Straight to parks before check in after one night room only stay?

[Spoiledraf]

Checking in Friday evening at AofA for one night, then start a package at GF Saturday. Do we have to check in to GF before going to MK or will our bands be good to go for parks and dining plan? I've got a large group that doesn't like to get up early so I don't want to waste any time if I don't have to.

 

[DekrRini]

I've done that on a split stay with no problem. I always do online check-in as soon as the window opens so I'm already checked in to both resorts before I arrive at WDW.

 

[bumbershoot]

I would be sure to do the checkOUT process of the first resort before heading to the parks.

 

[PolyRob]

I had a friend who did a split stay very similar to this back in May. All Star Movies (Room Only) after a late flight, then Polynesian Village Resort (MYW Package). She utilized online check-in for both resorts. Now I will add she DID NOT checkout from All Star Movies (which caused Magicband issues at Poly for her new room).

She tried to go right to MK the next morning, and was turned away and had to go to the Polynesian to have her tickets activated. I am not sure if this was also a result from not checking out, or if it was because she did not go to the Poly prior to have her tickets activated from the package.

 

[Iowamomof4]

I had a friend who did a split stay very similar to this back in May. All Star Movies (Room Only) after a late flight, then Polynesian Village Resort (MYW Package). She utilized online check-in for both resorts. Now I will add she DID NOT checkout from All Star Movies (which caused Magicband issues at Poly for her new room).

She tried to go right to MK the next morning, and was turned away and had to go to the Polynesian to have her tickets activated. I am not sure if this was also a result from not checking out, or if it was because she did not go to the Poly prior to have her tickets activated from the package.

I had very similar problems, and I do believe the cause was not checking OUT of the first resort. We didn't have problems getting into the parks (had activated our tickets the day before - one day early) but we couldn't charge anything to our room. We could use our dining plan, but that was it. We had gone to CBR to check IN but hadn't ever checked OUT of AoA. The cm's at CBR seemed to think we were good to go, but that turned out not to be the case when we got to DHS. It was a frustrating day, for sure.

 

[Spoiledraf]

OK...So what is the check out process? Just stop at the desk and have one band deactivated and the other activated? We have to stop down to get our luggage moved anyway so that's really not a problem.

 

[Iowamomof4]

OK...So what is the check out process? Just stop at the desk and have one band deactivated and the other activated? We have to stop down to get our luggage moved anyway so that's really not a problem.

I'm anxious for the answer to this question as well. I'm sure it really doesn't involve anything with the magicbands though, since those simply access whatever information is on your MDE account.

 

[heath92681]

I'm anxious for the answer to this question as well. I'm sure it really doesn't involve anything with the magicbands though, since those simply access whatever information is on your MDE account.

I'd like to know too. Last year we did not check out of ASMo and went straight to the parks without checking in to CBR. We had activated our tickets early, so they worked fine, but our dining plan did not activate. I'd like to avoid that issue this year!

 

[Iowamomof4]

I'd like to know too. Last year we did not check out of ASMo and went straight to the parks without checking in to CBR. We had activated our tickets early, so they worked fine, but our dining plan did not activate. I'd like to avoid that issue this year!

Funny that we've all had different issues! Well, certainly not funny at the time, but kinda funny now.

 

[loves to dive]

All bands are interchangeable, as long as you have them all linked on MDE they are good to go. You can either go down to the front desk and check out or I've had some luck calling and doing it. I always go check into resort #2 before I go to the park but that's just because I'm always up early and drive so it's just easier for me to do that. I should have said most of the time, I just remembered last trip in March with my son, we checked out of CBR, I just called from the room, and drove over to AK in time for rope drop, did what we wanted to do at AK and drove to Swan and checked in. No problems with MBs at AK but we don't charge to them, just use them for our tickets and room access, which doesn't work at Swan anyway.

 

[Spoiledraf]

I called and the CM wasn't sure either. He suggested going to the second resort first but that's what I am trying to avoid. Mainly because there is no direct bus service from A to B. We have three rooms so all three have to have someone go to the second resort. He also gave me the guest services number of the second resort to call and ask them.
If everyone is on the same system, I can't see why they can't activate your next reservation from the first. But they may have multiple reasons. If you can pre register on line and by pass check in, why not be able to do the same for a second resort reservation? To be continued!!!

 

[Spoiledraf]

Called again since you can get multiple answers to the same question. The CM was wonderful and so upbeat and helpful. She gave a very similar answer as the last CM but stepped up and went to Guest Services directly to get it right.
You have two choices to activate your bands. Go to the front desk of resort B, or, go to guest services at the front of the park you are going to enter that day. For us that would be MK on a Saturday morning which we both thought might be a rather long line. Fortunately we are staying at the GF so I might check the line for guest services and decide if it would be quicker to just go to the front desk and check in. This would activate tickets, room access, dining and charging privileges. Previous posts say they bypassed the front desk but seemingly it only worked for tickets and they had problems with dining and room entry. So that's the scoop I got.

Good
Luck!!!

 

[loves to dive]

I'm not sure what the CM's mean by activating your band. When you check into AoA, you will use your band to get into your room. It will be active. If you have your tickets linked to your band on MDE, it is active the first time you enter a park. Nothing you have to do, just go to the park and go through the tap styles. Check out of AoA, go to the park, enjoy. You might have a problem charging to the band if you've checked out of AoA and not into GF but if you have your CC info. entered into MDE even that shouldn't be a problem if you've already assigned a pin number and checked into GF on line. A lot of people never go to front desk at all if they have all the info. in MDE they will get a text saying their room is ready and what that room number is. I always carry a little cash, a cc, my ID and my AP discount card in the parks. You would be surprised how often the machines for the MBs don't work and if you don't have an alternative way of paying you are out of luck.

 

[mkarizona]

We had a problem going from room only to a package on our last trip. The dining plan didn't activate properly so rather than tell us Le Chefs de France charged dinner to our previous resort which we didn't notice until we were home. It shouldn't have been able to happen because we specified no charging to the room but it did. Fortunately Guest Services took care of the problem by email.

 

[heath92681]

We had a problem going from room only to a package on our last trip. The dining plan didn't activate properly so rather than tell us Le Chefs de France charged dinner to our previous resort which we didn't notice until we were home. It shouldn't have been able to happen because we specified no charging to the room but it did. Fortunately Guest Services took care of the problem by email.

That's what happened to us too. Luckily the CM at CBR caught it and fixed it for us.

 

[Spoiledraf]

You might have a problem charging to the band if you've checked out of AoA.

Exactly. And this is what I want to avoid with 21 people relying on me getting it right. Too many replies saying "I had a problem with...." Multiple CMs saying you must check in at GF. or guest services. I had a problem years ago where my card didn't work for anything but entry and I lost a ton of time because I had to go all the way back to my resort. Worked out ok as the comped a CG meal with a window seat for Wishes and drove us over in a Disney Limo!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Back in December we stayed one night at POP before heading over to POR for the rest of our 7 day stay. We did not have a package, but we still went to the desk in the morning and physically checked out to make sure there were no charges at POP. It took just a few minutes to arrange the bag pick up and transfer and we hopped on the bus to HS. We used the same bands from POP at POR just fine. We didn't even bother trying our 2nd set.

I hope this helps.

ETA: I took advice in the split stay thread on the resorts board and just did online check in for POR rather than go over there before going to HS. I will say we got several texts/emails saying our room wasn't quite ready yet and we had to go to the desk at 10:30pm to get our room number. That was on POR, though. It had nothing to do with us not going in person earlier.

 

[BDFmom]

We have a room only first night and then our package starts both are at CBR. I'm hoping that they will be able to keep us in the same room and it will just be a quick stop in the morning to check-out and back in.