Online Check In Issues

[malip]

(Sorry for the long post)We just got back from a weekend at the CBR and I did the online check in for the first time. It seemed to be a great and easy way to avoid the Custom's House all together; do it from home and wait for a text when your room is ready. Well, things didn't go quite as planned! First, we had requested an early check in time selecting that location wasn't as important as having the room early. I got a text around 10 am saying our room wasn't quite ready and they would text me when it was. We wandered around a little while and then decided to head over to the resort around 1:30 pm and see if they had a room available yet. I went over to the Customs House and didn't even get past the first line of defense before being told that since we did online check in we would have to wait for our text. Decided to just head over to the pool and wait poolside. Normal check in time arrived (3pm) and no text. Ok, they said they only guaranteed the room by 5. 4 pm, no text. 4:30, no text (you get where this is going right?). Finally, at 4:45 I went to the concierge desk and asked them if they could look up our room. They did and said our room has been ready for a while!! I headed up to the room with all our luggage and when I got there, my magic band didn't open the door. I started looking for a number to call on all my emails and confirmations and there wasn't any. I ended up calling the generic 407WDISNEY number just to try and get a hold of someone. They couldn't help. My wife eventually went back to the concierge desk and they sent someone up to open the door for me as it appears my band wasn't "hooked" to my room. This seemed funny because they looked up my room by using my band! In the end, I did get some resort credit (SOP for complaints). Seems this system still has some bugs to work out. We never did receive a text btw!!

[brownie]

Bummer, sorry you had to jump through hoops to get into your room.

[magicofdisney]

Last year was our first time staying at CBR and it was one of our worst check-in problems ever. There were multiple issues with our bands. We had two rooms but only one could be accessed with the bands. We had the dining plan but were unable to use it for the first half of our first day...again because of band issues. Like you, our first day was pretty much a wash. I can't say it was CBR's fault but it certainly left a bad taste in our mouths and we will not be returning to that resort.

[mydisneygirls]

Maybe I'll wait and just check in at the hotel!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Oh ick! What a way to start the trip.

Although nothing as frustrating as yours, our MB also wouldn't open our room. The CM at check-in had changed our room, but it didn't seem like the "new" room linked to the bands.

[lawgirl]

Good to know. I just did online check-in for CBR for our upcoming trip in 2 weeks. So if you do the online check-in, you don't ever have to go to the desk?

Our flight gets in later, so I'm assuming our room would be ready by 5:30. Do you think we should swing by the desk just to make sure everything is all good to go?

[VWL Mom]

Good to know. I just did online check-in for CBR for our upcoming trip in 2 weeks. So if you do the online check-in, you don't ever have to go to the desk?

Our flight gets in later, so I'm assuming our room would be ready by 5:30. Do you think we should swing by the desk just to make sure everything is all good to go?

If you do online check-in, link a credit card, and choose the direct to room option you should be good to go. They will text your room number when it is ready and you can go directly there.

Unfortunately, sometimes things may not go as expected as per the OP. :(

[minnie04]

I do online check in all the time and I NEVER get the "text" saying the room is ready . I always have to go back to the front and ask a couple times. Sorry you had to wait and go through a run around just to get your room. I always chalk it up to nothing is perfect and I'm not going to stress it, but it would be nice if just once it worked...:D

[buzznwoodysmom]

OP, we had a very similar experience at back in Nov. 2013 at POR. It's really pathetic to see that these types of problems still exist years after all this new technology was introduced to guests. In our case we were the only room that did online check in, out of 5 rooms our family had booked. We were the last room to be ready, hours later. Half of our bands didn't work, and half our room keys didn't work. We made several trips to the front desk on our first day to sort things out while the rest of our party enjoyed pool time or got to go to bed early for our first park day. You would think by now they should have worked out all these bugs!

[buzznwoodysmom]

Last year was our first time staying at CBR and it was one of our worst check-in problems ever. There were multiple issues with our bands. We had two rooms but only one could be accessed with the bands. We had the dining plan but were unable to use it for the first half of our first day...again because of band issues. Like you, our first day was pretty much a wash. I can't say it was CBR's fault but it certainly left a bad taste in our mouths and we will not be returning to that resort.

It's not a CBR problem, it's a Disney problem. We had similar issues at POR over a year and a half ago.

[laprana]

I had the exact same experience during our trip this past May, except it happened to me at Kidani. We had a split stay - first 4 nights at Poly and the rest of the trip at Kidani. I had done online check-in for both resorts. Had no problems at all at the Poly, got the text with our room number, and we were able to bypass the front desk and go straight to the room. It was great! On the transition day to Kidani, I got a text around 10:00 a.m. saying our room wasn't quite ready yet, but they would send another text with the room number when it was ready. So after checking out of the Poly, we killed time visiting resorts, going to DTD, eating lunch, etc. It got later, and later, and later, and still no text. We had a 5:00 dinner ADR at Boma that night, and were on the DDP which we were going to use at Boma and needed it to be on our bands. So when we still hadn't received a text by 4:30, we ended up just going to the front desk at Kidani where we were told by a surprisingly rude CM that our room had been ready for hours. When I told her that we never received a text, she informed me it was because I must not have done the online check-in correctly because they always send the texts when rooms are ready. I was pretty fed up at that point, so I informed her as politely as I could that I DID complete the online check-in correctly, and took all the steps I was required to take in order to get the text when our room was ready, and there obviously was a glitch in Disney's system. The CM waved her hand at me in a sort of "Ok, whatever, stop annoying me now" way and showed us on the map where our room was.

We made sure our DDP credits were on our bands and went off to Boma so we didn't miss our ADR. After dinner, we went to the room and *surprise!* - our bands didn't work. I was beyond aggravated at this point. I went back to the front desk and told a different, much more friendly CM, what was going on. He looked up our reservation and said the first CM had given us the wrong room number. We got the correct room number and eventually, finally, made it into our room after a very frustrating check-in experience. Long story short, it's definitely not just CBR that's having these issues. I think it's safe to say it's hit and miss property wide! Oh, and we never did get a text saying our Kidani room was ready!

[Disney4us2]

This happened to me on Sunday at AKL. They sent a runner up to open the door and fixed my magic band problem. No troubles after that. It was very frustrating at the time.

[PopPhan]

Sorry it didn't work well for you. When I did it for my trip back in April, at PO:R, I had no problems at all. I got the notification thru text while I was still on my plane flying into MCO that I would be sent my room number shortly (as soon as my room was ready.) I received the text with my room number while on DME heading to the resort. Everything worked perfectly.

[Pirate Granny]

Our MB never work regardless if we do on line or in person check-in. The CMs all claim we have too many active MB..we keep saying...HELLO, there is a specific band that it linked to this reservation...shouldn't be this hard...hate, hate, hate standing with luggage and kids in the hall and can't get in...

[vicster]

Last year was our first time staying at CBR and it was one of our worst check-in problems ever. There were multiple issues with our bands. We had two rooms but only one could be accessed with the bands. We had the dining plan but were unable to use it for the first half of our first day...again because of band issues. Like you, our first day was pretty much a wash. I can't say it was CBR's fault but it certainly left a bad taste in our mouths and we will not be returning to that resort.

We stayed at CBR a few years ago and worst check in ever - before magic bands or online check in. Room was not ready until after 5:00 p.m. Will never stay there again.

[magicofdisney]

Our MB never work regardless if we do on line or in person check-in. The CMs all claim we have too many active MB..we keep saying...HELLO, there is a specific band that it linked to this reservation...shouldn't be this hard...hate, hate, hate standing with luggage and kids in the hall and can't get in...

The thing that frustrates me most about them telling you this is that DISNEY dictates the band allowance. I don't need 7 bands per family member, but Disney insist on sending me one every-stinking-time I make a reservation. :mad:

[Ms. Mode]

We had multiple problems with the door locks and our Magic Bands. What we found out was that the previous bands were messing with the current ones. So, in order to fix the problem we had to disarm all the previous bands. After that...no problem. :thumbsup:

[buzznwoodysmom]

We stayed at CBR a few years ago and worst check in ever - before magic bands or online check in. Room was not ready until after 5:00 p.m. Will never stay there again.

We have had that happen, room not ready till after 5, at Wilderness Lodge. It's not a resort specific issue. It can happen at all resorts, unfortunately.

[Figment52]

Do you HAVE to do online check in? We haven't been to WDW in 4 years, but checking in at the front desk was never really all that time consuming.

[WiltonJohn]

.................. but checking in at the front desk was never really all that time consuming.

Yeah... that.

best,

..............john

[brownie]

Do you HAVE to do online check in? We haven't been to WDW in 4 years, but checking in at the front desk was never really all that time consuming.

You don't but we've had some long waits and online check-in has sped things up for us.

[AgentC]

You don't but we've had some long waits and online check-in has sped things up for us.

I think it just depends. The last two trips we had I did on line check in for one and not the other and waited forever at both. I seem to have bad check in karma. I'm always behind the person with a problem. :(

[Paiges]

Our plane gets in around 9 pm. I assume if we do online check in, we shouldn't have any problem with our room not being ready since it is so late at night? And probably no problem with long lines in the lobby if we go the traditional route? Any thoughts or advice? Thanks :)

[DizneyFreak2002]

I can talk from my experience last week regarding this... I used online check in for both stays (Saratoga and BoardWalk)... I selected a 2:00 PM check in time for Saratoga and a 10:00 AM check in time for BoardWalk... At 1:00 PM I received a text from Disney stating my room was not ready... I arrived at Saratoga about 2:05, still no text that my room was ready... Remembering this thread, I went to the front desk.. I had only 2 other families in front of me checking in... Neither did online checking, I surmised... I waited maybe 5 minutes for a CM to be available.. I told her I had done online check in, but still wanted to verify with her in case the text failed to deliver... Well, the room was not ready yet despite me stating I would arrive at 2:00... I wasn't mad though as they don't promise the room to be ready, it is only best efforts... around 2:30 I received the text the room was ready...

As for BoardWalk, I knew, unless they had empty rooms, chances were nil I'd have a room for 10:00 AM.... At 9:00 I received the text stating room was not ready... So again, just to check for myself, I went to check in... No wait... Right up to the counter... Of course, room was not ready, as expected... I left, went to Epcot, and received the text stating my room was ready around 12:30ish...

So, I'd have to say, I hit it lucky that the system worked as intended... I received the room is ready texts... Only issue was, rooms were not ready at my requested check in times... But, I never would expect them to be...