Do you HAVE to check in before going to a park?

[ruadisneyfan2]

We are renting points for a 1 night stay pre cruise. Unfortunately we have to have a late afternoon arriving flight, 4:30pm. By the time we get to SSR I expect it to be around 6 or 6:30. We bought a 1 day park ticket since Epcot has EMH 9 - 11pm.
If we do online check in, is it possible to hop off of DME and run to the bus stop for Epcot? Do we have to check in officially before going to a park or can we do it after park closing?

Also at our last visit to BCV in March, we were greeted as we stepped off the bus by a CM who checked us in with an ipad as we walked to our room.
Is this the norm now? If so, we obviously wouldn't be running to Epcot bus stop but just trying to maximize our little amount of park time.

We will have yellow-tagged, checked luggage so I'm wondering if it won't be delivered to our room without an official check in.

If it will cause more problems later, we'll just stick with checking in at lobby.

Thanks for any tips/advice.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Tickets are separate from a hotel room so as long as you have them linked to your MDE then you can go right to the park.

Apparently it is a newer norm for the CM's to greet with ipads but I'm certain you could excuse yourself if you wanted to wait until later but it would probably be safer to do that quick so that your luggage doesn't end up in any limbo.

 

[disneynutz]

I would have one adult check in and the others can head to the park.

Actually arriving that late before leaving for a cruise, I don't think that we would rush anywhere, we would rest after our travel day and start out cruse rested and fresh, but that's just us.

Bill

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I would have one adult check in and the others can head to the park.

Actually arriving that late before leaving for a cruise, I don't think that we would rush anywhere, we would rest after our travel day and start out cruse rested and fresh, but that's just us.

Bill

I did consider that but we get bored with a lot of sitting around. We'll have time to chill on the ship and time to sleep in a little before going to the port. I guess we'll see how we feel once we get there.
We could always save our tickets for a future visit. If our flight gets delaying or it's raining really hard, we would just stay at the resort.

 

[luckyman_apd]

Our recent trip we had an early morning flight and after taking ME bus getting dropped off at the Contemporary without about 20 other guests... We decided to go straight to the parks. Had Bell services take our bags. It could easily have been a half hour or more waiting to check in it was so busy. We came back to BLT after we got hot in the parks and it was close to 4. Skipped the contemporary and checked in the lobby of BLT. 5 minutes max and we were off to our room.

 

[scbeth]

So if we wanted to bypass check in and head to the parks first, this is possible?
We have already checked in online.

 

[Msmithmd]

So if we wanted to bypass check in and head to the parks first, this is possible? We have already checked in online.

Yes. The resort stay and going to the parks have nothing to do with one another.

If you have carry-ons you can drop them at bell services, and retrieve them when you check in after the park visit.

 

[scbeth]

Yes. The resort stay and going to the parks have nothing to do with one another.

If you have carry-ons you can drop them at bell services, and retrieve them when you check in after the park visit.

Thanks. My TA said that I had to check in first but I didn't have a lot of confidence in that based on what I am hearing.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Yes. The resort stay and going to the parks have nothing to do with one another.

If you have carry-ons you can drop them at bell services, and retrieve them when you check in after the park visit.

I was concerned about be able to use evening EMH. If we're not checked into the resort, how do they know whether we're entitled to use EMH?

BTW, I'm the OP and it all worked out great. The only SNAFU was that we waited a good 30+ mins for the bus to EPCOT. Buses to every other park + DD had come at least twice so it really felt like forever.
We were originally booked at YC for the short walk to EPCOT and had a great price booking through Orbitz: an extra 15% off of Disney's 30% discount price. Still, renting points and staying at SSR saved $110 just for that 1 nt stay.

I have to admit though, being in a park til 11pm then getting up early again and having to be out of the room wasn't easy. I packed some instant oatmeal packets for ds14 and myself but dh prefers to buy a hot breakfast. SSR is so spread out and the lack of signage made it hard to find food and find his way back.

We normally don't try to pack that much in pre-cruise but we've been cruising more than park visiting and kind of miss the parks. Still with having just 4.5 hrs in Epcot and with EMH we did every ride we wanted to except Energy & Soarin'. We even did TT twice. By 10:45 pm the line to Soarin' was down to 15 mins and we could have squeezed it in but we were too tired to wait in it.

 

[Msmithmd]

I was concerned about be able to use evening EMH. If we're not checked into the resort, how do they know whether we're entitled to use EMH?

The resort stay is linked to your MDE profile. That's how you see it on the MDE app during your planning before going to Orlando. The system knows you are staying that day and the bands will reflect this to the CM when scanned during EMH.

Checking in is only about getting assigned and getting into your room. The only way it is tied to your park visit is if you want to charge to your MB. If so, the resort will need to have you checked in because they re-confirm your credit card is valid, and the charges made to your MB will show up on your resort bill at checkout.

If you are using a DDP, I do believe you have to check in first to start using the entitlements. I haven't tried this before, perhaps someone else can advise?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

The resort stay is linked to your MDE profile. That's how you see it on the MDE app during your planning before going to Orlando. The system knows you are staying that day and the bands will reflect this to the CM when scanned during EMH.

Checking in is only about getting assigned and getting into your room. The only way it is tied to your park visit is if you want to charge to your MB. If so, the resort will need to have you checked in because they re-confirm your credit card is valid, and the charges made to your MB will show up on your resort bill at checkout.

Thanks for clarifying.