Arriving too early, needing sleep

[Robindianne]

Hi there. Due to scheduling conflicts, we may arrive about 8am on a Saturday in May (not Apr 27 like my ticker says), after flying all night. We expect we will crash if we don't sleep some before going into a park. Is checking in so early an option? Are rooms ever available that early? Has anyone experienced this and if so what did you do? We think we'll be in POR but haven't booked it yet so not sure. Any suggestions?

Thanks so much!

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

The only way to guarantee that your room will be ready that early is to book an additional night (so you are paying for the night prior in order to have the room ready early) if you do this just have them add a comment to the res stating that you will be arriving early am the next morning (reservations are held until 11am anyway, but just to be safe).

Other than that there are no guarantees that you will have a room ready at 8am. You can pre-register for your room, but rooms are not guaranteed until 3pm on the day of check in. It is entirley possible that there could be a room ready, it just depends on how full the hotel was the night before, but that is a gamble that you would be taking... especially that time of year, it is usually fairly busy.

 

[Alaska DogCat]

We have had a similar dilemma during recent trips (November, 2004 and May, 2005). It's a hit or miss thing on whether a room will be available. We lucked out once and another time we had to hang out until about 1:00 PM for our room to be ready. We leave tomorrow for another trip, so we will see how it goes.

When we weren't able to get access to our room at our early arrival time (flights from Alaska to Orlando get in around 7:30 AM), we hung out by the pool, napping on the lounge chairs. It's not the ideal situation after nine hours of overnight flying, but hey, we're in Disney World and by the time we get a nap later in the day, we're set and ready to go.

 

[DawnAK]

We leave home at 3 in the afternoon and arrive into Orlando at 7 am (3 am our time). It would be nice if our room was ready for a shower and a nap, but we aren't counting on it. I think we are planning to go to Animal Kingdom that day since it is a slower paced park (in my opinion). We are traveling in January, so I don't know if napping by the pool would be a good idea.

Alaska dogcat-Hi from Fairbanks. Nice to know I am not the only WDW fan from Alaska!

Dawn

 

[SSR-CM]

Many stay an extra night at a Value resort. Many more stay at an airport hotel for about the same price. Although the price is the same, they can hit the sheets an hour earlier, then travel to WDW at their leisure. We used to stay La Quinta.

 

[DisnyMama]

We also seem to fly in on the Red-Eye from LAX. A few years ago during our Thanksgiving trip we arrived at POR at 7:15 am and were lucky enough that our room was ready in AB section bldg. 16. Thank goodness because it was 40 something degrees when we landed that morning and was a very cold week. My plan was to have breakfast then nap at the pool on a lounge chair till our room was ready but thank goodness we did not have to because it was too cold. I know for you all in the North when it warms to 50 degrees it may seem warm this time of year but for us Southern Calif. folks we just don't know what to do with our selves. Anyway. we are doing the Red eye thing again this December and hoping that AS Sports will have our room ready. If not, on to plan "B".

Bottom line after all my jibbering-you guys have a 50/50 shot of your room being ready. I must say IMHOP that of all the resorts though, POR will be your best bet. Best of Luck you you All!

 

[tobie01]

I've read on these boards that the airport Hyatt has rooms available if you're waiting for a flight for part of the day. Maybe that's something to check out. Room ready by 8am? I would be willing to pay for a few hours of comfort than chance it especially if you have kids.

 

[Robindianne]

Thanks so much for the great advice. Sleeping by the pool could be nice unless it's pouring rain or cold. I'll probably pay for an extra night but not sure yet where. We'll see.
Again, Thank you all!
Robin

 

[blestmom]

Don't mean to hijack this thread...but..."hello" to AlaskaDogCat and DawnAK. I'm in Big Lake, and it's nice to see other Alaskans that are WDW crazy, too!

 

[shades]

We have made 3 trips within the past 2 years from an overseas location to Orlando. It took us almost 2 days to get there. Longgg trip! We always arrive at 8am-ish & have been lucky every time and were able to check into our room. (We always stay at the Shades of Green resort) Our backup plan incase we couldn't check in early was to go to the Motel 6 that is located near Disney World. The rooms go for $39 (I think) and would be perfect for taking a nap and cleaning up after a long trip. Maybe an option for you??

 

[Robindianne]

Excellent idea Shades.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

We almost always arrive early in the morning, too. We've taken many trips to WDW and have only once gotten into our room early!!

 

[Disney Doll]

I would suggest going to one of the inexpensive motels out on I Drive, that you can get for like $39/night. Even if you just used it for a few hours, it would be worth the convenience of having a room, bed, shower.

 

[Stacerita]

We also are having the issue of possibly not having our room ready when we get in. We will be taking a red-eye from LAX and landing around 6am or so. Im hoping our room will be ready or at least somewhere we can snooze a bit before we head out to the parks. If not, we will just have to go for it and hope for the best. Will probably make it an early night though.