Grand Californian Super Thread

[MermaidHair]

What does all that scaffolding do to the views from those rooms??? I would be so disappointed if I saved my money and saw that when I woke up each morning. Also - I think a lot of those rooms are theme park views. That's even more $$$.

 

[Nonsuch]

What does all that scaffolding do to the views from those rooms???

The scaffolding is being covered with green tarps, so those rooms must be vacant.

Some photos from today, taken by a friend (wish I was there)

 

[Rainforest_Elf]

Wait, is that the park entrance from CA into GCH?

 

[Nonsuch]

Wait, is that the park entrance from CA into GCH?

Yes. The photo is taken from inside DCA, so this is the exit into GCH

 

[surfmontana]

Do you know what room numbers this will effect?

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

I'll trip report later, but I just returned this evening from four nights at GCH and it was the worst hotel stay I've ever had in my life. It was a three-day complimentary stay gifted to us by surprise by guest services to make up for our Premier APs not working correctly last year, and we were paying for a fourth night out of pocket. We expected it would be an awesome experience as we had never stayed there before and after all it's GCH.

The lowlights:

• When we arrived, our AC was broken.
• The maintenance supervisor sent by the front desk to fix it gave us an earful about how much he didn't like the hotel or his job and how he didn't understand why anyone would stay there--and he lied about fixing the AC, and left AC condenser gunk in our toilet.
• When we realized the AC didn't work very late after returning from the parks the first night, we had to stay up two extra hours (past midnight) to wait for maintenance to finally fix the AC, which made my partner miss EMH the next morning.
• The next night at midnight, a roach crawled out from under one of our beds. I covered it with a glass, put the glass with the live roach in a ziploc bag, and brought it all down to the front desk. They changed our room, and it took three hours to pack, move (including the eventually freezing cold room service we had ordered), and unpack in the new room. We didn't get to sleep until 3 a.m. and we both missed EMH the next morning.
• The next morning after missing EMH, we realized the refrigerator--which we always use when we visit DLR--was broken. We told the front desk about it and they said they would send someone up, and we asked them to wait because my partner was in the shower. Maintenance came anyway and walked in on my indisposed partner.
• That night, feeling like all we wanted to do was check out--even though the stay was mostly free--and go to the HoJo, we decided to have a drink at HL. After waiting 15 minutes to be served, we decided to leave, which apparently angered one of the wait staff who came over and was very rude to us for daring to leave instead of waiting for him to take our drink order. (I kid you not.) When we complained to the manager, he walked away.
• On our final night, the hotel closed the entire laundry room for maintenance and we had to pack our luggage with dirty clothes (which isn't our practice) to fly home.

The morning of our last day, we told guest services about our experience at GCH and after bursting into tears because she's heard this before from unhappy guests, a VIP services coordinator erased our entire hotel charge and most of our charge-back expenses from our folio. It was the one moment at GCH that did not feel like we were being taken for granted by the staff there.

Because of what VIP services did, we came back home with more money than we left with. That means we were essentially paid to stay at the GCH. And not to be ungrateful, especially since this started off as a free "we're sorry" stay, but the entire experience was so heartbreakingly unmagical, we can honestly say you could not even pay us to stay there again. Not ever again. I can't understand what anyone sees in this place. The mismanagement is stunning and systemic, and Disney can do so much better. You're not supposed to yearn for the Harbor Blvd. HoJo or WDW's Pop Century when you're staying at GCH. Yet we spent four days wishing we were anywhere else.

 

[Amilo]

Wow. That is awful! I'm so sorry to hear about your experience! I'm feeling nervous for my stay now.

 

[mitchwebb]

just home from three nights at GC first night in a standard room with scaffolding right next door but not in front of our room. Third floor looking through trees to see a little bit of Grizzly Rapids. Frig did not work. Moved to 2514 1-BD villa for a coupld of days. View of trees and sidewalk leading to pool. Room was a littl warn but loved the size. We are use to BWV and the room was larger. Not sure we will use point again for Grand around 120 points for the two nights. Kids still like the DL hotel better.

 

[whoever]

Wow. That is awful! I'm so sorry to hear about your experience! I'm feeling nervous for my stay now.

Don't be. I'd say that was a planets aligning, walked under a ladder, broke a truck full of mirrors sort of bad luck situation.

 

[Cheshirecatty]

I agree with the above(in part)----Don't be nervous Amilo!

Every hotel has its good AND bad.(at least, the ones we've stayed at.)

We've had not so nice stays at the Grand(definitely not a planets aligning thing, because there have been several times, over the years), but we've had lots of lovely stays as well, and the good far outweigh the bad!

I feel so sorry for mikedoyleblogger, that his stay there was miserable---that can happen anywhere.

I think to expect something to be magical and perfect, just because it is "supposedly" the "best"(which is highly subjective), can be dangerous---possibly setting oneself up for disappointment(at least, in my opinion)!

We loved the GCH, when we first began staying there years ago, when it first opened. Now……it's not our favorite, but we still stay there occasionally, and still think it's lovely.

I realize that there are those who have stayed there a few times(or even many), and have found no faults---yet! I truly hope they never will, but think that is quite unlikely(unless a blind eye is turned in every instance----which, can actually be a great life skill)! I also think that having a good attitude can help one overlook a great deal, but not in mikedoyleblogger's specific situation---way too much to deal with for that to have fixed much of anything. That is a really terrible turn of events!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Don't be. I'd say that was a planets aligning, walked under a ladder, broke a truck full of mirrors sort of bad luck situation.

Thank you for making me laugh! I will say, I bet the renovation clears up a lot of issues people seem to repeatedly have (faulty tvs, fridges, AC--and hoopefully wifi.)

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

I agree with the above(in part)----Don't be nervous Amilo!

Every hotel has its good AND bad.(at least, the ones we've stayed at.)

We've had not so nice stays at the Grand(definitely not a planets aligning thing, because there have been several times, over the years), but we've had lots of lovely stays as well, and the good far outweigh the bad!

I feel so sorry for mikedoyleblogger, that his stay there was miserable---that can happen anywhere.

I think to expect something to be magical and perfect, just because it is "supposedly" the "best"(which is highly subjective), can be dangerous---possibly setting oneself up for disappointment(at least, in my opinion)!

We loved the GCH, when we first began staying there years ago, when it first opened. Now……it's not our favorite, but we still stay there occasionally, and still think it's lovely.

I realize that there are those who have stayed there a few times(or even many), and have found no faults---yet! I truly hope they never will, but think that is quite unlikely(unless a blind eye is turned in every instance----which, can actually be a great life skill)! I also think that having a good attitude can help one overlook a great deal, but not in mikedoyleblogger's specific situation---way too much to deal with for that to have fixed much of anything. That is a really terrible turn of events!

I agree with all of this. We did keep trying to keep a positive attitude throughout--by the end we just had to laugh because what else can you do? We'll definitely stay on property again.

 

[Cheshirecatty]

Mikedoyleblogger…..

I love your positive attitude, and your ability to laugh at such a lousy situation----what a great example!!!

I'm glad you're willing to give staying on property(at the GCH) another "try"!(I think I would be quite reluctant, after hearing what was thrown at you!)

I hope your next trip is truly exceptional!

 

[crystal1313]

Mikedoyleblogger…..

I love your positive attitude, and your ability to laugh at such a lousy situation----what a great example!!!

I'm glad you're willing to give staying on property(at the GCH) another "try"!(I think I would be quite reluctant, after hearing what was thrown at you!)

I hope your next trip is truly exceptional!

I agree! Way to stay positive. Hoping that your next stay on property is amazing

 

[minniecarousel]

We have always had great stays here, but not so this time. At check-in I requested a room not too far from the elevators. We got a room on the 3rd floor, obviously next to a laundry room. No problem - our balcony didn't get a breeze, but I wasn't going to spend much time out there.

Yesterday afternoon (Tues) we went back to our room for a nap ( important if you're doing both Early Entry & staying up late!) Since our room is just above the Napa Rose, we heard constant drilling & sawing. They sent up ear plugs (obviously, they need to do the work.) we should have requested a different room then, because....this AM we were awakened at 6:30! We weren't going to get up til 7, at the earliest. The front desk couldn't tell us what the noise was. We could be moved IF we got our luggage to Bell by 11, but we couldn't get a new room until 4 - there goes our afternoon nap! And we leave tomorrow, so we hope to sleep in!

We're using DVC points & really expect great things!

Not complaining - really. Just can't say that it's been the usual stellar experience.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

We have always had great stays here, but not so this time. At check-in I requested a room not too far from the elevators. We got a room on the 3rd floor, obviously next to a laundry room. No problem - our balcony didn't get a breeze, but I wasn't going to spend much time out there.

Yesterday afternoon (Tues) we went back to our room for a nap ( important if you're doing both Early Entry & staying up late!) Since our room is just above the Napa Rose, we heard constant drilling & sawing. They sent up ear plugs (obviously, they need to do the work.) we should have requested a different room then, because....this AM we were awakened at 6:30! We weren't going to get up til 7, at the earliest. The front desk couldn't tell us what the noise was. We could be moved IF we got our luggage to Bell by 11, but we couldn't get a new room until 4 - there goes our afternoon nap! And we leave tomorrow, so we hope to sleep in!

We're using DVC points & really expect great things!

Not complaining - really. Just can't say that it's been the usual stellar experience.

One thing my partner and I discussed over the weekend is that staying in a hotel under renovation is kind of a crapshoot. You never know if you'll have a good or bad experience because things just aren't going to be "normal" while the work is going on. I promise you, though, there are available rooms--and if you demand it, Bell will come up and move your luggage for you. After that roach, it's not like we dragged our luggage downstairs. They came to our room and moved everything for us. It's a double standard for them to tell you to drag it downstairs yourselves in order for them to change your room and make things right when they moved us themselves. One thing we learned at GCH last weekend is don't take no for an answer. You have every right to complain when the magic's not there.

 

[sleepymouse]

You have every right to complain when the magic's not there.

Indeed! The customer is always right, right?

 

[nolenbelledavis]

We were there July 30-August 3rd. We stayed on the 5th floor close to the elevator. We loved it. We are checking into DVC now because we are going to have a tough time going back to anything else. I guess the 5th floor was high up enough that the renovations didn't matter. No roaches either. (Thank goodness!!!!)

I also left a note for housekeeping asking for extra toiletries and they left tons. Our a/c was also working exceptionally well.

The fridge didn't work and we called the morning after we got there when it hadn't cooled anything and they replaced it while we were at the park that day.

The only thing that kind of sucked was they turned the water off one morning from 1-5am. They gave us 8 small dasani bottles because of it. The bad thing was I didn't think about how the water wouldn't have time to warm up by my shower at 6ish and it was coooooold.

We have young kids and the proximity for naps or resting in the middle of the day was wonderful for us.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

(snip)Our a/c was also working exceptionally well.

The maintenance man who successfully fixed our AC showed us the new method of putting the AC units on bypass, which disables the motion sensor, stops the units from bouncing back to the relatively high pre-set temperature, and keeps the units regulating the temperature at all times (instead of shutting off if you're sitting in one place too long or sleeping--and thus not triggering the motion sensor.)

It all works with the little Fahrenheit/Celsius button on the left side of the electronic thermostat. First make sure the fan is on "Auto". Then, assuming you want to use Fahrenheit, first press the button to change over to Celsius, then long press (i.e. hold down) the button until the display shows "bp". The long press will also switch the unit back to Fahrenheit. Then you can simply use the arrows to select your target temperature. Turning the unit off and on turns off the bypass function.

According to the maintenance man who did this for us, you can specifically request for maintenance to come up and set your unit on bypass. He said because the units are old and in need of renovation (which of course is happening next year), they often just put them on bypass if guests complain that their rooms are too warm. Apparently it's common practice there. It makes your room go from overly warm to ice age pretty darn fast, too.

 

[::danielle::]

The maintenance man who successfully fixed our AC showed us the new method of putting the AC units on bypass, which disables the motion sensor, stops the units from bouncing back to the relatively high pre-set temperature, and keeps the units regulating the temperature at all times (instead of shutting off if you're sitting in one place too long or sleeping--and thus not triggering the motion sensor.) It all works with the little Fahrenheit/Celsius button on the left side of the electronic thermostat. First make sure the fan is on "Auto". Then, assuming you want to use Fahrenheit, first press the button to change over to Celsius, then long press (i.e. hold down) the button until the display shows "bp". The long press will also switch the unit back to Fahrenheit. Then you can simply use the arrows to select your target temperature. Turning the unit off and on turns off the bypass function. According to the maintenance man who did this for us, you can specifically request for maintenance to come up and set your unit on bypass. He said because the units are old and in need of renovation (which of course is happening next year), they often just put them on bypass if guests complain that their rooms are too warm. Apparently it's common practice there. It makes your room go from overly warm to ice age pretty darn fast, too.

Great tip! Thank you!