Split stay advice needed

kkbrig

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
141
My August Disney trip has undergone 2 schedule changes and now it needs a third. This latest has pushed it up to now being within the 60 day window, so I want to book ASAP to get our FP (not to mention our ADR, frustrating after I had already done that for our old dates!). So, I am trying to do some quick research but I need answers faster than I can do that.

Here's the gist-
Sun Aug 13- Aug Fri Aug 18, I will be staying with 3 of my kids (20, 15, 13) at Art of Animation along with my cousins, aunt and uncle. We had planned to get the Little Mermaid room since it is cheaper, will fit us 4, and I figure we won't be in the room very much. Cousins will be in Lion King and Little mermaid. The whole reason we are going in August is to be able to be with this extended family at least part of our time. Their kids are 11, 9, 4, so we know we will be splitting up some.

We were going to stay through Tues Aug 22, but need to shift it. Just found this out today!! Now we are looking at going Tues Aug 8. My 4th child (18) is moving into his college dorm Aug 12, so couldn't come originally, but now could come for a few days (Aug 8-Aug11). But we will need a bigger room since now he makes us 5.

I have done the math and just the dining discounts will pay for me to upgrade from my 8day PH ticket to an AP. The Little mermaid rooms didn't qualify for any discounts (but came out cheaper even so) but the Lion king suites do. But just for kicks, I checked The Contemporary and the Yacht club (and boardwalk and grand floridian) for AP discounts.

I could do Lion king then switch to Little mermaid once our party is down to 4. Or for the same price I could do Yacht club or Boardwalk, upgrading me to a deluxe for the same price, but moving resorts after a few days is obviously more trouble than not moving. Or for $300 more, we could do Contemporary for 4 nights, Little mermaid for 5.

I should also mention that the only resort we've ever stayed at is POR, about 9 years ago.

I have read on here that split stays are easy, and they will move your luggage. So maybe that part is not an issue.

Since my 18 year old will only be able to have 2 full days in the parks and potential an evening and a morning in addition to that, I want to maximize his time. I will probably only hit HIS highlights, and then in the next week I can hit the highlights for the rest of us. As for his highlights, I'm thinking Rock and Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Toy story mania, Star wars stuff (that is new to me so don't know how to plan for it yet), Expedition Everest, KRR, Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur, the mountains at MK, plus maybe Pirates and HM, Test Track, Soarin, MS. I fully know that we will not get to all of these and probably not even to all those parks. Just listing the possibilities.

So, would the location of either YC or Contemporary be helpful in getting to the parks more quickly? It seems like it would but maybe not. Also, I know that the upgrade will include a much nicer pool and perhaps we should plan time around that as well??

Anyways, feeling totally confused and frustrated cause I typically research this stuff to be able to make a good decision!! any help would be much appreciated!!
 
My August Disney trip has undergone 2 schedule changes and now it needs a third. This latest has pushed it up to now being within the 60 day window, so I want to book ASAP to get our FP (not to mention our ADR, frustrating after I had already done that for our old dates!). So, I am trying to do some quick research but I need answers faster than I can do that.

Here's the gist-
Sun Aug 13- Aug Fri Aug 18, I will be staying with 3 of my kids (20, 15, 13) at Art of Animation along with my cousins, aunt and uncle. We had planned to get the Little Mermaid room since it is cheaper, will fit us 4, and I figure we won't be in the room very much. Cousins will be in Lion King and Little mermaid. The whole reason we are going in August is to be able to be with this extended family at least part of our time. Their kids are 11, 9, 4, so we know we will be splitting up some.

We were going to stay through Tues Aug 22, but need to shift it. Just found this out today!! Now we are looking at going Tues Aug 8. My 4th child (18) is moving into his college dorm Aug 12, so couldn't come originally, but now could come for a few days (Aug 8-Aug11). But we will need a bigger room since now he makes us 5.

I have done the math and just the dining discounts will pay for me to upgrade from my 8day PH ticket to an AP. The Little mermaid rooms didn't qualify for any discounts (but came out cheaper even so) but the Lion king suites do. But just for kicks, I checked The Contemporary and the Yacht club (and boardwalk and grand floridian) for AP discounts.

I could do Lion king then switch to Little mermaid once our party is down to 4. Or for the same price I could do Yacht club or Boardwalk, upgrading me to a deluxe for the same price, but moving resorts after a few days is obviously more trouble than not moving. Or for $300 more, we could do Contemporary for 4 nights, Little mermaid for 5.

I should also mention that the only resort we've ever stayed at is POR, about 9 years ago.

I have read on here that split stays are easy, and they will move your luggage. So maybe that part is not an issue.

Since my 18 year old will only be able to have 2 full days in the parks and potential an evening and a morning in addition to that, I want to maximize his time. I will probably only hit HIS highlights, and then in the next week I can hit the highlights for the rest of us. As for his highlights, I'm thinking Rock and Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Toy story mania, Star wars stuff (that is new to me so don't know how to plan for it yet), Expedition Everest, KRR, Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur, the mountains at MK, plus maybe Pirates and HM, Test Track, Soarin, MS. I fully know that we will not get to all of these and probably not even to all those parks. Just listing the possibilities.

So, would the location of either YC or Contemporary be helpful in getting to the parks more quickly? It seems like it would but maybe not. Also, I know that the upgrade will include a much nicer pool and perhaps we should plan time around that as well??

Anyways, feeling totally confused and frustrated cause I typically research this stuff to be able to make a good decision!! any help would be much appreciated!!
If you can get Yacht Club for the same price, I would totally recommend that in August due to the amazing Stormalong Bay pool complex. It includes a very big slide, lazy river, sandy bottom, beachball net, three hot tubs, and more. The Boardwalk also has a very nice, though simpler, feature pool (if you're not scared of clowns) with a great waterslide. The Boardwalk Inn also has the prettiest resort rooms in WDW imo.

Both Yacht Club & Boardwalk are better choices than Contemporary in summer, due to their great pools. To me it would totally be worth the split stay to stay at one of them in August. You can walk to Epcot (5 - 10 min) from each one, and to Hollywood Studios (15 - 20 min) from each one. If you don't want to walk, there is also boat access to each of those parks. Boardwalk has a dedicated bus to MK & AK, wheras I believe the Yacht Club shares a bus. You can walk to Fantasia mini-golf (10-15 min) from both resorts, too.
 
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YC will give you walking and boating access to both DHS and EP and is, IMHO a much better overall resort than CR. YC would be my choice
 
If the plan is to stay in same resort as cousins, aunt and uncle, I'd book the suite and stay at AoA. Then switch to Mermaid room. In August it will be very hot and you would be able to enjoy mid day breaks at the pool together or evening time at pool. Staying at another resort away from the rest of the family you won't be able to enjoy family time at resort.
 

I just wanted to add, as it relates to ADRs and FPs, I think you may be pleasantly surprised when you start looking. I'm messing with a summer trip (July) that I planned at the 35ish day mark and found ADR/FP availability pretty darn good. Materially better than other trips I've planned <60 days in the last year.
 
I would do yacht club. Contemporary only advantage is mk. And you have to take 2 monorails to get to EP. YC you have advantage of 2 parks.
 
I think @Sue M made a really good point about being able to swim together. If you are not at the same resort, you will not be able to visit together at the pool.
 

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