What's with all these upgrades?

[lauritagoddess]

My feeling is that Disney is having a tougher time filling up the deluxes in this economy and that the values may be overbooked at times. The mods may be more full than deluxes so they upgrade from value to deluxe due to more availability.

That would be my take on it too. In 2007 I got upgraded from ASMu to a 1 bedroom villa at OKW. They had overbooked the values during free dining and were trying to fill empty space at OKW and Saratoga Springs. It was a great upgrade, but not something you'd expect to happen again. And I'm still happy staying at the values.

 

[disneyfanUSA]

It happened to me and it was fantastic!!

It also happend to me!!

 

[Allison]

What are people's thoughts on those being in the Lodge (Animal Kingdom? Wilderness? not sure where) and having the others arrive? The Lodge people paid for the accommodations, what are there thoughts on the throngs of people getting the same thing for just a fraction of the cost? It's not just a random, you are family 42 so you get a bump, or we oversold for this evening and you need to move up. It seems to be a we have all this open deluxe space, so let's fill it. Do people even care? I'm happy for those that are upgraded, you know, good for them, but what about the people who shelled out for the deluxe?

My thoughts-Why would I care? I am getting what I agreed to pay for. This happens all the time with postcards, pin codes, and other special rates. In my opinion, people spend too much time fretting over what other people get and thinking they should get the same thing. This world doesn't work out "even".

 

[suemom2kay]

upgrading room types is fine, from standard to water view, but i think they should be careful on upgrading resorts. You could end up with guests that are expecting or looking forward to an upgrade, and are disappointed on their trip. Or worse offend guests, who may not return. Imagne a guest at the GF pool surrounded by people who are so excited because they got upgraded and only paid 1/3 the price.

Ummmm.... surrounded by guests... It is actually a very small number of upgrades compared to the number of rooms. I also can't imagine the people who were upgraded hanging at the pool telling everyone they were upgraded. I know if it were me, I'd be too busy enjoying the pool!

Also, that's what the hotel industry does. I paid priceline at a marriot which was less than half of rack for a regular room. My daughter is cute and sweet and the person at check in loved her and upgraded us to club level. Is it fair? No, but hotels don't upgrade to be fair they do it to fill empty rooms or even more rarely as nice gesture. I wouldn't worry about Disney offending anyone since we're all secretly hoping for an upgrade, whether it be standard to preferred, courtyard to water, or club level. Upgrades are nice, but don't happen very often.

 

[rimmer]

You think maybe they will upgrade me from the fort camping in my pop up to a deluxe? I wouldn't complain, besides I'm paying more to camp than I would for a value.

 

[Allison]

What blog are you referring to? Usually something like that would be a hot topic here and I haven't seen anything lately about upgrades from Pop.

 

[txsoccermom]

That would more sense. They'd be giving each group a taste of what it's like to move one step up. Value people might book a mod next time, mod people might book a deluxe - double impact!

When we went for our 1st trip to WDW as a family in 2003, I had us booked @ POFQ. My DH was looking very forward to this b/c he was from LA. I called about 4 wks before our arrival to check on something and the CM said that he saw it was going to be going thru a refurbishment and for $100 more for the 6 nts, we could stay @ WL or AKL. I chose WL and we LOVED it. Since then, that's all I want to stay at, and I do have a hard time of trying to stay @ a mod (had us booked at POR and BC until I decided we're @ BC). With that being said, I do feel miffed that I'm shelling out $$ to stay there while others are being upgraded from a value to YC/BC. I'm hoping that b/c of this, we'll be upgraded from std view to maybe CL, b/c it's my DD's 8th bday on the trip. However, I'm not holding my breath.

Wouldn't it be great though, if a CM was secretly spying on this thread and gave us all upgrades??

What I and everyone else has to remember, is that we're @ WDW and should just enjoy it.

Here's to everyone having a "magical" trip

 

[goin2themouse]

As someone who has worked in the finance industry, I would not be surprised if this was simply a ploy to shareholders, i.e., "the Values have been down somewhat in occupancy, but the Deluxes have been steady." Of course, mysteriously revenues are still down due to higher costs.

BTDT. Had to write the double-speak and hated it.

 

[Donnainnj]

Hmmmm.....seems to me that as the family who paid for the room at the lodge that I got exactly what I paid for, so no quarrel. Of course, it seems to me that in the little black book that I read fairly regularly there is a little "story" that is similar....something about workers coming late getting the same pay....so for me, I look at it as why should I have a problem if WDW wants to be generous with someone else? It costs me nothing, and I am getting exactly the deal that I agreed to.

 

[disneyfanUSA]

Does anybody have a link to the post? Thanks

 

[Justsyd2]

I think it's fabulous that Disney is offering upgrades. Would I be offended if someone got one? Of course not! That wouldn't be very nice of me at all. I'd be happy for them. Remember, what comes around, goes around.

 

[BabyFu18]

I think it's cool that upgrade are being offered to people, and it's smart in a way to upgrade people in hopes that maybe next time they'd decide to shell out the big bucks and stay deluxe again.

I know an upgrade would be wonderful and so magical but my family and I always book what we will be happy with, and that's why we stay deluxe so we've never been upgraded but we've always been happy with our choice!

 

[that's nice]

In my travel experience, upgrades may happen anywhere at any time. If someone complains because the guy next to them got a free upgrade then they must not travel enough either. It comes with trip... sometimes you win... sometimes someone else wins... I've seen post here on the DIS from people who were supposed to be in BC and got upgraded to Executive Suites in GF... it happens... on one of my trips to Vegas I was upgraded from a deluxe at Planet Hollywood to a $800 a night Panoramic Suite... it happens... don't rain on someone else's good fortunate... be happy that they could experience something in a manner that you can too...

On my honeymoon 9/04, we stayed at the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui for 7 days after staying in Honolulu for 4 days. At the first hotel we were in a room that had double beds, so we called ahead to make sure that we had a king or queen bed in Maui. Upon check in at the Grand Wailea, it was noted that we had called and were upgraded to the 'Napua Tower'. We went from staying in a $500 a night room to staying in a $2200 room with its own concierge, breakfast, 2 hour open bar 5-7pm, and nightly hor'dourves.

It made our trip that much more special. We will never forget the experience that we had. Could I ever afford that room again.... I doubt it. Will I go back to this hotel...well it has been discussed for our 10 year anniversary. Did we tell everyone how awesome it was? Yes. We also have suggested this hotel to friends going to Hawaii on their honeymoons.

Disney knows what they are doing!

Tim

 

[praline3001]

Hi guys~

I am going to chime in here on this little topic.

I have booked GF RPC for july. I am paying with the 4/3 code so I am getting a deal.. 2,300.00 off or some such amount. We have saved all year long for this trip and though I have stayed GF before~ this is my first trip in RPC

i am SUPER excited!!!
DO I like or want to hear that someone is paying $90 for the same room I am paying $700 a night for?! HELL NO! LOL In my Disney little rose colored glasses I just assume everyone paid what I did and all is right with the world

This does not mean I am not happy for someone who got a little pixie dust blown there way~ I just don't want to hear how much better of a deal they got than I did

My question is if they are handing out upgrades, whats my chances of getting upgraded to the Walt Suite

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I don't even stop to think about who may have gotten upgraded. When we're lying by the pool I don't know whether you've paid full price, got the 4/3 deal or paid for a value and got upgraded to the deluxe.

We've been upgraded three times in 13 trips. Of course now that we've been upgraded twice to CL we now book it! Disney spoils you - getting you hooked on the higher level resort! LOL. This time we booked a deluxe club room at BC and now I worry that we won't ever want to go back to a regular room.

I must be crazy but I like hearing the stories of someone who saved and saved just to be able to go to a value resort and then got hit by a ton of pixie dust and got upgraded to a deluxe. Maybe it really made their "once in a lifetime trip" that much more special.

 

[lookitsmikel]

I work for a large resort and we do this all the time, especially now with the economy.

We take our guests that are staying in our $150/night rooms and bump them up to our $450 or $500/night rooms. We do this because we know that we will never sell out all of our rooms at the $450 rate, but we sure will at the $150 rate. It's also GREAT public relations, and gets people to come back.

We also just started something new because of the economy. Say we have 100 cheap rooms left, and 100 expensive rooms left. In our online booking center we will say that we have 150 cheap rooms left, allow them to overbook, then move all those people to our expensive rooms.

Something tells me that Disney is working off of one of these strategies.

 

[goofy4tink]

They closed French Quarter for a complete refurbishment, then did the same with the AB section of Riverside building by building and rehabbed the Mansion rooms (did not gut these, only FQ and AB).

You're probably thinking of the table service restaurant at French Quarter - that was closed - and missed by many.

Why they renamed the resort has been a question for years. A Disney exec friend told me it was b/c FQ was not very popular at the time and they thought merging the two would draw more families; Might have worked - FQ is very popular now!

I was there, at that time. Many reported not seeing any signs of rehab at POFQ...at any time. Occupancy was way down, due to 9/11. Disney does not close down resorts for rehab just before the holidays if they think they can put people in those rooms. I was at POR..it had just changed from DxL...was not happy about that change.
Was there rehab going on over at POFQ? Perhaps. But, there was absolutely no activity over there for a very long time.

I would love to see a link to that particular blog...something just doesn't seem quite kosher to me. I would really enjoy seeing what those 'upgrades' were all about.

 

[Misti]

Of course now that we've been upgraded twice to CL we now book it! Disney spoils you - getting you hooked on the higher level resort! LOL. This time we booked a deluxe club room at BC and now I worry that we won't ever want to go back to a regular room.

Robyn, did you book the Deluxe Room that are the corner rooms near the quiet pool? LOVE that room category. We were placed there one trip as an upgrade and we loved it so much we booked that category for our next 2 BC trips. Disney DOES know what they are doing. They hooked us. We didn't mind having to walk to the lounge either. We loved the room so much that it didn't matter that the lounge wasn't right down the hall. Have a great trip!!

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Robyn, did you book the Deluxe Room that are the corner rooms near the quiet pool? LOVE that room category. We were placed there one trip as an upgrade and we loved it so much we booked that category for our next 2 BC trips. Disney DOES know what they are doing. They hooked us. We didn't mind having to walk to the lounge either. We loved the room so much that it didn't matter that the lounge wasn't right down the hall. Have a great trip!!

Yes that's the room we booked - what floor were you on? I keep hearing the 2nd and 4th floors have extra big balconies. We just LOVE our balconies! I was wondering if it would be a pain being on a different floor than the lounge, glad to hear it wasn't a problem.

Can't wait - 100 more days.

 

[AmyMama2AvaNtheo]

I think its a great marketing strategy!