A (Better Than) Free Upgrade

The Tiki gods must have heard my lamentations because they decided to spice up my Disney trip planning! This past Thursday Mandy opened her inbox, read through a few emails and promptly called me, saying "Get over here. Now!" Luckily this was at work, so I was by her side in about 12 seconds flat. I was greeted by her making a face much like this one:

(I bet my mom loves that I used this pic of her again. Hehe!)

She pointed at her computer screen and what appeared there was dramatic. It was magical. Some would even say it was dramagical! It was an offer for a free upgrade from Disney. Score!!

We've long heard tales of the lucky few who get special postcards and emails from WDW offering free upgrades. There are pin codes attached to these offers, which are tied to existing reservations, so they can't be shared. We never even dreamed of ever getting such an offer... and yet there it was. A short (ok, 30+ min) phone call later and both our rooms were upgraded to the Disney Vacation Club's Old Key West resort.

We had been happily booked at All-Star Sports, which is a value resort with a price of about $100 per night. This new room at Old Key West goes for about $300 per night. Running the numbers (2 rooms for 4 nights each) tells you that this upgrade was worth $1600. Wahoo!!! Add to that the fact that we still get to take advantage of the free dining offer and that Mark is celebrating his birthday on this trip, and that means we're getting nearly $2500 worth of free stuff from the Mouse.

But wait... I said this was a better than free upgrade. Well, the All-Star resorts are located in Osceola County which happens to tack on an extra 1% to their sales tax. By switching resorts we're actually getting refunded about $50. That's right folks, Disney is paying us to upgrade. Could it get any better?!?

Needless to say we're super-excited and busily researching Old Key West as none of us have ever set foot on its property before. Here are a couple pics of what's in store for us...