Upgrades

[Hobnail Boot]

We had a standard room booked for Saratoga Springs last July. I just happened to look at my reservations the week before and see that we had been upgraded to a 1 bedroom villa. They didn't say anything at check-in and our price stayed the same. It was a pretty awesome surprise.

The one time I was told I was getting an upgrade was at the Boardwalk last spring. I had booked a villa and was "upgraded" to a standard room at the Boardwalk. I certainly didn't consider it an upgrade but the cast member was adamant that the standard rooms were better. We didn't need the villa extras so I just took the upgrade. Big mistake on my part because they put us in BFE.

 

[Innkeeper's Club]

There are over 26,000 rooms at WDW, so upgrades happen every day, but they are becoming increasingly rare.

I think it might be a stretch to say that upgrades happen everyday, even if they might becoming more rare and here is an example of that. During my trip to WDW in August/September 2011 I did a split stay starting with a Deluxe Club Level Room at the Boardwalk Inn, followed by a Club Level - Lagoon View at the Beach Club. Long storyshort after 1 day we hated the Beach Club for personal reasons and asked to switch back over to the Boardwalk Inn. The Cast Member from the Beach Club was able to get us the exact same Deluxe Room we just checked-out of at the Boardwalk Inn, so it was sitting vacant the day we left without any guests. You would have thought a family might have been upgraded to that specific room, however thankfully for us that never happened.

 

[Master Yoda]

I think it might be a stretch to say that upgrades happen everyday, even if they might becoming more rare and here is an example of that. During my trip to WDW in August/September 2011 I did a split stay starting with a Deluxe Club Level Room at the Boardwalk Inn, followed by a Club Level - Lagoon View at the Beach Club. Long storyshort after 1 day we hated the Beach Club for personal reasons and asked to switch back over to the Boardwalk Inn. The Cast Member from the Beach Club was able to get us the exact same Deluxe Room we just checked-out of at the Boardwalk Inn, so it was sitting vacant the day we left without any guests. You would have thought a family might have been upgraded to that specific room, however thankfully for us that never happened.

I doubt that. With the sheer volume of people checking in every day, the resorts consistently running at high capacity and the number of people that will complain because their room is the wrong shade of brown, I can see at least one upgrade happening per day somewhere in WDW.

 

[shipley731]

I've gotten upgraded a few times, but never asked for them. I've been upgraded twice at AKL from a standard view to a pool view. (I suspect this was the hotel trying to condense folks into one area of the hotel.) I've also been upgraded from a standard view to a Savanna view once. There were some extenuating circumstances involved with that trip. We were waiting in line to check in & there was a family in line at the guest services line that had some pre-teens that were out of control. One of the pre-teens was accusing grandma of stealing his money & he wanted it back right now. This kid was using language that would make a sailor blush. There were little kids all over the place, Mom & Grandma were trying to get the pre-teens to calm down, but to no avail. When we got up to the front desk, the check in person was horrified and kept apologizing to us. I told her not to worry, the problem had nothing to do with the hotel & was beyond their control. I also added that I guess somebody forgot to tell the pre-teen they were in the most "magical place on earth." She seemed relieved we weren't going to yell at her for the other family's bad behavior. When we got to our room, we were surprised to have a wonderful savanna view.

I was also upgraded once at SSR. My husband had just had a triple bypass five weeks earlier and I called the resort ahead of time and explained my husband's medical condition. I asked if we could possibly have a room on the first floor or next to the elevator. (His doctor had given the green light for the trip even though he hadn't gone back to work, but told him to take it easy. I didn't want him walking up & down a bunch of flights of stairs if not necessary.) We had reserved a studio room. We checked in & when we got to our room, it was not only on the first floor, but also was a one bedroom villa. Not sure if they were just spreading some disney magic or had other motives. It was a nice surprise.

 

[Chabou]

After 15 times to the world of magic never had any upgrade!
And i have been to the Values/Moderate/Deluxe!!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

While we have only been staying onsite since 2010, we've never been upgraded. Who knows...maybe my 40th bday trip will be the first time. I had a dream the other night that they couldn't work us into AKL (don't think that's going to happen) and I had to choose between GF, Poly, or CR. Hey, a girl can dream.

 

[Bob]

Last trip to The World the great folks @ AKL bumped us up from a standard view to a savannah view room. Was so grateful for the kind gift that I wrote their mgmt a thank you letter when we got home (home away from WDW).

 

[CaptainShortty]

Upgrades DO happen at the resort but you are talking about two very different kinds of upgrades. One upgrade is to a different category within the resort. This happens quite often and is done at the discretion of the resort to ensure that everyone has a room for the night. For example, if Animal Kingdom Lodge is oversold in their standard room category but has a bunch of "leftover" Savannah View rooms, some of those lucky reservations that were booked standard view will be upgraded at no charge to a Savannah View room. Determining who gets those rooms depends on many things and varies from day to day and resort to resort. (Explaining it further would require me to get more technical then I think most will understand).

The other type of upgrade is from one resort to a resort of a "higher level". This is done VERY infrequently and only because one resort is oversold. The process of doing this is called "walking". When this happens, certain reservations are pulled out and given the upgrade because there aren't enough rooms to fit all that booked there for the night. All hotels (Disney included) are sold with the idea that a certain percentage will not show up. This means that the hotel can be sold to over 100%. When this happens and then all the guests DO show up, some guests are walked to different resorts. They are always walked to "better" resorts because of the inconvenience it puts on the guests.

Upgrades do sometimes occur as guest service recovery or a magical moment but that happens on a case by case basis and it doesn't happen very often.