Advantage of Online Checkin

[sssteele]

When my wife and I checked into AKV Kidani in December, there were about ten or more families there to check in. They had everybody line up to be checked in first-come first-serve. There absolutely was no advantage as far as being dealt with first - it didn't happen. I didn't let it bother me a great deal (what good does it do), but I'm not sure the experience encourages me to on-line check in again.

 

[DebbieB]

Ugghh!! I just did my online check in and I put my AMEX card info on file...but I have Disney gift cards and Disney Visa Rewards that I want to use to pay for my dining plan. Hopefully, they can change it at check in.

I would call member services right away to see if they can cancel it. Someone else had posted they did this and it could not be changed.

I have not seen to need to do online check-in, I'd rather speak to someone to make sure everything is in order. I've never taken more than 5 minutes to check-in.

 

[kristenrice]

I would call member services right away to see if they can cancel it. Someone else had posted they did this and it could not be changed.

I have not seen to need to do online check-in, I'd rather speak to someone to make sure everything is in order. I've never taken more than 5 minutes to check-in.

I called MS yesterday and explained to the CM that I did the online check in and had my AMEX card on file. I specifically asked her if they would charge my DP to the card before my arrival, since I was planning on using a gift card to pay for it. She assured me that my card WOULD NOT be charged until I arrived at the front desk.

IIRC, when I did online check in last June at the AKV, I was able to use my gift card at check in even though my CC was on file. Hopefully, that will still be the case.

 

[Princess&CowboyMommy]

We did online checkin-in for both CBR (2 nights) and VWL this past November. It went very fast both times. The only thing I didn't like - WLV forgot to put a Portable Perks in my folder. I didn't even realize it until we got back because I wasn't looking for it. Logged into DIS and saw another DVC member bring it up and it dawned on me that we hadn't gotten one When we did non "online-checkin", it seemed like the front desk personnel would always quickly show us what was in the folder. This time, it was like they just handed me the folder and my parking pass with saying barely anything to us.

 

[kdepot]

We used online check-in our last 2 trips and had no problems.

At SSR we walked right to the online window. Gave us our packet and everything in it (total time 3 min),room was not ready(11AM) so we went to DTD and picked up AP's and TIW and lunch. While we were eating we got the phone call our room was ready .

2nd trip BWV was the same but room was ready.

WE split so at OKW 1 family in line before us. Wait time and check-in time 5 min total

 

[Atchley]

We did online check in last year and it didn't seem to save us any time. They still went over everything with us, and I believe, they still wanted to see the card that I put on the room charge to verify that it was my card. It went smoothly enough, but I don't think it really saved any time.

 

[auntsue]

On the post trip surveys they've been asking 'Did you use online check-in?' to which I reply 'No,' then it asks 'Did you know about it?' to which I reply 'Yes,' then they ask the reason for not using it and I always reply 'because there is no place for room requests.' That being said, BWV uses a preassigned system so we usually don't get our requests when we check in at the desk either. I don't see the advantage one way or the other. I just prefer not to check in online.

 

[DenLo]

We used online check in at our recent stay at BLT. We arrived early at 7:00 am and there was no one at the online desk. In fact we were the only one checking in at that hour. So we just went to the regular check in line. We told the CM we did online check and she went and got our packet. She confirmed that we still wanted to that same credit card (yes). She didn't need our card again. And then we mentioned that we wanted as high a floor as possible and the CM checked to see if there were any available villas on floors higher than the one we were assigned (10). There wasn't. So we were done in 5 minutes. The CM did not go over the items in the packet. We did check that there was a parking pass for our car. And it was there. We had everything when I checked the packet later.

I thought it worked out fine. It takes so long when the keys have to be printed while you wait.

 

[Sandisw]

I called MS yesterday and explained to the CM that I did the online check in and had my AMEX card on file. I specifically asked her if they would charge my DP to the card before my arrival, since I was planning on using a gift card to pay for it. She assured me that my card WOULD NOT be charged until I arrived at the front desk.

IIRC, when I did online check in last June at the AKV, I was able to use my gift card at check in even though my CC was on file. Hopefully, that will still be the case.

I can tell you, from experience, that the DDP was indeed charged to my card before I arrived.

Last summer, I did the same thing and when I got to BWV, she gave me the stuff and said "You are all set". I asked her about paying for the DDP and she said, "Oh, that was already charged to your card". When I explained that I had wanted to pay with Disney Reward points, she said she could fix it but it could take 2 - 4 weeks for the credit to show up on my CC. I told her that was fine and she went ahead and changed things.

She even went in and added a note to my reservations at BLT and VWL (we were doing a split stay) so that they would NOT charge the card.

If you really need to pay for the DDP with the gift cards, I would call back and ask that it be removed, just to be sure.

You may even want to go in and try to alter your online check in to see if it will let you remove the card.

Good luck!

 

[drumms2112]

Stayed at BLT in November and was in the online check-in line only to be moved to another line which was not designated as an online check-in, CM was totally confused about the process.

The same thing happened to us last September at BLT. I was next in the online check-in line waiting for 5-10 min when I was moved to the back of the regular line behind 6 people. I told cm that I did online check-in and he said "any cm at front desk can check you in." (why have a sperate online check-in line then????) I ended up waiting a half hour which is fine because we are just exited to be there and nothing could upset us a that point but it seeemed they were very unorganized. They had to print our cards and there was nothing ready. I will not do online check-in again but it's not a big deal because your at DISNEY!

 

[Chuck S]

One thing I did kind of like about online check-in, we were on our way to WDW, and were waiting in line at a toll booth on the turnpike when the phone rang. It was an automated message telling us our room was ready, and the room number before we even arrived at the resort.