Process for changing resorts midtrip?

[LiloMae]

We may be forced to split our stay between two resorts. With the gap in check in and check out times, how does that typically work? Will the next resort hold your bags until check in? What are the odds of an early check in?

 

[Geomom]

We've done split stays without our own transportation before. We bring our bags to bell services and ask for them to be transferred to the next resort. They usually say they'll get there by 2PM? Then we go to a park and enjoy the day. If the next resort is an Epcot or Magic Kingdom one, we'll go to that park and take a break once we get the room ready text. Send for our bags, unpack, and head back to the park.

If we have our own transportation, we'll keep the bags in the trunk until we get the room ready text. Same plan, go to a park for the day.

They will hold the luggage at the new resort if you want, or the old one. In hopes of getting an earlier checkin, just list the time you could be ready for the next resort and maybe you'll get lucky.

 

[LiloMae]

We've done split stays without our own transportation before. We bring our bags to bell services and ask for them to be transferred to the next resort. They usually say they'll get there by 2PM? Then we go to a park and enjoy the day. If the next resort is an Epcot or Magic Kingdom one, we'll go to that park and take a break once we get the room ready text. Send for our bags, unpack, and head back to the park.

If we have our own transportation, we'll keep the bags in the trunk until we get the room ready text. Same plan, go to a park for the day.

Wow! Having them transferred was more than I was even better than I expected. Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Sandisw]

We split stay almost every trip. We tend to stay to park close the night before the split, then sleep in, relax that morning, and stay until check out. Then do a nice TS lunch, either at the park or DS, spend time shopping or doing a few park things, and head to the new resort. Most often, it’s 3 pm and the room is ready!

We used to send things via bell services, but we now use Lyft since we most almost always have things that need refrigeration and they don’t transfer those. Plus, we didn’t get luggage until 6 pm once which was not ideal.

But, using bell services is easy. We have sometimes had our room ready by 2 pm on a split day but there is no correlation between the two…as that has happened on the first leg as well,

 

[LiloMae]

We split stay almost every trip. We tend to stay to park close the night before the split, then sleep in, relax that morning, and stay until check out. Then do a nice TS lunch, either at the park or DS, spend time shopping or doing a few park things, and head to the new resort. Most often, it’s 3 pm and the room is ready!

We used to send things via bell services, but we now use Lyft since we most almost always have things that need refrigeration and they don’t transfer those. Plus, we didn’t get luggage until 6 pm once which was not ideal.

But, using bell services is easy. We have sometimes had our room ready by 2 pm on a split day but there is no correlation between the two…as that has happened on the first leg as well,

Great point! I forgot to consider refrigerated/perishables. So you'd just take your things over via Lyft and ask the front desk to store them for you?

 

[CarolynFH]

Great point! I forgot to consider refrigerated/perishables. So you'd just take your things over via Lyft and ask the front desk to store them for you?

Bell Services, not the front desk, will store all your luggage including items needing refrigeration/freezing. They’ll probably greet you when you arrive.

Be sure to pack those cold items separately and label them clearly so that Bell Services knows what goes where. They’ll give you a claim ticket for everything. When you return, you can stop at Bell Services to claim your luggage and bring it to your room yourself, or you can call from your room once you’re there and they’ll bring it up.

 

[ehh]

In our last split stay* we did a bell services transfer and regretted it due to timing not working out for us.

It was New Years Eve and we left our room at the Poly at around 11am and asked for bell services to transfer our luggage to Beach Club, which they happily did.

We had a 5PM reservation in Epcot and then were planning to spend the rest of the night in the parks, finishing with Epcot NYE fireworks and leaving at around 12:30am.

We had hoped that our luggage would be delivered to Beach Club prior to 4:30PM so we could have it delivered to our room before leaving for Epcot that evening, but it did not. We got our room text before 2PM, which was great, but by the time we had to leave our room at 4:30ish, our luggage still hadn't been delivered to Beach Club.

This meant a very late night luggage delivery, nearly 1am, after we returned from the parks. And then some unpacking time before we could finally go to sleep.

If we had just brought it over ourselves (we had a car), it all would have been avoided. We won't be doing bell services transfers again.

* technically our last split stay was a BRV/CCV split stay where luggage transfer was also oddly bumpy despite being the 'same' resort

 

[GoBills]

I used a Minnie van during my last trip to transfer resorts. I got to our new resort around 8 AM, left our bags with bell services and headed to the park. I know Disney will transfer bags, but we were planning for a mid afternoon swim and I wanted to ensure our bag was where I needed it! Lyft would work just as well, but I have a 4 yr old and appreciate the car seats in a Minnie van.

 

[eticketplease]

If we had just brought it over ourselves (we had a car), it all would have been avoided. We won't be doing bell services transfers again.

That is what we do.

We may just be lucky but we seem to get our room faster as well.

 

[rdevans_2000]

We may be forced to split our stay between two resorts. With the gap in check in and check out times, how does that typically work? Will the next resort hold your bags until check in? What are the odds of an early check in?

 

[rdevans_2000]

We love split stay trips, so long as the trip is long enough (maybe at least three days in each resort). And yet... we are making an exception next week. We are headed to DW Sunday morning, very early. We already had a four night stay at Poly, but decided to go one day earlier and stay at AK, for one night. I will report back after... but only one night at AK might be a mistake. Check in at 4 pm and then check out at 11 am the next morning? Oh well... we love Disney, so we will give anything a try at least once!

 

[Shellyred8]

We do a lot of split stays. They always tell us the luggage will arrive at the new resort in some window of time. Like between 3-6pm or something like that. It usually varies too. Sometimes they say between 1-3 or 2-5. I don't remember a time when we didn't get our luggage in the window that they gave us ( know others have different experiences though, so that's something to keep in mind). We always go pick our luggage up from bell services, that way we don't have to wait that extra time that it takes them to do that.

 

[Noodlez]

We did this for the first time last week. We were told that they would take the luggage directly from our room to the next resort if we wished, but we had to be in the room when they collected it. Instead we took it to bell services to be delivered to the next (from AKL to BCV). We were advised that it may take until between 4pm - 6pm to be delivered and they couldn't guarantee it before this time. We were happy with that as we intended to leave the previous room and spend the day in the park. We actually had the room ready message at just after 4pm and our luggage was already at the resort.

 

[mickeys girl 52]

We love doing split stays, as long as we have at least 4 days at each resort.usually We go to a park on the day when we are changing over like many have said, but sometimes we just make it a p00l day at our new resort . 9 times out of 10 we have been very lucky and gott in our room early. I would say at least before 1 PM. but of course, there is no guarantee to that. To me it's like having 2 little Mini vacations especially if you do one resort over by magic Kingdom and 1 in the Boardwalk area.

 

[mikeuno]

I learn something new each time I visit the DIS!

Thanks for sharing your advice.
Looking forward to a split stay next year.

 

[DougEMG]

Both this year and last year we were told that they no longer place groceries in cold storage. We take a couple of freeze bags with us to place the cold stuff in and freeze anything the night before so that it lasts longer.

 

[Genie+]

I’ve only had them transfer our stuff once years ago. We dropped it at bell services very early and went to the park. Got our room ready a little after 4pm. We left the park, checked in and asked to have the luggage sent to our room. It arrived around 7pm. Not bad but just easier to do it ourselves.

What I really miss is being able to drop off our luggage in the morning on the last day and they’d send to the airport. Would’ve preferred them keeping that service and cutting the transfer Instead. That service was spectacular!

 

[Pooh12863]

A little trick I learned from my daughter is to put an air tag in one of your bags so you can keep track on whether your bags have made it to the second resort yet when letting bell service do the transfer.

Won't get them there any sooner, but I feel better knowing where they are. I amuse easily

 

[ain0004]

They will transfer your luggage but no cold foods. We prefer to transfer our luggage ourselves. With that said We most likely will never change resorts again. We feel we spend too much time pack and unpacking, And the hassle of being "homeless". It never fails someone wants a nap or is just ready for a break.

 

[tom1944]

They will transfer your luggage but no cold foods. We prefer to transfer our luggage ourselves. With that said We most likely will never change resorts again. We feel we spend too much time pack and unpacking, And the hassle of being "homeless". It never fails someone wants a nap or is just ready for a break.

We plan to try a split stay this August. The plan is 5/4 and we will pack for the 5 days in 1 carry-on and the 4 in a second.

We will do laundry the evening of the 5th day so we are not dealing with dirty clothing when we move.

We also do laundry the 3rd day of a trip. Because we do laundry, we only pack as if we are taking 5 days of clothing not 9 days.