When it’s checkout day, you’d better be prepared to leave your Disney World hotel ON TIME.
A room at the Polynesian
The last day of your Disney World vacation can be a whirlwind of catching up on sleep, locating all your belongings strewn across your hotel room, frantically packing your suitcase, and trying to get out of the room by the dreaded 11AM deadline. But if you’re the kind to try and use every last second of that checkout morning, you might encounter a problem in Disney World.
They May Knock on Your Door Early
We’ve been staying in Disney World hotels for DECADES, and one problem that we’ve begun to encounter with increasing frequency in recent years is that housekeeping Cast Members will come by your room and knock on your door early on checkout day. We’re not talking about 10:50AM here, folks. Some of our team have had their doors knocked on as early as 8:30AM!
Wilderness Lodge
And if you were planning to sleep in on the last day of your trip, that could be a big bummer. One of our team members said that the early morning knocking woke up her kids when they’d all been hoping to have a relaxing morning.
Port Orleans — French Quarter
Even if you manage to rest through the first knock, we’ve often had experiences (and so have our readers) where housekeeping keeps returning to knock throughout the morning. It can be rather frustrating and make you feel rushed on the last day of your vacation.
What You Need to Know About Housekeeping at Disney World Hotels
But the Good News Is…
This may seem troublesome, but we do have some good news for you. Checking out of your Disney World hotel is SO easy. You can use the My Disney Experience app to check out as you’re leaving — simply go to My Reservations or your Hotel Account to start the process. And even if you forget, you’ll be automatically checked out from the hotel at 11AM.
Bay Lake Tower
And if you’re heading to the parks or Disney Springs (or wherever else in the area), you can drop your bags off at the hotel’s bell services desk when you check out. They’ll hold your luggage for the entire day if need be, so you can enjoy Disney World until it’s time to leave.
Luggage Services queue at All-Star Movies
Make sure you’re efficient with your time on the morning of checkout — they’re turning over those rooms at a rapid pace! We recommend making a checkout day plan ahead of time so you’re not racing against the clock.
Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney World updates.
The New Hotel Check-Out Rule You Must Plan For on Your Last Day in Disney World
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Why are the wait times so long right now? Is it because we are close to Halloween? The first week of October the lines were great.
Guests don’t realize that Mousekeeping depends on guests departing earlier than 11am in order to get the rooms turned around for those arriving. If everyone waited until 11am, then you’d be hearing complaints that rooms aren’t ready for 4pm check-in. We are all excited when arriving early and our room is ready and hate when it’s not. That doesn’t happen if everyone procrastinates until 11am to leave.
We have had Disney (and other hotel) housekeeping staff knock on our door or otherwise make so much noise, hours before checkout time, that we woke up. Usually, at Disney we are not (or at least I am not) sleeping in on checkout day. We drive, we tend to take longer visits less often now, and our preferred accomocations are ones with full kitchens. So it takes us a while to pack up the car. My advice is, if you want your room to be available to you until checkout time, if at all possible, don’t take your phones or MB+s out of the room until checkout time (IMO getting a room key card on check in is always a good idea). That is way eaiser said than done for some, but at least that way Disney will not track you as being elsewhere. Yes, yes, I’m ABSOLUTELY team “I should have use of the room until checkout time” – but the problem is, or at least Disney thinks that the problem is, that people DO leave their rooms well before check out time and don’t let Disney know. Rooms they could be cleaning hours earlier for arriving guests. Disney isn’t staffed to clean all of the rooms between 11 and 3 or 4, and many guests arrive hoping to access their rooms early. I have also seen and heard first hand of guests leaving their rooms hours late, without approval. That type of thing really throws off Disney’s schedule in terms of being able to offer rooms to arriving guests, and managing their staff in a fair way. I also believe that Disney made things worse for themselves on this point with the first day water park offer. If there’s one place more than any other that most guests are going to want access to their rooms to change their clothes for, it’s water parks.
Just curious – is this the case if you have the Do Not Disturb sign on the door?
I just had this experience this past weekend! I was loading my car up (I’m only an hour and half drive away from WDW) when I got a call from the front desk asking me if I had vacated the room yet. It was 9AM. I still had some of my things in the room and housekeeping thought I had left already and forgot them. I told them that I was in the parking lot loading my car. I went back and got my last few things and left the room and checked out online. As soon as I was out of the room I saw housekeeping, who had been waiting and watching, open the room and begin cleaning it.