moving resorts tips

[twooley2]

can anyone offer advice on moving resorts. Is it a real pain. Currently we are wait listed for our last three nights and have to change between the beach club and boardwalk. I so want to be at the same resort so we don't have to move as it sounds like a pain

 

[Pakey]

We do splits by choice because we enjoy have 2 different experiences within the same vacation.

We are light packers and we do not unpack our luggage when we vacation so it's not a big deal to for us. If we were unpackers, I would pack differently. My husband and I would share luggage then, packing two, one for each portion of the trip. We save our grocery bags so that we can repack the groceries.

We've done it both ways, transferring our own luggage to the new resort via car or cab and we've also had bell services transfer for us. If we are going to spend the transfer day in the parks, we just let bell services handle. If we are doing a short park day and/or a pool day, we transfer ourselves.

I do online check in for both legs so it doesn't take much time at the new resort to get the new room keys.

 

[sherylcin]

Well, we just did a move (with 13 of us in 3 rooms) when we were there in January, and while I won't pretend it isn't a pain at all, Disney does go a long way to make it pretty painless.

I think the worst part about it is having to pack up all your stuff (unless you live out of your suitcase anyway), food, etc. and then unpack it all again. Here I offer Tip #1: If you are getting groceries (either delivered or pick them up yourself) save the plastic bags they arrive in. You'll need them to pack up your groceries for the move.

Tip #2: Bell Services is great. We moved from BLT to Beach Club and all it required was a call and a tip. The down side to this is they don't bring your stuff to your new room until you call and ask for it to be delivered thus another tip is required. BUT the service is great! The only damage we suffered was a 2-1/2 gallon container of water was damaged but they replaced it right away.

We have done moves like this our last two trips in an effort to try and stay in all the DVC resorts. However, we've decided for our next trip to try and stay in one place the entire time. It's just easier.

So I hope your waitlist comes through, but if you do have to move, it's really not so bad. Have a wonderful vacation!!

 

[Plutofan]

We have done split stays many times. The bell hop justs picks up our stuff and then we go to the park. When we return we just call down to bell hop to have them bring it up. We have not had a problem.

 

[palaemon]

When you pack your stuff from the 1st resort, do you bring it down to check-out, or just pack it up and leave it in the room? (I know you have to be there when they pick everything up, right?)

 

[Pakey]

When you pack your stuff from the 1st resort, do you bring it down to check-out, or just pack it up and leave it in the room? (I know you have to be there when they pick everything up, right?)

You pack it up, call bell services from your room, tell them you want a pick up/transfer. Wait in the room for them. They will come and tag all of your bags, including grocery bags, and give you a receipt. You will need that receipt for delivery at your new resort.

If you have groceries, you need to separate the fridge, freezer, and non perishables into separate bags.

 

[smnslc]

We stayed two nights at All Star Sports before moving over to Kidani Village.
The night before the move, my husband contacted Bell Services to request the transfer of luggage. They asked what time was good and that they would take care of it. We went down for breakfast next morning, stopped by Bell Services and they told us we could leave out for the park and they would go up abd get the luggage. So we didn't even have to be in the room. When we arrived at Kidani Village late afternoon, we called down and Bell Services brought out Luggage right up. It was pretty painless. We did live out of the suitcases for those two days. We brought a couple of empty laundry bags to separate dirty clothes from clean and threw that in the luggage. We had very few grocery items because we waited to purchase those when we got to Kidani, but what we did have we just threw that in the carry on luggage.

 

[monorailmom]

Ugh...not to be disagreeable, but I will NEVER do a split stay again! And we weren't even changing resorts! We were going from a BlT standard view to a BLT lake view. We had to pack everyone up..groceries, clothes, etc....call bell services to pick up luggage..then we headed out to the parks. Came back at 2pm, room not ready.....waited a little...room not ready...complained, then all of a sudden...room ready! Then unpack (again). I know some folks find this an adventure, I find it a complete waste of time. If you don't really *need* to see two resorts in one trip, I"d say no way.

 

[palaemon]

Ugh...not to be disagreeable, but I will NEVER do a split stay again! And we weren't even changing resorts! We were going from a BlT standard view to a BLT lake view. We had to pack everyone up..groceries, clothes, etc....call bell services to pick up luggage..then we headed out to the parks. Came back at 2pm, room not ready.....waited a little...room not ready...complained, then all of a sudden...room ready! Then unpack (again). I know some folks find this an adventure, I find it a complete waste of time. If you don't really *need* to see two resorts in one trip, I"d say no way.

Yea. I might do it for a studio (little to no groceries) but it sounds like if you want to have a room to go back to before 4pm, then you could be waiting...

Personally, we don't go back to the room in the middle of the day, so it probably wouldn't bother us.

 

[tjkraz]

My tolerance for split stays has very narrow criteria. We've done them probably 5 or 6 times now. Different varieties.

Spending one night off-site wasn't bad because it was a small hotel and it was easy-in, easy-out.

One night at a Disney hotel was very frustrating. Didn't get into the room until pretty late in the afternoon. Disney resorts are so large that it just felt like a lot of wasted time getting settled in one place for what amounted to less than 18 hours.

On the other hand, two nights at a Disney resort wasn't too bad. We've done that 2 or 3 times now. IMO the keys are:

1. Start with a Studio. No groceries to deal with. Less space to spread out eliminates the urge to unpack to any great extent.

2. Plan ahead in packing. We had everything we needed for the studio stay in one suitcase. Toiletries, appropriate changes of clothes--it was all bundled together. The other bag(s) weren't touched until we got to the larger room.

Also helps to have a car, IMO. In our case, the bag(s) that weren't needed until we moved to a One Bedroom villa stayed in the trunk and out of the way.

When the point charts had the overpriced weekends, we didn't mind spending the weekend in a Studio and have even paid cash for a non-DVC room. Now that points are balanced out more, honestly I don't see a lot of split stays in our future.

 

[Sandisw]

We split stay and I enjoy them. We do one Epcot resort for part of the trip and then BLT for the rest.

It allows us to walk to the parks we enjoy and really limits the need for a rental car.

We found it pretty easy to move (though we do have the car for the move day). This year, we are going from BWV to BLT. Our plan is to check out, go to lunch at Le Cellier, and then hit DTD for the afternoon. By the time we are done shopping, we figure it will be around 3:00 and we hope that our room is ready by the time we get to BLT.

Because we have the car, we move our own things. We also don't buy groceries, except for a case of water, some soda and maybe snacks so that is an added element we don't have to deal with.

I can't imagine not doing it as it does make the experience great. And, we don't mind having to pack up as we don't really have that much any longer because the kids are older.

 

[DVCconvert]

A car can make it quite easy.
I have checked out of one, gone to another, checked in then spent the day at the pool until my room was ready.

 

[jelliott04]

Count us in the group that doesn't mind a split stay. Normally though, our split stays are because we add a day or two at the beginning of our trip and then can't get the DVC room to match. If it is just one night, then I pack a suitcase for that one night and we don't touch the other suitcase. I generally don't unpack everything but my hubby does so he then repacks his stuff. We've never done it without a car so I can't comment on using bell services.

This upcoming trip (in 7 days!) we are spending two nights at POR and then moving to AKV for 6 nights. It really isn't a big deal.

And you'll get to hear "welcome home!" in the middle of your trip!

Jen

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

We often stay at POR on our 1st night before moving to a DVC room.

We pack an overnight bag for just the POR night, and then pack up the next morning, and put the overnight bag in the car, and move the whole thing to the new resort.

When flying, we took all of our luggage to POR, took it to Bell Services the next morning to transfer to the next resort, and then caught a bus to a themepark. Later in the day, we checked in at the new resort, and had the luggage brought up. Slick!

 

[DenLo]

I thought it was great that Bell service takes care of everything on a split stay. Just make sure they remove every item from the villa before you leave.

The worse part is that there is no guarantee you will be able to get into the next villa when you want to. I found it amusing when one poster said after complaining they got a room. It doesn't always work that way because sometimes there just isn't a room available. The actual Check in time is after 4:00 PM. Once although we checked into BLT at 7:00 AM we did were not able to get into our room until 4:30. We started calling and checking to see if it was available at 1:30 PM. We were tired after the being in the heat that day. By 4:00 we called every 30 minutes. Luckily our villa was available on our 4:30PM call. Right before we received notice that our villa was ready another family found out that their villa would not be ready until 6:00 PM. I heard the BLT Greeter explain that the prior guest did not leave the room until late so it couldn't be cleaned timely.

Although we do some split stays we have gotten into the habit of packing our suitcases based on the split. We share a suitcase for the first resort. So we only have one suitcase to unpack. One time we had three suitcases as we had a three way split. In the future the maximum split I'll do is a two resort split it's too nerve racking wondering when you'll get back into a room.