Anyone that has had a late arrival get their room requests?

[ain0004]

WE are arriving by DME late. I will be happy if we arrive by 9pm. I am worried none of our room requests will be met. I know they are requests only and they don't have to follow any request. Disney has been kind and usually gets me close to what we have asked for in the past. I have always arrived in the early morning, and even waited longer for our room to be in a better location. I guess I have a fear...last one there...last room to be assigned...So am I being parinod? Or maybe Disney has spoiled me.

 

[DizBub]

I worry about this too. We drive and always try to arrive 1-ish just in case there are issues. I understand that someone has got to get "that" room but if we get there early enough we may be able to fix it.

Last year my daughter and her family got in late, 9:30 or 10 pm. We had requested Congress Park water view and they put her in The Springs with no view at all. She was irritated but it's all they had left. Turns out it was the perfect location for them after all, perfectly situated for the pools, bus stop and Artist's Palette. She ended up being very happy with what they got.

 

[taterheads]

WE are arriving by DME late. I will be happy if we arrive by 9pm. I am worried none of our room requests will be met. I know they are requests only and they don't have to follow any request. Disney has been kind and usually gets me close to what we have asked for in the past. I have always arrived in the early morning, and even waited longer for our room to be in a better location. I guess I have a fear...last one there...last room to be assigned...So am I being parinod? Or maybe Disney has spoiled me.

I worry about this too. We will get there closer to 6:30 pm this time but still nervous. Especially since our resort will be overrun with cheerleaders while there. We made requests to avoid bring in a building that never sleeps. I called in advance about requests, think I am going to online check in and then politely ask again when we arrive if none of my requests are met.

 

[HookdonWDW]

We've arrived after midnight and gotten all of our requests, and we've arrived at 11 am and received none of our requests. There is no figuring out the mystery that is check-in request distribution. I've just decided to leave it to the DVC Powers-That-Be, and hope for the best...

 

[disneynutz]

The fact is, late check ins run the risk of their room being given to others who want a different room.

Bill

 

[luckyman_apd]

Got mine. Just got home yesterday. We had 2 standard view BLT studios. Friday night my dad was already there in FL visiting a cousin....took a shuttle to the airport and took MDE. He got there around 8 pm I think. Our flight was delayed 2.5 hrs so we didn't get to BLT until midnight. I requested our studios be as close to each other as possible AND higher floor (not ground floor). We got 3rd. Floor 7309 and 7306...... Practically across the hall from each other. I couldn't have been happier.

My only complaint is the battery died in the RFID receiver in our door. Was locked out of the room for about 40 minutes until it was opened. First person could not get the key to open it. Another team came by and after a bit of a struggle they got it open. Had to call again to make sure they got someone to fix before we went out again.

 

[Msmithmd]

We got the best theme park view one bedroom in VGC, after an extreme flight delay put us into the resort after 1am beyond our checkin day. Had requested "high floor paradise pier view" and got the best room view there, despite arriving technically on the next morning. Fortunately, I can report that there is approximately 100% likelihood that your room will be ready, if you simply arrive nine hours after four pm.

I think request chances depend more on whether your dates match well with the checkout of others in your request area. Since it's always high occupancy, the assigners can only give you what is available. As we don't "own" VGC, I'm sure we got lucky that someone happened to be checking out of that room on that day.

I would second the prior post, though- that the front desk may well bump you out of your initially assigned room, if it makes someone happy who is standing in front of them and you haven't yet arrived.

So far, we find that we get requests about half the time. Which I think is basically ok, as we all understand that if everyone requests the same thing there is no way for DVC to honor that evenly. (Disney may have considered making BWV a hundred stories tall and three rooms wide, so that everyone could be close to the elevator- but it seems they decided otherwise before the final build...)

 

[DonnaL]

I agree with above poster who stated they get their requests about half of the time. I would say that's about our percentage also. However, I can also say I never make specific room requests or views....my usual is simply higher floor, non HA room...since several years ago on New Years Day mid afternoon arrival at BLT we were assigned a HA 2 bdrm lock-off, unknown to us until we got to the room much later. The room wasn't ready when we checked in....we got a call/text a few hours later that it was ready...but we were already in a park and didn't get to the room until several hours later. By that time....there was no availability to put us elsewhere. It really wasn't a pleasant week....since my DH is 6" 1" and had a very difficult time with the lower counters and bed. I'm only 4' 11" and even I had a hard time adjusting to the low kitchen counters/kitchen set-up....not to mention..the room itself was also a mess. BLT was only open 5 months at that time and this room looked like it was ready for rehab already....marks and scratches everywhere, a huge gouge in the kitchen table, stains on all the living room furniture and huge stains on the carpeting. We called housekeeping since the room hadn't been cleaned well....they did do a re-cleaning, but, it didn't help much since everything was such a mess. So, since that trip.....I make it a point to add NON HA room to my request of higher floor.

 

[ain0004]

Our late arrival is at beach club.. My 2 requests are near elevator and to have a dedicated 1 bedroom. I know the dedicated 1 bedroom would be hard to get, even with early arrival. We have never stayed at beach club. So I am guessing n ideal location. We also will be having a car. We do not care for Disney bus system.

 

[moobar25]

With my experience- late arrival equals no room requests. Sorry for bad news- just talking from experience in 2013.
I've been to wdw 4 times this year and found that early bird gets the worm. I've stayed at multiple resorts: BCV BWV BLT YC BC and did split stays. The few times I checked in after 2pm I got nothing I wanted. Most of the time I arrive at resort at 9-10am and have great success at exactly what I want and room being ready by 10.30am. My best success was getting a 1bd and a 2bd at BCV facing quiet pool on ground floor. Kids loved walking out the patio and into pool!
My worst experience- BWV in November during food and wine marathon. We were switching from BLT & decided to go to MK first and then check in later on to BWV. BIG MISTAKE. My request was close to elevators and then higher floor. This is because we had 2 toddlers so don't want a far trek w strollers and all, plus wanted a banister on balcony instead of the patio. Well we were given a 1bd as far from elevators a possible- I think it was right outside of DHS! And it was on the 3rd floor!!!!!! When I tried to explain that that will not work - they said they have no other rooms since they r sold out! After an hour of talking my way up the food chain- a room was available on ground floor a little closer but not much. View of the fountain and right by the path to the bus.
But when we got to room - it was disgusting!!!! The toilet had per stains and P-hairs all over, hair in sink and tub, crumbs all over carpet! Not a good time.
We got mngmt to comp us a dinner and got housekeeping every day of our stay. But never again.
From now on I check in am - even if switching resorts I'll go check in first thing in the morning and then do parks. You get more options in the am.

 

[ain0004]

Well the plane tickets are bought...not much I can do but hope for pixie dust. Worst case. We stay there for the next and ask for a room change in the morning. All in all is there really a bad room?

 

[PatMcDuck]

I try and check in early, to get a better shot at my room requests. I stress that I do not want the next available room, that I am happy to wait.

The worst room for me, is first floor at most hotels. Too much foot traffic in the halls, or walking around outside past my windows (depending on the resort). First 3 floors at BLT would probably bug me. I will walk far, to and from the elevator, no problem.

But any room at Disney is better than being home!

 

[mjtatman]

We always arrive late (usually between 9 p.m. - 1 a.m.) and I've always gotten exactly what I requested! But then again, we always go on off times of year, but I've always had an amazing experience

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Well the plane tickets are bought...not much I can do but hope for pixie dust. Worst case. We stay there for the next and ask for a room change in the morning. All in all is there really a bad room?

Just so you know - almost always, unless there were a problem with the room, they would charge you for the room change.

But - we are almost always arriving late coming from the west coast and I'd estimate that 90% of the time we have at least one of our room requests met when we've made requests - and sometimes more. Also, what you consider to be a good request may be completely opposite from what others do so I would not spend much time worrying about the time of the arrival. At VGC I even had them tell me they declined to move other people who arrived earlier into the room I had been assigned and based that on my booking date. I'd consider that the exception and haven't heard of that for the WDW resorts but I wouldn't assume I'd receive the bottom of the barrel rooms (whatever that is?). After all - they may already be occupied. Not all rooms are turning over daily.

 

[gavvy]

I had a 24hr delay in my flight from UK, rang DVC to make sure they held my room, got there 1 day late and all my requests were fulfilled, so personally I think its a bit more random that just check in early.

 

[Tink2312]

I rarely get my requests fulfilled and have checked in early and late. Then again, I tend to stay in room categories with small inventories such as BLT standard, so I understand the room assigners hands are tied somewhat. I've found that it's pot luck whether you will have a room fitting your requests, but checking in later you'll likely have little option to switch rooms if your assigned room doesn't meet your criteria. You can however always ask to move later in your trip - we moved rooms on day 3 of our trip to SSR a few years ago with no problems.

 

[DougEMG]

We normally arrive between 11pm and 1 am and have normally always got our request. I keep waiting for the day for our luck to turn!

 

[dgaston]

We've just returned from a six day trip to WDW. Booked into a studio at BWV, I requested higher floor and Village Green. Our Jetblue flight was cancelled due to the Northeast's Sunday snowstorm and we lost the day, arriving at BWV by ME around 8:00 pm. I had little hope of getting our requests, but much to my surprise we had a perfect room -- 4059 -- overlooking the BWV tree on the green with a partial Boardwalk view. It was great! First time our BWV request were met

 

[disneynutz]

We've just returned from a six day trip to WDW. Booked into a studio at BWV, I requested higher floor and Village Green. Our Jetblue flight was cancelled due to the Northeast's Sunday snowstorm and we lost the day, arriving at BWV by ME around 8:00 pm. I had little hope of getting our requests, but much to my surprise we had a perfect room -- 4059 -- overlooking the BWV tree on the green with a partial Boardwalk view. It was great! First time our BWV request were met

What category was your room, Boardwalk View or Pool Garden?

Bill

 

[dgaston]

Village Green is pool/garden. That's why the partial Boardwalk view is such a bonus!