Split Resorts?

[mickiecake]

We are booked for 7 nights at AKL. I am considering doing 4 at AKL & 3 at the Poly. Do any of you guys ever do this? This is our first (and last for many, many years) trip to WDW, so I thought checking out 2 resorts might be fun.. or maybe too much hassle..

 

[MulanMom]

Though my preference is not to split resorts, we have done so and even plan on doing it our next trip. It can be easy and painless if you plan it right since your luggage items are transferred for you. But usually, it does take some time away from touring. My 8 year old son asked us NOT to switch resorts next summer when we stay at OKW because he feels it makes the vacation go quicker when we split. (Our next trip is a surprise one during the holidays! We're splitting the stay due to cost and availability.)

From your note, it looks like this will be your first trip. I'd advocate staying at AKL for the 7 nights and concentrate on touring WDW. You can enjoy the ambience of the Poly by scheduling a meal there and strolling through the resort during your stay.

That's JMHO. Have fun and enjoy your trip!

 

[tnminnie]

We did a split stay between WL and AKL in Oct. We rented a car, so we moved our luggage ourselves, and were able to check in to the AKL at 11:00am. We like doing a split stay because it feels like 2 trips in one. We were able to use the different transportation, enjoy the pools, and explore the different resorts. If you really have your heart set on a split-stay, I say go for it!

 

[MissionMouse]

Checking out two resorts might be fun,, but for others it is not. We have done spilt stays and have precisely done the AKL/PR combo. You might consider doing AKL first and wrapping up with PR if your kids prefer MK.

We started considering spilt stays after a long stay at the GF. It sort of lost some of the excitement and we fell into a routine. As others indicated when you do a spilt stay it can feel like another vacation...if you pack light and don't unpack everything.

Overall, we found the AKL to be very nice but lacked a little of the excitement we find while staying at one of the monorail resorts. Love the animals and sitting on our patio watching the animals. When we did this spilt stay we focused on the AK and Disney Studios when we stayed at the AKL. We also stayed only 3 nights at AKL and we were glad we limited to 3 nights...staying the other 7 nights at the PR.

 

[marivaid]

Go for it !! We've stayed at both. Loved AKL, loved the Poly. But AKL has one big disadvantage, it's far away from everything except AK, that closes early. You will love the convenience of the monorail and proximity to MK.

 

[MomWith2Cinderellas]

We are booked for 7 nights at AKL. I am considering doing 4 at AKL & 3 at the Poly. Do any of you guys ever do this? This is our first (and last for many, many years) trip to WDW, so I thought checking out 2 resorts might be fun.. or maybe too much hassle..

We split stay last January and we are doing the same this trip. We like to try different resorts and this gives us a chance to enjoy the resorts. We did not find it to be a big hassle at all.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We did our first split stay last month, 4 nights YC first and then 4 nights Poly. If you have your own car it is super easy, you can request a later check out/in too.

The only thing that I did not like about a split stay is we fell in love with the YC and the Poly was just ok to us. I have a feeling that if we did one place per trip we would not feel this way. We were spoiled at the YC because it is so quiet, the rooms are much bigger and the bathrooms are much better, the quiet pool and spa was empty and we had it all to ourselves. When we checked in at the Poly it was chaos, people everywhere, very loud and rowdy, no hot tubs and 2 very loud and crowded pools.

 

[Mickiethepooh]

People do this all the time and it is not hard they will transfer your luggage for you. I love to do it myself, but since I need HC accessible rooms I do it a lot less than I used to do.

 

[Princess Erin]

Just pack light and travel easy.

 

[GailT]

How do you do it. I am staying at BWI and want to split it with Poly and the CM said it can't be done on a package. I did it before but it just seems to be so difficult planning a trip to DW, they make it hard and for the prices they charge they should make it easier for people to plen the trip they want....I am not liking Disney like I used to years ago, why I am going back is beyon dme, maybe a short plane ride. Let me know how you do a split stay, if I do the bWI I want that.

 

[marivaid]

How do you do it. I am staying at BWI and want to split it with Poly and the CM said it can't be done on a package. I did it before but it just seems to be so difficult planning a trip to DW, they make it hard and for the prices they charge they should make it easier for people to plen the trip they want....I am not liking Disney like I used to years ago, why I am going back is beyon dme, maybe a short plane ride. Let me know how you do a split stay, if I do the bWI I want that.

It's the DDP that complicates split stays. You can't have the DDP without buying a package (room+tickets+dining plan).
If you want to split your stay between BWI and Poly, and keep the dining plan for both, you'll have to pay for tickets twice. No way around it unless you're a DVC member.

So you'd have to make 1 reservation at BWI and 1 reservation at the Poly, both packages. For example, if you were staying a week and wanted to do 4 days at BWI and 3 days at the Poly :

Reservation #1 (BWI) : Room + 7-day tickets for each person + DDP

Reservation #2 (Poly) : Room + 1-day ticket for each person + DDP

The 1-day tickets won't expire until you use them, so you could keep them for a later trip.
Personally I'd just dump the DDP for the 2nd reservation & book room-only, but that's just me.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I think it is a giant pain in the neck. And other parts of the anatomy, as well.

I always advise people to pick a hotel and stick with it.

 

[PolynesianPixie]

IMHO those are my 2 most favorite resorts! I say Go for it and enjoy!

 

[rcraw45425]

We did it once and DH said never again. We often will decide to go down a night early, always book Pop for that night, always wind up just adding another night on at the deluxe. Since DH is generally the pack mule, he's the one that decides. Our split stay was WL and Poly. As another person mentioned, we fell in love with our first resort (WL) and our Poly stay was just, eh. Check in at Poly was a nightmare, just for us, everyone else that arrived after us had rooms in a snap. Ours didn't finally clear till after 5PM, after the manager got involved and discovered that they had decided to clean the carpet in that room but not take it out of the system. We had 5:30 dining at 'Ohana, wound up rushing through dinner so we could dress the girls and get to MK for the Halloween Party. Poly did cover our meal for our trouble though, which was unexpected, and nice of them. Then the volcano pool went down for our entire stay due to an "incident" that required sanitizing. All in all, we weren't that impressed with the Poly, although we love to dine there.

 

[MulanMom]

I should have mentioned that we usually have APs and use the DDE card for discounting our dining. As a previous poster said, having a package with DDP can really complicate matters.

 

[hammie59]

We're splitting on our upcoming trip. We've never done that before, but we've never stayed on property either! We're doing it so we can stay longer and off set the cost a bit. Plus I have a 4yr old who's chomping at the bit to stay in the Toy Story building at ASMo.

We had to make two reservations. We have a package for the first 4 nights at CSR with dining and 5 day park hopper tickets. The next 3 nights are over at ASMo with no dining or extra tickets added (booked as room only). We plan on doing a few other things those last 3 days that don't all involve the parks, so will probably eat off property and save on the cash.

The day that we check out of the CSR and into ASMo is going to be our "pool/break day" so we don't have to worry about wasting a park day. We're saving our last park ticket for one of the last days that we're at ASM since they're good for 14 days after first use.

I think that you can add as many park hopper days to your package as you want, even if you aren't technically booking as many days in your package. That way you can spilt your resv and still take advantage of the savings from buying your tickets (the more days on your tickets, the cheaper they are). The only problem you would have would be with the dining.

At first I thought it would be weird doing this, but now I'm excited because we get to try out 2 resorts in one trip. My only regret is that we booked in reverse order (mod to value), but we can't change that because we have friends coming down with us the first half of the trip. So oh well, I'm just happy to be at Disney longer!

Good Luck with your planning.