Split-Stay pro's I have questions!

properlywarnedyebe

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 24, 2006
We just changed our ressies again- we now are staying at POP 12/7-12/10 & AKL 12/10-12/13. We've stayed at both resorts, like both very much & wanted to cut some costs. We have never done a split-stay before and I have a million questions, the CM just told me to ask the Concierge at POP, but I figured I'll give the all-knowing DISsers a try. How does the split stay work? Do we all have to be present to check-in? How does the park ticket/ key to the world work? Can they still send packages to the resorts from the parks, and do they make you buy two sets of mugs during the stay? it's not the cost of the mugs we just don't need buy them twice...Has anyone had problems switching mid-stay? Anything to look-out for? Any answers will be helpful! Thanks!!!:goodvibes
 
We will be doing our first split stay next year. It is two reservations, two resorts so two key to the world cards. You will have to physically check in at the 2nd resort but I don't know if you all have to be there. You can use the same mugs, the mugs are no longer resort specific, they are good for your length of stay. We have AP's but I'm assuming that your tickets will be separate. Don't know about package delivery, I'm sure you can depending on how long you will be at the resort.
 
We just changed our ressies again- we now are staying at POP 12/7-12/10 & AKL 12/10-12/13. We've stayed at both resorts, like both very much & wanted to cut some costs. We have never done a split-stay before and I have a million questions, the CM just told me to ask the Concierge at POP, but I figured I'll give the all-knowing DISsers a try. How does the split stay work? Do we all have to be present to check-in? How does the park ticket/ key to the world work? Can they still send packages to the resorts from the parks, and do they make you buy two sets of mugs during the stay? it's not the cost of the mugs we just don't need buy them twice...Has anyone had problems switching mid-stay? Anything to look-out for? Any answers will be helpful! Thanks!!!:goodvibes

I love split stays. I don't know that I'm a pro but my best suggestion is to let bell services move the luggage. Then both my husband AND I are happy. I would think they would that the packages being sent to the room would be cut off at the same time (the day before checkout??) just like you were regularly checking out of the hotel. I've checked in before without everyone being present. I'm not sure about the mugs and will be interested to read that one as well because we'll be at three hotels this year. The only con is that your luggage might not arrive until late in the day. You call that morning, they come pick them up when you may or may not be in the room and they'll deliver them to your next hotel. You do need to tip the bell staff but that is worth it to me not to hear my husband complain about being the pack mule! :)
 
Your park tickets can be transfered from your first set of room cards to the second - no need to carry around 2 different cards for the second "leg" of your trip. Split stays are very simple to do, we love it!
 


Your park tickets can be transfered from your first set of room cards to the second - no need to carry around 2 different cards for the second "leg" of your trip. Split stays are very simple to do, we love it!


Good to know!

Thanks, Ray
 
I love split stays. I don't know that I'm a pro but my best suggestion is to let bell services move the luggage. Then both my husband AND I are happy. I would think they would that the packages being sent to the room would be cut off at the same time (the day before checkout??) just like you were regularly checking out of the hotel. I've checked in before without everyone being present. I'm not sure about the mugs and will be interested to read that one as well because we'll be at three hotels this year. The only con is that your luggage might not arrive until late in the day. You call that morning, they come pick them up when you may or may not be in the room and they'll deliver them to your next hotel. You do need to tip the bell staff but that is worth it to me not to hear my husband complain about being the pack mule! :)

Thank you so much for your answers! I am totally stressing, I didn't want this to be more of a pain for my family. We will definatly do luggage transfer & bell services. We will not have a car. We can't wait! Thanks again!
 
You're welcome - don't stress!! My girls and I love it because we don't have to pick just one resort and my husband likes it now too since he doesn't have to carry everything. Enjoy!
 


We have done it several times (the last time was two weeks ago!).

Call bell services to pick up the luggage. Usually while my husband waits for bell services I head over to the new resort to check in; we then contact each other and meet at a park. It is real easy!
 
I would add one idea since we used to do split stays all the time. We would have bell services call a taxi for us, I would ride over to the new resort with luggage while DH went to the parks with the kids. Bell services at the new resort retrieves the luggage while I check us in. Sometimes the room would be ready so I would get us all unpacked (talk about stress-free for DH!) and then meet up with them at the parks. If not ready, at least I always knew my luggage was ready and waiting.

We had the unfortunate experience once of using bell services to transfer our luggage and we didn't get it until after 6 p.m. Never again!!!

Just an idea...the taxi ride was usually about $10 and well worth it IMO.
 
We've done a split stay, forced into it, Poly didn't have all the nights we wanted so we opted to try AKL for the first 3 nights then move to the Poly for the remainder 9 nights. It was our first time at AKL, good thing it was in the beginning of our stay, did not like AKL, couldn't wait to move to the Poly to get on with our vacation.

That said, we stayed at the AKLand transferred to the Poly, it wasn't how we like doing a vacation. We like checking in, unloading our groceries and putting our stuff away in the drawers and setting up the room to our liking. Making it our home for 10-12 nights. well, at the AKL, we lived out of our bags not unloading anything to make move day easier, total pain. Moving day we went down to bell services very early to get this trnasfer over with and on to our vacation. We had perishables in the transfer but bell services never stated they don't make the move or deliver your things until after 3 pm.

That wasted a whole day since we were not prepared to being without our stuff for the day, no swim suits, beverages and the like. Others might get into this split stay thing but we know what resorts we like and rather just pick where we want and if another place is to our liking, stay there on another trip. Hopping around is nuts, its a wasted day. No more for us, glad we were forced into it and got the feel for it. If its your bag, more power to you. We have no ambition on staying at every resort on property but we're into just 3 and pick one for each trips, so far WL has won for the last 10 stays.
 
We had a POP/SSR stay last year and didn't enjoy the split stay very much. While the check in/check out process is exactly the same as two seperate stays... that wasn't the hassle.

What the hassle really is, is if you like the dining plan. We heavily rely on the dining plan. And, it is only available if you purchase the ticket/hotel combo. As you probably know... when you have tickets, they get cheaper as you get more days. So, for the second part of the stay (second resort) you won't be able to get the dining plan. Another option is to get only a one day base ticket for each person and add the dining plan on but that does result in additional cost.

If you don't purchase the package and have the annual passes or DVC, you can add on the dining plan only. If you purchase the package, purchasing the dining plan only for a room only booking is not allowed.
 
We've done split-stay a few times. Only way we can try all those great Resorts.

I agree with Poster who said $10 on a cab for transporting luggage is WELL-spent.
We had an awful move from Polynesian (left about 10am) to PopCentury. Our luggage (after some phone calls) arrived after Midnight. With 4 children & our next day scheduled to be big day at MK meeting with other relatives from around 2 countries this was not fun. Perhaps this luggage transfer goes a lot smoother if you are moving from Value Resort to Deluxe Resort (better service at the latter).

When I went with kids, but poor DH stayed home to bring in the $ I was sure to take cab for our transport with luggage from POR to CSR. A lot nicer.

Easiest split-stay was when we drove ourselves, of course! I think most of us on this board like to be in control of our vacation, no?

Have fun at your split-stay trip. With proper planning we love it!
 
What the hassle really is, is if you like the dining plan. We heavily rely on the dining plan. And, it is only available if you purchase the ticket/hotel combo. As you probably know... when you have tickets, they get cheaper as you get more days. So, for the second part of the stay (second resort) you won't be able to get the dining plan. Another option is to get only a one day base ticket for each person and add the dining plan on but that does result in additional cost.

I'm sorry but this is going over my head. We were there last week and stayed on our DVC. Maybe thats why it was different for us? We had the dining plan the whole trip but the catch was that your credits do not carry over to the next resort. They expire at midnight the night of checkout. So you have to purchase the dining plan at each resort. The problem is that you have to watch how you have them planned out to use so that your credits for your first resort are used up the night you check out.
 
I'm sorry but this is going over my head. We were there last week and stayed on our DVC. Maybe thats why it was different for us? We had the dining plan the whole trip but the catch was that your credits do not carry over to the next resort. They expire at midnight the night of checkout. So you have to purchase the dining plan at each resort. The problem is that you have to watch how you have them planned out to use so that your credits for your first resort are used up the night you check out.

Yes, that's why I mentioned it is completely different if you have the DVC. We have gone with the DVC and it is no problem because you can add on the dining room package to your booking.

However, if you book through Disney directly or through a travel agent... you can not buy the dining plan unless your purchase both the room and tickets. This is why many people who have APs sometimes buy a 1 day base ticket, so they can get the DDP.
 
We are doing a split stay for the first time in October. We are DVC and staying within the same resort, but we needed a larger room for the second half of the trip since my brother is joining us.

Does bell services have a fridge to keep my perishables cool while they are holding my luggage for the new room?

TIA!
 
Yes, that's why I mentioned it is completely different if you have the DVC. We have gone with the DVC and it is no problem because you can add on the dining room package to your booking.

However, if you book through Disney directly or through a travel agent... you can not buy the dining plan unless your purchase both the room and tickets. This is why many people who have APs sometimes buy a 1 day base ticket, so they can get the DDP.

Ah! Okay thanks!
 
We are doing a split stay for the first time in October. We got the 40% code so we are very fortunate to be able to stay 4 nights at the Poly (for monorail for our 6 yr old-we've never stayed at the Poly b4 -very excited) and AKL 4 nights-MIL has never stayed here). I was surprised to find it added to the cost as we are also doing deluxe dining and need 2 sets of park tix. We found the best way was to have 8 day MYWPH tix on the Poly. We then had to pay for 1 day/1 park tix on our AKL stay, which adds about $75 pp to the total trip cost. We chose to do 8 days on the Poly tix (only $3 more each than a 7 day) since then we will not have to use our AKL card to get into the park and if u don't use the ticket, there isn't an expiration so we technically will have unused 1 day park passes. Anyway, it is a bit of a bummer that it costs more to split your stay if your're doing dining...
 
... We then had to pay for 1 day/1 park tix on our AKL stay, which adds about $75 pp to the total trip cost. We chose to do 8 days on the Poly tix (only $3 more each than a 7 day) since then we will not have to use our AKL card to get into the park and if u don't use the ticket, there isn't an expiration so we technically will have unused 1 day park passes. Anyway, it is a bit of a bummer that it costs more to split your stay if your're doing dining...

So you could save that ticket, and upgrade it at a later stay when you are not using the Dining Plan. This way the extra day would not realy cost you anything!

Ray
 
Ray, What do you mean by upgrade & how do you do this? This would be a great option as we really don't ever see the need for a one day ticket as any future visits will be longer than a day and we'd like the park hopper option.
 
Ray, What do you mean by upgrade & how do you do this? This would be a great option as we really don't ever see the need for a one day ticket as any future visits will be longer than a day and we'd like the park hopper option.


See reply #6 in this post:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684

It is a sticky about MYW Tickets. A great explanation, even I understood it.

Basicly you can add days, park-hopper, waterparks... to any MYW ticket as long as you do it within 14 days of first use.

Ray
 

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