How does changing hotels work?

[marcar12]

We are hoping to stay at a different hotel on our arrival night than we stay in for the rest of our trip. How does that work exactly? I imagine we would check out of hotel A in the morning before going to the parks, and leave our luggage at the lobby desk? And then have to go back to that hotel in the evening, pick up luggage, and then go to hotel B to check in. Is that correct? Thanks!

 

[loves to dive]

Depends, different people do it different ways. Will you have a car?

What we do, we have a car. On the morning of change we get up as usual, which for me is around 6:30 or so cause I'm old, finish packing and go have breakfast. Then I call down to the front desk to check out, sometimes they tell me I have to go to the front desk, sometimes they just say o.k. There is a way to not have to checkout but I always just call. Then load the car and move to resort #2, check in and either store the bags if room isn't ready or drop them off at the room. Then off to a park. If the room isn't ready, we head to a park and just play it by ear as to if we go back when we get the room ready text. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. I always pick early checkin as my first option, I really don't care about room location or view.

If you don't have a car, WDW used to transfer your bags for you, I don't know if they still do. You could always Uber to resort #2. Either way, I'd go ahead and go to resort #2 and let them store your bags instead of having resort #1 do it. I've found it always helps to let them know you are there just in case a room comes open early.

 

[KristaZ]

As long as it's two Disney resorts, they will transfer your bags for you. We've done this on multiple trips since reopening - we drop our bags at bell services in the morning and tell them the resort we need them transferred to before heading out to a park. We leave the park in the evening and head back to the new resort and pick up our bags from bell services there. You can also go to your room and call to have the bags delivered if you prefer - we usually just find it's faster and easier to get the bags ourselves.

 

[Tmholls42]

I’ve been wondering this too as I an planning a trip with more than one reservation.

 

[Debbie Jean]

As long as it's two Disney resorts, they will transfer your bags for you. We've done this on multiple trips since reopening - we drop our bags at bell services in the morning and tell them the resort we need them transferred to before heading out to a park. We leave the park in the evening and head back to the new resort and pick up our bags from bell services there. You can also go to your room and call to have the bags delivered if you prefer - we usually just find it's faster and easier to get the bags ourselves.

I call bell services and they come to the room... tag everything and I’m on my way. They will even take a bag of refrigerated items and keep them cold during the transfer.

I call bell services at the new resort when I get to my room. Worth the extra tips to me... but I’m old lol

 

[NJ Goofy]

You can do what the PP said (and we have), but we found the easiest way was to get an Uber/Lyft over to the new resort in the AM, give our stuff to guest services and then head to the parks. At our mid-day break we return to the resort and go to our new room. This seems to work best for us and usually the ride is less than $20 with tip.

 

[DebbieB]

We did it on Friday from Boardwalk to GF. We took a Lyft XL with our luggage. We got the room ready text before we left Boardwalk so it was great to get to our new room before going to the parks.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

Good to know, as we are splitting our stay next weekend. Thanks for the advice!

 

[bakerworld]

We just enjoyed a multi split stay. Our first stay we had WDW BS transfer our luggage. Our second switch the hotel admitted that it wouldn't be wise to use their BS to transfer the luggage so we taxied over ($26 w/ tip).

 

[CarolynFH]

Just be aware that luggage transfers are done in the afternoon, so if you have Disney do it, your luggage may not be available until after 4 PM. Be sure you keep with you anything that you would need during the day, just in case. Or else move your luggage yourself in the morning via Uber/Lyft. If you check it at the new hotel, you can still access it later in the day even if your room isn’t ready yet.