Mod/deluxe split stay or lower cost deluxe?

[Griffin11]

Hi everyone, hoping to get some help with my resort choice. I am planning a trip for late January/early February 2022. It will be a first visit for my husband and kids, who will be 4 and 6. We are looking to stay on-site (mostly to avoid renting a car with the hassle of car seats). We will be staying for 8 nights.

Our accomodation budget is somewhere in between the moderate and deluxe price levels. Would you recommend a split stay between a moderate and a more expensive deluxe (say CBR 5 nights + Poly 3 nights) or the full 8 nights at a lower priced deluxe (maybe WL or AKL)?

We would be planning to go to the parks every day, but coming back to the resort mid-afternoon (and not returning back to the parks after that on most days). Easy transportation and a variety of dining that doesn't need advanced reservations are priorities. We don't necessarily need a lot of formal activities at a resort, but lots of opportunities for exploration would be a huge plus.

Available discounts (if there end up being any) may make the decision clearer, but based on typical pricing what would you recommend?

 

[kevgraub]

Another option (that is not necessarily for everyone) would be to rent points to stay at a DVC resort. With your family, you could pretty easily do a studio at a deluxe resort and pay about the same cost as a moderate resort.

 

[Griffin11]

Another option (that is not necessarily for everyone) would be to rent points to stay at a DVC resort. With your family, you could pretty easily do a studio at a deluxe resort and pay about the same cost as a moderate resort.

I think that's something we'll consider in the future, but given the uncertainty with COVID right now, we're sticking with options that are more flexible in terms of changes/cancellations.

 

[loves to dive]

Tough one, I do split stays just about every trip, usually a night or two at the beginning of the trip at a Value or Moderate then move over to a Deluxe (lately that has been Dolphin instead of a WDW resort because we love us some Epcot and HS). It is two adults in our family so a little easier to make the move and we drive down so have a car for move day as well. My thoughts are that the first day we don't get there until between 1 and 3 and go directly to a park so why pay deluxe prices for that night. Since we usually only do one day in MK and one day in AK, we tend to knock both of those out while at a lower tier resort since you have to ride a bus anyway (unless you are in a MK resort). Thus the two nights. Then we move over to Dolphin and spend the rest of the time walking between HS and Epcot. Given the make up of your family, I'm going to guess you are going to spend more than 1 day at MK. In that case, WL might make sense since there is a boat that runs to MK. AKL is a beautiful resort and I love it, it would be fun for the kids to be able to see the animals any time they want but if you are spending more time in the parks, that might not make sense. With little's the split stay might be more of a challenge, move day would mean getting up and getting packed, sending your luggage to the next resort and it most likely won't arrive until later in the day. Your room could be ready by early afternoon but you can't count on it so if the little's, get tired you don't have a room to go back to.

 

[Kae]

I would do a Value & Deluxe. Pop & WL is a great combo-imho. Last trip we did Pop & YC-just Adults. With the kids we did AS movies & AKL great trip. I just love the location of WL and everything about it.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Hi everyone, hoping to get some help with my resort choice. I am planning a trip for late January/early February 2022. It will be a first visit for my husband and kids, who will be 4 and 6. We are looking to stay on-site (mostly to avoid renting a car with the hassle of car seats). We will be staying for 8 nights.

Our accomodation budget is somewhere in between the moderate and deluxe price levels. Would you recommend a split stay between a moderate and a more expensive deluxe (say CBR 5 nights + Poly 3 nights) or the full 8 nights at a lower priced deluxe (maybe WL or AKL)?

We would be planning to go to the parks every day, but coming back to the resort mid-afternoon (and not returning back to the parks after that on most days). Easy transportation and a variety of dining that doesn't need advanced reservations are priorities. We don't necessarily need a lot of formal activities at a resort, but lots of opportunities for exploration would be a huge plus.

Available discounts (if there end up being any) may make the decision clearer, but based on typical pricing what would you recommend?

We've never done a split stay since it's entails a little more planning on the front end. And I do love to plan our trips but honestly we don't stay that long for most of our trips, we usually only do 3/4 nights and the longest, maybe 7 nights so I've never felt it was a good idea for not that long of a trip.

I think it just depends on what you want to do. Will you coordinate your park days with the resorts, will you drive and move your own luggage or let Disney do it? Are you ok with having two separate reservations?

I can see that there would be savings splitting CBR and Poly but with kids at ages 4 & 6, you may also want to consider a value. They'd probably love Pop or AoA and you could really have some significant savings and do a value then deluxe split stay. I think it's really just your personal preference. For me, we never plan our trips that far out, so trying to plan which parks I'm going to visit one year out, wouldn't work for me.

Resort wise, my kids love AKL and WL. They're 14 and 12 now but we stayed at them when they were around 8-12ish and they love them both. I think a split stay could be a lot of fun, like two vacations in one but it does add a little extra layer to the planning process.

 

[DLgal]

We did a split stay on our last trip. It was a longer trip...4 nights then 7 nights. While it was nice to stay at 2 hotels, my husband and kids said they didn't want to do that again. The unpacking and repacking and unpacking again was a pain. The day we changed resorts was basically a waste, because we were essentially homeless for 5 hours midday. Our room at the second resort wasn't ready on time and we had nowhere else to go, so we sat in the club lounge for like 2 hours. Changing and going to the pool wasn't an option because it was storming and the pool was closed all afternoon. I had planned a lunch ADR for 1:30 hoping to kill some time and it was the fastest sit down lunch ever. We were out by 2:15. One of my kids had a meltdown because our room wasn't ready until almost 5pm and it was just stressful overall.

 

[mickeymom22]

We do split stays all the time, and have done them since our kids were little.

What characters do you children like?
AoA: Lion King, Nemo, Little Mermaid, and Cars.
ASMo: Toy Story, Dalmations, Mighty Ducks (or just hockey if they don't know that movie, Fantasia, and Herbie.
Port Orleans Riverside: The princesses.
You could base a resort choice off characters they like.

Thoughts on Epcot resorts: When our kids were little, we really liked staying at an Epcot resort because we would always hop over to Epcot and enjoy a nice meal and then stroll back to the resort. It was also nice to let them walk to Hollywood Studios and then get in the stroller. If you stay at BC or YC, the pool area is so nice and fun for the kids. Mine loved it. Definitely get a kids meal from Hurricane Hanna's. It comes in a sand bucket, and then they can play with it at the pool. Being near the Boardwalk is nice to be able to walk around and ride a boat to Hollywood Studios. We loved our stay at the Boardwalk, but didn't find enough convenient QS options for us.

Thoughts on AKL: We always rely on Disney transportation. My kids loved to ride the bus, but while I love AKL, I think I would get tired of the bus all 8 days. I would split stay with another resort, if you include AKL.

Thoughts on MK resorts: We have never stayed in any of these resorts, but have visited them all! I just love the feel of the Poly and WL. So I would pick one of those. WL has a walking trail to the campground. You could explore the campground one day. There are horse stables and there are pony rides for small children. Chip and Dale campfire if things get back on schedule is really fun.

Our favorite moderate resort is Port Orleans French Quarter. One bus stop, great QS, boat to Disney Springs and a nice pathway to Port Orleans Riverside to enjoy.

On the day we switched resorts, we just packed everything up and headed off the parks. When we got the text our room was ready, we went to the new resort and checked everything out. Super easy!

Happy Planning!

 

[CynBeth]

I would just stay at WL the entire trip.

 

[Griffin11]

Thanks for all your thoughts so far. This would be a rescheduled trip (originally January of this year), so I am eager to start planning again.

I will probably make a reservation at a moderate soon (was hoping for POFQ, that was my original booking) so I know I have somewhere to stay, and then wait impatiently for discounts. I'm looking to do my research now so when/if discounts are released I can jump on my prefered resorts. I know Disney has been requiring minimum stays with certain discounts, and different resorts get different discount amounts, so hoping it will be an easier choice when I have more concrete details to work with!

The actual day of a resort change definitely seems like a bit of a roll of the dice. Could be a relatively seamless switch or could end up to be a big hassle. On our vacations we usually get to hotels pretty early, and have had such mixed experiences. It's great when you can get into your room early, but it can be very frustrating if you don't have a room until much later in the day.

 

[Griffin11]

I would do a Value & Deluxe. Pop & WL is a great combo-imho. Last trip we did Pop & YC-just Adults. With the kids we did AS movies & AKL great trip. I just love the location of WL and everything about it.

I think I will look into the value options again. I had ruled them out because I think we will need more from a resort for 8 nights, but a split stay brings different considerations.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

AKL is awesome especially if you are spending much time at the resort. This is my favorite resort at Disney. I can spend hours sitting on the balcony there.

My next favorite is AoA. The family suites are so nice & the resort so cute. And this is a value.

As far as dining without a reservation that’s only going to be a quick service place. AoA has a quick service & so does AKL we have only ate at each once so I don’t have much opinion on them to offer.

AKL has 2 other restaurants & you can walk to Sanaa from there also.
At AoA you can walk to POP to their food court also.

at all resort a bus to Disney springs opens up lots more dining choices.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

With kids your ages, and the potential for kid things (and adults) to happen (someone needs a nap, someone is cranky) I would stick to WL the entire trip. It’s close to MK which I assume will be where you spend most of your time. I’ve never stayed there but it looks like a great resort

I’ve done split stays and they aren’t bad but they aren’t my favorite. I hate unpacking and packing again. I’m one of those that fully unpacks on arrival so it’s a pain for me. Our room has also never been ready early so we’re “homeless” for a while. Since we are midday break people it wasn’t ideal. Both times we did split stays we did rope drop so we wanted a rest by 1 pm.

Next trip I wanted to avoid a split stay but I love the Epcot resorts and we want to do BC and plan on doing 8-9 nights so financially we may have to split with a moderate (hopefully POFQ). BUT if we do that moving day will be a relaxing day. We will do 11 am check out, maybe hit a park or DS, have a lunch ADR and just take it easy that day.

If you do a split stay plan your moving day to fit your families needs.

 

[Kae]

Except for Maybe POFQ I don't think we will do a Moderate again. For us it would be value or Deluxe.

 

[Griffin11]

Except for Maybe POFQ I don't think we will do a Moderate again. For us it would be value or Deluxe.

I think part of why I am considering a split stay is because I'm not particularly keen on CBR or CSR. I think they'd be fine, but I am not really excited about them. We had planned on POFQ for our original trip, I guess we'll have to see if it reopens in time.

 

[BostonEd]

Thoughts on AKL: We always rely on Disney transportation. My kids loved to ride the bus, but while I love AKL, I think I would get tired of the bus all 8 days. I would split stay with another resort, if you include AKL.

I dunno. Eight days might be a bit much to take the bus from AKL if you're going all out and park hopping and all that. But if they stick to their plan of just going in the morning and coming back, it's not that big a deal. I would vote for all 8 days at AKL. No other resort has its kid appeal. And no split stay because 8 days is just a little too short to justify a split stay. Especially with little kids. From a distance 8 days seems like a long time. But it is going to fly, and you're going to regret having to pack up all the kids stuff again.

 

[Griffin11]

I dunno. Eight days might be a bit much to take the bus from AKL if you're going all out and park hopping and all that. But if they stick to their plan of just going in the morning and coming back, it's not that big a deal. I would vote for all 8 days at AKL. No other resort has its kid appeal. And no split stay because 8 days is just a little too short to justify a split stay. Especially with little kids. From a distance 8 days seems like a long time. But it is going to fly, and you're going to regret having to pack up all the kids stuff again.

I love hearing everyone's input, but it's making me change my mind every reply I read!

I think we would love AKL, it's definitely the resort the kids would be most excited about, but I guess I'm unsure if we would love it for 8 nights given some of the downsides of the location.

 

[chasgeese]

I kind of agree with those suggesting a value/deluxe split stay. I don’t think CBR offers enough more over Pop to justify the costs. They are both still motel style resorts on the skyliner, and the more compact layout of Pop is preferable in some ways. While the Pop rooms are a little smaller, your kids are small enough that you probably won’t need the extra space as much (also the new room design with fold up beds actually is a more efficient use of the space). The only other big advantage of CBR is it does have a more exciting pool area with a waterslide.

Doing a Pop/monorail deluxe split would allow you to still be on the skyliner for the Pop days and have the monorail for the MK days and you might even be able to squeeze in an extra night at the Deluxe with the savings.

 

[cgattis]

The actual day of a resort change definitely seems like a bit of a roll of the dice. Could be a relatively seamless switch or could end up to be a big hassle. On our vacations we usually get to hotels pretty early, and have had such mixed experiences. It's great when you can get into your room early, but it can be very frustrating if you don't have a room until much later in the day.

Everything I was going to say was already covered, plus a bunch! I do like splitting up to be nearer to certain parks on certain days, but yes the packing is a little annoying. And I was going to recommend a no-park day in the middle, as your move day. Agree with being dressed and ready for the pool in case your room isn’t ready, but what if the weather doesn’t cooperate? The upside of AKL is that there is so much to see and do inside, you could still make a day of it. I’m sure there are fun indoor activities at other resorts too, that we’ve never taken advantage of. I personally won’t stay at another value unless its the only option, though—between the tiny bathroom, the tiny beds, and the exterior door, I’m OUT. (If I was solo abd felt guilty spending the money for just me, maybe.)

 

[mousehouse23]

I would definitely start with POFQ if you can make it work. I love the intimate, charming feel of that resort. Your kids will love the serpent slide, and the boats to DS are wonderful.

Just something to keep in mind: you're more likely to get a room discount for the other Moderates. Because POFQ is so small, sometimes it doesn't offer them. But it might!

As for split stays...I've never minded the packing part, and I absolutely think it's like having two vacations in one. There's just something exciting about "graduating" up to that Deluxe resort at the end of your stay. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Deluxes, but if your kiddos are most into MK, I do think being on the monorail line is helpful, especially if one of the kids poops out early, and the other wants to stay in the park. Poly is generally preferred, but we stayed at the Contemporary (lake view) when our kids were young, and it remains a favorite with all of us. That view! And the walk to MK is tough to beat.