Arriving at 5am?

[sheriffwoody]

Ok, so in January two of my friends and I are driving down to Orlando after one of them gets off work around 3 or 4pm. With the time change, that will put us in Orlando around 4 or 5am. Hopefully one of us can sleep in the back seat while one drives and the other entertains, so we won't be completely sleep deprived.

I'm debating between getting a hotel off property to sleep a few hours or just going straight to our resort. It seems silly to pay $100ish for a few hours in a room but I don't even know what we could do between the time we get to our resort (POFQ) and the time we can either go to a park or get in our room.

Has anyone ever had this situation? What did you do?

 

[The Orange Bird]

If you plan on driving for 12 hours prior to going to the park you've got some guts. I couldn't do it. I'd say get a hotel, Nap and then go to the park. Or just nap in the car for a while.

Either way this does sound like an awesome trip idea!!!

 

[sheriffwoody]

I think either way, we'll have a nap when the room is ready. I'll need at least a few hours to catch up! Maybe I'm crazy, but napping the car before going to a park doesn't sound like a bad idea

 

[DisneyGigi]

Let them know what time you plan on arriving and sometimes the room can be ready. We get there at about 7:00 am and checked right in in 2014. Couldn't this year but that was because I chose to wait for a Cabana 8 room. Had we been okay with Ranchos we could have checked in this year at 7:00. We drive a pretty good way at night too but it is so worth it to get there early!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Let them know what time you plan on arriving and sometimes the room can be ready. We get there at about 7:00 am and checked right in in 2014. Couldn't this year but that was because I chose to wait for a Cabana 8 room. Had we been okay with Ranchos we could have checked in this year at 7:00. We drive a pretty good way at night too but it is so worth it to get there early!

Oh that is great to know! Thanks so much. I guess we could push our travel back a couple of hours to get there at 7 instead of 5. At least that way we wouldn't have to wait around as long.

 

[Tinkerbell 8]

I've done a 15 hour drive to Disney a few times and we always arrived at the resort between 3-5 am. Since you cannot check in until 7 am, we would just park our car in the resort parking lot and take a nap for a few hours, then once the front desk check in staff was there we would go check in then grab breakfast at the resort food court. If our room was ready early we would just wait around, but we usually would jump on a bus and head to one of the parks for a little bit, then nap later in the afternoon. After that drive and spending time in the parks, you will get the best sleep of your life!

 

[Weather_Lady]

Let them know what time you plan on arriving and sometimes the room can be ready. We get there at about 7:00 am and checked right in in 2014. Couldn't this year but that was because I chose to wait for a Cabana 8 room. Had we been okay with Ranchos we could have checked in this year at 7:00. We drive a pretty good way at night too but it is so worth it to get there early!

I just wanted to second this advice. We've arrived early in the morning and had our room ready. (The chances of it being ready early increase if you haven't made special requests, and if you're traveling at a less-crowded time of year.) If I were young and had the stamina for an all-night drive, I'd probably just nap in the car until the room was ready (if it wasn't ready immediately) -- or if the weather was nice, I'd even change into my swim gear and grab a nap in a poolside lounge chair.

 

[R W B]

Instead of leaving at 3-4pm Id leave for 6-7pm (after traffic if you're in a big city) and that way you're there a little later.

 

[Corylancaster]

We did this once. When we got there the room wasn't ready yet because it was around 7am. The lady at the check in desk went ahead and got everything ready for our check in and then mentioned that we could go hang out by the pool and take naps and nobody would bother us, she also let us know that if we wanted they had decent showers at the pool and that early in the morning they would be clean and unused if we wanted to freshen up before heading to the parks if our room still wasn't ready when we wanted to go. This was old key west (we were using a relatives points) so I'm not sure about showers at the other resorts should you want to use them.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Instead of leaving at 3-4pm Id leave for 6-7pm (after traffic if you're in a big city) and that way you're there a little later.

This

 

[DisneyFans4Life]

We were about to check in to POR early one morning as well. It wasn't as early as 7am, maybe around 10am or so. You could always give them a call today and let them know that you're going to be driving over 12 hours and would like to request the room be ready early if at all possible. One thing with Disney is that they can make magic happen.

 

[wascaps]

We did this last week. We arrived at 5:30am after driving 22 hours and waited in the parking lot until 6am when the front desk opens for check in. We checked in and were in our room by 6:15am. Our original room was not ready but we told them that any room was fine. We took showers and were off to our 8am breakfast reservation.

 

[KaliSplash]

We have checked in before 9 am the last two times we stayed. It was not a problem. that was at Pop Century and All-Star Music. Not sure you can do that at the more up scale resorts

 

[sheriffwoody]

We'll be at French Quarter, so I'm worried the smaller size might affect room availability. We'll risk it though! I think we'll be fine to rest in the car or by the pool for a few hours, like you guys said. At least two of us are pretty experienced at driving through the night, just not to WDW. I usually run off adrenaline (and extra coffee) the whole next day.

Plus since it's a weekday in January, I bet the parks all close fairly early and we can catch up on sleep!

Thanks to everyone who responded with suggestions and experiences! This was super helpful.

 

[ekutchey]

I agree napping in the car will be fine. However I must say we just drove down from MI (17 hour drive) arrived at 9:00 am room ready took showers, then off to MK and Epcot for the day, back to WL to swim, off to California Grill for dinner at 9pm to eat and view Wishes, then back to MK for EMH until 2:00 am. Then we hit the bed. Needless to say it can been done and enjoyable on no sleep. But must admit we didn't hit the parks until noonish the next day but since we had 10 days we were flexible.

 

[Rob562]

Just one note on official policy... The earliest that Disney will guarantee the ability to "pre-register" (Disney's term for checking in before the official checkin time) is 7am.

There's always the possibility of doing it earlier (and it's likely to routinely be available earlier), but it's dependent on the overnight end-of-day functions being finished in the system before they can start a new day of business, and they won't guarantee it being done until 7am. (Of course a room being available that early is an entirely separate matter)

-Rob

 

[jsrausch22]

We leave home at 9pm and DH drives through the night while DS and I sleep. We usually make it to the rest stop that is 20 minutes away from Disney around 4am. DH naps for a couple of hours and we usually check in around 7am. Sometimes our room is ready but usually it isn't.

 

[TXDisney]

Why not just leave 2-3hrs later and that'll put you there at 8

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We've never arrived that early...but we've checked in at 7am and had our room ready. If you can stretch it out a little longer...maybe a breakfast before driving onto property...you might be able to just make that work.

 

[Dwarful]

Not sure where you are coming from...but things can happen, esp in Jan...weather, road conditions, traffic, etc., We are from Illinois (near St.Louis Mo) and it ususally a 16 hour drive for us. We do the drive straight through...stopping for gas, restrooms and the Official Florida Welcome center for OJ and grapefruit juice. We do shift driving and sleeping with just a few stops and if we are lucky to arrive early we just nap in the van in the parking lot. it's never been a problem before.