cruisehopeful
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2015
Welcome to my quick little trip report from my recent 2 night visit to Disneyland! While it will be short, hopefully you'll find something interesting in my stay at the Villas at Grand Californian, my yummy eating experiences and/or Sweethearts Night.
The background for this trip is that I have been very overworked/overscheduled in life. I have a very good life and I am one of the most fortunate people that I know. With that said, I like to keep busy and have a tendency to overschedule my life. It keeps me out and active and social, but it also makes "getting away from it all" extremely difficult. It isn't unusual for me to drive up to Disneyland for an afternoon, but it is rare that I actually stay overnight. I always want to stay overnight, but due to having a full schedule and having multiple dogs at home, it just isn't practical to stay away for too long.
I used to own at the Villa's at Grand Californian and would have kept it if I was the type to plan my trips 11 months in advance, but I am not. I am more of a couple weeks out to a few months out type of person. For some reason, when I read that the Disneyland Hotel was going to build a DVC building, I was 99% convinced that I was going to buy it. In the fantasizing stages of that, I thought that maybe I'd just buy VGC again since it's closer to the park and I do believe that DCA is my favorite park at this time. I looked into buying VGC again, was able to make an offer on a 125 point contract when reality set in and I realized that I'd still need to plan my stays 10-11 months in advance which isn't normally possible. After crunching some numbers, I came to the conclusion that I'd probably be better off just paying the rack rate of $700+/night to stay in the hotel. I've never allowed myself to pay that much for a nightly stay because it's ridiculous and I have Hilton points where I can stay for virtually free. However, staying at the Grand is something that I love and it takes my little escapes to a whole different level. Looking at the overall numbers and the reality of how I vacation and I see myself doing things over the next 5-10 years, it's makes more sense that I would not buy VGC and I would allow myself to pay $700.-$1,000./night to stay in the hotel (looking at staying 1-4 nights over a year). After discussing with my husband, he was relieved that I was going that route vs. buying the timeshare again.
Just a couple days after making that decision, I saw an ad for a 2 night stay in a studio at VGC for Feb.12-14. The cost for the 2 nights was less than what I was expecting to pay for a one night stay in the hotel. I checked my schedule book and saw that I was open for those 3 days. I decided that I'd go ahead and rent it out and really allow myself to be there rather than always just going for a few hours or a day and having to be mentally on the way the home most of the time. My husband was toying with the idea of coming up for a night without taking time off from work and I wasn't sure that it would work out because it would involve driving 90 miles during bad traffic time, but he said he didn't mind.
It was about a month after that when I saw that Disneyland was going to have an After Dark event called Sweetheart's Night for the 2 nights that I was going to be there. I decided to go ahead and buy 2 tickets for the first night. I know my husband was considering driving up for that night and even if he didn't end up coming along, my daughter who lives in Long Beach might be able to attend. If she didn't, well, that's just $109. down the toilet, but I thought I should have the extra ticket vs. waiting to be sure someone was coming and then have the event sold out.
The background for this trip is that I have been very overworked/overscheduled in life. I have a very good life and I am one of the most fortunate people that I know. With that said, I like to keep busy and have a tendency to overschedule my life. It keeps me out and active and social, but it also makes "getting away from it all" extremely difficult. It isn't unusual for me to drive up to Disneyland for an afternoon, but it is rare that I actually stay overnight. I always want to stay overnight, but due to having a full schedule and having multiple dogs at home, it just isn't practical to stay away for too long.
I used to own at the Villa's at Grand Californian and would have kept it if I was the type to plan my trips 11 months in advance, but I am not. I am more of a couple weeks out to a few months out type of person. For some reason, when I read that the Disneyland Hotel was going to build a DVC building, I was 99% convinced that I was going to buy it. In the fantasizing stages of that, I thought that maybe I'd just buy VGC again since it's closer to the park and I do believe that DCA is my favorite park at this time. I looked into buying VGC again, was able to make an offer on a 125 point contract when reality set in and I realized that I'd still need to plan my stays 10-11 months in advance which isn't normally possible. After crunching some numbers, I came to the conclusion that I'd probably be better off just paying the rack rate of $700+/night to stay in the hotel. I've never allowed myself to pay that much for a nightly stay because it's ridiculous and I have Hilton points where I can stay for virtually free. However, staying at the Grand is something that I love and it takes my little escapes to a whole different level. Looking at the overall numbers and the reality of how I vacation and I see myself doing things over the next 5-10 years, it's makes more sense that I would not buy VGC and I would allow myself to pay $700.-$1,000./night to stay in the hotel (looking at staying 1-4 nights over a year). After discussing with my husband, he was relieved that I was going that route vs. buying the timeshare again.
Just a couple days after making that decision, I saw an ad for a 2 night stay in a studio at VGC for Feb.12-14. The cost for the 2 nights was less than what I was expecting to pay for a one night stay in the hotel. I checked my schedule book and saw that I was open for those 3 days. I decided that I'd go ahead and rent it out and really allow myself to be there rather than always just going for a few hours or a day and having to be mentally on the way the home most of the time. My husband was toying with the idea of coming up for a night without taking time off from work and I wasn't sure that it would work out because it would involve driving 90 miles during bad traffic time, but he said he didn't mind.
It was about a month after that when I saw that Disneyland was going to have an After Dark event called Sweetheart's Night for the 2 nights that I was going to be there. I decided to go ahead and buy 2 tickets for the first night. I know my husband was considering driving up for that night and even if he didn't end up coming along, my daughter who lives in Long Beach might be able to attend. If she didn't, well, that's just $109. down the toilet, but I thought I should have the extra ticket vs. waiting to be sure someone was coming and then have the event sold out.