Online Check-In or Not

[csmommy]

Our plane lands at 11:15pm so we will not be checking in until after midnight. Would it be best to do Online Check-In now or wait until we are at a desk?

Thanks!

 

[disneynutz]

IMO online does little for DVC, it is a Disney cash room product designed to reduce the front desk work load especially at the convention resorts. Checking in so late you can expect to get the left over room locations. If you want to make a room request you should have MS add it to your reservation.

Bill

 

[csmommy]

I have already made my room request. Just didn't know which was best to do.

 

[udflyer00]

With Online Check in you will be able to go right to your room though. If you setup the text messaging and have your magic bands they will send you a message with your room number and you can go directly to your room. So I would fill out the Online Checkin stuff. We did this on our trip in June and it was very cool. We didn't fly in, but were transferring over from Shades of Green. We drove over to OKW dropped off our car and later in the day we got a text message that our Room was ready. Our Magic Bands opened up our rooms like a champ after we got to the room after a day of park touring. Then I just rode a bus to the Hospitality house, picked up the car and moved it to our building.

 

[CarolynFH]

IMHO another benefit of online check in is that you can enter your credit card information there and don't have to give your card to the CM at the desk. I think it's safer in Disney's computer system than with the front desk. We've had at least two occasions when CCs were used fraudulently shortly after a WDW stay.

 

[udflyer00]

Yeah that is nice too. I'm not too worried about handing over my CC though at Check-in because they don't really leave your eye sight with your card, but it is another little peace of mind thing regarding online check in.

 

[erionm]

I'm not too worried about handing over my CC though at Check-in because they don't really leave your eye sight with your card, but it is another little peace of mind thing regarding online check in.

There have been a couple of instances were the front desk CM was skimming CC information.

 

[udflyer00]

Michael, I hadn't heard that... :S Obviously a risk everywhere you take your CC out, so I guess even better reason to do the online check in.

 

[erionm]

Michael, I hadn't heard that... :S Obviously a risk everywhere you take your CC out, so I guess even better reason to do the online check in.

I believe it's been a few years (or even longer) since the last skimming report. I do on-line check-in, but rarely charge back to the room. WDW accepts contactless payments (Apple Pay), so that's my preferred payment method.

 

[csmommy]

Thanks! So I did it.

How do I see on DH, DS & DD's MDE that they have charging privileges? Or do we have to wait & see once we are there? I want to pay things with GC's not the credit card I put on the account.

 

[erionm]

Thanks! So I did it.

How do I see on DH, DS & DD's MDE that they have charging privileges? Or do we have to wait & see once we are there? I want to pay things with GC's not the credit card I put on the account.

Everyone over a certain age (13 and up I think) will automatically get charging privileges. There is no way to see or change charging privileges in MDE.

You can see if the front desk will add your Gift Cards as a credit to your room account, or you will have to return to the front desk every so often to have your balance applied to your Gift Cards.

Room charging limit is based on resort category:

• Values: $500
• Moderates: $1000
• Deluxe & Deluxe Villas (DVC): $1500

 

[TavieP]

Sort of related - I've done online check-in several times over the past few years, given the my cell phone # so they can text me when my room is ready, and I have never ONCE gotten a text from them. Last time I did get an *email* (really really late in the day, big surprise) and the time before that I actually had to keep calling the front desk to ask them because it was way after 4 pm and there was still no word about our room.

I guess other people have received texts but I wonder if I'm just cursed. My phone is definitely allowed to receive text messages from unknown numbers...

 

[disneynutz]

In our experience we have had better luck and service not using online check in. Straight to room is the latest feature to keep you from going to the front desk which allows Disney to reduce staff.

Bill

 

[udflyer00]

I thought when you setup the online check in you are able to set there who could charge or not because you have to set the pin. but like Michael said everyone over 13 by default has charging privileges, but they will need the pin for every transaction. There is someone where though that you set that within the website on the computer. I don't think you can control it via the app. I can't really check for you though as I don't have an active reservation. poke around though because there is a spot where you set the pins and that's what you are looking for.

 

[karrit2000]

My one experience with online check in was a total disaster. The resort messed up the reservation to the point where they couldn't find it when I arrived at the resort. Turned out they for some reason put my friend as the primary on the reservation when I added them to the room so the reservation was in their name instead of mine. But it got worse than that. Whatever the resort did resulted in them using double the amount of points for my reservation and also putting the original points in "Holding". It was loads of fun having MS try to unravel the mess. So based on that fiasco I will never, ever use Disney's online check in again.

 

[ffcheff]

I did online checkin in May when arriving around 10 pm. I had a text with my room number before I boarded my flight to Orlando. Worked out fine for us.

 

[DenLo]

My one experience with online check in was a total disaster. The resort messed up the reservation to the point where they couldn't find it when I arrived at the resort. Turned out they for some reason put my friend as the primary on the reservation when I added them to the room so the reservation was in their name instead of mine. But it got worse than that. Whatever the resort did resulted in them using double the amount of points for my reservation and also putting the original points in "Holding". It was loads of fun having MS try to unravel the mess. So based on that fiasco I will never, ever use Disney's online check in again.

None of that has to do with online checkin.

 

[karrit2000]

None of that has to do with online checkin.

Yes it does because that was the only time I used online check-in. The reservation was fine until the resort attempted to process the online check-in. Granted this was during the beginning days of online check-in but the experience was a total disaster. When MS tried to correct the issues with my points the trail clearly pointed to the front desk mishandling the online check-in at the resort.

 

[disneynutz]

My one experience with online check in was a total disaster. The resort messed up the reservation to the point where they couldn't find it when I arrived at the resort. Turned out they for some reason put my friend as the primary on the reservation when I added them to the room so the reservation was in their name instead of mine. But it got worse than that. Whatever the resort did resulted in them using double the amount of points for my reservation and also putting the original points in "Holding". It was loads of fun having MS try to unravel the mess. So based on that fiasco I will never, ever use Disney's online check in again.

In the past at least for DVC reservations, the lead names didn't always get listed as the lead. It seemed that the last person entered on the reservation became the lead, I don't know it this has been fixed.

Also if the resort touches your reservation on points you run the risk of them screwing up your DVC account. We also had the exact thing happen, reservation canceled, points in holding, new reservation using borrowed points and a pain to get MS to fix the mess.

My guess is that you had some other issue that caused the front desk to cancel the reservation not related to online check in. We have had them do this when they had room key issues.

Bill

 

[karrit2000]

In the past at least for DVC reservations, the lead names didn't always get listed as the lead. It seemed that the last person entered on the reservation became the lead, I don't know it this has been fixed.

Also if the resort touches your reservation on points you run the risk of them screwing up your DVC account. We also had the exact thing happen, reservation canceled, points in holding, new reservation using borrowed points and a pain to get MS to fix the mess.

My guess is that you had some other issue that caused the front desk to cancel the reservation not related to online check in. We have had them do this when they had room key issues.

Bill

Since the reservation was cancelled, name changed & re-booked and my points all trashed by the resort before I ever arrived at the resort it was messed up before I ever got to the hotel to bypass the "check-in". Waiting for over an hour to "check-in" when you've already done online check-in prior to arrival is not any advantage from my point of view. I also didn't mention that after they supposedly got everything that was wrong at the front desk check-in straightened out I was never able to charge to the room despite several trips back to the front desk & yet another room key re-issue. I've never had a problem when just waiting to "check-in" at the resort.