Favorite Split stay strategy

[DVCSunDevil]

I think that one depends on your traveling party. We always head to the park on transfer day, usually not a full day, a few hours and then head back to the resort. We pack our bathing suits in backpacks and head to the pool until we get the room ready text. Rooms usually not being ready until later is our reasoning for heading to the parks for a while first

Thanks for sharing! That was our plan. We were going to pack our stuff the night before and then drop off our bags to transfer on our way out to the park in the morning. We were going to put bathing suits in our backpacks for later in the day in case we decided to leave the park early, or in case we just wanted a break by the pool. Seems pretty straightforward. Once we get the firsthand experience of transfer day I am sure we will pick up some tips on things to do differently next time.

I am excited to do the split stay, but I am not sure I am excited about two different transfers. We only did the Hilton because of the amount of Hilton points I have saved up (and we are banking DVC points into next year for a planned trip to Aulani), but having to transfer twice in one trip seems a little much. I am glad we don't have a park day planned on the Hilton-Poly transfer day, because Hilton doesn't transfer bags to the other resorts. I think going forward we will probably do split stays consisting of 3 days at one resort and 4 at another resort, but we'll see how this 3 resort trip goes next month.

 

[dropd]

I'm curious why folks are anti-park on transfer days.

Without a car it's nice because there's always park-to-resort transportation. Drop bags off at bell services for transfer, head to park, wait for "room ready" text, leave park whenever you want to get to your new room.

With a car is also nice. We still typically use bag transfer even with a car, but especially when you're staying somewhere you can walk to a park from, it's great because you can either spend your last morning in the park near the first resort, or drive early (before your room is ready) to the second resort and go to the nearest park from there. We have always done a park on transfer days. It's also great for park hopping, for example check out of BLT, walk to MK. Walk back to BLT parking lot mid-afternoon, drive over to BCV, park, get settled, then amble over to Epcot for a little bit in the evening. Perfect day.

 

[Wedgeout]

A Park visit on transfer day was great for us. Bell Services was called in morning. Came to room tagged & took luggage. Grabbed first bus from VGF to Animal Kingdom. Bus trip for lunch at Sanaa. Bus from there to Hollywood Studios. Later received room ready notice. Went to BCV, got luggage from bell services, and into our next villa. EPCOT that night.

 

[LilyJC]

We love split stays and used to have a two night minimum. This past trip I was so sad to leave CCV that I wished I’d kept an extra night there. Maybe we’re changing to three nights minimum?! We always end at BCV and usually park hop each day we’re there. This past trip we also rented a car for the first time ever on a WDW trip, and I think we will from now on. Loved it!

 

[CarolynFH]

We’ve always done parks on transfer days - we’re not big on swimming or on sitting by the pool, and we usually have our own car. So usually we drive to the new resort, and more than once we received the room number text while we were on our way or shortly after arrival, so we didn’t even need to check our luggage. We won’t have a car on this upcoming trip, and we scored an early lunch ADR at Space 220 lounge, so we’ll let Bell Services transfer our bags and Owners Locker and use Disney transport to Epcot. I plan to book an ILL$ for Remy for sometime after lunch, and hopefully our villa at BWV will be ready shortly after that.

 

[JLong06]

BWV (5 nights)/Poly (2 nights). My wife and I love Epcot and our kids love HS for Star Wars. We only rode the bus 1 time to AK during those first 5 days of our trip. It was very nice.

I planned our resort switch day based on what we wanted to do park wise. We changed resorts on a Wednesday (MK late night hours) so we wanted a resort that we could get to without taking a bus. We woke up early, took bags down to bell services and then walked to HS for the early morning access. Went back to poly around 2 and ate at Capt. Cook's until our room was ready. Our room was ready right at 4 and we unpacked and relaxed until about 8 when we headed over to MK for the night.

 

[gisele2]

"and not to stay at the resort with the larger rooms 1st if you’re traveling with people who might need to point that out a lot if you move to a smaller space."

So people made commented on the size of the room ?

 

[js]

Our favorite split is VGF/BWV, but really any monorail resort plus a BWV or BCV. We do many split stays and this is my favorite. I prefer at least three nights each.

I am hoping for this split stay in the fall and will most likely have to WL and stalk, but I'm fairly confident of my stalking skills LOL

I want to do four nights at GF (my dd and grandson will be with us) and seven nights at BWVs when it is just my mom and me.

 

[gisele2]

If we can go we have a 5 days at BCV (2 bedroom) , then 3 days at BLT (grand villa) this summer. Reading all the comments is reassuring. It will be our first split stay. I rented a studio for my sister and brother in law, hope they will be happy with the smaller standard studio at BLT on the second part of the trip...

 

[Leight19]

I'm curious why folks are anti-park on transfer days.

Without a car it's nice because there's always park-to-resort transportation. Drop bags off at bell services for transfer, head to park, wait for "room ready" text, leave park whenever you want to get to your new room.

With a car is also nice. We still typically use bag transfer even with a car, but especially when you're staying somewhere you can walk to a park from, it's great because you can either spend your last morning in the park near the first resort, or drive early (before your room is ready) to the second resort and go to the nearest park from there. We have always done a park on transfer days. It's also great for park hopping, for example check out of BLT, walk to MK. Walk back to BLT parking lot mid-afternoon, drive over to BCV, park, get settled, then amble over to Epcot for a little bit in the evening. Perfect day.

Can’t speak for others but when going on trips I typically would do like 13 days with 10 day park hopper. With this some day will be an off day and since transfer days can take longer in morning it makes a good break point. In future trips if I have AP I almost certainly would go in park but IMO it’s just the math of maximizing time in park and what can do with rope drop when have day tickets.

 

[Yensid67]

Last July my wife and I spent one night at OKW and one night at SSR. It was a pretty amazing three days.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We’ve always done parks on transfer days - we’re not big on swimming or on sitting by the pool, and we usually have our own car. So usually we drive to the new resort, and more than once we received the room number text while we were on our way or shortly after arrival, so we didn’t even need to check our luggage. We won’t have a car on this upcoming trip, and we scored an early lunch ADR at Space 220 lounge, so we’ll let Bell Services transfer our bags and Owners Locker and use Disney transport to Epcot. I plan to book an ILL$ for Remy for sometime after lunch, and hopefully our villa at BWV will be ready shortly after that.

Thank you! As someone who has my first split stay coming up next month, I was curious why there were comments suggesting not to do a park on transfer days. I should have asked why they thought that, lol. We have Epcot planned for our Poly-BCV transfer day. Give bags to Poly bell services in the morning for transfer to BCV...go enjoy the day at Epcot...head to BCV later in the day to grab our bags and go to our room. Seems pretty straightforward.

 

[CarolynFH]

Can’t speak for others but when going on trips I typically would do like 13 days with 10 day park hopper. With this some day will be an off day and since transfer days can take longer in morning it makes a good break point. In future trips if I have AP I almost certainly would go in park but IMO it’s just the math of maximizing time in park and what can do with rope drop when have day tickets.

Yes, ticket types and length of stay certainly make a difference. We have APs and have never stayed longer than 8 nights, usually only 7.

 

[KristaZ]

I love doing split stays - usually we do a split between MK area and Epcot area. 3+ days at each is my preference, but I've done 1 night stays as well - usually when we just want to check out a new resort. We almost always do AK on transfer days so that it's the only day we have to use the bus system.

 

[kilik64]

Good info in this thread!

We are doing our first DVC trip in March, BLT and BCV split stay, doing 3 nights at each. Swap is on Wednesday. We have planned to do a non park day. Will try to sleep in some (will see how that goes with two littles...), maybe have a QS breakfast (contempo cafe, maybe jump on monorail to get that bread thing at captain cooks at poly?) then check out and drive over to BCV and hang out by the pool until the room is ready.

I have read on here that we will need to stop by the front desk to get a card to get pool access at BCV, hopefully no issue with that.

We are driving so most likely just do luggage myself.

 

[MICKIMINI]

We like two or three nights in a studio at AKV Jambo House and then OKW for another ten nights in a one BR. In May we'll be at BLT for two nights and then BWV for ten nights.

 

[kandlsutton]

DH and I did a multi-resort split stay a couole of years ago: Coronado Springs-Destino Tower (1), Yacht Club (4), BLT (1), CCV (1), AKV (1). With the 1 night stays, we found we didnt have much time to enjoy the resort or settle in. But got to experience some of the DVC resorts, and now we own at multiple resorts.
This years F&W trip will be 4 days at VGF and 3 days at RIV. Next year’s spring trip will be 4 days RIV and 3 days CCV. The 4 day stay is in a studio to save some points and end In a 1BR for 3 days. I definitely don‘t want to downsize at the end of the trip and getting the 1BR allows us to do laundry. Probably would prefer 3 in studio and 4 in 1BR, but didn’t want to borrow points, especially since spring 2023 will be after my banking window.
We have done parks on transfer days, but I don't like waiting for your room ready text when you're tired and ready to shower and change for dinner. And right now, rooms don't seem to be ready before 4pm and could be much later. I would do Epcot on transfer day with since it hasn't been opening until 11am (10:30 early entry).
Transportation definitely plays into where we stay, so we want an Epcot/Studios resort plus either MK or AK and avoid the buses as much as possible. When we bring the young adults, not sure that we will do split stays with all the luggage and extra time to get them all up and out of the room, but we all fell in love with RIV and we may end up having to work RIV into each visit.

 

[rlk]

My two favorite split stay were:
1. I night BLT(studio), 9 nights BWV (one bdrm), 3 nights BLT (one bdrm)
2. 3 nights BLT, 3 nights AKV Kidani, 6 nights BCV - all studios

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

We're booked for Poly/AKV in March and AKV/VGF in August. I'd like to try an Epcot resort on a future stay.

 

[Sandisw]

I'm curious why folks are anti-park on transfer days.

Without a car it's nice because there's always park-to-resort transportation. Drop bags off at bell services for transfer, head to park, wait for "room ready" text, leave park whenever you want to get to your new room.

With a car is also nice. We still typically use bag transfer even with a car, but especially when you're staying somewhere you can walk to a park from, it's great because you can either spend your last morning in the park near the first resort, or drive early (before your room is ready) to the second resort and go to the nearest park from there. We have always done a park on transfer days. It's also great for park hopping, for example check out of BLT, walk to MK. Walk back to BLT parking lot mid-afternoon, drive over to BCV, park, get settled, then amble over to Epcot for a little bit in the evening. Perfect day.

We don’t do it because getting up and out early and then not having a place to go until 4 pm just didn’t fit us. We are not commando park style visitors anymore.

So, we do parks late the night before and people just sleep in. Some of us do some pool time as well. Then it works out perfect for a Disney Springs trip and a nice lunch somewhere.

Much more relaxing day, no rushing to get packed up either. Depending on who I am with, it also is a day we do our visit to the spa.