On Tuesday we will be checking in to BWI! A few questions:
1) Our flight arrives at MCO at 10:45. About how long will it take for us to find Magical Express and get to BWI? Do we need to reserve Magical Express beforehand?
2) I have reserved our room with my AP for the discount, but will need to activate my AP once I get there. My thought was that once we arrive, I can let the kids get some lunch at BW and I could walk over to EP to activate the AP, then come back and check in. Since our room probably won't be ready, we would have them store our luggage and then head over to HS for our afternoon FPs and our HBD dinner ADR. Then settle into the room at some point that evening. However, since check in is not until 3pm, perhaps I can not check in until after that anyway? In which case maybe I should skip the whole EP part and we should just head on over to HS? I am assuming that they will store our luggage even if we are not checked in yet?
3) We will be in a standard room, 2 queens with a child bed (5 of us). What are the standard amenities in the room? I'm only wondering so I will know what to pack or not in our limited suitcase space. Refrigerator? Microwave? Coffeemaker? I know there will be shampoo but how about conditioner?
4) I am thinking about doing laundry half way into our 11 days so we don't have to pack so many clothes. How easy is this to do? Are there typically washers available? Or are they typically in high demand? And I'm assuming they sell detergent in the laundry room?
5) Should I request a specific room or just let the chips fall where they may? I am assuming the standard rooms are not the choicest available, but maybe I am wrong.
TIA!!
1) a)PP answered your question about how quick you get to the resort if you use Magic Express.
b) Did you want to skip baggage claim and have Disney bring the luggage to your room for you?
If yes, I think you need to reserve Magical Express in advance -- but you said you are arriving in 9 days, so I don't know if you have enough time. Disney would need to send you special luggage tags to indicate that your bags should not go on the baggage claim carousal.
If you want to grab your own bags off the carousel and bring them on the bus, I think it might be possible to use Magical Express without having reserved in advance, but I'm not sure. I would think it would be faster if you make a reservation in advance. I don't use it.
2) I wasn't aware that you had to activate your AP prior to hotel check in. But I have not been staying in a room that I booked with the AP discount.
Normally, you can "check in" whenever you get to the hotel (as long as it's after about 7:00 am). You don't have to wait until the official check-in time. But by "check in" I mean wait in line at the registration desk to have them process your arrival. The time that your room will be ready depends on the time that the prior guest checked out and the time that Mousekeeping was able to clean it.
People do online check in all the time and that's done before check in time on arrival day.
3) I always stay in the Villas, not the Inn. I believe it's yes to the fridge, yes to the coffeemaker, no to the microwave at the Inn. At the Villas I got shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotion, facial soap and bath soap.
4) PP answered this one.
5) Standard advice is that if you want to make a room request, you tell them what you want, not a specific room. If you request a specific room and it's not available, the room assigner will not know what it was that you liked about the room you requested. If you want to make a room request, call 407-W-DISNEY or your
travel agent soon. I believe they may have started assigning rooms already for your stay. If not yet, then soon.
They refrigerated for us both groceries on the day we arrived as well as a bag for us on the day we were departing (we checked out at 8 AM but didn't have a flight until evening).
