Early Check In Questions

[disney4life2008]

My flight arrives at 745am and I will be taking DME to Sports. What time do you think using DME will I arrive to the resort? Also, because DME will take my checked bags - once I check in at sports - will they be able to hold my carry on bags? I doubt my room will be available that early in the morning so I want to leave my bookbag and head to MK once I check in. Also, a while back I had read that disney sends a text message when your room is available - do they still/ever do this or am I confusing that with another hotel chain? Thanks

 

[disneygirl1024]

Yes Disney has the text alert message for when your room is ready. I dont know about the other stuff. I would actually like to know as well.

 

[DisneyMomD]

We also will be checking in early. I would like to know the answer to this question

 

[cw1982]

Not sure what time you'll get there, but you may be pleasantly surprised at how early your room (might) be ready! Ours was ready upon our arrival at 11 am at Pop. Do the online check in option and tell the system you want to check in at 8 am... you won't be there that early, but that will give CM's at the hotel a head's up that you hope to have a room early.

If your room isn't ready, the hotel will hold your bags for you with bell services while you go play. And you are correct that they will send you a text when the room is ready if needed.

 

[LWB]

Yes, they will hold your bags if your room is not ready!

Disney does offer the text-message service to let you know that your room is ready.

 

[disney4life2008]

Not sure what time you'll get there, but you may be pleasantly surprised at how early your room (might) be ready! Ours was ready upon our arrival at 11 am at Pop. Do the online check in option and tell the system you want to check in at 8 am... you won't be there that early, but that will give CM's at the hotel a head's up that you hope to have a room early.

If your room isn't ready, the hotel will hold your bags for you with bell services while you go play. And you are correct that they will send you a text when the room is ready if needed.

Good tip - I always forget about online check in. I remember it used to be 10 days out but I think now its 60 days out? I always hope for my room to ready when I arrive - I like to freshen up before heading to the parks on the first day. But if not, I am understanding. It will beat being at disneyworld than in Illinois

 

[cw1982]

Good tip - I always forget about online check in. I remember it used to be 10 days out but I think now its 60 days out? I always hope for my room to ready when I arrive - I like to freshen up before heading to the parks on the first day. But if not, I am understanding. It will beat being at disneyworld than in Illinois

Yep... 60 days out!

 

[m3owbox]

The resort should be able to hold your bags for you.

 

[ginadee]

I had a flight arrive at 9:30 and they had aroom ready when we got there at POP.

 

[Master Yoda]

Good tip - I always forget about online check in. I remember it used to be 10 days out but I think now its 60 days out? I always hope for my room to ready when I arrive - I like to freshen up before heading to the parks on the first day. But if not, I am understanding. It will beat being at disneyworld than in Illinois

I can confirm that online check in really helps with your room being ready early.

We normally check in between 7:00-7:30 AM. Prior to online check in's existence, the chance of a room being ready at that time might have been 5%-10%. One online check in came into being that rate has increased to near 90%.

We also rarely make any room requests and that seems to help a little as well.

 

[cbettua]

At values, after doing online check in I still have never had a room ready when I arrive. I usually arrive around 8:30 am. But even so, my stay at AOA the room was ready by 10am and at POP my room was ready at like 12pm. When I stayed at CBR, my room was ready upon arrival.

 

[Christine in NJ]

We have always had our room ready for us when we arrived (earliest arrival in recent years was 9:30 at POR). If your room isn't ready, bell services can always hold your carry-on. They bell services people, like all of Disney, are super helpful and nice. You can also drop your carry-on bags there on your last day and head to the parks for one last day.

 

[disney4life2008]

Thanks for the responses. I completed my early check in and put 8am. It would be nice for my room to be ready so I can freshen up but if not, I am heading to MK for an early lunch at the Plaza and 7DMT, Splash Mountain, and BTMR

 

[DVCPluto]

Just FYI... If you order groceries to be delivered, bell services will keep cold things cold for you. Super convenient!

Also, even though you should get a text when your room is ready, if you're in a ride or building that has no cell service, it won't go through. At least that was what I was told, since I never received ours. Seemed legit at the time since we went from ride to ride upon arrival.

Good luck!

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

Our flight usually arrives at MCO 9:25-9:35, and we normally are at the Poly by 10:30-10:45 the latest. In the last 10 visits, 8 times we were able to get into our room by 11am. The two times our room wasnt ready, we just went to the front desk to check in from time to time (and got a text message 4 hours later, that our room was ready LOL)

 

[Weather_Lady]

At moderate resorts, our room was always ready when we checked in during the morning.

The first and only time we've stayed at a deluxe (Wilderness Lodge Villas, 2-BR villa), not only were there no 2-BR villas ready (we checked in at noon), but we were told that if we were willing to wait an extra hour or two, they could honor our request to put us near an elevator, to accommodate a member of our party who has Parkinson's. The request had been noted on our reservation for 11 months, but according to the check-in CM, no one had "gotten a chance to look at it before today"). Not only did it take them an additional FIVE HOURS to ready a room -- we didn't get a "room is ready" text until nearly 5pm) but the room was situated halfway down the length of the VEEEEERY long building on the 5th floor, nowhere near an elevator!

I'd imagine that the reason for this is simply that the deluxes (and in our case, villas) have less inventory -- so the higher you get within the WDW room tiers, the less likely you are to have a room ready when you check in early. I realize that WDW doesn't and can't guarantee that your room will be ready if you check in early (or that room requests will be met), but it's still great when it happens, and a huge annoyance when it doesn't.