We arrived about 2 weeks ago at the Boardwalk, appx 10am. Our room request was upper floor and see thru balcony for our Boardwalk view. The CM said our room was not ready, but they had 2 rooms that were ready that did not meet our requests, (solid bottom balcony, stand to see out) were we interested? We decided to wait for our request and got what we wanted. My opinion is if you arrive earlier in the day there might be choices available, but if you check in later in the evening not so much. When we used to live on the west coast, we would fly in late evening and stay cheap for the first night.