Question for Split Stayers and those that do not like Split Stays, from a person that despises Split Stays

[bobbiwoz]

I think there are three OKW buildings with elevators, and we have only gotten one once. I have been pretty successful with requesting “first floor or elevator building “, but I have gotten a second floor on occasion.

 

[RanDIZ]

Just finished our first split stay. We did 3 solely due to the unheard of availability during this year. Up to last week when we arrived, every resort had become available for studios at some point. The hardest was VGF which showed available only once, but we weren't interested. We wound up going with 3 night CCV, 2 night BCV, 3 night AKV Kidani. The check in times were amazing! CCV 10am, BCV 7:45am, and AKV 10:30am. Yes, the packing/unpacking situation sucks, but to get to experience multiple resorts was great. BCV made it more than worth it since we planned our EP and HS days for that portion. We were able to rope drop both parks each day and hit every ride including ROTR BG by 2p. We left both parks to head back to BCV for a break which was so convenient. Next time I would definitely limit it to 2 resorts per 4 nights though. FYI - we also drove so this made transportation with luggage smooth.

 

[ain0004]

Us personally do not like split stays. Too much packing and unpacking and packing
We also stay for around 8-10days. Family of 5 sometimes my parents come. Party of 7. I feel like it’s wasted time and day. You have to be out by 11a. So you have to pack quick in the morning or the night before. Again wasting vacation time. Then you have to rehome yourself. Ok let’s say your room isn’t ready until after 5pm. Then unpack. Some love split stays. Maybe when we don’t have kids or extended family it is ok. I highly recommend you rent a vehicle for your mother and the scooter. Saves so much time. My mom also feels like less of an inconvenience having a vehicle

 

[k_hase]

We are currently on a split stay and I don't pack separately. We unpack fully in the first place, then I do a pretty shabby job of packing to move to the second one---basically, as long as everything is inside a bag I'm happy. Then I unpack it again. For the trip home I'm more conscientious about my packing. We reserve one bag for dirty if we're without laundry at one site and on this trip had a cooler bag with me that I used to move my cold items to the next resort.

In the end it's pretty easy to pack up a hotel room. Unlike your house where it's easy to forgot something OR overpack, in a hotel you need to put everything in a bag that isn't owned by the hotel. No decisions, just put in it in a bag. I always have large zip locs with me for things like swimsuits or cords, and guess I'm not worried about my tooth brush for a couple of hours.

 

[igrsod]

When we do split stays we always just pack up the morning of check out and order an Uber/Lyft to the new resort with luggage in hand. I like the assurance that my belongings come with me and are safe... we then check them into the new resort and go on our way.
If you have laundry in the villa, I would just pack for half the trip and wash the clothes when you transfer. The biggest pain with transferring for us was food... I like the only getting half the delivery and then getting a second delivery at the new resort... or packing a collapsable cooler is also a great idea.
I don't love split stays, I like feeling settled but they are not the end of the world. It is kind of fun to have a new perspective half way through.

 

[js]

Thank you all so much for your detailed responses. We had the Swan/OKW one bedroom booked but decided today we are going to do a ten day full stay at OKW. We loved the fact we can walk to and from MGM and Epcot with Swan, but the fact of getting our food delivery, unpacking and just destressing and relaxing won out. The one bedrooms look huge and it is a place we have yet to stay. I am really happy with our final decision.

Thank you all again.

 

[bakerworld]

We were at WDW the first week of November. Originally the trip was to be a cruise sandwich but it morphed into 2 nights at Kidani, 3 nights at Dolphin and 2 nights at Saratoga. I love the Dolphin and if I had the ability (it would take too long to explain) I would've stayed at the Dolphin for the whole 7 nights. I love being able to walk to two parks and we weren't visiting MK anyway. As our AP's had expired we only purchased a 5 day ticket so the 3 nights we were at the Dolphin we went to Epcot with 1 day at the Studios. We're not big fans of split stays. For us, as we take short cruises, the cruise sandwich lends itself to split stays but I have to say by night 7 we were done with packing and unpacking (even though we never really unpacked).

The Dolphin had just opened the Monday of our stay so they weren't up to luggage transfers. The parking attendant clapped his hands and a Lincoln Town Car magically appeared. $25 (inclusive of tip) and in less than 10 minutes we, and our luggage, were at Saratoga for the last part of our stay. Worth every bit of the fee.

 

[kboo]

Looks like the OP made their decision. For anyone else who might be on the fence and is reading this - we started out split-staying because we didn't always have enough points; we stayed split-staying because we like the variety. Until we bought Riviera, we particularly liked to split with our MK DVC and Swan/Dolphin. Now, we mostly split with Riviera but we are staying at the Swan next week because we banked all our points except the expiring ones... (we have a lot of Marriott points)

Things I love about split stays:
The change of scenery
Proximity to different parks, different restaurants and things to do at the resorts

Why the things I'm not crazy about don't matter that much to me:
luggage/packing/repacking: believe it or not, I am one of those people who likes to unpack and settle in each time we go! We just bring less clothes (carry on only + owner's locker) and do laundry at least once while we are there. Even with 2 kids, it's not a big deal for us. We do laundry the night before move day, usually while the kids are sleeping or getting ready for bed. Then, we throw all the clean laundry into our bags. We usually don't do a pool day on move day. Instead, we do a later breakfast/brunch at the resort as we drop bags off to be transferred, then head to a park. We have a dinner ADR either at the new resort or in the park, so we aren't hovering and waiting for our room to be ready. Easy peasy!

not using MB for charging (specific to Swolphin): I carry a credit card for backup anyway, in case my MB isn't working, so it's really only adding a hotel room key to my parks wallet, in case using my phone to unlock the door doesn't work.

Now the hotel rooms at the Swolphin are smaller than DVC studios (except maybe BLT, haha) but they have 2 beds, good pools, and walking distance to 2 parks. Also: you can book even MORE than 11 months in advance,* their points costs don't vary as dramatically over the seasons (they used to not vary at all),** and they have a much more lenient cancellation policy - it used to be 24 hours and I think this week it's 5 days. No holding, no banking/borrowing, etc.

*we have done this for New Year's and it's really alleviated a lot of drama with walking, being right on at 8am for DVC, etc.
**due to covid we are getting a 33% discount on points (cash room rates are 35% off I think) *and* 2 nights free.

Another benefit with Swolphin is early check in /late check out: check out is 11 am but elite members can get late checkout until 4 and even if you're not in the loyalty program you can pay for the late check out. And rooms have *always* been ready when we are checking in, even in the AM. So unlike switching between DVC resorts, where you have a block of time where you are "homeless", switching to/from Swolphin doesn't usually have that problem. Especially if you're going from DVC to Swolphin. This was a lifesaver when our kids napped.

I love the Swan - we've stayed there over more remote DVC (SSR and OKW) on last minute trips where we want to be close to EP and HS.