"streamlined check-in" - skip the lobby question

[grimley1968]

Haha! We do have our car, and they gave us our parking pass at the gate. There is no welcome pack in the room, so I guess you would need to go to the lobby to ask for that if you want it.

The time saved, for me, would be much more worth it than getting the 15 brochures and maps you could get in about a thousand places elsewhere on WDW property.

Enjoy!

I'm trying to convince myself that people at WDW now are miserable because it's so hot and humid in Florida, while it's about 90 and muggy for me locally. My self-delusion isn't very effective today.

 

[Sue M]

This is neat! Unfortunately won't work for us as we don't get our magic bands until check in.

Yes, us too. So I'm wondering if it will mean longer check in waits for us. Anyone who lives outside the USA will still have to check in physically, and this smacks of reduced staffing levels.

 

[Sue M]

Also, it appears to me that no matter what, if you want to do an old school check in you can.

Anne

Yes but sounds like there will be a lot less staff to help you so even if you wanted to check in physically the waits will be prohibitive. We live outside of the US so have no choice. MBs aren't shipped to us, so we have to check in at the desk and pick up MBs along with check in. I'm dreading the long lines already.

 

[fla4fun]

Yes, us too. So I'm wondering if it will mean longer check in waits for us. Anyone who lives outside the USA will still have to check in physically, and this smacks of reduced staffing levels.

Or it could be a way of maintaining current staff levels instead of increasing them. They can process more people without creating longer lines in the lobby.

I am happy to see this, and wish they would take it a step farther and allow us to select our rooms. When I do online check in for Hilton brand properties, it shows me a list of available rooms and I choose the one I want. However, they only allow online check in 36 hours prior to arrival. Maybe room selection could be added as something you could do the day before check in, instead of as part of the initial online check in. Being able to select your room would decrease the number of guests going to the front desk for changes.

 

[minnie mum]

Or it could be a way of maintaining current staff levels instead of increasing them. They can process more people without creating longer lines in the lobby.
.

Time to take off those rose colored glasses. A post on another thread has already informed us that layoffs of Front Desk staff are a fact now. So- fewer CMs to handle check ins, room assignment modifications, and the other myriad things that they have to handle on a daily basis. How magical is THAT? Sue M was bang on target with her concerns.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

So I'm thinking if this test keeps on running it might work out well me on my next trip. I have a room only on Sat Oct 25 and then 5 night package starting on Oct 26. I've been slighting freaking out about checking out and back in early in the morning as we have an 8:15 ADR at Crystal Palace Sunday morning. But if we don't have to go to the front desk that would be AWESOME!!

 

[Nechville]

So I'm thinking if this test keeps on running it might work out well me on my next trip. I have a room only on Sat Oct 25 and then 5 night package starting on Oct 26. I've been slighting freaking out about checking out and back in early in the morning as we have an 8:15 ADR at Crystal Palace Sunday morning. But if we don't have to go to the front desk that would be AWESOME!!

Keep in mind you might have to physically change rooms though, so you would have to bring your bags to bell services in the morning. I have the same situation and am hoping for the best that we will not have to change rooms.

 

[coluk003]

Time to take off those rose colored glasses. A post on another thread has already informed us that layoffs of Front Desk staff are a fact now. So- fewer CMs to handle check ins, room assignment modifications, and the other myriad things that they have to handle on a daily basis. How magical is THAT? Sue M was bang on target with her concerns.

This is exactly what will happen. People complain about the disney service being down hill, what this, and FP+ and all this stuff means is less staff is needed, helping the big wigs increase their profits.

If you want to write disney why does no one write and ask why CM's make less then 10 an hour on most jobs, when they claim to care about the people that work for the company.

Sorry but i like disney but if no one saw this coming , rose colored glasses indeed

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Keep in mind you might have to physically change rooms though, so you would have to bring your bags to bell services in the morning. I have the same situation and am hoping for the best that we will not have to change rooms.

Yeah...I do know we might have to switch but really hoping we don't. Same class of room so fingers are crossed. I figure they will be able to tell us that when we check in on sat tho and if we do have to leave we won't unpack.

 

[bumbershoot]

I imagine if you are a front desk working CM, you don't like this very much.

I wonder if this process will cut down on the number of room reassignments that happen when guests arrive, get their room assignment and ask for a different location?

Doubtful. It'll just make the room-movers more angry b/c they got all the way there or it's late at night when they got back to see the room, and now they are having to change it. (and if it's late at night, good luck in getting a new room!) They are just delaying the problems and making people more angry, most likely.

Hopefully they don't touch anything in the first room....

We had a later checkin at Paradise Pier at Disneyland once. There was a towel in the basket (they keep baskets for dirty towels there), a smell of an extinguished cigarette in the room, and some toiletry or the other was opened/used (can't remember if it was a shampoo or soap). Very obvious that someone had been in there then left or was kicked out (the cigarette smell gives a clue IMO) and housekeeping hadn't been there to fix things between that guest and our checkin.

I just meant that we don't need to be told where Mara and Boma are, since we have stayed there before. We don't need to be told we can charge things to the room. We don't need to hear about EMH. We know packages can be delivered to the resort. We now how park hopping works.

I've never gotten a spiel that included any of that sort of info.

Between this thread and another, I gotta wonder what it is about us that keeps us from being greeted with our packet or anticipated at arrival, and what keeps CMs from chatting that much with us! I'm actually quite a chatty, smiley person IRL, and talk with CMs (and TMs at Universal) often...just not when we're arriving at the resort for some reason!

Unfortunately, the first day of the trial didn't go so well. we never got notification of our room.
... The CM said no ones notifications went out.

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

Wait, no I'm not. We've never gotten a notification of a room being ready at WDW.

 

[dmband]

Time to take off those rose colored glasses. A post on another thread has already informed us that layoffs of Front Desk staff are a fact now. So- fewer CMs to handle check ins, room assignment modifications, and the other myriad things that they have to handle on a daily basis. How magical is THAT? Sue M was bang on target with her concerns.

This is exactly what will happen. People complain about the disney service being down hill, what this, and FP+ and all this stuff means is less staff is needed, helping the big wigs increase their profits.

If you want to write disney why does no one write and ask why CM's make less then 10 an hour on most jobs, when they claim to care about the people that work for the company.

Sorry but i like disney but if no one saw this coming , rose colored glasses indeed

And they will still keep. Raising prices too

Anyway, for those who got in on the test, how far In advance did you have it paid if full?

 

[disneyag]

The process worked pretty well for us June 24. We did not get a text (although I found out later that we DID get an email.) We were met at the door of AKL by a CM with an iPad who asked our name, asked if we had any questions, told us our room number and we went right there. We were in the resort only 10 minutes before we went out to catch the MK bus. Thought it was great!

 

[B52]

If you're flying in that day, and can go straight to the parks until notified your room is ready...what can one do with their carry-on luggage?
Can you check it with the concierge at the resort??

 

[andrewilley]

If you're flying in that day, and can go straight to the parks until notified your room is ready...what can one do with their carry-on luggage?
Can you check it with the concierge at the resort??

You can't now, it was only a two-week trial.

You can still drop your bags at Bell Services and check in at the resort of course, and await a notification about your room number. You can't go to the park (unless you've got stand-alone tickets, AP, etc) until you've physically checked in at the resort though.

Andre

 

[Toeknail]

You can't go to the park (unless you've got stand-alone tickets, AP, etc) until you've physically checked in at the resort though.

Are you sure about this? For folks in the US who already have received their MagicBands, other posts I've seen indicate that you can go straight to the parks without having checked in first.

 

[AngiTN]

Time to take off those rose colored glasses. A post on another thread has already informed us that layoffs of Front Desk staff are a fact now. So- fewer CMs to handle check ins, room assignment modifications, and the other myriad things that they have to handle on a daily basis. How magical is THAT? Sue M was bang on target with her concerns.

And there are other posts with a news report that shows Disney hiring 1000 new people. I don't see lay offs going on while hiring 1000 at the same time. I take the post made about lay offs with hesitation, like most other posts with inside knowledge made all over the Internet. Posting doesn't make things fact.

 

[nkereina]

Are you sure about this? For folks in the US who already have received their MagicBands, other posts I've seen indicate that you can go straight to the parks without having checked in first.

To my knowledge, if your tickets linked to your MBs are part of package that includes your room reservation, you'd have to still physically check-in at your resort before you could proceed to the parks. This would activate your tickets and dining plan (if applicable). If you have a room only reservation and have linked an AP or tickets you purchased separately to your bands, you can proceed straight to the park without checking in first.

But it would behoove you to check-in first anyway, because the earlier you arrive, the better your chances of getting any room requests.

 

[minnie mum]

And there are other posts with a news report that shows Disney hiring 1000 new people. I don't see lay offs going on while hiring 1000 at the same time. I take the post made about lay offs with hesitation, like most other posts with inside knowledge made all over the Internet. Posting doesn't make things fact.

You are partly correct. I worded my post poorly. It would have been more accurate to say that staff reductions amongst the front desk staff would be occurring. Not seeing any conflict with this happening and WDW hiring more people. They are a huge corporation and I doubt many of those new hirees are more than casual or part time staff. I'm sure there are a lot of the resort front desk staff that just can't wait to pick up their janitorial uniforms when they are reassigned to new positions.

 

[jbridges88]

We are checking into the Yacht Club on 8/23/2014 and after I did online check-in they notified me they will be under a trial for Streamlined Check-in as well. Looks like they are going to just keep rolling this out to all hotels like they did with the Magic Bands last year.

 

[Luv2Run]

So, the resorts who have tested this feature so far have been POFQ, POR, and AKL - have any other resorts started testing this out yet? I'm hoping it's in effect for our stay at ASMusic in February, since we're commando-type DISers. We'd much prefer it if we can step off the bus and head directly to our room without having to wait in line. They can leave all the resort & park maps/schedules, DDP info, etc on the table in the room for us, so we can just go straight to our room, drop our bags, and head out to the parks or DTD. With all of the line-waiting involved with visiting Disney, one less line is fine by me.