Check in time at Saratoga Springs what a wasted day!!

[Judique]

OK please dont take this to heart but for all of you that feel you see no need for assistance for children with special needs your are all not very compassionate at all!!
I cant believe that guests dont give a care about others that need the help and that shouldnt be taken asap to get the guests in there rooms.. Please please dont speak about a topic or a situation that you have no idea about
If you dont have a autistic child and there is a huge spectrum of severity in each person and you dont even know anything about this then dont offer your calous opinion.. I know for the folks that have special needs children are the most patient and tolerant people I have ever meet and it is a challenge constantly. So think before you criticize others... Be giving and patient life will bring you much more happiness than being selfish

I think your expectations are a little out of line. It's not that people don't have a heart or sympathy for a child with a disability, or a parent that has to deal with this on a daily basis.
The fact is that everyone trying to check in has paid for a vacation and aside from the obvious accommodations deemed necessary by law for persons with a disability your family is not entitled nor should they expect to move ahead of anyone else.
IF it happens that your family gets a little extra pixie dust, that's nice.
If they don't, that's life - at least at Disney they'll eventually get a great product for their cash.

 

[Fortywinks]

My sister is currently at SSR we both have the DVC there she checked in on Sunday and her room was not ready untill 6pm!!! Wow
Is this normal I was told that check inn was at 4pm?? That to me was a wasted day of her vacation and not to mention she has a special need child and that was also know when she checked in???

You can check in whenever you arrive, your room just may not be ready.
On our last trip when we checked in at 11:00 AM there were only a limited number ready, all of which we really didn't want. The check-in person said that if we could wait until after 4:00 PM to move into our room, they would have a much greater room pool to assign. We went ahead and checked-in with no room assignment, got our coded door keys, package, secured our luggage and went on to Epcot. At 2:00 PM we called and got our room number and it was the very one we wanted. Since we already had our keys it would fit the room # they entered into the computer. We never even had to go back to check-in.

 

[crisi]

OK please dont take this to heart but for all of you that feel you see no need for assistance for children with special needs your are all not very compassionate at all!!
I cant believe that guests dont give a care about others that need the help and that shouldnt be taken asap to get the guests in there rooms.. Please please dont speak about a topic or a situation that you have no idea about
If you dont have a autistic child and there is a huge spectrum of severity in each person and you dont even know anything about this then dont offer your calous opinion.. I know for the folks that have special needs children are the most patient and tolerant people I have ever meet and it is a challenge constantly. So think before you criticize others... Be giving and patient life will bring you much more happiness than being selfish

I'm not sure why a child with autism should take priority over a family with two year old triplets in need of a nap. Neither has a health risk associated with their special need that makes getting to the room important for health reasons. Both are simply situations where getting into the room on time makes the trip more pleasant for everyone traveling. Same when traveling with Seniors who would like a nap, or a family that has driven through the night. There are so many special needs kids at Disney that they've changed many of the policies over the past twenty years - they can't give them all priority for everything or non-special needs people would just continually stack up. If the child is so severely disabled that it is a health risk not to be able to check in until 4:00 or later, YOU have a responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen, call Special Services to find out how they recommend handling it, book a room for the night before so one is empty and clean when you arrive - and if it does happen, there are about a dozen $49 a night hotels out near International Drive that have immediate vacancies. Seems like YOU don't care about anyone who isn't in YOUR situation. I don't know anything about YOUR situation, you are right. And you don't know anything about anyone else's who checked in that day.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I'm not sure why a child with autism should take priority over a family with two year old triplets in need of a nap. Neither has a health risk associated with their special need that makes getting to the room important for health reasons. Both are simply situations where getting into the room on time makes the trip more pleasant for everyone traveling. Same when traveling with Seniors who would like a nap, or a family that has driven through the night. There are so many special needs kids at Disney that they've changed many of the policies over the past twenty years - they can't give them all priority for everything or non-special needs people would just continually stack up. If the child is so severely disabled that it is a health risk not to be able to check in until 4:00 or later, YOU have a responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen, call Special Services to find out how they recommend handling it, book a room for the night before so one is empty and clean when you arrive - and if it does happen, there are about a dozen $49 a night hotels out near International Drive that have immediate vacancies. Seems like YOU don't care about anyone who isn't in YOUR situation. I don't know anything about YOUR situation, you are right. And you don't know anything about anyone else's who checked in that day.

You've made my point better than I did. Disney is FULL of people who have one kind of special need or another and there's just no way that they can accomodate every need in the way each particular family wants to have it accomodated.

Disney is a victim of it's own "pixie dust". It's gotten to a point where every guest expects Disney to make their vacation perfect. There are some things that guests have to take responsibility for on their own, especially when it comes to special needs.

 

[cymomtx]

You've made my point better than I did. Disney is FULL of people who have one kind of special need or another and there's just no way that they can accomodate every need in the way each particular family wants to have it accomodated.

Disney is a victim of it's own "pixie dust". It's gotten to a point where every guest expects Disney to make their vacation perfect. There are some things that guests have to take responsibility for on their own, especially when it comes to special needs.

Amen! And I as a mother to two Aspie children totally understand and respect this.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I'm not sure why a child with autism should take priority over a family with two year old triplets in need of a nap. Neither has a health risk associated with their special need that makes getting to the room important for health reasons. Both are simply situations where getting into the room on time makes the trip more pleasant for everyone traveling. Same when traveling with Seniors who would like a nap, or a family that has driven through the night. There are so many special needs kids at Disney that they've changed many of the policies over the past twenty years - they can't give them all priority for everything or non-special needs people would just continually stack up. If the child is so severely disabled that it is a health risk not to be able to check in until 4:00 or later, YOU have a responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen, call Special Services to find out how they recommend handling it, book a room for the night before so one is empty and clean when you arrive - and if it does happen, there are about a dozen $49 a night hotels out near International Drive that have immediate vacancies. Seems like YOU don't care about anyone who isn't in YOUR situation. I don't know anything about YOUR situation, you are right. And you don't know anything about anyone else's who checked in that day.

Very well said, as usual, Crisi! Disney is very good at providing special services for those who need it, but you must REQUEST it to get it.

 

[jarestel]

6:00 PM is not an acceptable check-in time, IMO. This is the only area in this circumstance where Disney/DVC failed to meet their obligations and responsibilities to a DVC member as far as I can see though.

 

[cymomtx]

But what about the people who fail to check out at 11am. Is DVC just suppose to go into those rooms and pack the bags and put them in the hallway? They have no control over people who say, what's a few minutes another hour, it won't hurt anything. But in the end it does, the dominoes fall and everyone gets the brunt of it.

When a guest is in a room for 2 days or 3 weeks there is a world of difference to cleaning that room and it will vary the time it takes. It is the luck of the draw as to which room you pull, do you want a clean room with no hassles during your visit or do you want mousekeeping to rush because its 4pm and don't let anyone wait?

 

[jarestel]

But what about the people who fail to check out at 11am. Is DVC just suppose to go into those rooms and pack the bags and put them in the hallway? They have no control over people who say, what's a few minutes another hour, it won't hurt anything. But in the end it does, the dominoes fall and everyone gets the brunt of it.

When a guest is in a room for 2 days or 3 weeks there is a world of difference to cleaning that room and it will vary the time it takes. It is the luck of the draw as to which room you pull, do you want a clean room with no hassles during your visit or do you want mousekeeping to rush because its 4pm and don't let anyone wait?

There are many ways to make a guest whole or at least relieve the stress somewhat. I agree, if there are no rooms ready, Disney magic isn't powerful enough to make one appear.

But how about giving the guests free dinner somewhere to make up for the inconvenience. Maybe park tickets for the day? How about even offering to drive them to VWL if they need some quiet time where they can enjoy the serenity of the Iron Spike room? These are a few possible suggestions and I'm sure there are many more one could think of.

There are many ways to put a smile back on the face of a guest. I'm not saying that fine resorts don't have problems from time to time. But they usually know how to manage and mitigate those situations a bit better.

 

[cymomtx]

Giving out freebies are great at a "hotel" but at a "timeshare" those come out of our pockets. So sure if you want your maintenance fees to go up, then great hand out the freebies. Or just have some patience at 4pm and some courtesy at 11am.

 

[Anthony1971]

I do not see where anyone is being un-sympathetic.
There are a lot of experiences and suggestions to try to help in future expectations.
In th end it is up to the traveler to make sure his/her family or guests are accommodated.
I travel with parnets who are in thire 70's-80's I make sure I get a flight that gets me there at a raesonable time for them to eat either lunch or dinner making sure they eat the previous meals. If my room is not ready I will take the proper steps to make sure they are comfortable -- have a place to eat and take thier medication and have a place in mind for them to rest out of the sun or ask for a CM for suggestions.
Disney does a great a job of making sure everyone is comfortable much better than most but it is up to the trip planners to make sure you are not putting yourself in a position where there could be an uncomfortable situataion.... and again this is not to be un-sympathetic but every person needs to look out for his/her Families needs and most have something that makes them feel they should have priority over the next

 

[jarestel]

Giving out freebies are great at a "hotel" but at a "timeshare" those come out of our pockets. So sure if you want your maintenance fees to go up, then great hand out the freebies. Or just have some patience at 4pm and some courtesy at 11am.

DVC has an operating budget that covers many things including discretionary spending. Free meals have been fairly common actually.

The only issue I have is the 6:00 PM check-in. I think that's unreasonable. Evidently you don't. Is 7:00 PM unreasonable? 10:00 PM? One minute before midnight? Where would you draw the line and start to expect better from DVC? Just curious.

 

[LaurenLC]

There are many ways to make a guest whole or at least relieve the stress somewhat. I agree, if there are no rooms ready, Disney magic isn't powerful enough to make one appear.

But how about giving the guests free dinner somewhere to make up for the inconvenience. Maybe park tickets for the day? How about even offering to drive them to VWL if they need some quiet time where they can enjoy the serenity of the Iron Spike room? These are a few possible suggestions and I'm sure there are many more one could think of.

There are many ways to put a smile back on the face of a guest. I'm not saying that fine resorts don't have problems from time to time. But they usually know how to manage and mitigate those situations a bit better.

Why should a company have to give you something for free when they really did nothing wrong? There is nothing posted anywhere that says you are guaranteed to check into your room by 4pm. If Disney gave away "freebies" for every person that complained about an inconvenience there would be no Disney. Sometimes I think people hold Disney to unrealistic expectations.

 

[jarestel]

Why should a company have to give you something for free when they really did nothing wrong? There is nothing posted anywhere that says you are guaranteed to check into your room by 4pm. If Disney gave away "freebies" for every person that complained about an inconvenience there would be no Disney. Sometimes I think people hold Disney to unrealistic expectations.

I guess we just disagree. Making a member wait until 6:00 PM to check-in IS wrong IMO. A reasonable person might assume that a posted check-in time of 4:00 PM or later might cover 4:30, maybe even 5:00 PM. I don't think a reasonable person would expect it means 6:00, 8:00, or midnight.

 

[starbox]

I guess we just disagree. Making a member wait until 6:00 PM to check-in IS wrong IMO.

I agree that 6pm is unusually late during times of normal-busy occupancy. For Easter week, Chrsitmas week, or 4th of July week (as well as the Tuesday and Wed. before Thanksgiving) - I think you have to expect that there may be
longer-than-usual waits with any and everything at WDW.

 

[loribell]

From what I have experienced when I check in they assign a specific room to me. Even though they may not give me a room number at that time a specific room number has been assigned. Even those that say they were told a much larger pool of rooms would be available to choose from had a specific room number assigned to them.

My point is that once that room has been assigned and the previous guest checks out mousekeeping then goes in to clean the room. Thay have no idea what they are going to walk in on. They have no idea how long it is going to take to clean it. So I check in, they assing me a room, mousekeeping finally gets to go in to start cleaning and they have a huge mess on their hands. The next availabe room does not then become mine, it has already been assigned to someone else. They already have keys for it, they just don't know what the room number is.

So if the sister checked in on a Sunday, the busiest day for check ins, at 4:00 I wonder how many people had already checked in ahead of her? All of those people had a specific room number assigned to them that could not then be given to her when she checked in. The CM's couldn't just give a previously assigned room to her. They gave her what was still available and then there were problems with getting the room cleaned.

 

[Anthony1971]

I guess we just disagree. Making a member wait until 6:00 PM to check-in IS wrong IMO. A reasonable person might assume that a posted check-in time of 4:00 PM or later might cover 4:30, maybe even 5:00 PM. I don't think a reasonable person would expect it means 6:00, 8:00, or midnight.

And next time you get a room before 4 you should buy all the CM's a meal for breaking the 4:00 PM check in rule!

Check in time is AFTER 4 this could be anytime after...... MOST of the time we get a room before 4.....

 

[disneygal55]

Maybe if people checking in would be told "Check out is at 11 AM. If you don't check out by 11 AM then you will be charged another day's points"... I bet that people would check out on time! When I board my dog "Riley" at the kennel I am always told. Pick him up by noon or you will be charged for another day.

 

[jarestel]

And next time you get a room before 4 you should buy all the CM's a meal for breaking the 4:00 PM check in rule!

Check in time is AFTER 4 this could be anytime after...... MOST of the time we get a room before 4.....

Again, we simply disagree that any time at all after 4:00 PM is reasonable. I would hold Disney to a higher standard. If you're "just happy to be there" that's great. I'm not you.

 

[fishermouse]

Thank you for your reply, She did explain about my nephew whom is special needs as instructed by the concierge desk. They still did not help her out and give her there room any sooner. I know my nephews disabilities and it must have been so hard for them to deal with the late check inn. Normally I travel with her so we all can work together as a family and help out with additional distractions. I guess I am disapointed with SSR and not helping her with her situation. I am most certain any guest would offer them the room first if they only knew how diffucult it was for them to adapt.
Thanks again

Being a frequent traveler as most of us DVC'rs are, one thing you can count on is that you can't count on your room being ready. Sometimes it's ready early sometimes later no matter where you stay. As a previous poster noted you need a plan A and a plan B. especially if you or someone in your party has special needs. If an HA room is needed you may be in for a little longer wait due to supply and demand of these rooms. In your sisters case I imagine a regular room is ok. Some one with special needs should be prepared for this, DVC can not magically pull up a room because it is needed now, nor should they be responsible for someone who is unprepared for a wait. Don't be so certain of guests giving up their room so your sister could get in sooner, first off DVC should not put another guest in that position, it's not fair to them. If you've read these boards you know one of the biggest complaints is that rooms are not properly cleaned. The front desk can not allow itself to be pressured into giving up a room that are not ready or has been promised to someone that checked in early and went to the parks for the day while Mousekeeping was cleaning their room. While I can sympathize with your sister IMO she should be prepared for such events, even more so than people with no special needs. I'm sure the CM would not make her wait if there was anything available. It's not my intention to sound harsh or uncareing, I would probably be one of the ones to say give her my room if I had not checked into it yet, but by now she should know how to travel with her DS and not trust that all will go as planned. I hope the rest of her trip is as magical as possble.