wanting to check in early...

we are planning on driving down in October. Right now we just have a reservation for Friday. If we arrive at 8am should I make a reservation for Thursday as well or will the reservation cancel if we are not there at a certain time?

The room might be ready, but most likely not. Though, I have arrived at 10am before and had our room ready. I also find that if you have no special requests your room is usually ready first, since it is being pulled from open inventory. But if you really want to get into your room at 8am, I would book the night before. You can call the front desk and tell them you won't be checking in till late, so your reservation doesn't get cancled.

We always arrive early, around 7:00, on check-in day. We're always able to check in early, but so far, our room has never been ready at that time. It's not a big deal for us. We just leave our luggage with Bell services, freshen up the lobby bathroom & head off to a park for the day. So, if you don't need in the room that early, there is no need to reserve an extra day.

If it is October and you are staying at a DVC epcot resort or monorail resort.....I seriously doubt you can get a reservation for Thursday night. And for our last few years, our rooms are very, very rarely ready early. Depending on where you are staying, when you check in tell the CM that you would rather have the first available room in your category instead of a "room request" (i.e. close to the elevator, high floor) if you really want to get into your room and take a nap or something....but if you are staying for more than a couple of days, you really don't want to be unhappy with the room you might get. Housekeeping does not usually really get going until after 8:30 and October is usually an "at capacity" time.

I see you have BLT as part of your signature, so I am going to assume that is where you are staying. You could always walk over to the Contemporary and shower and stuff at the gym there. I was going to suggest taking a nap on the little beach behind BLT, but see that you have twins....so that is NOT a good idea. Maybe stop in at the community center to keep the kids amused and maybe you and DH could take turns napping there.....it is usually pretty quiet. Or maybe one of the parents that got more sleep can walk to MK with the kids while spouse takes a nap.

I'll be driving down in August, but will do an overnight in Brunswick, GA....4 hours to Disney from there and plan on leaving behind morning rush hour. So I will hopefully arrive with a good nights sleep under my belt.

I think you will be fine...you can do the online check in, and it asks what time you will arrive. if you can't specify that you are coming the next morning, I think you can advise them of this in a comment box that is on the online check in page. As it happens, this summer I'm planning to arrive at a hotel at 8am (not DVC), and have booked the previous night...I put in my arrival time in the special request section.

When you say make a reservation for Thursday, you are meaning that you would basically "throw away" the points for the Thursday night just to be able to check in early on Friday...is that right ? That seems like a pretty high price to pay for checking in early.
As far as will the resort cancel your reservation, I would say no cause you are still using your points for Thursday night so how could the resort cancel you out. This is not like a normal hotel where if you don't show up the hotel will cancel you and rent to someone else. Plus if you do not show up on Thursday night, the room should be ready and waiting for your at 8am on Friday...just like it was ready and waiting for you on Thursday night...you paid for it so it should be ready whenever regardless.

abner1776 said:

When you say make a reservation for Thursday, you are meaning that you would basically "throw away" the points for the Thursday night just to be able to check in early on Friday...is that right ? That seems like a pretty high price to pay for checking in early.
As far as will the resort cancel your reservation, I would say no cause you are still using your points for Thursday night so how could the resort cancel you out. This is not like a normal hotel where if you don't show up the hotel will cancel you and rent to someone else. Plus if you do not show up on Thursday night, the room should be ready and waiting for your at 8am on Friday...just like it was ready and waiting for you on Thursday night...you paid for it so it should be ready whenever regardless.

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They can (and have) cancelled DVC reservations if the guests do not check in as scheduled. Points are forfeited. If you are going to be very late (not show up until early the next morning), you must let them know.

My advice is to have MS note it on the reservation and then call the resort on check-in day to remind them. Be sure to get the actual resort's TN. The publicly listed numbers go to a centralized call center and unfortunately, they do not always correctly pass on information they may receive from a guest.

I have had to do this after a flight from California turned into an overnight flight. You do need to call and if you tell the call center what you're doing they will connect you with the front desk. I showed up about eight and check right in my room.


That said I would stop someplace a few hours out and get a room. It's much safer than driving all night. I know someone who did the drive through the night, fell asleep and wound up totaling a car.

As other's have said, you can certainly check in that early, but getting checked in and being able to get into the room are two different things. If you want to be able to go straight to the room, then yes, I would reserve the previous night, let MS know to note you won't be arriving until 8:00 am the next day.