Has anyone ever driven to a Disney resort hotel and gone to the front desk and asked for a room just like you would do on any road trip?
1) Would the Disney parking guards even let you into the parking lot if you told them this is what you were going to do?
2) Each day, Disney surely must have some no-shows, early departures or just some empty rooms -so has anyone ever tried it? And what was the result?
You can, yes. However, you would have to pay full rack rate which is ridiculously high at Disney hotels. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it unless you just have money to burn, but it is possible.
Often you will see billboards on the side of I-4 advertising rooms available at WDW, along with a number to call.
We did this on a drive down a couple years ago. We changed our plans last minute and wanted to stay on property so I called a couple hours before we arrived and did snag a Cars Family Suite with a military discount for that night.
I wouldn't recommend pulling up to one of the hotels randomly because you may need to go to several before you find one with vacancy. That day I called, at that point there were literally only 3 choices of resorts with empty rooms. It was a GF suite, BW Villas and the AoA family suites. That was midweek at the end of August.
You can ,but you will not want to due to the rate you will pay. I did this once and the rate was super high so I went and sat in a chair and booked it on line for half the price. then walked back to the counter to check in..lol It is really silly you have to pay so much if your there in person. That should be a little perk for a discount, but nope!
On one of our trips we were leaving after our weeklong stay. On the way out we decided to have lunch at Wilderness Lodge before starting the drive home. DH decided he really missed WL ( our favorite Disney resort) and headed straight to the check in desk to see if any rooms were available for us to stay one more night. He could have paid rack rate at the desk, but when he asked about the military discount he was told to call the reservation number to make the reservation. We called from the lobby and booked a room for that night.
We have called from the car a few hours out several times. We tend to leave home a day before our reservations start and most times we drive straight through, arriving the night before our reservations. We have even called once we get on property and have never had any issues getting something. It helps that we can use the military discount last minute. Otherwise we would be stuck paying rack rates.
I actually saw a couple do this one time.
They had no ressie, and tried to just get a room at the check-in counter. They were told that they couldn't give them a room, and that they would have to call Disney to do it.
So, the couple called the reservations line, booked the room, then went back up to the counter to check in.
Several years ago, we arrived earlier than expected driving from Michigan. We decided to see if POP had rooms, went to front desk, the cast member dialed the number, handed me the phone, said make sure you ask for a discount. We got a room for a great rate-more than 40% off. You can always try, but it may not always work.
We called from the car back in '05 when we were about 5 hours away. We got a great, affordable room (under $200 at the time) at WL. It is still my favorite room location at the WL to date.