Arriving early and don't know what to do with luggage?

[ScarredAngel6]

(I apologize in advance if these kind of questions aren't allowed in this forum, or has already been asked)

Hi all!
So my parents and I are taking our first trip to Disney World. We have everything set up and we'll be arriving New Years Eve. We're so excited because we're not only going to DW for the first time, but we're also staying at a Disney resort hotel for the first time. We're going to stay at POP Century!
When we set up everything in August, they said to check in at 3pm. We were okay with that, until today, when we realized that we're flying there, arriving at 5am, and we don't have anywhere to put our luggage. We want to get to the Magic Kingdom at 8 for Extra Magic Hours. Especially since we're doing one park per day so we want to stay in the parks as long as possible.
What do we do with our luggage? Will POP allow us to leave it there until our room is available, or can we somehow get a room when we arrive? When we go to Disneyland, we usually drive so we're okay with leaving our luggage in the car until check-in. But we won't have a car this time... This will be our first trip where we're flying so we don't exactly know what to do haha!

Thank you!

 

[dansdad]

(I apologize in advance if these kind of questions aren't allowed in this forum, or has already been asked)

Hi all!
So my parents and I are taking our first trip to Disney World. We have everything set up and we'll be arriving New Years Eve. We're so excited because we're not only going to DW for the first time, but we're also staying at a Disney resort hotel for the first time. We're going to stay at POP Century!
When we set up everything in August, they said to check in at 3pm. We were okay with that, until today, when we realized that we're flying there, arriving at 5am, and we don't have anywhere to put our luggage. We want to get to the Magic Kingdom at 8 for Extra Magic Hours. Especially since we're doing one park per day so we want to stay in the parks as long as possible.
What do we do with our luggage?

You can store your luggage with Luggage Assistance.

Will POP allow us to leave it there until our room is available, or can we somehow get a room when we arrive?

You can check in as early as 6:00AM. Granted your room most likely won't be ready that early, especially on New Years Eve. But as I stated above, you can leave your luggage with Luggage Assistance. Then when you get back from the parks, you can either stop by and grab your own bags. Or call down to Luggage Assistance and ask that they bring them up. However, with it being a very busy time you might have to wait a bit for that to happen. Hope you have an awesome trip!

 

[kappyfamily]

As stated above, super easy! When you checkin to the hotel they will show where to go to check your luggage at the hotel. I do this wherever I travel in the US. Our flight lands at 6am, I’ve found 50% of the time our room is ready early, so you never know, it’s worth a try! Have fun, you will love DisneyWorld!

 

[Karen46]

Don’t worry about the luggage it will be fine . We do the same thing to maximize our time by getting there early. You can get on ME and have them bring the luggage to your room or pick up your luggage put it on ME walk the checked bags and carryons over to bell services and go enjoy. We have done both because we always check our carryons with bell services it doesn’t really matter if we check the checked bags also. They are wonderful and no stress.

 

[Lewisc]

You're flying in. Why not use DME tags?. Let Disney get your luggage, transport them to POP, store them then deliver them to your room, even if you're not in the room.

 

[sndral]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/dme-and-rac-faqs.944813/
Here's the thread for Disney's magical express which is complimentary transportation offered by Disney from Orlando airport to Disney resorts. As part of that service Disney will transport your luggage for you. Typically it will arrive in your resort room a couple of hours after you have access to your room. You sign up for DME, they send you yellow tags which you put onto your checked luggage and then it magically appears in your room. If you don't get the yellow tags you can just give them your claim tickets when you go to the DME boarding area in the terminal and they'll round up your luggage and send it to your resort & deliver it to your room.
You can also just claim your luggage at the airport and take it w/ you on the DME bus. The ride takes about an hour from the airport to your resort.
Once you arrive at your resort you can leave your carry on w/ bell services (also your checked luggage if you chose to retrieve it from the baggage carousel at the airport yourself) and go to your park of choice then reclaim your luggage from Bell services when you return to your resort by stopping by the bell services area or calling for them to deliver it to your room.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Be glad you are arriving that early in the morning on NYE. Traffic from mid morning on around many parts of WDW is NO JOKE.

Hope you have a good trip.

 

[Kimberle]

super easy. Use Bell Services. You'll see their desk by the front of your resort. They'll give you a claim ticket and you can pick your bags up later. I've done this several times. (I take ME, so they hold my checked bags and deliver them to my room when it's available.)

Also, often rooms are ready earlier than check in time. When you make your room requests, don't put any special requests and note you'd like your room when you arrive if possible. They can't always do this, but sometimes it works.

 

[lanejudy]

MK is open until 1am on NYE - so if you are maximizing your park time by staying until close, I strongly recommend taking advantage of Magical Express to handle your luggage. I believe POP only has a skeleton crew at Luggage Assistance (their bell services) at night. That might make it harder to get your bags if not returning to the resort until very late. With ME, you check your bags at your home airport and don’t have to collect them at MCO. They will be collected and taken to WDW for you, and delivered directly to your resort room. Bags will be waiting in your room when you return from MK.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[ClapYourHands]

Pop has great bell services! We started our split stay at Pop, and on our departure day wanted to get to AK extra early to rope drop during EMH. We dropped off our bags at 6:30am at Pop to be delivered to the next resort, and no problems at all. We just went about our day, and our bags were waiting for us that afternoon.

 

[ScarredAngel6]

Thanks everyone for your answers! Quick question, what are DME tags? Haha I looked it up and all I can find are people asking when they mail. Do they come with our magic bands?

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks everyone for your answers! Quick question, what are DME tags? Haha I looked it up and all I can find are people asking when they mail. Do they come with our magic bands?

The tags that will be sent so Disney knows to pick up your bags
They are not sent with your bands
I take it you have not read anything about Disney's Magical Express service? You probably want to
It will answer questions you don't even know you will have yet
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/magical-express/