Advice Needed:11 nights, 3 different resorts?

[jdms808]

Aloha everyone!

I'm planning a trip from 5/31-6/11 and thinking about doing the following:
4 nights at AofA. Followed by
5 nights at the Dolphin. Followed by
2 nights at Riverside

The main reason is I want to stay at the Dolphin (we can get educator's rates) but want to take advantage of the Magical Express Airport/resort service, hence book ending DW resorts.

My questions are:
1) Is sending our baggage to the Dolphin and from the Dolphin gong to be a hassle?
2) What is the best way to reserve 3 different rooms (myself: DW and the Dolphin directly or Dreams Unlimited)
3) Can I get the dining plan for all 11 nights where only 6 of them will be at a DW resort?
4) Say I get 10 day park hopper passes. When I check in on day one, all 10 days will be on our room card (or Magic Band). Does this mean that I need to keep the room card our entire stay? Or, can the front desk "transfer" the park passes to our new room card/MB?

Thanks all in advance.

Thanks!

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Aloha everyone!

I'm planning a trip from 5/31-6/11 and thinking about doing the following:
4 nights at AofA. Followed by
5 nights at the Dolphin. Followed by
2 nights at Riverside

The main reason is I want to stay at the Dolphin (we can get educator's rates) but want to take advantage of the Magical Express Airport/resort service, hence book ending DW resorts.

My questions are:
1) Is sending our baggage to the Dolphin and from the Dolphin gong to be a hassle?
2) What is the best way to reserve 3 different rooms (myself: DW and the Dolphin directly or Dreams Unlimited)
3) Can I get the dining plan for all 11 nights where only 6 of them will be at a DW resort?
4) Say I get 10 day park hopper passes. When I check in on day one, all 10 days will be on our room card (or Magic Band). Does this mean that I need to keep the room card our entire stay? Or, can the front desk "transfer" the park passes to our new room card/MB?

Thanks all in advance.

Thanks!

Not that I don't think the above CAN'T be done - but no way would I do this. First of all - The Dolphin is not a Disney property - So there is no way you can get the Dining Plan on the nights you are staying there. I am not sure how a 3 room resort (one not a Disney resort) would impact your Magic Bands. I do not believe Disney will transport your luggage to the Dolphin or from it. (I could be wrong on that one).
By staying at the Dolphin mid-stay..it will be VERY expensive to get the Dining Plan at the other 2 resorts. You will essentially have to book 3 separate reservations, all requiring separate deposits. And if you want the Dining Plan at AOA and POR, you will have to have tickets included in BOTH reservations to add the dining plan to both. Super expensive and not worth it financially.

It will be a very costly vacation breaking it down this way just to have ME back and forth to the airport. It would probably make much more financial sense to stay at the Dolphin, skip the Dining Plan and rent a car.

 

[tcherjen]

I have looked into the educators's discounts and it seems that by the time they add everything up, room, resort fee ect I am back to the price of a moderate. I could be wrong though.. We just stayed at POR the last spring break for 6 nights. I loved it!!

 

[mom4graceandlogan]

There is no problem getting your bags transferred to the swan and dolphin.Disney will do it gladly. As you can see in my signature we are old pro's at split stays. Your tickets and room at disney resort should be fine on your MB. We have bought tickets that extended through our Dolphin stay no problem. Should be the same with the MB. Your only issue will be dining. You will only be able to get it for the first part of your stay. To get dining at the end of your stay you have to have a new package purchase( makes no sense but is why we dont do dining) After years of turning up our nose at Swan and Dolphin, we tried it and our in love with it. In our opinion it can not come close to a disney moderate, especially with the location. And while no dining plan, I think they have better restaurant quality. The Swan and Dolphin thread is a great place to post more questions. My only possible suggestion would be to do just two stays. 1st half disney resort and second half Dolphin. Then just pay to get back to airport. My husband took a one way car to the airport from BC and it was not ridiculous and was cheaper than Mears. But if you do three way split, 11 days is a good amount of time to do it in. If you have small children it will take a bit longer, but we LOVE split stays and getting the feel of both resorts and sometimes cost dictates our choices to. I did one 3 way stay POP BCV and WLV no problem pregnant, with a 4 and 8 year old and my husband was not there for first part. Unless you have an attachment to POR I know I would be dissappointed to leave Dolphin to go there just for the airport transfer. We have stayed there and POFQ, POFQ is great but Dolphin is better in my opinion.

 

[jperrot1]

For a stay this long/type you might want to consider looking into purchasing one annual pass. that annual pass will entitle you to purchase a Tables In Wonderland membership which gives you 20% off sit down restaurants and they add 18% tip automatically to your bill. So, you never have to worry about adding tip. You could get that discount, and still stay at the Swan/Dolphin in the middle of your trip. I don't know the prices on the annual pass or the tables in wonderland, and I'm not sure if it would be less expensive or not for your particular trip. It's just something you could took into.

 

[mom4graceandlogan]

That is actually how we did many of our split stays. Only one person needs to buy the ap and tables in wonderland card. You can also but the dining plan if you are booked with an ap rate. But you really need to work the numbers especially on the tables in wonderland card it is 100 but 20% off all sit down meals and at resort bars and I believe aoa food court. They have an ap rate at dolphin but your rate may be better and general codes have been as good as many ap rates. Keep asking questions and the boards will help you figure it out. Table in wonderland card good at some swan and dolphin restaurant. Again only person making reservation needs to get ap and tiw card. You can only get it with ap or Florida resident. Others can buy regular tickets