Anyone with experience arriving at 3-4:00 am?

[peg2001]

The final exam schedule for fall semester for my two college DDs was not known when I reserved our free dining package at WDW. Turns out that they both have an afternoon exam on our check-in day. Current plan is to hit the road as soon as they are done and make the long drive. I expect to arrive at our resort (ASMu) sometime between 3 and 4:00 am.

I'm sure WDW is used to arrivals around the clock and since we have the night included in our reservation, I'm assuming that we won't have any issues checking in and immediately getting access to our room.

My main question is, do we need to notify them of our wee-morning arrival? If so, is noting it on the online check-in sufficient? I hate calling due to the frequent long hold times.

Anyone with experience arriving at this time?

 

[dansdad]

The final exam schedule for fall semester for my two college DDs was not known when I reserved our free dining package at WDW. Turns out that they both have an afternoon exam on our check-in day. Current plan is to hit the road as soon as they are done and make the long drive. I expect to arrive at our resort (ASMu) sometime between 3 and 4:00 am.

I'm sure WDW is used to arrivals around the clock and since we have the night included in our reservation, I'm assuming that we won't have any issues checking in and immediately getting access to our room.

Correct.

My main question is, do we need to notify them of our wee-morning arrival? If so, is noting it on the online check-in sufficient? I hate calling due to the frequent long hold times.

Anyone with experience arriving at this time?

I don't know if it's needed, but I've always felt better calling and letting them know whenever we were going to be arriving late whenever we were going to be getting there after 3AM. The computers don't roll over to the new day until 6AM so you should be fine. If you find you are not going to make it there by 6AM, I would definitely call and let them know you are on your way so you're not marked as a no show and your reservation cancelled.

 

[westie55]

I have experience! This April, I was scheduled to arrive around 9pm. Due to flight delays, we didn't get to CBR until about 3am! It was 4am by the time we got to our room. Yes, there are CMs there around the clock. I didn't call anyone to say I'd be late and it wasn't an issue. I don't think they'd cancel your room on you, but it doesn't hurt to call to alert someone. Be warned that there will probably only be 1 person doing at the front desk at that hour, so if you need something you may have to wait. There were a couple families ahead of us and it took what seemed like forever, especially because I had my not even 2 year old DS who was still awake! Utilize online check in so you can go directly to your room. I would say noting it on online check in is sufficient.

 

[dansdad]

Utilize online check in so you can go directly to your room.

Just an FYI, not everyone that does Online Check In gets to Bypass The Front Desk. Some still have to stop by the Front Desk.

 

[trishadono]

The final exam schedule for fall semester for my two college DDs was not known when I reserved our free dining package at WDW. Turns out that they both have an afternoon exam on our check-in day. Current plan is to hit the road as soon as they are done and make the long drive. I expect to arrive at our resort (ASMu) sometime between 3 and 4:00 am.

I'm sure WDW is used to arrivals around the clock and since we have the night included in our reservation, I'm assuming that we won't have any issues checking in and immediately getting access to our room.

My main question is, do we need to notify them of our wee-morning arrival? If so, is noting it on the online check-in sufficient? I hate calling due to the frequent long hold times.

Anyone with experience arriving at this time?

I have had flights that arrive 1am and with ME get to the resort about that time. I just check in which is super fast that time of day and go to bed! One time there were magic hours until 3am and dd made me get on a bus and go to MK for Space then back. LOL that was fun but boy was I tired the next day.

 

[RangerPooh]

We had one trip where at the time we were living on the west coast and our flights always arrived at MCO around 11pm. On this particular trip we caught ME without much wait, but since it was late there was only one bus running to all of the resorts that night. Ok, fine, we would have to deal. Thankfully my parents were with us to help with our DDs who were toddlers at the time. We get on the road around midnight and start making the rounds. The bus started at the deluxes completely passing our resort, FW (stayed in the cabins). Thought that it would loop back around to them, nope. Instead it hit every other drop off resort before dropping us off. We didn't get to check in until around 3am. It was horrible!!!!!!!! Thankfully a cast member drove us to our cabin as there were no internal shuttles running. Honestly it was a nightmare experience, but the cast members at the front desk were polite. Prior to our flight did we call to verify that someone would be available at the front desk for our late check in.

 

[kmb584]

We had one trip where at the time we were living on the west coast and our flights always arrived at MCO around 11pm. On this particular trip we caught ME without much wait, but since it was late there was only one bus running to all of the resorts that night. Ok, fine, we would have to deal. Thankfully my parents were with us to help with our DDs who were toddlers at the time. We get on the road around midnight and start making the rounds. The bus started at the deluxes completely passing our resort, FW (stayed in the cabins). Thought that it would loop back around to them, nope. Instead it hit every other drop off resort before dropping us off. We didn't get to check in until around 3am. It was horrible!!!!!!!! Thankfully a cast member drove us to our cabin as there were no internal shuttles running. Honestly it was a nightmare experience, but the cast members at the front desk were polite. Prior to our flight did we call to verify that someone would be available at the front desk for our late check in.

That's absolutely insane! I'm not one to complain, but I would have said something that night.

 

[buzznina]

I hate using vacation time to drive to WDW so we leave after I get off of work and we always arrive around 2-3 AM and never had any issues. When we made our reservation we did mention the late arrival time to them so that it was noted. I can almost guarantee that you will get excellent customer service when you check-in, it will be like you are the only one there

 

[Babsy]

We have arrived at that time on several occasions. No problems, except we are really tired, of course. DME can be a long wait or can be quick - we have experienced both.

We always call to have the late arrival noted. I'm not sure if it is necessary, but I felt better about it.

 

[peg2001]

Thanks, everyone! It is always helpful to hear from folks who have actual experience. I'm going to wait until just before we go to call. It's been known to happen for a final exam to become optional or be given during the last day of class instead of the final exam period. There is still a small amount of hope that we'll be able to leave earlier.

The nice thing with college-age DDs is that we will have 4 drivers. That should really help as we can trade out often.