Sunday, August 8, 2010

Online Check-In, Part 1: Ten Days In Advance

On Saturday, I checked into Disney's All Star Music Resort... online.  You see, you can check into your Walt Disney World resort up to ten days in advance of your arrival.  This is supposed to streamline the actual, physical check-in process.  Saturday was my first time doing online check-in, but from what I understand, instead of arriving and having to get everything settled, you do that online instead.  Then, when you arrive, everything is all set up for you, and you simply take your folder and room keys and get on your merry way.

Overall, I thought the online check-in process was very nice.  Granted, I haven't gotten to the other end of the process, which is why this post is a part one.  However, the actual check-in process was simple and easy to understand... if you know about online check-in and where to find it, which I'm not sure your average guest would.  Once you navigate to the page on which you begin your online check-in, you enter your confirmation number, last name, the name of the resort at which you're staying, and your arrival date.  Then it takes you to a different page where you do the actual online check-in.  You enter a credit card number, cell phone number at which you can be reached on your trip, basic room requests, etc.  Essentially, you give them all the information that you would give them in person once you arrived at your resort.  And that's it!  Then you're done!  To be honest, I was expecting it to be much more, well, headache-y than it was.  It was simple, and it means my trip is right around the corner!

Have you ever done online check-in?  What did you think of it?  Do you prefer to do it in person?  Let me know in a comment,  a tweet (@discollegeblog), or on Facebook!  And look out for the second part of this post when I return from my trip!

Want to win something cool straight from Walt Disney World?  If I reach 400 Twitter followers in the next eight days, I'll be giving something away!  Only nine followers to go!

This post is part of the eighth DisMarks.com Disney Blog Carnival.  Click the link to see more great Disney articles!
 
Posted by Amanda at 11:06 PM
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12 comments:

  1. I've done online check-in at several of the #WDW hotels before & have found the convenience aspect to be sporatic at best. In some hotels, All Stars comes to mind, I waited in the same line as everyone else. In the deluxe & deluxe villas the opposite was true with both AKL and Saratoga having a separate line for those picking up their packets. I have even had hotels,Yacht Club, prepare a packet while I stood at the desk, as opposed to being ready upon arrival. The concept is great, its the execution on the hotel's part where it usually falls short.
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  2. We did the on-line check in for our trip last year. Whn we arrived, we still ended up standing in the usual wait line as the desk clerk for the online check in was away from the desk. Oh, well. They did have our packet ready, but it wasn't much faster. We are goign again in December of this year. I will try again to see if it works any better
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  3. Oh well, it's worth a shot.
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  4. We did at Pop Century this past June and were in and out. There was a separate line, and there was no one waiting. I think it took us about 10 minutes total.
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  5. I've done online check-in twice. The first time it was at Port Orleans Riverside. There weren't any people in any line, so I didn't have to wait regardless. When we checked in, all of our room keys were already prepared, but they didn't all have charging privileges, so we had to wait a few minutes for new ones to be printed. Not a big deal. It was fast and efficient, so I chose to do it again on my June trip to the Boardwalk Villas. Another great experience. I wouldn't hesitate to do it ever again and would recommend to anyone that they do it!
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  6. Woot, I hope it works out as well for me as it did for you two!
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  7. I did this for Pop Century... there was no line so I'm not sure if we would have been in a separate one if it were busy, and I still had to give them all my info. It was very quick, but not cause of the online check in, just cause there was no wait and the cast member was quick and efficient.

    I'm going to try for this trip for my one night at the Beach Club and see if anything is different at the deluxe resort.
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  9. I did online check-in once for one stay at POP Century. It is definitely great if you will be in a hurry to get through the check-in process!

    BTW... I'M HERE! I live right next door to WDW lol.
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  11. Thank you for posting this. I'm heading to WDW in September and was wondering about online check in as well. I hope it makes life easy. I would love to head straight to MK asap.
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