What's the recommended way to do this?
Should I rent from a VGC owner and then rent my VGF points to someone else?
Should I check in at 8 AM every day to see if I can snag a room and then "walk" the reservation at the 7 month window?
Should I just not bother?
Inquiring minds want to know!
I'm a new owner by the way. My VGF points were literally just loaded onto my account today.
Very difficult to do.
* First option is to just pay cash. But Grand Californian is very expensive.
* Stalking the RAT probably doesn't work very well. There usually are NEVER any studios at VGC available inside the 7 month window. Same goes for 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom. There very rarely are 1-bedroom units available, as a single day or two at a time. HOWEVER, it wouldn't hurt to put in a WAITLIST request. Do this right at the 7 month window. There are only about 24 studios and 24 one-bedrooms available as 24 2-bedroom lockoffs. But, if you are lucky, one of those 24 people who has the dates you want will cancel and drop their vacation, in which case, if you are at the top of the Waitlist, you might get it.
* If you are a Direct owner, you can go and use some of your points to Exchange into it through the Disney Collection. But, this is pretty point intensive. They want a LOT of points to stay in a regular hotel room. I don't remember how much now, but I seem to remember it being around 45 points per night.
*You can rent out your current DVC points and take the money and use the money to stay at Grand Californian. Except that it costs so much cash, per night, that it just might not be worth it.
* You can go to one of the Rental brokers and pay $18 per point to buy the points to stay there.
* You can try to contact a VGC owner and offer to rent points directly from them.
* You can post a message somewhere, offering to trade a week at your home resort for a week at Grand Californian, and see if you can find any takers. Depending on where your home resort is, you might need to offer a few more days and receive a few less days.
* You can go to the Transfer forums and offer to TRADE/Transfer your own DVC Points for VGC points.
I think I have pretty much covered your options. I once used 345 Poly points for 6 nights at VGC, through the Disney Collection. It was an amazing vacation, but I don't think I would do it again.