DME Question

[Cloudless Nights]

Hi all! I'm attending a conference in January at WDW with a few friends, and me being the experienced WDW vet, I've been assigned to setting up all the logistics (which I'm happy to do--nothing like planning a trip to the world!).

Anyway, one of my friends is arriving late on a Friday night (after midnight), and she'd rather stay and sleep at the airport for a few hours to avoid paying for a night's stay if she'd only be there for a few hours. She was planning on taking the DME over around 6:30am. How would this work for setting up DME? Obviously her flight number would be from the night before when I go to enter the information. Is there a way (and please let me know if this is looked down upon/forbidden) to put a different flight number on there so it looks like she's arriving at around 6:00am that morning? She won't be checking a bag, so the luggage tags aren't a necessary evil here.

Please let me know what you think!

 

[bumbershoot]

It's completely fine to do. Every WDW hotel guest is entitled to one trip from the airport and one trip to the airport, at some point between their checkin and checkout days.

CMs should know this, and should be able to handle the request without anyone making up a flight. If you get a CM who is twitchy about it either hang up and try again, or have a flight number to give them. They aren't going to check. The other option is to just do it online here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/airport-transportation-reservation/


That said, your friend is setting herself up for a full day of misery if not more. If she truly means to sleep AT the airport (and not at an airport hotel), it's not going to be fun or easy.

This is the main pre-TSA area of the airport, at least how it looked last year. (the miniature perspective is because I was playing with my camera settings, not because it's miniature)

Not a lot of spots to sleep. If she's planning to stay in the secure area, well, at least in the main area that we go through (we tend to take United) the benches aren't just one bench; they have dividers. Sitting up on an airport seat isn't my idea of fun.

And that's even IF she's allowed to sleep anywhere. They could easily ask her to see a ticket giving her a reason to still be there.

The one time DH tried to sleep in an airport he was woken every half hour or so by the general noise of the place. For some reason his work TA hadn't taken the 5 hour layover over night into account, and he wasn't comfortable enough to just get that hotel room (a hotel in the airport, just like at MCO). The secure areas were closed over the night so he and fellow travelers slept in the non-secure area. They polished the floor, vacuumed, and did all sorts of other noisy maintenance all night long.

I wouldn't want to be this friend, nor would I want to be around the friend for the next day or so.

Remember she won't be assured of a room until after 3 or 4pm that day. Misery.

Spending money for a few hours of sleep always sounds like a waste, until you realize that once you check in you HAVE that room*. You don't check out then get a room after checkin time (unless you are doing a split stay of course). That room is yours. When you wake up, refreshed, in YOUR room, the money feels a heck of a lot more worth it.



*you do online checkin and tell them when you expect to be there. that way they know to keep a room for you through the day. we did it at POR, our flight arrived after midnight, and when we got there it was ready and waiting and awesome.