Room change every night/ 4 night stay???

[heathjh]

Is it worth the hassle to move rooms/resorts every night?
I was wanting to do a “research trip” to decide where to buy. I would stay in one place, but all that’s available are single days. We are renting points from a friend. Can’t really move days because we have to wait for college daughter to get done with finals. I really want to go for Dec to see all the holiday excitement.

As far as I’m concerned, I would do just about ANYTHING to get to go to WDW. We are west coast. I could easily go to DL. It just doesn’t have the appeal that WDW has. My husband doesn’t like the idea of a split stay at all, but is willing if I insist. I told him it would be great research getting to stay at 4 different resorts.

 

[a1tinkfans]

I’d never. The time it takes to get settled in, pack and unpack and move and check out and in.. and every night.. never even consider it lol. A split stay years back turned out to be such a time waster. Yet… some are fine with it.

but…. In ur case, I’d “maybe” consider it. However… what could you really see/explore in one part of a day.. don’t think you’d get a True feeling at the resort to determine which would be the best for a buy in. Unless of course something Truly turns you off as soon as you step on property. But experiencing amenities, pools, food, transport, lounges, etc etc takes more than a few hours. I think if my hubby were weary upfront ..before even starting the chaos lol I’d avoid it so he wouldn’t change his mind about purchasing lol.
Good luck deciding and safe travels!

 

[DonnerB]

Are you planning on going to the parks? If so, this sounds like my personal nightmare.

We tacked on an extra night to our stay last week and had to switch from SSR to BWV. It was annoying packing up the night before and having to worry about getting the luggage to Bell Services in time to catch a bus to the park. Disney won’t transfer any refrigerated food you may have. Neither room ended up being ready for a 4 pm check in, and knowing we might not have a place for a break or nap that last busy day sucked.

Maybe if you’re driving yourself…but this would be a hard No for me.

 

[RoseGold]

If he hates a split stay, a split stay after genie made him walk 12 miles is going to be even worse.

I don’t mind a split stay. Without kids, I think I could pick light and make this work. But this sounds like exactly how to make your husband hate DVC and Disney, which doesn’t sound like your goal.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I recall one, maybe two people that have done something similar but they were all on board to find what resort they wanted to buy at. IF you are all willing to live out of suitcases and recognize you'll likely be without a room for 5-6 hours a day then sure but it isn't what I'd call an ideal visit.

 

[Stargazer65]

I could do that with my DW if we just wanted to experience and hang out at the resort, relax in the room, etc... Just take overnight bags into the room, take most of the meals at the resort. We'd have a car so we could go out somewhere for lunch. I wouldn't want to do that in conjunction with theme parks, or with the kids.

 

[princesscinderella]

I feel like it’s more doable with going to the theme parks because you could check out every day and have fun at the parks until your room is ready. As long as you are light packers and don’t plan on bringing a ton of food to cook. A car to me would be essential for this plan to work, load up quickly every morning drive to the park for the day and drive to the next resort when you are ready.

We decided on a last minute stay dec 10-12 and I stalked the booking site about 20 times a day and was able to get Friday at Saratoga (which I then switched to OKW, the. BLT) and the Saturday night at OKW (which I then switched to AKV then BWV) as rooms were canceled by others. I was happy with the BLT/BWV split stay but waitlisted BLT just in case and it came through yesterday so now we don’t have to switch rooms. It’s definitely doable to string together a stay and keep modifying it as things change. Any day at Disney moving from resort to resort is better than a day at work

 

[CarolynFH]

I'm going to agree with above and advise against it (especially since your DH is not favorably inclined toward this trip) - unless of course availability is such that it's split stays or don't go at all. We won't do a split stay of fewer than 2 nights and will book that only if necessary (such as January when we have 3 nights in a studio followed by 4 in a 1 BR because of lack of points). The hassle of packing up and moving and being homeless all day every day is just too much - not at all a vacation for us. I'd recommend planning to visit the resorts you're interested in - you can ask at the DVC desk in the resort lobby if they have a room you can visit so you can see those, and of course the lobby and dining facilities are open for you to see as well.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

If I was offered that trip 100% for free, I'd still skip it.

 

[Sandisw]

I have done 3 resorts in a 4 night stay. But it was just me doing it as my DD and her friend had their room at Poly for all 4 nights.

I think it works if you want to sleep in, hang out at the resort, go to the park for the afternoon and go to the new one around dinner time.

 

[kc51570]

We usually do split stays on longer stays-5 nights at one resort, 3 at another because we want to experience different resorts and have convenient park access to MK one part and HS/Epcot the other part of our trip. Even moving once during a longer stay is tough. It has been a very long time since we ever had a room available before check in time. The norm seems to be after 4pm lately which adds to the stress and feeling unsettled. Moving every day sounds absolutely awful.

 

[RoseGold]

Also worth noting DVC hours. This isn't like a normal hotel where you can probably leave at 1PM and no one really cares or maybe your room is ready at 10AM. DVC operates at close to capacity. Check in and check out are 10 and 4, and even that isn't enough sometimes. Housekeeping frequently "checks" on you before 10 and rooms frequently aren't ready at 4. It's not likely your room will be ready early. I wish there were some way to check out online, so housekeeping would know where to start, with the people who left early.

They don't bring your bags to your room anymore, so you have to stop by bell services or call every single time, and bell services is not exactly overstaffed right now. I didn't have issues in October, but I did over the summer. That kind of issue is frustrating when it's every day. Always tip bell services.

On the flip side, I do think a night is enough to know if you love a resort, or at least if it really isn't for you. It only took one night for me to rule out WL and AKL.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Also worth noting DVC hours. This isn't like a normal hotel where you can probably leave at 1PM and no one really cares or maybe your room is ready at 10AM. DVC operates at close to capacity. Check in and check out are 10 and 4, and even that isn't enough sometimes. Housekeeping frequently "checks" on you before 10 and rooms frequently aren't ready at 4. It's not likely your room will be ready early. I wish there were some way to check out online, so housekeeping would know where to start, with the people who left early.

They don't bring your bags to your room anymore, so you have to stop by bell services or call every single time, and bell services is not exactly overstaffed right now. I didn't have issues in October, but I did over the summer. That kind of issue is frustrating when it's every day. Always tip bell services.

On the flip side, I do think a night is enough to know if you love a resort, or at least if it really isn't for you. It only took one night for me to rule out WL and AKL.

Unless it's changed in the past year check out is 11am.

 

[myth2001]

Not as extreme as you are planning, one trip we had a spilt stay that involves 3 separate DVC location ( 1-2 nights each) and 2 other hotels. Like you that was the research trip before we bought into DVC.

A car is absolutely necessary for this type of trip, essentially you use that as your base instead of your room.
you would only take the things you need for that night into the hotel (pack accordingly, say 4 bags/packing cubes, one for each night).

 

[bumbershoot]

I would do and have done things like this, but not with a recalcitrant husband.

I feel like it’s more doable with going to the theme parks because you could check out every day and have fun at the parks until your room is ready. As long as you are light packers and don’t plan on bringing a ton of food to cook.

I agree.

But I wouldn't do it with a car, because I won't leave baggage in the car. I would have my packing done VERY purposely so I could pull out just what I need for a day and pack yesterday's stuff, hand it all over to bell services, and go about my day. Then I would plan to see that stuff after official checkin time.

OR I would hope for good weather and just experience the resorts. Assuming the weather is decent, I would swim at the resort I'm leaving then head over and swim at the resort I'm checking into. Dine, have drinks, wander; just explore each resort, rather than just seeing the resorts at night and in the morning.

 

[kandlsutton]

DH and I did 5 resorts in 8 nights in 2019 for our 30th anniversary - Coronado Springs Destino Tower (1), Yacht Club (4), BLT (1), CCV (1) and AKL (1). Luggage was pretty easy - drop off at bell service and pick up at bell services, but cost a lot with tipping per bag per move. Last 3 nights were pretty hard because we couldn’t really enjoy the resorts since we went to the parks during the day and waited for our room ready text. BLT was the worse as we hoped to make it an early day in the parks but our room wasn't ready until around 6pm. We just showed up at BLT (no text) and had to wait at front desk to check-in. Fell asleep before the fireworks and we had paid almost rack room for theme park view (just this once). Both BLT and CCV studio rooms were really small after coming from Yacht Club. AKL is my husband’s favorite, but we wish we had had more time to sit on the balcony looking over the savannah.
We did learn that we want a minimum of 2 nights for a split stay, you need to pack accordingly, we will not do a studio at BLT or CCV, and we love AKL.
Funny note - last day was at AKL and we went swimming. Put wet suits in a plastic bag in one of the carry-ons because it was easier to get into than the bags being checked. MCO security pulled the bag with the wet swim suits, questioned us, and searched through it to confirm wet swimsuits were the offending items. Glad we got to MCO early…

 

[kristenabelle]

I've done 3 nights, 3 resorts as a duo, no kids - we did Copper Creek, BLT, and Grand Flo. Not a diverse lineup in terms of location, but we got an awesome oversized studio with a beautiful view at CC, saw the water parade after our park day at BLT, and finished up with a beautiful view and dinner at Enchanted Rose for VGF. A nice way to get the best of all worlds, as long as you don't mind being without your stuff most of the day (if you're using WDW luggage transfers). We spent all day at the parks, and didn't mind being without a room until the afternoon. If you need a place to rest earlier than 4 PM, that might be rough.

 

[hhisc16]

We are doing a 4 night split stay amongst 4 resorts with a 1yo in December. It was only what was available after purchasing this year.
We are trying the different resorts and driving to WDW.

 

[CSLucas]

Never done that, but I'm going to echo what others have said about if you are going to the parks, this sounds a lot better than if you aren't. Our last trip was a split stay (2 nights at each), and honestly it was just as easy as if we hadn't done a split stay because we just drove to the new hotel when we left the park that day - we got there around 10 PM and they brought the bags up to our room about 10 minutes later. We are about to head down the week of Christmas for 2 nights (also a split stay because there was nothing consecutive available). As long as you have something to occupy you outside of your room every day, then I don't think you would actually mind very much (and as a bonus, you'll get a clean room every day!). If you are going to have a car, I might consider just packing 4 separate bags so you don't have to worry about luggage since people seem to have had mixed experiences with the luggage being delivered to the room.

 

[heathjh]

We have now eliminated the kids from the trip. Just waiting to find out if husband can leave work on the days I have found. Hoping something is still there by the time I go to reserve. I think he is ok with switching once.

He is a parks guy. So leaving for the day isn’t really a problem. I think not having the extra expense of the kids is better too. They aren’t really high maintenance or anything since they are 14 and 19, but just having extra humans to take notice of is more weighing on him than it is on me.

I love all of your insights on this. Perhaps renting a car would ease his worry. We were hoping to use Magical Express one more time. Really sad about it going away!! DH loved Magical Express!!!

Really hope this all works out!! I NEED a Disney trip!!! Some would say it is a want, but I think it’s more of a need.
DH was asking if this was going to be a once a quarter type of trip if we buy DVC. I told him maybe for the first year since I haven’t been back to WDW since 2014 and DL since 2017. I need to make up for lost time .

Thank you all again!!