Grand Californian Super Thread

[franandaj]

We had originally booked the GCV through our DVC membership, and because of a glitch they had overbooked, and moved us to the hotel side suite.

What size room did you have? We always book a one bedroom and I would have been very upset to lose my Jacuzzi tub!

Interesting. I'm guessing it was related to the breakout of accessible rooms?

What is this? I haven't heard anything about it.

 

[SeaDis]

What is this? I haven't heard anything about it.

It happened in late March and spilled into April. They broke out Accessible rooms as a category and it created a bunch of ghost availability and resulted in (who knows how many) over bookings. They even paused VGC resservations for a period of time. It was active on the VGC thread during that period.

Many of the overbooked members reported being offer the hotel side for their nights. But above was the first time I heard someone got a suite. Makes sense as it's more equivalent.

 

[kathleendsm]

What size room did you have? We always book a one bedroom and I would have been very upset to lose my Jacuzzi tub!

It was a one bedroom. I know we’re losing out on a few aspects (kitchen, laundry), but honestly we were just thrilled to get SOMETHING, and losing those things is less of a problem on a shorter stay.

It happened in late March and spilled into April. They broke out Accessible rooms as a category and it created a bunch of ghost availability and resulted in (who knows how many) over bookings. They even paused VGC resservations for a period of time. It was active on the VGC thread during that period.

Many of the overbooked members reported being offer the hotel side for their nights. But above was the first time I heard someone got a suite. Makes sense as it's more equivalent.

I didn’t realize that was the cause. It took a long time for them to actually get us a reservation, we had to call several times, but my husband had a really nice talk with the CM who was finally able to confirm the reservation, and she had told him that a lot of people were being very rude. Maybe it was a bit of pixie dust.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

I notice that my room type *may* have two King beds and a daybed or pullout twin bed; my kids are 13 (girl) and 9 (boy) and would rather not share a bed anymore, so I'd like to make sure we have this available, but at no point in the reservation process was there a chance to request one, and I can't find any way to do it online; do I have to call the hotel directly?

 

[franandaj]

It happened in late March and spilled into April. They broke out Accessible rooms as a category and it created a bunch of ghost availability and resulted in (who knows how many) over bookings. They even paused VGC resservations for a period of time. It was active on the VGC thread during that period.

I remember that the VGC bookings were paused and I remember on this or the VGC thread finding out they reopened and booking a Prime couple of nights just after it reopened, but didn't realize why they had shut it down for the couple of weeks, nor why it shut down.

 

[Nonsuch]

I notice that my room type *may* have two King beds and a daybed or pullout twin bed; my kids are 13 (girl) and 9 (boy) and would rather not share a bed anymore, so I'd like to make sure we have this available, but at no point in the reservation process was there a chance to request one, and I can't find any way to do it online; do I have to call the hotel directly?

There are no rooms with 2 King Beds.

You will need to call the hotel to request a Day Bed.

Rooms with a King Bed will also have a Twin-Size Sleeper Chair AND either a sofa (non-foldout loveseat) or Day Bed.
If a Day Bed is not available, perhaps one of your kids could sleep on the sofa.

 

[roxy72]

We just booked our 12/7 - 12/11 honeymoon trip at the Grand Californian, HOORAY! We were waiting for a new room offer to come out, so we used the Stay Amid the Magic Room Offer last night. Unfortunately, there weren't any Standard View rooms available (we're on a budget and wanted the cheapest room- guess they sold out fast!), so we got a Partial View room. Per the website, it looks like they only have the Premium View rooms now so thank goodness we got something better priced while we could.

I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us in terms of the hotel, but I have a hard time swallowing the cost for 4 nights. We last stayed at the Residence Inn, then the Hotel Indigo, so I keep thinking about those prices under $200/night. Oh well- we're going to live large and love it!!

 

[jordan13402]

yeah we booked a standard for dec and when this came out we upgraded two classes for the same price

 

[jordan13402]

btw, we booked through a certain company from Utah (am I allowed to say that?) and they price matched a price from another company

 

[SeaDis]

We just booked our 12/7 - 12/11 honeymoon trip at the Grand Californian, HOORAY! We were waiting for a new room offer to come out, so we used the Stay Amid the Magic Room Offer last night. Unfortunately, there weren't any Standard View rooms available (we're on a budget and wanted the cheapest room- guess they sold out fast!), so we got a Partial View room. Per the website, it looks like they only have the Premium View rooms now so thank goodness we got something better priced while we could.

I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us in terms of the hotel, but I have a hard time swallowing the cost for 4 nights. We last stayed at the Residence Inn, then the Hotel Indigo, so I keep thinking about those prices under $200/night. Oh well- we're going to live large and love it!!

Congratulations. You are only in the room a few nights, but the memories and photos/videos of the resort last a lifetime. Just think of it that way, and it's "pennies" per day. There... magic!

Easy for me to say. Have fun!

 

[DizMe]

So happy they gave us a discount this year! I was beginning to think they weren't going to do it. Rebooked with the deal and went up one level to Woods /courtyard and still saved $471. It was actually cheaper to upgrade than stay with standard, ha ha.

 

[DizMe]

So I just realized that when I rebooked with the new discount, I didn't use the magic key discount, which would save me an additional $125. What is the best way to rebook? Call? I'm currently doing everything from my phone as I'm away from home with no other devices.

 

[roxy72]

So I just realized that when I rebooked with the new discount, I didn't use the magic key discount, which would save me an additional $125. What is the best way to rebook? Call? I'm currently doing everything from my phone as I'm away from home with no other devices.

Yes, you can call them to adjust the reservation and add on the magic key discount. My husband was able to do so this morning! I had assumed their systems would make you cancel the existing reservation then book a new one, but happily, that was not the case.

Just a tip that he called first thing in the morning- maybe 7 or 8am- and someone picked up right away. When we tried to call yesterday afternoon, we waited 5-10 minutes and nobody picked up, so it might be best to call early in the morning.

 

[LWcalif]

All rooms have been renovated, and are the same size (except 39 standard view rooms near the lobby are slightly larger). Many rooms have tubs (~30%?) spread through the hotel, so you should make a request

Nonsuch - I was looking at your map & on the ground floor of the DVC wing there are 4 rooms that are not color coded. 1500, 1503, 1511 & 1513. Do you know if these are DVC studios or regular hotel rooms?

 

[Disney0010]

Booked the GCH again for December. Was able to book the Magic Key price. The least expensive that I have seen in a while.

 

[Disney0010]

Wow, decided to add an extra night at GCH and I can’t do it on line. So now on hold for thirty-five minutes and holding. Disney should be embarrassed about their hold times.

 

[DizMe]

Yes, you can call them to adjust the reservation and add on the magic key discount. My husband was able to do so this morning! I had assumed their systems would make you cancel the existing reservation then book a new one, but happily, that was not the case.

Just a tip that he called first thing in the morning- maybe 7 or 8am- and someone picked up right away. When we tried to call yesterday afternoon, we waited 5-10 minutes and nobody picked up, so it might be best to call early in the morning.

Thank you! This worked perfectly!

 

[Nonsuch]

Nonsuch - I was looking at your map & on the ground floor of the DVC wing there are 4 rooms that are not color coded. 1500, 1503, 1511 & 1513. Do you know if these are DVC studios or regular hotel rooms?

Those are regular hotel rooms, mixed in with the DVC villas.

I don't claim to understand legal issues, but it seems the 200 regular hotel rooms built along with the villas could be converted to studios. The new DVC resorts (such as DLT) have a large number of smaller villas (studios and even smaller pods), so perhaps this was considered for VGC. GCH has very high occupancy (and high prices), so converting hotel rooms to studios seems unlikely.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

Can someone fill me in on what the magic key price is?

 

[Disney0010]

For our mid December stay the ”Wooded” view was $499.10 per night. It was actually one dollar per night cheaper than the standard view.