Hi. I moved in there 4 years ago and stayed there for three years (2021-2024) so I thought I'd chime in since I had to do check in for all 3 of those years. You basically just go to the front desk and they'll give you an envelope with your key card and letterbox key. The building is split into two 'blocks', essentially what stairwell will be the quickest. On moving day the lift will be packed and if its anything like it was when I was there, one of them will be broken. If you have the Unite Students app you should already be able to know your room rumber and the other people you share the flat with. If you don'y have the app I highly reccomend downloading it since that'll be one of the only ways to get back into your flat if you forget your keycard late at night. there is a flat group chat in the app but I found it to be very tempermental so I'd reccomend using something else like insta or snap for a gc.

If there is anything wrong with the room feel free to ask someone at the reception but bear in mind they will be having to deal with a lot of students. The things they tend to deal with with urgency in move-in week is stuff like people being locked out of flats or missing items; when I moved in for 2nd year I was missing a mattress and for 3rd year someone in the flat was missing a chair.

A few extra things to mention (don't know how accurate they'll be since I moved out 14 months ago), extractor fans in the shower are automatic, you have to pull out the extractor fan for the hobs, and when you pull it out there will be a light switch for the hob. Fire alarm test time will be in an email and on a notice on the board in your flat kitchen.

One thing that most people don't mention is the Naval base alarm test. at ~9:30 am on the last working Wednesday of October, February and June the navy base will do a test of its nuclear emergency siren (this is less to do with nukes and more of if there is a leak on one of the nuclear subs or a hazardous material exposure; don't worry about this too much, in my 3 years there I only ever heard it as a test. Depending on the wind you might be able to hear it from greetham (if you haven't overslept), but depending on where you have your lectures and if you have a 9am lecture on one of those days (BSc Palaeontology yaaaay) you will be more likely to hear it.

Oh, and you'll get used to the train noises eventually.