better availability, which seems insane to me.

This is the only one I would dispute you on. They are withholding inventory. They have only declared part of the resort based on sales. Declarations of additional inventory will happen once more contracts are sold (or projected to sell). The points available for use for booking are based on the number of points sold. This happens with every new resort. Not all of PIT has been declared yet either so it is more cash than points right now too.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Anyone else have items for this list?
Did I get anything Wrong?
Did I get anything Right?

I agree with all your points. I, too, bought before it was open. I connected to a guide almost a year in advance who called me once a month to update me (usually that there was no update). I knew 100% that I was going to buy it as soon as I heard they were going to build it. While all of the things you listed are very annoying, especially when you add them all up, I am still very happy that I own there and if I didn't have other contracts at other resorts, I would totally add on to my VDH.

The TOT always hits hard when I see it charged to my credit card, even though I know exactly what to expect. I hope I get over it soon. The horrible views are absolutely mind boggling at the price point. Disneyland Forward should help with that someday, which maybe I'll live to see.

One thing you didn't mention that is a positive to me is the added resort dining. Palm Breeze Bar, the new breakfast options at Tangaroa Terrace/Trader Sam's and the Broken Spell Lounge have had phenomenal food. The drinks are fun, not great, but very fun and festive and very Disney. If I were stuck for days at the resort, I wouldn't mind at all as far as mealtime goes.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Something I thought of after I posted.....
Waitlisting a studio is annoying. I suppose that can be said across DVC, but VDH has so many studio "types" and we can only have 2 waitlists at a time. Many times, I just want a room for a night or two and don't care at all which type it is. I really wish I could waitlist "any" studio rather than play guessing games on which will come through.

Duo Standard View
Duo Preferred View
Deluxe Standard View
Deluxe Preferred View
Duo Studio Garden
Deluxe Studio Garden

 

[RickNJane]

This is the only one I would dispute you on. They are withholding inventory. They have only declared part of the resort based on sales. Declarations of additional inventory will happen once more contracts are sold (or projected to sell). The points available for use for booking are based on the number of points sold. This happens with every new resort. Not all of PIT has been declared yet either so it is more cash than points right now too.

I agree with you
Except they only had 1 GV declared and that is an accessible one. They do control what kind of inventory is declared. We also don’t know the formula they use to determine inventory.

 

[VGCgroupie]

When I stayed cash at VDH I absolutely hated it. I took to these boards to declare why VGC so far superior and went toe to toe with many people over it. I made a declaration as to why I would never ever buy VDH. Below are my dislikes from before and how I feel about them now.

- The walk. I hated the walk. The whole on property vibe in CA is that you are close to your room. I remember walking through DTD and passing VGC and grumbling how much farther we had to walk.
After we bought I stayed several more times and the walk was less of an issue. The reason? The Pixar Pier entrance helped tremendously for CA. (its going away now ) Also DTD finally came back to life, the walk through DTD is much better and doesnt feel as long now that much on the revamp is done. Cutting through the pool also helped me come to terms with the walk.

- Lack of a real lobby and needing to go over to DLH to get to the front desk.
They have now added a kiosk at the VDH tower and that has remedied that.

- The smell. Our 1st and 2nd stay the "lobby" smelled like sewer and I am very sensitive to smells and it made me frankly angry.
Every visit since I have not noticed the smell.

- The cheap furnishings. The room was already showing wear and the furnishings felt like overpriced IKEA.
I now know that all new DVC resorts will have this lesser quality IKEA like materials being used so its not just a VDH thing.

- TOT. After all of my dislikes above. My words were exactly this "TOT is just insult to injury at that point"
I came to terms with TOT in many ways.
1. I did calculations vs VGC if paying TOT on all points and VDH was still cheaper.
2. If you look at staying on cash the taxes we pay is much cheaper than what you pay staying cash.
3. Point charts. Often the points to stay at VDH are so much less than the points at VGC that you actually save money staying at VDH and paying TOT vs staying at VGC on VGC points.
4. If you dont stay at VDH you aren't paying the TOT, Id rather it be this way than have higher dues.


So in terms of availability. I know not everyone's situation is the same but I have found VDH much easier to book than VGC. As to your commerical renting. VGC is rented out commercially drastically more than VDH is. Id say if not for commercial renting VGC would be much easier to book.


Lastly I still love VGC. It's still my #1 but I really do also like VDH and I do not regret my 300 points.