How early have you been able to check in?

[yorkieteacher]

Trying to plan our September trip- On Friday, September 6, we will be arriving in Orlando by car by about 930 am. We plan on going to MK and have tickets for MSSSHP. Our two grandsons usually take a two hour nap from about 12-2. Ideally, we would check in to AofA about 10, let the boys swim and look around, eat, then hope at least one of the three rooms we booked is ready by noon. Then we would go to the park about 2 (we have AP's) and stay until they were too tired to go on. How likely is this scenario? Should we plan on not getting to check in until 3, and going to Mk as early as we can get there that day, then hoping they can nap til about 6 after our check in at 3 before we return for the party? We are trying to decide when we should schedule fast passes. Interested to know how many have gotten an early check in, which we requested during on-line check in.

 

[dansdad]

Trying to plan our September trip- On Friday, September 6, we will be arriving in Orlando by car by about 930 am. We plan on going to MK and have tickets for MSSSHP. Our two grandsons usually take a two hour nap from about 12-2. Ideally, we would check in to AofA about 10, let the boys swim and look around, eat, then hope at least one of the three rooms we booked is ready by noon. Then we would go to the park about 2 (we have AP's) and stay until they were too tired to go on. How likely is this scenario? Should we plan on not getting to check in until 3, and going to Mk as early as we can get there that day, then hoping they can nap til about 6 after our check in at 3 before we return for the party? We are trying to decide when we should schedule fast passes. Interested to know how many have gotten an early check in, which we requested during on-line check in.

You can check in as early as 6:00AM. Once you check in you are a guest of AoA and can use all the amenities, including the pool. When your room will be ready is impossible to say as that is completely dependent on occupancy the night before and how quickly they can turn over your room.

We've gotten into our room as early as 6:30AM and as late as 4:30PM.

 

[Disneypro1]

10 am earliest we have I think.
It’s almost always around 1 though.

 

[Meglen]

Maybe have some pool/nap in the pool chairs? its impossible to know when the room will be ready.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Don’t plan on your room being ready. I’ve had mine ready at 9am, but also have had to wait around until 4pm for a room.

You can always go to the front desk and ask them the status. Sometimes they can make magic happen.

 

[yorkieteacher]

Maybe have some pool/nap in the pool chairs? its impossible to know when the room will be ready.

I wish we could count on this, but near a pool I doubt they will nap, especially since we just arrived that day!

 

[mrsap]

In November we checked into CCV at 8:30 am. My main request was early check in, and that was the first time that my room was actually ready immediately.

 

[SarahC97]

I've had rooms ready as early as 8:30 am and as late as 5 pm. Most of the time, it seems like the rooms are ready if we arrive very early sometime around 11 or 12. You can tell them when you arrive that you'd like a room as early as possible, they may be able to hook you up. But it's definitely not something you can make plans around, unfortunately.

 

[DisneyDoesMyHair]

On our split-stay trip last week, we had rooms ready at 9 am, 11:30 am, and 1:15 pm. I agree with a PP that checking in early at the front desk may produce a little magic. The only early room we had (9 am), was requested through the front desk. Although not a guarantee, it’s worth a try. Our other rooms were online check-in, and I did not care if they were early or late.

 

[trixiedust23]

I realize all kids have different nap habits...but when my kids were of nap age, if they were in a car until 9:30am a nap that day would be out of the question. That extra morning downtime in the car plus the excitement of arriving at any hotel with a pool (at Disney no less!) there would be zero chance of getting them to sleep. Just another scenario to mull over In any case, I do hope you get early check in! We are hoping for that too in September so we can relax and settle in for the week

 

[tinkerbella16]

We always arrive early - getting to the resort by 9am, as we take the first flight out. We used to have awesome luck having our rooms ready upon arrival but that hasn't happened since 2015. Every year since, our rooms weren't ready so we would have breakfast/lunch and head to the pool until we got the text.

 

[mn51]

The earliest we have been able to get into a room was around 10:15 am at Riverside. We were very happy!

 

[yorkieteacher]

In November we checked into CCV at 8:30 am. My main request was early check in, and that was the first time that my room was actually ready immediately.

Did you request through a TA, cast member at the main Disney phone line, or call the resort front desk directly? I think we may request through our Disney TA several weeks ahead, and call the main phone line as well, then risk it by arriving about 9 and sweetly hoping one of our three rooms could be ready early!

 

[Dug720]

If you do online check-in, you can put in your estimated arrival time and check a box that a room ready early is more important than any other requests. It won’t guarantee it, but it at least lets them know that you want a room early.

 

[mrsap]

Did you request through a TA, cast member at the main Disney phone line, or call the resort front desk directly? I think we may request through our Disney TA several weeks ahead, and call the main phone line as well, then risk it by arriving about 9 and sweetly hoping one of our three rooms could be ready early!

I called and spoke to a CM! Good luck!

 

[bumbershoot]

we will be arriving in Orlando by car by about 930 am. We plan on going to MK and have tickets for MSSSHP. Our two grandsons usually take a two hour nap from about 12-2. Ideally, we would check in to AofA about 10, let the boys swim and look around, eat, then hope at least one of the three rooms we booked is ready by noon. Then we would go to the park about 2 (we have AP's) and stay until they were too tired to go on. How likely is this scenario?

Personally I’d say unlikely. Though it depends a lot on your actual travel. Does arriving by car at 9:30 mean you’ve stopped fie the night in Georgia and are getting up early for the few more hours? Then maybe a nap will happen. Or do you mean you’ve been in the car all night? In that case I’d say to stop for the night in Georgia.

But neither i as a child nor my son ever had solid nap times, so I could be wrong about napping.

Did you request through a TA, cast member at the main Disney phone line, or call the resort front desk directly?

There is no way to call the resort directly FYI.

 

[yorkieteacher]

Personally I’d say unlikely. Though it depends a lot on your actual travel. Does arriving by car at 9:30 mean you’ve stopped fie the night in Georgia and are getting up early for the few more hours? Then maybe a nap will happen. Or do you mean you’ve been in the car all night? In that case I’d say to stop for the night in Georgia.

But neither i as a child nor my son ever had solid nap times, so I could be wrong about napping.

Well we live in Georgia so we always drive nearly to WDW the day before and spend the night in/around Orlando. So every time we have gone we get there early, but as this is one of our grandson's first visit and he is not fun to be around without a nap, we are hoping we can get into a room early. We have three rooms booked for our family and all requested 9am check in during on line check in. Previously we have never worried about room time, and just checked in/dropped off our luggage and went on our way. Our last visit was the first time we got a check in text, and it was about 2:30.

 

[StageTek]

September 2018 - arrived MCO at 6:05AM. As DME was pulling out around 6:30AM I got the room ready text.

 

[Ashley Marie]

We have gotten rooms as early as 9-10am, but I know to never expect a room to be ready that early. We waited until after 5pm for a room at the Contemporary once. I was very pregnant at the time, planning to relax that day and not thrilled.

 

[Jfsag123]

We got into our room at CSR at about 8:30am last July. Went to the front desk to check in and said that I knew we wouldn’t have a room yet, but just wanted to go ahead and check in. The CM got us assigned to a room right then and there.

Latest room assignment I’ve ever had was at BLT around 4:20.