Room Requests granted when arriving late

[prettypixie]

I am staying in a studio at SSR 9/12-9/20 but I won't be arriving until 9 pm or later. I requested a room in the Grandstand area near the laundry room but I am concerned that I may miss my opportunity to get my requested location if I arrive too late. Anyone have any experience with arriving late and still getting the room you requested?

TIA

 

[Christine & family]

I would love to know too. The whole room assignment versus room ready thing has me really confused!

 

[Caskbill]

Requests are just that...requests. No guarantees. The later you arrive, the fewer rooms to choose from.

We checked in one time about 11:00 pm on a Sunday. We got the last room available. We were the last member to check in, so we got what nobody else wanted.....A smoking room way off away from everything. (that's back when non-smoking was only a request)

 

[castleri]

The laundry rooms are at the pools so you may want to add near pool to your request.

 

[eva]

I agree with Caskbill. We normally arrive in the morning. But one time we decided to fly out late Friday and didn't get to BWV until about 9:30 pm. Unfortunately, we got the bottom of the barrel for 1-bedrooms. We ended up in a "preferred" view that actually looked out on the roof of the old DVC center. Sure glad they've torn that thing down since. We sure didn't get our quite pool view we requested.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

The past 3 years we have requested a "lakeside" room at VWL - all of our arrivals were after 5:00pm and we have never been lakeside (did get a dumpster once though).

 

[pkitty]

I've always found the earlier the better.....I got that VWL dumpster room once too, but the thing was they gave it to us because it was clean already....I went downstairs and said we didn't need to "move" into our room right away and would be willing to wait. They switched our room no problem. Having said this, I had just moved over from SSR where I checked in early and ended up with a roadside, stairwell, ground floor room (yikes) same deal here.....it was ready so they assigned it.....I have no clue why I didn't request a change there? I figure though, that I couldn't justify two crappy rooms in a row on the same vacation. Now in your case, if everyone refuses the room they are assigned during the day because they don't want it, that means that by the end of the day, those are the rooms left available. If your not happy, you could consider taking the room for the evening and asking for a reassignment first thing the next morning.....hope that helps

 

[n2mm]

Whether I check in at 9:00AM or 6:00PM, it really doesn't seem to be a pattern. I almost never get my request. Some resorts (BWV) I think I'm batting 100% of never getting anything I ask for. The same for BCV. WLV got me my request once when I asked to be near the grand kids when we had 2 studios. I never get my hopes up anymore. Also, whenever I have not been thrilled with my locations I've never been able to switch rooms either. I've had to learn to just accept what I get and hope the next trip will be better. I think the resorts think my requests are what I DON'T WANT, not what I do want, because I usually end up with as opposition as possible from my request. OP, good luck, hope your luck is better than ours.

 

[disneynutz]

I am staying in a studio at SSR 9/12-9/20 but I won't be arriving until 9 pm or later. I requested a room in the Grandstand area near the laundry room but I am concerned that I may miss my opportunity to get my requested location if I arrive too late. Anyone have any experience with arriving late and still getting the room you requested?

TIA

Several years ago I would read posts that DVC Members would send a member of their party one day before their check in date. They would stay off site over night in a cheap hotel. At 7:00 AM they would check in at their DVC resort. All this to have a better chance that their requests would be met. I'm sorry to say that the latter you check in the greater the probability that you will get left overs.

 

[Lexxiefern]

I am planning on checking in around midnight on my next trip (driving down after work). I figure we will get the bottom of the barrel and if not - then that will be a great surprise! It is only a weekend trip so no biggie.

I have noticed that I have gotten less desirable rooms when I have checked in really early as well. I think they may have been empty from the night before. I guess it is just luck of the draw.

 

[Tine731]

I am staying in a studio at SSR 9/12-9/20 but I won't be arriving until 9 pm or later. I requested a room in the Grandstand area near the laundry room but I am concerned that I may miss my opportunity to get my requested location if I arrive too late. Anyone have any experience with arriving late and still getting the room you requested?

TIA

Checked into SSR at midnight back in July. I requested a studio in the Grandstand section near pool. I got just that. I have been very lucky and I have always had my requests granted. So there is hope!

 

[Tozzie]

I just stayed at SSR last weekend I checked in after midnight and I was worried where I would end up from what I had read on these boards. I had a great room in Congress Park. I spoke to my sister about this and she said it may have been because I checked in on a Friday and many DVC members don't do Fri-Sat nights due to the point values. I ws using developer points and I have to use them or lose them so it didn't matter to me about the weekend nights.

 

[vandy]

Please keep in mind when we talk about our requests, these requests are made by calling MS at some point in time prior to arrival. It can be at the time you make reservations or by calling later. It does not mean when you check in. If you wait until check-in, you will have very little chance of getting your request. If the room you get at check-in is not what you want, then try to get it changed. Make sure they now that you would wait until it was ready if that is the issue. It will also depend on what size room and your length of stay. The longer you stay, I would think the harder it would be to get your request. We are batting about 50-50 in our requests.

 

[bonrea]

Quick tip to get the room type, building location, etc.
The trick is to arrive EARLY in the day on the day that you are supposed to check in. A little bird told me this. When you get to WDW go straight to the resort you are saying in and go straight to the check in counter and let them know you have arrived and tell them you have a SPECIAL REQUEST ON THE ROOM. The magic question is; is it available now as I had requested? If not when will it be available? They always tell me to call back to an 800 number to check the availability.

You see; the cleaning crew cannot start cleaning any of the rooms until they are vacated by the previous member/ user. So they start at the checkout time which is usually 11:00am (guessing, some resorts are at different times of day) so the idea is to be there before 11:00am or earlier, make sure they know you are there, you are put on the list as the next person in line to get in a room and you most likely will get what you have asked for.

Every time we stay at WDW we get the room we want without exception. However we have an advantage over most DVC Members. We drive to WDW from North Carolina via grandpa’s house in Daytona. We go to his house on Saturday and then arrive at WDW by 9 or 10am on Sunday morning, go to the hotel and make sure they know we are waiting on OUR room. We then trek off to DTD for the day calling once an hour for the room availability.