Disney Vacation Club Announces Westward Expansion
SEPTEMBER 19, 2007. Addressing a growing demand for guest accommodations and vacation ownership, The Disneyland Resort today celebrated an expansion of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa that will increase accommodations by more than 30 percent and will include the first Disney Vacation Club villas in Anaheim.
"We are excited to bring our hugely popular Disney Vacation Club to the West Coast for the first time," said Jim Lewis, president of Disney Vacation Club. "Our member community has more than doubled since 2003, which illustrates families' deep desires to enjoy quality vacations for years to come. Like most Disney fans, our members have great affection for the original Disney vacation destination, and we're thrilled that this expansion project will allow our members to call the Disneyland Resort 'home' for the first time."
The 2.5-acre expansion on the hotel's south side will add more than 200 new hotel rooms and 50 two-bedroom-equivalent Disney Vacation Club vacation villas. Those vacation villas will mark the California debut of Disney Vacation Club.
This expansion will follow the traditions of offering guests an immersive environment, original entertainment and imaginative programs. Other elements planned for the project include a new swimming pool and about 300 underground parking spaces. Peter Dominick of 4240, architect for Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, as well as Disney's Wilderness Lodge and Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, is designing the ambitious expansion. The expansion will reflect the same California Arts & Crafts architecture of the existing hotel, which immerses guests in a turn-of-the-20th-century California experience.
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa currently features 745 guest rooms, including 44 suites. Upon completion of the expansion project, the hotel will feature 945 guest rooms, including 44 guest suites, and 50 Disney Vacation Club two-bedroom-equivalent vacation villas.
Construction is already underway on the south side of the hotel, with completion scheduled for late 2009.
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is an architectural and artistic celebration of California's renowned Arts & Crafts style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
One of three hotels at the Disneyland Resort (others include Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel and the Disneyland Hotel), Disney's Grand Californian Hotel is home to the nationally renowned and award-winning Napa Rose restaurant, where Wine Country Cuisine tempts taste buds and expert sommeliers help guests make selections from one of the world's finest collections of California wines. The nearby Storyteller's Caf'e, meanwhile, lets kids and adults alike enjoy a one-of-a-kind dining experience with Disney characters.
These dining experiences, coupled with three hotels, a luxury spa, onsite shopping and other amenities, helped the hotel earn the No. 3 spot on Travel & Leisure Family magazine's list of the top family-friendly resort destinations.
Disney Vacation Club
The development of 50 two-bedroom-equivalent vacation villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa represents the first dedicated Disney Vacation Club accommodations in California. Disney Vacation Club helps families enjoy flexibility and savings on vacations for decades to come. Through the program, families enjoy flexible vacations at Disney destinations worldwide, as well as more than 500 other popular vacation locations around the globe.
Disney Vacation Club, currently celebrating its milestone 15th anniversary, has grown to serve more than 350,000 individual members from more than 100 countries and all 50 U.S. states. The expansion project marks the latest growth for Disney Vacation Club, which recently opened the first phases of Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The new Disney Vacation Club resort, located at the popular Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, is scheduled to open in phases through late 2009.
The Disney Vacation Club family of resorts also includes five other Walt Disney World properties, as well as resorts in Vero Beach, Fla., and Hilton Head Island, S.C. Disney Vacation Club has sold out of inventory at its first six resorts, and sales remain ahead of schedule at its seventh property, Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, which opened in May 2004 near the Downtown Disney area at the Walt Disney World Resort, as well as at the aforementioned Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas.
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