Booking last minute

[Dee77]

What is the fewest days you had prior to taking a trip booked at the last minute? If booking less than a week out or so, what are the options given for magic bands? Also what happens with Magical Express, obviously there would be no time to get luggage tags. TIA

 

[DebbieB]

What is the fewest days you had prior to taking a trip booked at the last minute? If booking less than a week out or so, what are the options given for magic bands? Also what happens with Magical Express, obviously there would be no time to get luggage tags. TIA

About 10 years ago I got a BCV studio for 1 night about a week ahead.

You would get the gray Magic Bands at check-in.

For luggage, you can either get it off the carousel yourself or give the claim checks at the DME desk and they will get them.

 

[jco_direwolf]

For the AP/DVC preview of EE, I booked and left the next day. No DME, and No Magic Bands, but we did have a working Yeti!

 

[Husurdady]

Can you say....next day......While there at OLD KEY WEST. Got the next building over for our Son for two nights, Him and his girl friend came over from Tampa Friday and sat. Night.

 

[heynowirv]

Last Jan. we flew into New Orleans for a 5 day weekend. The first day was beautiful but the weather report was cold and wet for the rest of the trip . By cold I mean 30's and wet torrential downpours from the gulf.So we called MS that sun. morn (It was Marathon weekend)and lo and behold they had a studio at OKW.We rented a car and drove the whole day, but arrived to enjoy 4 more days of mid80's and sunny weather. Now that was amazing.

 

[SpaceMountain77]

In 2012, I was able to book at standard view studio at BWV, for Epcot's 30th anniversary celebration, less than a week out; I believe it was a 3-night reservation. A few weeks later, I was able to book a studio at BCV, during the first week of December, less than two weeks out; this was a 4-night reservation.

Surprisingly, my last minute stays were at resorts that are typically harder to book!

 

[a742246]

I was looking at future dates on the online checkin today and a GF studio was available for tomorrow (2/17) a one night opening. So you never know what will be available on short notice.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

3 hours before check in to add a night prior to a stay. I also added an intial night 1 day before we were to check in. Otherwise we would have found someplace off site.

MDE just pick up your bags or give your claim checks to them to pick up. You also can get on MDE without having a reservation made with them - the criteria is to have a resort reservation and they can check that at the counter.

 

[Sasphnx]

This January we drove to Florida for the first time. Discovered en route that we could make it there a day earlier than planned and called MS that am and they found me a studio lake view at VGF to check into later in the day. Magic bands were available for us the next morning and we used a card to access the room that night.

 

[bwvBound]

We did a "same day" reservation at Vero. Phoned first thing in the morning, on a whim, and drove up from FLL area for two nights at Vero. Lovely.

 

[DiznyDi]

I just did this. DH had an unplanned business trip to France come up so I took my 83 yr old mom to Disney. I planned the trip 6 days out. We were able to get all nights (6) at SSR. I went to the ME counter at the airport where we were checked-in. We left our luggage claim information with them and magically our luggage arrived in our room several hours later.

Magic Bands - the grey ones, no time to customize - were given to us at the resort.

As soon as room and flights were arranged I overnighted moms park ticket purchased from Undercover Tourist. With ticket in hand, I added Mom to my MyDisneyExperience account and was able to arrange our fastpass+ selections. Everything worked really well. My only difficulty was that the MDE ap on my phone would periodically crash. I needed to completely shut my phone down. The ap then came up fine. The MDE was great for re-scheduling on the fly.

 

[com_op_2000]

DW and I several times have been at DTD for the day and decided we wanted to stay the night. Called the resorts directly (back before MS was open on Sundays) or MS and checked in within 15 minutes.
At MK for the day in Feb ’14 for our anniversary, called MS @09:00, and booked a room at BLT for that night. Checked-in @11:00, received the Grey MB for room access, and the room was ready. We did not plan on this day going like this until @05:00 while still in bed.

 

[Anal Annie]

Last August we had to cancel our trip to VGC / DL and Aulani at 8 days out and we were able to rebook for 9 nights in a 1-bedroom at SSR instead (but we did push the start date of the trip back by a few days so I guess technically it was more like 2 weeks by the time we arrived). We were also able to extend our trip over MLK weekend by 1 night due to weather in the northeast on the day we were supposed to have left. Magic Bands weren't in use at SSR in August so that was a non-issue for us. In January the front desk just added a day to the bands somehow.

 

[Sur]

When I read of your sons déjà vu, I hope this would soon pass and you'd have an uneventful trip this year.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I have booked while sitting at the airport waiting on a plane to MCO. Didn't use Magical Express