How Early to Check-In?

[beksy]

We are under 365 days! Finally! With our current plans we are going to be staying in 2 resorts next December. We arrive on the 29th and are staying at the Pop through the 31st. On the 1st we are moving to the Poly for the rest of our stay through the 9th. I've never done 2 resorts on the same trip but can't afford the Poly at the Holiday rates! So I was wandering...we will be in the parks on the 31st through EMHs so it will definitely be the 1st before we leave. Could we go ahead and check into the Poly when we leave knowing the room won't be ready or anything but avoiding the later rush and letting us sleep in later and then go back to the Pop to sleep and pack up? Will they let us do that and would our room keys still work at the Pop as long as we hadn't checked out there yet? Thanks! I hope I wasn't too confusing. A year is way too much time for me to think of these things! :mickey:

[TammiMcMan]

So I was wondering...we will be in the parks on the 31st through EMHs so it will definitely be the 1st before we leave. Could we go ahead and check into the Poly when we leave knowing the room won't be ready or anything but avoiding the later rush and letting us sleep in later and then go back to the Pop to sleep and pack up? The Poly won't have your check-in information downloaded onto their registration computers until around 6am on January 1st. Maybe a little earlier, it all depends on when they cycle through their batches. Realistically though, the earliest they'll allow you to check in is around 6:30-7am. So, sorry the answer to your question is no.

[pokci]

I thought you could check in at 12:01 am of the day you're checking in - with the understanding of course that no room would be available. Check out on the cards for park use, while needing to vacate the room earlier, is good until 11:59 pm. At least it was the last time we were there. I think the room key is good until 11:00 am or whenever official room check out is though the cards are active in the parks until midnight. I think if you don't check out you can come back and slepe until you HAVE to check out. You won't be able to have packages sent to the resort you checked out of on the day you check out.

Hang in there - someone will know for sure!

[CleveRocks]

I thought you could check in at 12:01 am of the day you're checking in - with the understanding of course that no room would be available. Check out on the cards for park use, while needing to vacate the room earlier, is good until 11:59 pm. At least it was the last time we were there. I think the room key is good until 11:00 am or whenever official room check out is though the cards are active in the parks until midnight. I think if you don't check out you can come back and slepe until you HAVE to check out. You won't be able to have packages sent to the resort you checked out of on the day you check out.

Hang in there - someone will know for sure!No, some of those times are confused.

TammiMcMan has it correctly.

The OP will be checking-out of Pop Century on January 1, and also will be checking-in to Polynesian on January 1.

TammiMcMan is exactly correct about the timing of check-in. As far as Disney's resorts' computers go, a new "day" doesn't start until about 6:00 a.m. at the earliest.

I'll put it into an example that might be easily understood. Let's say you arrive on March 1 on an 11:30 p.m. flight. You arrive at your resort on March 2 at 12:30 a.m. Even though it is now March 2, you must pay for the night of March 1 if you want to get into your room for the night. Otherwise, you'd have to hang around the lobby until 6 or 7 a.m. and check-in and pray they happen to have a room ready for you. The forst night you paid for for that reservation is March 1. Your room is guaranteed through 6:00 a.m. the following day.

I'm 100% certain about this. Not a guess.

As for the Key To The World cards ...
On your check-out day, you retain all of the rights and privileges as a guest of your resort until 11:59 p.m. For the OP, that means that he/she is checking out on January 1, so he/she retains all of the rights and privileges of being a Pop guest until 11:59 p.m. on January 1 (the only exception to these "rights/privileges, of course, is that you don't have access to your room after check-out time). Now, overlapping with that is the fact that he/she will be checking-in to Polynesian.

If the OP has park tickets coded onto the Pop Century KTTW cards, those tickets DO NOT EXPIRE at the end of the Pop stay. Tickets are not IN ANY WAY tied into resort stays. There is no such thing as a park ticket that expires on the day you check-out of your resort. Resort stays and ticket expiration are two completely different things.

I know this can all be quite confusing. There is nothing "common sense" about Disney's rules and policies ... it's a matter of just knowing what the Great Disney says and learning how to navigate it all.

[pokci]

Thanks - I knew someone would know. As soon as I read the thing about the tickets not being tied to the room it clicked in my head! Thanks again for the clarification!

[TammiMcMan]

Thanks for the backup CleveRocks :thumbsup: .

[beksy]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Maybe with the new on-line check-in it won't even be an issue anyway. Regardless I'm sure that the 1st will be a "free" day where we just relax and don't really have a schedule to follow. :mickey: