Checking in - app vs front desk

[ExcitedForWDW]

Curious if anyone else had a similar experience. We stopped by the front desk very early before the room notification was sent. We asked what building we were in to see if our initial request was met. The front desk person flat out refused to tell us what building we were assigned to. I can understand not telling us the room but with holding the actual building #... anyhow we spoke to one of the greeters outside and he checked his iPad and told us which building. Is this a disney or random front desk agent thing?

 

[Dave006]

We asked what building we were in to see if our initial request was met.

You should only ask the CM to confirm if your request(s) were met. That's all the CM is required to tell you. We always as the Front desk to confirm what is shown on our reservation of if another room that meets our requests may be available.

Is this a disney or random front desk agent thing?

More of a random thing, every CM interaction has lots of random chances for a variety of responses.

Dave

 

[Dug720]

To be clear, it is not a CHARGE. It is a HOLD. They don't fully process it unless you charge to the room, and then it's only the amount charged to the room. Once you check out, the hold is released - and it's always shown off my account within 24 hours.

 

[Dave006]

They don't fully process it unless you charge to the room, and then it's only the amount charged to the room. Once you check out, the hold is released - and it's always shown off my account within 24 hours.

The challenge for some guests is that Disney has no control over the Holds. Your Credit / Debit processor controls how long a Hold (Pending Charge) is held before clearing. Some may take 3-7 days to clear.

The process is compounded due to the way Disney makes the Holds. They make an initial hold of $100, and once your charges exceed that initial $100 the actual charges are processed. Another $100 Hold is placed on your Debit / Credit card. Since the actual charges almost never equal the $100 Holds, there are often overlapping Holds, and actual Charges.

Smaller banks and Credit Unions are often the slowest to release Holds.

Dave

 

[ExcitedForWDW]

Even if she were to say no they weren't met, she wasn't willing to make modifications or changes until after the notification was sent to me that the room was ready. Forst time this happened so hopefully not the norm. We arrived early to try and secure the request, if we received the room notification at 3 pm then the pool of rooms available for swapping would have been less.just seems like an odd way of doing things

 

[focusondisney]

Even if she were to say no they weren't met, she wasn't willing to make modifications or changes until after the notification was sent to me that the room was ready. Forst time this happened so hopefully not the norm. We arrived early to try and secure the request, if we received the room notification at 3 pm then the pool of rooms available for swapping would have been less.just seems like an odd way of doing things

I’ve always heard they won’t tell you the room until it’s officially ready, meaning after housekeeping has finished & the manager has signed off on it. Things can happen that could cause them to remove the room from service before that time. They won’t tell a guest they’re getting a specific room & then have to tell them, sorry, not that room. It’s possible resorts with multiple buildings might apply that to the specific building as well. I can imagine a guest becoming upset of they did not get the room or building g they were originally told. Who knows, that front desk CM might have had to deal with just such a situation in the past so learned from experience that even giving a building could cause problems.

I frankly think it’s inappropriate that the greeter gave the information, instead of deferring to the front desk. Of course, the greeter won’t have to deal with the fallout of an irate guest who shows up to demand the building they were told.

 

[Disnsyncey]

It will be more difficult to make changes to ALL 5 rooms, so getting as much information into the system ahead of time is key...

As long as that is in the system and the assignor (and automated part) knows that, then that is your best shot at starting out in a good place. If you go to the front desk to check in, if ALL the rooms aren't ready and you REALLY want them to stay with your preferences, it will be harder for them to move things around right there. You ARE able to explain to them any nuances that you may have to see if they CAN change things around if you don't like the location of already confirmed rooms, but it's still way better to have all the requests ahead of time than waiting to get them working on it that day. I agree that the "front desk" is more for tweaking than doing "normal check in" things, as they don't have ALL AUTHORITY to do all the things, especially since most room assigning is basically a puzzle.

Though normally when we have 2 people charging different cards on our MB+, we need to go to the FD to double check that anyways hahaha

But I sometimes wonder if I would be a the resort at checkin time if it would be better to go to the desk to see if the room is ready rather than waiting for the room ready text which has come at like 9pm sometimes (we've been at the parks, so no big deal, it's probably helpful for them to be able to switch rooms for people who are ACTUALLY waiting at the resort). From my time working in a hotel, we were surely attempting to get people in front of our faces into ready rooms after the check in time.....but we don't have any particular needs....

All that said, do all the things you can do in advance, and then ask for help at the FD (which you might need anyway with charging between many people) if needed.

 

[ww52]

It will be more difficult to make changes to ALL 5 rooms, so getting as much information into the system ahead of time is key...

As long as that is in the system and the assignor (and automated part) knows that, then that is your best shot at starting out in a good place. If you go to the front desk to check in, if ALL the rooms aren't ready and you REALLY want them to stay with your preferences, it will be harder for them to move things around right there. You ARE able to explain to them any nuances that you may have to see if they CAN change things around if you don't like the location of already confirmed rooms, but it's still way better to have all the requests ahead of time than waiting to get them working on it that day. I agree that the "front desk" is more for tweaking than doing "normal check in" things, as they don't have ALL AUTHORITY to do all the things, especially since most room assigning is basically a puzzle.

Though normally when we have 2 people charging different cards on our MB+, we need to go to the FD to double check that anyways hahaha

But I sometimes wonder if I would be a the resort at checkin time if it would be better to go to the desk to see if the room is ready rather than waiting for the room ready text which has come at like 9pm sometimes (we've been at the parks, so no big deal, it's probably helpful for them to be able to switch rooms for people who are ACTUALLY waiting at the resort). From my time working in a hotel, we were surely attempting to get people in front of our faces into ready rooms after the check in time.....but we don't have any particular needs....

All that said, do all the things you can do in advance, and then ask for help at the FD (which you might need anyway with charging between many people) if needed.

I'll ask the agent again in a couple weeks once we get closer (and we've paid).

We would not at all expect to make changes to 5 rooms. That said, I'd hope given the occasion we get something reasonable close together.

 

[Disnsyncey]

We would not at all expect to make changes to 5 rooms. That said, I'd hope given the occasion we get something reasonable close together.

I was just using that as an example of why you would be speaking to the fd, but since each room you add to the mix means one more complication, if you NEEDED to change rooms, being at the FD you could talk to them about how far you were willing to go away from each other. They do try to get people on the same group close together, they're not STARTING out putting you in completely different sections.

 

[Dug720]

I'd hope given the occasion we get something reasonable close together

The thing is, many people are celebrating very special occasions at Disney - Quinceanaras, Sweet Sixteen, 21st, 25th, 30th, 40th, 50th birthdays. Honeymoons, 1st, 10th, 25th, 45th, 50th anniversaries. Graduations. Degrees. Big promotions. Retirements. Beating cancer. And so forth. And every one of those is extra special to the person/people celebrating. To my knowledge there is not a hierarchy for which celebrations Disney deems more important. So it really still comes down to chance.

Someone else's Sweet Sixteen may be just as important to that family as your 50th anniversary is to yours. They try their best, but with so many factors I don't envy those room assigners - or the front desk agents dealing with the fallout - one bit.

 

[ww52]

Someone else's Sweet Sixteen may be just as important to that family as your 50th anniversary is to yours. They try their best, but with so many factors I don't envy those room assigners - or the front desk agents dealing with the fallout - one bit.

Good point. And they never asked for a copy of my marriage certificate so they obviously take our word for it.

 

[elvispursley]

Though normally when we have 2 people charging different cards on our MB+, we need to go to the FD to double check that anyways hahaha

I thought that was the only way to add a 2nd card for MB charges. Are you saying there’s another way that would save me the hassle of going by the front desk to do this (would be awesome)?!

 

[Dave006]

I thought that was the only way to add a 2nd card for MB charges. Are you saying there’s another way that would save me the hassle of going by the front desk to do this (would be awesome)?!

You are correct @elvispursley the only way to have multiple different Charging methods that have access the charging to the resort room folio account is to have it setup at the front desk.

Dave

 

[Disnsyncey]

I thought that was the only way to add a 2nd card for MB charges. Are you saying there’s another way that would save me the hassle of going by the front desk to do this (would be awesome)?!

HA maybe that's why we always end up there!

 

[Mle8308]

I’ve always heard they won’t tell you the room until it’s officially ready, meaning after housekeeping has finished & the manager has signed off on it. Things can happen that could cause them to remove the room from service before that time. They won’t tell a guest they’re getting a specific room & then have to tell them, sorry, not that room. It’s possible resorts with multiple buildings might apply that to the specific building as well. I can imagine a guest becoming upset of they did not get the room or building g they were originally told. Who knows, that front desk CM might have had to deal with just such a situation in the past so learned from experience that even giving a building could cause problems.

I frankly think it’s inappropriate that the greeter gave the information, instead of deferring to the front desk. Of course, the greeter won’t have to deal with the fallout of an irate guest who shows up to demand the building they were told.

They also won't tell you a room number or often a building because they don't want the guest showing up at the room and giving the housekeepers a hard time about it being ready for check in. Or bothering the housekeeper to stop what they are in the process of doing to go clean the room they think is "theirs".