Is anyone actually accessing their room earlier than check in time anymore?

[thanxfornoticin]

I doubt that putting in a room request has any impact on when the room will be ready. Housekeeping does their work in the morning to makeup rooms for new guests. I would assume at busier times of the year when the resort is fully occupied, there are fewer empty rooms and it takes the cleaning crew longer to complete all of their work. If the resort isn't very busy, perhaps they were able to assign you a room that was unoccupied. That would explain why sometimes your room is ready early in the day while other times it is not.

Exactly. In many ways, it's luck of the draw with regard to when we get in. A housekeeper might be responsible for cleaning 3/4/5/6 rooms, and they'll go in a certain order. Sometimes ours is the first, sometimes ours is the last. I also blame some departing guests for some of the issue. It seems like we see way more situations where a cart is sitting outside a room, ready to clean, and the people still haven't left by noon or later. I've also noticed for our recent reservations (BC and AKV mostly) that when we do online check-in, the earliest notation regarding arrival just says 'before 4PM'. In the past, there were way more early options for a morning arrival - but it seems they're a bit stricter with the fact they say checkin begins at 4PM.

Over the years, we've gotten lucky and got in early. Other years, it has been 5/6PM, which isn't bad. We also do DVC, and if we have a 1BR or 2BR, I imagine those require a lot of work to prep for new guests.

 

[hertamaniac]

We checked into Yacht Club about 2 weeks ago. We reserved a water view room. We left the house around 11:15 AM and got to YC about 12:15 PM. The CM checked his tablet and gave us our cards, answered a few questions and said enjoy your stay with a smile. The room was ready and noticed housekeeping about 2 doors down from our room.

 

[teamsamant]

Things that help: Checking in on a weekday. Having a room category that has tons of rooms in that category.

 

[cedricandsophie]

At old key west (we go every March) we usually get into room by 1 pm. And we always get building we want. We have a disabled adult daughter and her best friend. They are always accommodating about where we want to be.

 

[Mle8308]

Could you give some specifics? Which resort were you checking into when this happened?



...and which resort were you checking into when this happened?

Doesn't really matter, this can happen at any and all hotels, not just Disney. Still not pleasant. We had it happen at Pop years ago, we had 2 rooms and notated we were arriving early (staying there for 1N before moving to the WL - had a last minute change of plans and came in a day early, WL was not available). We went to the parks for the day and came back at 11pm and never got a room text. Stopped at the FD when we got off the MK bus and were given 2 rooms. Made the long walk to the rooms only to find both of them dirty, not cleaned from the prior guests. Called the FD and it took about an hour for them to find us new rooms, we had young exhausted kids and were waiting in the rooms (sat in the chairs) because we weren't taking the kids back to the lobby. The FD manager finally brought us new keys to the new rooms (I think they were cleaning the rooms we were moved to), we finally got rooms at 1am. Was not a good start! But it happens, manger was very apologetic and we got a $50 credit for each room (we did not ask for anything, just clean rooms to sleep). I never expect rooms to be ready before check in time anymore. If specific requests, then not even after check in.

 

[ktink]

Over the past 2-3 years, it's been all over the place with our check ins. We do online check in & make room requests through Touring Plans.

BWI we arrived before noon & headed to AK. We got the text as soon as we got on the bus that our room was ready. We transferred over to GF and got the text that our room was ready before noon. This was in January so a slower time.

AKL we arrived early morning & never received a text. Around 4:30 we headed back to the resort & checked in at the FD. We had 2 rooms on the reservation w/ AP discounts & 1 room was ready while the other one wasn't until an hour later. This was in September so another slow time.

GDT arrived before noon & got the text as we arrived that our room was ready. Transferred to BC & our room was ready by 2PM. This was in October.

Poly- arrived at 10AM & went to the parks. Room was ready around 2PM. This was last September.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

Our room is always ready, since we always arrive after midnight.
And yes we do special requests and had very good luck getting our requests.

 

[Tripscarcare]

We were at CBR last month, arrived on a Monday, at CBR at 1130 ish. We had a party of 7 booked through a TA with a room request of joining or at least close. We were told at the front desk they will try do what they can. We grabbed swimsuits, and checked bags at bell services. Couple of hours go back close to 330, no room and dinner reservations at Disney Springs. I grabbed all the suitcases and grocery order from bell services and let the family get dinner clothes on while I waited for the rooms. We new roughly that we were going to be in the Jamaica area. Pushed the cart over and waited near a stairwell for a text. Rest of the group left to Disney Springs. It was around 415 when a house keeping manager walking around doing checks saw me and asked if I needed help. I had rooms within 5 minutes of the conversation side by side. This was awesome, no fault of CBR we loved the resort so much that we are headed back again in the spring. Just no luck of an early room this trip.

 

[Spectre8]

My room at CBR was ready around noon last week.

 

[champagne&disney]

Both in November and April at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, my cabin was ready at 2:30pm which was great since I travel with my dog and he's ready to be out of the car after our drive from Atlanta.

 

[trishadono]

Dd just arrived at Mco 45 mins ago and text came in room ready. She’s already in the room. Allstar music.

 

[meremac]

I've stayed at nine different WDW hotels in the last year. Seven out of nine times, my room was ready early (sometimes as early as 11:30am). One time it was ready right at regular check-in time, and one time it was ready late...BUT that was because we were staying at The Contemporary during Marathon Weekend and they were oversold so they upgraded us from a regular Lake View Room to a freaking TWO-BEDROOM CLUB LEVEL SUITE so it took a bit longer to get the room ready but, needless to say, we didn't mind the wait under those circumstances .

 

[gmi3804]

The answer is yes. No one cares about my previous experience, so I won't bore you with it.

I'm sure Housekeeping staff is being stretched as thin as is humanly possible to still provide services, what with all the cost-cutting that's been done lately, hence the increase in later and later room-ready data.

 

[SL6827]

I always travel during the "slower" time periods and have always gotten in early.
12-1pm generally.

 

[SL6827]

So many hotels are now charging for this privilege, I am glad to see Disney is not. Not yet anyways.

 

[kiford]

I think it has much more to do with capacity and occupancy in the resort more than anything. That can be impacted by conferences, season, room request (if you're requesting a room type/location that is limited), and size of the resort. We had no wait prior to official check-in time for WL in December or AKL in February but did at BWV in September. I also have no idea exactly when our room was available at BWV because we went to DS for lunch with friends. But we did get to our room before 3 pm because we were at Epcot by about 2:30 pm. I always just assume that I won't get access until afternoon, pack my carry on bag so that I can take out what I need and put my electronics in and lock it and then leave it all at bell services.

 

[Kingkonig]

We stayed at Coronado earlier this month - luckily we were flying in a bit later in the day (landed around 8pm), since we didn't get our room assignment until after we picked up the rental car

 

[Eastern]

I checked into AS Sports recently and my room was not ready until 5:45pm. They kept sending me updates. Basically, 'still not ready'. My only request was first floor. I was happy with my room location though, first floor and right by preferred rooms.

I do think you should get something if your room is not ready by designated check in time. I don't care that they don't have enough staff: not my problem. I'm paying a gazillion dollars for any room, so get it together.

Conversely if you want to check out late there is never any availability. And you get like one hour extra, at most.

 

[Sammy]

Last trip to OKW we arrived at 10:00 AM with no expectations the room would be ready, so had planned a day by the pool. Had a late breakfast and enjoyed the afternoon. By 4:00PM still had not received text, so checked in with front desk again. Said it might be another couple of hours, so we hopped on the boat going to Disney Springs to kill some time and maybe get dinner. As soon as we pulled away from the dock, I received the text that our room was ready

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Just got back from YC. Our room was ready at 12:00!