Online Check-In Question

[KyleAfterAWhile]

Is there a benefit to Online Check-in?

If your room ready faster if you check-in online?

Does it affect your room requests? (Yes, I realize they are requests and not guaranteed)

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

You may get a room ready text before getting there with your room number so you could go directly to your room without having to go to the front desk.
If you mark off that early check in is important they will try their best to have your room ready early in the day.
You can request certain things like close to transportation or ground floor and they will try to accommodate.
I love online check in.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I also love online check in. For our trip earlier this month, we did online check in. We had booked a king bed at POR. We selected a corner room on the first floor for online check in. When our flight landed at 10:30 am, I had a text message waiting for me that had arrived at 9:36 am saying that our room was ready, what the number was, where it was located, and a link to a map of the resort. I didn't expect it to be ready that early so that was a very nice surprise. I love doing online check in so I can go directly to my room and then to the parks. It's nice not having to wait in line in the lobby.

 

[AngiTN]

Rooms at Disney are assigned prior to your arrival no matter if you complete Online Check In or if you don't complete Online Check In
If you have any requests to put in (and the options included fit your requests) it can help them know where you would like to be
It can mean you get a notice of your room before you arrive so you can go straight to your room
If you are driving it can give you a chance to inform them of when you plan to arrive, so they can attempt to put you in a room ready when you arrive, if possible. If you are flying, they already have the arrival time info from ME
There are really no negatives to Online Check In.
We always do it, even if we don't have any room requests to put down.

 

[scrapquitler]

Is there a benefit to Online Check-in?

If your room ready faster if you check-in online?

Does it affect your room requests? (Yes, I realize they are requests and not guaranteed)

the biggest benefit to online check in is that you don't have to go to the lobby and wait in line when you arrive at the resort. You can get off of ME and go to the park or straight to your room.

It doesn't affect your room request because rooms are apportioned several days prior to your arrival. If you wait at the lobby and don't like the room assigned to you, you can ask for a change. If you do online check in and don't like your room when you get to tit, you can go to the lobby and ask for a change. So really no difference.

 

[Fangorn]

...If you are flying, they already have the arrival time info from ME.

Not that it really matters much, but I'm pretty sure this isn't actually true. DME is a separate, contracted service (Mears) and their systems are not integrated with Disney's. When you make your DME reservation, you, or a Disney agent, are really just filling out a form that is sent to DME (Mears). Disney does not store this information as part of your file. That's why you can't see your DME info on your MDE account, and Disney can't tell you if a reservation with DME even exists, let alone change one. They just tell you to call DME or put in another request (or they may take the info and submit the form themselves).

The DME folks can look up your resort reservation to verify eligibility, but they're merely accessing Disney's reservation system directly in read-only mode.

I could be completely wrong on this - but from several conversations I've had with the great people at DME, and my understanding of computer systems, this is how it appears to be set up. Plus, this way would, by far, be the cheapest way to do it.

Steve

 

[AngiTN]

Not that it really matters much, but I'm pretty sure this isn't actually true. DME is a separate, contracted service (Mears) and their systems are not integrated with Disney's. When you make your DME reservation, you, or a Disney agent, are really just filling out a form that is sent to DME (Mears). Disney does not store this information as part of your file. That's why you can't see your DME info on your MDE account, and Disney can't tell you if a reservation with DME even exists, let alone change one. They just tell you to call DME or put in another request (or they may take the info and submit the form themselves).

The DME folks can look up your resort reservation to verify eligibility, but they're merely accessing Disney's reservation system directly in read-only mode.

I could be completely wrong on this - but from several conversations I've had with the great people at DME, and my understanding of computer systems, this is how it appears to be set up. Plus, this way would, by far, be the cheapest way to do it.

Steve

Half right, half wrong.
While yes, DME is contracted to Mears they do indeed integrate in to DME somehow.
If you have registered your trip with ME when you go to do online check in it will indicate arrival time provide by Disney's Magical Express or something to this effect. I can't remember the exact wording at this moment
If you have provided the flight info you can't enter your arrival time during Online Check in

 

[Fangorn]

Half right, half wrong.
While yes, DME is contracted to Mears they do indeed integrate in to DME somehow.
If you have registered your trip with ME when you go to do online check in it will indicate arrival time provide by Disney's Magical Express or something to this effect. I can't remember the exact wording at this moment
If you have provided the flight info you can't enter your arrival time during Online Check in

Interesting. I've never had it work that way. Perhaps something has changed since my last trip in October. I've never seen my DME info on MDE, and always been able to add my arrival time at online check-in, even with a DME reservation in place.

Thanks for the update!

Steve

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Rooms at Disney are assigned prior to your arrival no matter if you complete Online Check In or if you don't complete Online Check In
If you have any requests to put in (and the options included fit your requests) it can help them know where you would like to be
It can mean you get a notice of your room before you arrive so you can go straight to your room
If you are driving it can give you a chance to inform them of when you plan to arrive, so they can attempt to put you in a room ready when you arrive, if possible. If you are flying, they already have the arrival time info from ME
There are really no negatives to Online Check In.
We always do it, even if we don't have any room requests to put down.

I haven't completed our online checkin yet but is there a spot to list your flight information when you're not doing DME?

Like I know when we reserved our rental car we were able to put in our flight information which helps them understand our estimated arrival time.

 

[AngiTN]

Interesting. I've never had it work that way. Perhaps something has changed since my last trip in October. I've never seen my DME info on MDE, and always been able to add my arrival time at online check-in, even with a DME reservation in place.

Thanks for the update!

Steve

It doesn't provide DME info exactly. Just mentions Magical Express arrival. I'll have to see if I have an old snip from one of my reservations where I had DME info at the time of online check in. Or someone good at searching here can find where others have asked why they can't enter their arrival time during online check in. After investigating it was determined that they saw the same comment on their reservation about Magical Express arrival. If I wasn't so dang old and my memory so full of even worse useless information I'd remember even better than I do

I haven't completed our online checkin yet but is there a spot to list your flight information when you're not doing DME?

Like I know when we reserved our rental car we were able to put in our flight information which helps them understand our estimated arrival time.

No, online check in doesn't take flight info. Just arrival time

 

[Amanda999]

Interesting. I've never had it work that way. Perhaps something has changed since my last trip in October. I've never seen my DME info on MDE, and always been able to add my arrival time at online check-in, even with a DME reservation in place.

Thanks for the update!

Steve

It has changed since Oct. I have a split stay coming up, and was surprised when I did online check in for the first: where you'd usually choose arrival time, it just says arriving via ME. You can only get rid of that by calling ME (or I guess Disney) and canceling ME. I did exactly that - we decided to rent a car - and I was clearly not the first person to notice this change on MDE.
In the past (IIRC even for my June 2017 trip, but definitely last Aug 2016), I had ME booked but still chose my arrival time. Same as I had done it for years, many trips per year.

 

[tobikaye]

I haven't completed our online checkin yet but is there a spot to list your flight information when you're not doing DME?

Like I know when we reserved our rental car we were able to put in our flight information which helps them understand our estimated arrival time.

No spot for your flight, but they have a spot for you to enter your expected arrival at WDW. I drove in June and I just put in the time I expected to be at WDW. Granted, due to rain/traffic, it was about 2 hours later than I hoped. About 30 minutes before I had listed to arrive, I received a text about my room.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

No spot for your flight, but they have a spot for you to enter your expected arrival at WDW. I drove in June and I just put in the time I expected to be at WDW. Granted, due to rain/traffic, it was about 2 hours later than I hoped. About 30 minutes before I had listed to arrive, I received a text about my room.

Thank you for that info. So really what I should be using as my arrival time is what I anticipate the time to be when I arrive at the resort correct? rather than the time my flight arrives.

 

[Disney & ME]

I did the online check in for our trip in May. We were waiting in line for our rental car and received notice that our room was ready. I immediately went on Touring Plans to check out the view from the room to see if I wanted to ask about another room. It was fine so we went right to our room and walked in. I think the only issue would be if you didn't like the room that was assigned but either way you can change it.

 

[tobikaye]

I do usually put a time slightly earlier than I expect to be there. For my prior trip, I used the earliest time possible that I might have been arriving. It was likely that it would have been at least 30-60 minute later than that though.

If I were flying and driving from MCO to WDW, I probably would put about 30 minutes after my flight was scheduled to land.

 

[AngiTN]

Thank you for that info. So really what I should be using as my arrival time is what I anticipate the time to be when I arrive at the resort correct? rather than the time my flight arrives.

It doesn't really matter that much. There's no penalty involved if you get the time wrong.
I err on the side of earlier vs. later when we haven't set our flight info, or if it's a rare time when we aren't flying
They do use the time when assigning rooms, especially if you check the box related to room ready being a priority over other requests. If you arrive after 3:00, time matters even less, I think

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I do usually put a time slightly earlier than I expect to be there. For my prior trip, I used the earliest time possible that I might have been arriving. It was likely that it would have been at least 30-60 minute later than that though.

If I were flying and driving from MCO to WDW, I probably would put about 30 minutes after my flight was scheduled to land.

It doesn't really matter that much. There's no penalty involved if you get the time wrong.
I err on the side of earlier vs. later when we haven't set our flight info, or if it's a rare time when we aren't flying
They do use the time when assigning rooms, especially if you check the box related to room ready being a priority over other requests. If you arrive after 3:00, time matters even less, I think

__________________
Thanks guys!

Our flight is scheduled to land at 10:55am Orlando time but add in time to get luggage and get our rental car (through Avis) plus driving out to the resort I was trying to figure out 1) what arrival time they meant (got that part now) 2) what time to put down (which I have that part now too and gotten some advice on timing).

We're hoping that the reservation picks up my husband's updated credit card information for the Avis Preferred part so we don't have to go to the desk period and we'll be able to get the car quicker. His CC, which is the company one, that is tied to the Avis account expired in June but we did the rental car reservation prior to that so the system gave us a big red flag. Well he hadn't gotten the new card at that time so we had to wait until he got that and then he updated it on his Avis account. I just don't want to touch the Costco rental reservation at this time so fingers crossed because that should help speed things up.

Appreciate the answers-didn't mean to hijack the thread here

 

[GADisneyDad14]

__________________
Thanks guys!

Our flight is scheduled to land at 10:55am Orlando time but add in time to get luggage and get our rental car (through Avis) plus driving out to the resort I was trying to figure out 1) what arrival time they meant (got that part now) 2) what time to put down (which I have that part now too and gotten some advice on timing).

We're hoping that the reservation picks up my husband's updated credit card information for the Avis Preferred part so we don't have to go to the desk period and we'll be able to get the car quicker. His CC, which is the company one, that is tied to the Avis account expired in June but we did the rental car reservation prior to that so the system gave us a big red flag. Well he hadn't gotten the new card at that time so we had to wait until he got that and then he updated it on his Avis account. I just don't want to touch the Costco rental reservation at this time so fingers crossed because that should help speed things up.

Appreciate the answers-didn't mean to hijack the thread here

As an Avis Preffered member myself, if you can you may want to call Avis and make sure you're all dialed in as Preferred with that reservation. Call me anal but I am very serious when it comes to having that part go right when I rent a car and it can be a major bummer when it doesn't! Last time I rented a car at MCO for some reason my Avis Preferred membership (which I also have through work) didn't take and they were about to make me walk back inside the terminal to the counter, which is not exactly that close. They eventually did get it taken care of at the Preferred desk, but it was close!

Good luck!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

As an Avis Preffered member myself, if you can you may want to call Avis and make sure you're all dialed in as Preferred with that reservation. Call me anal but I am very serious when it comes to having that part go right when I rent a car and it can be a major bummer when it doesn't! Last time I rented a car at MCO for some reason my Avis Preferred membership (which I also have through work) didn't take and they were about to make me walk back inside the terminal to the counter, which is not exactly that close. They eventually did get it taken care of at the Preferred desk, but it was close!

Good luck!

That's great advice!

ETA: Glad your situation worked out

 

[**Courtney**]

We are flying in from Canada, and will have to pick up our Magic Bands, so is there any point to using online check in? My only room request would be a renovated room (which I know isn't guaranteed) or a King bed. Should I still do online check in in hopes of getting one of those two requests. I know a king bed is hard to get, but we aren't going until October so I am hoping more renovated rooms are ready!! Thanks in advance, and sorry for hi-jacking your thread!