Surprise Upgrades?

[KrazeeK120]

I’ve been upgraded once. I booked a standard room at BWI and we were upgraded to a cottage suite. We absolutely loved it...it was so quiet and peaceful. We were on a 5 night trip and I wished we could have stayed forever!

I never note celebrations on my reservations (although that one happened to be for my birthday, which made it even more special). I do sometimes make generic room requests, although I hadn’t that time.

I love reading all of these pixie dust stories!

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I have a love/hate relationship with threads. I love them because they give me hope for some pixie dust... I hate them for the same reason

 

[margot31]

Nothing with some of these stories...I am hoping for a little pixie dust this trip with that we are celebrating so much...military homecoming, 3 birthdays and an 10 year anniversary.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

For those that have gotten upgrades, do you make specific room requests (i.e. room number), general requests (i.e. close to transportation), or no requests?

We had made our original request (for a standard room) to be near the elevator. The one bedroom suite we were given was all the way at the end of the hall. Suffice it to say, we weren’t disappointed in the least!!!

 

[millys]

I have been very lucky with Disney. We have been coming to DisneyWorld from the UK for pretty much every year in the last 16 years.
In 2012 I booked a week at the beach club for myself and my wife following my attendance at a work conference. I checked in the day before my wife arrived and was asked by the cast member checking me in as to why was I alone and where my wife was. I explained that I was attending a conference but as we were celebrating our wedding anniversary my wife was joining me for the second week in DisneyWorld. She took an absolute age checking me in which was getting rather frustrating and then proceeded to escort me to the lift to show me to my room. I was about to tell her I am perfectly capable of finding a hotel room on my own when she handed me a gold room key and said 'tap on this little box and the lift will take you to the concierge level'. I had booked a standard room and they upgraded us to Club level! The following day I met my wife as she arrived on the ME bus and pretended to be sad - saying 'dont be upset but we havent got the room we booked!'. She was tired and agitated after a long flight and delays at the airport so needless to say this went down like a brick in water! We got into the lift and went up to the 5th floor - as we came out of the lift the CM on the Club Level desk greeted my wife by her name and wished her happy anniversary and welcomed her to Club Level. She was absolutely overwhelmed and burst into tears (with joy). We had a fabulous week in Club Level and it really sold us on the whole Disney Magic.

In 2016 we booked a 1 x bed villa at Old Key West for us and our 2 x grown up kids. The only request that I had made was to have the dual access bathroom as we were 4 x adults and it would be more convenient if we were able to get to the bathroom without having to walk through the bedroom. On check in we were told nothing other than the building/room number and the cast member simply said 'I think you will be happy with this room' and smiled. When we entered the villa we had been given an upgrade to a 2 x bed!

The only problem with getting lucky like this is that when you dont get given anything additional or an upgrade you kind of fell a little let down - LOL!
However - for us the Disney Magic will always entice us back - it's our little 'bubble' where we can switch off from the stress of life and just be together for a week or two without any worries. This was two upagrades - for which I will be forever grateful but in reality its two out of 12 visits so the majority of the time I have just got what I booked.
If I get what I paid for - I'm happy.

Milly

 

[Lovetherodent]

For those that have gotten upgrades, do you make specific room requests (i.e. room number), general requests (i.e. close to transportation), or no requests?

I rarely, if ever, make requests.

I guess you could say we got a second upgrade one year. Had POFQ booked and the whole resort was shut down for a refurb (don't think Disney does that anymore, do they?). Anyway, because of the closure, we had choice of moving to another mod OR upgrading to a deluxe for a ridiculously low nightly fee. We upgraded. Turned out to be a smart move for those insidious Disney marketeers. I have been paying Disney to stay deluxe ever since.

 

[AngiTN]

For those that have gotten upgrades, do you make specific room requests (i.e. room number), general requests (i.e. close to transportation), or no requests?

I never make significant requests. Just a general room request via Touring Plans fax service.
Usually, if it's just DH and I, and we didn't book a Mod King room, I request a King, or we request Room Ready Early. That's it. We typically do not care where our room is, I have the opinion that any room is a good room.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Only had one upgrade from standard to preferred at POP for one night. lol

 

[rosysubmarine]

At Port Orleans French Quarter I was upgraded from a standard view to a garden view. They didn't mention it at all at check-in, in fact they apologized because I had requested a room closer to the lobby but one wasn't available.
I got up to the room and was like, "Wow, this view is fantastic, what the heck?" It was so beautiful.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

Last year DD treated me to a long weekend at Boardwalk, and we got a free upgrade to Club level!

 

[pillowbook]

Upgraded from AS Movies to Beach Club. My first ever Deluxe experience. It was just me and my friend, and we were traveling during graduation and school season so they probably overbooked and it was easy to move us. We got one King bed, but it was totally worth it!

 

[FSU Girl]

The first time I stayed in a deluxe resort I was upgraded. My friend and I decided to splurge and booked the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but a standard view. When we went to check in the guy at the front desk told us he wanted to make our trip really special and gave us a savanna view room. We had such a great view, close to the animals and could see zebras and giraffes.

 

[KaptKaveman]

Two summers ago we were booked at a GF Lagoon view. The boys were a little bummed about it as GF was not their first choice(they are funny that way). They both got Straight A's on their report cards so I decided to book a night at Yacht Club(their favorite) for our drive down day. I just booked a standard view room, nothing special.

We were out riding around in Sea Raycers on Cresent Lake when I got the text that our room was ready and it was a room number on the fifth floor. I was pretty sure I shouldn't be on the fifth floor with just standard view non-CL. When we got to the lobby we were met and told we were magical upgraded and they took us up to a CL room with a lagoon view(basically straight on view of the lighthouse thingymabob). It was a great upgrade but sadly we were there only one night.

Next day we moved to GF and our Lagoon View room had a great view of MK. There was one skinny pine tree in the foreground but other than that we had an awesome view of MK. Note* I actually don't think this was an upgrade I think this room is classified as Lagoon View due to the tree in the way but it was still an awesome view for what we expected to get.

 

[jo-jo]

Those who had a surprise upgrade to club level....did you change your plans because of having access to the lounge? Stay more time at resort, skip CS meals somewhere???

 

[MomOTwins]

For those that have gotten upgrades, do you make specific room requests (i.e. room number), general requests (i.e. close to transportation), or no requests?

I made no special requests. In hindsight, I expect we got an upgrade because our original room was not ready on time (it was around 5:45 when we got the room, but that was fine for us because we arrived late). Not sure there is anything you can do to improve your odds of getting one.

 

[KaptKaveman]

Those who had a surprise upgrade to club level....did you change your plans because of having access to the lounge? Stay more time at resort, skip CS meals somewhere???

No. We had Trattoria booked for dinner that night but in in my experience with CL(at that time) they were starting to cut back on the offerings in the lounge so we kept Trattoria thinking we would just get appetizers at the lounge. Was surprised when we went to the lounge, they really had alot more to offer at Dinner than our previous CL stays. Could have probably made a light dinner out of it but still went to Trattoria.

The only think special we put on the resort reservation was celebrating good grades. I suspect the upgrade had something to do with us only staying one night and it being on a Wednesday night.

 

[gulliesmom]

Booked a studio at VWL 3 years ago

Arrived at check in and was pleasantly surprised to be upgraded to 2BR villa

WOW!!!

 

[Texans_loyal]

I would die if i booked a Value and got a Deluxe. Holy pixie dust!!

 

[Mrs Geek]

This thread makes me happy even though I've never gotten an upgrade. I love hearing pixie dust stories!

 

[KrazeeK120]

Those who had a surprise upgrade to club level....did you change your plans because of having access to the lounge? Stay more time at resort, skip CS meals somewhere???

No...we just didn’t eat the pop tarts we’d brought to eat in the room for breakfast.