Early Arrival Check-In and Other Online Room Requests...any luck?

William Ades

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
So as most of you know there is an option to Check-In online through the MDE and/or DVC website. You can select up to 2 requests for your room location (ie. near pool, near transportation, etc.) The 3rd option is to request early check-in for your room should you be arriving earlier than the normal 3p or 4p Check-In time. Of course selecting that option requires you to agree to giving up one or both of your first two options. I get all of that, however we have selected the early check-in for each of our last 4 trips and the earliest we have ever gotten into our room was 340p. So basically the early check-in option has never worked for us. We have however on all of our trips gotten 1 or both our other requests. Not sure if it was just a coincidence or not, but we got them nonetheless. Anyone ever request the early check-in and actually gotten it? I'm talking like at least a couple of hours early, not like my 20 minutes early.

Side Note: I have been trying for several days now to update my request online for our trip next week and it will not save the changes I make. Even worse the one option that is selected isn't any of the ones I originally chose...
 
The only way to get a room early is if the room was vacant the night prior or the first rooms cleaned. Hard to be successful when the rooms are fully booked all year long. I doubt if the room assigner who assigns the rooms starting days prior to check in can coordinate that. If you want early, going to the front desk first AM and asking for next available room would probably have better success. In addition for you to change your assigned room, someone else loses theirs and gets yours.

:earsboy: Bill

 
Like other timeshares, most DVC resorts effectively operate at 100% occupancy. Much different than hotels which have an industry average of 50% occupancy and Disney hotels around 85-90%. (90% occupancy still means dozens of empty rooms open from the night before at any Disney property.)

Like Bill said, early room access is only possible when guests depart early and/or rooms happen to be vacant from the night before. Guest departure times, guest arrival times, the specific rooms being vacated, even the size of the resort are all factors which have an impact on whether or not requests can be met.

If you have a reservation for a Dedicated Two Bedroom Theme Park View at Bay Lake Tower and only 3 of those rooms are being vacated on your arrival day, you only have three possible destinations. How quickly Disney can get you into a room depends on when the departing guests leave & how quickly they can be cleaned...and then requests come into play. (Don't forget you won't be the only arriving guest who wants early access and has requests.)

Getting a guest into a room early AND meeting some/all of their requests is a daunting task for even Disney. In my opinion, you're better to pick your poison. Which is MOST important: Getting into the room early or having certain requests met?

If you have some special event planned for arrival night (not advisable) or other reason for desperately wanting to get in early, then make that your sole request on the reservation. If you prefer to have an ideal location even if it means waiting until after 4pm, then just list the location/view requests.

If you're having trouble posting the requests online, just call Member Services.
 
The one thing we've had good luck with is getting into our rooms early. The latest has been around 3pm.
 


Like other timeshares, most DVC resorts effectively operate at 100% occupancy. Much different than hotels which have an industry average of 50% occupancy and Disney hotels around 85-90%. (90% occupancy still means dozens of empty rooms open from the night before at any Disney property.)

Like Bill said, early room access is only possible when guests depart early and/or rooms happen to be vacant from the night before. Guest departure times, guest arrival times, the specific rooms being vacated, even the size of the resort are all factors which have an impact on whether or not requests can be met.

If you have a reservation for a Dedicated Two Bedroom Theme Park View at Bay Lake Tower and only 3 of those rooms are being vacated on your arrival day, you only have three possible destinations. How quickly Disney can get you into a room depends on when the departing guests leave & how quickly they can be cleaned...and then requests come into play. (Don't forget you won't be the only arriving guest who wants early access and has requests.)

Getting a guest into a room early AND meeting some/all of their requests is a daunting task for even Disney. In my opinion, you're better to pick your poison. Which is MOST important: Getting into the room early or having certain requests met?

If you have some special event planned for arrival night (not advisable) or other reason for desperately wanting to get in early, then make that your sole request on the reservation. If you prefer to have an ideal location even if it means waiting until after 4pm, then just list the location/view requests.

If you're having trouble posting the requests online, just call Member Services.
That's the thing, I am always willing to give up the other choices for early check-in. It just hasn't ever played out that way for us. I will let you know Monday how it goes this time around. Requested to be near a pool, and transportation as our options 1 and 2, but selected early arrival check-in to take the place of both of them as I usually do. I will report my success or lack there of on Monday...
 
The one thing we've had good luck with is getting into our rooms early. The latest has been around 3pm.
That's pretty awesome, I am quite jealous! We only live 5 hours away, so we like to get up early and drive on our day of arrival. Of course we get there much earlier than standard check-in time, and always go to the front desk where they let us know we can hang by the pool, go to a park, etc. and they will call or text when our room is ready. So far the earliest we have ever received a call or text was 340p.
 
I will report my success or lack there of on Monday...

Mondays are tough arrival days. Most departures naturally occur Friday - Sunday as people end their vacations and prepare for the return to work on Monday. That frees-up a massive number of rooms those days for incoming guests. Monday - Thursday there aren't so many people leaving, making it harder to get a reservation in the first place and then leaving fewer assignment options on check-in day.

Hope it goes well. Let us know how you make out.
 


We always select early room, and often get early rooms. The last two times we have gotten our room ready texts before 10:00am!
 
We selected early room in February after our cruise. I made no other request since I clicked the box that said I choose early over other request. I got my room at 2:00pm. We arrived at the resort at 10:00am. This was early February, not the holiday weekend.
 
I only used online check-in once last year. We were staying AKL value studio for a couple of nights and then moving to BCV. I did online check-in because I didn't really care where we were. I think I selected close to elevator or something like that and added my arrival time of 11pm. Wouldn't you know that it was the only time we got our ROOM READY text at 9am - while we were still at work. We were taking the last flight down so we didn't care where we were staying and weren't worried about room being ready on time. 9AM - I couldn't believe it!!
Other times when we take a 6am flight down and arrive before 10am at the resort we wait until 4pm and sometimes later.
 
So I'm the only one with bad luck? I kind of knew that already, but thanks for pointing it out again...LOL!!! I got no worries though...2 DAYS AND A WAKE UP!!!!!!!
 
Wow, the time of day your room will most likely be ready is extremely different with DVC and a regular resort room. But I guess that's just one of the trade offs.
 
So I'm the only one with bad luck? I kind of knew that already, but thanks for pointing it out again...LOL!!! I got no worries though...2 DAYS AND A WAKE UP!!!!!!!

I've had horrible luck with any other request, if that's any consolation.
 
I have never done the online check-in because I always have specific requests (not offered as choices in the system). So I guess if I did online check-in I would leave the requests blank???? I currently have an A and a B choice for our next couple of visits (specific villa and / or building numbers). Do you think they even bother looking at these types of requests when they do the online assignments? Do you think my odds are better of getting what we'd like if I do that instead of waiting check in at the front desk??
 
We have been very very lucky. Only twice have we had to wait till closer to real check in time. And, one of those times, it was like 5:30 and we still were not in so they paid for our dinner that night! But, most of the time, we have been getting in around noon to 2:00 pm. My girls went on a trip in April and arrived around 11:00 am and the room was ready!!!
 
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The more flexible you are on room requests the more likely you are to get a room early.
I have had early rooms last 4 trips. Last time room was ready at 10am, but it was in an undesirable area and conflicted with my room request. I stopped at the front desk and ask them to put me back in queue for a more desirable room. I was super polite about it... and they upgraded me and got me a room that was ready an hour later.
 
The only way to get a room early is if the room was vacant the night prior or the first rooms cleaned. Hard to be successful when the rooms are fully booked all year long. I doubt if the room assigner who assigns the rooms starting days prior to check in can coordinate that. If you want early, going to the front desk first AM and asking for next available room would probably have better success. In addition for you to change your assigned room, someone else loses theirs and gets yours.

:earsboy: Bill

I almost fell over when stopping @ Poly on sunday mid may this year before 11 am & finding our villa was ready & the exact one we wanted! If i leaned off the standard building could see part of MK if i zoomed in lol

I'd like to think I wouldn't lose the request i had in place and was possibly lucky enough to be assigned just because somebody showed up @ the desk and and demanded (or even asked sweetly for) the next available one. Doesn't seem very magical.

If there is a system in place (either via MS or online) those requests should be honored before a walk up!

I have never done the online check-in because I always have specific requests (not offered as choices in the system). So I guess if I did online check-in I would leave the requests blank???? I currently have an A and a B choice for our next couple of visits (specific villa and / or building numbers). Do you think they even bother looking at these types of requests when they do the online assignments? Do you think my odds are better of getting what we'd like if I do that instead of waiting check in at the front desk??

I only started requesting view/bldg when booking reservations once the online system started & our offerings were consistently among not where i woud prefer. Mentioned it to MS when booking and was told they still take requests and forward to the assigners.

I do still select upper floor to reinforce my original request thru MS
 
Well there is a first time for everything I suppose. We received a text at 1120a on the day of arrival that our room was ready, so it worked out. We were in the Grandstand section of SSR, which is about a 5 minute walk from the main house/pool/food area. Technically we were by a pool (which was our 2nd option) because there is a kid pool area in the Grandstand section. Our 1st Option was to be near the Paddock. Like I said, we were willing to give those up for early Check-in which was nice and worked out perfectly as we arrived about 20 minutes after the room was ready!! Trip information will be in the Finished Trips Forum. We had a blast despite all of the rain.
 
We had an AKV value 1 bedroom checking in on Monday June 5. We put a request in with MS for an even numbered room. I received a text at 10:11 a.m. while on the DME bus that our room was ready. We were in 5116 which has a savanna view. Might need to get a lotto ticket.
 
I personally find that some resorts are much better at getting a room before 4pm than other resorts (speaking DVC resorts only). I think OKW is almost always ready for us, and we have been really early a number of times, like before noon. And the worst is definitely GCV. I usually do not opt to do online check-in because like PPs have said, I have more specific requests, and also we can talk to a CM about room possibilities. I usually DO put in a room request (for specific areas, views or whatnot) on the phone though.
 

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