2 disney hotels /1 trip

[bex7583]

has anybody moved from one disney hotel to another on the same trip , im trying to sort my budget trip out but not liking the budget part so was thinking splitting our stay u between 2 disney hotels

the virgin holiday brochure says you cant use a dining plan if you do that though , is it possible to stay in 2 onsite hotels and still have a dining plan if you book direct with disney

 

[Vixster]

I'm not sure your allowed to use the dining plan of you have 2 disney hotels perhaps pick a moderate hotel and upgrade to the Disney dining plan from quick service

 

[2Tiggies]

You can use multiple onsite hotels and still use the dining plan but DDP is linked to your park tickets. The only way to do this is to book your two stays as two independent reservations and that would entail buying park tickets twice. Not very cost effective. Doing this you may be better off looking at the US site as at least there you can do free dining with a one day base ticket (and you could then buy 21 day ultimates as stand-alone tickets to use when you are there). However the down side is that the US reservations promotions tend to only be released 3-6 months prior to the start of the period for which they cover so it would incur the stress of waiting to the last minute, if your nerves can take it!

Split stays have been a consideration for me for a long time, but the DDP issues surrounding it have been the sole deterring factor.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

As far as i'm aware the only way you could do it would be to book your room+7day ticket+DDP, then for your 2nd hotel you'd have to book room+7 day ticket+DDP again.So having to buy two seven day tickets wouldn't make it worth your while, as you can't transfer a 14 day ticket or DDP from one hotel to the next, and you can't have a DDP without buying park tickets.

 

[Fantasia Sam]

As the previous posters have advised the only cost effective way of doing a split stay would be either to book as a Room Only with Ultimate ticket no dining.

Or if you really wanted the dining then another cost effective way is to book through the United States and maybe get an Annual Pass then you can add dining to annual passholder room only rates at both the resorts you pick.

Maybe you could do just one booking for say 10 nights with the dining plan through the UK site and then do a room only for the last 4 nights and plan to do some out of pocket dining those nights or save your offsite dining for then when you won't have the dining plan?

 

[2Tiggies]

Another thing you could do, since you're going for quite a long time is not to do a 50/50 split.

I forget now how long you ended up deciding to go for but say it's 21 nights.

You could do 14 nights with park tickets and DDP at one resort and then go free of DDP or book the other one on the US site as a separate reservation (you could do this with or without tickets). If free dining is released for your dates in the US after you have booked, you can call and ask if there are any promotional rooms at your resort of choice with no penalty and apply the promotion to your reservation.

I note that you have a large family so for you, free dining would probably be a better discount than a room discount (something else they offer over certain dates, put only release the promotion closer to the time). What are your resorts of choice? Do you have an idea of where you want to stay and how you want to split it, or are you still at the stage of determining your options?

Planning is such fun

 

[tinkerpea]

We desperatly wanted to do a split stay this yr between SSR and either Wilderness lodge or AKL but the price for a family of 6 needing 2 rooms and No ddp was just too much!
We would of had to buy tickets for each hotel and buying extra tickets for 6 people just wasnt worth it,Boy I cant wait till we are posted to the states so i can get an Annual pass and visit all the hotel i want for shorter stays

 

[crabbie1]

We have normally done 2 hotels and like others have said do a stay say 14 nights(if 21 night stay 10 if 14),then the remainder at another. If one of your party upgraded to an annual pass you can get 10% off(20% with premium annual pass) on select resturants. You can also buy the tables in wonderland card which gives 20% off food and alcohol. I think this is a $100 for an ap holder. U have to remember though tht they will take the 18% gratuity automatically if using TIW card and if 6 or more in party but as we normally pay the tip it saves splashing out $20 on top of the meal.
Sorry if iv confused you. Which hotels u looking at?

 

[Elise79]

We have normally done 2 hotels and like others have said do a stay say 14 nights(if 21 night stay 10 if 14),then the remainder at another. If one of your party upgraded to an annual pass you can get 10% off(20% with premium annual pass) on select resturants. You can also buy the tables in wonderland card which gives 20% off food and alcohol. I think this is a $100 for an ap holder. U have to remember though tht they will take the 18% gratuity automatically if using TIW card and if 6 or more in party but as we normally pay the tip it saves splashing out $20 on top of the meal.
Sorry if iv confused you. Which hotels u looking at?

Only one person needs an AP to get the discounted room rate and the ability to add the DDP without buying tickets.

The discounts for AP holders haven't been as good this year as in past years. A couple of years ago 45% was quite common now that is 35%. The food discounts are usually 10% and mostly lunches. You get discounts on merchandise too.

I personally do not like split stays and will avoid at all cost if I can!

 

[2Tiggies]

I personally do not like split stays and will avoid at all cost if I can!

Why is that? Is it the moving around that you find a pain? I certainly wouldn't want to move more than once and would only do it on a long stay but I'm keen to hear your thoughts. In spite of the statement I have just made, I would still love to do one - it's just not cost effective.

 

[wayneg]

Why is that? Is it the moving around that you find a pain? I certainly wouldn't want to move more than once and would only do it on a long stay but I'm keen to hear your thoughts. In spite of the statement I have just made, I would still love to do one - it's just not cost effective.

We only move if we have to. This next trip we can only do 21 nights on DDP so our first 3 nights will be offsite. Last year we did a cruise in the middle so again we had to move around but its not something we would do if I didn't have to. We hate moving, packing everything, loading the car, unloading, checking in, unpacking.
It takes a good half day of our holiday to move hotels, complete waste of time if we are happy where we are in the first place. I have never been in a hotel and thought I wish we were at ?????
Others like to move on after a few days, we prefer to get settled somewhere and not move, we are all different.

 

[Elise79]

Why is that? Is it the moving around that you find a pain? I certainly wouldn't want to move more than once and would only do it on a long stay but I'm keen to hear your thoughts. In spite of the statement I have just made, I would still love to do one - it's just not cost effective.

We have done several over the last couple of years as I thought it would be a good way to try different hotels.

I came to the conclusion that it really wasn't worth the hassle. I like to get to our hotel unpack and make it 'home'. I find like Wayne you lose half a day at least - packing and unpacking, checking in etc. I also dislike not having a room to go back to during the day as we like a break and swim of an afternoon.

In June we were cruising so had resigned myself to having to pack but when we cancelled I though I would try and get the 2 weeks in one place but that hasn't worked out so we will be moving. I can live with it as it is 8/5 split and I will just throw stuff back in the cases/lockers to move.

 

[zippy99]

We are doing our first split stay this year 6 nights at RoyalPacific Universal and 9 days at Caribbean Beach Disney. If I am honest we would have booked 14 nights at OKW as a preference, however, late booking meant the UK free dining offer was no longer available. These forums lead me to book on the US site where I coul get free dining but starting on 25th August - we therefore decided to book 9 days at CBR and thought we could do 5 nights offsite on I-Drive.

When we booked our flights we were able to snap up a bargain by going a day earlier for 15 nights so we then had 6 nights offsite. We managed to get a deal offer with universal so are spending our offsite time there.

Although this is not how I initially planned our holiday I am quite excited at the prospect of a split stay - better still our transfer day is a Saturday often a busy day queue wise regardless of the theme park so works well for us moving on this day.

As they say things happen for a reason and circumstance has led us to a split stay and I think it will be quite an adventure!

 

[2Tiggies]

So those of you who find the moving around a nuisance and time-eater, it really boils down to inconvenience?

I'm still similar attitude to Zippy in that it would be an 'adventure' for us just once. Our intentions of staying at different resorts amounted to nil when we fell in love with POFQ in 2010. I thought if we spent the last two nights at the Poly (park tickets would have run out by then so we would really have the opportunity to spend time at the resort) it could be an option. I did ring Disney and ask about it but I would have to cancel those nights at POFQ so we would lose our dining plan for the last two days, meaning we'd have to add on the cost for food as well as the £50 penalty for amendment, plus the cost of the Poly (less the POFQ rate). Still playing with it in my mind but in hindsight, perhaps I should have thought of this before I booked

The lovely CM persuaded me to let her do a quote to change our entire reservation from POFQ to the Poly and it came up with a difference of a meagre £4000-odd for a standard room for me and DD, on top of the £2100 already due for the existing reservation. Needless to say I kept checking my online ressie details to make sure she hadn't accidentally changed it

 

[Elise79]

Yes it is an inconvenience however there are things I would rather do with my holiday time than pack and unpack cases!

I am hoping this move goes smoother than the last however at least I already know we love both resorts

 

[Fantasia Sam]

I agree in an ideal world I would NOT move resorts however our points never seem to run to the amount that we want now that I love to stay... no... NEED..... to stay in a one bedroom LOL

Last year we did Beach Club Concierge to Beach Club Villas shorter stay at the Concierge I'm a packing queen - I can pack my room up in less than an hour and then we usually plan on something that will keep us occupied until 3pm or later then head back and again I can unpack in less than an hour as I have everything organised

2010 we did BCV then AKL Concierge 8/7 then later that year I only had a few points left so when I went solo I did Swan for 8 nights or so and then Saratoga for the last 5 and that was a killer move to be honest just because I was on my own and hauling everything up to my room from the car was a royal PITA

This year I've got to do another switch but this is for work reasons - first week is holiday with one of my friends and right now we're in a Little Mermaid Room (depending on discounts this may change) then the next week I don't officially know yet where I am but will have to switch all the same.

I'm a bit Type A when it comes to packing and unpacking and I manage the whole process with careful planning of the day of the switch within about 3 hours tops!

 

[2Tiggies]

I'm a bit Type A when it comes to packing and unpacking and I manage the whole process with careful planning of the day of the switch within about 3 hours tops!

Well one thing is 100% certain: You would never want to take a holiday with me. I pack the night before and most years, have rushed home from a park quickly to shove all our belongings and into the suitcases 20 minutes before check out time. In 2010 I did a surprise trip for my DD but being so bent on keeping it a secret, told nobody meaning I couldn't enlist anyone's support - so as a full time working single parent, I finished work and 1 pm and ran home to pack before schools came out at 3

So maybe the packing is not such an issue for me with moving resorts

 

[paulh]

16 nights 4 Disney resorts this year OKW,Vero,BLT,SSR, most was 5 think on a 14 night stay
Paul

 

[crabbie1]

16 nights 4 Disney resorts this year OKW,Vero,BLT,SSR, most was 5 think on a 14 night stay
Paul

One behind you paulVWL offsite and BLT
I was dreading the packnunpack thing last time as we did 2 plus DCL last november but we packed in a way tht we had our bags planned.
At least with the offsite stay we can just take enough for the 4 days and have the rest sent to BLT. Did this for the cruise and worked fine.
Suppose being the first visit as dvc member I wanted to try 2 new resorts.
Horses for courses

 

[tinkerpea]

We are doing our first split stay this year 6 nights at RoyalPacific Universal and 9 days at Caribbean Beach Disney. If I am honest we would have booked 14 nights at OKW as a preference, however, late booking meant the UK free dining offer was no longer available. These forums lead me to book on the US site where I coul get free dining but starting on 25th August - we therefore decided to book 9 days at CBR and thought we could do 5 nights offsite on I-Drive.

When we booked our flights we were able to snap up a bargain by going a day earlier for 15 nights so we then had 6 nights offsite. We managed to get a deal offer with universal so are spending our offsite time there.

Although this is not how I initially planned our holiday I am quite excited at the prospect of a split stay - better still our transfer day is a Saturday often a busy day queue wise regardless of the theme park so works well for us moving on this day.

As they say things happen for a reason and circumstance has led us to a split stay and I think it will be quite an adventure!

Hi we are doing pretty much the same we have 15 nights at SSR and was ment to have 6 nights of site but it was £360 cheaper to fly out day earlier so we now have a 22 night holiday and have 7 nights to find off site,

We was always going to do Universal for a few nights then I-drive for the other nights that way we could look at the shops go to Outlets and do Seaworld 1st time with the kids very excited (well oldest went at 4 months dont think that counts) and boys was pretty little only 3,3,5 when we last did Universal so really cant wait to take them there!God they will be 7,7,10 time flies

Anyways can i ask what deal you got for Universal as we are now thinking of doing maybe 1st night cheapest hotel we can get nearest to Universal as we wont get in and settled till around 7 dont see the point in paying for an expensive room when we will crash early,Then transfer across to HRH or one of the other Universal hotels for 3 nights then do another cheapish I-drive hotel for the last 3 nights to do Seaworld and outlets as we dont think we will shop when we go Disney side as its too far!....

Cindy.