Any chance of getting an upgrade at Poly?

[disneymania]

Hi, we just changed our reservation to Poly & I was going to request one of the longhouses which is close to everything but was hesitant to do so because I would love to get upgraded to lagoon view when we arrive. Do they do this much at this resort? I know some do & some don't. Would requesting a longhouse mess this up for me? Also, which one is the most convenient longhouse?
Thanks!!!

 

[Lewisc]

Relatively few of the rooms are LV. Not only are upgrades somewhat rare but there might not be any available LV rooms even if you're willing to pay. I do agree waiting until you check in may SLIGHTLY increase the chance of an upgrade. When I stayed at the POLY they hadn't even looked at my fax. I checked in, early am because I stayed at an airport hotel, they simply showed me what rooms were available and I selected from those rooms. I had expected to have to drop off my luggage and come back later fro a room. It worked out well.

Free upgrades are somewhat common in places like the AKL where under 10% of the rooms are standard. Unless AKL has very high occupancy many of the people booked in standard rooms get upgraded.

 

[lark]

Agree with what the last poster said, upgrades, for obvious reasons, are most difficult when trying to upgrade from a room for which there is plentiful supply to a room with less plentiful supply. Not impossible, the chances are just reduced.

Two other factors that go into time-of-check-in upgrades: (1) how long is your stay, and (2) what time are you checking in.

Add in the millions of little factors beyond your control, and it's just impossible to say. I think I agree with the school of thought that says reserve the room you want, request what you want, and be happy. Anything extra is gravy.

But to answer the question you asked directly, I have no basis for saying this other than common sense, but I would think that very definitely yes, the more specific requests you make about your room, the lesser chance you have at an upgrade.

 

[ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!]

I'd rather put in my request for the room/longhouse I want, than to be disappointed of no upgrade and be put somewhere completely opposite of what I wanted.

lark said it best...

 

[mom2cinderella]

I *think* we received an upgrade at the Poly last week. We checked in at approx. 2:00 and our room wasn't ready. I sent dh and the kids on to Epcot and went to the Kona for an iced cappucino. I got tired of dragging around dh's laptop and our room still wasn't ready so I went to luggage services to drop it off. A gentleman was standing there talking to the men behind the desk and when he heard I still didn't have a room (it was around 3:30 by this point) he asked me if I had made any requests, I said no and with one quick call we had a room. It was 3301 in Fiji and it couldn't have been garden view. It overlooked the little Poly beach and you could also see the Wedding Pavilion. I was soooo happy - what a view! We had booked the 7 for 5 and then had a one night reservation after that and ended up being moved to Tokelau for that one night. It was very nice but a little bit of a let down after Fiji. If we go back to the Poly I'll just book a lagoon view.

Michele

 

[Lewisc]

Tikiman's site says Fuji is GV. Your description, you had a view of the beach and wedding pavilion, NOT the lagoon.

Originally posted by mom2cinderella
I *think* we received an upgrade at the Poly last week. We checked in at approx. 2:00 and our room wasn't ready. I ........ It was 3301 in Fiji and it couldn't have been garden view. It overlooked the little Poly beach and you could also see the Wedding Pavilion. I was soooo happy - what a view! We had booked the 7 for 5 and then had a one night reservation after that and ended up being moved to Tokelau for that one night. It was very nice but a little bit of a let down after Fiji. If we go back to the Poly I'll just book a lagoon view.

Michele

 

[Sammie]

as stated some GV rooms at the Polynesian have very nice views.

 

[mom2cinderella]

Well, I could see water, so I thought that Disney would count that as a lagoon view. Anyway, it was beautiful.

Michele

 

[DizMom11]

Mom2cinderella,

What was it about Tokelau that you found to be a let down, besides the view? I have requested either Rotonga or Tokelau for our 10 night Feb. trip

 

[Tikiman]

Marina views, pool views and partial lagoon (sideways views) are considered garden views. I think Fiji has great views but you could never see the fireworks and castle from Fiji where many of the rooms on the west side of Tokelau you can see the castle and fireworks from your balcony off to the right. This is why I think Tokelau has the best value for a garden view since many pay for lagoon so they can see the fireworks from their room but in Tokelau you pay garden view prices and see the fireworks in some cases.

 

[KristiKelly]

We were there Oct 9-16, we paid for a garden view & were going to ask (& willing to pay for) upgrade @ ck-in. We checked in Columbus Day weekend & no upgrades were available. We were giving a room (forget the #) in Tovalu, our room had a terrible view, we had a big tree directly in front of our balcony & what could be seen around the tree was the side of the Fiji building. The room also smelled of smoke & we had requested Non-smoking.

After 3 nights (& asking daily) we were giving an upgrade to lagoon view for $60 night. This time we were in room #3029 in the Tahiti building. The building is a non-smoking building. From our balcony, we could see the Grand Floridian, the Castle, Space Mountain, monorail, ferries going to MK from the transportation center. We found this to be a pretty good location & AWESOME view. We could walk to the transportation center faster than we could the resort monorail & bus stop. From the trans. ctr. we could catch the monorail for both Epc. & MK. This building is farther away from the main building & the pool, but was well worth the $$$.

 

[mom2cinderella]

What was it about Tokelau that you found to be a let down, besides the view?

Oh - absolutely nothing! I can't find the cable I need to upload pictures so I can't show you the two different views. Aside from that, the rooms were virtually the same and I think both buildings were equally convenient to the monorail, restaurants, etc. I just loved the view from our Fiji room so much. You will be so very happy at the Poly! The service is excellent! (I can think of only two cast members who could have used a little extra pixie dust. ) Even my 6 year old son commented on how peaceful it was!

Michele

 

[MsSpinShady]

Michele,

Did you use your length of stay pass the last day after you checked out and they reassigned you to Tokelau?

We're leaving tomorrow, and I have a one night reservation after our package so that we could use our LOS pass and then fly home the next day. Now I'm worried that if I check out and check back in, they will deactivate the key card with our LOS pass and we will not be able to get into the parks our last day.

Thanks for your report on the rooms - we have requested Tokelau, but I've been reading all of Tikiman's information and don't think we can really go wrong anywhere at the Poly! (Thanks Tikiman!!!)

Aloha!

(A VERY excited) MsSpinShady

 

[kelscross]

We stayed in Tokelau on the side that you could see the lagoon. It was like having a LV for GV prices. I had requested Tokelau 3rd floor and got it. We couldn't see the castle directly due to a palm tree right in the line of site, but you could see GF and CR and the lagoon. If you went one door down there was a viewing area that you could see the castle straight on.

If I were going to the Poly again I will definately request Tokelau.

Have fun!

 

[BambiTamby]

I can't imagine a really "bad view" at the Poly!
All that foliage, even the rooms facing the parking lot aren't that bad!

You NEVER know when you'll get an upgrade!
Best kind is when you don't even think about it!
It just happens....

Keep in mind that you'll attract more bees with honey than vinegar!

Have fun! We always do!

 

[mom2cinderella]

Did you use your length of stay pass the last day after you checked out and they reassigned you to Tokelau?

We sure did. We had 4pm PS for Crystal Palace. Got to the Magic Kingdom around 10 til. I pulled out my halloween party tickets and the CM said I would have to wait until 4 so we just used our old room keys with no problem!

Michele

 

[KristiKelly]

Bambi Tamby,

I had heard that there are no "bad views" at the Poly., there is at least one because we had it. I wrote previously that we had a tree right in front of our balcony, not any kind of special tree - just a tree, a big tree - took up the entire balcony. On the other side of this tree we could see a building, no windows, no nothing. There was absolutely nothing to see unless you looked down through the tree, you could see the sidewalk. There was absolutely no "magic" to this room. I was so dissappointed with "my" choice of hotel for our trip - then we paid $60 to upgrade to Lagoon - wow, that's what the Poly is all about. Truly Magical. Castle view, Space Mountain, fireworks from our balcony. Before we upgraded, we walked around the resort looking at other garden view rooms, we would say "now that's a nice view" or "I'd like to be in that room" then we'd go back to our room & our tree. I wish I could remember the room #.