Resort hopping at end of vacation?

[wildlodger]

Hi everyone!

I have a trip planned from December 31 to January 7th, 2025, and I'll be staying at Boulder Ridge Villas for the entire trip. I have an opportunity to rent vacation points for a two-day stay in a Resort Studio Lagoon View at Grand Floridian Villas from January 7th-January 9th. I'm thinking it might be a nice way to wind down, and spend two days at the resort and not at the parks. I'm thinking maybe rent a cabana one day? Enjoy the room service feature and the lounges.

I've never swapped resorts in the middle of a Disney vacation, so I wanted everyone's thoughts. Is it more trouble than it's worth? Would it be more stressful than relaxing?

 

[thanxfornoticin]

We do the split stays often, and we really enjoy it. If you have a car, the transition is very easy. If you don't have a car, Disney Bell Services will transfer the bags for you. Just remember you'll be without a room for 5-6 hours or so. We usually do our cabana day on our transition day. We'd book at cabana at GF and spend the afternoon there waiting for our room. It doesn't have to be stressful!

 

[jo-jo]

We do split stays all the time, but more mid trip. Some don't want to take away from park time with all the packing /unpacking. But your plan sounds great.

 

[wildlodger]

We do the split stays often, and we really enjoy it. If you have a car, the transition is very easy. If you don't have a car, Disney Bell Services will transfer the bags for you. Just remember you'll be without a room for 5-6 hours or so. We usually do our cabana day on our transition day. We'd book at cabana at GF and spend the afternoon there waiting for our room. It doesn't have to be stressful!

Great! I'll definitely do cabana on transition day. Thank you for the advice!

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Great! I'll definitely do cabana on transition day. Thank you for the advice!

It's a great way to spend a day - weather permitting, of course! Have a Plan B ready for the day if it's too cold! Enjoy your trip!

 

[_19disnA]

Lots of older threads about staying at more than one resort while @ Disney. Part of the problem is transferring the luggage to the next location (if you don't have a car) and being without a room for some portion of the day. Some like doing that while others do not. We like to unpack ONCE when we arrive on vacation and only repack our last day when heading to the airport.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Yea, but if the choice is go home or stay an extra 2 bonus days while already there, repacking and unpacking a few things sounds good to me!!

 

[tetera]

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[wildlodger]

As usual, Tom Bricker has some good advice about this:

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/resort-split-stay-disney-world/

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/s...-universal-orlando-epic-universe-water-parks/

Also, since your split stay will be in 2025, you could take advantage of a free water park day instead of paying for a cabana if you wanted to do so... (or both! Water park on check in day, cabana on your full day)!

Thanks for this! Especially for the note on the free water park day...I've never been so even to get to walk around if it's cold would be fun!

 

[David Gardner]

If you don't have a car, Disney Bell Services will transfer the bags for you.

I talked to Guest Services last weel and was told that t's up to Bell Services at the resort you're leaving to determine if tey have the manpower to transfer bags in such an instance :-(

 

[Dave006]

I talked to Guest Services last weel and was told that t's up to Bell Services at the resort you're leaving to determine if tey have the manpower to transfer bags in such an instance :-(

Ahh you got bad information from Guest Services. Might have been a Bus driver that transferred to GS. There is not a lot of manpower needed to transfer bags vs normal baggage services.

Dave

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I talked to Guest Services last weel and was told that t's up to Bell Services at the resort you're leaving to determine if tey have the manpower to transfer bags in such an instance :-(

From our experience, it's been a daily service/option available to all guests at all WDW resorts for many years now. Split stays are not unusual, and many guests don't have a car - so it's a perk they offer guests since they cannot take luggage onto Disney transportation.

 

[Maxie86]

We do split stays most trips. Easiest way is to take a ride share or taxi with your luggage to the next resort if you don't have a car. That way you have you have access to your luggage if you need something. You don't have to use all your park tickets on consecutive days, you could take a resort, Disney Springs day and keep a day of ticket and go to a park on transfer day if it's too cold for swimming. It's not usually warm enough for swimming in late December and early January.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I've never swapped resorts in the middle of a Disney vacation, so I wanted everyone's thoughts. Is it more trouble than it's worth? Would it be more stressful than relaxing?

This is one of those questions where I am inclined to think it may be what you expect it to be, or make it out to be. If you think it will be relaxing, it will be. If you think it will be stressful, it may well be stressful for you.

I've often done split stays, especially when we do combo WDW/Universal trips, but sometimes we even do 3 hotels.

What you can do to make it a little easier is pack strategically when you go to do the split.
1. What helps is when you repack (on way to 2nd hotel) put most of your stuff back in the same place. Like we always put toiletries in the same place in our luggage.
2. We also find it is a bit easier if we live out of our luggage. In your case, you might want to do that especially the last two nights. (You could also initially pack a bag that is just/mainly clothes for the last 2 days.) If you don't unpack, then you don't have to re-pack.

For the last two nights, have all clean clothes in one bag, and all your laundry in a bag/section that you don't open. One of the few things we always unpack is toiletries, but we keep them together in quart zip lock bags.

We usually have a car, but if not, we prefer to take a taxi/ride share between hotels rather than using the luggage transfer service. If you do this in the morning, and your 2nd room isn't ready, you can leave your bags w/bell services. An advantage of a car is that you can leave some stuff in the car. EXCEPT the car will probably get HOT, so it is not good to leave food, perishables, chocolate, meds in the car unless maybe they are in a cooler. We have a soft sided mini-cooler, but if you don't try to transfer any perishable food best to give it to bell services. They can store it in a fridge for you. Easiest though is to have no food.

 

[dansdad]

I talked to Guest Services last weel and was told that t's up to Bell Services at the resort you're leaving to determine if tey have the manpower to transfer bags in such an instance :-(

As @Dave006 said, you definitely got some bad information. Bag transfers happen every day, no doubt.