Need help regarding transferring resorts...

[Rominet]

Hi all-

We have had a bout of temporary insanity and have decided to go to Disney World during Christmas break. We will stay two nights at Fort Wilderness and two nights at Kidani Village. We have never transferred resorts before or stayed at either of these resorts, for that matter, so we are lost. As of right now, I THINK we will be at Epcot the morning of the transfer from Fort Wilderness to Kidani. Oh, and we will have our own car and will rent a golf cart at Fort Wilderness that we need to return!

Any words of wisdom? How long will it take us to get from Epcot to Fort Wilderness on Tuesday, 12/29, around noon-ish? How long will it take to get from Fort Wilderness to Kidani Village? Should we check into Kidani BEFORE going to Epcot, or come back from Epcot and transfer to the new resort in the afternoon? How long does it take to turn in the golf cart? Oh, and we have the Wanyama Safari booked at 3:20pm, so we are supposed to be at Jako place that very day! How long will it take to transfer resorts?

So much confusion! This is a little advanced for me!

 

[sndral]

Can't help you with the FW part.
The Wanyama Safari starts at Jiko, which is in Jambo House @ AKL, Kidani is a different building. I'd plan to check in to Kidani no later than 2:30 - your villa may not be ready yet as Kidani is DVC and check in time is 4. Then walk (10 minutes) or grab any park bus (2-3 min.s) or the shuttle van down to Jambo for your pre safari meet up & snacks. To get back to Kidani after the dinner @ Jiko (it'll be dark by then) either walk, shuttle van or grab a DTD (aka Disney Springs) bus from Jambo back to Kidani.

 

[RedOnion]

Bring all luggage to the FW front desk during check-out and ask them to transfer to AKL, which they will do in your absence. Note however, make it clear that you are staying at Kidani Village; we mistakenly didn't specify last year and waited too long for our luggage, which was sitting at Jambo House until somebody figured out what had happened.

Then, go enjoy Epcot, or wherever, for as long as you care to.

When you are ready to leave, take the AKL bus from the park, and check in whenever you arrive. If it's mid-p.m. or later, your luggage should already be there; if it's after the regular check-in time, your room should be ready also. Enjoy your split stay!

 

[Accident]

I'm not a fan of having disney transfer my luggage because it might take them all day to do it and if you need something mid afternoon, you can't get to it..

I like checking out of the resort (actually going to the front desk and making sure they mark you as left). Then I cab it over (you can use your car) to the next resort and see if my room is ready If it's not, I leave my bags with the resort (it's free) and head to the park. They will txt you the room number while your out so you'll know when the room is ready, what room it is, etc. You can pick between getting your bags on your own, asking the baggage storage people to bring it to your room or just call them from the room to bring them. the last one tends to be what I do if it's a resort where stopping at the bag storage is inconvenient.

The reason for checking into the resort is the next place can't give you a room until your marked in the system as not already being in a room. I like just knowing that everything is under control and i've properly exited the last resort...

 

[purple figment]

I would also drive over to Kidani with my luggage and check in first thing in the morning. You can check in anytime after 6 AM. If your room is not ready you can leave your luggage with bell services and call for it once you are in your room.

While Disney can transfer your luggage from FW to KV it most likely won't arrive at Kidani until late afternoon. We would rather have access to our luggage as soon as our room is ready.