How do people know they have been upgraded before they go?

[atisikitabasket]

I've seen people post that they are being upgraded before their arrival. Do they send letters out telling you ahead of time? What are the chances of being upgraded? Are you better off not requesting a certain area or something? Never been upgraded just wanted to see how it works.

Thanks!

 

[Mickiethepooh]

I don't remember reading any posts where people had been summarily upgraded before arrival, only those where a code came out of something of that sort and they upgraded to a different resort of room category for the same or less money.

 

[grimley1968]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know how you could know if you're being upgraded for free until you check in, unless of course you pay for the upgrade before arrival.

It is my understanding that rooms are assigned (by the resort) the day you arrive, so I don't know how they'd know before that day what upgrade possibilities exist, if any.

Now, I have read some posts where people were upgraded to a different part of a resort, or even a different resort entirely, due to construction of some areas of some resorts. However, this impact is known probably for weeks before the guests' arrival.

But upgrades of a more individual nature, I would think, would be applied upon check in and no earlier. But I could be wrong.

 

[fla4fun]

I've seen the posts too. People say that they pull up their reservation online and it has a room listed of a higher category than what they booked. So they post they've been upgraded. I've never seen anyone come back after the fact and say they were disapointed that it wasn't true, so I would have to assume it was. I can never bring up my ressies online, so I wouldn't know if it happened to me until I check in.

 

[grimley1968]

I've seen the posts too. People say that they pull up their reservation online and it has a room listed of a higher category than what they booked. So they post they've been upgraded. I've never seen anyone come back after the fact and say they were disapointed that it wasn't true, so I would have to assume it was. I can never bring up my ressies online, so I wouldn't know if it happened to me until I check in.

I've seen some of those posts. Here's one example where it wasn't really an upgrade:

One person said that when they checked into WL, they had been upgraded from a woods view to a courtyard view, for no extra $$$. But when they got to their room, it viewed woods and part of the villas of VWL. I've stayed in that exact area before and it was definitely woods view when I stayed there.

But WL has changed some of the rooms in that area to be courtyard view, even though they don't view the real courtyard that shows the feature pool, the geyser, Bay Lake, etc.

So, technically, that's an "upgrade", when in reality you can have woods view rooms with much better views than that newly classified courtyard view room, which offers no courtyard to be seen.

 

[klwdisney]

We received a free upgrade last week and didn't know until we arrived at the room. They didn't even tell us at the front desk at check in. We requested a standard room at POR, requested hopefully aligator bayou and hopefully close to main bldg. When we got to our room, it was a little farther than we would've liked at first but fell in love with it's location by day 1. They ended up upgrading us to a king bed riverfront corner room with 2 windows!