(Deluxe/Club level) What if we showed up at about 3am?

[AngiTN]

We should roll into CSR around 3am next month (scheduled to land at 1:30am). We have a room booked and a note in the system that we will be arriving very late. We will take DME (with our luggage) and I suspect we won’t be alone...

DH lands at 12:30 AM next Friday night and I doubt he'll be the only one on his flight at MCO. Won't be using ME as this trip we begin the first leg at Universal
DGD and I will already be down there, and in bed, LOL

 

[DLgal]

It's not a cheap method so I only have done it once when our plans for arrival day really necessitated that we HAD to have a nap. I figured with the way my luck ran it would be the one time we got a room late rather than early so I paid for the room. I did inform them that we'd be arriving late, even went so far as to find a flight that arrived at like 5 AM. Naturally, I got a room ready text about noon the day before we left! Go figure.

Often, red eye flights x4 is enough of a savings over other flight times that booking an extra room night wouldn't be a big additional expense.

 

[kniquy]

But what if I had called a taxi (does DME run at that hour?) and we all went right to the deluxe resort in the middle of the night. Would they let us check in? Would they hold our baggage? What could we possibly do to kill about 4 hours at that time until breakfast at 7am? Just asking.

ME runs all day/night. I recently had a flight arrive around 1am and they were there to get us to the resort. The only thing is you need to grab your luggage. But you would need to have a room booked , you could do online check in and have the room ready even for when you arrive in the middle of the night. There really isn't much to do at that hour of the night so your options would be to stay at the airport or book that "extra" night so that once you arrived at the resort there would be a room to go to.

I did it booking a moderate room for our first night arriving at the airport at 1am and not getting to the resort until 2am -- then we packed up dropped our bags at bell services to be transferred to AK. We also own DVC so i really didn't want to waste points for the one night.

 

[pixiedustedme]

We arrived at Beach Club after 1am once. DME was running, but not packed. Beach Club lobby was deserted except for one CM, who checked us in. We were booked for that night, so we went straight to bed. Imo if you're arriving in the middle of the night, you should book a room for that night. Your room might not be available until 4pm on check-in day. There is also nothing to do at WDW in the wee hours of the morning. Nothing. Get some sleep instead.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

You know, I never even thought to book a room for the day before so it would be ready in the morning. We can take red eyes from CA, and we never do because the idea of not having a place to crash immediately upon arrival was always an eliminating factor. I'll have to keep this in mind for the future.

I’ve done the opposite too - booked an extra night on the back end with a really late flight. Not the most cost effective thing in the world, but sometimes having that room for a big chunk of the day comes in handy depending on the trip details.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Imo if you're arriving in the middle of the night, you should book a room for that night.

It's still probably best to also let the hotel know about when you will be arriving, as several posters have indicated. Even with online check in, you don't want the hotel to consider you a no-show and cancel your reservation.

I’ve done the opposite too - booked an extra night on the back end with a really late flight. Not the most cost effective thing in the world, but sometimes having that room for a big chunk of the day comes in handy depending on the trip details.

I did that once in Las Vegas, for a red-eye return flight. I checked out around 9 PM and the hotel didn't charge me for that night!

 

[bumbershoot]

A few years back we flew in the night before with the intention of staying at a hotel near the airport. The flight was super delayed. When we arrived at the hotel they said they didn't have any rooms and we wouldn't be charged. But I persisted and we got a room.

Did you have the room booked already, or did you just show up?

But what if I had called a taxi (does DME run at that hour?) and we all went right to the deluxe resort in the middle of the night. Would they let us check in? Would they hold our baggage? What could we possibly do to kill about 4 hours at that time until breakfast at 7am? Just asking.

They won't check you in (they can't until around 6am). I'm sure they'd take your bags. And then you'd loiter somewhere.

why would Disney run the DME at those wee hours if they wouldn't allow people to show up at their hotel prior to 6am?

The only scenario I can think of is someone having a rez for the day before and they run into crazy delays where they don't even show up until after midnight on the next calendar day.

To allow people to get to rooms booked from the previous day.

So in theory, one could show up at the DME at 12:01 am on the calendar day of their rez and the DME would take them to their hotel?

And what happens when they get there? Would the hotel at least hold their baggage (assuming they have it with them, not yellow tagged) while they kill time (like at Disney Springs?) for the rest of the night?

Yes.

Disney Springs isn't open that early in the morning.

You know, I never even thought to book a room for the day before so it would be ready in the morning. We can take red eyes from CA, and we never do because the idea of not having a place to crash immediately upon arrival was always an eliminating factor. I'll have to keep this in mind for the future.

It feels like a horrible waste of money while you're booking it, especially if you're booking the room category you'll continue on with so you don't have to move. And then you land at midnight, get to your resort around 1:30 or 2, and you have YOUR room and you don't *have to* get up early or move or anything. It's your room without waiting until 3 or 4pm. It's lovely.

Imo if you're arriving in the middle of the night, you should book a room for that night. Your room might not be available until 4pm on check-in day. There is also nothing to do at WDW in the wee hours of the morning. Nothing. Get some sleep instead.

Agreed. 100%.

Even with online check in, you don't want the hotel to consider you a no-show and cancel your reservation.

Online checkin allows you to tell them what time you're expecting to arrive, and it includes all the way up until 5 or 6am the "following" date.

 

[Seabean]

It's been 2 weeks and I'm posting a followup to this thread. Since then, we've booked our flights on Southwest, but the arrival flight that we'd like in the morning is still too pricey, and so we've booked a flight the night before, arriving at MCO about 11pm. If the morning flight comes down in price I'll swap reservations and pay the difference. But if it doesn't we'll probably book a hotel room and take the DME about 7-8am in the morning as we've done before.

Or maybe not. Thanks to the info in this thread, we're seriously contemplating hanging at MCO for a short while, then taking the DME at 12:01 to our resort (arriving about 1am) and having them hold the bags there. This gives us about 5 hours until we can formally check in at 6am and then eat at the Club Lounge at 7am. I called the Signature Services line and they confirmed we can indeed do this.

But why? The way we see it, by taking the morning flight, we have to leave our house at 3am to get to the airport. Our teenage daughters usually pull an "all nighter" when we do this. By arriving the night before, they'll just be pulling the "all nighter" in the lobby/club lounge (no food served) of a resort hotel. We're going to try it this time and see how it goes.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[gwynne]

It's been 2 weeks and I'm posting a followup to this thread. Since then, we've booked our flights on Southwest, but the arrival flight that we'd like in the morning is still too pricey, and so we've booked a flight the night before, arriving at MCO about 11pm. If the morning flight comes down in price I'll swap reservations and pay the difference. But if it doesn't we'll probably book a hotel room and take the DME about 7-8am in the morning as we've done before.

Or maybe not. Thanks to the info in this thread, we're seriously contemplating hanging at MCO for a short while, then taking the DME at 12:01 to our resort (arriving about 1am) and having them hold the bags there. This gives us about 5 hours until we can formally check in at 6am and then eat at the Club Lounge at 7am. I called the Signature Services line and they confirmed we can indeed do this.

But why? The way we see it, by taking the morning flight, we have to leave our house at 3am to get to the airport. Our teenage daughters usually pull an "all nighter" when we do this. By arriving the night before, they'll just be pulling the "all nighter" in the lobby/club lounge (no food served) of a resort hotel. We're going to try it this time and see how it goes.

Thoughts anyone?

It sounds like you are confident this plan will work for your family.
It would never work for us. I hope you luck out and get a room earlier than 3pm ish.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

By arriving the night before, they'll just be pulling the "all nighter" in the lobby/club lounge (no food served) of a resort hotel.

Which resort are we we talking about here? Some CL lounges close overnight. The ones that are 'open' (accessible) even overnight are located on MagicBand controlled floors or buildings. Unless you have a friendly CM that lets you onto/into the floor/building, you won't be able to access the CL lounge until the computers click over after 6 and you become a resort guest.

And while I guess there is no formal rule against this, my opinion is that the accessible CL lounges aren't really meant to be a place to 'hang out' for hours overnight, even if they are technically physically accessible. There can be cleaning crews around, lights off, etc. A lot of times they do things like carpet cleaning/scrubbing overnight.

It would seem to me you'll be spending many hours in the resort lobby.

My thoughts? I'd be booking a room for that night at the resort (non-CL for the night just to save a buck since you can't really take advantage of CL perks anyway with the late arrival) or getting a room at the MCO Hyatt. But, to each their own. Good luck.

 

[Seabean]

GADisneyDad14, you're correct. We're going to the WL and the lounge is now behind a door which requires magicband access. So it's going to be mostly the lobby or whatever we can do outside on the grounds. Then again,, we may book an MCO Hyatt room as we've done before, but at least we know we have the option of hanging at the resort from 1-6am is available if we want.

 

[KrazeeK120]

GADisneyDad14, you're correct. We're going to the WL and the lounge is now behind a door which requires magicband access. So it's going to be mostly the lobby or whatever we can do outside on the grounds. Then again,, we may book an MCO Hyatt room as we've done before, but at least we know we have the option of hanging at the resort from 1-6am is available if we want.

There won’t be anything to do in the lobby or on the grounds in the middle of the night.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

But you should, as the OP (or somebody in this thread) reserve in advance. No penalty for not taking the inbound ride.

You don't need to call in your flight information to access DME at the airport. You can literally show up and either scan your MB or give them your reservation number and they will put you on a bus. Calling your flight info in is more of a courtesy to WDW so they can manage the buses. I'm not saying you SHOULDN'T call it in. My response was to the OP or to anyone who thinks they aren't eligible to ride if they forgot to call in their flight info.

 

[cakebaker]

It's been 2 weeks and I'm posting a followup to this thread. Since then, we've booked our flights on Southwest, but the arrival flight that we'd like in the morning is still too pricey, and so we've booked a flight the night before, arriving at MCO about 11pm. If the morning flight comes down in price I'll swap reservations and pay the difference. But if it doesn't we'll probably book a hotel room and take the DME about 7-8am in the morning as we've done before.

Or maybe not. Thanks to the info in this thread, we're seriously contemplating hanging at MCO for a short while, then taking the DME at 12:01 to our resort (arriving about 1am) and having them hold the bags there. This gives us about 5 hours until we can formally check in at 6am and then eat at the Club Lounge at 7am. I called the Signature Services line and they confirmed we can indeed do this.

But why? The way we see it, by taking the morning flight, we have to leave our house at 3am to get to the airport. Our teenage daughters usually pull an "all nighter" when we do this. By arriving the night before, they'll just be pulling the "all nighter" in the lobby/club lounge (no food served) of a resort hotel. We're going to try it this time and see how it goes.

Thoughts anyone?

I'd never do it, but if it works for you that's all that matters. As others have said, you won't be able to access CL because you aren't checked in and they really aren't meant to be a hang out place in the middle of the night. We'd be exhausted after a long flight, staying up all night at a resort and waiting around for the room to be ready, which could be all day. We're used to a pretty rough first day- we took a red eye, didn't get into our room at the YC until after 4, then did a DAH at the MK that night- but this one would do us in. It would be a wasted day for us. It's just a much better idea to either fly in morning of, get a room at the airport, or better yet, add a night to your existing reservation.

 

[Dave006]

GADisneyDad14, you're correct. We're going to the WL and the lounge is now behind a door which requires magicband access. So it's going to be mostly the lobby or whatever we can do outside on the grounds. Then again,, we may book an MCO Hyatt room as we've done before, but at least we know we have the option of hanging at the resort from 1-6am is available if we want.

Since you are staying at the WL, you should consider picking up a hidden Mickey sheet from the Front desk and searching the resort for Mickey if you get tired of just sitting around the lobby. There are also some quite sitting areas above the lobby where you might find a quite place for members of your family.

Dave

 

[SaintsManiac]

It's been 2 weeks and I'm posting a followup to this thread. Since then, we've booked our flights on Southwest, but the arrival flight that we'd like in the morning is still too pricey, and so we've booked a flight the night before, arriving at MCO about 11pm. If the morning flight comes down in price I'll swap reservations and pay the difference. But if it doesn't we'll probably book a hotel room and take the DME about 7-8am in the morning as we've done before.

Or maybe not. Thanks to the info in this thread, we're seriously contemplating hanging at MCO for a short while, then taking the DME at 12:01 to our resort (arriving about 1am) and having them hold the bags there. This gives us about 5 hours until we can formally check in at 6am and then eat at the Club Lounge at 7am. I called the Signature Services line and they confirmed we can indeed do this.

But why? The way we see it, by taking the morning flight, we have to leave our house at 3am to get to the airport. Our teenage daughters usually pull an "all nighter" when we do this. By arriving the night before, they'll just be pulling the "all nighter" in the lobby/club lounge (no food served) of a resort hotel. We're going to try it this time and see how it goes.

Thoughts anyone?

No way in the world could someone convince me to do this. I'd rather book a night at Pop and then transfer the next day.

 

[AngiTN]

I'd have to have somewhere to sleep. Period. My luck this would be a time we wouldn't have a room till 3:30, 4:00, the latest window. Normally we get them early but rarely do I NEED it. And if the plan you've set above, a room early is a must. I'd book something. Either pay for arrival day or if it's too money for a short time a value room

It's great your teens can do it but heck, I'll be honest, who cares. In this case it's all about me and what I'm up for

 

[kaytieeldr]

You don't need to call in your flight information to access DME at the airport. You can literally show up and either scan your MB or give them your reservation number and they will put you on a bus.

Oh? When did the agreement with the airport change to allow this? And while DME runs 24/7, if they're not expecting any passengers, I can see there being no bus available for several hours.​

 

[Dug720]

For super late arrivals, you could consider an airport-area hotel (generally cheaper than even an All Star) and catching DME early the next morning. That way you can get a good sleep for a few hours. I did it a couple of years ago - granted my flight changed to earlier due to a predicted winter storm so I got the room last-minute, but it still worked out well, and I wasn’t an exhausted hot mess my first day in the parks.

 

[Lehuaann]

You don't need to call in your flight information to access DME at the airport. You can literally show up and either scan your MB or give them your reservation number and they will put you on a bus. Calling your flight info in is more of a courtesy to WDW so they can manage the buses. I'm not saying you SHOULDN'T call it in. My response was to the OP or to anyone who thinks they aren't eligible to ride if they forgot to call in their flight info.

Reservations are required.

We have been in situation where our resort information was incorrect in their system, and they had to scramble to put us on a bus.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/magical-express/
Disney’s Magical Express is a benefit of staying at select Disney Resort hotels. Please note: reservations are required to use this service.