Check-in: Earliest vs the latest

[Luv2Roam]

Just curious --
1) What's the earliest you have checked in at a WDW resort and the room has been ready.
2) The latest check in (after 4 p.m.) and no room was ready: What time was a room finally ready?
3) what resorts?
4) Early arrivers (pre-4 p.m. check-in) did you include an arrival time in a fax request?

Us -- So far we have always checked in mid afternoon. Maybe 2:30 being the earliest at CSR. (latest probably 4:30-5 at POR.)
Rooms have always been ready.
For question #4: Yes. I always give an ETA.

 

[jdkdorn]

We have had two experiences with check-in.

The first was the WL. Check-in was horrendous. We arrived at 1:30 and the rooms were not ready, Not official check-in until 3. We then went and had lunch and walked around the resort. By 6pm we were still waiting for our rooms. It wouldn't have been that bad, but we had been up since 4 am. We reserved a suite and the honeymoon suite, for my parents 40th anniversary gift, They only have 2 HS and 4 reg. Suites. Why did we wait so long. A cast member saw us falling asleep in the lobby and finally got us rooms. I think they forgot about us. We checked in every hour as requested.

The 2nd experience is a little better. (Sept 26- Oct 6, 2002) We again arrived at 1:30 at the AKL and the rooms were ready, only they were not the rooms we reserved. When we entered our "savannah" view room and saw that our view was of the people pen and a barbed wire fence I was very unhappy. I called the front desk and was given attitude by the CM aswering. She then paused in mid conversation and put me on hold. Another CM then picked up and immediately appologized for the last person I talked to. This person was a manager. The next morning we were moved & upgraded. The rest of the trip was great.

 

[GEM]

We have always checked in well before the "official" time and our room has always been ready - of course, we only travel in the very slow season, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I think the earliest we ever arrived and got right into our room was at the Wilderness Lodge last December. We arrived around 10a.m. and our room was ready for us. It was great! We even got all our requests met! And yes, we always mention our apporximate arrival time in our fax.

 

[montessori]

Last week we left home at 5:00 a.m.. Arrived at the Boardwalk at 8:00 a.m. They had a room available for us but it was one of the rooms that is a mile away from the elevator.
We said we would wait until later for a different room but they had other rooms available. We were in a lovely room on the 3rd floor with a garden view.

 

[WDW2002]

This being our first trip to WDW I can't answer on what we have done but...

Our plane arrives at 7:30; so I expect to be at WDW by 9 - 9:30am...and will be checking in (ASMo) at that time, I would LOVE if they had a room available at that time BUT I will wait if they don't have any Dalmation rooms available.

 

[Tnkrbl2199]

We arrived at 9:30am for our last trip and our room was not only ready but we had been upgraded to a corner water view room at CSR. Thr trip before we arrived at CBR at the same time and the room was ready around 1pm. Overall I think they really try to get guests in as early as the can.

 

[luvdisney14]

This year we stayed at 2 resorts. The second resort was YC and we check in about 8:00 in the AM, went to our room, look aroung and caught the first bus to blizzard beach. This worked out just fine.
We checked in on a Sunday and had no problem getting our room early in the morning. I just want to check in early (didn't care if our room was ready) to be able to get room with a good view.
I was very happy with my room and view.

 

[plutosmyfav]

we plan to arrive at POR 7 AM to check in and leave our bags with bell services. We did this at CBR and had no trouble. We stayed in the parks all day and when we got to the resort our bags were in our room.

 

[AZKathy]

The earliest check in we got was on our last trip and we got our villa at OKW at 9:00 am! I was thrilled!

Our latest was at Vero Beach where our room was not ready until after 5:00pm.