Dave Welty is in Anaheim enjoying the Disney Vacation Club's Getaway Days event . Among today's events was the public unveiling of the Villas at Grand Californian model rooms. So how did they stack up against our January predictions?
We're happy to report that we were pretty much spot-on with our preview of the villa layout presented back in January. Most of the design elements depicted in our own rendering match what was on display today.
Here are some general comments regarding the models that were on display:- The living room in the one and two bedroom villas will not have the same sleeper chair being utilized at the Animal Kingdom Villas. Instead DVC has designed a horizontal murphy bed that will fold down under the flat panel TV. When in its daytime "up" position, the murphy bed has a front facade that resembles an armoire. But it easily folds down into a twin bed to sleep an extra guest.
- One design element that did not make it into our mock floorplan is a second door leading to the balcony. In the floorplan you will note that the balcony extends off of the master bedroom and is adjacent to the living room. Despite this new configuration, there are actually two exit doors from both the bedroom and the living room. In our mock-up, we showed only the door from the bedroom.
- There is less closet space in the master bedroom than most villas we have seen before. Disney appears to be compensating for this by elevating the bed and leaving space underneath for suitcase storage.
- In the Studio villa, the half wall that normally separates the kitchenette from the rest of the room has been removed. This contributes to a more open feel for the entire villa.
- The dining room table is larger size than other villas, and does comfortably seat six diners as in our mock-up.
- The full kitchen in larger rooms feels larger than any other DVC villa kitchens. It is designed with high-quality cabinets in the resort's craftsman style, along with dark granite countertops.
Unfortunately we can't give you a first-hand look at the rooms because Disney Vacation Club
prohibited all photography in the 
models. We actually received a
heads-up regarding this limitation a few days ago, but held out hope
that we might still be permitted to get a few pics.
The reason for the restriction on photography was that the design on the model rooms has not quite been finalized. Imagineers are still tweaking some elements of the room, and it appears DVC is trying to avoid some of the rampant confusion that occurred when work-in-progress models for Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas were revealed to the public.
According to our sources, after this weekend's event the model rooms will be shuttered until sometime in August. Over that time there will be no public access to the models, and Disney Imagineers will complete necessary tweaks and design changes leading up to final approval. The current plan is then to open the models to the public in August, at which time DVC may well begin sales of points at Disney's Villas at the Grand Californian.
Dave will be back soon with a full report on this weekend's Getaway Days event.
