The Official VILLAS at DISNEYLAND HOTEL (Discovery Tower) Owners and Fans Info Thread

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

After about 30 mins of various tech issues I was able to book a standard view studio in Feb. Overall availability for the studios in Dec-Feb seems decent still.

Woo Hoo! Happy for you! Let me know your dates and I can add you to post 2. Hope you have a great time and take some room view photos!

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

I was able to book two studios for my dates in February! Success! It only took 2.5 hours.....
When I got through to MS I asked them to call me back when their system was operational. They had to get a supervisor to do so but they did!
Very happy!! Hope you all have success today as well!!

YAY! Excited for you, @Mich Mouse! Let me know your dates and I can add you to post 2. Many memories to come!

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

After hours of waiting for the DVC site to work (and 2 virtual queues), I have an opening day booking.
2-bedroom Hearing Accessible.

Sorry for your hearing loss

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

Anyone who has booked that isn't on the Be Our Guest list (post 2) of upcoming stays, let me know your dates (and room type if you'd like) and I can add you to the list. And yes would LOVE room photos and photos of the view out of your room onto property - you're like VDH scouts/spies for our group .

@bbeagle and @FeliciaB23 I think you booked today as well - lemme know . So happy for you all!

 

[Luggabeast_CA]

For anyone that put in a waitlist request on the phone when bookings originally opened up I strongly recommend logging in and checking availability online.

I was able to book the dates that I had waitlisted even though the waitlist request hadn't come through, so it seems there's potentially an issue with those waitlist requests. Reported this to MS after I called to make sure my modification went through out of paranoia.

 

[Canchaser143]

Well I was going to book a 1 bedroom for February BUT a 1 bedroom at VGC opened up and it's less points soooo looks like we are staying there instead! You guys, the availability popping up for VGC is crazy lol I wish we were able to stay longer to do a split stay!

 

[MamaKate]

Sorry if this has been asked, but I tried searching and couldn't find an answer.

Has it been confirmed if parking is free or not if staying on points at VDH?

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

Sorry if this has been asked, but I tried searching and couldn't find an answer.

Has it been confirmed if parking is free or not if staying on points at VDH?

It currently is free... but they left the window open to change their mind at some point in the future.
The thought is that if Disneyland Forward happens or if they put up another hotel, etc - anything that takes away a parking area - they will likely start charging.

 

[MamaKate]

It currently is free... but they left the window open to change their mind at some point in the future.
The thought is that if Disneyland Forward happens or if they put up another hotel, etc - anything that takes away a parking area - they will likely start charging.

Thanks! I won't be staying there until February so hopefully it remains free until at least then...

 

[Wedgeout]

Nice having the access now online. Smooth once the morning issues cleared. Being day one for non-home resort points, decided to use some of those to experience a couple more stays!
Dec 9-10 (Duo/Standard)
Feb 3-5 (Duo/Garden)

 

[bbeagle]

Anyone who has booked that isn't on the Be Our Guest list (post 2) of upcoming stays, let me know your dates (and room type if you'd like) and I can add you to the list. And yes would LOVE room photos and photos of the view out of your room onto property - you're like VDH scouts/spies for our group .

@bbeagle and @FeliciaB23 I think you booked today as well - lemme know . So happy for you all!

Feb 18-23, VDH 1 bedroom (one of those days in the middle is a studio, which I’ll be lurking the DVC site to replace with a 1 bedroom)

 

[ehh]

Juuuust going to throw this out there... haha. If you're ok with accessible rooms (and um... accessible peeps have had their chance to get rooms)... there's tons of availability. Even 1-3 bedrooms. And for studios even Opening Weekend.

In fact, only the wheelchair accessible Grand Villa was declared, even through early July 2024.

Based on how much accessible inventory there was, I'm assuming CMs follow a policy to not check it proactively, even if non-HA rooms are fully booked.

There’s availability opening up at VGC, interestingly.

Back on 5/16, I canceled a VGC reservation when I booked my VDH stay.

For non-owners at VDH, it's probably even more of a trial run to decide if they want to buy. Apparently I'm comfortable with sight-unseen

 

[MartyParty]

Anyone who has booked that isn't on the Be Our Guest list (post 2) of upcoming stays, let me know your dates (and room type if you'd like) and I can add you to the list. And yes would LOVE room photos and photos of the view out of your room onto property - you're like VDH scouts/spies for our group .

@bbeagle and @FeliciaB23 I think you booked today as well - lemme know . So happy for you all!

Hi Ursula. We have the following dates booked for a Duo Studio:

Feb 4-8, 2024 (Sunday - Thursday)

As a side note, I routinely look up what a cash stay would be to enter in to my DVC tracking sheet. See what kind of cost savings benefit I'm getting through purchased points vs a hypothetical cash says. For cash stays at the Disneyland Hotel availability to book is only through the end of 2023. But with DVC I could book farther out as per the above booking.

So I used a random November date and came up with a cash rate of $537/night excluding taxes.

I'll check the cash rates as it gets closer to February.

Four nights for a total of 52 points. Not to shabby I'd say.

Interesting enough, when looking up the transient tax per the Disney table it works out to about $38/night. When booking cash through the Disneyland Hotel it is a bit more than double. I realize its Feb vs early Nov seasons for comparison but even if using the tax table provided it seems half the tax rate for a cash stay.

For the VDH community, does this sound right or am I missing something here. Happy to be on the lower cost side.

 

[ehh]

Hi Ursula. We have the following dates booked for a Duo Studio:

Feb 4-8, 2024 (Sunday - Thursday)

As a side note, I routinely look up what a cash stay would be to enter in to my DVC tracking sheet. See what kind of cost savings benefit I'm getting through purchased points vs a hypothetical cash says. For cash stays at the Disneyland Hotel availability to book is only through the end of 2023. But with DVC I could book farther out as per the above booking.

So I used a random November date and came up with a cash rate of $537/night excluding taxes.

I'll check the cash rates as it gets closer to February.

Four nights for a total of 52 points. Not to shabby I'd say.

Interesting enough, when looking up the transient tax per the Disney table it works out to about $38/night. When booking cash through the Disneyland Hotel it is a bit more than double. I realize its Feb vs early Nov seasons for comparison but even if using the tax table provided it seems half the tax rate for a cash stay.

For the VDH community, does this sound right or am I missing something here. Happy to be on the lower cost side.

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The cash room tax rates are slightly higher, while the values taxed are much higher. So overall taxes are much higher, as you're seeing.

Based on the $537/night cash rate, you're looking at a weekday in November outside of Thanksgiving week. The DVC ToT is $41.01 for the same nights in a Duo PV, an apples to apples comparison to the $91.29.

 

[MartyParty]

The cash room tax rates are slightly higher, while the values taxed are much higher. So overall taxes are much higher, as you're seeing.

Based on the $537/night cash rate, you're looking at a weekday in November outside of Thanksgiving week. The DVC ToT is $41.01 for the same nights in a Duo PV, an apples to apples comparison to the $91.29.

Thanks for this ehh. Smart bunch on this board.

So if I understand correctly, a benefit of being VDH DVC members allows for us to pay over 50% less in transient taxes. Or something like that.

 

[PBandJFamwich]

Juuuust going to throw this out there... haha. If you're ok with accessible rooms (and um... accessible peeps have had their chance to get rooms)... there's tons of availability. Even 1-3 bedrooms. And for studios even Opening Weekend.

Thanks for this! I was able to switch one of my standard studios to a preferred view duo that is hearing accessible. Saving some points since we are a family of 3 and my parents.

We also have a waitlist for a standard view duo to possibly save even more points but also a waitlist for a garden view duo studio… willing to splurge a little for convenient pool access from Grandma and Grandpa’s room.

 

[LifeDeathAnnualDues]

Booked our welcome home stay from 2/16 -19 in the one bedroom. If there's inventory for only one of 1 bedrooms, does that mean I took the one bedroom from you @bbeagle?

Also want to give a big shout out to this forum who gave me fomo and pushed me to become an owner. Looking at the mad rush today, I'm glad I did.

 

[PBandJFamwich]

Anyone who has booked that isn't on the Be Our Guest list (post 2) of upcoming stays, let me know your dates (and room type if you'd like) and I can add you to the list. And yes would LOVE room photos and photos of the view out of your room onto property - you're like VDH scouts/spies for our group .

@bbeagle and @FeliciaB23 I think you booked today as well - lemme know . So happy for you all!

We are staying December 10th-14th in a Standard View Deluxe Studio and a Preferred View Duo Studio.

We had December 3rd-7th booked in a standard studio with our (50) 2023 VDH and borrowed (30) 2024 VDH points. Really happy we were able to switch dates and add another room (with some 2023 Riviera points) so my parents can join us.

 

[ahintz]

We’re here at Disneyland this weekend, and had a chance to see our new home for the first time! Congrats to everyone who got rooms today! Here’s a picture of the new Discovery Tower tonight!

 

[ehh]

7/27 Damage Report

Curious how much people booked today? I have an update for you!

At 7:10am PT this morning, I finally was able to get the booking site to work and instead of booking anything like everyone else overwhelming Disney's systems, I captured the inventory state of all rooms except the Accessible rooms (there's too many categories for my manual process).

At 7:15pm PT this evening, I repeated the process.

And then I did some work to compare them.

Overall - 7am
While I wasn't the first one on the site and my process of 'capturing' inventory levels in bulk was initially a little slow, I was able to observe that there were ~4,500 room-nights available across all categories (including GV-HA, but not other HA) until 2/27/24 (7m mark), as of 7:10am PT. I think it's reasonable to say that we started the day with over 5,000 room-nights available consider I likely missed a bunch of bookings earlier in the morning.

The ~4,500 I measured works out to about 29.5 rooms available per night prior to the 7m mark.

But those 4,500 room-nights were not evenly distributed. 22 of the 153 nights were completely sold out across all categories and an additional 15 nights had 2 or fewer rooms available across all categories. In total, there were 1,151 sold out category-nights (i.e., if all 1BR are sold out for 3 nights in a row, that's 3 category-nights), an average of 7.5 category-nights per night of the 11 categories I monitored. Some categories were very hard to book, the non-HA Grand Villa was impossible as it's yet to be declared.

Overall - 7pm
Inventory certainly was reduced.

At 7:15pm PT, just ~1,375 rooms were available within the 7m booking window. The ~3,125 rooms booked reduced available inventory by ~70% from what I measured earlier in the day.

Totally sold out nights increased from 22 to 38.

Nights with 2 or fewer rooms available increased from 37 to 87, more than half of the 153 nights between 9/28 and 2/27.

1,368 category-nights are now sold out, out of a possible 1,683.


By Category
Duo Studios

• At 7am
  • 260 room-nights available before 7m
    • 1.7/night
  • 938 room-nights available after 7m
    • 7.2/night
  • 313 category-nights were sold out before 7m
    • 2.05/night (of 3)
  • 65 category-nights sold out after 7m
    • 0.50/night (of 3)
• At 7pm
  • 82 room-nights available before 7m (178 room-nights booked)
    • 0.54/night
  • 905 room-nights available after 7m (33 room-nights booked)
    • 6.9/night
  • 400 category-nights sold out before 7m, of 459
    • Only 59 category-nights still have inventory in the Duos group
  • 74 category-nights sold out after 7m
    • 48 of these are Garden rooms

In short: these look like they'll be hard to book at 7m, and appear to be more popular with owners than I was expecting. Maybe demand shifts to Deluxe Studios over time (and as Magical Beginnings 'starter penalty' wears off), maybe not!

Deluxe Studios

• At 7am
  • ~4,120 room-nights available before 7m
    • 26.8/night
  • ~10,250 room-nights available after 7m
    • 78.3/night
  • 208 category-nights were sold out before 7m (126 were Garden rooms)
    • 1.36/night (of 3)
  • 41 category-nights sold out after 7m, all Garden rooms
    • 0.27/night (of 3)
• At 7pm
  • ~1,200 room-nights available before 7m (~2,900 room-nights booked)
    • 7.8/night
  • ~10,050 room-nights available after 7m (200 room-nights booked)
    • 76.7/night
  • 338 category-nights sold out before 7m, of 459. Garden was again more sold out.
  • 51 category-nights sold out after 7m. 50 of the 51 were Garden rooms.

In short: non-owners hoping to book Deluxe Studios at 7m will probably be in luck. I was personally surprised by the balance in demand for Standard and Preferred Views, usually us DVCers book the thriftier versions more aggressively, but both PV and SV have similar-ish availability (PV is more available).

1-Bedrooms / 2-Bedroom Lock-offs
All non-HA 1-Bedrooms are part of 2BRLOs, and 1BR inventory was such that it was always the limiting factor in 2BRLO inventory, so I've combined them.

• At 7am
  • 16 room-nights available before 7m
    • 0.1/night
  • 397 room-nights available after 7m
    • 3.0/night
  • 139 category-nights were sold out before 7m (of 153)
    • 0.91/night (of 1)
  • 12 category-nights sold out after 7m (of 131)
    • 0.092/night (of 1)
• At 7pm
  • 2 room-nights available before 7m (14 room-nights booked)
    • 0.01/night
  • 377 room-nights available after 7m (20 room-nights booked)
    • 2.88/night
  • 151 category-nights sold out before 7m, of 153.
  • 16 category-nights sold out after 7m, of 131

In short: while there are more 1BRs than Garden Duos or Garden Deluxe Studios (combined), 1BRs have been more in demand than either Garden category.

Dedicated 2-Bedrooms

• At 7am
  • 13 room-nights available before 7m
    • 0.08/night
  • 317 room-nights available after 7m
    • 2.34/night
  • 142 category-nights were sold out before 7m (of 153)
    • 0.93/night (of 1)
  • 17 category-nights sold out after 7m (of 131)
    • 0.13/night (of 1)
• At 7pm
  • 2 room-nights available before 7m (11 room-nights booked)
    • 0.01/night
  • 299 room-nights available after 7m (18 room-nights booked)
    • 2.28/night
  • 151 category-nights sold out before 7m, of 153.
  • 19 category-nights sold out after 7m, of 131

In short: same situation as the 1BRs, while there are more 2BRs than Garden Duos or Garden Deluxe Studios (combined), 2BRs have been more in demand than either Garden category.


3-Bedroom Grand Villas
Only the wheelchair accessible Grand Villa has been declared. And due to there only being 1 GV declared of the 2 GVs total, I'm going to treat them as single category.

• At 7am
  • 96 room-nights available before 7m
    • 0.63/night (of 1)
  • 119 room-nights available after 7m
    • 0.91/night (of 1)
• At 7pm
  • 91 room-nights available before 7m (just 5 room-nights booked)
    • 0.59/night (of 1)
  • 108 room-nights available after 7m (11 room-nights booked)
    • 0.82/night

In short: seems like being hidden behind a non-default search option (and likely CM rules during the phone booking period) due to only an accessible room being declared has skewed this availability higher.

Or the stunning Grand Villas have a demand problem? Nahhh...walking the 1 room has already started now that online booking is possible. May the odds be ever in your favor, Grand Villa-ers.