Hi Melissa!
Welcome to planDisney! Thank you so much for reaching out to us hEAR with this great
Disneyland Resort vacation planning question! I'm a military spouse myself and am very thankful for the wonderful discounted
Disneyland Resort Hotel room rates as well as the
Military Promotional Park Hopper Tickets Mickey and his pals continue to offer up to our nation's heroes and their families. The answer could be tricky and depends on how the reservation is set up. I can't promise what will actually be done, but here are some facts and probabilities:
~At the current time, someone is going to have to stop by the front desk to complete the check-in process and pick up your room keys as this is the only way to gain access to your Disneyland Resort Hotel room. Over at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida,
MagicBands and even your phone can be used to open your guest room door after completing Mobile Check-in. Some of that technology is headed to Walt's original theme park resort later this yEAR, but not in time for your visit. All that the
Disneyland Mobile App will do is confirm the number of people in your room and place you in a virtual queue to be assigned a room faster than someone who isn't scheduled to arrive until much later in the day.
~If you have multiple people in your party, either staying in the same room or who've booked a second room also with the Military discount, who are due to arrive at separate times
and the reservation holder(s) is/are
not the military member: it's possible that both the reservation holder(s) and the military member may need to be present at check-in before room keys are issued. If this is the case, I'm happy to report that those who show up before the service member arrives
will be able to start using the hotel amenities even if they have yet to be issued a room key card. This includes the gym, luggage storage, *E-Ticket Club Lounge (*if you booked a Club Level room), and even the pool area. You'll want to pack your swim gear in your carry-on luggage as there is a changing and shower room in the pool deck, but it's quite small and I'd hate for the rest of your stuff to get wet.
~It's possible that the front desk team will issue the room keys to the guest who booked the room and allow the person with the Military ID to stop by later to verify. However, this really should be done on the day of check-in vs. a few days into your stay as that rate usually only applies to the days when the military member is actually a part of the group. This prevents groups from checking in on a Monday and getting the rate for the whole week and then the military member joining up on the weekend when they have base liberty. It also makes it fair to other military families who would like to book a room using this discount as there are only so many military discounts offered per night (usually 5) despite there being over 500 rooms at this one hotel. It's possible that the hotel could adjust the room rate for the nights that they
don't have a military ID confirmation to the room's regular price, so your best bet would be to have the military member arrive ASAP.
I hope that this helped to clEAR things up a bit, Melissa! Be sure to follow the
official planDisney Instagram account for even more tips and tricks. And if you have any more Disneyland Resort vacation questions, We're All Ears!
~Kristen