Free Upgrade??????

[Katzateer]

We have never received an upgrade at WDW but our one cruise we got upgraded quite a few levels. We got a balcony and there were chocolate dipped strawberries and other treats in our room when we arrived. I even called to make sure we were in the right room.

It was a year or two after 9/11 and a lot of the passengers had used passes they had given out (either their cruise had been ancelled or cut short) and had filled the lower decks. We had booked our cruise a year in advance and just lucked out with the upgrade

[TheVBs]

We've never been upgraded at WDW, but we were upgraded at Disney's Hilton Head Island resort. We got an email offer for special rates, booked a studio for $68 and they upgraded us to a 2 bedroom suite!! I think we were there for 4 nights. We felt so spoiled. The girls had their own room and we had ours. Have no idea how we got so lucky, but we made sure they knew how grateful we were. We're not DVC and have never stayed at a DVC resort, so I don't know if it was meant to tempt us to join. Just know we loved it!

[nfrustaci]

several years ago (2) we booked the POP which is my favorite of the values and I received an email that they overbooked the hotel and was offering to upgrade us to the boardwalk or Saratoga Springs. We chose Saratoga because of its close proximaty to DTD. We also received free dining that trip. That was a late summer deal in september, just after the kids started school. The room was really nice and the beds were AWESOME ! Honestly we thought that the buses there were horrible. waiting at least 20 min every morning for a bus to take us to any of the theme parks. but the return from the parks was great. and what a treck to the main area. we were just acros the lake but it was a good 15 min walk. Good Luck !!! Magic does happen.

[mom2morgan]

Well, I have a theory that if there are "better" rooms available and they have decided to offer upgrades, they are more likely to give them to people already in the 'worst' rooms. Since I really want to save money this trip, I've requested standard view in both resorts. I'll save money, and MAY just get lucky enough to score an upgrade, but of course I'm not counting on that. I think they are most inclined to do that at AKL when they have Savannah rooms that aren't being used - good way to encourage people to BOOK Savannah next time around ;-)

[kangan2roos2]

My family was upgraded once when we stayed at Poly in the concierge level. It was a great surprise because she gave us our room key and didn't tell us that we now had a MK view. She enjoyed when we went back to the desk with the most surprised looks on our faces. We kept saying Thank you, Thank you. We went off season and my son was 6. I think it was because like others have said, it was off season, not crowded, and my son was so excited!

[DisneyFan1979]

We've been upgraded from a standard to a waterview at the Beach Club and from a standard to an MK view at the Poly. Both times we arrived fairly early--I have the feeling that if you arrive early and the room they've assigned you to isn't cleaned yet, they'll put you in another one that is cleaned (and sometimes you just happen to get lucky and the room that's unassigned and clean is an upgraded one).

I wish Disney had a "frequent guest" program like other hotels do. I stay at the Omni in NYC once a year or so and am in their frequent guest program--I've received some kind of upgrade every single stay dating back to the second time I stayed there!

[Polynesian Dweller]

Upgrades aren't as common as the various forums would make it seem. If Disney upgraded just 1% of its roughly 25000 rooms that would be 250 upgrade per night or over 91000 per year. Still, 99% or slightly over 9,000,000 room nights aren't upgraded.

If its 3% then that's 750 per night or 274000 per year and 97% not upgraded or 8,850,000 room nights not upgraded.

The point is, the shear number of rooms mean that there are lots of people who can report upgrades. But there are far more who didn't recieve obe. Don't go expecting an upgrade and be happy when you get it.

[brownie]

The point is, the shear number of rooms mean that there are lots of people who can report upgrades. But there are far more who didn't recieve obe.

People who receive an upgrade are probably more likely to "report" it than people who don't, so that can make it seem like it happens more than it really does.

Nice perspective on the numbers.

[Buttercup]

The only upgrades we've ever gotten were from a "Standard View" to a "Preferred View" room -- most recently at Caribbean Beach Resort. I think it was because they over booked the standard rooms, and there was a cheerleading group there so they wanted to keep all of them together in one area. So we happily took the upgrade!
But I've been going to Disney every year for 30+ years now, and the upgrades have only happened 2-3 times for us, so it's definitely not something we plan on getting each time. It's just if the hotel has overbooked in one way or another. They don't tend to do it (at least for us!) just to be nice!