Surprise Upgrades?

[yaya74]

just want to share my recent experience on a surprising upgrade at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

My booking was for a Main Building Standard Club Room. I checked in online around 20 days mark. My room request was just the first available room with 2 queen beds and a sofa bed, which is the standard configuration for that particular room category. I arrived at GF around 8am. The room was not ready at the time so I stored my luggages at the Bell Desk and went to the park.

Around 1pm, I received a room ready text. The text said “Room 4001 on the 5th floor”. I then looked up the room location on TouringPlans......... I could not believe what TP’s map shown for room 4001..... it’s the Grand Suite!!! Probably the biggest room on WDW property. I told myself there must be something wrong with TP’s map. It’s just not possible!! So I did not want to believe it until I saw the room with my own eyes...

(Will post pics later)

So this is room 4001 at the Grand Floridian: 2200 sq ft, two rooms, 2.5 bath, one King, two twins...bigger than my real home. My family stayed at this beautiful presidential suite for the past 5 days... this must be what it feels like to win the lottery.

My friends and family kept asking me how and why my family got to stay there. My only answer is that “God is good.”

 

[Disnsyncey]

I have stayed at AKL 3 times, always upgraded from standard to Savanna view.....I'm scared to ever push my luck again! (but that ratio of savanna/standard rooms makes sense)

 

[Tulles]

Just leaving on the Magical Express now. We stayed at Pop and booked standard. Got upgraded to pool view in the 80s section. Not an upgrade I wanted due to noise but we were close to the buses which is what I requested.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Booked a standard view at WL for a single night pre-cruise this past April. Surprise upgrade to a 1-bedroom villa in Copper Creek. It was just a single night but we were super excited.

 

[Snowysmom]

In May 2016 we booked a lagoon view room at GF. When we checked in the CM said she had a dormer room for us if we wanted to wait for it. Of course! The room was a theme park view. We could see the castle, space mountain, the train station, and the monorail. We sat on the balcony and watched the fireworks. When I got up during the night I would look outside to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

 

[GiJohnsGirl]

Man I wish I was as lucky as all of you! I don't believe I've received any upgrade. Maybe someday!

That’s what it is -luck. When they do a “walk” it means something has gone wrong and deluxes usually have more availability because groups book mods and below. I have a friend that worked the AKL and they did a family of the day who were randomly chosen to get an upgrade usually two room levels above what they booked (sometimes even the presidential suite if it wasn’t booked for duration of stay). I remembered pop AC went out one summer in a huge block of rooms. There were a ton of walks. It also depends on the cast member, room availability, the hotels’ budget..etc. I really want to be family of the day though (one day) . We have had the fortunate good luck to be upgrade at por, GFL and a few others. Before we left Florida they started asking people who flat out asked if they wanted to pay the up charge.

 

[GiJohnsGirl]

Does check in, in person (vs online) increase chances of an upgrade? That’s my hesitation with doing online check in....

Even if you check in online go to the desk. Hubs and I always do online checking and have gotten upgraded. It’s also super hard to upgrade someone staying 5+ nights.

 

[MaskedRose86]

Do you ask if there are upgrades available or what do you do when you go to the desk having already checked in?

Even if you check in online go to the desk. Hubs and I always do online checking and have gotten upgraded. It’s also super hard to upgrade someone staying 5+ nights.

 

[Newsies]

We have been extremely luck at the Poly this year.

In January, we checked in and found out we had been upgraded from our two nights with a theme park view to two nights in a Bora Bora Bungalow.

In August, we checked in and found out we had been upgraded to Club Level for the week we were there.

 

[Lynne M]

Do you ask if there are upgrades available or what do you do when you go to the desk having already checked in?

Complimentary upgrades are generally assigned before you arrive, and are done for the resort’s operational needs (overbooking, maintenance, etc). There’s not really any way to improve your chances of getting one. It’s usually a matter of the resort needing to free up a certain room type for a certain range of dates, and you just happen to be the person who booked that room type for those dates.

 

[LAS321]

We've been extremely lucky in the past. We were upgraded twice at POR to a Royal Room and once at CBR to a waterview. We've never been upgraded to another resort....that would be awesome!

 

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

In April we stayed in GF. We were upgraded from a Pool view garden room to a lagoon view room for no additional cost. It was amazing.

 

[jgoody]

OK here's my story from just last weekend. We had done Saturday and Sunday at the Universal theme parks. It was early Sunday evening and we were coming to Contemporary for two nights and two days at MK. My five-year old daughter was really excited. She ran into the lobby before any of us, and apparently started prancing around. Possibly singing as well--I don't know. What I do know is that by the time I walked into the lobby, one of her sneakers was ten feet away from her.

A very nice CM was standing in front of the check-in desk, and invited me to come over to check in with her. She commented on how excited my daughter was, and we both joked about how she had flung her sneaker off with her dancing and prancing. During check-in the CM said excuse me, walked away for a couple of minutes, came back at one point to say it would be just a couple of minutes more, and then came back for good to finish check-in. As we were wrapping things up, I sensed two CMs slightly behind me on my left. As the first CM handed me the sheet with my room number, a fourth CM, behind me on my right, glanced at the room number (at this point I had no idea of the significance of the "14" at the front of the number) and then whispered it to the two guys on my left. That seemed weird, and frankly, at the time, a little intrusive.

I took all the paperwork and started to turn around, which is when I saw that CM #2 and CM #3--the guys to my left--were holding balloons. They asked to speak to me, explained that every day at Disney World is magical, but some days can be a little more magical than others, and said that they had decided to make us Family of the Day and upgrade us from our standard room to a club level 1BR suite with a theme park view. The family went nuts. Totally unexpected, can't-believe-this-is-happening-to-us nuts. And then this was one of the best parts: CM #1 (who had checked us in) and CM #2 offered to escort us to our rooms, and as we were gathering our things in the lobby to make our way up, CM #2 leaned into me and said, "Now maybe we can do something about that Gryffindor hat, huh?" I had my son hide the hat like the contraband that it was.

The CM's were amazing, gave us an awesome tour of the club lounge, the free food, the balcony view, and our enormous suite. We shot a video with CM #2. That night the whole family had an unforgettable, this-really-feels-like-magic moment watching the fireworks under the blankets out on our balcony. The next two days the concierge hosts were super-helpful to us, adding Fastpasses so that we could get in everything we wanted to do.

This was our third visit to Disney with our kids. We're already trying to figure out how to get back sooner than we had planned, and how to get back to the club level. Can our daughter learn to twirl a baton before our next visit? I believe in her...

 

[goofynut41]

Just curious has anybody ever been or could be upgraded at WL or Poly to a cabin or Bungalow? Now that would be REAL MAGIC!!!!

 

[discookiemonsta]

One year, checking into AoA Little Mermaid standard room with FD, I was told our room was not ready yet. I said 'no problem'. The CM said he could text us when room was ready. I said ok. Then he tells me to hold on a minute, walks away and when he comes back he asks how I would feel about a free upgrade to one of the suites!

This was at Christmas for a 14 night stay so we were in Disney heaven.

Of course Disney's 'evil master plan' worked and we have booked a suite ever since then hahahaha.

 

[saskdw]

We've never received an upgrade of any kind at any hotel ever. No luck here I guess.

 

[Lynne M]

Just curious has anybody ever been or could be upgraded at WL or Poly to a cabin or Bungalow? Now that would be REAL MAGIC!!!!

Anything's possible, but there's much less chance of that happening than getting a free upgrade to a better view category or a club level room (and that's rare).

If you're booking on points, virtually no chance. DVC upgrades are as rare as hen's teeth, and generally only happen when there's a maintenance issue and there's nowhere else for them to put you in the category you booked.

If you're booked at the hotel portion of WL or Poly, again, virtually no chance. The cabins and bungalows belong to the associated DVC resort, not the hotel.

If you're staying on a cash reservation at Copper Creek or Polynesian Villas, and there happens to be a cabin/bungalow available, and there's something wrong with your room and nowhere else to put you, maybe a tiny chance.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

I’ve been upgraded to a pool view from a standard room several times. That’s about it.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Not exactly Disney, but we were upgraded from a standard room at the Swan to a grand suite in November. It was very nice having that extra space, especially the extra bathroom.

 

[FSU Girl]

We recently had the most amazing free upgrade I've ever experienced at Disney and I've been going since I was a baby so almost 30 years. We checked into the Grand Floridian for a one night stay, I booked it last minute so didn't put any room requests or anything. We ended up getting there later than planned and it was 3pm so I figured the room would be ready. When we walked in they said the room was still being cleaned. I thought that was a little odd and mentioned that. I checked the app to see if there was any room info and noticed the category had changed to say Victorian Suite. I'd never heard of it and googled it to find out it was one of their four suites that can't be booked online and was a couple thousand a night. I've never stayed club level before, but it sure was a pretty awesome way to experience it. I've never been in a nicer hotel room. It had four balconies! I don't think anything will ever be able to top that.