Considering a split stay and need advice

mastermind307

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 24, 2010
I finally decided that my DD and I will be taking a trip at the end of May/Beginning of June 2018. I want to rent points to stay at BWV because of the location. I purchased 7 day park hoppers. I normally don't buy the park hoppers, but UT had a great deal so I went ahead and got them this time. I figure we would use the hoppers staying at BWV since we can walk to 2 parks. DD (who will be 11 on the trip) wants to stay at AKV. So I am thinking about doing a split stay between the 2. I'm thinking of staying 4 nights at BWV and 3 nights at AKV. I want to rent points for each stay.

My question is, which one should we do first? We have stayed at BWV before, but have never even visited AKL.
 
We recently stayed at AKV and loved it, but I spent so much time with the kids at the parks that I felt like I missed out on a lot of the things the resort had to offer. Soooo...if you stay at AKV, be sure spend some time enjoying the resort.
 
They are both amazing resorts but very different from each other. I think you will enjoy both of them! I would perhaps do BWV first then AKL. You can spend the first 4 days doing long park days. Then, once you move to AKL, if DD loves it and doesn't want to do the parks as much, you won't feel like you've missed out on too much park time. Also, it will give DD something extra to look forward to on the trip. Start out the trip and BWV and let the excitement for AKL grow while you are there. It might be kind of a bummer for DD if you do AKL first and she loves it and then has to leave for a resort that she might not like as much.

If you've never done a split stay, they are super easy. Just pack up your bags the morning you are going to transfer to the new resort. Check out of your room and drop off your bags with Bell Services and ask them to transfer them to your new resort. I would plan the transfer day to be a park day, as you may not have access to your new room until later in the afternoon. When you get ready to check into the new resort, just stop at Bell Services at the new resort to get your bags. You can either pick them up right then and there, or they will bring them to your room for you.

I hope you have a great trip and that DD loves AKL!!!
 
We recently stayed at AKV and loved it, but I spent so much time with the kids at the parks that I felt like I missed out on a lot of the things the resort had to offer. Soooo...if you stay at AKV, be sure spend some time enjoying the resort.

I'm glad to hear to you liked AKV, I've heard good things about it, but just can't bring myself to book an entire stay there. That's why I'm considering a split stay. My DH isn't coming with us this time, so it's the perfect time to try and split stay, there's no way I could do it if he was coming. If I go through with it, I'm not going to tell DD we're staying at AKV for part of our trip, I want to surprise her!

They are both amazing resorts but very different from each other. I think you will enjoy both of them! I would perhaps do BWV first then AKL. You can spend the first 4 days doing long park days. Then, once you move to AKL, if DD loves it and doesn't want to do the parks as much, you won't feel like you've missed out on too much park time. Also, it will give DD something extra to look forward to on the trip. Start out the trip and BWV and let the excitement for AKL grow while you are there. It might be kind of a bummer for DD if you do AKL first and she loves it and then has to leave for a resort that she might not like as much.

If you've never done a split stay, they are super easy. Just pack up your bags the morning you are going to transfer to the new resort. Check out of your room and drop off your bags with Bell Services and ask them to transfer them to your new resort. I would plan the transfer day to be a park day, as you may not have access to your new room until later in the afternoon. When you get ready to check into the new resort, just stop at Bell Services at the new resort to get your bags. You can either pick them up right then and there, or they will bring them to your room for you.

I hope you have a great trip and that DD loves AKL!!!

At first I was thinking about doing AKV first, but after thinking about it and reading your advice, I do think doing AKV second would be the way to go. We can hit the parks heavy in the beginning of our trip and then have a more relaxing time when we get to AKV and spend some time at the resort enjoying it.

I am a little nervous about doing a split stay because we'll be "homeless" for almost all day. But if we go to a park for the majority of the day, we should be ok. Like I mentioned above, since DH isn't coming on this trip, it's the perfect time to try a split stay. So if something were to happen and our luggage gets lost or something I won't have to worry about him complaining!

The more I think about doing the split stay between BWV and AKV, the more excited I get about it!
 


I agree with the "BWV , parks, AKL, relax" thinking. As far as being homeless, AKL has lots of places to just hang out or things to do if your room is not ready. And it's so interesting, it's not like staring at a wall for an hour. Here is a list of the resort activities http://kennythepirate.com/wp-content/uploads/akl_recreation.pdf

We have taken our DGDs to AKL and it's just amazing. We have always gotten the savanna view. But even if you have standard view, there are plenty of places to watch animals.
 

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