California DVC Owners Group

[DisneyMusicMan]

1. When did you become a member?
2017

2. Did you buy direct or resale?
First contract was resale. Then I bought 25 pts direct to get my blue card. Then another direct contract (rounding out two contracts, one for each kid). And finally waiting for ROFR (day 28) on a resale for my DW and me when we give the kids the other contracts.

3. Where do you own?
PVB, CCV, waiting on BCV

4. Do you vacation in DLR, WDW, Hilton Head, Vero or Aulani? If so, how often?
Used DVC twice in Aulani, once in WDW. And twice got a last minute night in a studio in VGC. We do WDW once a year, rarely stay at DLR (we live so close by).

5. Are you a DLR AP holder and/or WDW AP holder?
Long time DLR AP holder. Now a MK holder.

6. What is your favorite airline when traveling to WDW and why?
Delta. We’re part of Skymiles, and they have non-stops to Orlando.

7. When is your next trip to WDW?
Just got back in May. Heading back Feb 2022 for parks and a cruise. Then again in Aug 2022 for our sailing on the Wish.

8. What is your average length of stay when visiting WDW?
1 week

9. Favorite WDW park?
Epcot

10. Favorite DVC resort?
CCV/Poly in MK area, BCV in Epcot. If I had to choose, then PVB first, then CCV, then BCV.

11. What do you find to be your biggest frustration planning a WDW trip?
Getting the family as excited as I am about planning months ahead of time. “Where are we eating dinner on Tuesday, 6 months from now???”

 

[cruisehopeful]

DVC offers $20 discount for the top two (?) Magic Key tiers but only when you purchase onsite at the ticket booth.

That sounds challenging since there are signs all over the place saying that they aren't selling any Magic Keys at the ticket booths and you have to buy online or through the App.

 

[bwvBound]

That sounds challenging since there are signs all over the place saying that they aren't selling any Magic Keys at the ticket booths and you have to buy online or through the App.

The official response I received on 8/10/21 from DVC by email response is pasted below; emphasis (bold face) added by me. Correcting my post earlier: the $20 discount is offered on all Magic Key tiers except the SoCal most-restricted tier.

Welcome Home, Thank you for contacting Disney Vacation Club®.

We appreciate your interest in tickets for the theme parks of the Disneyland® Resort in California and will be happy to assist you further. The Disneyland® Resort announced a new Passholder program titled Magic Key. Once sales begin on August 25, 2021, Disney Vacation Club Members can receive $20 off the price of the Enchant, Believe, and Dream Key. In order to receive the discount, Members must make the purchase in person at the Box Office. For more information about the new Passholder program, we invite you to call (714) 781-7277. We appreciate your understanding. Disney Vacation Club values our Members' feedback and would appreciate you taking a moment to fill out a survey on the service I provided you today. Please click on the following link to complete our survey. <Link removed> Thank you and have a magical day, Jessie Member Services | Online Communications Disney Vacation Club

 

[heapmaster]

DVC offers $20 discount for the top two (?) Magic Key tiers but only when you purchase onsite at the ticket booth.

They actually offer the $20 off for the top three is what they said at the ticket boot when I got mine while staying over at the VGC.

 

[taaren]

DVC offers $20 discount for the top two (?) Magic Key tiers but only when you purchase onsite at the ticket booth.

Does anyone know if you can still do the payment plan with the discount? Or have to pay in full to get the $20 off?

 

[heapmaster]

Does anyone know if you can still do the payment plan with the discount? Or have to pay in full to get the $20 off?

You can do the monthly payments option from the ticket booth as well

 

[Sunnyore]

Made a little visit to Napa Rose last night hoping to take advantage of the 5 hours validated parking to walk over to the ticketing booths and apply our $20 discount to a new Magic Key. Arrived about 55 minutes before our reservation and after making it through security and standing in line for 25 minutes, we gave up knowing we would never make it the counter and complete the transaction by dinner time. Walked back after we ate and even at 8:15, the CM told us to expect at least a 45 minute wait. We bailed, and my brilliant plan to spend $$$ on dinner to get free parking and $20 off went down in flames LOL. I wish there were an easier way for us DL DVCers!

The good news was that my first meal at Napa Rose was wonderful, and I found a Member spirit jersey at Acorns in my size.

Have a great week, y'all and thanks for listening to my little vent session!

oof.. sorry it didn’t work out for you! I did what you did except I booked Storyteller brunch. I gave myself an hr before dining but was stressed out worrying what if the lines were long but luckily I waited 20 min I think. The CM joked about the whopping $20 I was saving. I also tried to ignore the fact that I paid $60 for a meal to save $20 on MK and $25 on parking. And someone else was asking so with the $20 discount it drops the monthly payment to $100 even after the initial down payment.

 

[jewelspirit]

Here's my method of getting the DVC discount on the Magic Key, in case it helps anyone. I parked in Anaheim Gardenwalk's parking structure, on the side near HOB/AMC. They offer one hour free public parking, with $3 for each additional hour, and it's about a 10min walk down Disney Way and Harbor to get to the Esplanade. Was able to go midweek, and between the walk there, time at the ticket booths, and walk back, I was in and out of the parking garage with 10 minutes to spare, so didn't end up paying anything extra to save the whopping $20

 

[Castillo Mom]

Welcome to the thread!

1. When did you become a member?
2017

2. Did you buy direct or resale?
First contract was resale. Then I bought 25 pts direct to get my blue card. Then another direct contract (rounding out two contracts, one for each kid). And finally waiting for ROFR (day 28) on a resale for my DW and me when we give the kids the other contracts.

3. Where do you own?
PVB, CCV, waiting on BCV

Nice! I love BCV and would add on there except the contract length is shorter than I'd prefer.

4. Do you vacation in DLR, WDW, Hilton Head, Vero or Aulani? If so, how often?
Used DVC twice in Aulani, once in WDW. And twice got a last minute night in a studio in VGC. We do WDW once a year, rarely stay at DLR (we live so close by).

We're 15 minutes away from DLR but have done a few staycations at VGC. We love it there!

5. Are you a DLR AP holder and/or WDW AP holder?
Long time DLR AP holder. Now a MK holder.

6. What is your favorite airline when traveling to WDW and why?
Delta. We’re part of Skymiles, and they have non-stops to Orlando.

Yes, I like that they have a couple of options for non-stops in the morning. I'm trying to become a Delta loyalist and flying them in February bright and early around 6:00 a.m.

7. When is your next trip to WDW?
Just got back in May. Heading back Feb 2022 for parks and a cruise. Then again in Aug 2022 for our sailing on the Wish.

Very nice! We'll be there 2/9/22 - 2/20/22 for our first Festival of the Arts. Just booked the Wish for early '23 as well.

8. What is your average length of stay when visiting WDW?
1 week

9. Favorite WDW park?
Epcot

10. Favorite DVC resort?
CCV/Poly in MK area, BCV in Epcot. If I had to choose, then PVB first, then CCV, then BCV.

11. What do you find to be your biggest frustration planning a WDW trip?
Getting the family as excited as I am about planning months ahead of time. “Where are we eating dinner on Tuesday, 6 months from now???”

I can relate to this one! I do have one son that gets excited early on, but the others don't until we're about a month out.

 

[rmonty02]

Hi Castillo Mom - Now that your back from WDW I would love to hear about it! I see your going back in February which is when we're planning on going. TIA

 

[Castillo Mom]

Hi Castillo Mom - Now that your back from WDW I would love to hear about it! I see your going back in February which is when we're planning on going. TIA

Hi! Sorry its taken me so long to respond!

Oh my, where do I even begin?! After two years of not having visited, it was a bit emotional to be back. We savored every moment, that‘s for sure! We spent the first seven nights at AKV in a two bedroom savannah view. As usual, our stay here was amazing and every CM we ran into was awesome. While there, we dined at Boma twice, once for dinner on arrival day and breakfast a few days later. There were minor changes made to the menu at both but food quality was great so Boma remains on our list of favorites!

The next eight nights were spent in a two bedroom standard view at Riviera which was our welcome stay as I had added on sight unseen, My family and I loved it! I was fortunate enough to be granted my request to be on a high floor facing Epcot so the view was beautiful. The resort itself is totally my aesthetic, loved the artwork and attention to detail throughout. Service was excellent and it’s now our favorite resort as far as dining options are concerned. I was able to score reservations for both breakfast and dinner at Topolino’s. Hands down best character breakfast on property because they don’t just focus on the entertainment, food quality was also great. Dinner there was amazing as well from beginning to end. Loved the burger and pizza at Primo Piatto and breakfast the french toast bread pudding, so good! Bar Riva país definitely a couple notches above the other pool bars on property for both food and cocktails. We also really enjoyed the coffee drinks and pastries at Le Petit Cafe.

As for the parks, crowds were low and we had a wonderful time. My kids and I all have full time, high stress jobs so we all agreed we didn’t want to rope drop and with a 15 night stay be able to take our time. Our average arrival time to the parks was around 11:00 a.m. We rode everything we wanted and never experienced wait times longer than 30 minutes tops.

Food & Wine was a blast! We tried so many yummy dishes, wines and cocktails but of course France booth remains our favorite although Germany was also a standout for us. Oh, Kenya and India booths had some very flavorful offerings which we really enjoyed.

Speaking of food, among the sit down restaurants we tried, Jaleo and Wine Bar George, omg! So, so delicious! Dinner at Jaleó was pricey but worth it and I highly recommend doing the Jaleo Experience and a pitcher or two of their house made sangria! Wine Bar George brunch and dinner, amazing! Space 220 was fun and food was fine but not stellar.

We did the Enchantment dessert party at MK. Totally worth it to have a reserved table right up front with great views of the castle and desserts and wine served were very good. I wasn’t able to score a dining package for Harmonious like I had wanted but we were able to get a great spot with straight on views by staking out our spot a couple hours before the show which was fine since we all took turns hitting up the food booths. We loved the show by the way!

We had an amazing time to say the least and look forward to our next adventure a Festival of the Arts. In the meantime, our day trips to Disneyland are holding us over!

 

[rmonty02]

Hi! Sorry its taken me so long to respond!

After two years of not having visited, it was a bit emotional to be back.
-This will be me in DLR in a couple of weeks for our Thanksgiving trip!

I was able to score reservations for both breakfast and dinner at Topolino’s.

-I am going to try and make a reservation there on our HS day and take the skyliner. Glad to hear you loved it!

.. with a 15 night stay be able to take our time. Our average arrival time to the parks was around 11:00 a.m.

-I think that will be my next goal, to do a two week stay. Right now that's only possible in the summer with kids school schedule. I think they are now getting old enough to handle the heat.


Speaking of food, among the sit down restaurants we tried, Jaleo and Wine Bar George, omg!

-I do want to pick a yummy and special place to eat in Disney Springs. We've done homecomn', the dinosaur places and some quick service. I am eyeing Wine Bar George. Jaleo is on the list just for the Jamon and Sangria!

We loved the show by the way!

-I defiantly want to experience the shows for myself.

We had an amazing time to say the least and look forward to our next adventure a Festival of the Arts. In the meantime, our day trips to Disneyland are holding us over!

-We may be there for the end of this Festival. It will depend on if they keep Epcot extended hours on Thursday.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It helps to keep me feeling positive about our trip and keep the planning going!

 

[bwvBound]

Quick trip report .. just back from 3 nights at the Grand Cal in a 1BR Villa.

TL;DR: It was a super relaxing weekend. We came away in a deeply "chill" state. Took in plenty of shows and streetmosphere. Rode both Rise and Web Slingers using the Standby Queues. Great weekend! Loved it.

Longer version:
Leaving our home was rooted in panic.
We live in San Diego's back country and were selected to participate in SDG&E's "Power Outage for Safety!" program ... lol, 27 hours without power starting mid-afternoon on Thanksgiving. Joy! While we had hoped to arrive DLR around 2P on Friday we were still without power and struggling to make a decision: should we stay home until the power is restored? (We have a parrot who needs heat ... his comfort and care were more important, in that decision process, than our check-in at Disney.) Available data suggested the power would be restored by 5P ... so we rolled out a 3P as we had 6:30p dining reservations at the GCH Grill (poolside) ... knowing that our neighbors would text me if the outage persisted.

Online Check-in worked perfectly!
We had checked-in online -- and were delighted to received a "room ready" text message with room number. We reached the property at 6P, self parked across the street and went directly to the room with most of our stuff. The door opened using the app (phew!). Not having to visit the front desk was a great start!

Our room was perfect!
We enjoyed 3n in a 1BR villa facing the pool. The room was in perfect condition. We really enjoy this particular layout with "his and her" bathrooms/showers. Works well!

One sit-down dining reservation per day.
We had pre-booked one table service dining option per day. Friday was an evening reservation and Sat/Sun were each around lunchtime. Basically, one meal is guaranteed and others can be determined on-the-fly. Our "touring style" works best if there is one guaranteed reservation per day -- glad I had these in hand.

Friday night: Fireworks!
After dinner we finished unloading the car ... added a warmer layer ... and went into DL for the castle lighting ceremony (lovely) and fireworks. Before exiting, we added a quick trip on Star Tours. (We had hoped to ride Rise ... but didn't realize that that area/attraction closes early.) Enjoyed the Grand Cal's lobby ... searched the Gingerbread house for Hidden Mickeys and called it a night.

Saturday: Mostly Rides
Saturday I woke early (my habit) and rode my OneWheel off-campus for a bit while Hubby slept. Security fussed at me, kinda gently, while I was carrying my board back to the room. Our plan was mostly attractions/rides and we felt pretty happy to get both Rise and Web Slingers using the standby queues. (We've ridden both before but haven't been particularly successful with the Virtual Queue system ... so getting both in one day felt like victory!) We did some browsing through stores ... snacked a little from the Festival of Holidays booths ... and caught Dr. Strange's show at Avenger's Campus. Felt like a good day!

Sunday: Slow morning, Mostly Shows
Sunday felt like a slow start ... but, looking back, we got a lot done. The villa's living room was a perfect place to enjoy a 20 minute Yoga session through Apple Fitness which stretched out all of Saturday's standing-in-line kinks. We then sipped a pot of coffee while remotely setting up our church's online session, running soundchecks and handing off host control and then got "our mile" off-campus riding our OneWheel boards. Brunched at StoryTellers and then entered the parks to move slowly through shops, displays (the pre-show area for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln) and make a concentrated effort to see most of the streetmosphere at Avenger's Campus. Phew! We checked off those plans and added a wind-down, walk-on, viewing of Philharmagic. Heading back towards our room, we stopped for a nibble from the Festival carts, caught a show from Almost Kosher and enjoyed conversation with others sitting near us. Returned to the Grand Cal in time to enjoy Christmas Caroling with Handbells in the lobby. Fantastic evening, unplanned but perfectly executed.

Monday, time to leave??
Oh, my. Is it time to leave already? We were feeling sooooo settled in! Hubby wanted to "stay forever." Yeah, I get it! I started my morning with an Apple Fitness Yoga session (love these!) and we packed up. Our drive home was quiet but very sweet. We were both enjoying a "deeply settled, very-chill" vibe. We had arrived (Friday) in a panic and were now returning home (Monday) with great peace and calm.

Thanks, DVC, for a truly lovely weekend!!

 

[Castillo Mom]

Quick trip report .. just back from 3 nights at the Grand Cal in a 1BR Villa.

TL;DR: It was a super relaxing weekend. We came away in a deeply "chill" state. Took in plenty of shows and streetmosphere. Rode both Rise and Web Slingers using the Standby Queues. Great weekend! Loved it.

Longer version:
Leaving our home was rooted in panic.
We live in San Diego's back country and were selected to participate in SDG&E's "Power Outage for Safety!" program ... lol, 27 hours without power starting mid-afternoon on Thanksgiving. Joy! While we had hoped to arrive DLR around 2P on Friday we were still without power and struggling to make a decision: should we stay home until the power is restored? (We have a parrot who needs heat ... his comfort and care were more important, in that decision process, than our check-in at Disney.) Available data suggested the power would be restored by 5P ... so we rolled out a 3P as we had 6:30p dining reservations at the GCH Grill (poolside) ... knowing that our neighbors would text me if the outage persisted.

Online Check-in worked perfectly!
We had checked-in online -- and were delighted to received a "room ready" text message with room number. We reached the property at 6P, self parked across the street and went directly to the room with most of our stuff. The door opened using the app (phew!). Not having to visit the front desk was a great start!

Our room was perfect!
We enjoyed 3n in a 1BR villa facing the pool. The room was in perfect condition. We really enjoy this particular layout with "his and her" bathrooms/showers. Works well!

One sit-down dining reservation per day.
We had pre-booked one table service dining option per day. Friday was an evening reservation and Sat/Sun were each around lunchtime. Basically, one meal is guaranteed and others can be determined on-the-fly. Our "touring style" works best if there is one guaranteed reservation per day -- glad I had these in hand.

Friday night: Fireworks!
After dinner we finished unloading the car ... added a warmer layer ... and went into DL for the castle lighting ceremony (lovely) and fireworks. Before exiting, we added a quick trip on Star Tours. (We had hoped to ride Rise ... but didn't realize that that area/attraction closes early.) Enjoyed the Grand Cal's lobby ... searched the Gingerbread house for Hidden Mickeys and called it a night.

Saturday: Mostly Rides
Saturday I woke early (my habit) and rode my OneWheel off-campus for a bit while Hubby slept. Security fussed at me, kinda gently, while I was carrying my board back to the room. Our plan was mostly attractions/rides and we felt pretty happy to get both Rise and Web Slingers using the standby queues. (We've ridden both before but haven't been particularly successful with the Virtual Queue system ... so getting both in one day felt like victory!) We did some browsing through stores ... snacked a little from the Festival of Holidays booths ... and caught Dr. Strange's show at Avenger's Campus. Felt like a good day!

Sunday: Slow morning, Mostly Shows
Sunday felt like a slow start ... but, looking back, we got a lot done. The villa's living room was a perfect place to enjoy a 20 minute Yoga session through Apple Fitness which stretched out all of Saturday's standing-in-line kinks. We then sipped a pot of coffee while remotely setting up our church's online session, running soundchecks and handing off host control and then got "our mile" off-campus riding our OneWheel boards. Brunched at StoryTellers and then entered the parks to move slowly through shops, displays (the pre-show area for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln) and make a concentrated effort to see most of the streetmosphere at Avenger's Campus. Phew! We checked off those plans and added a wind-down, walk-on, viewing of Philharmagic. Heading back towards our room, we stopped for a nibble from the Festival carts, caught a show from Almost Kosher and enjoyed conversation with others sitting near us. Returned to the Grand Cal in time to enjoy Christmas Caroling with Handbells in the lobby. Fantastic evening, unplanned but perfectly executed.

Monday, time to leave??
Oh, my. Is it time to leave already? We were feeling sooooo settled in! Hubby wanted to "stay forever." Yeah, I get it! I started my morning with an Apple Fitness Yoga session (love these!) and we packed up. Our drive home was quiet but very sweet. We were both enjoying a "deeply settled, very-chill" vibe. We had arrived (Friday) in a panic and were now returning home (Monday) with great peace and calm.

Thanks, DVC, for a truly lovely weekend!!

Awesome trip report, thanks for sharing!

Good to know mobile check-in worked well because the front desk lines used to get pretty long. I do have to say cast members there were extremely efficient with taking care of everyone as quickly as possible and I‘ve always enjoyed interacting with them.

Sounds like you had a great time. Those staycations are so fun and relaxing when staying in the Disney bubble.

 

[taaren]

I've been meaning to do a mini-TR, but wasn't sure what thread to put it on. We were there 11/21 to 23 in a 2 bedroom. Overall it was a pretty great trip, but there were some things I e-mailed customer service about.

About 48 hours before we arrived, I'd gotten reminder e-mails from DLR that I had theme park reservations. We woke up at 7a to book virtual queue ROTR on the 21st, only to find that out of our group of 6 people, 2 of us didn't have park reservations so couldn't try for the ride. Sad since it was the last day they offered virtual queue. Went to the gate for RD, and the ticket scanner said you don't have reservations, I showed them the confirmation e-mail, they called over a lead, the lead said your reservation was cancelled but he made us a new reservation for that day and said I'd have to redo my reservations for the rest of our trip. Really glad we were staying at the hotel since otherwise we might not have been able to redo our reservations that we'd had since October. We were one of the first people on Space after power walking from the rope, knocked out that plus 3 other E tickets + beignets before heading to our cabana ...

We'd booked a cabana at the DLH, I'd asked for half day but they only had full day left when I had reserved 60 days out, so we took it, and showed up at the cabana at 10a. We were excited about eating breakfast in our cabana, because in previous trips we'd waited about 45 minutes to eat at Tangeroa Terrace. Except the lifeguard told us that the pool server staff didn't start until 11 or noon, and breakfast ended at 11, so ... one of our party members got to wait 45 minutes to grab breakfast for us instead of getting to enjoy the pool/cabana. I'm not sure why they start the day at 10 if they don't have staff scheduled then regularly. The staff really seemed overbooked, when we'd had the half-day cabana in October they'd checked in with us a lot, kept a steady streak of drinks coming, but this time I felt bad the two times we were able to flag someone down, so felt the cabana was worth a lot less. Lesson learned, we won't book a full day again. Got the room text that it was ready at 230, left at 330.

I loved having 2518, it faces Grizzly and its not on the ground floor. But two of the televisions out of the three weren't working, one wouldn't turn on and the other just gave us a mousehead with a circle like it was loading. I've gone a lot of trips without turning on the tv, but we had my toddler daughter this time, and the adults needed her to sit down and watch some tv so we could relax in the room a bit, and that didn't happen. We called engineering, waited for half an hour to talk to them, they took it down, said they'd come and fix it, and no one did. We called again the next day, only waited about 10 minutes to talk to someone, still no one came to fix it as promised. Because my daughter was overexcited, and we hadn't brought any pull-ups (she hasn't had an accident since the summer so we thought she wouldn't need it), she wet her pants a few times that first day, the second time in my spot on the bed, so I called Housekeeping (waited 25 minutes) and asked for fresh sheets, said I'd pay the extra service fee so I could sleep in my bed. They said they'd send someone. No one ever came. I ended up going into the hall hours later and talking to a housekeeping CM who was working on someone else's room, and they gave us about half the sheets I needed to remake the bed but no blankets because my Spanish is terrible, and their English was limited, so I washed the sheets and remade my own bed (thank goodness for the W/D in the 2 bedroom). So if you get 2518, the tvs might still be broken.

Festival of Holidays food was great, our mobile ordering food experience was great, we got on most of the rides we wanted by zipping around the parks to whatever was lowest at the time. Really enjoyed our meal at Lamplighter, especially the holiday offerings. We tried to RD all three days, got held up in a slow line entering DL the second day so wasn't able to get on ROTR (line had to be at least 3 hours by the time we got to it), third day we used that first hour to get onto ROTR.

Overall, food and the service in the parks made the trip wonderful, but our experiences at the resorts left a lot to be desired, and if we'd been paying regular rates instead of DVC I'd have been a lot more upset. If they can't staff the hotel so that Engineering and HK can show up when customers call, they need to book less rooms, since our dues mean at least some staff should be able to pay attention to the DVC wing.

Since that random glitch cancelled our theme park reservations I'm kind of afraid of what will happen with the only trip we have planned in March with no corresponding DVC reservation, but we'll see ...

 

[Castillo Mom]

I've been meaning to do a mini-TR, but wasn't sure what thread to put it on. We were there 11/21 to 23 in a 2 bedroom. Overall it was a pretty great trip, but there were some things I e-mailed customer service about.

About 48 hours before we arrived, I'd gotten reminder e-mails from DLR that I had theme park reservations. We woke up at 7a to book virtual queue ROTR on the 21st, only to find that out of our group of 6 people, 2 of us didn't have park reservations so couldn't try for the ride. Sad since it was the last day they offered virtual queue. Went to the gate for RD, and the ticket scanner said you don't have reservations, I showed them the confirmation e-mail, they called over a lead, the lead said your reservation was cancelled but he made us a new reservation for that day and said I'd have to redo my reservations for the rest of our trip. Really glad we were staying at the hotel since otherwise we might not have been able to redo our reservations that we'd had since October. We were one of the first people on Space after power walking from the rope, knocked out that plus 3 other E tickets + beignets before heading to our cabana ...

We'd booked a cabana at the DLH, I'd asked for half day but they only had full day left when I had reserved 60 days out, so we took it, and showed up at the cabana at 10a. We were excited about eating breakfast in our cabana, because in previous trips we'd waited about 45 minutes to eat at Tangeroa Terrace. Except the lifeguard told us that the pool server staff didn't start until 11 or noon, and breakfast ended at 11, so ... one of our party members got to wait 45 minutes to grab breakfast for us instead of getting to enjoy the pool/cabana. I'm not sure why they start the day at 10 if they don't have staff scheduled then regularly. The staff really seemed overbooked, when we'd had the half-day cabana in October they'd checked in with us a lot, kept a steady streak of drinks coming, but this time I felt bad the two times we were able to flag someone down, so felt the cabana was worth a lot less. Lesson learned, we won't book a full day again. Got the room text that it was ready at 230, left at 330.

I loved having 2518, it faces Grizzly and its not on the ground floor. But two of the televisions out of the three weren't working, one wouldn't turn on and the other just gave us a mousehead with a circle like it was loading. I've gone a lot of trips without turning on the tv, but we had my toddler daughter this time, and the adults needed her to sit down and watch some tv so we could relax in the room a bit, and that didn't happen. We called engineering, waited for half an hour to talk to them, they took it down, said they'd come and fix it, and no one did. We called again the next day, only waited about 10 minutes to talk to someone, still no one came to fix it as promised. Because my daughter was overexcited, and we hadn't brought any pull-ups (she hasn't had an accident since the summer so we thought she wouldn't need it), she wet her pants a few times that first day, the second time in my spot on the bed, so I called Housekeeping (waited 25 minutes) and asked for fresh sheets, said I'd pay the extra service fee so I could sleep in my bed. They said they'd send someone. No one ever came. I ended up going into the hall hours later and talking to a housekeeping CM who was working on someone else's room, and they gave us about half the sheets I needed to remake the bed but no blankets because my Spanish is terrible, and their English was limited, so I washed the sheets and remade my own bed (thank goodness for the W/D in the 2 bedroom). So if you get 2518, the tvs might still be broken.

Festival of Holidays food was great, our mobile ordering food experience was great, we got on most of the rides we wanted by zipping around the parks to whatever was lowest at the time. Really enjoyed our meal at Lamplighter, especially the holiday offerings. We tried to RD all three days, got held up in a slow line entering DL the second day so wasn't able to get on ROTR (line had to be at least 3 hours by the time we got to it), third day we used that first hour to get onto ROTR.

Overall, food and the service in the parks made the trip wonderful, but our experiences at the resorts left a lot to be desired, and if we'd been paying regular rates instead of DVC I'd have been a lot more upset. If they can't staff the hotel so that Engineering and HK can show up when customers call, they need to book less rooms, since our dues mean at least some staff should be able to pay attention to the DVC wing.

Since that random glitch cancelled our theme park reservations I'm kind of afraid of what will happen with the only trip we have planned in March with no corresponding DVC reservation, but we'll see ...

Thanks for the trip report!

Oh no, sorry to hear about issues at the resort and technical glitches. I can understand the frustration and staffing is definitely impacting service and overall experience, not just at DLR but also WDW. Hopefully they’re resolved soon as work force is increased.

Regarding technical glitches, we‘ve been experiencing more frequently ourselves lately and I don’t think those can be blamed on staffing or the pandemic. It’s already challenging to score park, restaurant or ride reservations so when they disappear, it’s super frustrating to put it politely.

Good to hear you had good dining experiences though! We have theme park reservations next weekend so we’ll get to try the festival booth items then. Based on your ríe is, I’ll be sure to wear my stretchy pants!

 

[bwvBound]

Quick up/back day trip today for the Candlelight Procession. The day was AWESOME!!! Crowds were low; lines were short and moving quickly ... except for Starbucks! LOL

We got great standing spots near the Main Street Christmas Tree for viewing the Procession. It was so, so lovely. I was crying. What a heart warming and worshipful way to launch the Christmas season!

 

[bwvBound]

Woot! Woot! I just booked VGC for my OBB party tickets! Wowza! (I'm on the waitlist for either a studio or 1BR; snagged a 2BR today. So I have "a bird in the hand" while I continue to watch/wait for either W/L to come through, perhaps.)

Still ... I'm so excited to have a VGC reservation for OBB. Soooooo cool!

 

[DISguyDennis]

My 60 day window will open up soon for ADRs, and I saw someone say it opens at 6am. So is that 3am for us west coast folks?

 

[KPeterso]

My 60 day window will open up soon for ADRs, and I saw someone say it opens at 6am. So is that 3am for us west coast folks?

yes it is 3 am for us. Unless you want some really popular places, you can probably log on a little later. That is what I usually do. My 60 dayd opens on 7/18