Using points for Grand Californian

[tink6137130]

How far in advance can you make a reservation when using points for Disney Grand Californian...has anyone ever used their points to do this?

 

[funatdisney]

I booked two rooms with my points at the Grand Californian for Oct 08 stay (Thurs to Sat) in January and had no problem. There were no concierge rooms at the time. Although in the past, GCH has been usually slow this time of year, it has not been the case last year. DL is developing their own Halloween Trick or Treating Event. In the past Disney has offered to sell the tickets to APs first (usually in June) I would image that some of the APs will book a room right after they buy their tickets (We do). That has effected the booking availability for the Grand Californian in Oct. For other times of the year, The GCH is getting harder to book the closer to your travel times. We go to this hotel twice a year (we just can't wait for GCV to open) and each time, I try to book a room(s) at least 4 months in advance, so I have more choices. About half the time we book a one or two bedroom suite. Those are even harder to book. You wouldn't think so with the cost, but there are not many to begin with. Most of my experience was without the use of my points (We just bought at SSR) I heard that GCH is booked at 90% capacity most weekends. Anyway that is what I know. Hope that helps.

 

[bnlbebes]

We used points a few summers ago and I booked our 3 night stay as early as possible. We reserved the room-type that used the least number of points (not sure of the officialy title) and ended up with a California Adventure view. My recommendation would be to book as early as possible.

 

[Chic]

Using DVC points, you can book the Grand Californian as far as 7 months out. We recently did an "add on" to our current Saratoga Springs contract and received 160 complimentary developer points which we used to book 5 nights at the Grand Californian during the first week of August. We reserved a standard room about a month ago and had no problems with availability.

 

[tink6137130]

Thanks for everyone’s replies... I’m still waiting on ROFR and the whole resale process. Would it be possible to reserve a room now (using cash) & then switch to points? I would like to try late June but I’m afraid there won’t be anything left by the time we close.

 

[CarolAnnC]

Thanks for everyone’s replies... I’m still waiting on ROFR and the whole resale process. Would it be possible to reserve a room now (using cash) & then switch to points? I would like to try late June but I’m afraid there won’t be anything left by the time we close.

It is not possible to switch a cash ressie to a points ressie as they are reserved from two separate inventories.

 

[tink6137130]

It is not possible to switch a cash ressie to a points ressie as they are reserved from two separate inventories.

Thanks...I would guess GC may not be possible by the time I close. My contract was submitted for ROFR on 2-21.

 

[CarolAnnC]

You never know! My DH and I booked a short GC stay on points last August only 3 weeks prior and we were successful! So definitely give it a try when you are able to...

 

[tink6137130]

You never know! My DH and I booked a short GC stay on points last August only 3 weeks prior and we were successful! So definitely give it a try when you are able to...

That’s very encouraging! I will try as soon as possible.

 

[MikeJ]

We booked a stay on points last summer. We stayed for a week at Concierge (July 14-21) and booked it on June 6. Maybe our results aren't typical but we had no trouble making the reservations 5-6 weeks before checkin. YMMV.

- Mike