Can I do this???? Guaranteed room ready upon arrival..

[Lorilais_mommie]

Can I book a room for the night before we arrive so when we get to disney the next morning we can go stright to our room?
Example: say we are do in at 11:30am dec 2nd. Can I book the night of dec 1st but not check-in until the next morning

The main reason I want to do this is we are traveling with two young kids, which will most likely need a nap before 4pm check-in.

 

[bumbershoot]

People will warn you that it's *possible* they will cancel the whole reservation if you aren't there before the hotel calendar turns over around 6am. This is entirely *possible*.

I think that Disney knows that travel is complicated and people are delayed, so if you're in contact with them about when you'll be there you stand a good chance of it being there for you. Doing online checkin lets you tell them when you expect to be there, and the one time we got in very early in the morning I was able to check off something like 1am. I would do as late as you can and then call them at some point that you'll be later.

 

[skier_pete]

I've experience a situation like this where our reservation was cancelled.

However, with on-line check-in and direct-to-room booking, how is it that Disney even knowns that you showed up and are in your room? I would think as long as you do on-line check-in and direct-to-room and also inform them you won't actually be there until the next morning, you should be fine.

 

[MAO]

I suspect Disney does/would know, since no MagicBand will be used to open that door until pretty late the next morning. Would Disney care, I guess, is the question. I would probably set it up such that my vacation started on the 1st of December and ask Member Services to put a note on the reservation that I wouldn't be physically there until close to lunchtime on the 2nd. Hopefully, if there would be any issues, that would trigger Member Services to contact you and talk to you about what you want.

 

[nalajms]

Maybe it's just me being cheap but I could never spend the points for the extra night (pre or check out day). I make my kids nap in the stroller. Plus, we stopped taking the morning "red eye" flights because everyone ends up exhausted by early afternoon. We now try to arrive early afternoon, which means we wake up at normal time and have breakfast at home.

You can usually find a quiet area for them to sleep, either on you, a sofa or the stroller. My favorite is Kidani - rocking chairs overlooking the savannah.

 

[skier_pete]

Maybe it's just me being cheap but I could never spend the points for the extra night (pre or check out day). I make my kids nap in the stroller. Plus, we stopped taking the morning "red eye" flights because everyone ends up exhausted by early afternoon. We now try to arrive early afternoon, which means we wake up at normal time and have breakfast at home.

You can usually find a quiet area for them to sleep, either on you, a sofa or the stroller. My favorite is Kidani - rocking chairs overlooking the savannah.

I was thinking the same thing, especially since the rooms are usually ready much earlier than that...but to each his own. We did something similar when we flew back from Australia, we landed at 8:30 AM after being awake 20 hours and didn't want to wait for a hotel room, so we booked one. We were told by our travel agent that it was guaranteed. When we got to the hotel, they'd cancelled our room. However, they did give us a room right away, telling us we needn't have booked the extra night. (They didn't refund it though.) We slept from 9 AM to 1 PM, and then spent the afternoon in the pool and the evening in Santa Monica. Man that travel sucked.

 

[gdrj]

Can I book a room for the night before we arrive so when we get to disney the next morning we can go stright to our room?
Example: say we are do in at 11:30am dec 2nd. Can I book the night of dec 1st but not check-in until the next morning

The main reason I want to do this is we are traveling with two young kids, which will most likely need a nap before 4pm check-in.

Its a fairly expensive option for a nap. I would just request early room check-in and let the CM know upon check-in that is of greatest concern. I would say apporx 50% of the time our room has been available earlier than 4 PM, without requesting. We've had our room available upon arrival a number of times.

Not sure how old your kids are but I might lean more towards nap in stroller, plan on an early bedtime if needed. If they are old enough to realize where they are might be hard to get them to nap upon arrival anyway.

 

[Sammie]

I've experience a situation like this where our reservation was cancelled.

However, with on-line check-in and direct-to-room booking, how is it that Disney even knowns that you showed up and are in your room? I would think as long as you do on-line check-in and direct-to-room and also inform them you won't actually be there until the next morning, you should be fine.

They know by your magic band.

 

[Noelle]

I've often thought about trying this...But been too fearful that our reservation would be cancelled. Being from the west coast and always taking the red eye so we arrive at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning, it would be tempting for us. There was a time when we'd get rooms when we arrived or within a few hours. Now, we consistently do not get a room until 4:00. So we end up sleeping on lounge chairs for a little while to rest up.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Just call and make sure they send you to the resort front desk.

I once had a flight from California that wound up becoming a redeye. Once it became apparent I wasn't getting to Disney until 7 or 8 in the morning I called and got the OKW front desk. I explained my issue and they promised me everything would be fine. I showed up at 7 AM, checked in and headed to the room. No problems.

 

[CarolMN]

Can I book a room for the night before we arrive so when we get to disney the next morning we can go stright to our room?
Example: say we are do in at 11:30am dec 2nd. Can I book the night of dec 1st but not check-in until the next morning

The main reason I want to do this is we are traveling with two young kids, which will most likely need a nap before 4pm check-in.

You should be able to do this - but as others have mentioned, they may cancel on you if they don't know why you aren't there as scheduled.

Make sure that MS puts a note on your reservation indicating your anticipated arrival time - then call MS a couple of weeks before your arrival and ask MS to read you back the note so you can verify it was actually entered. Ask for a TN to call the resort directly so that you can call them on your official check-in day to remind them that you won't arrive until xx:xx and explain what you are doing. Remember that the listed numbers for the resorts go to a centralized call center and anything you tell them may or may not get passed on appropriately.

Good luck!

 

[thepops]

What about getting a day room at the Hyatt? That might be less expensive than the value of the points.

 

[Firepath]

We did exactly as CaroMN suggested when we stayed at AK-Jambo last September after our red-eye flight and it worked out well. I believe we checked in around 9am. The only problem we encountered was that our room reservation had the previous day check in and our ME reservation was for the next day. ME kept emailing us thinking we had our days mixed up. Once I explained it a couple of times they quit asking.