Room requests and upgrades

[mtrib]

Staying at BWI garden view late Feb 2019. We arrive Tuesday after PHM so CL is low-med. We need 2Q+daybed in order to make room for really long DS to have his own bed (poor DD always gets stuck on daybed or rollaway). Looking on TP room requests I can come up with two options. Here's my question though - if I have a specific room request sent - does that decrease my chances of a pixie dust upgrade? Also, if I don't do room request through TP how do I let them know our bed request?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Crowd level has almost nothing to do with resort fullness. The Disney resorts run quite full 365 days. The bulk of crowd level is driven via off site visitors.

Very few people get room upgrades and those that do get them for the convenience of the assignor.

Request what you need. I would aboid requesting a specific unit, as assignors may not know what you like about it.

 

[DisneyHardin]

If a certain bed configuration is very important to your family, then you need to request that. Upgrades are actually quite rare and so I would hate for you to not do a request hoping for an upgrade and then being assigned to a room that is not only not an upgrade, but also doesn't fit the needs of your family.

 

[SharonZ]

Make your only request the 2Q and daybed through Disney and they will add it to your reservation. The more specific your request is, buildings, room numbers, etc., the more you are limiting yourself and don't worry about the "pixie dust" as you will more than likely be disappointed.

 

[DebbieB]

I’ve been going to WDW for 24 years, never got an upgrade. They aren’t that common.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree book what you want. I've been going for over 35 years,always staying on site and have received maybe 3 upgrades in all that time.

 

[mtrib]

Thanks! I keep seeing posts about surprise upgrades and it makes it sound common. I'll put in our bed request as that is the most important part. We tend to be RD to FW kind of people so we are less concerned with the view.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thanks! I keep seeing posts about surprise upgrades and it makes it sound common.

Yeah, the DIS can make it seem more common than it is in reality. No one ever posts that they arrived and were given the room type they paid for - that’s not all that exciting! Even though that’s what’s happening to the majority of people thousands of times each day.

Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Keep in mind how many total units there are on property (30,000+) vs. the anecdotes of upgrade. A generous estimate is half a percent get upgraded. And that is generous.

 

[cvjw]

40+ stays in the last 10 years. One upgrade to a bunk bed room at wilderness lodge when we only paid for a standard room.

Request what you need

 

[Anthony1971]

Never been upgraded but in the cruise ship I was once. I would believe most of the surprise upgrades you see are in fact not upgrades. The best example is AKL there are a fair number of not so good Savannah view rooms (which are not bad views either) the are considered standard view-but if you pay for a pool view that is what you will get...

 

[dansdad]

Here's my question though - if I have a specific room request sent - does that decrease my chances of a pixie dust upgrade?

Making a room request has zero affect on whether or not you get an upgrade.

Also, if I don't do room request through TP how do I let them know our bed request?

Call the Main Reservation line and add your request to your reservation. It's still the best way to make room requests. This can be done any time from the day you book up until 4-5 days out. When within that time frame makes no difference.

 

[krose4]

When I put in my requests instead of room number I went with room qualities. I think I posted mine as "King bed, no parking lot/monorail room, balcony/patio". Put it in order of importance to you. We were lucky and got everything we wanted fulfilled, some people only get one or two things on their list, and from what I've seen they prioritize each aspect of your request in the order that you write it. For our next trip we have it as "near riverside, river facing, upper floor". I'm interested to see without having "this is our honeymoon trip" pasted everywhere in our reservations if they meet our requests as fully.

Edit: Also, I put my request in both through TP and on the phone

 

[Magnoliafan]

I’ve been upgraded twice and both times were at BWI. This past August, I booked Garden View and did a TP room fax, noting that it was a special birthday and requesting a room in an area that the TP room finder had marked as Garden. I checked in and was told that I’d been upgraded to Water View - only to find that it was one of the exact rooms that I’d requested! I didn’t mean to request a higher category than I booked, but they gave it to me anyway. It was awesome. And I’m completely spoiled when it comes to BWI, as I’ve only stayed there twice and was upgraded to a view of the Boardwalk and Crescent Lake for both. And the first time was from Standard to Club Level Deluxe!

 

[mtrib]

I’ve been upgraded twice and both times were at BWI. This past August, I booked Garden View and did a TP room fax, noting that it was a special birthday and requesting a room in an area that the TP room finder had marked as Garden. I checked in and was told that I’d been upgraded to Water View - only to find that it was one of the exact rooms that I’d requested! I didn’t mean to request a higher category than I booked, but they gave it to me anyway. It was awesome. And I’m completely spoiled when it comes to BWI, as I’ve only stayed there twice and was upgraded to a view of the Boardwalk and Crescent Lake for both. And the first time was from Standard to Club Level Deluxe!

Now you are giving me hope LOL!

 

[buzznina]

I checked my trip spreadsheet and with 35 trips, we had 7 upgrades, usually just going up 1 level i.e. from GV to water view etc. or standard to SV at AKL. We had a couple of other upgrades but that was due to construction and a bad room. So, not impossible but also not likely either.

 

[Lynne M]

One of the rules of message boards is: the more unusual something is, the more people will talk about it. There's a lot of talk about complimentary upgrades because they're so rare.

It also helps to understand that Disney gives out free upgrades because of their own business and operational needs. They need to get guests out of a certain room or room type for a certain range of dates. If you happen to have booked that room type for that range of dates, you might be the lucky one who gets the upgrade.

 

[MomOTwins]

Never been upgraded but in the cruise ship I was once. I would believe most of the surprise upgrades you see are in fact not upgrades. The best example is AKL there are a fair number of not so good Savannah view rooms (which are not bad views either) the are considered standard view-but if you pay for a pool view that is what you will get...

Not necessarily.... I paid for a pool view and got upgraded to a savannah (actual savannah, not standard with secret savannah view). I am guessing they upgraded me because I kept getting texts on check in day that our room was not ready, and eventually around 6pm I went to them asked them why it was still not ready, and I'm sure it helped we had a short stay (2 nights).

 

[mtrib]

I checked my trip spreadsheet and with 35 trips, we had 7 upgrades, usually just going up 1 level i.e. from GV to water view etc. or standard to SV at AKL. We had a couple of other upgrades but that was due to construction and a bad room. So, not impossible but also not likely either.

Thirty-five times?!?! You are my hero.

 

[Amunet]

I think the CMs like to upgrade people too I'm sure they make sure to stay in the best interests of the business, but sometimes that means throwing some pixie dust. It's nice to surprise someone with good things, I bet in their industry, having someone genuinely grateful for an upgrade gives them good feels too