Surprise Upgrades?

Last September the Yacht Club upgraded my garden view to a lake view/fireworks view preferred room (was close to the elevator to the lobby) for my 30th birthday. It was the best hotel room and view I've ever had!
 
We booked a one night Art of Animation stay a few years ago before our longer stay at Fort wilderness. We had booked a little mermaid room from a discount site and thought the kids (who were 5 and almost 2) would enjoy the theming. At check in, the cast member started asking my 5 year old if she liked Nemo or lion king. I thought she was going to insist on little mermaid since of course she didn't realize we were getting a big free upgrade. She ended up loving her special pull down bed in the Nemo room. And we loved having space before our 10 days in a pop up camper.
 
I'm loving reading these stories! Trying not to get my hopes up about an upgrade at POR this summer (we booked standard)...but a girl can dream!
 


On our honeymoon, we had a split stay between the Boardwalk Inn and the Grand Floridian, with the cheapest standard rooms booked at each resort. We had issues with our room at BWI; they had no available rooms to move us to, so they got us moved to the Beach Club, who put us in a big corner room with two balconies (one of which looked out over Stormalong Bay and the lake). Then, when we switched over to the GF, we were upgraded from garden view to Sugar Loaf club level.

A couple years later, we booked Wilderness Lodge (standard view) but got upgraded to the Grand Floridian (garden view) at no extra cost due to construction putting rooms out of inventory. Pretty incredible deal since it was a 2-week trip.
 
Does check in, in person (vs online) increase chances of an upgrade? That’s my hesitation with doing online check in....
 


Does check in, in person (vs online) increase chances of an upgrade? That’s my hesitation with doing online check in....

I haven't had an upgrade personally but from what I heard people got upgraded regardless of online or in person check-in.
 
Been many times and no up grades :sad:. How do the upgrades work? Is it when you get in at the front desk do they just tell you?
 
Does check in, in person (vs online) increase chances of an upgrade? That’s my hesitation with doing online check in....

We did online check in and still got an upgrade. We still stopped at the check-in desk when we got there, though. I don't think it makes much of a difference as long as you're okay with waiting for a room if there isn't one ready yet.
 
Does check in, in person (vs online) increase chances of an upgrade? That’s my hesitation with doing online check in....
No. Your room is assigned well before you arrive no matter if you do online check in or not (approx 5 days) so waiting till you arrive will have no bearing at all.
We've had several upgrades and have never NOT done online check in.

Been many times and no up grades :sad:. How do the upgrades work? Is it when you get in at the front desk do they just tell you?
We've had only 1 upgrade where they told us, when we were upgraded to the Cottage in April. None of the others were even mentioned.
 
We were given TWO upgrades during our split stay. We originally first booked a lagoon view club level at the Polynesian, and they gave us a theme park view, 3rd floor, club level which was awesome. You could see the fireworks from our balcony. We then moved to the animal kingdom lodge for the 2nd half of our trip. We originally booked a one bedroom savana view and they gave us a huge 2 bedroom savanah view room. I guess we got really lucky getting both during the same trip.
 
Aulani about 4 years ago, booked an ocean view regular room, received an ocean view one bedroom suite.

At check in she said "good news your suite is ready" we just thought they were calling every room a suite and didn't think much of it until we got into the room.

DLH we requested a single bed and all they had were doubles, after we asked were upgraded to a one bedroom suite.
 
A few years back I was staying at the Contemporary for a conference. I had booked a Standard View Garden Wing room through the special conference page. When I checked in I was surprised that I was given a room in the main tower with a Park View.
 
We booked standard view regular room at WL and received a pool view bunk bed room. We were very excited. They did not tell us when we checked in. We found out when we entered the room.
 
In 2016 we booked CBR standard room and when we checked in they stated they overbooked our week so they were going to put us in a pirate room but when they realised we were 2 adults they upgraded us to AKL Savannah view. I was so surprised and cried all the way from CBR to AKL. It was the first time in 10 years that anything like that had every happened.
 
Last Spring break, we had booked a SV Garden wing room at the contemporary. A few days before we left, I noticed the room type we had booked changed on MDE. We were upgraded to TPV in the tower! It was the best room ever, and the perfect way to enjoy Wishes with a toddler that doesn’t like fireworks, we could sit in bed with the music on the tv and see great!
We had done online check in and had no celebrations noted for the trip. We stayed 3 nights during the week, so I think we snuck in between some guests doing long weekends. Our room was an accessible room, but the only difference I noticed was a more open bathroom, but we didn’t have a roll in shower.
 

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