I am nervous. What do you think?

[OllieDannyandMe]

For our upcoming trip in August, I am planning to do quite a bit of resort hopping, and now, I am getting cold feet. Before the window closes for changes, I would love some opinions.

It's just me and my 8 year old daughter travelling. We visit Disney every summer, and we actually enjoy the resorts (and pools) as much as the parks.

Since my daughter was 2 years old, we have always done a split stay between two resorts. We have started at Coronado Springs or Pop Century, and we have ended at the Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, or Bay Lake Tower.

I have a dream of staying in every Disney resort, and that dream is what is prompting this upcoming resort-hopping expedition. Plus, we really enjoy visiting different pools during our stay.

We pack light, so the moves should be easy. I am just worried that I am scheduling too many transfers to ever relax.

We arrive on a Tuesday evening and have three nights at All-Star Movies scheduled. We have never visited any of the All-Star Resorts, so we are excited. We have booked a preferred room and are hoping for the Dalmations section. We plan to take lots of pictures at the various icons and visit the pool. We will visit a theme park or two during this time, too.

Next, we have two nights scheduled at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Again, I booked a preferred room. My daughter has never stayed here, although I did once, before she was born. She loves the colorful buildings and the beach theme and the look of the pool. My visit was in 2003, so it was before the pool was renovated. It does look nice, and I am excited to try the pool here. Plus, we want to send some coconuts in the mail to our friends!

Next, we have two nights scheduled at Port Orleans French Quarter. We have never stayed here, but two years ago, we did visit for 5 minutes to buy some beignets. I love the theme! I am very excited about this resort and wish we had more nights scheduled here.

Next, we have one night scheduled at Port Orleans Riverside. I booked a Royal Guest Room with a view of the river. We have never stayed or even visited this resort. The pictures look beautiful. We are excited about the pool and the food court and the nightly entertainment. I am strongly considering bumping this resort up to three nights (instead of one) and cancelling the next resort, which is CSR.

We have two nights scheduled at CSR. I love the rooms here. They feel fresh and modern and really appeal to me. Plus, this resort has the best pool and slide. It is outstanding! We have had more laughs from the speed of the jaguar slide than anywhere else at Disney. I love the theme of this resort--the grounds are gorgeous. I love the Pepper Market and the Maya Grill, where we had an outstanding eggs benedict for breakfast! There is a lovely outdoor bar near the hotel lobby and marina, and we love sitting there and enjoying the view. I love this resort every bit as much as the deluxe resorts at Disney, so it is difficult to cancel our reservation here, but I do want more time at Port Orleans Riverside.

Finally, we have three nights scheduled at AKL Jambo House Club Level. This was the only real request from my daughter. She loves the animals. We stayed a week at Kidani last year, and she is excited to be back at Jambo House, which we have not visited since she was five years old. We are staying Club Level in order to enjoy the Sunrise Safari. Other than that one early morning trip to the Animal Kingdom, we will not be visiting the theme parks at all during our time here. We plan to enjoy the resort, the pool, and the activities.

Then, I do have plans for us to make one last move. Since I cannot justify paying for a deluxe resort when we are leaving on Disney's Magical Express early the next morning, I have made arrangements for us to move to All-Star Music on our very last night. We will probably either visit the Magic Kingdom that night for our final goodbye OR enjoy a movie under the stars at the pool and get a good night's sleep before departing.

So...what do you think? Keeping in mind that we are focused on enjoying the resorts as much as the parks, does this trip sound like fun? Or will we have whiplash from so many moves? We do pack light (just a rucksack), so there will be no waste of time packing and unpacking. On the days that we make our moves, I thought we would ask Disney to transfer our belongings and head out to the parks.

Although there are several deluxe resorts that I want to visit one day, for this trip, they would necessitate that I shorten my stay, and I do not want to do that. When my budget grows, I do dream of staying at the deluxe resorts I have not yet tried (the Poly, the Beach Club, the Yacht Club, the Boardwalk, Old Key West, and Saratoga Springs), but those will just have to wait. I am excited to try two new moderates and two new values this trip!

I am going to post a poll. Please vote and/or add your thoughts in a post. Feel free to call me a fool--I certainly have my moments! And it may help me make up my mind. I just cannot decide if this is so much moving that it falls into the foolish category or not, and that is why I need DIS-ers to help me!

Thanks!

 

[DJFan88]

Gosh, I'm not sure how to vote. I mean it sounds like a super fun plan you have. But I think I'll go with the change vote.
Especially since you have already been to all the parks so you're not trying to cram all that in. Your daughter will probably even look back at this as the awesome trip where we stayed at all the cool resorts.
I agree with you though, that the one night stay at POR is kind of rushed. But then you are already at POFQ so you can do the whole boat thing to DTD - but that's only 2 days. CSR is an awesome resort too though.
Since you plan on doing this again, I think I would up the POR Royal room and skip CSR. Or how about skipping POFQ since you can walk over while at POR for 3 days and then do CSR for the 2 days?
Either way, have a great time, I love the idea.
We always book a TS at other resorts to check out where we want to stay in the future. It's part of the fun.

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Just my opinion, but I think that is too much resort hopping. We usually go for 4 - 10 nights and only hop once, if we are staying for at least 7 nights. For our 9 night trip this month, we are spending the first 2 nights at BCV. We have never stayed here, but have stayed at BC before and loved it. Then we are hopping to BLT where we own DVC and have stayed before.

If I read correctly, you are hopping 7 times. I would consider just hopping 3 times. I would think about one Value, one Moderate, and one Deluxe. Maybe start by cancelling one of your Port Orleans?

Good luck with your plans.

 

[*Fantasia*]

I like doing splits! With that much time on Disney..
5 nights at CSR, 5 at AKL, and 4 at the ASMusic OR
5 nights at CSR, 5 at AKL, 2 at ASMusic... and another 2 nights somewhere else. OR
6 nights at CSR and 6 at AKL and 2 at ASMusic

If this was my trip.. I would do 4, 4, 4, and 2! I would stay at 4 different resort!

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

It sounds like a great plan with your interests and being able to travel light. I say go for it. Document what you can via photo/travel log, and enjoy the different resort experiences.

Have fun with your "no lose" decision!

 

[jojomoore]

I would be nervous. Moving around so often would take the fun out of the vacation for me. I believe it would be exhausting. I would keep AS Moviesand maybe add one night(so stay 4 nights) because I believe it will be alot of fun for your daughter. If it was me i would choose POR or POFQ or CBR and combining CSR, CBR and POR and POFQ nights into one stay(reservation), then move to AKL to finish out my vacation. I believe you can visit POR if you stay at POFQ and vice versa but not 100 percent sure on this.

So, i would do the following:
4 night AS movies
7 nights at POR or POFQ or CBR
3 nights AKL.

I would prefer to spend 2 more nights at AKL instead of the moderates but the above is in keeping with your current reservation break down between value, moderate, deluxe. it may cost a little more if you choose to stay in a Royal Room at POR for the entire 7 days though.

I am currently holding an 8 night reservation at AOA - LM but i have stayed deluxe dvc in the past. We are on a tighter budget this year but i am contemplating changing to POR Royal room for 8 nights or shortening the trip by a day and do a 5 night AKL -standard room with 2 nights at AOA - LM. I cant decide. My family really enjoys returning to the resort each night and enjoying the activities and hanging out by pool and i think AKL and POR may have a little more to offer along those lines. However, if we decide to stay at AOA we could still have dinner at AKL and enjoy some of the evening activities or schedule a late dinner at the poly and go to the beach and watch fireworks. Hmm.

 

[kerri0616]

We are also a family who usually hops once during our trips (which are always one week or so).

I would do 7 nights ASMo followed by 7 nights POR. You can certainly walk over to POFQ and absorb some of the ambiance.

I think one move in the middle of the trip is easy. But, that's just my opinion!!

I'm jealous you are going for 14 days! That's awesome!!!!

Enjoy,

K

 

[mickey2minnie1]

Wow! What a nice long trip for you both. Awesome!!!

I would pass on the 3nights value and make my mods a little longer. This will give you time to feel a little more settled in and have your daughter relax a little from all of the constant push to move from hotel to hotel and park to park.

 

[pigletto]

To me it sounds like way too much. BUT.. I am not you. I am a mother who packs for four or five and we like to stay put a little bit more.
However last year we went for almost 2 weeks. We did out first night at ASports, a week at OKW, 6 nights at BWV and then a departure night at ASmovies. We usually spend our first and last nights at a value because we get in late and leave early so it saves us a few hundred or more.
I didn't want to leave OKW when we did since I loved it, but then we ended up enjoying BWV for a change of pace.
All in all, 4 worked out just fine, but that was enough moving for me. If you have a car it would pretty easy. Having to rely on taxis/buses for all those moves would be time consuming or expensive.
Every one of us enjoys something different from our vacations and it sounds to me like you guys enjoy the thrill of something new rather than staying put. So it's a great plan for you

 

[Mrs K]

It would be way too hectic for me. It's really hot in August and although we don't mind the heat that much, it can be exhausting. CBR, CSR and AKL are a little far from the parks too, so I'd figure in travel time. For me, it would be a two resort max split stay, but everybody's different.

 

[Fjobe]

I'm not a huge fan of resort hopping, but given your situation, I think what you have planned sounds like a lot of fun. We stayed one night at CSR last summer, and I loved it, so I have a really hard time suggesting that you give that one up. What about forgetting about the POFQ and just sticking with the POR Royal room?

Either way, I think you will have a great time!

 

[*NikkiBell*]

That's way too much resort-hopping for me to even wrap my head around! I'd do a split stay between two resorts or just stay at one.

 

[maryj11]

Sounds really fun to me. I really enjoy staying at the different resorts. It may be a bit to many changes for me though. I would maybe split stay 4 resorts. ASMovie, CBR, POR, and AKL .

 

[discookiemonsta]

Hmmm...that is a lot of resorts you are planning to stay at during one trip I have never considered resort hopping. It just seems like too much 'work' for me on a vacation, lol, BUT that is just my opinion and I think it's cool that other families do it, if that is fun for them!!! I am not sure of how I'd vote. If you are comfortable with your original decision, which you seem you are since you seem incredibly excited about each and every resort, then I'd say, go for it and have fun The only change I might make is starting off your vacation at Caribbean Beach Resort and moving the All Star Movies part of the vacation to the very end of the vacation so that you can be checking out of a Value hotel early in the morning (thereby cancelling the one night at All Star Music for this reason). This would give you an extra night available for Port Orleans Riverside. Another suggestion would be skip one of the Port Orleans resort this trip to be able to make one of them a longer stay. Like I said, it seems like you are excited about most of these resorts, except for the one night at ASMu, which you booked mainly for logistical reasons, right? So, I'd skip that one and rearrange the dates for each hotel a little so you can eliminate one move, at least and only have 6 resorts booked.

 

[pigletto]

I'm not a huge fan of resort hopping, but given your situation, I think what you have planned sounds like a lot of fun. We stayed one night at CSR last summer, and I loved it, so I have a really hard time suggesting that you give that one up. What about forgetting about the POFQ and just sticking with the POR Royal room?

Either way, I think you will have a great time!

Fjobe makes a good point. If you want to drop one, I would drop one of Port Orleans reservations because you could walk to one from the other and use all the amenities. You really could experience both by staying at one of them.

 

[padawans]

I think your plan sounds fun. We just did 4 resorts in one trip. We even went from WDW to US and back to WDW. Moving around is not that big a deal. I'm not sure why some people think it is. If it's just you and daughter that should be easy peasy. The only suggestion I might make is to do 2 nights at Por and 1 night less somewhere else. I don't really like 1 night stays. I need a full day to enjoy the resort.

 

[lilsk8nmac]

I'd say spend more time enjoying down time with your daughter in the parks etc and just split b/t 2 resorts. Try 2 you have never been at and keep it at that. IMHO you are moving around too much to really truly enjoy your vacation.

 

[Kim1964]

I am a huge fan of split stays, but I prefer to spend a minimum of three nights in a resort before moving. Of the hotels you have booked, I've stayed at POR, POFQ, CSR, and an All Star (music, not movies). If I was the queen of the world and booking your trip was up to me, I would do this:

5 nights POR or POFQ (but not both)
5 nights CBR or CSR (but not both)
4 nights AKL CL

I'm not a fan of the value resorts (have stayed at Pop twice and Music once) so if I were narrowing the choices down, that is the first one I would eliminate. A triple split is the most I've ever done, so I also reduced your jumping to what I think would be my maximum. I understand that CBR is appealing, but if your daughter likes pool slides, the slide at CSR is terrific.

Whatever you decide to do, have a great trip!

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

I called and tweaked my reservations a little. I now have

3 nights at All-Star Movies (Preferred Room)
2 nights at CBR (Preferred Room)
3 nights at POFQ (Garden View)
3 nights at POR (Royal Guest Room)
2 nights at AKL (Club Level)
1 night at All-Star Music (Standard Room)

My memories of CSR are so perfect, that I am okay with not visiting that resort this time. I want to see if I fall in love with the Port Orleans resorts in the same way. I am looking forward to smores at the Campfire on de' Bayou, the Scat Cat's Club, Doubloon Lagoon, beignets, an evening carriage ride, cane pole fishing, YeeHa Bob, and 'Ol Man Island!

I still may decide to combine POFQ and POR by choosing just one or the other for the full 6 nights. I can't decide. And I may combine All-Star Movies and CBR by choosing one or the other for those 5 nights. Again, I can't decide. I will sleep on the decision for a couple more nights. It will be great, either way.

Thanks again!

 

[stitch34]

Do it! We did 6 resorts last summer on a 9-night trip. Year prior was 5 resorts in an 8-night trip.
We love experiencing all the resorts and pools and for us it works well.
We really dont' unpack much - really in the a.m. is a matter of tossing dirty laundry and toiletries into the bags and calling bell services for our bags - and some days we just cab it to the next resort.

I say go for it!