Starwood Preferred Guest - HNL & Disneyland: Best day to arrive for a week long stay?

For upcoming trips to Hawaii and Disneyland, I wanted to get your advice on some mechanics to maximize my chances of upgrade on an award stay.


What day of the week would be best to checkin for my stay?
Can adjusting the length of stay help/hurt my upgrade chances (eg are they more likely to hook me up for a 5 night stay or could I reasonably expect an upgrade for a stay of up to 2 weeks?


Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

For upcoming trips to Hawaii and Disneyland, I wanted to get your advice on some mechanics to maximize my chances of upgrade on an award stay.


What day of the week would be best to checkin for my stay?
Can adjusting the length of stay help/hurt my upgrade chances (eg are they more likely to hook me up for a 5 night stay or could I reasonably expect an upgrade for a stay of up to 2 weeks?


Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

I'll give a best guess into Hawaii since I live here.

Most hotels have highest occupancy Thur-Sun, mainly due to West Coast people coming for a long weekend. So checking in late Sunday (when everyone is checked out) to Wednesday is probably your best bet.

Occupany can be vary significantly if a convention is in town - in those cases, the hotel can be full all week.

Visitor arrivals are up in 2011 and the hotels have been running fairly full.

High season in Hawaii is June - August, again - highest occupancy.

Again, best guess - the longer the stay, the harder the upgrade since the room has to be available the entire stay. But, really depends on the hotel and availability.

As for a Disneyland trip, I think I would be less concerned about upgrades and more aware of the best days to visit the parks honestly.

Assuming you are going in summer, no day is "great" in terms of lighter attendance, but do what you can to avoid Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Midweek crowds are typically more manageable. If you have to go on a weekend, visit California Adventure on Saturday and Disneyland on Sunday. Disneyland is an absolute bear on Saturdays.

As for Starwood options, you'll want to pick the Sheraton Park Hotel if you are platinum. They have a lounge, while the Sheraton Anaheim does not. At the Sheraton Park, even if you don't get a suite upgrade, at least you'll have a lounge (and anecdotal evidence suggests they treat elites better anyways).

For Disneyland, I agree with the suggestion of Sheraton Park for a Plat. It's nice to have the lounge to grab a quick breakfast before heading to the parks. They use Anaheim Resort Transit for a park shuttle so if you wanted to use it, you would need to pay for ART tickets. However, it's within walking distance (a few blocks) and if your feet are too tired for the whole distance, the Toy Story parking lot for Disneyland is diagonally across the street.

Thanks for the suggestions I booked the Sheraton park. I am plat so the lounge sounds really good and as i recall the art is not too bad