8 Important Rules You Didn't Know About Checking Into a Disney World Hotel

Choosing which Disney World hotel to stay in for your vacation is pressing enough, so what else can you do to make your trip easier once you arrive and even before? We’re glad you asked.

The lobby of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

With the holiday season now in full swing and the end of 2024 drawing closer with each passing day, we’re already anticipating the crowds that will flock to Disney World in 2025. So if you’re looking to start your Disney World vacation out the smoothest way possible, we suggest starting with changing the way you do hotel check-in first!

Checking in for your next Disney World vacation can easily be one of the most chaotic days of your entire trip unless you’re armed with a few tips and tricks to make it easier on you.

Disney’s Art of Animation

We’ve rounded up a list of the BEST tips we’ve put to the test and passing them along to you!

Mobile Check-in To Skip The Lines

If you’re not well acquainted with Disney World’s app, it can be one of the best tools you have at your disposal during your vacation. When staying at a Disney World hotel, you can opt to check in early (60 days in advance), note the time you expect to arrive, and bypass those long lines at the hotel’s front desk.

When you choose this option, you’ll recieve a notification from the app when your room is ready. This will also work the opposite way if your room isn’t ready yet and will update you once it is with another notification.

Key Cards & Maps Can Be Failsafe

Worried you wouldn’t be able to work the app or just feel better if you have a physical key card in hand to access your room? No worries — the front desk can help you out with that!

Sometimes it’s just the peace of mind being able to rely on a physical card when technology (or the ability to keep recharing your phone or Magicband’s battery) escapes you. It also gives you a chance to talk to the Cast Members at the front desk, which can be extremely helpful if it’s your first visit to this hotel or aren’t as familiar with where your room assignment is.

Room Not Ready? Don’t Think Your Vacation Is On Hold

Just because your room may not be ready, doesn’t mean you’re not ready to get your vacation started! One of our best Disney World pro tips is utilizing bell services at your hotel.

When you’ve arrived to the hotel, you can check your bags with bell services for storage to pick up later once your room is ready. And, boy is this one that we like to use A LOT!

FREE Water Park Ticket In 2025

We’ve hyped up this upcoming perk quite a bit but we can’t believe you’re getting a free water park ticket just for staying at a Disney World hotel in 2025!

Don’t forget about this hotel perk on your check-in day! Disney World hotel guests will each recieve a complimentary water park ticket valid on the day of check in to their hotel stay. If you didn’t have plans already for that first day you get to Disney World, now you will.

Room Requests

Making select room requests has never been easier than in the My Disney Experience app!

While they’re never a guarantee, Disney will do their best to grant your preferences to you if you make selections for requests like being on the bottom floor or getting a room near the closest transportation stop. The best part about this is you can also make these requests as you’re doing that online check in up to 60 days before you arrive for your visit.

Car Or RideShare? Let Your Hotel Know!

As you arrive to your Disney World hotel, everyone will be stopped at the security gate. When you arrive, let them know you’re there to check in for your stay and while you’re feeling chatty, also offer up if you’re driving yourself in and plan to park or arriving in a rideshare service like an Uber, Lyft, or taxi.

Since parking spaces at Disney World hotels are reserved for those staying with valid hotel stays and dining reservations, this will help them know how full their parking lots are and they can also help best direct you to either the drop off areas or where to park nearest to your room if you’ve already been assigned one!

Unlock Your Room Door FIRST

This might sound so trivial but the very first thing we’re begging you to do once you’ve been assigned a room is to unlock your room’s door.

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort club-level room

Without getting too much into our own personal nightmare stories we can tell you that unlocking your room door as soon as you can also unlocks a lot of other doors for you, too — quite literally. We’ve experienced being locked out of exterior side entrance doors and thinking we could return to the parking lot after being assigned a room as a returning guest in the shorter lines only to find that we’re not recognized in the system just yet. So, make coming and going from your hotel on you as easy as possible and unlock that door as one of the first things you do.

Bell Services Will Move Your Bags For Split Stays

Just like what we talked about before with asking Bell Services to hold your bags for you when you arrive, they also offer another lesser known service, too.

If you’re someone who’s switching hotel rooms through your vacation to another Disney World hotel, Bell Services can help with that. Just make sure to drop off your bags as early as you can to ensure the smoothest and quickest transfer to the new hotel because we’ve been told the longer you wait the harder it is to get that transfer completed.

We’re always looking for Disney World tips, tricks, and secrets to help make your visit get off to a smooth start! Be sure to stay tuned with us for all the latest!