How likely is early check in?

[nkereina]

Whether or not the room will be ready solely depends on occupancy the night before, so there's no way to reasonably say the likelihood of it. You can increase your chances by only adding the request of "early check-in - will take any available room" and completing online check-in to notate your arrival time. You aren't arriving during a peak time like Spring Break or Christmas which helps, and if you are arriving on a weekday or mid-week, that can help too. If it were me, I'd rather arrive early and mill around relaxing waiting for the room if it meant adding on MNSSHP.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

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.


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

Definitely - DVC rooms have 4:00 listed as check-in...the other rooms say 3:00. But I've gotten into a Poly Studio and BWV Studio both before 1:00. OKW is so huge, I'm sure that has something to do with it.

 

[Haley R]

Whether or not the room will be ready solely depends on occupancy the night before, so there's no way to reasonably say the likelihood of it. You can increase your chances by only adding the request of "early check-in - will take any available room" and completing online check-in to notate your arrival time. You aren't arriving during a peak time like Spring Break or Christmas which helps, and if you are arriving on a weekday or mid-week, that can help too. If it were me, I'd rather arrive early and mill around relaxing waiting for the room if it meant adding on MNSSHP.

We will be doing two parties no matter what but if we do the one on arrival day we will essentially have another day during the trip to relax.

 

[strike4]

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)

My regret is the fact that I got Ohana reservations for 8:25 pm. I'm hoping we can get in a good nap for her as this is really stretching the day.
I'm sure it will all work out though! It sounds like you have a good plan. I'm so excited for your little DD!

 

[Haley R]

I went ahead and changed our flight to 5:30 am-9 am so it’ll be an early one, but that’s okay.

 

[Haley R]

So I just looked at my Pop reservation and I can't click the check-in early priority box unless I choose a request to start with. I just went ahead and put Highest Floor because that's the only one out of the choicest that appealed to me the most. I then was able to click the box that says "Arriving early?".

 

[RVJarrett]

We were able to start an early check in process online on our last visit. We stayed at Wilderness, and got there for about 11:00am, and our room was ready, which was great. However the trip before we arrived at AKL at around 5pm and waited almost an hour (this was after a hurricane, so granted everything was a bit all over the place)

 

[AngiTN]

So I just looked at my Pop reservation and I can't click the check-in early priority box unless I choose a request to start with. I just went ahead and put Highest Floor because that's the only one out of the choicest that appealed to me the most. I then was able to click the box that says "Arriving early?".

Yep, you have to pick at least 1 choice for room requests in order to select Arriving Early as your overriding preference.
I also put this as a note in my fax request from Touring Plans.

 

[nkereina]

We will be doing two parties no matter what but if we do the one on arrival day we will essentially have another day during the trip to relax.

I always opt to arrive as early in the day as I can to maximize my time. Even if it means I have to lounge around the resort, grab lunch, etc. - it beats sitting around at home or at work!

 

[AngiTN]

Whether or not the room will be ready solely depends on occupancy the night before, so there's no way to reasonably say the likelihood of it. You can increase your chances by only adding the request of "early check-in - will take any available room" and completing online check-in to notate your arrival time. You aren't arriving during a peak time like Spring Break or Christmas which helps, and if you are arriving on a weekday or mid-week, that can help too. If it were me, I'd rather arrive early and mill around relaxing waiting for the room if it meant adding on MNSSHP.

Funniest/most ironic thing? The 2 days that were some of the earliest I've gotten a room were two nights you'd think they were completely slammed
New Years Eve and one of the nights the parks and airports were closed for a Hurricane
We checked in on that day and got a room at 8:30 AM. I was not expecting a room early either days

 

[Haley R]

Yep, you have to pick at least 1 choice for room requests in order to select Arriving Early as your overriding preference.
I also put this as a note in my fax request from Touring Plans.

I’m going to call today anyway to have them add that it’s my birthday so I’ll mention that we would like to check in early and have that as our primary request. Thanks!

 

[Haley R]

I always opt to arrive as early in the day as I can to maximize my time. Even if it means I have to lounge around the resort, grab lunch, etc. - it beats sitting around at home or at work!

We have always flown frontier and they usually only offer late arrivals from our airport. This trip we are trying southwest for the first time. I like that we are able to change flights if needed and have bags included. Frontier said $59 one way but after adding bags and picking seats it was almost $500 total for two people. With frontier we would’ve gotten to Orlando at 10:49 pm (no thank you!)

 

[Minnesota!]

We are at well over 50% at getting our rooms right away - Coronado and POR have been the only ones where we have had to wait.

I do enjoy having the room to freshen up in before we hit the ground running, but it is not a do-or-die for me. We typically get up around 3am and go all day - travel and then a park till close or Disney Springs, depending on what kind of vacation we are having (parks/no parks).

I would maybe, if you think you will need some downtime before hitting the party, think about napping on a pool lounger if your room isn't ready. I have done it - the sounds of the pool lull me to sleep...plus the warm sun.. Ahhhh. Even an hour might refresh you a bit.

 

[gillep]

We always take a red eye flight and arrive very early in the morning, the vast majority of the time we have a room by noon as long as it is a CRO reservation. I always stop by the front desk when we arrive on ME and let them know we are there, usually they are able to call the room assigners and get us something immediately open, or something that they believe will be opening soon, I also always do online check in and make first available room the priority. When we stay DVC we usually have to wait until the early afternoon, but have had sporadic luck here and there with rooms before noon. We have also had one really late room availability issue at BWV, where are room wasn't ready until close to 6pm even though we were there early in the morning and requested first available studio in our booking category.

I agree with the pp about the pool loungers, I got a great nap at the Jambo pool last January. I will advise that you grab a lounger under an umbrella though, as it started raining while I was sleeping but my umbrella kept me nice and dry so I just went with it.

 

[Haley R]

We are at well over 50% at getting our rooms right away - Coronado and POR have been the only ones where we have had to wait.

I do enjoy having the room to freshen up in before we hit the ground running, but it is not a do-or-die for me. We typically get up around 3am and go all day - travel and then a park till close or Disney Springs, depending on what kind of vacation we are having (parks/no parks).

I would maybe, if you think you will need some downtime before hitting the party, think about napping on a pool lounger if your room isn't ready. I have done it - the sounds of the pool lull me to sleep...plus the warm sun.. Ahhhh. Even an hour might refresh you a bit.

I never thought about sleeping on a pool lounger, but if it comes down to it that's probably what I will do. I'm also hoping to take a nap on the plane. I used to not be able to do that, but now I feel like I sleep almost every time we are on the plane. I highly doubt DH will sleep on a pool lounger so he will just have to drink a Monster lol

 

[Haley R]

We always take a red eye flight and arrive very early in the morning, the vast majority of the time we have a room by noon as long as it is a CRO reservation. I always stop by the front desk when we arrive on ME and let them know we are there, usually they are able to call the room assigners and get us something immediately open, or something that they believe will be opening soon, I also always do online check in and make first available room the priority. When we stay DVC we usually have to wait until the early afternoon, but have had sporadic luck here and there with rooms before noon. We have also had one really late room availability issue at BWV, where are room wasn't ready until close to 6pm even though we were there early in the morning and requested first available studio in our booking category.

I agree with the pp about the pool loungers, I got a great nap at the Jambo pool last January. I will advise that you grab a lounger under an umbrella though, as it started raining while I was sleeping but my umbrella kept me nice and dry so I just went with it.

LOL that's funny that it started raining while you were sleeping on the lounger. I'll have to remember to seek one out under an umbrella. Thanks!

 

[gillep]

LOL that's funny that it started raining while you were sleeping on the lounger. I'll have to remember to seek one out under an umbrella. Thanks!

My husband apparently came outside to check to see if I was still out there after it had been raining a while and I didn't come find him in the lobby, and he saw that I was out cold in an oasis of dryness under my umbrella and left me there, I would have been so annoyed if he had woken me up it was a great nap.

 

[SL6827]

A couple of years ago, I had a one night stay at POFQ. Got early check-in when I got there, around 9 that morning, and late check-out the next day. That was nice!

 

[Minnesota!]

I never thought about sleeping on a pool lounger, but if it comes down to it that's probably what I will do. I'm also hoping to take a nap on the plane. I used to not be able to do that, but now I feel like I sleep almost every time we are on the plane. I highly doubt DH will sleep on a pool lounger so he will just have to drink a Monster lol

Ha! For my husband, I could set him at the bar with some sports on TV and a few beers and let him zone and that would refresh him.

 

[bluejasmine]

How is the chance having a room ready if your staying DVC?