I’ve seen a bunch of accounts of people getting free upgrades when then check in. But these comments don’t seem to explain how that happens.
Are they being offered by CMs out of nowhere?
Are the guests asking for them? If so, what are you asking exactly? Like, do you ask “are there any free upgrades available” or “are there any upgrades available” (without using the word 'free")? Do you have to be direct or indirect when asking?
Obviously, there is no guarantee of getting one, but it would be cool if it happened to me, and it would be helpful to know if there is something I can do to make an upgrade more likely.
They are offered by CM’s if the room category you booked just happens to be oversold. You can always ask for one, but you should be prepared to pay for it if you ask. I have never tried it, but most stories I hear is that they were just offered by the CM.
Yeah, when we got one, we didn’t ask for it. We actually were disappointed because for that trip, we weren’t even there long enough to enjoy the upgrade! If we’d been there with the kids that time, the one-bedroom instead of the studio would have been awesome.
We only had this happen once, at Paradise Pier in Disneyland (I would guess things work similarly at WDW) and it was weird. Not sure what to attribute it to, really.
When we were checking in, the person knew we were there for my birthday. We had booked a standard room. My husband asked if any upgrades were available. She said yes there were for $XXX (can’t remember how much) extra. We declined since it was sort of a lot of money and totally unnecessary.
She said our room wasn’t ready yet (this was around 11:00am) so we stored our bags and went to the park. We got back around 10-11:00pm and got our bags and went to the room. I think we had gotten a text with the number?
When we got to the room I was feeling disappointed in it since we had two queens and had requested a king. I was being stupid about it, I think I was just over-tired because I didn’t really care that much. But then my husband told me to open the curtains and we had an amazing park (DCA) view room. That shut me up about the queen beds!
So they never said, ‘oh happy birthday here’s an upgrade’ or anything about upgrading us at all but we definitely got an upgraded room. It could have just been what was available, it could have been a nice surprise from the person who checked us in, could have been something else.
I’ve never asked before either. (But then, I’ve never not been satisfied with my room, and 2. It never occurred to me to ask.) . I was wondering if it is even worth asking, or if I should just let the magic happen, as it were.
The general rule of thumb is that if you ask you would be expected to pay. Best to book the room category you want rather than book low and hope for something that is actually rare.
Contrary to what the internet would have you believe (we on here and other forums are but a tiny portion of who goes to Disney), pixie dust upgrades are not common.
