Would you spend 1 night in value before your deluxe stay?

[Kanga1]

We are currently booked at the Poly and will arrive around 1:30pm. I'm now considering flying down the day before and staying at ASMo for one night in order to be able to check in at the Poly really early the next morning. (We're staying there for 12 nights and I REALLY want a good room location. Hoping by checking in really early would increase my chances in that.)

However, I also need to consider the fact that if we go to ASMo, my DD6 will think we've been "downgraded" when we get to the Poly.

Has anyone done this?

 

[traci]

what type of room did you book?

 

[Kanga1]

what type of room did you book?

Do you mean at the Poly? Garden View

I haven't booked anything at the value yet.

 

[Silly Girl]

We did this last summer. We got into Orlando around 3:30 or 4:00pm and checked into AS Movies. Then we got up really early the next morning and checked into the Poly at around 7:30am. My girls thought it was fun changing resorts (7 and 11). In fact we are thinking of doing this again in December.

 

[traci]

For us doing that would be too much work. Our kids are only 2 and 3 though! Your daughter might get a kick of getting to stay at 2 hotels! Have fun deciding and have a wonderful trip.

 

[diselderm]

We did it too, also at ASMo before going to CR. I think it's a fun way to see other resorts, and the kids loved the icons. They didn't get upset when we left.

 

[luna99]

just curious.. how is it possible to check into the Poly or any other resort for that matter at 7:00 am? I thought check in for all resorts was like 3:00 pm? unless you're paying for the day before right?

 

[Silly Girl]

You can check in anytime after I believe 6:00am but that doesn't mean you will get your room. Our room wasn't ready but we were able to get our KTTW and then go to MK. I believe our room was ready sometime after 12:00 that day.

 

[wvdislover]

We're doing this in a couple of weeks. We're staying at ASMu the first night (we don't land in Sanford until 7:30pm) and then going to AKL the next day. We're then scheduled to move AGAIN to WL for our last night, unless AKL can find us a room for our last night (they were "booked" for our last night when we added a night to our trip). My DH isn't thrilled about staying in 3 different hotels, but I'm excited about experiencing 3 different places!

 

[Ellamay]

We always do that before our delux stay don't want to miss a min. there.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

A few years ago, we flew into Orlando a day earlier than our reservation at the CR and walked into All-Star Movies without an arranged reservation. Disney resort "walk-ins" must not happen very often, as the CM got very flustered, not knowing what to do and had to get a manager to help us get a room (we ended up at the WL Villas). That day, we strolled around DTD, hung out by the WL pool, and had a great vacation before our actual vacation. We eventually checked into the CR at 8 am the following morning.

 

[spiceycat]

definitely - done it several times - I like Pop Century more entertaining for you and your kids. not just the kids.

have a good time exploring this resort it can be a fun place!

 

[lookingforward]

Great idea! We do this everytime we arrive at WDW past 2 p.m. Especially when we drive down after working all day. Its a waste of money to stay in the deluxe hotel just to sleep. We stay at Pop Century and then transfer over in the am. I love doing that!

 

[blallred]

That's what we are doing next month. We have 1 night at POP booked before 8 nights at the Polynesian. Since we are getting into Orlando after lunch, I didn't want to spend the money on a wasted day the Poly. That first day will be spent relaxing and maybe going to DTD. Our real vacation begins early the next morning when we change hotels.

 

[raven69david]

This is what we are doing for our upcoming trip in December. Since we could not get 12/8 with the 40% off code (started 12/9) we settled for ASMo for 1 night at the beginning of our trip.

 

[grimley1968]

We've done a similar thing where we wanted to check in really early but arrived the night before. We've always just stayed somewhere offsite to do this though.

A couple of times we've stayed at the MCO airport Hyatt, which is awesome, because our flights were at night, and it's not worth $300/night for us to stay at a deluxe just to sleep in. Another time we stayed offsite for one night close to Disney just to cut down on driving the next morning. This was cheaper than staying at one of the values.

Unless you are going to a park the day you get there, I don't see the benefit of staying onsite just to be able to get to the Poly early the next AM. Offsite is just as close/quick as those values for your purpose.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

we did one night at pop last year before moving over to bc concierge
we check into bc at 744am and our room was ready
we brought our luggage over with us though

 

[LakeAriel]

My daughter's family drove last year and arrived in the evening, so they had booked a value and checked into BCV the next morning..Makes perfect sense! Just live out of your overnight bag till the next day...

 

[thunderbird1]

We've done a similar thing where we wanted to check in really early but arrived the night before. We've always just stayed somewhere offsite to do this though.

A couple of times we've stayed at the MCO airport Hyatt, which is awesome, because our flights were at night, and it's not worth $300/night for us to stay at a deluxe just to sleep in. Another time we stayed offsite for one night close to Disney just to cut down on driving the next morning. This was cheaper than staying at one of the values.

Unless you are going to a park the day you get there, I don't see the benefit of staying onsite just to be able to get to the Poly early the next AM. Offsite is just as close/quick as those values for your purpose.

Offsite is a great option for drivers, but if you're flying in and not renting a car, getting to and from that offsite hotel is going to be a hassle, not to mention an added expense. If you stay on property, you can still take ME, and Disney will transfer your luggage between your resorts for you for free. (Off topic, but love your screen name and avatar. Ed Grimley, man, those were the days when SNL was funny.)

We're doing it in a few weeks, too. We're coming from the Pacific Northwest (aka, as far away from WDW as you can get in the lower 48), so our flight doesn't even land until 4:30 pm. Though we'll only be transferring from a value to a moderate, it still saved us >$50 for that first night. But the money wasn't the real issue--we're really doing it for the tie-dyed cheesecake at POP--dd loves that stuff!

 

[Kim1964]

We just did this last week. We spent our first night at Pop (checked in at 11:30 and our room was ready), then moved to YC for 6 nights the next day. We checked into YC at about 7 a.m. so we could get our KTTW cards. Our room wasn't ready (didn't expect it to be, no big deal there), but they took my cell number and called me to let me know when it was ready, which was around 1 p.m. I don't know if getting there early helped, but after a night in what was clearly a previously smoking room at Pop, I was able to get us a non-smoking room at YC that didn't stink of old smoke. We also had a nice view of the wedding gazebo, even though we had a standard view room.