This is my family's first trip to Disney World we are also celebrating our daughters seventh birthday. We have reservations in Feb. at the Contemporary resort. After talking to people and surfing the web I have discovered that sometimes the resorts will upgrade your room to a better room. But the best chances of getting a room upgrade advice I'm receiving are mixed. Some say since its our first trip and daughters birthday we may get on but don't check in online do it in person to increase your chances of a upgrade. I'm not expecting it but it would be nice. Does anyone have experience with this? Is it better to check in in person will this increase the chances or they are about the same as checking in early online? Any advise is appreciated.
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Resort room upgrades?
- Thread starter tstrick
- Start date
Minthorne
Well-Known Member
/opposite day on
Everyone at Disney gets upgraded! You will certainly be in the penthouse suite along with the 63 other families staying on their first trip and celebrating a birthday (the bathroom line gets long!). They purposely don't book the good rooms so they can give them away. Usually they will give you free food and drinks the whole time too!
/opposite day off
My personal belief - They only upgrade you if it suits the operational needs of the resort. Your only chance to influence this is to pay for the better room.
Everyone at Disney gets upgraded! You will certainly be in the penthouse suite along with the 63 other families staying on their first trip and celebrating a birthday (the bathroom line gets long!). They purposely don't book the good rooms so they can give them away. Usually they will give you free food and drinks the whole time too!
/opposite day off
My personal belief - They only upgrade you if it suits the operational needs of the resort. Your only chance to influence this is to pay for the better room.
Upgrades are given out based on the operational needs of the resort. Since most of the Disney resorts stay at or near capacity, free upgrades have becomes somewhat rare especially when compared to even just a few years ago.
How you check in will little not no effect on you getting an upgrade. You room type and location is often decided before you even leave your house.
The surest way to not get an upgrade is to ask for one. By policy, you will have to pay for any available upgrade you accept if you ask for it.
About the only thing that might help is listing celebrations on your reservation. Past that, just cross your fingers.
How you check in will little not no effect on you getting an upgrade. You room type and location is often decided before you even leave your house.
The surest way to not get an upgrade is to ask for one. By policy, you will have to pay for any available upgrade you accept if you ask for it.
About the only thing that might help is listing celebrations on your reservation. Past that, just cross your fingers.
Polydweller
Well-Known Member
At all hotels, including the one's in my ownership group, upgrades are given for operational reasons of the hotel and losing revenue is not one of those. Usually it's due to taking a room out of inventory (ie maintenance, deep cleaning etc) and sometimes trying to upsell in the future (ie hoping you'll buy the higher cost room on your next visit). There are many other operational reasons but they are always for the hotel's benefit and front desk staff usually must justify the upgrade.
Disney upgrades seem numerous but they really aren't. If they averaged 1% upgrades each day on their inventory of 27000 rooms that would work out to about 98,000 upgrades per year. But still, 99% do not get an upgrade or nearly 9.9 million room nights. So, not nearly as frequent as the various boards make it seem.
So, the best thing is to not expect an upgrade and be pleasantly surprised if you get one. It is also always ok to ask for one but make it understood you are willing to pay, you might get it free anyway. Asking for a free upgrade is asking the hotel to lose revenue and that isn't why they give an upgrade.
Disney upgrades seem numerous but they really aren't. If they averaged 1% upgrades each day on their inventory of 27000 rooms that would work out to about 98,000 upgrades per year. But still, 99% do not get an upgrade or nearly 9.9 million room nights. So, not nearly as frequent as the various boards make it seem.
So, the best thing is to not expect an upgrade and be pleasantly surprised if you get one. It is also always ok to ask for one but make it understood you are willing to pay, you might get it free anyway. Asking for a free upgrade is asking the hotel to lose revenue and that isn't why they give an upgrade.
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Demand an upgrade then tell them that you could have built a meth lab in the time it took them to upgrade you. Works every time it's tried.
CAPTAIN HOOK
Well-Known Member
Check in at the front desk expecting to be given the room type which you booked - that way you won't be disappointed when you get it.
MinnieM123
Premium Member
LizC
Well-Known Member
I have stayed at Disney hotels about a dozen times in the past 10 years. (Moderate, Deluxe and Villa) I have never received an upgrade. I say this only so you will not be disappointed if you do not get one. What I have received is my room requests and a dozen or so amazing vacations!
