Hellos again... its getting closer to my visit and just would like to finalize some details- we are staying on-site... check in is Friday/check out is Sun. So if I wanted to buy things... how does it get sent to the room? I believe they give you a room key... but for instance if my room is not ready yet- on Fri- and I go shopping to kill sometime... can they still send my purchases to a unassigned rooom? I thought I read somewhere that my purchases would arrive the next morning to the room or the front desk? which brings me to my next question... if my check out is Sunday morn... would i get my purchases before I checked out on Sun if I buy on Sat? I know I obsess about the silliest stuff.
Also- can I pay with cash instead of paying at the end of my stay with sending the stuff to the room? Is there a charge for this and do I tip anyone? ty.
Okey dokey. Let me see if I can help.
How it works is that you buy whatever you are going to buy at any of the shops in DL or DCA (and it can be one small item or big bags full of stuff - I've done both), then you fill out a form that the CM at the register gives you. There have been reports that sometimes this form is out of stock in certain stores (I think Bumbershoot had that experience), but I have not had to deal with that yet. The form was always there when I did this.
I did, however, once encounter a CM at the Emporium who was not aware of the package delivery service to the hotel. She thought that I meant I wanted to have my bags sent to the Newsstand, which is what many one-day trippers do, I think. She told me I could not have them brought to the hotel. Fortunately, one of the other CMs nearby overheard this misinformation and stepped in to correct her, and everything was fine.
There is no charge of any kind for the package delivery service to the hotel Bell Desk, but seeing that the packages will pass by the Bell Desk at some point, you will probably want to tip the Bell guy who retrieves your packages from the storage room.
Anyway, so on the form you will check off which of the 3 DLR hotels you are staying at, enter your name, address, phone number and all of that. There
is a space on the form to enter your room number. I've always had my room number when I have done this so I don't know what happens if you don't have it, but I'm
sure that the CMs must deal with this situation from time to time - where someone asks for the package delivery service and they have not been assigned their room number yet. It probably happens a
lot. I think you should probably be able to tell the CM at the register that you don't have your room number yet, and it
should be fine. I'm sure they can work around it. They may even be able to call the hotel and find out if the room number has been assigned yet (sometimes the hotel knows which room you will be in, even if it's not ready for you to move in to yet, and so they may have the room number before they tell you what it is).
After you fill out the form and get that squared away, you will get a copy to keep for yourself (usually a pink copy). Unless you specifically request the packages to be sent to your room, they will automatically be sent to the Bell Desk of the hotel. The packages are ready for you to pick up at 7:00 a.m. the following morning. So if you are checking out on Sunday morning, that's no problem at all. It's only if you want the packages brought to your room that it's a problem if you are checking out that day. But to have them brought to Bell Services is fine.
In fact, that's what I've done - I have had packages delivered to Bell. They were ready at 7:00 a.m. on the morning of my check-out. I went down to Bell in the morning, brought the bags back to the room and packed them up with my stuff before I checked out!
Hope that helps!!
