How likely is early check in?

[Haley R]

We currently have a flight coming into Orlando at 8:30 Pm. We could switch our flight to come in at 9 am but I don’t want to sit around the hotel tired waiting for a room. Is it likely to get early check in?

Our main reason for switching to the morning flight is to gain a day of activities by going to the Halloween party that night but I would want a place to nap before the party.

 

[StageTek]

If you don't have any specific requests and are willing to take any available room I'd say your chances are pretty good. We always get in early and are about 75%.

 

[Haley R]

If you don't have any specific re

So I shouldn’t even ask for a king bed?

 

[dansdad]

So I shouldn’t even ask for a king bed?

You can ask. Then when you arrive, if your room is not ready you can speak to the Front Desk and ask if there's any King rooms available right then and if not you can then ask if there's any room available right then. If so, you can then decide whether or not to wait.

 

[Haley R]

You can ask. Then when you arrive, if your room is not ready you can speak to the Front Desk and ask if there's any King rooms available right then and if not you can then ask if there's any room available right then. If so, you can then decide whether or not to wait.

Okay that sounds good. Thanks! We just think getting there at 9 in the morning almost adds a whole day and we would rather go to the Tuesday party than the Sunday.

 

[Wood Nymph]

There is no guarantee that your room will be ready when you get to the resort. We always fly in early, usually landing around 9 - 9:30 am. Sometimes our room has been ready by the time we get to the resort, other times we have had to wait until after 2:30 pm for our room. But most often the room has been ready by 1 - 1:30pm. We often go to Disney Springs for lunch and usually have the room ready by the time we get back to the resort.

 

[Hopefully]

We take the first AM flight and always arrive early. Our room is seldom ready early in the morning. You should do online check in and note the time of day you will be arriving. There is a check box on the form that says room ready early overrides all requests (something like that), so you need to think about which is more important to you, a room early or a King bed.
When we arrive we always check our carry ons with Bell Services and head to the park for the day.

 

[amcnj]

I may also depend to some extent on how busy the resort was the day before. If it was pretty full, and guests are not checking out early, then they have to wait to start cleaning rooms. So the day of the week and time of the year may make a difference.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

The latest I have had to wait for any room has been 1:00 PM - with the glaring exception of Old Key West. I've stayed at OKW 3 times, and 2 out of the 3 times my room there hasn't been ready until 4:00. I've gotten into Pop Century as early as 8 AM on more than one occasion.

 

[AngiTN]

With very few exceptions we take a flight that gets us in about 9:00 AM. We have a room very few times, less than 50% for sure. We never make any specific requests and always check "room ready early" as our top priority. I have asked every time if there was a room available and only 1 time did they offer an alternate room. And that time, turns out we waited on our originally assigned room as it was really a better option. There have even been a couple of times were we didn't get a room until after 4:00, which would be when you'd already be heading to the party.

If having a room for a nap before the party is critical to your enjoying the party then I would hesitate to suggest you take the chance. You could book a room the night before so you know you'll have a room when you arrive. We have done that when faced with your exact scenario. Last August we were doing the Halloween party the day we arrived. I decided that it was too big a risk to take to hope we had a room for us to get in a nap before the party, and there was no way we could do the party without a nap, so I just booked our stay to begin the night before. Yes it meant we paid for a night we didn't stay but we had a room when we arrived, no questions. We got our nap in.

The latest I have had to wait for any room has been 1:00 PM - with the glaring exception of Old Key West. I've stayed at OKW 3 times, and 2 out of the 3 times my room there hasn't been ready until 4:00. I've gotten into Pop Century as early as 8 AM on more than one occasion.

It's always been my understanding that DVC properties have a well less chance of getting in the room early.

 

[StageTek]

You can ask. Then when you arrive, if your room is not ready you can speak to the Front Desk and ask if there's any King rooms available right then and if not you can then ask if there's any room available right then. If so, you can then decide whether or not to wait.

That has been my experience. With no requests we have gotten a room early most of the time. January we were in the FW Cabins and requested a specific room. When we went to the front desk were were told that room wouldn't be available until later but there were other cabins available immediately.

At POFQ in Sept we had a garden view and there were none available early - that might be the case with a King bed room - but we could get a standard view...

 

[1911]

we always take a red eye and arrive at mco at 6:30 am and get to our resort around 7:30 am.our room has never been ready. we go and eat breakfast then to the check in desk and always have gotten a room.you have to be willing to take what you can get if your in a hurry.

 

[AngiTN]

That has been my experience. With no requests we have gotten a room early most of the time. January we were in the FW Cabins and requested a specific room. When we went to the front desk were were told that room wouldn't be available until later but there were other cabins available immediately.

At POFQ in Sept we had a garden view and there were none available early - that might be the case with a King bed room - but we could get a standard view...

The problem with the bold is, those are not requests, they are bookable categories that you pay more for. It's one thing to change to a different room based on changing a request. But another when you downgrade your reservation.

 

[Haley R]

Okay thanks everyone! I think we might go ahead and switch to the morning flight. We are going october 23 so I think the resort will probably be busy but not sure. I will probably still call in the king bed request but when we get to the lobby I will mention we are willing to take anything. Getting there by 9 am almost adds a full day. If we do the party that day it frees up a whole other day for us to do something else.

 

[strike4]

I've been wondering this same thing so thanks for the thread! We will be at the airport at 3 am with a 7 yr old .. hopefully arriving by 11:00 am.
I've been kicking myself for the not so smart flight scheduling.

 

[Disneylover99]

Okay thanks everyone! I think we might go ahead and switch to the morning flight. We are going october 23 so I think the resort will probably be busy but not sure. I will probably still call in the king bed request but when we get to the lobby I will mention we are willing to take anything. Getting there by 9 am almost adds a full day. If we do the party that day it frees up a whole other day for us to do something else.

If you are planning to get to the party early, (like 4ish) just be aware that you still may not get a room before the party or early enough to have a rest first. You just never know. I personally would not want to do the Halloween party on a travel day if I've been up since 4am and flying in.

 

[kniquy]

We currently have a flight coming into Orlando at 8:30 Pm. We could switch our flight to come in at 9 am but I don’t want to sit around the hotel tired waiting for a room. Is it likely to get early check in?

You will have to ask your magic 8 ball -- only kidding! The best odds for getting a room early would be to not put in any room requests. If you put in request then it could possibly limit what rooms are available. Arriving at 9am would likely put you at the resort for 10:30-11:00 you could check in, if no room then just grab lunch and go sit at the pool or just go to Disney springs.

If you can switch your party to another day it might be best because i am sure that you will be up early for your flight, which trying to attend the party would make for a very long day.

I do agree that you should take the earlier flight, if anything it essentially gives you another full day to hit a park -- you could go to a park from noon until dinner and then call it a night -- 3 extra FP can make a huge difference in you overall park planning.

 

[kniquy]

I've been kicking myself for the not so smart flight scheduling.

Just make your arrival day a little more low kay -- get park tickets for that day, go to the park and call it an early evening so that you can be rested and ready for a full day the next morning.

We are tackling this on Saturday -- getting up at 4am for our 7:55 flight ( I expect the airport to be very busy). We are going to Epcot and just hitting future world and maybe a country or 2, we plan to be done by 8ish and hopefully in bed by 9am. We will miss our check in time essentially as i don't think the room will be ready at 11am when we get there. This is with our 4 DD so we may have to abort our plan if she gets too tired, but we are hoping the disney adrenaline will kick in (for all of us)

 

[loves to dive]

We drive down and arrive between 2 and 3, I always put early arrival as my only request. I have had my room ready maybe 4 times in over 30 years of going before we arrived. I do always go to the front desk when we arrive even though I've done on line check in to let them know we are physically there and I always tell them I don't care where the room is located or what the view is. The few times they have found a room then, it's been an upgrade to a better view since I always book standard. There have been a number of times, the room hasn't been ready until well after 4 and even around 5. We always just head off the park so it's not big deal to us.

 

[Haley R]

You will have to ask your magic 8 ball -- only kidding! The best odds for getting a room early would be to not put in any room requests. If you put in request then it could possibly limit what rooms are available. Arriving at 9am would likely put you at the resort for 10:30-11:00 you could check in, if no room then just grab lunch and go sit at the pool or just go to Disney springs.

If you can switch your party to another day it might be best because i am sure that you will be up early for your flight, which trying to attend the party would make for a very long day.

I do agree that you should take the earlier flight, if anything it essentially gives you another full day to hit a park -- you could go to a park from noon until dinner and then call it a night -- 3 extra FP can make a huge difference in you overall park planning.

I think we will switch it because at least we will get there early and be at Disney. We won’t have enough tickets for a park day so it’ll either be we go to the party or hang out at the hotel.