Split Stays? Yay or Nay?

[Daycogs]

We got to WDW during Christmas (including Christmas Day). This year our trip is 12.23 to 12.30. We usually stay at the Wilderness Lodge (my fave). This year my 6 y/o and my husband want to stay at the Poly. I don't want to abandon my WL! I suggested a split stay as a compromise. My husband is getting upset and keeps informing me we will lose an entire day to changing hotels. Has anyone else done this? Was the experience a positive one? Any feedback you could give would be most welcome!

 

[mmmears]

We do it all the time, mostly because we can't choose just one resort. It really isn't that bad if it's something you want to do. The downside is that on moving day you wont have a room between checkout and 3pm (unless you get lucky and your room is ready early). Some people hate switching -- it's really a personal preference kind of thing.

You can either take a taxi from #1 to #2 in the morning and have them hold your bags... or give #1 Bell Services your luggage, ask them to move it to #2, head to a park, then check-in at #2 in the afternoon. Don't expect your luggage until sometime between 3-5pm. We have done both and would do it again.

 

[dansdad]

You most definitely will not loose a day. We have done a couple of split stays. As the pp mentioned, you can go the taxi route, but we feel we don't lose any park/enjoyment time by doing it the other way. We like to have bell services come get our luggage at resort 1, check out of resort 1, head to a park for the day, head over to resort 2 around 4 or 5, check in, have bell services bring our luggage up to us, freshen up and head to dinner. Easy peasy.

 

[elaw]

We do them all the time ... we pack up first thing in the morning, move our own luggage via taxi and check into the new resort. If the rooms not ready, they will text you when it is. It takes us less than an hour and we can usually still make rope drop at most of the parks.

 

[bumbershoot]

Especially for just one move, I say "yay". You will not lose an entire day, unless your days consist of just sitting in the room. Of course, if that's what DH wants to do, then yes, he'll lose many hours of doing that.

 

[THpoohbear]

I'm in the minority here, but split stays are not for us. We are not light packers and we are schleping babies around, so for us, it does take most of the day packing up ”camp” and then resetting everything up. I wish we were more efficient, but reality is we are not, so I think we'll try to avoid split stays in the future. I'd ask yourself how long does it usually take you to pack and settle into a room, and that equals about the time you'll ”lose.”

 

[THpoohbear]

I'm in the minority here, but split stays are not for us. We are not light packers and we are schleping babies around, so for us, it does take most of the day packing up ”camp” and then resetting everything up. I wish we were more efficient, but reality is we are not, so I think we'll try to avoid split stays in the future. I'd ask yourself how long does it usually take you to pack and settle into a room, and that equals about the time you'll ”lose.”

 

[WDW in Pearls]

I'm in the minority here, but split stays are not for us. We are not light packers and we are schleping babies around, so for us, it does take most of the day packing up ”camp” and then resetting everything up. I wish we were more efficient, but reality is we are not, so I think we'll try to avoid split stays in the future. I'd ask yourself how long does it usually take you to pack and settle into a room, and that equals about the time you'll ”lose.”

Agreed, and I don't even have kids!

 

[kimysbug]

No way, my life is hectic enough
When I go to WDW, I unpack and "move" into my home away from home.

I find it relaxing, and easier to be in one hotel for length of stay.

We love WL, but Poly is my favorite.

Have fun

 

[Wood Nymph]

We would not do a split stay. We like to move into a resort and stay there. I would hate having to be without a room in the afternoon.

I feel your pain over not being at your favorite resort. We love the BC but were going to the WL for the first time because we were ready to try something new. Even though we missed the BC we loved the WL, of course, .

If your DH has his heart set on the Poly then it would be a good time to give it a try. A lot of people love it. You can always come back to the WL another time.

 

[trishadono]

We got to WDW during Christmas (including Christmas Day). This year our trip is 12.23 to 12.30. We usually stay at the Wilderness Lodge (my fave). This year my 6 y/o and my husband want to stay at the Poly. I don't want to abandon my WL! I suggested a split stay as a compromise. My husband is getting upset and keeps informing me we will lose an entire day to changing hotels. Has anyone else done this? Was the experience a positive one? Any feedback you could give would be most welcome!

I would not do a split stay with all four of us when kids were younger but dd and I do mom and me trips and do split stays easily.

Since the resorts are close in location I would recommend these options.
1. Plan on going to MK the day of switch. Go to park for your rope drop. Leave at 10:30 or so and take boat back to WL, grab luggage and take taxi to poly. Check in, if room ready great if not, go back to MK with your already acquired fast passes or enjoy Poly.
2. Take luggage to bell services first thing morning and ask for transfer to poly. Go to any park that morning. Take bus when leaving to Poly and then check in. If at MK take boat or monorail.
3. Take taxi to poly first thing, check in leave luggage and take transportation to park of choice.
4. One parent checks in at poly one parent moves the luggage. Example when arrive at MK that morning one parent takes monorail to poly and check in. You would have a good chance of room being ready. Then at 10:30 or so someone can go alone and get luggage and transfer via taxi to poly or just have bell services do it in the morning. Depends if you need your stuff.

I did a split last April and waited until night before to decide. Dd didn't want to take taxi so at 8am we gave luggage to bell services for transfer and took bus from CSR to MK. At 11 or so we left MK and took monorail to poly and checked in. We had our swim stuff in a large purse in case we needed them but our room was ready. Also our suitcases arrived around 2:30.
Hopefully this helps. Enjoy! I love both resorts, I think you will be surprised how much fun swimming and seeing castle at same time really is. And the tiki lights, monorail, etc!

 

[mickeynut1]

We got to WDW during Christmas (including Christmas Day). This year our trip is 12.23 to 12.30. We usually stay at the Wilderness Lodge (my fave). This year my 6 y/o and my husband want to stay at the Poly. I don't want to abandon my WL! I suggested a split stay as a compromise. My husband is getting upset and keeps informing me we will lose an entire day to changing hotels. Has anyone else done this? Was the experience a positive one? Any feedback you could give would be most welcome!

I wouldn't do a split stay for 7 nights, but that's just me. We stayed 6 nights in December 2010 and did a 2/4 split and it just wasn't worth it to us. The first 2 nights went by very fast and by the time we were getting settled at the 2nd resort, it was time to pack up and go home. It is very easy to change resorts as Disney will move your luggage, but the week you will be there is the busiest time of the year for Disney so I'm sure the resorts will be very hectic with very little to no chance of your room being ready until later in the afternoon. Good luck deciding, but I wouldn't do a split stay (especially that time of year) unless my trip was at least 10 nights. But FWIW, we have stayed at both the WL and Poly and while we do love the WL, the Poly is our absolute favorite and I think you would have a great time staying there .

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

I agree with hubby. It is a busy time of year and I doubt your room at the second resort will be ready early so you will lose a day. Why go through all that work.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[herb102211]

Weve done split stays all of the time and dont mind them. Again, I think its personal preference. The only downside, as PP mentioned, is that you will be without a room between 11am-3pm on the day you check out of WL (although you may get lucky and your room could be ready at the Poly before 3pm). We usually pack a backpack with some things we might need for the day, incase we need something before were able to get our luggage and our new room!

 

[AllThingsFigment]

We've done a split stay before. We split our 2 week trip between 3 resorts. At the time we only had one child and it wasnt a problem switching resorts however now with 3 kids and a lot more stuff we probably won't be planning another split stay for awhile. The only thing we might do is a room only for one night if we decide to come in a day early but chances are we would do it at whichever resort we decide to book for the rest of our vacation.

If it wouldn't be hard for you guys to pack up and move rooms I would go for it as long as you don't mind not having a room between check out and check in.

 

[bumbershoot]

But being without a room for a period of hours doesn't = losing a day, though. Most people will be at the park, or waterpark, or at a pool anyway.

I'm not sure I would do that split, but it doesn't mean you lose a day.


For me, personally, moving to a new resort (as long as I'm not doing as many different rooms as we did on our last trip...that was too many but it was a multi-faceted trip to begin with and I couldn't get the number of changes down) makes each stay feel LONGER. And I'm one who fully unpacks at a resort because it makes me feel moved in and like the stay is longer.

 

[poofiesdream]

We don't want to unpack, then pack again, then unpack, then pack again to leave. I'm on vacation! We just go have dinner and explore the other resorts we like. We take turns at staying at a different one each trip. Makes looking forward to the new resort on the next trip fun.

 

[dgagnon519]

We always do split stays and have done it with a party of 8. We have done a split of 5 hotels. This time we are doing a split stay of 6 resorts over a 17 day time. People say we are crazy, but we like it and my kids love trying the different places. We plan accordingly and never lose real time in switching. We have lost maybe in loading driving and unloding. This time we will not have a car so will depend on the resorts moving our luggage. We never really unpack so it works ok for us. We consider the resorts like an attraction.

 

[darkwing818]

No way, my life is hectic enough
When I go to WDW, I unpack and "move" into my home away from home.

I find it relaxing, and easier to be in one hotel for length of stay.

Have fun

I know alot of folks do it, but we agree as noted above.

We did do a split stay once, but that was because we couldn't get 2 weeks in same room (& yes for us it was a pain to pack & unpack)

 

[Hooked On The Mouse]

We prefer to ONLY do split stays. It makes the trip seem longer and more varied to us, and we don't have any problem packing and unpacking, which for our family of 5 probably takes about 15-20 minutes. We've also never lost time due to moving either; we just make sure everything is in a bag when we walk out the door of resort #1 in the morning, and bell services moves everything from one resort to the next for us. Whenever we get to the 2nd resort in the evening, we just go to bell services there and pick up our luggage or tip them to bring it to the new room. On our last split we were out of AOA at 7:35 am and got to AKL at 9:30 pm. All of the time in between we were at parks and restaurants having a great time. However, just because it works well for us, doesn't mean it will for your family. It just depends what kind of vacationers you are.