Best time to check in during Halloween craziness?

[jolynne28]

OK this should hopefully be my last post about this trip! We check in Sunday, leave Wednesday. We are local-ish, probably close to 2 hours with the rv, so we are flexible on when we can arrive. I know check in is technically in the afternoon, but we've always checked in early during less busy times. I'm seeing posts on FB about people not even getting their site assigned until 5 pm b/c it's so busy right now. Does anyone have experience with this time of year and check in? If you could arrive at any time between midmorning and late afternoon, what would you do? TIA!

 

[Teamubr]

I normally try to arrive early (0700-0800) to get a pick of anything available. BUT, that is at a "normal" time. Last year I arrived on Sunday of marathon weekend and did the same, arriving around 8am. Unfortunately, the Fort was nearly full with all the runners that came in for the weekend and I had very little options. I'm 42ft long + an SUV and needed a long site. It took 3 sites before a supervisor pointed me to one that had just opened. Ironically, by 11am (check out time), half of the Fort was empty. If I had slept in and arrived between 10-11, I would have had lots of choices.

Halloween week is a whole different story. They will definitely have a spot for you since you have a reservation. Since you are arriving on Sunday, I imagine 2 different scenarios.

1st is your site was empty the night before since everyone wants to stay through Halloween and probably arrived on Friday or Saturday. 2nd is your site is occupied Sunday morning by someone that wanted to see the decorations and only had off the weekend. Option 1 says arrive early. Option 2 says arrive near checkout time.

j

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

I would just say have a plan B if you get there early and your site is not ready, unless you can be flexible with just about any site. There will be no place to park in overflow to wait. We once drove over to Animal Kingdom and parked in a lot when our site wasn't ready until close to 3pm, but we had requested that specific site and were willing to wait.

We check in Monday and are only an hour or so down the road and plan to wait for the text that our site is ready. Or leave the house around 2pm to head over if we don't get a text before then. I'd love to get in earlier, but I know this is the worst time to do it. I have no requests for any loop or site this time, so hope that will help get a text earlier.

We are in Preferred this time. But only 25' Class C, the first trip with the motorhome.

 

[jolynne28]

I would just say have a plan B if you get there early and your site is not ready, unless you can be flexible with just about any site. There will be no place to park in overflow to wait. We once drove over to Animal Kingdom and parked in a lot when our site wasn't ready until close to 3pm, but we had requested that specific site and were willing to wait.

We check in Monday and are only an hour or so down the road and plan to wait for the text that our site is ready. Or leave the house around 2pm to head over if we don't get a text before then. I'd love to get in earlier, but I know this is the worst time to do it. I have no requests for any loop or site this time, so hope that will help get a text earlier.

We are in Preferred this time. But only 25' Class C, the first trip with the motorhome.

The fb group I follow had some people say that they didn't get the text about their site being ready and had to check back with the front to actually get assigned, and that was closer to 5 pm. We've not requested a specific loop or site either, so i have no idea how this will go. We are thinking we'll get there as close to check out as possible and hope to have a place to hang out in overflow. If not, I have no idea what we'll do.

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

Let us know how it went with checkin today!

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

I just talked to guest services and they said they would not be sending any check in texts this week. Wish I had known, would have gone earlier. All sites are being assigned as people show up

 

[jolynne28]

Yes, I'm sorry for not replying, we were super busy the entire time! We showed up to check in around 12:15 pm, there was absolutely nowhere to park, so we drove through the loop we were told we'd be in and got our site text right as we went through, so very quick. We had a great spot in the 300 loop and loved halloween at the fort! It feels like a must do from here on out, nothing else will be as good.