HHI Trip Planning...I Goofed, and Now I Need Insight

[kristenrice]

We are going down for our every-three-years Spring Break trip, April 5-10. We normally stay in a 1BR (135 points) so our 50 point contract is plenty, but in 2020, we are taking my sister and her family with us so we need a 2BR (155 points). I was able to book the first 4 nights at the 11 month mark and I planned to add the final night on when the 7 month window opened, using 5 of my AKV points. Unfortunately, I was so pre-occupied with our 2019 October trip, I completely missed the window and by the time I realized it, that night was completely booked. Then I realized that the particular night we need is the Thursday before Easter so our chances are minimal. I waitlisted it and called to see if there was cash availability (none) so right now, we are at the mercy of the wait list and my perpetual stalking.

Here's the thing...my sister is planning to leave on Wednesday to spend a few nights at the Biltmore before returning to Michigan. That means we really only need the 2BR for the first 3 nights. I didn't really mess up her part of the vacation since she was going to leave before us anyways. During my perpetual stalking, I saw a STUDIO pop up for that Thursday night and I grabbed it! Now we have a 2BR for 4 nights and a studio for the last night...not ideal, but for now, we'll take it.

This will be our 4th trip to HHI and the one thing that I have always wanted to do, but never did, was visit Savanna, GA and do a trolley tour. When I thought we would be cutting our trip to HHI a day short, I thought that would be a great opportunity to go to Savanna, spend the entire day there and even take a "haunted" tour at night. Then, we could spend the night in Savanna and start our drive back home to Michigan in the morning. The plan sounds ideal, but the downside is that it will add quite a cost to the trip. I booked a hotel already since we are travelling over Spring Break/Easter (refundable/cancellable...nothing has been paid yet) and we'll also have the added expenses of the meals that we will eat out instead of in our villa. The other added expense would be the tours, which amounts to about $400 for the 4 of us if we did day and night tours. We don't plan our days on our HHI trips so a day trip to Savanna wouldn't be guaranteed. Overall, the added cost of staying in Savanna for the last night will be about $650 max.

The other option is staying the last night in a studio. We are no strangers to split-stays at WDW and we are accustomed to switching rooms/resorts. We will simply have to pack up a day early and since we will be going from a 2BR to a studio, we won't have too much that we would unpack anyways. The downside at HHI is that there is not much to do while you are "homeless", especially if it is raining. If it's not raining, I'm sure we could keep ourselves occupied without a problem. We will be all packed up (groceries, gear, etc) since we would be leaving fairly early Friday morning. Again, since it is a holiday weekend, I don't know how fast they will be "turning" the rooms so I would not plan on getting in to the studio before 4pm.

I'm looking for opinions from the HHI travelers (and any others)....WWYD?

Stay the final night in the HHI Studio for no extra OOP cost??

OR

Spend the last day/night in Savanna, GA at a cost of about $650??

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Hmmm. That's a tough one. The thing that stuck out to me was that you said that there would be extra costs for meals if you go to Savannah. But if you don't have a room for the better part of the day that you switch, you won't be able to do meals in the room, either. So it might not be as big of a difference as you think. Also do you have to do both tours? And if you ended up doing a day trip to Savannah, you will have the added gas of going back and forth. By tacking it on the end, you will pay half of the gas. Could you rent out the points you would save by not booking the studio and use the cash toward the Savannah hotel? These are just some ideas that stuck out to me.

 

[crisi]

Savannah is a great city to spend a day or two in. The ghost tours are very tourist trappy, but the trolly tour is nice, and there are some very good old houses/ museums that I would recommend. (You can buy tickets for a few from the trolley operator at a discount) There are lots of restaurants, so you should be able to do food fairly cheaply - its a competitive town for the tourist dollar. Or pack a few sandwiches and things that can be eaten on the go.

Its about an hour drive from HHI - I'd go early to Savannah and skip the ghost tour. Drive back up after dinner and spend the night in HHI - its "on the way" to Michigan. Since you'll just be crashing and storing your luggage in the studio it won't feel cramped. If money feels tight and Savannah turns out to be not your thing, you can head back after the trolley tour to order pizza in your room.

 

[kristenrice]

Savannah is a great city to spend a day or two in. The ghost tours are very tourist trappy, but the trolly tour is nice, and there are some very good old houses/ museums that I would recommend. (You can buy tickets for a few from the trolley operator at a discount) There are lots of restaurants, so you should be able to do food fairly cheaply - its a competitive town for the tourist dollar. Or pack a few sandwiches and things that can be eaten on the go.

Its about an hour drive from HHI - I'd go early to Savannah and skip the ghost tour. Drive back up after dinner and spend the night in HHI - its "on the way" to Michigan. Since you'll just be crashing and storing your luggage in the studio it won't feel cramped. If money feels tight and Savannah turns out to be not your thing, you can head back after the trolley tour to order pizza in your room.

Oooohh.... I like this idea! We probably wouldn’t even be storing luggage in the room. We’d just bring in what we’d need for the night since we would be leaving around 9am to start the drive home.

 

[crisi]

The Massie Heritage Museum is a good first stop to get off at and take a look. Its got a lot of Savannah history.

 

[Disney_Alli]

I'd stay in Savannah but I'd only do the nighttime tour - there are some awesome free walking tours you can do on your own during the day.