Walk me through my split stay - please.

[LynneIL]

We're headed to WDW 4/20-4/27 and planning a split stay.

Can you help me walk through this?

We're staying at Pop from 4/20-4/24 and Art of Animation LM from 4/24-4/27.

1. I arrange for express check out on 4/24. This means that my bill will be delivered to my room by 7am. Then I call bell services to pick up my bags and transfer them to Art of Animation.

2. We head to Animal Kingdom and stay all day.

3. Around 5 or 6pm we take the bus to Art of Animation and check in. Our bags should be there by then, right?

4. Anything I'm missing?

5. Is this plan better than walking ourselves and our bags across the bridge and checking in ourselves before we head to Animal Kingdom? I'm assuming the walk is do-able, but not really enjoyable!

Thanks!

 

[Pakey]

Your plan is fine.

Two things to keep in mind. At your second resort, you will have to call bell services for delivery to your room; your bags won't automatically appear like they do with Magical Express.

2. It's the norm to tip bell services on both ends--when they pick up your luggage at your first resort and when they delivery your luggage at your second resort.

 

[su_A_ve]

We're headed to WDW 4/20-4/27 and planning a split stay.

Can you help me walk through this?

We're staying at Pop from 4/20-4/24 and Art of Animation LM from 4/24-4/27.

1. I arrange for express check out on 4/24. This means that my bill will be delivered to my room by 7am. Then I call bell services to pick up my bags and transfer them to Art of Animation.

2. We head to Animal Kingdom and stay all day.

3. Around 5 or 6pm we take the bus to Art of Animation and check in. Our bags should be there by then, right?

4. Anything I'm missing?

5. Is this plan better than walking ourselves and our bags across the bridge and checking in ourselves before we head to Animal Kingdom? I'm assuming the walk is do-able, but not really enjoyable!

Thanks!

Not sure about No.3 - no experience, but I thought that you had to check in first, before the luggage would be taken to the room by bell services. Also, verify that is indeed an option (ie transportation of the luggage from one resort to the other one, even if they are across a bridge). If doable, you need to tip not only bell services at POP, when they pick up your luggage the morning, but also bell services at AoA for the delivery of them.

Also, I assume you are NOT doing dining plan. If you are, both stays require package with tickets and that would cost more...

My .02...

 

[LynneIL]

We have a package with the POP stay that includes park tickets but no dining plan. So we have two reservations.

#1 Pop Century 4/20-4/24 with 6 day tickets
#2 AoA LM 4/24-4/27 with no tickets.

We don't plan on going to the parks on 4/20 or on 4/27.

Thanks for the reminder about tipping, too!

THANKS!

 

[mmmears]

It should work fine. If you walk across the bridge, you use up some of your time, but if you want to, there's no other reason not to do it.

Bags are delivered to the resorts after 3pm, but we've never had to wait after 5pm for them to arrive. And the other posters are correct -- you have to call to bell services to have them brought to your room (and they won't do it unless you are in the room at the time).

 

[the who #3]

this is what we call resort hopping, like park hopping. we have done this many times, even as many as 3 or 4 resorts a trip. thats a little much, but sometimes it gets you where you want to be.

it really is easy. leave luggage with the resort and tell them where to deliver it. disney resorts do a great job of this. go on your way to the parks with the knowledge that your next room will not be ready until 4pm or later. when your leave the park or restaurants, go to your new resort.

enjoy!

 

[elaw]

If we are using Disney to transfer our luggage, we take a small backpack for important stuff (e.g. medicines) with us to the parks so that we have access to them if needed.
More recently, we've just been taking a cab first thing in the morning to the next resort and transfer our own luggage. We also check into the next resort early. (you can still check in early ... even if the room is not ready ... they will text you when it is). That way we know our luggage is available to us at bell services of the new resort when we want it. This method really seems to minimize the whole "Split Stay ... Lost Day" syndrome that others sometime speak of. We can usually take care of everything an still make it to rope drop. Since you only have to walk across a bridge to the next resort ... we would probably do that.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

You seem to be point on. But I'm pretty sure if you wanted you could walk your luggage and stuff right across the bridge yourself and just have AoA hold them for you.