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

[Wedgeout]

Where does preferred view face? On on the 6th floor

Preferred are those on the palette pool/steamboat willie sides and those on the main outward monorail slides/other towers side.

 

[Wedgeout]

Plus “preferred” wouldn’t have been my word choice describing the category. “Standard” is perfect. You will get standard. (Utility building, parking lot, power lines, neighborhood, or wall view). With preferred there will be some where you might say: I would have “preferred” a different villa. Preferred are all a step up from standard but some do included views experienced from a standard villa. A preferred odd numbered villa will be on back side, palette pool. Preferred even numbered villa is on the main entrance side.

 

[dcfromva]

We just remembered our #1 annoyance with VDH: the elevators only have buttons on one side!

Yes, and the buttons are not on the same side on all the elevators.

 

[ehh]

Yes, and the buttons are not on the same side on all the elevators.

We thought we were crazy, always checking the wrong side first! Slightly relieved it was actually inconsistent.

Between VDH and the Wish, the elevator button person at Disney clearly needs a different job.

 

[CarolynFH]

WARNING: all the opaque cabinets aren't hinged and are not meant to be opened despite the handles! Ask me how I know!

If the doors could fall on someone and injure them, I hope you reported it. A cabinet door with a handle definitely invites a pull!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Just got back from staying in a 1BR for 4 nights. Here's my not-a-trip-report resort/room report, from the perspective of someone whose last ~10 trips to DL have been at VGC.

Arrival

• Got room text on the drive down, at around 2:20PM. During online check-in I said we'd arrive at 5PM but the plan was more like 7:30PM.
• GPS navigation (my car's built-in nav uses Google Maps) was set to Villas at Disneyland Hotel and last-mile directions were all sorts of crazy, I just followed posted navigation signs to DL Hotel.
  • When I arrived on the grounds of DL Hotel, nav lost its mind and had me doubling back/forth multiple times but never reaching the resort porte cochere. This will come up again later.
• Porte cochere was busy, but was able to get bell services to take our bags quickly.
• Self-parked, huge parking lots but not detached/across the street! An improvement over VGC, in our opinion.
• A good number of electric plug-in spots, too. I didn't have a need to charge on arrival, so just parked in a normal spot.
• Went to front desk to get room keys, got the blue "Disneyland Resort" cards, which desperately need to be improved.
• The wishing star on the walk to the lobby of VDH comes across better in video/pictures. Needs iridescence or something.
• Lobby of VDH is definitely something less than a lobby. Maybe a large foyer with a great mural and a side room? More than VGC has on its own, though. Easy to find the elevators.
• Looked around, took a bunch of pictures of the interior. Really liked the room!
• Called bell services for our luggage. Two things of note:
  1. They really wanted to know if 622 was a 1BR or a 2BR. We didn't press why it mattered, but it sounded like they were filling out a form?
  2. They said they'd be there in 5 minutes, and were! VGC bell services could never...

The Room

• The 1BR is fantastic. Spacious layout, tons of usable space, great fit/finish.
• Everything was new and still in great shape. I can see how some corners might not wear great, maybe.
• Loved the green/purple theme from the Princess and the Frog, just works great. The art is great, especially the art over the bed.
  • Except the giant portrait of Tiana. All portraits kinda creep me out (aren't they supposed to?), but a life-size portrait of a Disney Princess is especially bizarre and creepy to me. Would have loved something like Fantasia's Sorcerer Mickey on the pinnacle from the 2BR. Anyway, mostly tuned out the portrait.
• Thermostat is next to the fridge, near the front entrance. It's an INCOMM model
  • Instructions to override:
  • But we didn't need to override! Could set it down to 65.
  • There's a motion detector in the bedroom, too.
• Coffee brewer is a combo drip/K-cup brewer by Keurig that looked decent. I brought my own electric travel kettle and Cometeer capsules, though.
• The view was very good!
• Fridge is kinda short? I'm not used to see the top of a fridge. Worked well and held all of our stuff though, no complaints.
• WARNING: all the opaque cabinets aren't hinged and are not meant to be opened despite the handles! Ask me how I know!
• Didn't use the range, dishwasher, or washer/dryer, or the foyer storage area.
• Murphy bed stayed in couch mode the entire trip and was firm but comfortable. I definitely prefer firm sofas, so I liked it.
• The ottoman portion is movable, and there's two hybrid stools/ottomans, too.
• Living room and kitchen area is laminate flooring with a rug under the murphy bed.
• TV in the living room has bias lighting and was a decent 65in Samsung LCD.
  • It took a few restarts and a TV software update for it to show the typical "WELCOME HOME EHH FAMILY!" messaging? Made me wonder when the last time someone had been in this room.
• There's another individual-sized pullout bed under the TV, I know basically nothing about it, sorry. I only opened it to look for an ethernet port (inconclusive).
• The bathroom off the living area is nice. We used it as our #2 bathroom.
• The patio was a good size and the furniture was fine, though kinda dirty.
• The bedroom is kinda small? It fits a king bed with drawers, a wardrobe-ish, and large end tables just fine though.
• Bedroom TV I think was the same size and model as the living room TV. It also had bias lighting.
• The main bathroom is top notch. The layout is wonderful and the fit/finish is nearly as good as Disney can do. The tile art over the tub was beautiful.
  • I am a little concerned about the metal corner pieces and how they'll look in 14 years. I predict: dated.
  • The shower is a good size, but ever so slightly claustrophobic as it's a solid wall on 3 sides and the door is very frosted glass except for the eye-line and above, where the frosting fades.
  • The shower cannot run the rainfall shower head and the handheld at the same time, we tried.
  • Shower temperature got pretty hot, but we could not get it to scalding temps (I guess that's a good thing).
  • The Throne Room, with a similar frosted glass door, is actually less claustrophobic compared to ones at other resorts as the door at least lets light in vs. usually solid doors.
  • The tub is nice, but tall people may find it lacks enough length. Everyone will find it lacks jets.
  • The mirrors are very nice, really like the edge lighting.
  • The only DVC bathroom we've been in that we thought was better was the VGF GV's main bathroom. It's a tiny bit better than the main bathroom from the CCV Cabins.
• There's USB-A and USB-C plugs everywhere. But we didn't use them.
• I couldn't find a usable ethernet port anywhere, for the bring-your-own-access point crowd.
• But it didn't matter, the Wi-Fi was the best Disney Resort Wi-Fi I've ever had, 140mbps+ in both directions on my phone, <10ms ping, reliable.
  • This is SO MUCH better than VGC, which has always had borderline unusable Wi-Fi for me.
• The bedroom blinds opened from the same side of the room as the head of the bed, so you could open it a little bit and still see out while maintaining privacy.
• Body lotion bottles were still in both bathrooms.
• Electrical outlets weren't upside down, like they are at VGC (and everywhere at Grand Cali).

The Oddities and Broken Stuff

• 2nd bathroom sink faucet leaked slightly when turned to full cold.
• Odd construction noises on Thursday and Friday during the day. Sounded like air compressor-driven power tools? I guess other rooms still need work.
• Throne Room door didn't shut properly, the latch plate in the frame stuck out by just ~0.5mm too much and made closing it really difficult.
• DW insists the toilet in main bathroom was shorter than the one in the #2 bathroom.
• There aren't enough light switches. As in, one switch controls a lot at once...which sounds great but we had a tough time dialing in the room to be dark-with-just-a-bit-of-light for sleeping. We eventually left the overhead light on in the #2 bathroom and closed the door 75% of the way.
• Casting to the living room TV broke a couple hours before checkout, turning off/on did not resolve. Turns out what we wanted to watch while eating breakfast and packing was on TV anyway.
• The microwave clock was not set when we got to the room. We set it but didn't update it after Daylight Saving change.
• The walk to almost everything is a lot worse than VGC. We focused on maximizing DL Hotel grounds and Downtown Disney.
• The car chargers in the parking lot are Chargepoint, but the Chargepoint app was oddly inaccurate about their usage? It also didn't charge my account when I charged before leaving.
• My car's nav (again, using Google Maps) could not deal with the DL Hotel parking lot. We kept trying to set Home as our destination from the porte cochere and the 20min parking and it couldn't figure out a route out of the parking lot. Worked fine once we started nav from the road.

Anyway, I'm sure I've forgotten interesting stuff, AMA!

The TV has bias lighting?! How neat!

 

[DonMacGregor]

The TV has bias lighting?! How neat!

And in the studios, the TV bias lighting matches the bias lighting of the mirror on the wall next to it.

 

[Canchaser143]

I closed on my contract at the end of July..... is it safe to assume that there is no gold water bottle in my future since nothing has come yet?

 

[superlarz]

I closed in OCT and have received my gold water bottle.

 

[Anal Annie]

OK so on a complete whim earlier today I was browsing through ALL DVC resorts (except Aulani, HHI & VB) looking for misc availability for next April & May and I stumbled on 4 consecutive nights avail. in a std. studio @ VDH for next April 21-25 (happens to be the week of our anniversary). So I knew it had to be a fluke that would disappear quickly so I grabbed it. Sure enough when I checked again for availability after I booked it there was only 1 night left in April so that hunch was right. Someone must have just canceled & I hit it just right.

We typically visit WDW 2 or 3 times a year and get AP's but we recently let the AP's lapse because we didn't have any trips booked. So NOW I have to figure out if we really want to make this trip and if the expense is worth it for just 4 nights. We have only been to DL 2x before and for only a couple of nights each time (once pre-Mexican Riviera cruise & once on the way to Aulani several years ago). I briefly checked airfare and tix prices (BIG GULP on DL tix $$$). Had almost as big of a gulp when I looked up the transient tax too. I set up some fare alerts on Kayak and CAP One Travel to see if I can do better on the air pricing. (I used CAP One Travel to book our flights to Aulani this past April and they were great with their price predictions.) Also wondering if I should try to add a waitlist for maybe 1 or 2 more nights to see if we can extend another day or two although I won't hold my breath. Was thinking 3 days of park tix and debating over adding the hopper option. Just not that familiar with the 2 parks & if we need to hop or not (would have to decide which park to revisit on the 3rd day if we don't hop). The hoppers add $70 per tix. That's at least 1 nice meal or 2 counter services. Any thoughts from you DL vets? Sort of excited to have a CA vacation but also thinking it might be tooooo short.

Question - do the Std. studios not have balconies?? I just peeked at the thread with the room views and all of the pics looked like they were taken thru glass.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

OK so on a complete whim earlier today I was browsing through ALL DVC resorts (except Aulani, HHI & VB) looking for misc availability for next April & May and I stumbled on 4 consecutive nights avail. in a std. studio @ VDH for next April 21-25 (happens to be the week of our anniversary). So I knew it had to be a fluke that would disappear quickly so I grabbed it. Sure enough when I checked again for availability after I booked it there was only 1 night left in April so that hunch was right. Someone must have just canceled & I hit it just right.

We typically visit WDW 2 or 3 times a year and get AP's but we recently let the AP's lapse because we didn't have any trips booked. So NOW I have to figure out if we really want to make this trip and if the expense is worth it for just 4 nights. We have only been to DL 2x before and for only a couple of nights each time (once pre-Mexican Riviera cruise & once on the way to Aulani several years ago). I briefly checked airfare and tix prices (BIG GULP on DL tix $$$). Had almost as big of a gulp when I looked up the transient tax too. I set up some fare alerts on Kayak and CAP One Travel to see if I can do better on the air pricing. (I used CAP One Travel to book our flights to Aulani this past April and they were great with their price predictions.) Also wondering if I should try to add a waitlist for maybe 1 or 2 more nights to see if we can extend another day or two although I won't hold my breath. Was thinking 3 days of park tix and debating over adding the hopper option. Just not that familiar with the 2 parks & if we need to hop or not (would have to decide which park to revisit on the 3rd day if we don't hop). The hoppers add $70 per tix. That's at least 1 nice meal or 2 counter services. Any thoughts from you DL vets? Sort of excited to have a CA vacation but also thinking it might be tooooo short.

Question - do the Std. studios not have balconies?? I just peeked at the thread with the room views and all of the pics looked like they were taken thru glass.

Correct. There are only 4 (yes you read that right) deluxe studios at VDH that have a balcony/patio - the garden studio ones.
Some of the Duo (2 person) ones do and all of the 1-3 bedrooms do.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

OK so on a complete whim earlier today I was browsing through ALL DVC resorts (except Aulani, HHI & VB) looking for misc availability for next April & May and I stumbled on 4 consecutive nights avail. in a std. studio @ VDH for next April 21-25 (happens to be the week of our anniversary). So I knew it had to be a fluke that would disappear quickly so I grabbed it. Sure enough when I checked again for availability after I booked it there was only 1 night left in April so that hunch was right. Someone must have just canceled & I hit it just right.

We typically visit WDW 2 or 3 times a year and get AP's but we recently let the AP's lapse because we didn't have any trips booked. So NOW I have to figure out if we really want to make this trip and if the expense is worth it for just 4 nights. We have only been to DL 2x before and for only a couple of nights each time (once pre-Mexican Riviera cruise & once on the way to Aulani several years ago). I briefly checked airfare and tix prices (BIG GULP on DL tix $$$). Had almost as big of a gulp when I looked up the transient tax too. I set up some fare alerts on Kayak and CAP One Travel to see if I can do better on the air pricing. (I used CAP One Travel to book our flights to Aulani this past April and they were great with their price predictions.) Also wondering if I should try to add a waitlist for maybe 1 or 2 more nights to see if we can extend another day or two although I won't hold my breath. Was thinking 3 days of park tix and debating over adding the hopper option. Just not that familiar with the 2 parks & if we need to hop or not (would have to decide which park to revisit on the 3rd day if we don't hop). The hoppers add $70 per tix. That's at least 1 nice meal or 2 counter services. Any thoughts from you DL vets? Sort of excited to have a CA vacation but also thinking it might be tooooo short.

Question - do the Std. studios not have balconies?? I just peeked at the thread with the room views and all of the pics looked like they were taken thru glass.

If you are not opposed to using an accessible room, there are several categories available dor the dates you mentioned. Just check that box when doing your search. In general people tend to give our awesome ADA fellows members a head start but at this point they’ve had plenty of time. A hearing accessible unit is hard to even tell the difference from a non ADA room. If you fancy a balcony and the amount of points work for you, consider a garden studio. A 1 bedroom would be decadent (and a ton of transient tax).

 

[Anal Annie]

If you are not opposed to using an accessible room, there are several categories available dor the dates you mentioned. Just check that box when doing your search. In general people tend to give our awesome ADA fellows members a head start but at this point they’ve had plenty of time. A hearing accessible unit is hard to even tell the difference from a non ADA room. If you fancy a balcony and the amount of points work for you, consider a garden studio. A 1 bedroom would be decadent (and a ton of transient tax).

Thanks for the info...my only experiences with ADA roll-in showers was that they just end up flooding the whole room. I'll keep it in mind tho and will mention it to DH as an option. I don't want to take something that someone else might need. I didn't know that this was a secret inventory that doesn't even show up unless you check the box!! Not looking to spend any more points than necessary tho and I know we won't be in the room all that much for such a short trip so we'll have to pass on the views. I still want to have enough points left to book our annual fall F&W trip too and we don't have THAT many points. I did put in 2 single night waitlists tho on either end of the dates I booked just to see. I'll cancel them off whenever I book airfare.

Do you have any thoughts about the park tix? Hopper or not?

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

Thanks for the info...my only experiences with ADA roll-in showers was that they just end up flooding the whole room. I'll keep it in mind tho and will mention it to DH as an option. I don't want to take something that someone else might need. I didn't know that this was a secret inventory that doesn't even show up unless you check the box!! Not looking to spend any more points than necessary tho and I know we won't be in the room all that much for such a short trip so we'll have to pass on the views. I still want to have enough points left to book our annual fall F&W trip too and we don't have THAT many points. I did put in 2 single night waitlists tho on either end of the dates I booked just to see. I'll cancel them off whenever I book airfare.

Do you have any thoughts about the park tix? Hopper or not?

If it’s just the two of you, you might enjoy a garden duo which would have either a balcony or patio. Could do a split stay so you can try that out in addition to the studio you have for the other nights.
Could go either way with park hopper. We have friends that just immerse themselves in one park per day but since the parks are SOOO close to each other and walking doesn’t phase us, we bop back and forth between the parks quite a bit.
Edit: Hearing accessible without mention of wheelchair in the description would be the way to go as I don’t think they have ADA showers. FYI there are only 2 grand villas and the only declared / available for booking on points is the accessible one.

 

[Anal Annie]

If you are not opposed to using an accessible room, there are several categories available dor the dates you mentioned. Just check that box when doing your search. In general people tend to give our awesome ADA fellows members a head start but at this point they’ve had plenty of time. A hearing accessible unit is hard to even tell the difference from a non ADA room. If you fancy a balcony and the amount of points work for you, consider a garden studio. A 1 bedroom would be decadent (and a ton of transient tax).

WHOA - just looked at what you're talking about! I assumed there would be 1 accessible category that would combine wheelchair and hearing. I didn't know they separate them. NOW I'm intrigued. Still hate to take a room from someone who needs it BUT I just looked at May....that's lower points than April (and my sons birthday is in May so we could either make it a birthday trip or go over Memorial Day). Ursula!! You've tempted my evil side!!! OY VEY!!

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

WHOA - just looked at what you're talking about! I assumed there would be 1 accessible category that would combine wheelchair and hearing. I didn't know they separate them. NOW I'm intrigued. Still hate to take a room from someone who needs it BUT I just looked at May....that's lower points than April (and my sons birthday is in May so we could either make it a birthday trip or go over Memorial Day). Ursula!! You've tempted my evil side!!! OY VEY!!

Yes I think the only difference in a hearing accessible room and a non-ada room are some lights that can flash. I have a friend staying in a hearing accessible 1 bedroom this weekend - looking forward to the report.

 

[Anal Annie]

Yes I think the only difference in a hearing accessible room and a non-ada room are some lights that can flash. I have a friend staying in a hearing accessible 1 bedroom this weekend - looking forward to the report.

My son went to RIT which is is also home to the NTID (National Institute of the Deaf) and his BF he met in college was deaf so he roomed with him for 2 years in a hearing accessible apartment (along with 5 other deaf students). He ended up taking ASL as his Immersion and is now fairly proficient in ASL. So that's not nearly as bad as the ADA roll-in shower thing (which he also had an ADA apartment his 2nd year which was pretty inconvenient and my big experience with the ADA shower thing as the entire room was always a huge puddle).

How long would you typically give VDH owners to book these rooms before you jumped on one if you were considering May?! May would save a lot of points if we went for our sons birthday. Just looking for a little ethical guidance....

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So I got a call from someone at the hotel this morning regarding my "not so magical" experiences this week. She wanted to know what she could do to make it magical. Maybe if you'd contacted me 3 days ago when I first emailed you, you could've made me happier, but waiting until I'm literally 30 minutes from leaving the resort doesn't give you many options.

After explaining the issues, she didn't seem particular surprised. She did at least apologize. When I asked about MBs, her answer was odd. She said that they don't have that capability right now and blamed it on the City of Anaheim. What? She did say they're working on it. Not sure how much I believe that, but we'll see.

Really curious why you think a Magic Band would make a difference? They still rely on the system and capability of the CM's to program whatever media you want to use to get into the room. Magic may be part of the name but it's just a means to the same end.

 

[CarolynFH]

@Anal Annie walking from just about anywhere inside DL to just about anywhere in CA is like walking from Spaceship Earth to the American Adventure. Having hoppers lets you bop back and forth easily to ride your favorites in both parks. We’d get hoppers for sure.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

My son went to RIT which is is also home to the NTID (National Institute of the Deaf) and his BF he met in college was deaf so he roomed with him for 2 years in a hearing accessible apartment (along with 5 other deaf students). He ended up taking ASL as his Immersion and is now fairly proficient in ASL. So that's not nearly as bad as the ADA roll-in shower thing (which he also had an ADA apartment his 2nd year which was pretty inconvenient and my big experience with the ADA shower thing as the entire room was always a huge puddle).

How long would you typically give VDH owners to book these rooms before you jumped on one if you were considering May?! May would save a lot of points if we went for our sons birthday. Just looking for a little ethical guidance....

I mean, ADA people can plan eons in advance just as well. So really even a day’s head start is probably fine? And can waitlist a non-accessible room.