Split Stay Advice

[Mommymalinoski]

For our upcoming trip in April, we will be doing a split stay. The first night at Poly, Then 5 days at Beach Club followed by 4 days at Boardwalk. We did waitlist the first night at Beach Club, but i don't think it will come through. I am continuing to stalk the "RAT", but haven't seen a 1BR come up yet.

I am seeking any advice on split stays, currently have the days we are transferring hotels planned as pool days. I will be staying at the resort we are leaving until around 3-4pm and then heading to the new one once I have a room avail text. Is there a way to get the room assigned earlier? Is it to check in online? Am I better off going to the new hotel earlier the day of transfer and hanging by their pool? To ask for the room earlier?
I have a two year old, and am nervous about pool time naps, but i can make it work.

Also we are new members, so any advice about the three hotels or the rooms that are better at each resort would be totally awesome! we have premier view rooms at the poly and boardwalk.

Thanks in advance!

 

[disneynutz]

We head to the new resort first AM and check in, if you request first available, you might get your room early. We find that short split stays are disruptive to a relaxing vacation, (we also don't rush to the parks).

Bill

 

[com_op_2000]

When I do split stays, I go to the new resort and check-in between 7:00 - 7:30. Multiple times the room is ready at that point, I go back to the resort we are leaving, pack up and move right after breakfast. If you get to the new resort early and a room from the previous night is open, they will move you into that room at that time.
If you require assistance in moving, you will need to follow these steps to have Disney move your luggage:

Have your items packed and ready for pickup.
On move day call Bell Services to come and pickup your items.
Tell Bell Services which items are to be keep cold and which frozen, if any.
Go check-in to new resort and do whatever you have planned for the day.
When the room is ready and after @ 2-4 go to the room.
Call Bell Services of the check-in resort and they will deliver your items to the room.
You MUST be in the room for both the pickup and delivery. Tips expected.

 

[lovin'fl]

we have a car and drive over to new resort on split day. we leave our luggage in car, go to desk to check in (even though we do online check in, we still go to desk to let them know...they seem to be bugged by that). We then go off to do whatever. We never get room ready early on split stays. Last time was akv to bwv to ssr....and BWV wasn't ready until after 4pm even, like 4:15 and SSR was right at 4pm. We had requests so maybe it's best not to have requests if you want the room ready early. We just got back from BWV again and DH was arriving at 1-2pm so I left off request and told DH not to go to desk (since that seems to bug them). At 3:15 he still didn't get a room ready text AND he was at ESPN where his MB would not charge so he went to the desk. They said our room had been ready and they weren't sure why he didn't get text. Uggghhh, can't win either way.

 

[CMNJ]

we have a car and drive over to new resort on split day. we leave our luggage in car, go to desk to check in (even though we do online check in, we still go to desk to let them know...they seem to be bugged by that). We then go off to do whatever. We never get room ready early on split stays. Last time was akv to bwv to ssr....and BWV wasn't ready until after 4pm even, like 4:15 and SSR was right at 4pm. We had requests so maybe it's best not to have requests if you want the room ready early. We just got back from BWV again and DH was arriving at 1-2pm so I left off request and told DH not to go to desk (since that seems to bug them). At 3:15 he still didn't get a room ready text AND he was at ESPN where his MB would not charge so he went to the desk. They said our room had been ready and they weren't sure why he didn't get text. Uggghhh, can't win either way.

We do online check in but always stop at the front desk. 2 of our last 4 trips have had some type of issue pulling the online check in data so we never would have gotten the room ready text (I was told so by the front desk both times)

 

[pangyal]

We pretty much only do split stays, love them. We've never done online checkin because Disney IT in all its glory hasn't figured out how to text Canada yet. So, we call bell services about a half hour before we want to go, have them pick up our bags (tip, of course), then head either to the parks or the next resort after making sure to physically check out of the first resort.

For when to arrive at the second resort, it depends on proximity. For example, going to VGF from Poly, we will just walk over and check in, but for example Poly to BCV we will spend the day at the parks. We would be stopping at the front desk anyway because chances are good that our magic bands won't open the doors. We've sat countless times at the checkin waiting for them to try to get the old resort to release our magic bands, even if we've checked out, so we plan around having to get them sorted.

Just FYI, the chances of the room being ready prior to 4 is pretty low. Not impossible, but low. People tend to stay until 11 and cleaning a studio is a few hours- one bedrooms are four hours minimum- so they can't turn them over so well with their intended 99% occupancy rate that you could reasonably hope for a room to be ready before the posted checkin time.

 

[DenLo]

It really depends on the resort you are going to as each one does the cleaning schedule different. BWV seems to have rooms ready the earliest, before noon sometimes, of all the DVC resorts, then OKW around noon. Many of the others have rooms available by 2:00 PM. We have had 31 check ins at DVC resorts and only once waited until 4:30 for a room and that was at BLT. BLT has now improved getting the available rooms ready and we usually get in there around 2:00 PM too. Hopefully you will have a good experience and get into BWV early. I agree with the posts to check in at the new resort early and tell them you have a toddler that will need a nap. You can even use the pool at the new resort, just ask the front desk if your MB will work at the pool before you unlock your room or can they give you a key card that accesses the pool gate.

 

[Rochester Disney Fan]

1 advantage of a split stay, especially for 1 night would be the Dining Plan. You get the mugs for the entire length of you trip and you could eat somewhere nice the First night. You would have all the next day to use the snacks and counter service portion while your in the parks.

 

[lovin'fl]

I own BWV and stay there a lot...never get a room much before 4pm there (3 stays since 2014 and not a single time was room ready before 3:15). And our one stay at BLT in 2013, we got our room at noon.

 

[lovin'fl]

Also I advise NOT to talk to desk at BWV about child needing to nap. The desk seems to not like folks checking on when room will be ready and they always snippily say 'check in isn't until 4pm'. And I know of another family who also had kid needing nap and went to desk and had requested first available room as request and still didn't get room until around 4pm and found out first desk CM removed their request.

 

[lovin'fl]

Also in 2014, we did split stay for F&W at VWL then moved to BCV. We went to BCV at 11am to check in and got room right away. Of all our trips, I think that BCV and the BLT mentioned above were the 2 early rooms we ever got...every other time has been 2-4:15pm. 2pm hour isn't bad either...we did get that a time or two like 2 or 2:30).

 

[pangyal]

We got the "only ready room" last time in September at 4:30pm for a lake view studio at BLT, which is the majority of the studios. I couldn't believe they were so far behind! As always, they are at the mercy of guests checking out later or leaving rooms that need more intensive cleaning.

 

[kniquy]

do you have a car? If so then your plan should work, but you lose out on a park day if that matters to you. If you don't have a car then you will need to take a taxi or uber to get from poly to BC and maybe to BW. What has worked well and is simple is to pack up and have bell service pick up your bags in the morning, head to the parks and then when you are done with the parks simply take the bus to your new resort. There is no guarantee that you will get a room before 400, so I wouldn't waste the time hanging out in the resort

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Personally we far prefer to do parks on days we move. I hate being at the hotel but no room to go to for anything. I just do online check in for the new resort and put in an earlier arrival time - not certain if it makes a difference but just in case it does. On the day of transfer we get up and get ready for the park and everything packed up, hand off items to bell service and then head to the park. Once we get our room number text we know we can head over to the new resort whenever we wish.

I think BWV has also been our best for getting rooms early. BCV and BLT - 4PM or later.

 

[tlwfun89]

when you do online checkin dont they send you your room number now? Do you have to checkin in person now ? Did it change? Will online checkin activate the next dining credits too?

 

[CMNJ]

when you do online checkin dont they send you your room number now? Do you have to checkin in person now ? Did it change? Will online checkin activate the next dining credits too?

You do not have to check in in person and they are supposed to send you your room number. But out of 4 times using online check in something went wrong twice and had I not stopped at the front desk to verify they had received my room requests (I know they aren't guaranteed but it never hurts to politely inquire) I would have never gotten the room ready text. This happened last year at the Poly and again this past week at BWV. For some reason the info didn't load properly and they had to fix something so that I would get the text once the room was avail. YMMV.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

when you do online checkin dont they send you your room number now? Do you have to checkin in person now ? Did it change? Will online checkin activate the next dining credits too?

They do, if it works. I'd say were about 30-40% on it working, otherwise we've gotten the text to stop by the front desk to get our room number.

 

[Julylady]

We do a lot of split stays. My advice is to visit a park the day of the split rather than make it a pool day. On the day of the move we get up about 30 minutes earlier to pack up and call Bell Services. Bell Services tags all our stuff for the new resort and we go catch the bus to a park. Late afternoon, we catch the bus to our new resort. Since I do on line check in we often have already received a text with our room number. If we haven't we check in around 3:30pm and normally the room is ready or we just have a short wait. We then call Bell Services to see if our luggage has been moved over from the former resort. If you make it a pool day, you still need to be out of your room by 11am with the possibility of no room until 4pm or so.

 

[Mommymalinoski]

1 advantage of a split stay, especially for 1 night would be the Dining Plan. You get the mugs for the entire length of you trip and you could eat somewhere nice the First night. You would have all the next day to use the snacks and counter service portion while your in the parks.

Omg.... this is GENIOUS.... never thought of that!

 

[Mommymalinoski]

Thanks everyone for such great tips!

I did POOL days the day of transfer because my son - 2 years old will nap nicely by the POOL ( better in a room, but nicely by the pool) and won't nap in the park. Regardless if we did a park DAY the day of transfer or not, we'd be poolside for a few hours mid day... better to just lay low and have park days with a guarenteed place to get the best rest.

Love the dining plan idea for the one day.... pricing thus out now. What a gem of advise that was!