It is no secret that a trip to Disney World can be expensive.
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Between travel, hotel, park tickets, food, and souvenirs, the price of your trip can start to add up. We have so many tips to help you budget, save money, and plan for your trip. If you are looking to save a little extra cash that can be spent elsewhere during your trip, listen up! As Disney World experts, we refuse to pay for hotel upgrades.
When booking your Disney World hotel reservation, you can upgrade your room to have a better view or even a better room location. While it can be fun to splurge on a room upgrade, it can almost be pointless if you plan to spend a lot of time in the parks.
Grand Floridian
View upgrades may not be exactly what you think. The description, like water, woods, savannah, theme park, or standard view, is very vague. A water view may be a fountain or a pool instead of a lake or lagoon.
View from a room at the Island Tower
While a standard view may be a parking lot view, we have actually lucked out a few times. At Animal Kingdom Lodge, we have opted for a standard view and could still see the savannah. At Bay Lake Tower, we have had a standard view, and while we may see the parking lot, we were also able to see the Magic Kingdom!
Rooms at Animal Kingdom Lodge with a savannah view
Besides upgrading for a “better” view, you can also upgrade the location of your room between a preferred or standard room. A preferred room tends to be closer to hotel amenities like the lobby, the pool, or transportation. While we have hardly chosen this upgrade, we will say that there is an exception to this rule. We tend to splurge for a preferred room over a standard room when we stay at Value Resorts as well as Caribbean Beach. These resorts are HUGE, and if you are trying to save time, it can be a good idea to dish out the extra cash to be closer to the amenities.
Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
Another popular hotel upgrade is valet parking. Prices for hotel valet parking have increased recently, which makes us stray away from this upgrade even more. If you plan to use Disney World transportation for the majority of your trip, it may be a good idea to just self-park instead.
Valet at the Riviera
Overall, if you plan to spend the majority of your vacation in the parks or outside of your resort, you may as well save the money on hotel room upgrades and allot it towards other experiences.
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“Preferred” rooms can also be noisier at already noisy resorts. We accepted an offer for a free room upgrade that was on the first floor right next to the pool once. It was noisy, (even more) humid, and far from anywhere we could park. Never again!
I generally agree with not upgrading with one exception. I will get the preferred rooms at Pop Century closer to the bus stop when I’m running the marathon!