AKL upgrade?

[marymouse]

We have a standard room booked at AKL for mid May. I finally made a decision. Anyway, what are the chances of getting a savanah view room? This is our first delux stay and I will be content with the standard just wanted to know if I should bother asking for the upgrade.
Thanks in advance,
Mary

 

[lizzie64]

Hi Marymouse,

If I recall correctly, most of the upgrades I've read about at AKL have been Standard to Pool View.

I'm not sure how many people have been upgraded to savannah. I guess it depends on occupancy. It never hurts to ask.

Good luck.

 

[disneyfanatic60]

We were upgraded last May from standard view to a pool view as mentioned above. I think if you really want a savannah view, you are better off booking one. We will be there mid-May. We are splitting a trip between Poly/conceirge and AKL/savannah.

 

[lizzie64]

Originally posted by disneyfanatic60
We were upgraded last May from standard view to a pool view as mentioned above. I think if you really want a savannah view, you are better off booking one. We will be there mid-May. We are splitting a trip between Poly/conceirge and AKL/savannah.

Disneyfanatic60,

That is so funny. We will be there mid May too, and are doing the opposite you are. We are doing Poly lagoon view and then concierge at AKL.

We'll have to swap stories.

Liz

 

[DeeCeeSW]

We booked a pool view for September in hopes that we might be upgraded to a Savannah view. Is this unheard of??

 

[giatocj]

We just returned last week from a trip to Disney where we stayed at AKL...and had a deluxe Savannah View room...and honestly...it was wonderful...I don't regret spending the money at all. We ended up having to get a second room because my future son-in-law snores louder than a chainsaw, so we put them in a Pool View room...their room was very, very nice, but I am now completely spoiled by the great room we had on the Savannah...we're already planning for next year.

Donna C.

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by DeeCeeSW
We booked a pool view for September in hopes that we might be upgraded to a Savannah view. Is this unheard of??

Although it's not unheard of, it's more likely for standards to get upgraded to pool view. If you really want the savannah view, you should just reserve it, rather than being dissapointed.

Anne

 

[DeeCeeSW]

We chose pool view because we figured we'd be happy with that even wothout the upgrade. I would hate to reserve a standard view and count on the upgrade to pool view and not get it! Standard view would have been considerably less expensive but I wasn't willing to take that chance. And now that POFQ is closing, I have a feeling that AKL and WL will be a lot fuller than we originally expected. Not everyone can be upgraded!

 

[hightown]

With the closing of POFQ, (if it's anything like last year when CBR closed and in 2001 when FQ also closed) a lot of folks where offered upgrades to W/L and AKL w/small additional money.

If that happens again, maybe the disney folks will upgrade the people who are staying in the AKL standard at a higher rate than the transferrees. (hope that's not confusing.)

It seems like that's what happened when we were at W/L in 2001. The hotel was packed solid when we arrived but we were upgraded to woods view from standard.

At least I hope they would do something like that. It would be more fair, I think.

I just changed my reservation over from CBR to AKL Pool View. If we get some pixie dust and found ourselves in a Savanah room, that would be fine but meanwhile, I pool view I would enjoy and didn't want a standard view. Also, out of 1,2xx rooms, only 108 are pool view and 129 (something like that) are standard. So wanted to get my reservation in asap. That was just before POFQ announcement.

Regardless, it seems that everyone loves AKL no matter what room they have. Have a great time!

Sharon

 

[disneyfanatic60]

Hey Lizzie,

That's too funny. Exactly when will you be where? We will be at Poly from 5/15 thru 5/18 and then AKL until 5/20. I had originally booked Poly the entire trip leaving WDW on 5/19. After some discussion with the kids (my hubbie is not making this trip for the first time), we decided we wanted to stay another night. Poly was a little too much to do that, so we moved our last two nights to AKL. It ended up costing just about $100 more to stay another night.

I wanted to do AKL/conceirge but again, was watching the budget and chose a savannah view. I do intend to ask when I check in how much to upgrade to conceirge hoping for some sort of a price break to make it worthwhile. If not, we'll be perfectly happy with the savannah room.

We chose Poly first so we'd be close to the parks on our first few days and we would use the AKL time to "veg!" Maybe we'll run into each other!

 

[lizzie64]

disneyfanatic60 -

We chose the Poly first for the same reason, then AKL. We are checking into the Poly May 9-May 13 then AKL May 13-May 18. SO I think we'll miss each other.

Can't wait to do Poly and AKL concierge. maybe next trip we'll do Poly concierge.

 

[karenrc]

We just returned last week from a Savannah view room at AKL. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful having that view from our room was! I am NOT a morning person and yet I kept leaving earlier than necessary wake up calls and bounding out of bed to gaze out from the balcony. Every time we came back I ran to the balcony and opened the door and went out. I had a hard time closing the drapes EVER (and yes I knew there were cameras there ).

The whole lodge was incredible so I'm sure you'll love it no matter what. But, if you can afford it, go for the savannah view.

I wish I could live in that room! I miss "my" giraffes and zebras.

 

[susy]

Coming from someone who can't really afford deluxe, I agree with Anne. Book the view you want.

We have a woods view booked at WL for NOV and that is the view I want.

We stayed at AKL over labor day and had a great time. We booked the standard view and receive an upgrade to delxue pool view. It was a large room and had an actually incredible view! Especially at night! The room as quite large for just DH, myself and our 4yo DS. The best thing about this was the location. We were on the fifth floor, right near the bridge and a few steps from the elevator down to the lobby, pool , restaurants. I also liked opening our door and seeing the lobby.

If I were to stay at AKL again I would try to book a savannah view. Only because my mom booked and received a standard view and had not much at all to say about her stay. She is a little more well traveled than myself and her opinion counts a lot wth me when it comes to those things. I dont think I would like a standard view at AKL or at WL for that matter.

At the mods or values, I don't care because we usually have the drapes closed( for some reason we always get a first floor room!)

 

[disneyfanatic60]

Karen--can you tell me what room you were in? We will be there in Mid-May and I'm starting to think about what room I'd like to try and request. Can you give me an indication as to how far from the lobby/elevators/etc. you where? Thanks.

Lizzie--it does appear we will miss you. I hope you enjoy your trip. I'm sure like me--you cannot wait. Trust me on this one--next time book conceirge if you can swing it at Poly. It is awesome!!!! I hope you enjoy AKL/conceirge.

 

[chrissyk]

We've stayed at the AKL twice, and both times we've been upgraded to a Savannah view when we booked a standard view. We didn't even ask at check-in, either. They just put us in a Savannah view room both times. The resort didn't seem full either time, though, so maybe that's why? I'm sure that I'm in the minority on this, but I'd say that unless you're going at a super-crowded time like school-vacation week, book the standard, and if you don't get upgraded on check-in, THEN pay for the Savannah view.

 

[Redmic]

We were there last October and were upgraded from standard to savannah without asking. So there is hope!

 

[CarolA]

AKL is the one place I am not willing to trust hope! To me the view is worth guanteeing and I know that I would not be happy with a view of either the Pool or parking lot! Plus, you can't request certain savannahs in advance if you are doing the upgrade at check in. Paying for the view, I had not problems going back to the front desk and complaining when my Savannah view was the people holding pen. I don't think I c ould do that if I had been upgraded! (They could just decide to give me the room I paid for!)

 

[karenrc]

Disneyfanatic60 - We were in room 2523. I faxed a room request that said non-smoking and bunk beds were most important (DH and I were there with 2 teenage sons) but that we were hoping for a great animal view. I said Zebra trail overlooking Arusha Savannah about halfway down the trail on 3rd floor near a feeding station. We were pretty much right in front of a tree with a giraffe feeder on it. I think they knew best and did me a favor by putting me on the 2nd instead of 3rd floor - when I looked out of higher floor windows I felt the view of specific animals wasn't as good although the panorama might have been better.

We were a little more than halfway down the trail. If you look at a map of AKL there are elevators just past the pool. We were one block of rooms past those. It was pretty convenient to the pool, Mara and a pay phone for my DS17 to call his girlfriend. It's pretty far from the lobby, but it didn't seem like it. We stayed at the Beach Club in 1997 and the walk to our room from the lobby seemed like an eternity - this didn't. Of course in 1997 we had an 8 year old who is 14 now The viewing windows every so often are like little treats too. We also learned a short cut from the bus stop - in a card key door, down to 1st floor, across pool area, in to the elevators nearest our room.