Downgraded at AllStar Music

[I Love Pluto]

We were also "downgraded" at AS Sports in July. They were NOT very nice!

 

[becca-becca]

We are staying at POR in January in a standard room. So, I think we are essentially on the bottom rung of the "room ladder". We are not requesting any certain area, except we have 5 and need to be in Alligator Bayou. We have a late checkin (about 11:00 pm). We can't be downgraded, can we since we are already at the bottom.

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Even with 5 it is not guaranteed that you'll be in AB. People often say it is, but according to a guest services manager at POR, it is not a guarantee.

The resort can assign a room in the Mansions with a rollaway.

If you prefer AB, definitely add that to your reservation - some of the buildings are quite far from the Lobby/Food Court, so it might not hurt to add that to your request if you'd prefer a room closer.

Have a GREAT trip!!

 

[maxiesmom]

I think the difference here may have been that the OP still had a balance to pay at check in. The way I see it, since the reservation was not paid in full Disney did have the right to downgrade him. It was never an issue of "getting what you paid for" because the balance had not been paid. He was charged the correct amount for a standard room. I do agree that it was not an ideal situation, but it seems that there was no real harm done.

Melissa

No! No! No!

When you have paid, or have agreed to pay, for a particular room view/location, that is what you should get! Would you tell someone who booked a MK view at the Contemporary who was moved to a Garden Wing room that there was "no real harm done"? Same thing!

I had the same problem at the ASMu a few years ago. Got the whole "Guests have decided to extend their vacation and we can't make them move" speach.

It is a shame, because I really liked the ASMu otherwise. It was a very pretty resort at night, and we had no problems with the busses. But I will never return as long as they continue to pull this same trick on guests. Unless I am in the mood for a fight, because if it happened again, I wouldn't be so quick to accept what I was given.

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

I had the same problem at the ASMu a few years ago. Got the whole "Guests have decided to extend their vacation and we can't make them move" speach.

I would be appalled to have a CM tell me that. They certainly can ask those to leave. They need to be told that the resort is sold out, and the room that they are occupying is reserved for an incoming guest and that will need to vacate the room and do so by 11:00am. I have a few friends in the hotel/motel business (we live in a resort town too) and they have encountered this and that is what they tell customers. Why should Disney resorts be any different. I realize that Disney has the magic, but they can't magically come up with more rooms to accomodate those that wish to stay longer if they are sold out. And I think it is unreasonable for customers to request that they get special privileges.

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

Someone posted somewhere on here that as long as the guests who want to stay pay for the room for the additional night, they actually CANNOT kick them out. Someone on here can correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure that is the case.

 

[mask]

Uh-oh. I'm already nervous about our late arrival on Jan. 1. We'll be driving in and probably won't arrive at ASMu until around 11 p.m. We have a Family Suite booked, package paid in full. There is no way any of us will get decent sleep if we are squished into 2 double beds in a regular Value room. I'm already resigned to crowded parks that week. I really don't want to start our trip with a room hassle.

M.A.

 

[chickenskin]

Hi Mr. and Mrs. Smith, while you ordered and paid for a Lexus all we have left is a Yugo, we'll refund the difference, sorry. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, "you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the reservation." This is totally unacceptable, requests are one thing, what you booked and paid for is another and you should be offered a similar room at another resort. When we check in to WL in a couple weeks, if we are told our courtyard view is not available, the manager will be on the phone to the Poly letting them know we are on our way over. I applaud people for keeping their cool but I believe they are letting Disney off the hook way too easily for this sort of thing and more needs to be done. I've worked in numerous resort hotels and believe me we've never let this happen and I know many will say "but this is Disney", and while I'm a Disney lover, that's not an excuse. When I worked at a resort hotel in Colorado, if somebody paid for a slopeside condo with a view of the mountain and were told we overbooked, do you think they would accept a room with a view of the parking lot? And don't even think about telling a casino gambler in AC that the room they booked wasn't available, oh man would that get ugly real fast. People work hard and save for Disney trips, heck it might be a once in a lifetime vacation, and to have this happen, no, unacceptable. My apologies for being long winded, but I've spent my entire adult life in customer service, primarily the resort hotel industry, and while you may not be able to please everyone, at the very least you do everything in your power to give them what they've paid for, no we never overbooked hedging our bets that someone would cancel.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Uh-oh. I'm already nervous about our late arrival on Jan. 1. We'll be driving in and probably won't arrive at ASMu until around 11 p.m. We have a Family Suite booked, package paid in full. There is no way any of us will get decent sleep if we are squished into 2 double beds in a regular Value room. I'm already resigned to crowded parks that week. I really don't want to start our trip with a room hassle.

M.A.

While it's still going to be crowded that week.. people will start leaving 'en masse' on January 1. You shouldn't have much problem.

Despite what you read on the DIS, this is really an isolated thing.

I travelled in December before arriving on the 24th and my room was exactly as I had booked.

Under Florida law, a resort or hotel cannot evict a guest who insists on staying longer.. up to a maximum of 29 nights. (If they allow a guest to stay beyond 29 or 30 nights without checking out and then in again, it can be considered a 'tenancy'.) Most guests aren't aware of this provision and will 'ask' to stay longer and if there are no rooms they can be told "We have no availability". But for those guests with the moxie to try it, they can simply refuse to check-out.

Resorts can (and usually do) charge the maximum rack rate for the room for any additional nights to discourage these extensions.

Knox

 

[Allison]

I think the difference here may have been that the OP still had a balance to pay at check in. The way I see it, since the reservation was not paid in full Disney did have the right to downgrade him. It was never an issue of "getting what you paid for" because the balance had not been paid. He was charged the correct amount for a standard room. I do agree that it was not an ideal situation, but it seems that there was no real harm done.

Melissa

That wouldn't matter at all. The balance on all room only reservations isn't due until you check in. The room was reserved not requested.

 

[thatgirl23]

This post has me worried. We're checking into the AllStars Dec. 6th but won't arrive until about 7pm. What are the chances we're going to get downgraded from the preferred room we booked? We haven't paid the entire thing, but we've paid more than the min. one night.

 

[only1alexa]

I would be appalled to have a CM tell me that. They certainly can ask those to leave. They need to be told that the resort is sold out, and the room that they are occupying is reserved for an incoming guest and that will need to vacate the room and do so by 11:00am. I have a few friends in the hotel/motel business (we live in a resort town too) and they have encountered this and that is what they tell customers. Why should Disney resorts be any different. I realize that Disney has the magic, but they can't magically come up with more rooms to accomodate those that wish to stay longer if they are sold out. And I think it is unreasonable for customers to request that they get special privileges.

I agree! A couple of years ago I tried to stay in a room at ASMo after my kids loved it so much (we were doing a split stay w/ part of the stay at OKW) and were told that someone already had the room reserved on the day we check out. (This was on the second of our four days there). I also called last year to see if we could check back into a room we had checked out of early after our flight was cancelled. I couldn't do it because it was already reserved for someone else. I had to "settle" for four days at the Poly. (LOL, yeah, I was really upset about THAT! ) Even after those experiences I totally agree with with their policy. You put money down on a room, it is reserved for you and should not be offered to the person already in the room just because they're there. Not unless you are notified in advance and agree to go to another room or they plan on upgrading you (with your consent) if there are no rooms available.They have your telephone number, why not call when the problem pops up, offer the incoming guest what they can, and THEN grant or deny the request of the guest in the room? They might even find out that the incoming gues was going to cancel anyway or wanted to change resorts.

 

[clkelley]

I have a somewhat related question. Has anyone "asked" to downgrade at checkin??

I have a preferred room at All-Star Movies for 1 night in December. It's preferred because that was all that was available (and yes, I continue to keep checking). I will only physically be occupying the room for about 4 hours, so a standard will be just fine, and I will happily keep the $12 + tax in my pocket.

Has anyone successfully done that??

 

[Gagebre]

I just wanted people to know this could be done. I go to Disney at least 3 times a year and this has never happened to me before. I have actually been upgraded at Wilderness Lodge once. Maybe I should have put up a little more of a fight, but my first thought in that moment was that they would offer me an upgrade to another value in a preferred room and I really wanted to stay in ASmu after hearing about the refurbished rooms. I really didn't want ASMo or ASsp because the rooms were pretty shabby last time I stayed in them. I do love Pop but we had been there only 2 weeks before and I really wanted to try Music (and I did really like the refurbed rooms and enjoyed Broadway section). That being said, I didn't really like the food court at ASMu. Very limited in my opinion, but maybe I'm just used to Pop.