Should I take a complimentary resort upgrade?

[Jez]

I noticed someone else was offered one of these yesterday.

I'm from the UK and have just been rung by my tour operator and offered an upgrdae for myself, wife & daughter, from a room At Caribbean Beach Resort to either Saratoga Springs or Old Key West.

so...

1) Should I take them up on the offer?

2) which one to go for (Saratoga seems nicer as you can walk to DTD and its newer)

3) We have a basic dining plan with only counter service and snacks, do the DVC resorts have the same sort of "food court" as places like Caribean Beach and Pop Century etc.

Any advice greatfully received
Jez.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Hi there, First off, Congrats on the offer!!! That is just great!! Now onto some of the questions I have to see if I would make the switch.
1) What type of room category were you offered at either resort? I ask because the bedding options are NOT the same there as they are in a Moderate. In the Carribean, you have 2 full size beds. The bedding may differ in either one of these DVC properties. I have stayed in a studio at OKW which has two queen beds, and the one bedroom has a King sized bed in it's own room as well as a pull out sofa. Saratoga Springs has 1 queen size bed and a pull out in both the studio and one bedroom units so it is vastly different. I have been in the one bedroom unit at Old Key West and I think it is great as it is like having a one bedroom apartment complete with a full kitchen. For my style of traveling though, it doesnt work. I travel with friends and everyone wants their own bed, plus we dont tend to cook on vacation so the kitchen or kitchenette in the studios are kinda lost on us.
2) I am not as familiar with the food court style offerings at the DVC resorts as I tend not to stay there, but dont forget you can use your meal plan entitlements at any of the parks as well as other resorts as well.
Hope this helps! Marie

 

[Dwarful]

Did they tell you the room type? How old is your daughter? How long are you staying? If you're going for more than a week I'd really have to consider taking the offer. We have stayed at OKW and even though it is older we really enjoyed it. I liked having the kitchen and the laundry...no coins needed, so every evening I tossed one load in the washer and when I got up they went in the dryer. So we had no dirty clothes to haul home...that was really nice...esp. when traveling with kids.

 

[Jez]

Dwarful said:
Did they tell you the room type?
How old is your daughter?
How long are you staying?


- no they didn't - as there are only 3 of us, I'm GUESSING the studio, and not 1 bed apartment - I'll call them on monday to check the room type

- Daughter will be just 3yrs old

- staying for 2 weeks, but we have LODS of baggage allowance on Virgin Atlantic, so we will pack for 2 weeks and not bother with Laundry (always stayed for 2 weeks before and never done any before)


.

 

[DoleWhipDiva]

Wow-congrats.... I would definitely take it. You may never get this again!

 

[wannabeBelle]

BTW Laundry facilities are ONLY inside the 1 bedroom and above units at the DVC properties. The studios dont have the facilities inside of them but are available on property. I have been told that these are free of charge, but havent confirmed that tidbit for myself. I know the laundry facilities at the Moderate have a fee. You had said you werent going to be bothered with laundry but it might come in handy to have this knowledge. Marie

 

[worldfanatic]

Don't hesitate for a second!!
Old Key West and Saratoga Springs are FAR SUPERIOR to the Caribbean Beach.
Not that there's anything wrong with Caribbean beach.:shrug:
It's just much more crowded and less relaxed than the other 2, IMO.

I prefer Old Key West because I like the Jungle atmosphere over the manicured garden atmosphere, but you can't miss either way.

 

[Jez]

Saratoga Springs Resort Map

Does anyone know if there is a downloadable resort map for saratoga Springs on WDW Magic (or elsewhere)?

I can't find one here and all teh ones I have found thru google have been pretty rubbish quality!

Let me know,
Cheers
Jez.

 

[menutia]

Been there... done that!!!

I received the same offer last year and took advantage of it immediately! I choose Old Key West because of it's location and
multiple building" layout. My room was a single bedroom separate from the rest of the apartment. Laundry, whirlpool, kitchen and the living room were all wonderful bonuses! Traveling alone, but part of a group; my place became the hang-out for everyone because of the amount of space and the ability to "crash on the couch" if they got too tired to return to one of their hotels.

My building was in the back of the facility, with a view of the golf course through the dense trees. Quiet and perfect for me trying to escape the noise of the tourists and transportation of the day.

OKW has internal bus stops along the main road through the development. You don't need to walk to the main building to meet transportation to the Disney parks; and if you have a car, there is parking right in front of your apartment. I drove and took advantage of the ability to leave my room in the morning and be centrally located to all of the attractions.

Food options are a little less casual and OKW. There is a restaurant and a grocery store but no "Counter Service" as you find in the Value Hotels. While I did miss having the ability to walk over and get a quick snack, it was much more fun to cook for myself in the kitchen. I also invited friends over for pizza on Saturday night. (Pizza delivery is available - we choose to pick them up at a Value Resort and take to my room.)

Our group is going back this year and we are booking at another resort, and staying in multi-bedroom option because of the great time they had hanging out at my "Walt Disney World Apartment".

 

[lilclerk]

Does anyone know if there is a downloadable resort map for saratoga Springs on WDW Magic (or elsewhere)?

I can't find one here and all teh ones I have found thru google have been pretty rubbish quality!

Let me know,
Cheers
Jez.

http://allears.net/acc/g_ss.htm
http://allears.net/acc/sspringsmap09.jpg
http://allears.net/acc/saratogamap.jpg

http://allears.net/acc/g_okw.htm
http://allears.net/acc/okwmap.jpg

If you'll be there two weeks, I'd take the upgrade for the space alone. And plus, hey, free upgrade right?

 

[WDW Vacationer]

Take Saratoga if you decide to upgrade. I've stayed at OKW and SS and liked SS better. More beautiful and the main area (pool,food...) is better. It has a CS place called Artist's Pallete. Great for quick meals.

 

[slappy magoo]

If you choose Saratoga, make a request for Congress Park. You won't be too far from the food court and main pool, you'll have a quiet pool even closer, AND you'll be within walking distance of the Marketplace section of Downtown Disney, affording you more and better counter service options. No offense to people who enjoy Artists' Palette, but they don't handle crowds all that well, and it's ALWAYS crowded for breakfast. Lunch and dinner, less crowded, but still not fast. Staying in the Congress Park section, you'll be close to Wolfgang Puck Express and Earl of Sandwich, each of which is superior to AP, though AP isn't awful by any stretch.

 

[tirian]

I prefer Saratoga over OKW. There are two things to consider before making the switch. First, they're both huge, and rely on internal bus service to get around within the hotel. Second, the walk from Saratoga to DD is very long if you aren't staying in Congress Park.

In my experience, neither one has adequate bus service to the parks, because Disney doesn't seem send additional buses to make up for the bigger resort size. (They might, but it certainly doesn't feel that way.)

Just the same, I would take the upgrade, because it's a bigger room for free.

 

[Himmin]

Hi

Im from the UK and have been offered the same too except i got my letter and email streight from disney, you get a choice between ss and okw and then between a studio or a one bed appartment.

we have requested an upgrade to SS one bed apartment, as at the POFQ where we were originally staying we paid extra for a king sized bed as my partner is very tall we decided that we did not want to downgrade to a queensize bed.

we chose SS over OKW as SS looks nicer and a lot of people say out of the two the prefer SS.

Also we priced up exactly what we had spent (15 nights at POFQ, DDP, 14 Day Ultimate Ticket, King bed )and what we would have spent if we had booked the above at SS/OKW originaly and if we were to stay in a studio it would have been less money than we actually paid!!! but we would save £450 for the upgrade to the one bedroom (if that makes sense)

While we probably will not use the kitchen for anything more than the fridge and freezer and may or may not use the laundry facilaties we feel that the private balcony and the hot tub jaccuzzi Bath is worth prehaps been that little bit further away from some of the parks. (especially as we are celebrating our three year anniversary of being together!!) Plus we have the option there to use them if we want!!

Let us know what you choose!!!

When you going as i know it's only available for arrivals between 3rd September and 2nd October, we are there 24th September, may bump into you there lol

 

[cowanfamily]

Take the upgrade!

 

[Jez]

When you going as i know it's only available for arrivals between 3rd September and 2nd October, we are there 24th September, may bump into you there lol

I'm afraid we'll just pass each other in customs, as we fly home on the 24th! (we go out on the 10th)

I guess as we booked it all thru Virgin hols, they are the ones sorting it out, in stead of Disney direct.

Interesting what you say though, as they didn't mention anything about studio's or 1 bed villas, I may have to quote you back to them to make sure the 1 bed villa is an option, (especially as Caribbean Beach is more expensive than POFQ) but the room type may depend on the TOTAL spend - how many of you are travelling ? If its more than 3, your total accomodation might be more than ours. but if its 3 (like us) then its more ammunition to push for not a studio!!!!

Cheers
Jez.

 

[Crush Dude!]

I noticed someone else was offered one of these yesterday.

I'm from the UK and have just been rung by my tour operator and offered an upgrdae for myself, wife & daughter, from a room At Caribbean Beach Resort to either Saratoga Springs or Old Key West.

so...

1) Should I take them up on the offer?

2) which one to go for (Saratoga seems nicer as you can walk to DTD and its newer)

3) We have a basic dining plan with only counter service and snacks, do the DVC resorts have the same sort of "food court" as places like Caribean Beach and Pop Century etc.

Any advice greatfully received
Jez.

Hi there,

This is a strange 1 bcoz when we were booking our trip for 3 weeks at OKW in August OKW was cheaper than CB and we got the full Free dining plan instead of just the quick service which is what was being offered with CB!!

You should check will they upgrade your dining plan too

 

[Gregger]

We had the same offer last yr and took it...SSR is a very big resort and we are a family of 4 and my two kids were 9 and 6 last yr. The kids hated the pull out as it was not to comfy so all 4 of us slept in the queen which was ok.....Food court is small with only one place to eat and there is a very nice sit down restaurant also. You can take a boat to DTD which is nice....pool is nice and there is another big pool under construction. For us the bus system was great....If we get the offer again I'd take it...

 

[Himmin]

The Actually Letter Sent by Disney about the upgrade!!

COMPLIMENTARY UPGRADE – RESPONSE REQUIRED BY 14 JULY 2010.

We have some fantastic news for you regarding your forthcoming stay at Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando.

Here at the Walt Disney Travel Company we always strive to make that Disney Difference, and as a much valued guest staying at one of our select Disney Moderate Resorts, you have been chosen to take advantage of a COMPLIMENTARYUPGRADE to a Disney Deluxe Villa Resort Hotel for the full duration of your stay.

Should you wish, you may choose from either Disney’s Old Key West Resort or Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa with a further choice of either a Studio with kitchenette, or 1 Bedroom apartment with full kitchen facilities.

Disney's Deluxe Villa Resorts offer all the relaxed comforts and easy independence of home with that magical Disney experience that you won’t find anywhere else. Check out full details of these Deluxe Villas and their locations within Walt Disney World Resort at www.disneyworld.co.uk.

To take advantage of this fantastic complimentary upgrade, please advise us by 14 July 2010. Simply confirm your resort and room type preferences at the following addresses, along with your booking reference and lead name:
· Email us at wdtc-uk@disney.com adding 'Complimentary Upgrade' in the subject line or click reply on the email we will send you 1 July if you supplied an email address at time of booking.
· Confirm via post to Walt Disney Travel Company, 4th Floor, 3 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, W6 9PE

Please note that the resorts and room types are subject to availability on a first come first served
basis and whilst we will do our upmost to meet your 1st choice this cannot be guaranteed,
therefore we would advise you to also note your 2nd choice in accommodation.

Whether you take advantage of this gesture is entirely your choice. If you do not contact us
prior to the 14 July we will assume you wish to continue with your current reservation.

We hope this news adds that extra piece of Disney Magic to your visit and we look forward
to welcoming you and your party to Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando.

Magical Regards

Walt Disney Travel Company


*‘Complimentary Upgrade’ offer is available for all bookings made on or before 23 June 2010 at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort, Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter and Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, arrival between 3 September and 2 October 2010 inclusive. Disney Park Tickets and a Dining Plan for each member of the party must have been included in the original booking to be eligible for the Complimentary Upgrade. Guests who are eligible will be offered an upgrade to a Studio or 1 Bedroom accommodation located at either Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort or Disney’s Old Key West Resort for the same arrival dates as the original booking. Notification will be sent via e-mail or post by 1 July and guests will need to confirm their Resort choice by 14 July 2010 to wdtc@disney.com Responses received after this date will not be eligible for the Complimentary Upgrade. Walt Disney Travel Company UK will respond within 5 working days to confirm the upgrade has been processed.
The upgrade is only applicable to the accommodation portion of the booking and Guests will be upgraded in their current package. If a Quick Service Dining Plan is included in the original booking this will be transferred to the upgraded reservation. If a Disney Dining Plan is included in the original booking this will be transferred to the upgraded reservation. Guests may choose to upgrade their Dining Plan at the usual cost, please refer to the website for latest prices.
Any amendments made to the reservation once the upgrade has been processed will be calculated against the original booking value, therefore, additional charges may apply. If the arrival date is amended to a date outside of the upgrade period the offer becomes invalid and the upgrade supplement will be chargeable. Standard amendment fees apply.
The ‘Complimentary Upgrade’ offer is not valid for new bookings and not valid on flight inclusive bookings. Standard terms and conditions apply.

 

[amykissangel]

As I'm not from outside the USA, does Free Dining apply to you? Because free dining was just extended, and if you can get rid of your Quick Service and switch to free Standard Dining, it would save you some big bucks!