How much of a pain are split stays?

[aerxo17]

I did a split stay in August 2022 - 3 nights at ASMu, 2 nights at the Poly. I'm an overpacker, so I flew Southwest for free bags. All my clothes were in packing cubes and labeled, but if I didn't want to do that, I could have packed my checked-bag for my first 3 nights and my carry-on for my last 2 nights. I kept toiletries or anything I wanted to use for the whole trip, like chargers for electronics, in my backpack (personal item, for flying purposes) so it was easy to re-pack.

If you're a strategic packer, it's not a big problem to do a split stay.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

We are going to be there 6/24-7/6 (the first and last days are travel).

I was thinking about staying at the Swan.

But we've heard that we should stay at AKL with a Savannah view at least once. So we thought about a split stay at AKL a couple nights.

But we will be there over July 4th so WL may be better because of the boat to MK? So what if we do:
Swan: 8 nights
AKL Savannah view: 2 nights
WL: 2 nights (including the night of July 4th)

ETA:
After reading all your responses I still can't decide! What if we do:
Swan: 6 nights
AKL Savannah: 3 nights
WL: 3 nights (including July 4th

This would make us "homeless" during the day potentially on Saturday 6/24 & Friday 6/30. Not ideal days to have no place to go nap...

I know it’s hard to choose but I really recommend only one switch. Make sure to pick the most desired as the second one. Have fun

 

[mrsap]

I love split stays! We typically only do them during our extended summer vacations. We stay one week at a monorail resort and the other at an EPCOT resort so we get the best of both worlds. I also enjoy a change of scenery. It feels like 2 vacations in one! Before we leave the first resort, we wash any clothes we wore and then pack up the car the night before we move so it’s an easy transition in the morning. I definitely would try to only book 2 resorts so you can enjoy yourself and be settled throughout your trip. Enjoy!

 

[gottalovepluto]

I do split stays ALL THE TIME for WDW. Because I come from the west coast and try to fit in a few small trips a year around my days off while renting DVC points or discounted confirmed reservation stays, the price I pay is moving around a bit.

I am 99% usually solo , no kids and pack light to the point a locker at the parks can fit what I need while "homeless".
Most times my rooms have been ready well before 4pm, lucky I know!
I also do online check in and check the box to have my room ready early.

This is my itinerary for next week :
Overnight flight from LAX 1/27 @ 1050pm to MCO 4:50am

1/28 - GFV Theme park resort studio - $600
1/29 - SSR Deluxe studio std view $200
1/30 AKL 1 bedroom Kidano std view ( laundry day, LOL) $264
1/31 Riviera Deluxe studio std view $281

Disney price if booked direct : $2942
Total rental DVC price : $1345

Fly MCO - LAX Feb 1st.
My biggest splurge was the GFV resort studio because its been a bucket list resort for me since I was a teenager, lol. Arrival day so plan to enjoy the resort and monorail bar crawl that day

That’s some next level splitting! And SWEET savings

Couldn’t pay me to do 4 hotels in 4 nights. As a heavy packer I’d lose my mind. I did 3 hotels over one week last trip and it was too much. My happy place is a two hotel split. And even though I think I’m packing “strategically” … well I make packing plans and I think God gets a chuckle- I always end up ripping through my suitcase for something at Disney.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I would avoid doing a split stay. I spent all morning packing, then I Ubered to the new resort and waited in the lobby for my room to be ready. I had a large bag of valuables that I didn’t want to hand over to bell services. Disney made the who process as smooth as possible but in the end I lost half a park day.

Good point! If you can’t leave your bags with bell service definitely no splitting. Amazing you only lost part of your day, rooms are sometimes not ready until 4pm-5pm.

 

[tguz]

We are not split stay fans. We like to get settled in and the thought of having to pack up and do it all over again does not sound appealing.

 

[Tigger's ally]

We do it all the time so it is easy for us. We always change hotels on park days. Most of the time we let them move our luggage, but on special occasions (like when we have a vehicle) I take care of it while the rest of the family heads to the park. I join them shortly after. Our main reasons we do them:

1. we get tired of any hotel/villa room after 3 or 4 days let alone the smaller ones.
2. we get to use the restaurants, pools and shopping at each stay and my grandtinker loves new pools!
3. we tailor make our trip around the change. We stay at MK area for MK and Ak days, then move to Epcot area for Epcot & Studio days. OKW and SSR are for the in between or wrap arounds so that we can boat to Springs and shop, drink, eat and drink (again).
4. We (my daughter and I) are trying to stay at every resort! Marking them off!
5. My grandtinker is trying to swim in every pool
6. I spent 162 days last year in HIlton/Marriot hotels for my job, so I am used to moving LOL.

 

[cruisefortibet]

I did a split stay in 2021, 3 nights at Art of Animation, 4 nights at Poly. I like split stays for the change of pace, affordability if you want to experience a more $$$ resort without staying there all week, and the different transportation options if that's important for you - for instance, we were able to easily get to Hollywood Studios and Epcot at AoA and Poly gave us access to monorail and our two MK days. Also if you know you won't be able to visit WDW much, it allows you to experience more in shorter time.

The three downsides for me when doing the split stay were:
1. No place to relax in the middle of the day (we'd leave parks midday and return in the evening most days)
2. Busy morning on day we were leaving our hotel (we would get to the parks as early as possible, which is harder to do when we had to check out and get our luggage transferred).
3. If you plan to have snacks or food in your room, or if you have a room with a mini fridge, packing up food is the most annoying. We ended up eating and snacking in the parks and at restaurants instead which got expensive.

I'm not the greatest packer but I didn't think it was a big deal to unpack/repack. I couldn't do 3 split stay resorts though, just too hectic for me on top of a busy week at the parks. That's just my personal preference though!

I'm planning my 2023 trip now and will not be doing a split stay. Primarily because I will have a 1.5 year old and packing up baby stuff and having no place for him to nap fills me with dread!

 

[snikki]

I will say the idea of setting your park days around your resort doesn’t work for us so that’s not a plus to us like it is for plenty of folks.

We like to mix up our park days so going to DHS and Epcot 4 days straight and then doing MK and AK for 3-4 days straight won’t work. We get hoppers and really don’t do the same park two days in a row during our 8-10 day trips. Even when we did a Poly/BC split there’s no way we were waiting 5 days to visit Epcot and DHS.

 

[Husker Mike]

We did a split stay in October, but it was all at the Grand Floridian. 2 days in a DVC then 2 days in a regular hotel room. Changing rooms was a PITA... but because that was all that was available when we booked, we chose that. (We wanted a monorail hotel for convenience plus the extra hours.) The first thing that helped us was having a rental car, so we had a place to keep things during the switch. Now that parking is free again and Magical Express is no more, it's so worth it to have a car at Disney instead of waiting for a stinky bus. Bell services can also store bags, and even transfer bags for you...but you are at Disney's whim as to when your bags will actually show up at your new hotel.

The second is to just plan to live out of your suitcase(s). Keep an extra duffle bag in one of your suitcases to help keep dirty clothes separate from clean, and maybe a second for soggy swimsuits.