Checking into your hotel before check in time

[lnuss1988]

We are probably going to be driving to WDW and I would like to arrive around 1am of the day we check in so we don't have to drive the whole night and will have the whole first day to explore.

Will they allow us to check in before our check in time? If I remember correctly we did this before when I went my parents, but I don't remember how it worked exactly.

 

[TDC Nala]

If your check-in date is January 1, you can check in at 1 AM on January 2.

If your check-in date is January 2, I do not believe they will give you a room to sleep in for the night of January 1, even if it is technically January 2 when you check in. I think they roll over the room systems later than that. You'd likely have to pay for another room.

 

[tobikaye]

The computers do not switch over to the next day until about 7 am. Any time before that would still be the prior night. If you want to arrive before 7 am and be able to get into a room, you need to book the prior night. Even if you check in at 7 am, there is the possibility your room will not be ready until the afternoon some time. I once had to wait until about 4 pm for my room to be ready.

 

[Polydweller]

If your check-in date is January 1, you can check in at 1 AM on January 2.

If your check-in date is January 2, I do not believe they will give you a room to sleep in for the night of January 1, even if it is technically January 2 when you check in. I think they roll over the room systems later than that. You'd likely have to pay for another room.

Exactly right. As a hotelier I can say its important to remember that hoteliers sell nights not days. The night of jan 1-2 (say 9:00 pm Jan 1 to 6am Jan 2) belongs to people checked in on Jan 1. If you are arriving for checkin on Jan 2 you won't be able to checkin until roll over which will be after 5:00 am Jan 2 and the first night you have booked is actually the night of Jan 2-3.

 

[lnuss1988]

So I can't check in at 1am of our arrival date. Ok, that will put a change on my driving plans! Thanks everyone!

 

[sndral]

I assume you are asking this question in regards to your planned Sept. 2015, vacation?
Disney's check in time for their resorts is 3 p.m., so no, they will likely not let you have your room 14 hours early (1 a.m. is 14 hours before 3 p.m. check in.)
Sometimes people have their rooms an hour or two before 3 p.m. but you shouldn't depend on that.
More than likely your parents simply paid for the night/morning you recall.

 

[lnuss1988]

That is most likely what they did. I wanted to avoid driving over night, but it might be better with a 4 year old... Still got time to plan out the quirks, just trying to get somethings in line ... OCD

 

[SillyFamily]

I personally have checked in and been in my room at 10am. I think alot of that has to do with how many rooms are available.

 

[Zooshoveller]

We drive most of the way and stay over night in Gainesville, then wake up refreshed and drive the remaining 1.5 hours to Disney.

Or Lake City is 2.5 hours away and Ocala is 1 hour.

 

[Allies mom]

I requested 10am check in and it was ready when I arrived at 10:15.

 

[ninjagirl]

I personally have checked in and been in my room at 10am. I think alot of that has to do with how many rooms are available.

10 am is a lot different than 1 am. 10 am is I booked an early flight. 1 am is I'm trying to get an extra night without paying for it.

 

[dburg30]

I'll ask the obvious, can you just swing another day on the hotel? Or is there no availability?? Then contact them and say you will be doing a late checkin?

 

[mickeynut1]

We are probably going to be driving to WDW and I would like to arrive around 1am of the day we check in so we don't have to drive the whole night and will have the whole first day to explore.

Will they allow us to check in before our check in time? If I remember correctly we did this before when I went my parents, but I don't remember how it worked exactly.

As others have posted, 1 am is technically the next day, but is still the current day as far as reservations and checking in is concerned. If you want to be able to check in during the night before your actual check in day, you would have to add that night to your reservation.

 

[lnuss1988]

I am by no means trying to get a free night, 1am is technically considered the next day, I didn't know how their systems worked, if you could check in early, I didn't know the check in time. This is my first time planning our WDW vacation myself and I am trying to get some info on here that the website doesn't give. All the trips I have been on my parents have done the planning.

On that note, Thank you to the people who have given me the answers to my questions.

We are traveling from PA and I was considering traveling all day Friday, stopping in SC for overnight and waking up and arriving in WDW on Saturday as I have currently planned. If check in isn't till 3pm anyways, there is no sense in driving overnight and then being dead tired when we can check in and just sleeping the rest of our day away. Or, If I can request an earlier check in time, we are going the end of September.

I still have time to plan this out, I am just trying to get some ideas on what people have done, what has worked for them. To weigh my options.

 

[mickeynut1]

We are traveling from PA and I was considering traveling all day Friday, stopping in SC for overnight and waking up and arriving in WDW on Saturday as I have currently planned. If check in isn't till 3pm anyways, there is no sense in driving overnight and then being dead tired when we can check in and just sleeping the rest of our day away. Or, If I can request an earlier check in time, we are going the end of September.

Even though check in isn't (technically) until 3 pm, you can check in as early as 6 am. when the computers roll over for that day. Your room may or may not be ready, but you can check in and get your KTTW card/park tickets (and DDP activated, if you have that) and head to a park. You will then get a text when your room is ready. Your room may be ready first thing in the morning, but depends on how busy the resort is at the time.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We drive from Ohio, and usually arrive around 6:30 a.m. We have occasionally gotten our room that early; it depends on resort capactity. Our plan is always to grab breakfast and go to a park, so not dependent on the room being ready that early.

 

[mb187143]

We are traveling from PA and I was considering traveling all day Friday, stopping in SC for overnight and waking up and arriving in WDW on Saturday as I have currently planned. If check in isn't till 3pm anyways, there is no sense in driving overnight and then being dead tired when we can check in and just sleeping the rest of our day away. Or, If I can request an earlier check in time, we are going the end of September. I still have time to plan this out, I am just trying to get some ideas on what people have done, what has worked for them. To weigh my options.

We drove from Philadelphia, PA to Disney the morning after thanksgiving this year. Normally I wouldn't even consider driving but the flights were more expensive than driving so we did. We have driven down previously, leaving at 4 pm and driving pretty straight through, arriving around 7am the next day. This time, our party included a 3 year old, so we planned to stop. We left Friday morning around 10am, and drove to Savannah, GA. We stopped there around midnight and slept there. Got up the next morning, had breakfast at 8:30 and hit the road. We were checking in to our hotel by 1pm (and our room was ready).

While stopping did add time to the trip, we really enjoyed our first day this time- we were much better rested and we didn't crash early like we had previously. If we drive again we will definitely plan to stop. It made a huge difference in how we felt the day we arrived and it took far less time to recover.

 

[Lyndarella]

There is a lot of info here. Checking in and getting a room are two different things. You can check in any time after 6:00 am. When there is a room ready for you they will let you know.