my worry is if i do online check-in but not arriving till late (9pm) that they will have given my request away to someone that wasnt happy with their room assignment and i will get stuck with the least desirable rooms.
From my point of view is that i paid full rack rate and did it 15 minutes after pkg ressies open up for booking but to get stuck with a bad room view after requesting a location area at booking time will not set well with us. And i didnt book std view.
fingers crossed but i dont know whether to wait till we arrive to checkin or do online ahead of time. I dont expect a specific room just a specific location..
suggestions???
In this situation, it's not going to matter much whether you do online vs. wait until you get there to check-in. If you are assigned to a particular room, and someone else who arrives sooner wants it, from my understanding they have the power to "take it away from you" whether you checked in online 10 days before or you walk up then. It is possible that they only pull from online check in rooms as a last resort, but I think they still have the option of "poaching" them for someone who is already standing in front of them.
I'm fairly sure that (unless there's a glitch in the system) they won't take a room from someone who booked a particular category in order to give it to someone who booked a lower category, but is unhappy with their room assignment.
So if you booked a Courtyard View at the Wilderness Lodge, for instance, they won't give you room away who hasn't already booked a Courtyard View.
If the category you booked was rare enough that YOU couldn't get a discount for it, then chances are very few, if any, others managed to get it at a discount, so you will only be competing with others in the same situation as you. I'm fairly sure they don't care how much a person paid for a particular room and they might not even be able to see that information or when someone may have booked. If changing your reservation to get a discount is possible, you should do so, because you won't be gaining anything otherwise. You won't be doing yourself any favors by convincing yourself that you're more entitled than someone else to a particular room, unless what you want is a bookable category.
Other than that, I'm not sure how room requests are handled anymore. I know you can still have things noted on your reservation, but they went to a computerized system and I can't imagine they have codes for every possible room request. When you do online check-in the only options they have are very general and similar to the requests they offer you at most hotels. (ie. ground floor, etc)
Just keep in mind that all you have the power to do is put in a request. It's possible that no rooms that fit your requests will be available at all for your arrival day. If you are very unhappy with your room, you can ask to be moved should a room that fits your requests open up.
In the two times I've stayed on Disney property, I've gotten my requests. The first time I booked a Pool View at AKL with a request for a king size bed. I could not have been happier with my location. The second time I stayed at CBR in a king bed room with a request for a ground floor location (no elevators at CBR) and a pack'n'play. We got both things, but we sacrificed a closer location. I still was very happy with my decision, because I knew what I was getting into. I could have booked preferred (same cost as king) and put in a request for a king bed, but the size of the bed was more important to me.
Keep in mind, that many people do not research their Disney hotels quite as much as we do around here. It's possible that the majority of people who pass through the Disney check-in process may not even know the details of what types of rooms are available, so the chance of them requesting a very specific room-type is low. It seems as if EVERYONE is very particular if you look around here, when actually we're a small fraction of the people who go to Walt Disney World. We're NOT the norm.
