Need Help Planning Split Stay!

[bigeyedfish]

We are a family of 5 headed to WDW in March 2018. DH is planning a guy's getaway so it will be me and 4 kids (11, 10, 7, and 5). We arrive early afternoon on March 1st and will be flying out the evening of the 7th.

Does anyone care to help with an itinerary? We will be staying at the Poly for the majority of the time and want to spend 1 or 2 nights at AKL - Jambo. I'm hoping for a pool day in the middle! Thoughts as to how best schedule our time there? TY so much! You guys are so amazing and helpful!

 

[NicoleLarson]

I think you'll get more opinions if you at least have a rough outline. To start, If it was me and 4 kids all alone, no way am I switching resorts and I'm the queen of split stays. Its just too much to unpack, repack and unpack again for 5 people. Will you have a car? How many park days are you doing? Will you have hoppers? Do you just want 1 pool day? Are you afternoon break people? Do you plan on going to all 4 parks? Do you like CS or TS meals? See, there's so many variables, it's tough to give advice based on the info given.

 

[bigeyedfish]

We pack light and live out of suitcases! Not a big deal to me to switch resorts. Especially since this will be our one and only trip!

No car. We have 5 day passes (one Park/day). We have never been to WDW so I don't know what our style is. We tend to be early risers. I would imagine we would spend the entire day at the parks, a TS dinner, and back to the resort to swim/relax. We are hoping to do two full days at MK, one at Epcot, and one at AK. The 5th will either be a repeat of our favorite or HS!

 

[NicoleLarson]

Thanks for the info. If you are looking for our advice, then please change your mind about the split stay. A) unless you get a suite, you are over occupancy for AKL. B) it may sound simple but splits are not that easy, espically your first trip, alone, with 4 kids. Please don't do that to yourself. You can easily tour AKL and see all of the different savannahs and not stay there. Boma is a great option for breakfast or dinner. Poly is a great resort with arguably the best location on property with a great pool your kids will love. I highly recommend on your MK days to come back to your room for a rest. Going sun up to sun down multiple days in a row will leave you with very tired, grumpy kids. Not to mention your own sanity. Keep in mind the parks are very large, we usually walk at least 20,000 steps and are only there 4-5 hours. I don't think you'll want to do a park in your arrival day and I would suggest your down day in the middle of your stay. Also, make AK one of your last days since those are the most difficult FP to acquire. So maybe something like March 1st: pool/resort, captain cooks-dinner. March 2: MK, 3rd: EP, 4th: pool day, maybe fun dinner like Hoop de doo. 5th: AK, 6th: MK, 7th: HS or favorite park. That's a very rough outline. Of course you'll want to look at park hours/EMH when they come out. Big tip: only go to a park with EMH if you are actually going to use them. Don't go to the park with morning EMH if you don't get there until 10am. Hope that gets you started somewhat.