Getting a Room Upgrade

[JennyDrake]

In over 40 stays at WDW I have been upgraded ONCE --from a standard room to a preferred room at All Stars.

As PPers have said, it has to do with room availability at the time you check in. I think the whole upgrade situation has been way overstated and "oversold."

 

[maryj11]

I think it all depends if they have the room available that you requested. We went to GF this past August , had a garden view and requested Big Pine Key close to the end. They gave us a lagoon view just right across from where we requested. Which was awesome !

 

[nkereina]

PPs are correct. I used to work for a hotel chain (not Disney) and we would upgrade people only when WE needed to. Whether it was because we needed to shift things around due to guest requests, issues with a room, a room category was oversold, etc. It solely depends on the circumstances when you check in, so even if 50 people respond that got upgrades, it doesn't help or hurt your chances.

 

[Daisy62]

We have stayed onsite maybe 30 times all a week or longer. Twenty five of those times were at the Poly. We were never upgraded. We stayed one time at the WL in a wood view and got upgraded to concierge.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I go to WDW multiple times a year (for the past 15 years). A lot of those are DVC stays but many were not. I believe I've been upgraded approximately twice. (and I'm not counting being put in a pool room at Pop Century as an upgrade)

They are more likely to upgrade in order to free up rooms or maintenance issues than because a guest is a frequent visitor, or spends a lot, or is celebrating something. I believe the celebration ones happen once in awhile but are VERY rare and usually regarding honeymoons if I had to guess.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

It seems here you hear about the upgrades some people get, but you need to factor in the 1000s of people who go to Disney and never get upgraded. It is sad when people say we spend so much money and are celebrating we should get upgraded. Everyone going on a Disney vacation is spending lots of money (the value resort cost can be a LOT of money to one family while the deluxe resort cost can be a lot for a different income family). People celebrate (or say they are celebrating) daily at Disney. Think the best advice everyone has given is book the room you will be happy with and don't expect and upgrade, look at it as a nice surprise.

 

[Coconut8473]

We had booked a standard room at Beach Club on our last trip, the last week in August (it was a VERY slow week, I might add!) When we checked into our room we had some issues with cigar smoke odor in our room (and cigar butts littering the area around our balcony) and politely asked to be moved to another room. Honestly, I was expecting (and would have been more than fine with) an identical room just across the hall or wherever, and we weren't being angry or confrontational in the least (I just honestly couldn't stand the smell!)... but they upgraded us to a Lagoon View! I don't expect something like this to ever happen again, but I think because it was so slow they just had so much inventory available, no harm was done to anyone by putting us there. It was awesome!

 

[diddldonna]

One year we was upgraded from POR to OKW 1 bedroomed villa. What ever reason we got upgraded worked for Disney as only been back to a deluxe resort since. However we must try out POR as never ever got there.


This time upgraded from WL to CR but that's due to construction. Can't wait x

 

[Mynamewastaken]

I got the ugrade of a life time but at the time I didn't know and was stupid and complained on here. Learned really quickly how lucky we were. We were booked for the opening of POR royal rooms but they were not done construction when we were supposed to arrive. They upgraded us to the Poly TPV. I had no idea how lucky we were. I called Disney back to see if I could switch to BWI but the lady told me to stick with what I was assigned as it was a huge upgrade. A few people here set me straight (which I needed). An upgrade of a lifetime! What an awesome trip we had. I could NEVER afford that and we were so lucky to have gotten it... I realize that now lol

 

[rotlex]

Funny actually. We have been upgraded at every deluxe we have stayed at. We have gotten view upgrades, club level etc. We have NEVER had an upgrade at a mod or a value. Go figure. Pay more, get more free, LOL.

 

[yeahdisney]

In March we were upgrade from standard one bedroom AKL to a grand villa. It was princess race weekend. I had looked online and the grand villa was open Monday thru the rest of the week and had asked DH want to spoil us. nope. Everything was gone for that weekend so I have no idea what happened but we enjoyed it!

I had forgotten until I had read this thread the trip prior we went to Universal and had a room at Hard Rock for their express pass. The weather looked to be bad, I called them to ask if we could change reservation to later in the week. Said no all three hotels sold out and we were upgrade to a suite on CL. Well okey dokey. And the weather stayed nice.

 

[SonicGuy]

To be completely honest, our first trip after joining this board (8 years or so ago) I was so disappointed when we go to the Poly and didn't have an upgrade. The site made it sound like there was some Upgrade Fairy at the front desk handing them out to anyone with a smile on their face.

I got over it in about 2 hours and have since followed the advice stated above - book where you are going to be happy staying and then be happy staying there.

 

[akadada]

I agree with this post

It seems here you hear about the upgrades some people get, but you need to factor in the 1000s of people who go to Disney and never get upgraded. It is sad when people say we spend so much money and are celebrating we should get upgraded. Everyone going on a Disney vacation is spending lots of money (the value resort cost can be a LOT of money to one family while the deluxe resort cost can be a lot for a different income family). People celebrate (or say they are celebrating) daily at Disney. Think the best advice everyone has given is book the room you will be happy with and don't expect and upgrade, look at it as a nice surprise.

But I'm old school in this department though and whenever I want an upgrade, at least for non-Disney, I usually get one.

First I just ask kindly. especially if it's off season or I know the hotel is undersold. You can tell by checking out expedia or other various sites last minute pricing on the hotel you're staying. If you can rebook at much lower rates or there are a lot of deals, the hotel is wide open. So just asking often works.

For busy seasons non Disney stuff, if we want an upgrade, we will slip Jackson, Grant or Benjamin into the hands of the check in person or manager (depends on the hotel and busy-ness)...that generally works.

We've never tried it at Disney since we've not stayed on site since 2008 and actually got an upgrade by asking since it was November and the Great Recession just started and no one was there. Pretty sweet GF upgrade. Hard to get an upgrade when the economy is strong.

I doubt we'll slip bills next year since we're not that picky if we're not going to be in the room that much, but our plan is to First ask kindly...then if no go and we don't like the room, then let Mr. Franklin ask. . . I have this feeling it won't work given the surgical operations Disney runs and how that might get a cast member in trouble...