Split Stay—Changing Hotels

[have2getaway]

We are doing a split stat in January with BC & then Poly—4 nights at each. We planned to take one day to do Universal and have paid for a room at RPR for express purposes (to maximize our day visit). There is a small chance we would want to stay, and add on one more day. It was suggested in another thread that we check out during our split stay move so that we aren’t paying for 2 hotels simultaneously, which made complete sense to me since we have to pack our stuff up anyway to move. My question is, will Disney still move our bags if we aren’t checking into the Poly until the next day, after a RPR stay? In other words, would we be able to have our bags moved to the new hotel for a check-in the following day, which would prevent us from lugging all of our baggage with us, and allow us to just travel with one bag? I am guessing not, which may make a difference in what we decide to do. TIA

 

[tjmw2727]

If you are going from BC to RPR then to Poly then no - Disney will only move from one WDW Resort to another on check out/check in day.

Besides don't you want your bags at RPR?

 

[goofy4tink]

I doubt it. I would just pack everything up, leaving one bag with whatever you will need at RPR, and just take them all with you. I've heard of people being able to have their luggage stored at a Disney resort when not there, but those were instances where they were at a WDW resort, then did a Disney cruise, then returned to WDW for a few days.

 

[have2getaway]

If you are going from BC to RPR then to Poly then no - Disney will only move from one WDW Resort to another on check out/check in day.

Besides don't you want your bags at RPR?

We were only going to bring one bag with a change of clothes for the one nights stay, but we honestly aren’t even sure if we plan to stay overnight.

 

[jerseygal]

Can't imagine that Disney would store your bags if there is a gap of a day in between your stays. Great idea about staying on site..you will be spoiled with Express Pass. Guess we are spoiled also; everytime we have been at Universal, we have stayed either at Royal Pacific or HR with EP. Nothing like it, so wonderful and convenient! ENJOY!

 

[have2getaway]

Can't imagine that Disney would store your bags if there is a gap of a day in between your stays. Great idea about staying on site..you will be spoiled with Express Pass. Guess we are spoiled also; everytime we have been at Universal, we have stayed either at Royal Pacific or HR with EP. Nothing like it, so wonderful and convenient! ENJOY!

Thank you! If we opt not to check out, should we still plan to go to Universal on our BC check out day and have our bags moved to the Polynesian, or should we stick with our original plan to go the first trip of our day? I’m leaning towards our BC check out day.

 

[kaytieeldr]

If so first night at RPR, then three nights BC/four nights Poly.

 

[have2getaway]

If so first night at RPR, then three nights BC/four nights Poly.

Thank you! This makes sense as well.

 

[Badgerfan]

have2getaway, we have actually done what you are asking about on two separate trips. Now, the last time we did it was six years ago so maybe it has changed. But, all we did was check out of the POFQ, take our luggage to bell services, ask them to send our luggage to the Contemporary, then headed over to Universal for one night. Next day, came back, checked into the Contemporary went to bell services there, handed them our slip, and had our luggage in 5 minutes....... no problem. Like I said, we have not been down there for a while, so maybe they have made changes to bell services since we last visited, but we have never had any issues sending luggage from resort to resort and having them sit there for 1 day.

Hope you have a great trip.

 

[have2getaway]

have2getaway, we have actually done what you are asking about on two separate trips. Now, the last time we did it was six years ago so maybe it has changed. But, all we did was check out of the POFQ, take our luggage to bell services, ask them to send our luggage to the Contemporary, then headed over to Universal for one night. Next day, came back, checked into the Contemporary went to bell services there, handed them our slip, and had our luggage in 5 minutes....... no problem. Like I said, we have not been down there for a while, so maybe they have made changes to bell services since we last visited, but we have never had any issues sending luggage from resort to resort and having them sit there for 1 day.

Hope you have a great trip.

We are leaning towards trying this. The one concern that just occurred to my husband and I is that we are on the dining plan and, with a split stay, we weren’t sure if we would have to use all of our credits for our first 4 nights before we check into the Polynesian and then receive new credits for our stay there? Or are they combined? I would assume so and wish I had thought of it sooner. We need to make sure we understand how the dining plan works prior to making reservations and our 6-month window is in a week.

We are also realizing we really want the full Universal experience and we want our boys to have time to enjoy everything at Universal, and we really feel like we need 2 days.

 

[Hopefully]

Dining Plan credits need to be used by 11:59PM of the night you check out of your first resort. They are not combined.
Given you now want 2 full days at Universal, why don’t you book 2 additional night, either at the beginning or the end of your Disney nights. So 2, 2, 4 or 4, 4, 2. I think it is worth it

 

[have2getaway]

Dining Plan credits need to be used by 11:59PM of the night you check out of your first resort. They are not combined.
Given you now want 2 full days at Universal, why don’t you book 2 additional night, either at the beginning or the end of your Disney nights. So 2, 2, 4 or 4, 4, 2. I think it is worth it

I wish I could, but we’ve already bought our airfare!

 

[Hopefully]

I wish I could, but we’ve already bought our airfare!

That said, I would focus this trip on Disney only.
Good Luck

 

[Lynne M]

we weren’t sure if we would have to use all of our credits for our first 4 nights before we check into the Polynesian and then receive new credits for our stay there? Or are they combined? I would assume so and wish I had thought of it sooner. We need to make sure we understand how the dining plan works prior to making reservations and our 6-month window is in a week.

Disney doesn't recognize the concept of a split stay; that term is a creation of travel sites like the DISboards. To you, it's all one big Disney stay. To Disney, you have two entirely separate reservations - in your case, two packages. Package components like dining plan credits are associated with your reservation, so you have two completely separate sets of dining plan credits. The credits associated with your BC stay are good from 6 AM on your check-in day through 11:59 PM of the day you check out of BC. The credits for your Poly stay are good from 6 AM of the day you check into Poly through 11:59 PM of the day you check out of Poly.

 

[have2getaway]

Disney doesn't recognize the concept of a split stay; that term is a creation of travel sites like the DISboards. To you, it's all one big Disney stay. To Disney, you have two entirely separate reservations - in your case, two packages. Package components like dining plan credits are associated with your reservation, so you have two completely separate sets of dining plan credits. The credits associated with your BC stay are good from 6 AM on your check-in day through 11:59 PM of the day you check out of BC. The credits for your Poly stay are good from 6 AM of the day you check into Poly through 11:59 PM of the day you check out of Poly.

Thank you! This is exactly what I hadn’t considered when we booked the split stay, and you confirmed what I suspected, but this is very helpful information to know now. I’m still looking forward to our split stay. I guess it’s a small price to pay for getting to enjoy 2 resorts on one trip.

 

[Rxdr2013]

We are staying at Poly (on rented dvc points for 2 nights) then changing to beach club (got a good travel company conference rate for 4 nights was cheaper than a moderate priced thru disney) over labor day. I'm glad that we aren't the only ones doing this we normally don't do split stays! I would add the Universal trip before or after the disney. Whatever you decide enjoy your trip!

 

[have2getaway]

We are staying at Poly (on rented dvc points for 2 nights) then changing to beach club (got a good travel company conference rate for 4 nights was cheaper than a moderate priced thru disney) over labor day. I'm glad that we aren't the only ones doing this we normally don't do split stays! I would add the Universal trip before or after the disney. Whatever you decide enjoy your trip!

I believe we got a similar deal through our TA. We always travel off-season to get the lower rates they are able to give. There’s no way we would pay rack rate for a Deluxe. Thank you for the response and suggestion.

 

[have2getaway]

Dining Plan credits need to be used by 11:59PM of the night you check out of your first resort. They are not combined.
Given you now want 2 full days at Universal, why don’t you book 2 additional night, either at the beginning or the end of your Disney nights. So 2, 2, 4 or 4, 4, 2. I think it is worth it

Sorry! I just looked at this again. The 2,2, 4 might work or even 4, 2, 2. Right now, we have the two full days with one nights stay at RPR (FWIW—I really wanted to try Portafino, but my kids loved the Poly so much and DH wanted to go with something closer to the park and similar, and perhaps cheaper).

Our last trip we planned less than 4 months out, so this time I was so thrilled to have more time to plan and I actually really wish I had waited. It turns out, my kids now have 2 weeks off for Christmas break. Instead of pulling them out of school for a week in January, we could have taken our time and gone then. Of course, DH reminds me that we probably couldn’t have afforded deluxe then and would probably be miserable because the parks will be so crowded. Then, I was in a big rush to buy airfare, worried we wouldn’t get a deal, and I am second guessing that as well since no direct flight and we have to pay for baggage. Add that to the fact that I get everything planned with our TA, only for my DH to say “We’ve already done that, don’t you want to do something different?” When he was the one who said he wouldn’t stay at any hotel not on the monorail.

In truth, though, we are involving our boys more in the trip planning this time. What we keep hearing is: “I want to see Harry Potter”! “I want to get a wand and do magic”, “Are we going to see King Kong?” “I want to see penguins”! (I thinks we’d have to pay for Sea World for that one), But...yes, they do still want to do things at Disney. “We are listening to them this time. We did our favorites last time, and the trip was an Xmas surprise. This time, we want them to have some say. So far, they said Sci Fi and they want to go back to all the castles we ate at on our last trip. That’s a hard bill to fill since we ate at them all. Triplet boys, who are age 9, mean 3 different opinions of what they want.

My biggest concern is—Will we wished we stayed at Poly or Universal more, or will we be glad we focused more on Beach Club this time? Will we miss being so close to the Magic at MK?

 

[jerseygal]

Whenever we have gone to Universal combined with Disney stay, we have done so at beginning or end of trip, seems a bit easier. Since you are doing a split stay already at Disney, do you really want to move hotels 3 times? Seems like a lot to me. I prefer only to move to one other hotel during a trip. ENJOY, if you go to Universal you will be amazed at the convenience of Express Pass and the convenience of the 3 onsite hotels which include EP, RP AND HR are our favorites!

 

[have2getaway]

Whenever we have gone to Universal combined with Disney stay, we have done so at beginning or end of trip, seems a bit easier. Since you are doing a split stay already at Disney, do you really want to move hotels 3 times? Seems like a lot to me. I prefer only to move to one other hotel during a trip. ENJOY, if you go to Universal you will be amazed at the convenience of Express Pass and the convenience of the 3 onsite hotels which include EP, RP AND HR are our favorites!

No, I don’t. I wanted to go straight to Universal, but DH hates dealing with luggage and didn’t want to give up Magical Express. We have considered doing Universal last and just transporting to MCO from there, but because it’s all new, we wanted to do it early enough in our trip so that we would have the energy to enjoy it, which does concern me about putting it in the middle of our trip, although not as much as at the end. It seemed as though, since we would hsvd to pack to switch resorts anyway, we could just bring one small bag with us for the one night at Universal. Anyway, still sorting it all out, and really worried I have us moving around too much. Of course, it may force us to pack super light.

If we only do one Disney hotel, which one would you recommend we do?