Can you get room upgrades if you do online check in?

[DizneyFamof4]

I have never worked at Disney so someone may come in here and tell me I'm totally wrong but I don't think it makes as big of a difference at Disney as it does in other hotels because I think checked-in or not you are being at least lightly assigned a room because of their capacity.

That being said I've checked in online and still gotten an upgrade. I was arriving late and booked at AK Lodge in a standard room and was upgraded to a 1 Bedroom Savannah View Villa. This was at Jambo house, I was only for 2 nights though.

We normally stayed 7-9 nights when we were upgraded.

 

[starousse]

We never do online check in. I like to talk to someone face to face upon check in. If I'm unhappy w the floor or room, I'll request another and wait if needed.

 

[Dug720]

We never do online check in. I like to talk to someone face to face upon check in. If I'm unhappy w the floor or room, I'll request another and wait if needed.

You can still do that and do online check in. NOTHING says that if you've done online check-in you are not allowed to go to the front desk.

 

[beldred]

We never do online check in. I like to talk to someone face to face upon check in. If I'm unhappy w the floor or room, I'll request another and wait if needed.

You can still do that and do online check in. NOTHING says that if you've done online check-in you are not allowed to go to the front desk.

That's correct. I almost always go to the desk even when I've done online check-in (exception is split stays, usually we just go straight to the new room at the end of our park day unless something is wrong) because I like to be greeted and get a map of the resort (I use them in my scrapbooks) and sometimes have a question or two if we haven't stayed there before.

 

[HopperFan]

Been going for about 20 years now regularly and have never received an upgrade.

And you are probably the most common answer if ALL guests were asked. We have to remember we are a tiny percentage of the people who stay at Disney and even among us the pixie dust upgrades are far and few between. 30,000 rooms ~ lower occupancy rates right now = you'll probably get exactly what you booked. And I imagine right now Disney is still holding some rooms from inventory making upgrades even fewer.

And in our experience while on paper it is an upgrade, sometimes it's not in reality. I've been upgraded a couple times at POP Century from my standard room to preferred or pool view. Pool view is never an upgrade to me and my preferred was to move me from my requested lake view standard room to a bellhop luggage rack view preferred room. Time walking it saved maybe a minute. I was not happy with the view or the noise. Staying onsite since 1992 (around 130+ stays) and very few upgrades, only one I consider good.

Best advice BOOK the room that you want and will be happy with. DON'T expect to get any pixie dust upgrades, they normally happen because rooms had to be pulled from service not because Mickey is treating you special.

 

[Leigh L]

We've received a few upgrades, but always for short stays.
Once we had a longer trip and stayed Shades of Green/Coronado/AoA (we like split stays). Booked a mermaid room that we were waiting hours for and it was getting late in the day. The CM apologized and the next thing we know we are being sent to a suite in the LK section. We were only there 2 nights and my girls loved it! I'll never forget the kindness of the CM that got us a room.
I was soooooo grateful because I'd spent the first few days pretty sick with food poisoning - but she didn't know about that part. This was a really nice end to a rough trip.

The other times were at CSR. I didn't book 4 nights in the Tower but wanted a taste of it, so had booked 2 nights there and 2 standard. They combined them into a 4-night Tower stay (but I figured it was to avoid cleaning rooms covid times). Still cool!! Another time CSR put our 2-night stay in a tower water view instead of standard. We actually wanted the standard view to get views of EP and DHS but were very happy with the pretty water view too.

 

[tobikaye]

I tend to think (as previously mentioned) that short stays tend to get an upgrade. I'd love to know if the people who got major upgrades, were indeed given those for a week long stay.

Not sure if anyone ever answered you, but yes, I received an upgrade on an 8 night stay at AKL in 2017.

Original Reservation: Standard View 2Q HA Roll-In Shower Room for 3 adults
Upgrade: 2 Rooms (1 K HA Roll-in Shower/ 1 1Q 1BB) Savannah View Club Level

In this case the upgrade was given due to our original room not being available. I had checked in online and the room ready was texted to me on the drive. Since I was driving, I only knew we had been upgraded from Standard to Savannah since my aunt and sister did not know where to look to check room type. They just had a map of where the room was. We found out it was CL when a CM meet us as we pulled up to unload our car.

FYI: Same trip my Cousin's family was upgraded from a Standard View to Savannah View. I had not connected our stays since I thought their upgrade chances would increase since they did not need a special room type.

Last year, I booked 2 rooms at POFQ last minute for my parents, sister and I as we arrived a day early before a BLT check in. I booked both standard rooms, but my parents had a River View room upgrade and my sister and I had a standard.

I tend to book what I am wanting so I have not really worried about upgrades, though nice when they occur.