I tried that on my recent trip (later in the evening after all the parks had closed and such) but they only had 2 people working the desk and I stood there for 30 minutes. I was sooooo frustrated since what I wanted to do should have only taken like 3 minuets. One woman in front of me was trying to coordinate picking up some packages and the other guy was checking in and had a million questions about RotR BGs... and the cast member was giving them so much wrong information. I just bit my tongue because I was ready to flip out, lol!
This is the second straight trip where I had that experience (it seems they are really cutting down on staffing at the desks) so I'm all in on paying as I go now, lol! I'm glad your experience has been different though
I miss the days when there were a bunch of CMs at the desk waiting to greet you at all times of day!
EDIT: I wonder if there's a difference here at the convention resorts (since my experiences are at YC and CR) where more "business type" people are checking in later in the evenings and aren't skipping the desk vs. other resorts where there's more people doing online check-in. Food for thought...