When you leave, what do you do w/your key card

[debbiepump]

My last visit 'home' in early December, the CM who was checking me in told me not to lose my key card when we check out since they were activated until midnight the day of check out. New info for me! Can you imagine the damage done if those cards got in the 'wrong hands.' Ouch!

 

[bmalonef45]

We keep ours because we have our park hoppers put on them. Saves us from ruining the paper ticket by getting them wet. I usually write how many days are left and them put them in the little pocket of our DVC bag. Which contains all of our DVC info at home. Interesting about the cards being good until midnight of the day you leave. I'm sure they won't work in the room once its been rebooked though... at least I would hope thats the case.

 

[kathrna]

We keep ours as souvenirs to remind us when we were there. You can also drop them at the front desk on your way out. They put them in the "key drop" box, which is a little black box with a lock on it by the CM's computer. But yes, DON'T LOSE 'EM! YIKES!

 

[TisBit]

The keys don't actually have the room number on them, correct. I worked in the Hotel Industry and the way that the electronic keys normally work is that they are issued for length of stay, but it is possilble to reassign the room to disable the old keys (most hotels don't do this, unless there is a concern, that way if you find your old key it will work too).

There is minimal security risk to lost keys, because there are sooo many rooms and to go to each one trying a room key is just not an easy task, especially if the person that found the key doesn't even know if it is good anymore!

 

[canda]

I believe the CM was referring to the charge abilities to the keys that would still be active until midnight. Anyone could charge, as not all cashiers request other forms of ID.

 

[ransom]

We save ours as souvenirs. (Actually, I keep my latest one in my wallet. )

 

[3DisneyKids]

The kids have all of ours from our past trips...along with old PhotoPass Cards. They love using them to play a variety of pretend games..."going to the store", etc. DD (6) is into photography and loves to play PhotoPass!

 

[dizzneebabe]

We keep ours as souvenirs, too. The reason I knew they would be active until midnight of the check-out day is because of our tickets being placed on the keys. If they were to "die" at check-out that would mean we couldn't go back to the parks. And since we usually try to catch a flight later in the day (just so we get some more WDW time), that would be a real downer if they didn't work! We've never tried to use the charging privileges after we have checked out (or after check-out time), b/c I was always afraid of it NOT working and making a scene!

 

[bmalonef45]

If you put tickets on them they will work as long as you have days left. We actually used old keys with tickets on trips when we were staying off site and it worked fine. Usually though I have them put the park hoppers on our current key at check in. Keeps confusion down. I assume the charging is good until midnight that night and the door key probably is not valid after it has been given to the next guest or at least after the room's had its final cleaning.

 

[TisBit]

I believe the CM was referring to the charge abilities to the keys that would still be active until midnight. Anyone could charge, as not all cashiers request other forms of ID.

That is pretty interesting, I never really thought about the charging ability on the key card in general. I would think they would be really careful in general of people using the charge on room key, just in case it was a lost key! I presume they have a way to 'cancel' a specific key or group of keys from charging specifically due to lost keys.

 

[tjcj]

I had not heard of this before. So I can take my 10 day park hopper pass and link it with my room key?? That's cool

 

[psu4glory]

it is true that charging priveleges remain active on your key card until midnight of your checkout day. we've taken advantage of that fact many times by grabbing lunch at DTD on the way to the airport!

we keep our room keys as souvenirs as well...

 

[scotttrippett]

Also if you are on the DDP it exp at midnight the day you check out.

Scott

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

We also keep our cards as souveniers (sp?). DW was surprised to learn we could still charge to the room on check-out day up to midnight.

 

[Kathi OD]

We keep ours. We have no expire passes and so have to keep them for the next trip.

 

[Kurby]

just an interesting fact we heard sometime last year. we were watching some show and they were saying that your credit information, name, address etc are all encoded on the black strip on the back. if you just toss them out and the wrong hands find it they can get your info and do damage not only to the room or buy some stuff at the disney store but a whole lot more.

since then we've shreaded our room keys but disney ones we keep - always have. they go in the photo book i do.

 

[TisBit]

I know that this is not the case with normal hotel keys, they are merely encoded with a check in and check out dates.....

I am not sure about Disney.....even at hotels if you charge to your room, it is just that, they take your room key at the bar or restaurant just to get the room number and that you are in fact a current guest.

 

[llmurphy17]

We save ours as souvenirs since it has our names and dates of vacation on it.

 

[robinb]

My DH travels for business every week and we have LOTS of hotel keys that he has been saving without my knowledge. He and my 8-year old play "Hotel Key War" and the one with the "better" hotel wins the other's keys. There are very few keys which "trump" a WDW key and now that we have a couple of concierge gold keys (who knew they were different colors?!?) they may become the "aces" in the game.