Grand Floridian Villas Question

KyleAfterAWhile

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Does staying in a standard room for a week at the Grand Floridian have the same appeal as staying in the main building? And, how hard is it to get 7 months out?

We are about to buy into DVC and one thing my wife wants more than anything is to stay at GF. They do not have any contracts there so we will be buying in at another resort. But, I am curious about those two things above?
 
We stayed in a standard 2 bedroom 2 weeks ago and was my first stay at the Grand Floridian ever and were extremely impressed with the rooms. We own at BLT and BWV and DVC definitely used a bit nicer finishes on this property. While I've never stayed in the main building, it was a two minute walk at most to get to the main building. The villas have their own concierge desk which was manned by two people from pretty early in the day until about 10pm think.

As far as "they not having any contracts" I'm assuming you mean DVC doesn't have any for sale direct. Grand Floridian is tougher than most resorts to get into if you don't own. I'd look at the resale market for contracts if you really want to stay there. This was my 4th attempt to switch to GF at the 7 month mark and if staying there was very important to me, 25% success rate would be a disappointment.
 
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GF is probably our favorite resort, hands down. We had a lagoon view hotel room last year, and a standard studio this summer. We really liked being in a separate building that was set away a bit from the rest of the hotel. In case you didn't know, even in the hotel, you are not in the main building where the restaurants, shops and check in are, unless you are staying club level. So for most people staying at the hotel, they will also have to walk a bit to get to the main building.

The villas are closer to the children's water play area and the pool with the water slide. I also like the check in process at the villas, with the concierge desks rather than the rather hectic line. The bathrooms in the villas are considerably nicer than in the hotel. Even in the studios, the split bathroom essentially has 2 showers.

While we liked being able to see fireworks from our balcony in the hotel, that view isn't guaranteed either, and we also enjoyed watching the monorail from our standard view balcony.

When we bought (resale) in the spring, BLT was about $40 pp less than VGF, and we hadn't yet stayed at the villas, so financially it was easier to buy BLT, but now that prices for most resorts resale have gone way up, VGF is a relative bargain now. When we stayed in August, we rented points at 10+ months out to get that standard studio. I just looked now at 7mo availability from today and tomorrow, and already you can't get the first 2 days (saturday/sunday, June 6-7) in a studio, either standard or lake view. So if you think you want to stay in a studio, I'd look at either buying at VGF (resale), buying lots of points somewhere else to cover a 1br (and even then maybe not getting it, depending on when you are traveling), or renting points before the 7mo window. We are likely doing 2 stays at our home resort, BLT, in 2018, and if we still love VGF we may rent our points out and then use that money to rent at VGF (or do a trade with a VGF owner) for when we want to stay at VGF.
 


If you have a resort that you really want to book regularly, I would buy there. Past and current availability doesn't necessary represent future availability. VGF is one of our DVC holdings, clearly the most impressive resort on property being Disney's flagship resort.

:earsboy: Bill

 
If the GF is the resort you want buy some resale. If you want the perks of buying direct buy 25 point direct after you buy the resale points. Just get the same use year on the 25 points. There might be a wait to buy direct tho. Good luck. We recently bought resale then bought 25 points direct.
 
As mentioned the main building @ the GF is all concierge. Sugar loaf key is an outer building which is also all club. The other outer buildings are non club, so in that sense the VGF building is much like the other outer buildings. I'd stayed at the GF in a non club outer building before and was ok w/ the short stroll to the main building from the outer building but was a bit concerned about buying at VGF because the Villa building seemed further on the map. However, once I stayed in the villa building I was ok w/ the location as it wasn't that far to the main building and, unlike the other outer buildings, the walkway is covered. The actual lobby of the VGF building is actually much nicer than the non club regular buildings w/ the water fountain & water dispensers IMO.
The VGF is very small and it seems to be on the bucket list to stay there for a lot of people, so it's one of the harder to get resorts at 7 months. The only thing keeping it from being impossible to get, I suspect, is that it takes a lot of points to stay there.
 


If you are willing to pay for a 1BR in the off-season, it's more possible than if you have your eye on anything more than an overnight in a studio.

Buy where you want to stay, not where Disney says you have to buy.
 
We own at SSR and have stayed at VGF 3 times with our next stay there in Feb. I have been able to get a standard 1 or 2 bedroom each time I wanted to. We have been going the last week in Feb. with this coming trip being the week before Presidents Day.

We love the place. It is a good use of our points which cost us $87 or so.

I like the villas better than the hotels at the resorts because you get, in a one bedroom, a living room, kitchen and washer and dryer.
 
if you just want to try the VGF and have no intention on staying there every time you go, then you could buy another resort and then maybe have luck when you try to book. It ofc depends on when you want to stay there. Late sep to early jan is high demand time and you will most likely be out of luck, unless you are ok with a day here and another day there. Most other months you should have some chance of booking a villa IF you are ready to book on the 7 month mark. But again dont count on being able to do so every time you want.

I would recommend that you buy at a resort which you like to stay at or at the very least dont mind staying at. With more new resorts coming more new owners are also coming making it more difficult to switch at the 7 month mark as you are competing with a lot more owners. So if VGF is what you want most of the time i'd buy there.
 
Hi, we are Poly owners from the UK and we have just booked 11 nights at VGF, deluxe studio lake view for the end of May 2018. Maybe it isn't known as one of the busiest times of the year but we were still surprised to get all 11 nights !!

We are really looking forward to staying here, being on the boat dock watching the fireworks over the lagoon and then having the water pageant in front of you was one of our favourite things we did back in august.
 
I had the same question as you the first time we booked VGF versus main GF main building, but I absolutely loved our room and the building at VGF. I was fine with the location and we could see the monorail from our balcony, which was really fun for our kids.
 
FWIW, I own there and could not get a standard studio for the first week of October NEXT YEAR! I am 11 months out and still could not get it so I would not count on 7 months out.
 
If you have a resort that you really want to book regularly, I would buy there.

yeahthat.gif

Especially true for VGF. Small resort and high demand. You will want to own there if you want to stay there most of your trips. Buying elsewhere will set you up for disappointment especially if you are looking for standard view and/or studios.
 
We have our second May stay coming up at GFV in a one bedroom villa (we prefer one bedroom villas over studios). We booked them exactly at seven months out, but May isn't that popular of a time for DVC. The first stay was six nights and the upcoming one is five nights. They are better than the hotel rooms.
 
If you love VGF, buy there. We did. We have stayed there twice in a 2 bed. But this year we decided to try the other props and have stayed at BCV (loved), BLT (great rooms), VGC (will totally buy there depending if there is a new DLR DVC), AKL(zebras are cool but we won’t stay again), and Poly (love the resort, love the transportation, hate that there are only studios practically and the rooms are very dark which you don’t realize how dark until you move resorts). We just returned and switched our next reservation to VGF and BCV from CCV and BCV- because everytime we passed GF my husband would just give me a look like we shoulda stayed there. Its incomparable. We will try CCV but when we have the points reserved to go full on for the cabins. Be the hero and go VGF for your DW ; ) neither of you will regret it.
 
Re-reading OP's post, it sounds like they haven't stayed at VGF or GF before, and are considering whether they could stay there from time to time using points with another home resort...

OP, if that's your question, I'd highly suggest you rent points at VGF or stay at the hotel once to see if you absolutely fall in love with it and want to be able to stay there for most of your stays. And - rereading again - if you decide you love VGF, it will be worth it to get a good resale contract. You do not have to buy direct, and there are VGF resale contracts coming up for sale often (more often than buying direct, for sure). I would *not* buy CCV, Poly or Aulani hoping to stay mostly at VGF or other resorts.

When we bought, a BLT contract was several thousands of dollars less than VGF, so we bought at BLT (we do like it a lot). With the prices so close now, I can't say we would choose BLT again if we were buying now - especially after our VGF stay in August.
 
I would say though that there is quite a bit of avail at 7 mos for 1 or 2 bed lake view. So if you end up buying a different resort, be sure to buy enough points to cover that differential if you really plan to stay there.
 
Does staying in a standard room for a week at the Grand Floridian have the same appeal as staying in the main building? And, how hard is it to get 7 months out?

We are about to buy into DVC and one thing my wife wants more than anything is to stay at GF. They do not have any contracts there so we will be buying in at another resort. But, I am curious about those two things above?

With resale you can get any resort you want.

I'm not real sure if you just want a stay or two there or really want to stay there all the time but yes, it is possible to get in there at 7 months. Being flexible in your times or going at slower DVC times will help. Staying in larger villas increases the times that it would be available.
 
With resale you can get any resort you want.

I'm not real sure if you just want a stay or two there or really want to stay there all the time but yes, it is possible to get in there at 7 months. Being flexible in your times or going at slower DVC times will help. Staying in larger villas increases the times that it would be available.

Honestly, I probably only want to stay once or twice. Not really own there. My family prefers other locations more.
 

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