Honeymoon at grand floridan sept 22-26

[Char8192]

We are staying at the Grand Floridian in one of their basic rooms for our honeymoon Sept. 22-26. I haven't been to Disneyworld since 2002 and my fiance has never been. Please, any and all advice welcome! What are the chances do you think they would upgrade our room for us? I have heard stories about that happening! Thanks!

 

[StarshipDisney]

Good luck to you...but I believe it's all a matter of pure luck and perhaps the kindness of the individual cast member. We have stayed at Disney resorts nine times now. We have never received anything more than what we payed for. Never a free upgrade and never in the right place at the right time for a magic fastpass or anything like that. Perhaps we just have bad luck but I believe it is overall very few who get something like that.

We also went to Disney for our Honeymoon.

 

[Raxel7851]

I would have to say the odds of a room upgrade are Slim to None. And Slim is getting ready to ride out of town. You may get a congratulatory fruit basket or box of Mickey chocolates, but unlike Marriott and Hilton, room upgrades rarely happen.

 

[JIMINYCR]

You maybe will get a free dessert after your meal... and CM's will congratulate you when they notice your Just Married button .... but room upgrades arent given out freely because of being on a honeymoon. LOTS of couples honeymoon at Disney, so they cant upgrade everyone. Most upgrades are given out when theres a problem with a reservation and Disney is fixing and acknowledging they messed something up. We got an upgrade once when they gave away our reserved w/c accessible, roll in shower room to someone else and had no other to give us.
Thats not saying it wont happen... sometimes you will get a CM that wants to plus your trip, but dont count on it. If it happens, it happens.
As far as advice... Since you havent been to Disney for so long and your spouse has never been, get a good guide book and see all the changes that have been made since 2002. Get a sense of how to get around the parks and property. Get savvy on how your MDE works, mobile ordering, magic bands and memory maker photos. Lots of success in your trip will be on relying on your device use. Plan out your day on doing the most desired attractions early. Make sure you have an idea of what your spouse wants to do and see most so his/ her trip will be one that hooks him/her on Disney so return trips will be in your future as a couple. Not all couples get that Disney bug and have a desire to return. So make it special and dont wear yourselves out trying to do everything on this trip. Do the things that matter the most and will make it memorable. GF is a luxurious resort with great service. You can walk through other resorts as well to get an idea of other places you may want to stay another time. The monorail gives you a good opportunity to see the Poly and Contemp.
Congratulations and best wishes on your marriage and future life together.

 

[EdnaMode]

We've stayed at GF many times and have been upgraded once from garden view to garden view deluxe. These are my thoughts:

• I didn't really care for the garden view deluxe room. It's larger and the balcony is also larger. But I didn't care for the little sitting room. You can't see outside from anywhere within the room (You can't open the drapes and see outside while sitting on the sofa or bed -- the windows in the turret area are just too high to see outside.) So, I wouldn't even accept another upgrade like this.
• I love the main building and we have occasionally, when the value is right, paid for a club level room there. But I'm not sure what the status of these rooms is going to be when the resort reopens on the 21st? I can't even see any availability when I try to do a 'dummy' booking for later on this month. So, sadly, I think this upgrade is very doubtful for you...but if someone miraculously is able to offer a main building room (even without the club being open) go directly towards the light!
• I think the "lowest cost" rooms (garden view) at GF are among the nicest "lowest cost" rooms on the monorail loop. The cheapest room at GF is almost always cheaper than view rooms at Poly or Contempo. The "lowest cost" rooms at Poly and Contempo may be parking lot views or obstructed by foliage or not have a balcony. We nearly always upgrade to better rooms at Poly (pool view) and Contempo (park view) but at GF, we normally just pay for garden view. (I hope that made sense. Cheaper rooms GF = ok, no upgrade needed; cheaper rooms at other mono resorts = not so much; upgrade is better.)
• I also think the garden view rooms are among the best situated within the resort (outside the main building.) I don't really think that park view and lagoon view rooms offer that much over garden view. Some of them actually have really nice pool views without the "pool view" upcharge.

I guess what I'm saying is that GF is one of the few places we stay where we don't feel a lot of need to upgrade the room from the lowest cost rooms. I think that, if you like GF, you will be happy with the garden view room.

You are going to have a great time! Enjoy!!!

PS: One thing you might do is check out a map of the resort and the views from various rooms in your category and then call Disney to make a request for a particular building and/or particular floor. https://touringplans.com/hotel_maps/disneys-grand-floridian-resort I've never done this, but it might work a little magic. I would do it soon -- your dates are coming up (YAY!!) and they will be allocating rooms pretty shortly.

 

[aliceismad]

PS: One thing you might do is check out a map of the resort and the views from various rooms in your category and then call Disney to make a request for a particular building and/or particular floor. https://touringplans.com/hotel_maps/disneys-grand-floridian-resort I've never done this, but it might work a little magic. I would do it soon -- your dates are coming up (YAY!!) and they will be allocating rooms pretty shortly.

I'll second taking a look at this link. While not an upgrade, I've put in requests three times and received them all three times. All three times, I provided a list of rooms or a room area I preferred. However, the requested rooms were still within the category that I had booked and all three stays were short (less than a week). (At Kidani we requested a standard room that had a partial savannah view, and POFQ we requested a specific room bank with a pool view, and at Bay Lake Tower we requested a lake view room that had a partial fireworks view.)

Also, congratulations!

 

[SoniKomal]

Hey buddy, that's a great choice. Congratualations!