Having to change arrival/check in date at last moment?

jrsharp21

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
I am scheduled to check into the Yacht Club on Saturday, 5/14. My son's baseball team is still in the state playoffs and there is a chance they play late afternoon on Saturday. If they do, catching the last flight out to Orlando may be pushing it. I won't know if they have to play on Saturday until late Friday night. If I need to let Yacht Club know that I won't be checking in until Sunday, is it just a matter of calling the hotel directly. Or is there another phone number that I would need to call?
 
I would call the generic reservation number and let them know to make a note on your reservation. Wouldn't want to arrive on Sunday to find your reservation was cancelled due to a 'no show'. Can you use the Disney 'chat' feature to do this and avoid a long phone wait? I think regardless of whatever phone number you call, you aren't actually talking to anyone at that hotel but someone at one of their call centers.
 
I am scheduled to check into the Yacht Club on Saturday, 5/14. My son's baseball team is still in the state playoffs and there is a chance they play late afternoon on Saturday. If they do, catching the last flight out to Orlando may be pushing it. I won't know if they have to play on Saturday until late Friday night. If I need to let Yacht Club know that I won't be checking in until Sunday, is it just a matter of calling the hotel directly. Or is there another phone number that I would need to call?

There is no way to call the hotel directly. You will need to call the central call center ASAP, prepare for long hold times and prepare to speak with guest services to change the check-in date. I would advise that you do not do online check-in. I had to change a check-in date on the day of check-in and was on hold for so long with Disney that that online check-in turned into a "soft" check-in and guest services had to get involved - total hold time was about 7 hours. If you are unable to get through to guest services late on a Friday night and this goes into your check-in day, it can become very frustrating. If you can't get through on Friday night, I would call at the very moment the call center opens on Saturday.
 
Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately I already did online check in a few weeks ago not knowing there would be a chance my son would have a game on Saturday. I am actually going to be there for a conference. The original reservation was made through the housing provider for the conference. Then about 3 weeks ago we got an email that any changes or cancelations now needed to be done directly through the hotel and they provided a number. I did a Google search for the number and it comes up as Yacht Club in the results. I am guessing even if I call this, it will just redirect to the general reservations line?

Dealing with two extremes here. If they win the first two games or lose the first two games, I actually am planning on moving my flight to the first one out Saturday morning and getting there early. But if they split the first two games, that is where my situation becomes possibly not being able to make the last flight out on Saturday.
 


Flights get delayed all the time to cause someone to arrive a day late. Sometimes it's just a few hours late but enough to go to a new check in day
I've even intentionally booked a day before when our flight arrived at like 8AM a I wanted to guarantee we had a room upon arrival
I put the latest arrival time in for online check in so it's no surprise when we've not checked in before midnight or so
Now, I've never arrived the night of the next day arrival, only early the next day
There are 2 things in your favor, 1-they encourage direct to room so the hotel rarely knows exactly when your arrive and 2-they don't even service the room on next day after arrival now so they may not know then either

Since you are considering a later in the day arrival I'd try to let them know if you can
 
Flights get delayed all the time to cause someone to arrive a day late. Sometimes it's just a few hours late but enough to go to a new check in day
I've even intentionally booked a day before when our flight arrived at like 8AM a I wanted to guarantee we had a room upon arrival
I put the latest arrival time in for online check in so it's no surprise when we've not checked in before midnight or so
Now, I've never arrived the night of the next day arrival, only early the next day
There are 2 things in your favor, 1-they encourage direct to room so the hotel rarely knows exactly when your arrive and 2-they don't even service the room on next day after arrival now so they may not know then either

Since you are considering a later in the day arrival I'd try to let them know if you can
Thanks for this and some good facts there. You are right, that if you use online check in they never even know if you are in your room or not that first day/evening. And with no maid service the first day, they wouldn't know if you are in your room the next day/evening either. I think if I am not able to fly out Saturday night, and will catch the first flight out on Sunday morning that puts me in Orlando at 11am. I will go into my online check in and change my expected arrival for Saturday to the latest arrival time listed.

If there is no game on Saturday (fingers crossed), I am taking the early flight out that day and will switch my arrival time to early arrival.
 
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The fact that you MIGHT arrive a day later is what you should let Disney know ahead of time. If things change and you are now able to arrive on your original day, then you will still have your original reservation. When you call what I assume they will do is make some kind of 'note' on your reservation about the possibility of arriving the next day. You can do online check-in weeks ahead of time with Disney so I don't really see that as a problem either way.
 


This stuff happens quite frequently. Your room is automatically guaranteed until 11am the day AFTER you are supposed to check in. I still typically call for my clients if they won't be arriving until after midnight just in case, but it's really not necessary. If it turns out that you will be arriving later than 11am the day after you are supposed to check in, however, you'll want to give them a call. You actually CAN call the hotel directly which would save you a ton of time that day. If you call the main reservation number now and explain the situation, they will likely give you the Yacht Club's switchboard number. If the first person you talk to says they can't do it, hang up and call back.
 
I called the Disney Resort services this morning. Only on hold for about 15 minutes. The CM noted my account that I would possible not arrive until around noon on Sunday but still may also arrive on Saturday. She said even though she put the notes in my account, that everything would still be fine even if I didn't call because I already did online check in. She said I will still get the room ready notification on Saturday and then just go ahead and head to my room whenever I get to Yacht Club on Saturday or Sunday.
 
Well fingers crossed. Son's team has to play on Saturday afternoon at 4pm. Instead of rushing trying to catch the last flight out at 8pm and cutting it very close, going to head out Sunday morning instead. Hopefully it will be as smooth as the CM made it out to be. Fingers crossed.
 
Interesting, called this morning using the number the conference gave us to call with any changes to our reservation and both times got through with minimal wait. The first time I called I got in with a 10 minute wait. But the lady was very unhelpful and really wanted no part of trying to help me. The reservation number is a little different than a normal reservation number since we book our hotels through the convention. When I gave her my reservation number she right away tells me "nope, it has letters I can’t look it up. I have to transfer you to reservations". I was on hold 20 minutes there and no one picked up. So I decided to call the other number back. I had a CM pick up with in 2 rings. He looked up the reservation using the number I gave him and was able to help me out right away. That is the first time I have called Disney and had a CM that seemed like they didn't want to be bothered.
 
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The skill/interest level of Disney phone people seems all over the map. When planning our Disney trip a couple of years ago, at times I would get someone who obviously had no idea/interest in being helpful while others clearly knew what they were talking about and were able to assist. Usually within the first few minutes, you could tell if that person was going to be helpful or not. Not sure if some of the Disney phone people are poorly trained, don't know how to use the computer system or simply aren't interested. Many seem to just fling out answers to questions like it is some kind of game to them. They likely assume you will never speak to them again so they say anything that comes to mind.

If the person isn't helpful, I would just call back 30 minutes later and get someone different who was able to assist. If you are staying as part of some sort of business conference, you were likely given different phone numbers then what the general public uses.
 
I will have to say that I am pleased with the level of service Disney has provided with my late arrival. No issues at all with the day later check in and they didn’t charge me for Saturday. I was pretty excited to see that when the authorization on the credit card came through.
 
Flights get delayed all the time to cause someone to arrive a day late. Sometimes it's just a few hours late but enough to go to a new check in day
I've even intentionally booked a day before when our flight arrived at like 8AM a I wanted to guarantee we had a room upon arrival
I put the latest arrival time in for online check in so it's no surprise when we've not checked in before midnight or so
Now, I've never arrived the night of the next day arrival, only early the next day
There are 2 things in your favor, 1-they encourage direct to room so the hotel rarely knows exactly when your arrive and 2-they don't even service the room on next day after arrival now so they may not know then either

Since you are considering a later in the day arrival I'd try to let them know if you can

They probably can tell if your MagicBand or phone has been used to enter the room so they would know when you arrive that way.
 

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