Welcome Home, Barbara!
As a Member of
Disney Vacation Club for more than a decade, we have enjoyed so many amazing vacations with our family. From the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort to the Walt Disney World Resort to dipping our toes in the Pacific at Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, we have made memories to last a lifetime across the globe!
Barbara, if you are looking to book
The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa at the
Disneyland Resort, this resort is part of Disney Vacation Club and you can make a reservation online, just as you can with all DVC resorts. If it is not your Home Resort, however, you will need to wait till the 7-month mark to make a reservation. Since this resort is so popular and has relatively few rooms, it does tend to book quickly by Members who have it as their Home Resort, and so availability is very tight.
If you are looking to make an exchange into the
Disney Collection, this cannot be done online. While it feels like since everything is “Disney” it should be all the same thing, in reality, it is not. The hotels of the Disneyland Resort, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Resort Collection Hotels at Walt Disney World, and Disney Vacation Club are separate entities with their own inventory and pricing.
When a Member goes to book outside Disney Vacation Club, this needs to be done over the phone. Since I am a Member, just like you, here to give my experienced advice, and not a Cast Member, I cannot say for certain why Mickey requires us to call, but there are a few things to know that may shed some light on the topic. The reservation you would have used your Membership for in a DVC Villa is put into the inventory to rent out to someone else for cash, and the income gained is used to pay for your reservation in one of the other divisions. You aren’t booking it with your points because those resorts don't use a point system for payment. Disney Vacation Club is booking it for you with cash, and recouping their cost by renting out your Villa. Once you convert your Vacation Points to Reservation Points, you are essentially taking them out of the Disney Vacation Club System, and you cannot put them back, it is a permanent transaction. I think Disney Vacation Club wants to be sure Members are fully aware of what the exchange entails and that you cannot cancel to go back and book a villa if you see availability. There may also be other behind-the-scenes technical and financial issues when booking these exchanges that require Cast Member expertise. Perhaps someday this won’t be the case and we will be able to search exchanges online, but at the moment, that call is still necessary. I remember when we became Members, there wasn’t even online booking for villas!
If you are having difficulty getting through on the phone, try first thing in the morning or later at night before close. I like to use my mobile phone and put it on speaker so I listen to the hold music while I accomplish other tasks during the day. I hope this helps at least give you some idea of how the system works and I hope you can secure the reservation you are hoping for.
Sending you pixie dust for that perfect reservation!
-Kate