"Skip the Desk". What has been your experience?

[eeyoresmom]

We have a family trip coming up and are staying in 4 studio rooms at SSR. I did do online check in, hoping the procedure goes a little more smoothly for us than it has in the past. I would estimate that around 50% of the time, I have to call the resort after 4 PM to see if my room is ready and it usually is. This makes me wonder why I never go the "room is ready text". Our last stay was last year and I'm wondering what the recent experience has been. Have you gotten the text saying your room is ready or did you have to call? TIA

 

[kcpinwdw]

I would say for the past year or so i'm under 50% success with the text. Last month at WL we got one, and I was so surprised! But no for Beach club in jan, no for our yacht club trip in december, no for poly in sept 2016... I two reservations next week so we will see.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I've gone 3 times since direct to room started and all 3 times I received a room ready text prior to arriving.
Two times I arrived at 9am and once I arrived at 7pm.

 

[Babsy]

I have never received a room is ready text. We always just go back after 4:00 pm and check at the desk. It is often ready, but not always.

 

[eastendlights]

Last February I got the text just as we were boarding the ME bus. We landed at 2:50 and the text came at 3:20. We were staying at BC. We have a bit earlier arrival on Friday at AKL, landing at 2 so we will see how that goes.

 

[fla4fun]

I prefer email to text. They tend to do the email right around the time I told them I'm checking in, so I usually enter a time about 2-3 hours prior to when I think I will actually be there and most of the time I get an email. Sometimes the email says the room isn't ready yet, but at least I get it. Once I got an email that I had to go to the front desk, and it turned out they were having resort wide computer issues and the bands wouldn't work on the rooms. They were issuing everyone key cards. I think there has only been one time since they started the program that I didn't get any email at all, but the room was ready when I got there.

 

[hildarumpole]

We've been 3x within the past year and it's worked perfectly. Last trip was in January. The 2nd trip, the text came before we even left the house. It's wonderful heading straight to the room without dealing with check in lines. Previously, it never seemed to work for us. We would always have to go to the front desk where they would claim, without fail, that a text was sent hours earlier. A CM told me they've updated the system to be more reliable.

 

[CynBeth]

When we went in Dec and stayed at YC we got a text and e-mail right about when we landed saying our room was not ready and they would contact us again with an update. By the time we picked up our rental car and drove to the resort we hadn't heard anything so went to the front desk and the CM found a room for us.

 

[kwdw]

Learned one trick last time - if you have too many active magic bands - it can cause a hiccup.

I did online check-in last trip - got notice my room was not ready yet right about the time I was boarding ME. Several hours later - I got the message that I needed to stop by the front desk (probably 2pm). Finally got to the desk around 6 pm - asked what was up. They had not been able to get my current resort magic band to sync to the room they had assigned me. The CM said that it was processing through ALL my active bands - and it didn't want to finish the job of linking the room.

After that trip - I have now inactivated a bunch of my old bands and those of others linked to MDE. Just have my AP band, upcoming resort band, and an older band I have a SOTMK game on active now. We'll see if that helps!

 

[BabyFu18]

I am going to try the above tip to deactivate some of my old bands, because the past three trips I've taken (each one at different resorts) I've never gotten the room ready text or even a text saying the room wasn't ready even though I've done online check-in and everything, so I don't know if I'm doing osmething wrong or not but it never works for me! When I questioned why I wasn't receiving the text messages even though the front desk (at the BC) said it was sent out they told me the system doesn't always work and sometimes you just don't get the texts and they aren't sure why that is.

Either way I keep trying it by doing online check-in and if I happen to get the text on my next trip that'll be nice, but if not I don't mind stopping by the front desk.

 

[mamamelody2]

Last September, I went with a large family group and we had 3 rooms at POR. We all got the texts before we got there. It was great to just head straight to the room.

 

[eastendlights]

Learned one trick last time - if you have too many active magic bands - it can cause a hiccup.

I did online check-in last trip - got notice my room was not ready yet right about the time I was boarding ME. Several hours later - I got the message that I needed to stop by the front desk (probably 2pm). Finally got to the desk around 6 pm - asked what was up. They had not been able to get my current resort magic band to sync to the room they had assigned me. The CM said that it was processing through ALL my active bands - and it didn't want to finish the job of linking the room.

After that trip - I have now inactivated a bunch of my old bands and those of others linked to MDE. Just have my AP band, upcoming resort band, and an older band I have a SOTMK game on active now. We'll see if that helps!

How many is too many? I did get the text last year but I would like to avoid a potential problem this next trip.

 

[PolyRob]

I second the MagicBand issue! I have a large amount of bands in MDE and it always causes and issue getting into the room. The CM told me you should not have more than 6 - 8 active at any one time. I find even when I deactivate them all but the one issued for the specific resort stay I still have issues. I called IT when I got back from my last trip and had them manually remove old ones so they do not show up in MDE at all. I hope this helps in two weeks on my next trip.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Last year we had a "split stay" between AoA and GF (with a cruise on the Dream in the middle) and for both resorts we got the room ready texts and it was very smooth. Loved it!

 

[emmabelle]

it worked perfectly for us Jan '16, Nov '16 and Jan '17.

 

[eeyoresmom]

I second the MagicBand issue! I have a large amount of bands in MDE and it always causes and issue getting into the room. The CM told me you should not have more than 6 - 8 active at any one time. I find even when I deactivate them all but the one issued for the specific resort stay I still have issues. I called IT when I got back from my last trip and had them manually remove old ones so they do not show up in MDE at all. I hope this helps in two weeks on my next trip.

Where can I get the number for IT? I'm going to have this done.

 

[WEDWDW]

After that trip - I have now inactivated a bunch of my old bands and those of others linked to MDE. Just have my AP band, upcoming resort band, and an older band I have a SOTMK game on active now. We'll see if that helps!

It will!

 

[chicagoshannon]

It has never worked for us.

 

[loves to dive]

I've never in over 30 years of going, gotten the text before I arrive, despite putting early check in and having my CC# on file. I have gotten it after I've checked in and gone to the parks, that happens often. I've just gotten in the habit of going to the front desk when I get there to let them know I'm there and check to see what room they think they are going to give me.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I've never in over 30 years of going, gotten the text before I arrive, despite putting early check in and having my CC# on file. I have gotten it after I've checked in and gone to the parks, that happens often. I've just gotten in the habit of going to the front desk when I get there to let them know I'm there and check to see what room they think they are going to give me.

The direct to room option has only been available since i think February 2015 so you would not have gotten one prior to that anyways.