Are there any advantages (or disadvantages) to checking in early?

[jtowntoflorida]

We're renting points from a DVC owner who has been awesome to work with. We're 12 days away from our trip, and when I login to see my reservations, Disney keeps telling me that we can check in early--two days from now.

What are the advantages to checking in early? Are there any disadvantages to doing so?

 

[bumbershoot]

You can tell them when you'll be arriving, you can give them room requests (within a very limited group of choices), you *can* give them credit card info for incidentals during your stay. They get the opportunity to figure our your room assignment earlier, and when you get there they will have your packet (and sometimes keycards) all made up for you!

I've been to WDW twice now, and each time has had several room types and or resorts during our stay, and the ONLY bad room we've gotten was when I did *not* do early checkin. I'm a believer in it, that's for sure!

 

[disneynutz]

I think that the jury is still out on the true benefits to Guests.

We know that it was designed for Disney cash Guests and that the DVC using it has some limitations. We know that it was implemented to save Disney money and that they assign the rooms early and make up the room packets prior to the day that you check in. We also know that online room requests don't get passed to the room assigners. We know that the line at the Front Desk is often longer for online check in.

What we don't know is if it helps with getting your room requests, some people say that it does, others say that it doesn't. We also don't know for sure if it helps you get your room earlier.

Bill

 

[Ms. WDW]

I think that the jury is still out on the true benefits to Guests.

We know that it was designed for Disney cash Guests and that the DVC using it has some limitations. We know that it was implemented to save Disney money and that they assign the rooms early and make up the room packets prior to the day that you check in. We also know that online room requests don't get passed to the room assigners. We know that the line at the Front Desk is often longer for online check in.

What we don't know is if it helps with getting your room requests, some people say that it does, others say that it doesn't. We also don't know for sure if it helps you get your room earlier.

Bill

I tend to agree with Bill. I've used the online check in once and that was the only time I got a room that I wasn't happy with. Now this might have been the exception but I don't want to risk having that same issue.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I'm at HHI right now. I tried to do online check-in several days ago, but when I got to room requests, there was nowhere to type the request in. I decided to just wait and check in at the resort. Well, we arrived at the resort around 6:00 pm on Sunday. The front desk told me that they could give me one of my requests (2nd floor) but they couldn't give me my other request (marsh view). Then they gave me two choices of buildings. They said that on Sundays people start checking in very early and are the ones who get the marsh views. Now, with that said, HHI is the only place that has ever given us choices of rooms. I'm afraid that if I do online check-in that I wouldn't have that choice.

When I go to WDW again, I will probably try online check-in IF it allows me to type in a room request.

 

[dianeschlicht]

The only times we've been UNHAPPY with our room has been when we've done online check-in, so we rarely do it. Also, I do think it makes a difference which resort as well.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We're staying at the VWL and our flight gets into MCO around 5:30. We're checking in on a Saturday, so I wonder if room choices will be limited anyway. We're going to have two little kids with us (a not quite 2 year old and a 5 year old). I was hoping that by doing it online would expedite check in once we're there, but it looks like the jury is out on that. I assume that my husband could take the kids to explore the resort a little while I'm checking in anyway.

Hmmm, no good answer, it seems. I may try online checkin and see what the options are before completing the process.

Thanks!

 

[dzorn]

I'm at HHI right now. I tried to do online check-in several days ago, but when I got to room requests, there was nowhere to type the request in. I decided to just wait and check in at the resort. Well, we arrived at the resort around 6:00 pm on Sunday. The front desk told me that they could give me one of my requests (2nd floor) but they couldn't give me my other request (marsh view). Then they gave me two choices of buildings. They said that on Sundays people start checking in very early and are the ones who get the marsh views. Now, with that said, HHI is the only place that has ever given us choices of rooms. I'm afraid that if I do online check-in that I wouldn't have that choice.

When I go to WDW again, I will probably try online check-in IF it allows me to type in a room request.

No it will not allow you to type in a room request.

Denise in MI

 

[SmilingGrump]

I think that the jury is still out on the true benefits to Guests.

We know that it was designed for Disney cash Guests and that the DVC using it has some limitations. We know that it was implemented to save Disney money and that they assign the rooms early and make up the room packets prior to the day that you check in. We also know that online room requests don't get passed to the room assigners. We know that the line at the Front Desk is often longer for online check in.

What we don't know is if it helps with getting your room requests, some people say that it does, others say that it doesn't. We also don't know for sure if it helps you get your room earlier.

Bill

My guess is that it would take the input of a CM with Front Desk experience to clear up the mystery. There's a lot of variables to room requests:
1 - Do online requests make it to room assigners?
2 - What rooms are available at the time of online request & assignment?
3 - What effect someone checking in the day before has on requests (ie does a walkup request on Friday trump an online request for Saturday)?
4 - If a better room opens up, who gets it? (my guess is walkups because it's too much work to redo everyone's assignments)
5 - What's the practice at that particular resort with those particular managers and CMs? As great as CMs are, they're human and we're all prone to laziness ... sometimes it's just easier to give the first room on the screen then deal with special requests. This is particularly true if things are really busy.
6 - How many "special" guests check in ... and by "special" I mean the ones who yell and scream and complain until they get what they want. You know, the ones that make us wish Maleficient would appear and deal with them personally These "specials" not only take the preferred rooms from others who requested them, but they create a lot of stress and frustration amongst CMs and fellow guests. This creates a situation where special requests are less likely to be filled because the line is moving too slow.
7 - Maintenance, Mousekeeping, and late checkouts also have a huge effect on room availability.

All these variables can make it very hard to track how room requests are dealt with and without input from someone "in-the-know" I doubt we'll know for sure.

 

[cj9200]

I do not do online check-in. I can't. After numerous attempts including getting Disney IT involved, I can't log onto the member services site. Gave up trying.

Even if I could, I wouldn't do it because numerous times I got a better room talking to the CM than the one assigned. A big but though. I am almost always there very early in the morning. One of the few times I was late in the day, they gave me the crappiest room at AKL. The only time I went back to the front desk to change rooms.

Yea, I know, no help. My advice is if I was getting there early, I would check-in at the front desk. If I was getting there really late in the day I would do online.

 

[drusba]

OP, mentioned above was that with on-line check-in, room requests do not get passed onto resort managers. What that is referring to is that when you do on-line check-in, there is going to be a box that asks whether you want to add any room requests to your reservation. Do not bother to put anything in that box because it does not apply to DVC reservations. Room requests for DVC must be made through the member through DVC Member Services.

On-line check-in is supposed to provide a quicker check-in process, meaning your packet with keys will be ready when you arrive and you may be able to go through a shorter line. Disney has never claimed it provides anything else over regular check-in such as getting your room before 4 p.m. or getting a better room than others. Moreover it has not always provided even what Disney claims it provides because sometimes the on-line check-in line is even longer than the regular line and sometimes you even have to go through the regular line. Personal experience is that I have now used on-line check-in 6 times. Three of those times I had to wait in the regular line to check-in. also my record is 3 times I got my room and when I checked in earlier than 4 and the other 3 times I had to wait until 4 to get room. That matches my usual average of getting room early that had over the years usuing regular checking -- 50% of the time we got room before 4.

 

[castleri]

I could not check in on line because we had a segmented reservation and when I mentioned it to the CM at OKW she said they use the rooms that are ready for the online check in people first. That could be good or bad if it matched or didn't your requests. It would seem that it would give you a better chance of getting into the room early but clearly from reports on the boards that is not always the case. The only time I have ever waited any significant time to check in was during Christmas week and that was 15-20 minutes max. We may try it for the second part of our Dec trip when we check into AKV after 4 nights at BCV. I need to check in early to have the DDP on the keys for lunch with the princesses that day and if we can get into the room early it will be even more of a benefit since we will have food to transfer. The reservations are not linked so should be able to do it this time.

 

[bumbershoot]

Our only room request has been for the first floor. I've put it into the online area during online checkin. And I've gotten it. So it IS getting through!

For the September trip, I wasn't going to be able to do online checkin because they'd put all 3 of my reservations under one number, but then a few days away from our trip, suddenly my original reservation number was *gone*, and I had 3 different reservation numbers instead. That allowed me to do online checkin, and I was a happy camper!

During one checkin moment at OKW, I was there at the same time that all the DVC Member Cruise people were checking out (mystifying...why go to the front desk for that? I guess they all had issues/questions) and clogging up the front desk, but a manager came out to troll the online checkin line. Went back, grabbed my folder, handed it over to a CM not in the online checkin area and sent me to him (same thing happened at the end of our trip upon arrival at All Star Sports just in front of a DME arrival). So easy.

But apart from the member cruise moment and watching the DME hordes descend, our front desk moments have been pretty empty...

 

[Starr W.]

We usually check in late on Thursday or Friday nights, like around 9-11pm. Get the boys out of school and head to the airport.

Only time we show up earlier is when we go to VB and that's like 3-4pm but that's usually Saturdays.

At Thanksgiving, we have always gotten our favorite section of SSR(2brs and GV's included).

My BWV boardwalk view 2br, requested high floor, checked in at 9pm and was up on the 5th floor.

Got the Beach Cottage right next to the pool at VB(requested close to the pool) at spring break. Checked in about 4pm ish.

Perhaps I'm lucky.

 

[cdtommie]

We're going to try on-line check-in for the first time for arrival at BWV on 10/14 since we won't be arriving until about 4-5PM. It does seem to me from past experiences that the earlier you check in the better chance you have of having a request accomodated. We always ask for a room close to the main elevator and it's been pretty much hit and miss in the past.

 

[dahwolf]

I have done the online check in 4 times in the past year, and not once have I gotten any of my requests. We don't check in until around 6pm, so my guess, is that someone else that checks in earlier would get priority. I know this past trip I asked for my requests to be looked for again, and they spent 15 minutes at the front desk trying to make a room switch for me, but no luck. After watching them go through all that, my guess is that the early bird, catches the worm.....

Some day maybe we can get to the resorts earlier, but We try and wait until the kids are out of school, or atleast met the requirements for a full day of school to be counted.

 

[snykymom]

I'm debating - I can do online today (not DVC'er so I can't put a request into the online system). Arriving at MCO at 9:30 AM, assuming SSR around 10:30. I want either Grandstands or Springs. (I know I asked this on the SSR thread; just looking for additional opinions!)

Should I or shouldn't I?

 

[FRANKTSJR]

I checked in online yesterday for a trip coming up on the 14th. I had previously sent an email to MS with our room request. When checking in online I noticed that the room request section is extremely limited so if you have a special room request it's best to do it by phone or email but not through online checkin.