Poll: How many took the upgrade to SSR or OKW?

[PatsGirl]

LyzziesMom: Would you elaborate on the crowds you encountered on the actual weekend? We are arriving Saturday of Labor Day weekend and wondered how the waits will be on Saturday/Sunday/Monday -- I know that Tuesday will be really slow and then we have to leave Wed am

 

[M2DD's]

I hope your right about it being less crowded.I think that you had mentioned you are staying at SSR. Were at OKW.What are your dates again? How old are your kid(s)? I have a feeling that it may be crowded with them upgrading people to try to book more.With all the upgrades I haven't seen any of the other values open rooms.My family is coming in on the 3rd and would like to stay someplace other than sports.
I also forgot to mention that when the POP was so busy when people were checking in they were moving them to other resorts because they had no more rooms left.I think they expect a certain # of people to cancel or not show. also,we checked in close to midnite and it still took a us 45 min to check in.Lucky my kids were wired.
Laura

 

[lyzziesmom]

PatsGirl: From what I remember, it was a little more crowded on actual Labor Day weekend, but it still was not bad at all. There will be lines for the most popular rides, but if you ride them early and use FastPass, it should be quite manageable. I think the longest wait we saw last year over the weekend was about 70 minutes for Soarin' and that was right around lunchtime, when The Land building is already busy from people in there for lunch. Later in the day it was back down to about 30 minutes.

I've posted these before, but I've got a few pictures from our last couple of September trips so you can see the "crowd" levels:

2005:

Last year:

This one is outside the MK the Sunday before Labor Day:

And for anyone venturing offsite, this was Universal last year right after Labor Day:

 

[lyzziesmom]

I hope your right about it being less crowded.I think that you had mentioned you are staying at SSR. Were at OKW.What are your dates again? How old are your kid(s)? I have a feeling that it may be crowded with them upgrading people to try to book more.With all the upgrades I haven't seen any of the other values open rooms.My family is coming in on the 3rd and would like to stay someplace other than sports.
I also forgot to mention that when the POP was so busy when people were checking in they were moving them to other resorts because they had no more rooms left.I think they expect a certain # of people to cancel or not show. also,we checked in close to midnite and it still took a us 45 min to check in.Lucky my kids were wired.
Laura

Yes, we are staying at SSR. I hope it's less crowded too! It would be so great if it's like it was the same time last year, it really felt special. I know this May was a little more crowded than last May.

We will be at SSR 8/31 (checking in late at night) until 9/09. It still doesn't feel like enough to see & do everything that we want to! My two girls are 3 and 8, the older one will be celebrating her 9th birthday during the trip, which is actually on 9/17.

I just keep telling myself that the free dining rooms are just a portion of all rooms, and website availability does not reflect "true" availability. You have to remember that they only block out X amount of rooms for each promotion, and there may be several running simultaneously. I believe they also block out rooms for such things as Expedia, Travelocity, etc. Also keep in mind that the reason they run these promotions such as free dining, is to boost attendance during the slower times. And the DIS is only a small percentage of vacationers, so things can sometimes seem out of proportion on here. I also like to think that so many of the people who are there will be busy eating, freeing up the ride lines!

We had a long check-in at Pop last year too. I don't know why, there was only one family in front of us, but the lady at the front desk was just so slooooow that it took her the better part of an hour to check us in. That was the longest wait we had for the whole 10 days!

 

[M2DD's]

Yes, we are staying at SSR. I hope it's less crowded too! It would be so great if it's like it was the same time last year, it really felt special. I know this May was a little more crowded than last May.

We will be at SSR 8/31 (checking in late at night) until 9/09. It still doesn't feel like enough to see & do everything that we want to! My two girls are 3 and 8, the older one will be celebrating her 9th birthday during the trip, which is actually on 9/17.

I just keep telling myself that the free dining rooms are just a portion of all rooms, and website availability does not reflect "true" availability. You have to remember that they only block out X amount of rooms for each promotion, and there may be several running simultaneously. I believe they also block out rooms for such things as Expedia, Travelocity, etc. Also keep in mind that the reason they run these promotions such as free dining, is to boost attendance during the slower times. And the DIS is only a small percentage of vacationers, so things can sometimes seem out of proportion on here. I also like to think that so many of the people who are there will be busy eating, freeing up the ride lines!

We had a long check-in at Pop last year too. I don't know why, there was only one family in front of us, but the lady at the front desk was just so slooooow that it took her the better part of an hour to check us in. That was the longest wait we had for the whole 10 days!

OMG-I just saw your pics posted my DD(6) has the same swim suit as your DD in the picture from the childrens place.That is to funny From the back that pic looked likes my DD(she is tall 49") and has the same color hair.I don't understan why it took so long to check in at pop.The girl I has barley spoke english.
Laura

 

[Disney Fans]

Question? How did the email work? Did they just ask you to call like some people do and ask? Or did they give you a pin code? Which I would think you wound't have a pin code for the up grade? correct

We were offered a so called upgrade 2 years ago from BC ro GF but when I looked at the price it really would not have been any more then if we would have used the AAA discount so we passed? We were not given a code just a call?

Thanks

 

[lyzziesmom]

Disney Fans: The email contained a pin code that was different for each person and it had to match the pin code that they have in their computer. It had a phone number on it that you had to call. It was a free upgrade, for the price that we already paid to stay at a value we were able to upgrade and stay in studios or 1-br suites at SSR or OKW. In our case, the upgrade for our three rooms was worth over $8300 more than what we actually spent!!

 

[ldo]

I just called the 800# for disney travel and asked if I had gotten the upgrade email offer, b/c I did not have it on my computer---they said I DID have it and I upgraded. (I was truly expecting them to say--sorry--and that would have been OK too--b/c free dining is still great).
Now, I wonder on my other trips (before I knew about this BB), if I had any other PINS that I never got--oh, well---this was a BIGGIE!
ps--as far as I know--this is the only PIN/upgrade I have ever gotten and I have been in their system for 3+ years.

 

[lyzziesmom]

Got our confirmations in the mail today!!

They still have my address screwed up on one reservation, and another comes to the wrong Attention: name, but I've tried to correct them a bunch of times and they keep saying it's fixed. However, the rooms are upgraded, I still have free dining, and my price went down, so all is right in my world today!!

 

[disneyfanUSA]

I just called the 800# for disney travel and asked if I had gotten the upgrade email offer, b/c I did not have it on my computer---they said I DID have it and I upgraded. (I was truly expecting them to say--sorry--and that would have been OK too--b/c free dining is still great).
Now, I wonder on my other trips (before I knew about this BB), if I had any other PINS that I never got--oh, well---this was a BIGGIE!
ps--as far as I know--this is the only PIN/upgrade I have ever gotten and I have been in their system for 3+ years.

What did they upgrade you to? okw or ssr, studio or 1bedroom? Congrats!!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[clombardi]

and you folks say DVC members are

there was no reason to be rude.

wow...I am really confused. How was I rude? I actually apologized to you that the thing you wanted me to put in the poll wasn't on it. I could have just ignored your comment but I apologized! Are you kidding me?

I truly appreciate you telling me how rude I am. That really made my day. Whacked.

 

[clombardi]

I just called the 800# for disney travel and asked if I had gotten the upgrade email offer, b/c I did not have it on my computer---they said I DID have it and I upgraded. (I was truly expecting them to say--sorry--and that would have been OK too--b/c free dining is still great).
Now, I wonder on my other trips (before I knew about this BB), if I had any other PINS that I never got--oh, well---this was a BIGGIE!
ps--as far as I know--this is the only PIN/upgrade I have ever gotten and I have been in their system for 3+ years.

That is awesome!

 

[Crazy4mandms]

it was a slower time until Disney offered free dining. Which is the reason they offered it.

I do know why they offered it, but in the past even with free dining, people stated it was still slow, thus the reason for my comment.


I wonder if I should call and see if there is a code for me to upgrade! Me and the 18 teenagers I'm taking!! LOL....wouldn't all you upgraders just love to have us over at a deluxe resort with you!! (just joking so no flames please!!)

 

[Sammie]

I do know why they offered it, but in the past even with free dining, people stated it was still slow, thus the reason for my comment.

We must have read different accounts, as I remember reading how packed everything was due to free dining, thus the reason for my comment. Even to the point some stated that it was not worth the crowds even with free dining and would not do it again.

I guess accounts varied.

 

[Huff]

We must have read different accounts, as I remember reading how packed everything was due to free dining, thus the reason for my comment. Even to the point some stated that it was not worth the crowds even with free dining and would not do it again.
I guess accounts varied.

Everything I've heard said the park, lines were light but the restaurants were packed and ADR's tough to get.

 

[shaycamp21]

Just wondering--for those of you who received the upgrade email had you already paid off your package or just had down the deposit? Also was the upgrade only for those people who booked directly with Disney (we booked through DU) or did any of you book through a TA?

Congrats to everyone that got the upgrade!!!!!!!

 

[disneyfanUSA]

Everything I've heard said the park, lines were light but the restaurants were packed and ADR's tough to get.

This is what I heard also. August wasn’t that bad last year for fdp when I went! We did have adrs for every night though. I heard it got a lot slower during September!

 

[cocowum]

Everything I've heard said the park, lines were light but the restaurants were packed and ADR's tough to get.

We were there last year during free dining, second week of Sept. We had ADR's for every night and boy were we glad we did. We saw so many people getting turned away from TS restaurants. The parks were quiet, though. It was weird. I am so used to the crowds.

Just wondering--for those of you who received the upgrade email had you already paid off your package or just had down the deposit? Also was the upgrade only for those people who booked directly with Disney (we booked through DU) or did any of you book through a TA?

Congrats to everyone that got the upgrade!!!!!!!

We had just paid the deposit and we booked ourselves through CRO.

 

[disneyfanUSA]

Just wondering--for those of you who received the upgrade email had you already paid off your package or just had down the deposit? Also was the upgrade only for those people who booked directly with Disney (we booked through DU) or did any of you book through a TA?

Congrats to everyone that got the upgrade!!!!!!!

No, we have not paid off the package yet. I booked direct through Disney on the first day FDP was offered to Disney Visa holders.

 

[ldo]

What about if it is number of times booking Disney hotels in the next year? We had booked POR for 1 night at Christmas. I also requested that they send me the Disney planning DVD. Maybe geographic area--we are in VA. Who knows?