Such a basic question I am almost embarrassed to ask BUT

Pluto777

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what is the latest you can check in to a WDWresort (DVC or nonDVC)? Is it 24 hours? Even though I have been there many times, we never arrived in the middle of the night before. Thanks!
 
We've arrived a midnight before. At that time we had to get our luggage from the baggage claim, but were still able to use MDE.

That said, I travel a good bit and book hotels frequently for work. If I'm going to arrive at a hotel in the middle of the night, I simply call the hotel and have them put a note in my reservation that I'll arrive in the middle of the night (giving them an estimated time) so that I'm not considered a "no show". A hotel can (and will) mark you as a no show and give your hotel room away... just ask my boss! 8-)
 

One other thing to remember - keep an eye on the operating hours for food locations at the resort. We usually arrive in the AM, but had one trip to Pop Century where we arrived at the resort a little after midnight. MDE, check-in, etc. all went fine...but by the time we settled in we were starving, and the only on-site options were the vending machines.
 
OKW had people almost 24/7 but with the new restrictions i'm not sure what they're doing.
 
OKW had people almost 24/7 but with the new restrictions i'm not sure what they're doing.

Worst case there is always a duty manager at the property. I'd imagine they have at least one overnight desk CM as well though.
 
If you are arriving late, consider getting a hotel off property near the airport at a cheaper rate, then going to your hotel early the next day. Even if your room isn't ready, you could leave your luggage and go to the parks! This is a way we save money if our flight is going to be too late or if our flight is early, we go to a hotel close to the airport and we are able to save at least $100.
 
I have arrived around midnight a couple times. When I do my online check-in, I note the late arrival time, so that they are aware. The one time it garnered me a room ready text when I was boarding my plane around 2:45 PM pst (so around 5:45 WDW time) and the other it got me a room at 8 AM pst (11 AM WDW time). It really did not matter to me and I was able to just head straight to my room when we arrived.
 
We live 7 hours away and always drive, and I do not like wasting a vacation day driving, so we usually leave Friday right after I get off of work and arrive between 1-2AM. I can honestly say that we have arrived after midnight, probably 90+% of our trips. We have never had any issues checking in. We much rather get to the resort late and sleep in a bit, then to stay offsite and then get up early to go to our resort, we tried that one time and hated it. But that's just us.
 
We always show up the night before and stay off property. It saves mega money (It saved me $1000) this week for example. Then check in the next day refreshed, clean and ready to rock
 
I'm an absolute Nervous Nellie about our room possibly being given away when we arrive really late. As well as the note in the reservation I will call the hotel on the day of arrival and speak to someone to make sure that they know we are still coming.
 
With online check-in, do they even know or care what time (if at all) you show up the first night? I'm asking because I'd like to add another night on the front end of my trip, but honestly, it is possible we might not get there until the next morning. It isn't convenient for us to change hotels so we don't want to stay somewhere cheaper the first night and want to know our room is just there whenever we roll up.

It seems that online checkin changes the traditional concern of the room being given away or am I missing something?
 











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