I am looking at doing a split stay

[mirandaperez10]

Can anyone tell me what's it like to do a split stay I have never done it before. We will be at Disney World for seven days thinking about doing a split stay at Beach Club Villas and Bay Lake Tower. How do you transfer between the resorts and is it hard to do?

Faith, Trust, and..PIXIE DUST.

 

[erionm]

How do you transfer between the resorts and is it hard to do?

Bell Services will transfer luggage and any groceries between resorts. You can either drop off your items at the Bell Stand or call and have a porter come to your room (must be present).

The actual transfer usually only happens once per day in the early afternoon, so you items will not be available at the second resort until closer to 4 pm.

At the new resort, you can either pickup your items from the Bell Stand or have a porter deliver them to your room (must be present).

You would need to use regular Disney transportation, taxi or personal vehicle to get your group to the next resort.

NOTE: luggage is not permitted on Disney transportation.

 

[ThumpersWorld]

We just did a split stay at the end of August between BCV and BLT. This is the second trip we've done a split stay and I think we will always do it this way. Nothing better than half the trip by the Magic Kingdom and half the trip by EPCOT. And it is very easy to do. The only pain is packing up your stuff again. All you do is call bell services when you are checking out and when they come to take your bags you tell them you want them transferred to the next resort. Then you go about your day in whatever park you choose. We moved from BCV to BLT so what we did was take the bus to the MK and my husband went and walked over to the BLT to check in. They then texted us when our room was ready. Once we were in our room we called down to bell services and they brought our luggage up. Nothing could have been easier.

 

[mirandaperez10]

Were you on the disney dining plan?

Faith, Trust, and..PIXIE DUST.

 

[Nennie]

Also looking at a split stay....does anyone know how it works with magic bands, booking FP, etc?

 

[ThumpersWorld]

You can use the same magic bands for the entire stay. They will send you two sets but we used the same magic band for the entire stay. Same with fastpasses. The only thing we had to do with the split stay was call bell services to move our luggage...

 

[dmaxphil]

We frequently do split stays. The morning of the change we drop off most of our luggage at bell services and request they transfer to next resort. We pack a separate bag (carry-on or backpack) what we think we will need for the day. There have been times when the luggage didn't make it to our next room until that evening. So try to think ahead for dinner reservations, swimming, etc.

 

[mirandaperez10]

We frequently do split stays. The morning of the change we drop off most of our luggage at bell services and request they transfer to next resort. We pack a separate bag (carry-on or backpack) what we think we will need for the day. There have been times when the luggage didn't make it to our next room until that evening. So try to think ahead for dinner reservations, swimming, etc.

Faith, Trust, and..PIXIE DUST.

 

[mirandaperez10]

We frequently do split stays. The morning of the change we drop off most of our luggage at bell services and request they transfer to next resort. We pack a separate bag (carry-on or backpack) what we think we will need for the day. There have been times when the luggage didn't make it to our next room until that evening. So try to think ahead for dinner reservations, swimming, etc.

Thanks that's a good idea bringing a backpack , have you tried the dining plan during your stay if so did you have any trouble with your credits?

Faith, Trust, and..PIXIE DUST.

 

[jillmc40]

This is great to hear. We are thinking if doing this too! Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[jd65]

We did a split stay back in 2011 between CSR/BWI. We went to the parks and then went to BWI after we were done at the parks. We checked in and luggage came later. One problem was the dining plan. We thought the dining plan would run normally through out the whole trip; ended up being that we only bought the dining plan for our stay at CSR and we had no dining plan at BWI. It was like two separate trips. Make sure if you want the dining plan you must book it separately both times. Fortunately, it was cheaper for us to just pay all the meals for the time we stayed at BWI because we had few table service, unlike when we stayed at CSR.

 

[bman388]

We've done a couple of Split stays (see my signature). They are a great way to get two vacations in one. Earlier this year we actually did 3 hotels, 4nights, 4nights, 3 nights and that was a bit much for me. We didn't originally intend to do that but all of the snow days up in MN extended school into our vacation and we had to leave later than planned so we had to redo our rooms. Perfect split stay for me is two hotels at different ends of the park. AKV and BLT was great because they are so different that it really made it feel like two different vacations.

 

[PlutoFan10]

We enjoy split stays to be walking distance from multiple parks and enjoy amenities of multiple resorts on a single trip. Not crazy about move day if our room is not available by check in time. When room is not ready by 4pm or so, we are normally off to an ADR and an evening at the park, so we end up hauling our stuff to the room after a tiring day (use of bell services would help). It also didn't give us a place to freshen up before heading out to dinner. Wouldn't be a problem if we could get our room by 3pm. We have also learned that 3 nights is a minimum stay per resort for our family. When only staying 2 nights at a resort on a split stay, we didn't feel we had time to settle in and enjoy the resort.

 

[dmaxphil]

Thanks that's a good idea bringing a backpack , have you tried the dining plan during your stay if so did you have any trouble with your credits?

Faith, Trust, and..PIXIE DUST.

Never done the dining plan during a split. We have another split coming up on 10/14-10-22 at CBR and BC. Thinking about doing a DxDP for the last half (10/19-10/22). Need to do a calculation to determine the value.