Check in at DLR resort hotels is now after 4pm and amenities only available until 6pm on departure day...

[Malcon10t]

LOL. My July reservation for the Grand says this:

RESORT CHECK-IN/CHECK-OUT
Check-in time is after 3 p.m. and check-out time is before 11 a.m. During peak periods, check-in may be delayed.

That's a new one..."during peak periods, check in may be delayed."

Dumb question, I am looking at all my confirmations, and I don't see a check in / Check out section. Where am I missing this??

 

[DLgal]

Dumb question, I am looking at all my confirmations, and I don't see a check in / Check out section. Where am I missing this??

It's in the "fine print" ALL the way down on my email confirmation.

Scroll until you see this bolded header:

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING YOUR WAIVER OF LIABILITY AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK RELATING TO EXPOSURE TO COVID-19 AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICABLE OR INFECTIOUS DISEASE, CLASS-ACTION WAIVER, AND AGREEMENT TO BINDING ARBITRATION.
DISNEYLAND® RESORT - 2022 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR ROOM ONLY RESERVATIONS

 

[Malcon10t]

OK, all of mine have the 3pm may be delayed verbiage. Including the one I just made for July....

 

[blabbermouth]

That is so weird! I wonder why mine said 4 already? Is it because I'm Canadian?

 

[ktlm]

LOL. My July reservation for the Grand says this:

RESORT CHECK-IN/CHECK-OUT
Check-in time is after 3 p.m. and check-out time is before 11 a.m. During peak periods, check-in may be delayed.

That's a new one..."during peak periods, check in may be delayed."

Based on my visits over the last several years--we have had multiple times where we did not receive our room by 3:00 p.m.. I'm sure this is a cover themselves statement to avoid complaints. Actually 4:00 is a pretty common time we have gotten a room, so I could see them changing the time to reflect that. It doesn't change your time to drop off bags and check in at the front desk- just when you will get the room. We've never complained except for the time that DH left the parks and went back to the DLH around 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. to find out why we had not gotten a text or call about our room being ready and when they looked in the computer they had not assigned us a room at all.

I can't imagine they are really changing the final day amenities. Every hotel I have ever stayed at- Disney or not-- you are allowed to use the amenities until closing on your check out day. If anything, I'm sure they will try to charge more for parking past a certain time on that day- in a typical last few years of Disney money grabbing disrespect of their customers.

 

[Malcon10t]

That is so weird! I wonder why mine said 4 already? Is it because I'm Canadian?

When is your reservation?

 

[gelatoni fan]

LOL. My July reservation for the Grand says this:

RESORT CHECK-IN/CHECK-OUT
Check-in time is after 3 p.m. and check-out time is before 11 a.m. During peak periods, check-in may be delayed.

That's a new one..."during peak periods, check in may be delayed."

One of my friends stays at the Grand Californian several times a year (she owns DVC there) and she's noticed a decrease in the number of CMs working. Allegedly, some of the CMs who did the afternoon pin trading and Grand Quest were also laid off during the pandemic. She mentioned that she's started checking in a day earlier because they're unlikely to have rooms ready for her earlier in the day unlike when she first got DVC. She also went on a rant about how long the lines get now because of fewer CMs at the check in desk.

 

[Malcon10t]

My last few visits have been at the DLH, and I haven't noticed a decrease, in fact, it seems like there is 1 more each visit.

 

[DLgal]

I just got another email about my April DLH stay. It was ALL about the mobile key and how it works. I am willing to bet this is how they will enforce a 6pm end to access. It will simply stop working via the app (although I wonder if that would extend to physical keys. Because that seems harder to coordinate).

 

[jknc]

Okay. I guess. I've never had this experience staying at the GCH. We simply send my husband to go grab the car and he drives it up to the port cochere and we load it and go. Most people don't need to visit the front desk at checkout. It's automatic. I wish I could skip the front desk for check in as well, but they haven't yet set up a fully online check in. That's not my fault, and people can't help what time they arrive for the most part. If they didn't allow people to actually check in until a specific time, the line would be INSANE. There are some hotels like this (Great Wolf Lodge comes to mind). They won't let you even ARRIVE before 1pm and then when you get there, everyone else is there at the same time and the line takes like an hour to get through.

For the record, the reason cited by the cast member on the phone for the time change from 3 to 4 was due to housekeeping shortages and that they need more time to turn over rooms and have them ready. It has nothing to do with front desk issues.

Thanks for the info. Last month our Polynesian room wasn’t ready until around 4:30, so totally makes sense.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I just got another email about my April DLH stay. It was ALL about the mobile key and how it works. I am willing to bet this is how they will enforce a 6pm end to access. It will simply stop working via the app (although I wonder if that would extend to physical keys. Because that seems harder to coordinate).

Physical keys aren't hard to coordinate at all. When any hotel sets up a key card, they're loading data about the room and expiration date/time. If the system currently uses midnight as the default expiration time, one guy in IT just needs to update the system so that 6PM is the default expiration time. It'll take less than 10 seconds to implement.

 

[Astylla]

Physical keys aren't hard to coordinate at all. When any hotel sets up a key card, they're loading data about the room and expiration date/time. If the system currently uses midnight as the default expiration time, one guy in IT just needs to update the system so that 6PM is the default expiration time. It'll take less than 10 seconds to implement.

Have you ever dealt with IT individuals in a large setting or dare I say government because I have and do daily. Oh if only things really went this smoothly lol.

 

[blabbermouth]

When is your reservation?

May

 

[gelatoni fan]

Have you ever dealt with IT individuals in a large setting or dare I say government because I have and do daily. Oh if only things really went this smoothly lol.

It's such a simple change in the system that even if IT doesn't do it, a high level manager with the correct permissions should be able to do it in under a minute as well. The other way to implement this would be to train every single CM who does check in to override the default midnight expiration to 6PM. If you've ever gotten yourself locked out of your room or had a key stop working, the CM likely set up a key using this type of process.

All a CM has to do is select the correct number from a drop down menu or type out the number in a box on the screen they see on their computer when they set up your room key. Obviously, it saves everybody time if the default setting in the system was changed so a CM wouldn't have to manually change the expiration time with every single key.

 

[Astylla]

It's such a simple change in the system that even if IT doesn't do it, a high level manager with the correct permissions should be able to do it in under a minute as well. The other way to implement this would be to train every single CM who does check in to override the default midnight expiration to 6PM. If you've ever gotten yourself locked out of your room or had a key stop working, the CM likely set up a key using this type of process.

All a CM has to do is select the correct number from a drop down menu or type out the number in a box on the screen they see on their computer when they set up your room key. Obviously, it saves everybody time if the default setting in the system was changed so a CM wouldn't have to manually change the expiration time with every single key.

I think you misunderstood my post , I absolutely agree it *should* be easy to do. Implementation that it doesn't break five other unrelated systems is another thing.
I work in local government and law enforcement and there have been so so so many "simple" changes that have literally broken systems that no one even knew could connect, And well Disney IT is just as bad as government basically lol.
I was more poking fun at the similarities between Disney IT and my profession. We had a system down for almost a week recently and it should haver only taken down one part when it took down the ability to do the most basic day to day functions of my job site.

Also having worked in hotels..you may be surprised how ancient their operating systems are. Marriott which I worked for was basically a fancy DOS based command system that you had to know the commands to do anything specific that went beyond checking someone in and out.
It comes down to more than training , it's that some systems have permissions that absolutely cannot be overridden by anyone. This is often a failsafe so that it cannot be abused or taken advantage of.
When we would hand keys to a room , if the guest was granted a late checkout we would still have to manually rekey the room with the keys. Now granted mobile check in and room keys weren't really as popular or even implemented widespread as they are now so that all may be a moot point.
Of course this is all just speculation and part experiences I have dealt with myself.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I think you misunderstood my post , I absolutely agree it *should* be easy to do. Implementation that it doesn't break five other unrelated systems is another thing.
I work in local government and law enforcement and there have been so so so many "simple" changes that have literally broken systems that no one even knew could connect, And well Disney IT is just as bad as government basically lol.
I was more poking fun at the similarities between Disney IT and my profession. We had a system down for almost a week recently and it should haver only taken down one part when it took down the ability to do the most basic day to day functions of my job site.

Also having worked in hotels..you may be surprised how ancient their operating systems are. Marriott which I worked for was basically a fancy DOS based command system that you had to know the commands to do anything specific that went beyond checking someone in and out.
It comes down to more than training , it's that some systems have permissions that absolutely cannot be overridden by anyone. This is often a failsafe so that it cannot be abused or taken advantage of.
When we would hand keys to a room , if the guest was granted a late checkout we would still have to manually rekey the room with the keys. Now granted mobile check in and room keys weren't really as popular or even implemented widespread as they are now so that all may be a moot point.
Of course this is all just speculation and part experiences I have dealt with myself.

It's definitely possible I'm over-estimating Disney's capability to set up their hotel management system correctly.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Why I think Disneyland hotels are starting to do this new check-in policy is because people have been complaining about what an annoying pain having to check in to the hotel and then having to spend a whole hour just for their room to be ready. I mean let's say you have a family and the family is wanting to check in to the hotel just so little Frankie is tired and needs a nap before you go to the parks and they tell the family their room isn't ready yet and you tell them and beg "please can I just get to my room because my kids are tired and need a nap" And sometimes it will work. When I first went to Disneyland Hotel in 1998 my family would check in in the afternoon and get to our room quick then the last three times we stayed there we checked in at midnight and then once we would get in our room we would just go to bed while Mom would unpack our luggage. But for some people and families I can see this new check-in system working but until 6PM on checkout day to use the pool and other stuff will not work for families because they have to drive a long way home and most families just want to drive home. Other hotel chains such as Marriott let you check in anytime after 4PM if you are a Marriott Rewards Member and also Holiday Inn has this same policy as well but if you are a member of their rewards club you can check out until 1PM because they give extended checkout. But Disneyland hotels are experimenting with new choices to attract people and this is one experiment that might come in handy

 

[jknc]

I’m checking in June 3rd.

I need everyone leaving on June 3rd to be out (bags, vehicles, persons etc) ASAP.

Would someone be willing to put my name on a luggage cart?

Thank you.

 

[DLgal]

Maybe a related question regarding "amenity" availability. Can you book an "all day" pool cabana on your check in day? We are considering this, as my friend's flight arrives at 9:30am and we were planning a pool afternoon anyway (we won't head into the parks until after dinner), and this way we have a place to chill and relax until our room is ready. It's cheaper than adding another night to the reservation, but will they let me rent one that is set to begin, technically, before "check in time"?

 

[Malcon10t]

Maybe a related question regarding "amenity" availability. Can you book an "all day" pool cabana on your check in day? We are considering this, as my friend's flight arrives at 9:30am and we were planning a pool afternoon anyway (we won't head into the parks until after dinner), and this way we have a place to chill and relax until our room is ready. It's cheaper than adding another night to the reservation, but will they let me rent one that is set to begin, technically, before "check in time"?

Yes, you can, done it a few times.