Is it worth it?

[Jules123]

We are planning on a 5 night stay in May at either CBR or CSR. We arrive early on the first day and I was planning on a resort day. I am debating booking our first night at YC and spending the day at SAB. Then transfer over to CBR or CSR the next day. Is that too much trouble or even worth the effort? Or should I just stick with one resort since it’s only 5 nights?

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Stick with one resort it might be fun in normal times to do resort hopping like this however during the pandemic I would say stick to one resort and enjoy

 

[kylenne]

We are planning on a 5 night stay in May at either CBR or CSR. We arrive early on the first day and I was planning on a resort day. I am debating booking our first night at YC and spending the day at SAB. Then transfer over to CBR or CSR the next day. Is that too much trouble or even worth the effort? Or should I just stick with one resort since it’s only 5 nights?

I wouldn’t do a split for that short a trip tbh. Too much hassle and you basically waste a day you can’t afford on such a short trip on moving.

 

[RanDIZ]

I’m all for split stays but that short of a stay and only to do YC for a day isn’t worth the trouble.

 

[Heather07438]

It might be more trouble than it's worth. On Day 2, instead of just headin' out to the park you'll be distracted with the transfer. You'll need to deal with it at some point on Day 2. While not SAB, CBR and CSR both have decent pools that I'd take as a compromise to not have to pack, transfer and unpack again.

 

[Eastern]

I would stay at one resort.

 

[Disneylover99]

For one day at SAB? No. Never.
Weather is just too unpredictable.

 

[Marthasor]

I don't think SAB is worth the expense to stay at YC for one night. I would just do a resort day at your chosen resort or, if you want a more exciting water experience, spring for water park tickets if the weather is nice that day.

 

[nkereina]

I agree with PPs. Its possible your room at YC may not even be ready until check-in time (3pm), which means you'll have spent all that money for a room you have access to for less than 12 hours. There's also too many variables on travel days that could impact how early you actually arrive at the resort, which could affect how long you're able to even enjoy SAB. And who knows if the weather would cooperate.

I'm not sure whether you're still torn on CSR or CBR, but IMO, CBR is good for a resort day because you can easily walk to Riviera for a change of scenery and different dining options. Or, its very easy to hop on the Skyliner to AOA/Pop or the Epcot area resorts for other dining and shopping. We also love the pool at CBR.

 

[Sarahslay]

We did a split stay for an 8 night trip over Christmas, and it really eats up a park day the day you move. We were lucky that our second resort had our room ready at 7am, but that's not the norm, and we still didn't have our bags till close to 5pm that day. That's fine during normal times when we spend most of the day in the parks, but I've been three times since re-opening and we are always done and going for a break right after lunch. I like SAB, but that is a lot more per night than a moderate just for a pool, and a lot more hassle than I think it's worth. I have a friend who LOVES the pool at CSR, she did a staycation there and it's one of her favorites now, I'm sure she wouldn't say that if it were just a "meh" pool. I say save the money and the hassle and just go to a moderate and relax.

 

[Jules123]

Ok you’ve convinced me to not try the split stay lol. We stayed at CBR in November and loved it there, but we are thinking about trying CSR this time. But I sure did love the Skyliner so I’m not sure which to do.

 

[kylenne]

We did a split stay for an 8 night trip over Christmas, and it really eats up a park day the day you move. We were lucky that our second resort had our room ready at 7am, but that's not the norm, and we still didn't have our bags till close to 5pm that day. That's fine during normal times when we spend most of the day in the parks, but I've been three times since re-opening and we are always done and going for a break right after lunch. I like SAB, but that is a lot more per night than a moderate just for a pool, and a lot more hassle than I think it's worth. I have a friend who LOVES the pool at CSR, she did a staycation there and it's one of her favorites now, I'm sure she wouldn't say that if it were just a "meh" pool. I say save the money and the hassle and just go to a moderate and relax.

When do you usually see your room ready at resort #2? We’re doing a split for the first time at the end of May, first week at GF second at YC, and while I think park hours will likely be extended because Memorial Day weekend falls during our trip, now I’m not sure our original plan for moving day will work (we were going to maybe have brunch at GF Cafe and hang out a park all day, if not MK then Epcot). Do you still have access to SAB if your room isn’t ready yet?

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

I'd advise one resort only because I do not think there is transfer of your luggage to another resort right now. TOO MUCH TIME taken up to do all that yourself.
IF bell services does transfer, then why not? I could enjoy a one day resort stay DELUXE, being in the pool, having a few cocktails indoor or poolside, sitting in the lobby people watching and reading a magazine on the balcony or a nice dinner or character breakfast before checkout

 

[nkereina]

Ok you’ve convinced me to not try the split stay lol. We stayed at CBR in November and loved it there, but we are thinking about trying CSR this time. But I sure did love the Skyliner so I’m not sure which to do.

You can't go wrong with either. My only hesitancy with CSR in the current environment is that you have to bus to all 4 parks, and buses currently have severely limited capacity. This can result in longer waits and crowds when trying to make rope drop. Moderate resort bus depots can be a free-for-all when there's a lot of people waiting because they do not have formal queues. I would opt for CBR until transportation improves, unless you're ok with utilizing rideshare. In that case, CSR would be worth the try. Its also centrally located, making for shorter Uber rides as well.

Do you still have access to SAB if your room isn’t ready yet?

You do! You can check in as early as 6-7am on your arrival day, and you can start using resort amenities after that. You'd still get a room ready text/email like normal. You can also do online check in.

 

[LivCK]

Pre-Covid we did 11 night off-property and 3 nights at YC. (we had a longer stay than most as we were coming from the UK). Those three nights were amazing and had me immediately pricing up a two week stay at YC for our next holiday..! We decided to do 14 nights at CSR for our next trip, in the end.

I wouldn't have wanted to do less than 2 or 3 nights, though, to make the most of the experience and cost. We didn't arrive until lunch time on our arrival day but we definitely enjoyed visiting SAB after we'd unpacked - and then walking to Epcot for dinner!

Edited to add I was from the UK.

 

[Eastern]

When do you usually see your room ready at resort #2? We’re doing a split for the first time at the end of May, first week at GF second at YC, and while I think park hours will likely be extended because Memorial Day weekend falls during our trip, now I’m not sure our original plan for moving day will work (we were going to maybe have brunch at GF Cafe and hang out a park all day, if not MK then Epcot). Do you still have access to SAB if your room isn’t ready yet?

On moving day, we get up early and uber to the new resort with luggage. Eat where you want. We like to avoid the luggage transfer service and find it easier to just bring it to the new resort ourselves, even if it has to be held at bell services until our room is ready.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Just to throw a different option out there: Why not Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon? If you're arriving early you won't have a room ready anyways. Could pack your swimsuits in your carryon and just go to a water park instead.

 

[Heather07438]

When do you usually see your room ready at resort #2? We’re doing a split for the first time at the end of May, first week at GF second at YC, and while I think park hours will likely be extended because Memorial Day weekend falls during our trip, now I’m not sure our original plan for moving day will work (we were going to maybe have brunch at GF Cafe and hang out a park all day, if not MK then Epcot). Do you still have access to SAB if your room isn’t ready yet?

We had great fortune with our std studio rooms this trip. We received 'Room Ready' for Poly at 10:36a 1/8, just as we were pulling up to the resort. Moving over to BCV on 1/10, rec'd a 'Not ready yet' at 5:16a and then 'Room Ready' at 11:01a.

Very happy with those times and DVC put us in rooms we specifically requested both times RM 3948 at the Poly overlooking the pool with a lovely view of the castle to the right and close to elevators, and RM 431 at Beach club with the humongous 4th FL balcony, also close to elevators. Awesome!

You can use SAB all day both on check-in and -out days. On Sunday the day we were moving, we had access to both the Poly and BCV pools all day. Also the CM who checked us in at Poly told me the quiet DVC pool at Poly technically closes at 11p but as long as you're quiet and not bothering anybody you can go 24hrs.

 

[Sarahslay]

When do you usually see your room ready at resort #2? We’re doing a split for the first time at the end of May, first week at GF second at YC, and while I think park hours will likely be extended because Memorial Day weekend falls during our trip, now I’m not sure our original plan for moving day will work (we were going to maybe have brunch at GF Cafe and hang out a park all day, if not MK then Epcot). Do you still have access to SAB if your room isn’t ready yet?

Normally not until later in the day, but on our Christmas trip I put our arrival time at 7:30 am and got our room ready text as we were getting ready to leave our room at CR at 7am. I was really shocked because the earliest I've ever had was around 2pm, usually waiting around a bit or just have to hang in a park for a while. You do still have access to SAB if your room isn't ready, I have stayed at YC many times and see people arrive in the morning and head straight to the pool until their room is ready, you also have access on check out day all day as well. I recommend just putting what time you are planning on being out of your room at the first hotel as your check-in time on the on-line check in, it has worked well on my last two trips for all of our rooms (Thanksgiving, 1st half of Christmas and 2nd half of Christmas I put down my arrival time ranging from 7:30am-3pm and they were all ready before the time I stated). This is most likely because the resorts are not full so they have empty rooms available, hopefully it kinda stays like this, we are arriving memorial day weekend for another family trip and I would love our room to be ready since we aren't running to the parks that day.

 

[MomOTwins]

We have a split stay coming up, and I didn't anticipate how much the shorter 60-day dining reservation window and lower restaurant capacity would affect our ADRs. You can only make ADRs from the check in day of each split stay. So our 4 day stay, we were able to get some of the ADRs we wanted toward the end of the trip. But for our 2-day stay at our second resort, the ADRs were really slim pickings. Also, because we split it up and had two shorter stays, there were some ADRs we wanted that we couldn't get at all at either stay because people with longer stays had snapped them all up.