WWYD? offered free upgrade

[LanaJae]

what exactly did you do? I booked Pop and have until Aug 3rd to pay off. Everyone seems to be geting this wonderful upgrade!

Some people who were starting their stay at a value between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1 got emails telling them to call for a free upgrade to SSR or OKW. The email had a code.

Others didn't get emails, but had the same beginning stay dates and they called CRO and were told they had codes attached to their account and they were able to upgrade too. Their emails might've been junk-mail filtered.

There's a rumor that they might continue to offer upgrades for others who begin their stay in Sept., but others have also said that it would've happened before the end of the free DDP deadline (June 24).

 

["Got Disney"]

The e-mails are being sent from DVC to get more members. The other resorts are not all booked up and over crowded so dont worry about the parks being more overloaded than usuall.

DVC is trying to fill there 25% that is left. It is to get you in there in hopes that you will go to there DVC presentation and become members.

We are DVC members and love it and it was one of the best investments that we ever made. SSR is our "Home" Resort. If you can go to the presentation it may be worth your while over the next 48 years

Enjoy your upgrades...upgrades are always way cool

 

[RozaBlue]

I would take the upgrade - but I am crowd averse and would ot want to stay at an overcrowded resort at any rate and would enjoy the relaxed atmospere of OKW

 

[lyzziesmom]

DVC didn't send the emails, they were sent from "Disney Destinations." This is the same email address that sends the monthly newsletter and FL Resident monthly newsletter.

It's not due to "overcrowding" per se. Rather, a set number of rooms are allocated for each promotion, i.e. free dining in this case. The first week of free dining sold out the allocated rooms at the value resorts. You may have noticed that for a week or so prior to the upgrade appearing, the dates for free dining changed to not include that first week anymore. There were no more allocated rooms available at the values - this is not to say the entire hotels were booked, you could still get a room without free dining. Disney decided they'd rather make a little money on rooms that would otherwise remain vacant during this historically slowest time of year, and fill more free dining rooms, than close out the promotion and not allow more bookings.

It's just a bonus for Disney if people who were upgraded decide they want to buy DVC. There are several other promotions going on for the same time period for SSR and OKW, so they must be having low bookings for that time period. I'd guess due to the new AKV opening up, more DVC members are booking there.

The upgrade really is a win-win for guests and for Disney.



Come on August 31, hurry up and get here!!

 

[jwboucher]

I called Disney this morning to see if a 1 bedroom was available. I do already have a studio at SSR...but heard about so many getting a 1 bedroom so I thought I would try. The CM I spoke to said that they weren't giving free upgrades to 1 bedrooms and if I wanted it, I would have to pay the difference(per her manager). I had her check anyway and none were available but she said that they had studios at SSR....so if anyone is looking to upgrade their value room...you should call.

 

["Got Disney"]

Disney keeps something like 4% of the rooms to allocate for promotions and to use as guest rooms. These are seperate from DVC. They also work it out with DVC which is a seperate corporation from Disney(Disney has basically nothing to do with DVC) sounds strange but true.

But in the long run it all comes down to promoting DVC but who cares it's an upgrade and we all love upgrades...they ROCK!!!!

 

[CPer'sMom]

It's not due to "overcrowding" per se. Rather, a set number of rooms are allocated for each promotion, i.e. free dining in this case. The first week of free dining sold out the allocated rooms at the value resorts. You may have noticed that for a week or so prior to the upgrade appearing, the dates for free dining changed to not include that first week anymore. There were no more allocated rooms available at the values - this is not to say the entire hotels were booked, you could still get a room without free dining. Disney decided they'd rather make a little money on rooms that would otherwise remain vacant during this historically slowest time of year, and fill more free dining rooms, than close out the promotion and not allow more bookings.

Just curious .... you know this how? CM?

 

[lyzziesmom]

Just curious .... you know this how? CM?

No, I know it because I pay attention. When I made our original reservations, I was told they didn't have enough free dining rooms available at ASMo, our first choice, but they had plenty of rooms at the regular rate without free dining. Also for EVERY promotion they allocate a set number of rooms, it's how the hotel business operates, standard procedure. And I noticed that the free dining was no longer available for the first week, and then bam! the upgrade offer appears. I also noticed there were several different specials running for SSR and OKW - FL Resident, AP room-only rates, etc. This indicates that there is a lot of availability in those resorts, so they are working to fill them. I also read these and other boards a lot and keep up on the information. Even if you go back and read this thread, nothing I said in my previous post was new information. It was all stated here, just maybe not all in one place.

I was mostly trying to explain that just because they were trying to free up rooms for free dining, that does not necessarily mean the entire hotel is full. Just that the rooms allocated for free dining were full. There very well may be more empty rooms available, at full price rack rate with no promotion. I wouldn't worry too much about overcrowding, it's still a slow time of year.


ETA: I wish I were a CM! How fun would that be?

 

[CPer'sMom]

ETA: I wish I were a CM! How fun would that be?

*Mostly* lots of fun! ~ and the perks are great too

 

[LauraAnn630]

So whos going to get to enjoy the free upgrade first?

Im assuming someones going at the end of August???

Well, I hope to hear all about it as soon as you get back!

 

[dramaticmissy]

I'm booked at SSR "free upgrade" from 26th of August to September 1st. Yeah,see ya there!

 

[AC7179]

DVC didn't send the emails, they were sent from "Disney Destinations." This is the same email address that sends the monthly newsletter and FL Resident monthly newsletter.

It's not due to "overcrowding" per se. Rather, a set number of rooms are allocated for each promotion, i.e. free dining in this case. The first week of free dining sold out the allocated rooms at the value resorts. You may have noticed that for a week or so prior to the upgrade appearing, the dates for free dining changed to not include that first week anymore. There were no more allocated rooms available at the values - this is not to say the entire hotels were booked, you could still get a room without free dining. Disney decided they'd rather make a little money on rooms that would otherwise remain vacant during this historically slowest time of year, and fill more free dining rooms, than close out the promotion and not allow more bookings.

It's just a bonus for Disney if people who were upgraded decide they want to buy DVC. There are several other promotions going on for the same time period for SSR and OKW, so they must be having low bookings for that time period. I'd guess due to the new AKV opening up, more DVC members are booking there.

The upgrade really is a win-win for guests and for Disney.



Come on August 31, hurry up and get here!!

You know what doesn't make sense to me about this?

If they wanted to open up more of the value rooms for free dining, why not just open up more rooms and make them available with free dining? You know the values are no where near full for that period, just the however many rooms have free dining. If they really just wanted to expand the promotion, why allow a bigger percentage of the rooms at POP or wherever to include free dining?

Things that make you go hummm...

Enjoy your trip! I'm so envious!

 

[lyzziesmom]

Is anyone actually getting back from their upgraded trip before Aug. 31st? I'll be arriving on the 31st very late at night (more like very early the next morning - last flight out after work) and would love to hear about someone's upgraded trip before I go!

I just know we're all going to have the trip of a lifetime, I am so excited it's ALL I can think about!! I even have had nightmares about it - I dreamed that we got a prime room location only to find out the room had been converted to a health clinic and they wanted to give us all shots! Then when we did get another room, it was all messed up because of putting in the clinic, and we had to climb up the balcony to get in because there was no front door. How weird am I? I guess subconsciously I must be thinking it's all too good to be true, and something's gotta go wrong. But I know that won't happen, I mean come on it's DISNEY for pete's sake!

Has anyone started threads for SSR & OKW updaters to get to know each other and possibly have mini-meets at each resort, or at least just to chat so maybe we can recognize each other in passing at WDW? I think the idea was tossed around earlier on this thread but I never saw anything come out of it.

 

[lyzziesmom]

You know what doesn't make sense to me about this?

If they wanted to open up more of the value rooms for free dining, why not just open up more rooms and make them available with free dining? You know the values are no where near full for that period, just the however many rooms have free dining. If they really just wanted to expand the promotion, why allow a bigger percentage of the rooms at POP or wherever to include free dining?

Things that make you go hummm...

Enjoy your trip! I'm so envious!

Hmmmm, I've thought about that and I'm not sure. I think there might be some requirement that a certain number or percentage of rooms must be full price. Or perhaps they have other promotions or pre-sales to places like Expedia, Travelocity, etc. so they truly don't have the availability to open up more rooms, even though they are not fully booked?

Anyone in the hospitality industry have any ideas? I really try not to question the "whys" too much, I'm just so glad and thankful that we were among the lucky ones to be upgraded! Nothing like this EVER happens to us, it is just so amazing that I don't care why!

 

[Kitty-chan]

You know what doesn't make sense to me about this?

If they wanted to open up more of the value rooms for free dining, why not just open up more rooms and make them available with free dining? You know the values are no where near full for that period, just the however many rooms have free dining. If they really just wanted to expand the promotion, why allow a bigger percentage of the rooms at POP or wherever to include free dining?

That's a really good point. Made me think.

One thing I wonder about is the incremental cost to Disney of adding guests to a given resort. If SSR is fairly empty, and they add some number of guests, how much does that cost them in additional staff time (reception, housekeeping, etc)? If the resort was empty enough, they might not really have to add any (or many) staff if they move people over. And once POP gets past a certain threshold, they'd have to add more staff to support selling additional rooms.

I suppose we'll never know for sure . . . but it makes me happy to think of it as pixie dust, so I'll keep doing that.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

When it comes down to it -- who cares what the reason was!

 

[dramaticmissy]

When it comes down to it -- who cares what the reason was!

I'm with you on this one!!!!!!

 

[matt&jakesmom]

I have been calling every few days and still nothing available during the time we are going. I think I am figuring our the reason. We are staying at WDW from 8/27 to 9/3. My email states for the upgrade from 8/26 to 9/1. Apparently the upgrade is not carrying over into September.

I am still happy to be at the Sports, my DH tells me to keep trying to see if anything opens up. I should start having him call maybe he will have better luck.

 

[jfranklyn]

Our trip is from 8/26 - 9/4 and we got the upgrade for the whole trip. Keep trying - you might just get lucky one day! And by all means - make your husband call

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Our ressie is from 8/26-9/03 and we also received the upgrade. Maybe you should see if the upgrade would be available if you checked in on the 26th instead of the 27th.