Rude awakening on check-out day

[Beer Me]

This has literally NEVER happened to me in over 20 WDW resort stays. The only place this happened to us was on the Disney Dream cruise ship. Steward came knocking at 6am on departure day.

How strange that this seems to happen to so many people. Is this just a DVC thing?

Its a hotel thing. It happens occasionally at most hotels especially on check out day. I assume they're anxious to turn the room over. And yeah, the Do Not Disturb sign doesn't always help. People leave them on the door all the time so they still knock to see if you are there.

 

[OKW Lover]

I hope people have been reporting these incidents to the resort management.

 

[snappy]

I hope people have been reporting these incidents to the resort management.

A number of the posters above said they did report the incidents while still onsite.

 

[snappy]

Why? If someone is going to bang on my door at 830 why would I plan on sleeping later than that?

What about those of us from a different time zone. You may fine with 8:30 am but in my world that’s 7:30 am, and I am going to have a long travel day, even with a direct flight I still have an hour and half drive to get home. And I guess there may be some WDW guests from even further west. You think they should be okie dokie with a housekeeper raring to clean?

 

[snappy]

It would be rather hard to sleep much past 10:00 and check out by 11:00.

You must not travel with teens or young adults. Our kids get their stuff packed the night before and give themselves 15 minutes to brush their teeth and wind it up. Trust me it’s better this way. Invariably they stay out late the night before the trip ends. They are much less grumpy if they sleep in.

 

[AngiTN]

You must not travel with teens or young adults. Our kids get their stuff packed the night before and give themselves 15 minutes to brush their teeth and wind it up. Trust me it’s better this way. Invariably they stay out late the night before the trip ends. They are much less grumpy if they sleep in.

I do. DD is a young adult. DGD is a tween

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Why? If someone is going to bang on my door at 830 why would I plan on sleeping later than that?

Because if that was the policy 100% of the time it would make sense. The off chance that someone comes prior to check out time shouldn't mean I make myself wake up earlier than I originally plan to. It seems like overkill for a random thing. Plus people have reported it happening at other hotels chains. I'm certaintly not going to adjust my habits for a random chance of a housekeeper knocking on my door. I'm not leaving the hotel room before I'm good and ready (but before the check out time unless I request late check out) so in the off chance a housekeeper comes they won't be getting in my room to clean at that time.

Out of the hundreds of hotel stays between my husband and I it's never happened. In the grand scheme it's statistically rare unless there's a major shift in the hotel industry by which it became more the norm.

I totally get it if you want to but you phrased it as a rule for all to follow as a way to solve a concern away thus what spurned my comment.

 

[snappy]

Probably all true. And, yes, I agree that I am little crazy! Kudos to you for noticing! LOL!
I do live in my own little bubble where, although I am aware that the worst may happen, I still try to do whatever I can to help for the best.

I am just hoping that if housekeeping staff were wondering when we were leaving (and yes I would let them know the day before, as well) and came by early, they MIGHT NOT knock if they see the note. They may knock anyway, but perhaps some kind people would pass me by and come back later. If not, no harm done by leaving a note. I completely realize that it might not help, but I will feel that i did what I could to make my life, and perhaps theirs, a little easier. I know that they can enter my room with the Room Occupied sign up, but if I am sleeping I really would rather that they didn't knock.

You don’t sound crazy to me at all. It’s very human to want to devise a workaround when there’s a problem. It’s what some of us do. At least you know to expect it.

I almost always request late check outs whenever and wherever I go, except Disney resorts. So I do call to speak to housekeeping a day or two before the trip ends. Somehow the message is relayed to HK staff without a miss step, and I usually get an extra hour or two. The Manhattan hotels I return to have a noon checkout and 3 pm check in. I don’t know how they manage. It’s possible the other guests that stay at those hotels don’t sleep in the beds or use the bathrooms. Some kind of hotel hocus pocus.

 

[snappy]

duplicate

 

[snappy]

I do. DD is a young adult. DGD is a tween

You trained yours better than me. Congrats

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Definitely. I don't leave earlier than 11 if that's what I want to do. I just don't plan on sleeping past 830 am because I won't be able to go back to sleep either when they knock (I've never not had them knock by 830)

Ahh, I see what you mean. While I have been awoken early on check out day by housekeeping (only at Disney), I don't go often enough for it to be something I'm used to. I haven't come to expect it. I do see what you're saying about planning for it to happen since it seems to be the norm for you. Sucks nonetheless.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Frankly, if someone wakes me up at 830 by knocking on my door to clean the room I've paid to access until 11, I probably won't be able to fall back asleep (though I will try),

Yeah for me it's totally going to depend on how tired I am and what our plans were.

Some trips it's a leisurely travel day and other trips it's a get up as early as we possibly personally do and go either for catching a flight/driving back or what we have planned.

For instance at Disney this past September I don't remember what time we woke up but it was later than 8-8:30 and we left just before 10:40am and headed for the TTC to go monorail resort hopping and then DS before our flight that night. However, come Sep 1st this year on our way back from Jamaica our flight leaves at 11:55am and our hotel is 1 hr 45mins away from the airport. I don't even think we'll have time for a sit down breakfast because of needing to get to the airport a couple hrs ahead. We'll be awake well before 8am.

 

[ArwenMarie]

What about those of us from a different time zone. You may fine with 8:30 am but in my world that’s 7:30 am, and I am going to have a long travel day, even with a direct flight I still have an hour and half drive to get home. And I guess there may be some WDW guests from even further west. You think they should be okie dokie with a housekeeper raring to clean?

I'm saying, for me, this is something I don't get worked up about because I have zero confidence that WDW will ever change their policies on this. Not saying it's right. So I just plan to be woken up by 830

Because if that was the policy 100% of the time it would make sense. The off chance that someone comes prior to check out time shouldn't mean I make myself wake up earlier than I originally plan to. It seems like overkill for a random thing. Plus people have reported it happening at other hotels chains. I'm certaintly not going to adjust my habits for a random chance of a housekeeper knocking on my door. I'm not leaving the hotel room before I'm good and ready (but before the check out time unless I request late check out) so in the off chance a housekeeper comes they won't be getting in my room to clean at that time.

Out of the hundreds of hotel stays between my husband and I it's never happened. In the grand scheme it's statistically rare unless there's a major shift in the hotel industry by which it became more the norm.

I totally get it if you want to but you phrased it as a rule for all to follow as a way to solve a concern away thus what spurned my comment.

Yes, you and your husband should do what you want. Of course.

Out of the ten DVC villa stays I have booked through Disney, I have never once NOT gotten a knock at the door by 830, no matter what sign I had out, even the old DND signs.

I'm sorry for any misleading advice I may have given. I will be sure to write clearer next time

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

We drive. A little sleep in the day of travel, is nice.

We also can't load up the car the night before, at least not and expect to have everything still there in the morning.

Therefore it takes us a while to get out of the room. We know this and plan on it.

If housekeeping has enough time to kill that they can stand outside of our room for 45 minutes, more power to them. It is totally creepy, and it does let me know that they aren't the poor overworked group that has been mentioned so many times.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

If housekeeping has enough time to kill that they can stand outside of our room for 45 minutes, more power to them. It is totally creepy, and it does let me know that they aren't the poor overworked group that has been mentioned so many times

Don't they have other rooms they could check on to see if those people have left?! For some reason, that just makes me think of the people who stand right in front of the elevator doors while waiting for it to come so the people inside can't even get out. Or the people who knock on stall doors in the bathroom to let you know they're waiting. I'll be out when I'm out. You waiting there is not going to make me go faster and if have to trip over you to get out, it's only going to take longer.

 

[snappy]

Don't they have other rooms they could check on to see if those people have left?! For some reason, that just makes me think of the people who stand right in front of the elevator doors while waiting for it to come so the people inside can't even get out. Or the people who knock on stall doors in the bathroom to let you know they're waiting. I'll be out when I'm out. You waiting there is not going to make me go faster and if have to trip over you to get out, it's only going to take longer.

Yea, the term eager beavers comes to mind. Their time is more valuable/important than ours.

 

[snappy]

Or....ignore the knocks......wait for them to come in your room....and let the bar latch keep them out.........

yell towards the door....i am still sleeping......roll over and go back to bed.

I’ll bet guests in nearby rooms will appreciate being awakened by the yelling, oh never mind, on second thought they probably got the wake up call knock too.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

This has happened to us in a few Disney resorts. In February I stopped at the front desk on our last night to tell them we had a late night and would be sleeping in the next morning and I did not want to be woken up by mousekeeping. They told me no problem and to put the room occupied sign on the door. Sure enough, they knocked first thing in the morning and came knocking two more times even though I told them we would not be done and leave the room until check out time. Is was so aggravating. At the Beach Club they came on in the room while we were down at Cape May Cafe for breakfast, apparently all our bags sitting there was not an indication to them we weren't done with the room, they just got started cleaning.

 

[snappy]

This has happened to us in a few Disney resorts. In February I stopped at the front desk on our last night to tell them we had a late night and would be sleeping in the next morning and I did not want to be woken up by mousekeeping. They told me no problem and to put the room occupied sign on the door. Sure enough, they knocked first thing in the morning and came knocking two more times even though I told them we would not be done and leave the room until check out time. Is was so aggravating. At the Beach Club they came on in the room while we were down at Cape May Cafe for breakfast, apparently all our bags sitting there was not an indication to them we weren't done with the room, they just got started cleaning.

Ok that is ridiculous they would start cleaning before you have vacated.

I wonder what would happen if I decided to take a quick swim in the quiet pool at BWV on check out day before 11. I do a lot of split stays so I stay until check out at resort #1, so I could swim, shower, then split for resort 2. I assume I could go back and take a shower. If HK proceeds to clean while I am at the pool it’s too darn bad. I won’t be happy and they can just lump it and clean again after 11.

Sorry, but this type of situation is not the way to run a hotel operation. Housekeepers may not speak English but you think they might understand what suitcases in the room might indicate??

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

I wonder how often people have issues with housekeeping thinking a room has been vacated when people are just grabbing breakfast, going for a swim, etc. If they have their suitcases stored in the closet and not a ton of belongings around, I could easily see housekeeping not seeing the suitcases and thinking the room is ready to be cleaned. There really should be some sort of way to officially check out so there's no confusion... And no disruption.