First Time Split Resort Stay-anything to be aware of?

[Eponine178]

Hi all-

In June of 2019 we will be doing our first ever split resort stay. First five days at POFQ (stayed here before) with family and friends, and then just my family moving over to the Poly (first stay) for the last two days.

We plan to Uber/Minnie Van between the two resorts with our luggage so no worries about transportation. In my research so far I understand that I will have to book dining reservations at two separate times, but FPs should be able to be done all at one time (we will have 7-day hoppers which will be turned into APs during our stay).

Anything else that we will find different in our planning due to having reservations at two resorts? Any advice or tips to make the transfer as easy as possible?

 

[SuperPreparo]

We did our first split stay last year, and everything went very smoothly. The only problem we had was our own fault. We had all attached our own credit cards to our magic bands at the first hotel, and that's how we paid for everything. For some reason we didn't realize we would have to do this again at the second hotel. We went to Blizzard Beach on the transfer day and ended up with no way to pay for our lunch. Fortunately we got some major pixie dust! When the manager was unable to fix it for us she comped our food. We won't make that mistake this year!

 

[kniquy]

We plan to Uber/Minnie Van between the two resorts with our luggage so no worries about transportation.

If you have no plans for your transfer day then certainly you can move your stuff yourself, but if you want to go to a park then i would just drop your bags at bell services (at your first hotel -making sure they are all labeled with tags) and then just head off to a park for the day returning to Poly later in the day. Chances are your room won't be ready when you get there, so unless you have plans at the resort I would just go to the park while you are essentially "homeless".

 

[Wood Nymph]

Anything else that we will find different in our planning due to having reservations at two resorts? Any advice or tips to make the transfer as easy as possible?

If you remember to do online check in for both resorts you shouldn't have any problems making room charges on your Magic Bands. You should also get a room text when your room at Poly is ready.

 

[monica9]

I don’t want to untrude on your thread but we are planning on a similar split stay. We are doing POR 2 nights and 5 nights Poly. We were going to just check out of POR and head to AK from POR that day until around 6 and have them transfer our stuff over to Poly. Is their a Minnie van that would pick us up from POR and bring us to Poly or should we stick with our plan? We are going sept 2019 so let me know how your split goes when you go in June!

 

[Babsy]

I don’t want to untrude on your thread but we are planning on a similar split stay. We are doing POR 2 nights and 5 nights Poly. We were going to just check out of POR and head to AK from POR that day until around 6 and have them transfer our stuff over to Poly. Is their a Minnie van that would pick us up from POR and bring us to Poly or should we stick with our plan? We are going sept 2019 so let me know how your split goes when you go in June!

You can go ahead with your plan if you don't need anything in your luggage until late in the day - early evening. Luggage sometimes takes a long time to get transferred. Whenever I might need something, then we grab an Uber or taxi and bring our bags to the second resort ourselves before starting out for the day. It does slow down getting to the theme parks a bit, but only by maybe an hour. Usually the room is not ready early in the am so we just go about our day from there.

Either way, the process is easy. Personally, I prefer to let Bell Services move the bags. We just give them the bags on our way to the parks, then take Disney transportation to resort number two at the end of our day. Call Bell services when we get to our new room and have the bags delivered. Easy, peasy, IMO. We have used both methods without any problems, unless you consider getting the bags late is a problem.

We love split stays!!! Enjoy!

ETA: There is probably a Minnie Van, but it would probably be less expensive to just get Uber or Lyft. Plus, one person said that they had issues getting their luggage in the Minnie Van. BUT We have never used the minnie Vans, so I can't talk from experience - just what I have read here.

 

[Eponine178]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

We are most likely not going to the parks on our transfer day (or at least not until the evening). We are planning on spending the day at the pool (will take what we need out of our bags and just leave them at the Poly's bell services) and around the resort exploring for the first time. My son has always asked if we could stay at the Poly and we've always told him it was too much. This is going to be a surprise add on to the trip that will be part of his Christmas present this year! We've eaten at 'Ohana a couple times and all during dinner I hear "I really, really, really want to go to that pool!". I bet we never leave the pool during our two days there, which is fine since we will have just done 5 days in all the park with family and friends

 

[monorailsilver]

We did a split this August. It was my first in over 25 years...and with kids!

We had no issues.

Plan was to take a Minnie van since dh didn’t want Disney to move our luggage (we don’t do the DME luggage thing either) and we wanted to know that it made it. He ordered a minivan, lol. I was disappointed but then we took a minivan to BB and glad that we saved money using a regular lyft.

I don’t recall if I had to set up both rooms with the credit card (that was january) but both magic bands were interchangeable. First park day we all brought both as a just in case. We had no MB issues.

We did a BC/Poly split, 5 nights at both. I plan to do that again but stay at the BC for less days....I think....and maybe add on one more day.

We also did a park on our moving day. We already had 3 pool days at the BC (arrival day plus the 2 non park days) so I knew that was enough, ok it’s never enough.

When I originally planned it, I had Epcot in the morning on that Monday we were moving. And then MK that night. I was going to bring our bathing suits in our park bag, bring laundry detergent to wash our sweaty smelly clothes we were wearing and have Disney move our bags as we took the monorail to the Poly from Epcot.

But like I said we took the lyft.

I did pack one suitcase with all pool stuff just in case our room was not ready and I didn’t have to rummage thru looking for goggles or flip flops! I got the text at about 12-1 that it was ready while we were eating lunch in Mexico. So we finished, walked back to the BC, called the Lyft snd walked straight to the room.

It was a pain packing but we only brought 4 outfits each so it wasn’t a ton of clothes. I expanded the suitcases as it didn’t matter if they fit overhead on the plane and just shoved things in.

Oh and on moving day 2 of my 3 kids wanted to ride SDD and RnR again. So while dh and our youngest slept, we left our room at 6 to catch the boat over...only it wasn’t running then so we had to walk. There were only a few things left to pack-toiletries and they were all in zip locks in the bathroom for dh to do since I packed everything else and when we got back to our room at about 7:45...he just got out of the shower. It was a long day! But like I said our room was ready so it wasn’t good. Oldest dd took a nap while me spend the other 2 kids swam and dh did laundry!

 

[monica9]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

We are most likely not going to the parks on our transfer day (or at least not until the evening). We are planning on spending the day at the pool (will take what we need out of our bags and just leave them at the Poly's bell services) and around the resort exploring for the first time. My son has always asked if we could stay at the Poly and we've always told him it was too much. This is going to be a surprise add on to the trip that will be part of his Christmas present this year! We've eaten at 'Ohana a couple times and all during dinner I hear "I really, really, really want to go to that pool!". I bet we never leave the pool during our two days there, which is fine since we will have just done 5 days in all the park with family and friends

You are going to love it. It’s been on my bucket list since I was a child and when we go I will be turning 40 and it’s our 15th yr anniversary so we said this is the year to splurge. I hope your son is super excited!

 

[monica9]

We did a split this August. It was my first in over 25 years...and with kids!

We had no issues.

Plan was to take a Minnie van since dh didn’t want Disney to move our luggage (we don’t do the DME luggage thing either) and we wanted to know that it made it. He ordered a minivan, lol. I was disappointed but then we took a minivan to BB and glad that we saved money using a regular lyft.

I don’t recall if I had to set up both rooms with the credit card (that was january) but both magic bands were interchangeable. First park day we all brought both as a just in case. We had no MB issues.

We did a BC/Poly split, 5 nights at both. I plan to do that again but stay at the BC for less days....I think....and maybe add on one more day.

We also did a park on our moving day. We already had 3 pool days at the BC (arrival day plus the 2 non park days) so I knew that was enough, ok it’s never enough.

When I originally planned it, I had Epcot in the morning on that Monday we were moving. And then MK that night. I was going to bring our bathing suits in our park bag, bring laundry detergent to wash our sweaty smelly clothes we were wearing and have Disney move our bags as we took the monorail to the Poly from Epcot.

But like I said we took the lyft.

I did pack one suitcase with all pool stuff just in case our room was not ready and I didn’t have to rummage thru looking for goggles or flip flops! I got the text at about 12-1 that it was ready while we were eating lunch in Mexico. So we finished, walked back to the BC, called the Lyft snd walked straight to the room.

It was a pain packing but we only brought 4 outfits each so it wasn’t a ton of clothes. I expanded the suitcases as it didn’t matter if they fit overhead on the plane and just shoved things in.

Oh and on moving day 2 of my 3 kids wanted to ride SDD and RnR again. So while dh and our youngest slept, we left our room at 6 to catch the boat over...only it wasn’t running then so we had to walk. There were only a few things left to pack-toiletries and they were all in zip locks in the bathroom for dh to do since I packed everything else and when we got back to our room at about 7:45...he just got out of the shower. It was a long day! But like I said our room was ready so it wasn’t good. Oldest dd took a nap while me spend the other 2 kids swam and dh did laundry!

Sounds like it worked out for you. As far as packing, I put our clothes in ziploc bags based on the day and label them which day and which park. So I will just throw the bags of clothes that are our first resort on top. I reuse the ziploc bags over multiple vacations so we don’t waste them and if I need bags for wet suits, clothes or diapers I have them. The last days clothes are always on the bottom of our suitcase so we don’t even have to unpack. Just throw our dirty clothes in a portable hamper. It’s been working for us.

 

[jerseygal]

Hi all-

In June of 2019 we will be doing our first ever split resort stay. First five days at POFQ (stayed here before) with family and friends, and then just my family moving over to the Poly (first stay) for the last two days.

We plan to Uber/Minnie Van between the two resorts with our luggage so no worries about transportation. In my research so far I understand that I will have to book dining reservations at two separate times, but FPs should be able to be done all at one time (we will have 7-day hoppers which will be turned into APs during our stay).

Anything else that we will find different in our planning due to having reservations at two resorts? Any advice or tips to make the transfer as easy as possible?

We do split stays very often! You will LOVE the Poly, one of our favorites! The FP should work for both stays at 60 days, ours worked fine. For Dining Reservations, I call Member Services at 9:00Am, so they can "bridge the two reservations together".. Shouldn't be a big deal that you lose 2 hours from making reservations on line. You shouldn't have to wait for 180 before the second reservation of the split.
We don't use Bell Services to transfer our luggage, but instead transfer ourselves and our bags via Uber or Lyft. I prefer having our bags as soon as possible. Also, if doing a Dining Plan, have the desk print out a copy of your unused dining credits from the first stay which must be used by the end of day, move out day. I had an issue several years ago, better to be SAFE than sorry! ENJOY!

 

[Princessclab]

This may have been asked and answered somewhere but I am too lazy to do an extensive search......TIA.
Are the two (split) reservations automatically connected in MDE or do I need to do something or speak to someone to make sure this happens?
Never done a split stay but sounds really fun!

 

[monorailsilver]

Mine were automatically connected. I used a TA to book mine. Not sure if she did anything. I just had to do my own part-log into DME, etc..

Both sets of MB worked at each resort.

 

[monica9]

You call Disney and give flight numbers and you will be all set.

 

[ksromack]

This may have been asked and answered somewhere but I am too lazy to do an extensive search......TIA.
Are the two (split) reservations automatically connected in MDE or do I need to do something or speak to someone to make sure this happens?
Never done a split stay but sounds really fun!

I called 407-939-6244 just now to make sure all of our flights to and from this October were accounted for. I'm arranging a 7 girl trip then DH is coming on the 5th day for our 4 night stay at another resort. They had no trouble getting all the flights squared away but with people leaving at 3 different times I couldn't do that online for DME. My split stay is between the BWVillas and BWInn and I'm planning in letting bell services handle my luggage transfer unless my room at the Inn is ready. I think Disney has the split stays down pat!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

One thing i learned last trip is to move my own bags. This split stay I’m using uber to go from POFQ to BWV. From there we will RD DHS. I didn’t like having to wait until 4 for my bags and carrying a bag with our stuff into the parks isn’t an option since we go bagless.

Other than that it’s smooth sailing.

 

[Tribalmom]

Love hearing all the tips! We're doing a split stay CS/Poly in May. We're driving, and DH doesn't like using bell services, so he's going to move the bags while DD & I hit the parks.

Glad to hear most experiences have been positive, too!

 

[buckeyeguy1]

I see you pretty much have your plan for the change day. Have fun!!!

Just to document if anyone else has the same type of question....

We do split stays on about 90% of our trips.

Things we do to make things seamless:
- Have online check-in complete for both resorts. (I usually put our arrival time as noon on the second resort reservation. Not sure if this option is available with the new MDE "upgrade")
- Request assistance from Bell Services for the change day earlier in the trip. They often tell you "no need to make a reservation, just call us when your ready". Insist that you want to schedule a time. They come and grab all of your luggage, give you the receipt and you don't have to do anything else. My wife and I both have CPAP machines and at first were VERY nervous of them getting damaged. Never been a problem and we don't worry about it any more.
- Laundry. If the resort change is later in our stay, we might do a load of laundry to make things easy to pack. If we don't, we usually throw all of our dirty clothes in one piece of luggage.
- DRY OUR POOL CLOTHES!! If we go to the pool the day/night before, we will throw them in the dryer at the Laundromat at the resort for a few minutes so they aren't too damp.
- If we have gift cards to use on our room balance, we go down the night before the change to pay the balance off. I usually will just charge our lunch to the room, so most of the time, my credit card will be charged for that meal.
- Make reservations/FP+ for later morning or middle of the day. It takes a little stress out of the rush to get out of the room in time to make that early morning FP+.
- Enjoy our day!

If anyone has the desire to transfer their own luggage, keep in mind that Bell Services at either resort will keep your luggage in storage for you all day.

 

[monica9]

Love hearing all the tips! We're doing a split stay CS/Poly in May. We're driving, and DH doesn't like using bell services, so he's going to move the bags while DD & I hit the parks.

great idea. My husband would probably prefer this rather than me and the kids and our stroller being there to slow him down.

 

[bigmac5]

We are doing a split stay(not by choice) AoA for 4 nights then 6 nights at POFQ. We plan on having Bell Services move our bags and I have AK planned for that day.

If we have refrigerated stuff I assume we will need a bag to put that in and they will refrigerate it.

What do people do with their passports during the move?(we don't want to take them to the park.)

I see we can order magic bands for the second resort do most people do that?

I was also wondering about having purchased things sent back to the resort. Can we have them sent to the second resort even though we don't know the room number?

Thank you for any help