Split Stay Advice

[Brian918]

We (wife and two teenage sons) currently have a room only reservation arriving at the Contemporary on Wednesday, 11/25 (day before Thanksgiving). My wife and I will have annual passes and our sons will have date based tickets. When we made the CR reservation, we had planned to drive down, arriving into Disney on Wednesday. Now, we are contemplating flying down late Tuesday night, arriving 7PM or possibly later. Due to the high cost of the CR, I don't want to pay that much money to essentially sleep there. This leaves us several options. Hoping I can get advice on which is best or any pitfalls I am not seeing:

1. Grab a room at the airport Hyatt for ease. DME to CR the next morning. Will pay out of pocket for hotel room...currently about $200. Larger room with 2 queens. ADR and FastPass start based on 11/25 arrival.

2. Grab a room at a Hilton property (would be free on points). The downside would be cost of Lyft from airport to Hilton and then again to CR the next morning (estimate $100 total for both rides). However, I think this would give us one more day head start on our ADR and fastpass reservations (it will be busy due to Holiday....but not sure how seamless this is at a Disney "Good Neighbor" hotel). Room would certainly be nicer and larger than a Disney property and would include free breakfast (due to Hilton status). Larger room with 2 Queens.

3. Grab a room at cheapest Disney Hotel, at this time All Star Sports. Currently about $180 plus taxes. Free DME to All Star and then Disney Transfers after that. Probably more seamless advance dininng and fast pass reservations. Smallest room.... 2 doubles. Out of pocket for breakfast.

Any advice would be appreciated. I am not worried about the price difference between the three options. More interested in what would be easiest for us and on how seamless the ADR and FastPass system is with split stays at a Disney Good Neighbor hotel.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I think the airport hotel would be the easiest. Just head there from the plane and get some sleep. Off to Disney in the morning! We drive down but we do the same thing. We arrive late on Friday night so we grab a cheap off site hotel for the night and start our Disney vacay refreshed the next morning.

 

[Sue M]

What we’ve done in the past is book the night at Pop. fyi they now have queens.

 

[Brian918]

Thank you both. I am hoping someone has done a night before at a "good neighbor hotel" and can chime in if the ADR and FastPass was seamless or if there were issues.

While the Hyatt would certainly be the easiest, with the Thanksgiving Holiday, I really want the extra day headstart on reservations.

 

[Leigh L]

In January we stayed at Shades of Green for 1 night, then CSR for 3 nights. We had no problem booking FP at the 60-day mark for the entire trip. You should be fine there!
The ADR time frame was split though, but that would be the same for any split stay including 2 Disney resorts if memory serves.

Later we ended flying in a day early and adding a night at SOG. Everything stayed intact with no issues.

Edit to add: We had rented a car, so we didn't have the logistics of getting to WDW and then changing resorts.

 

[Brian918]

In January we stayed at Shades of Green for 1 night, then CSR for 3 nights. We had no problem booking FP at the 60-day mark for the entire trip. The ADR time frame was split though, but that would be the same for any split stay including 2 Disney resorts if memory serves.

Later we ended flying in a day early and adding a night at SOG. Everything stayed intact with no issues.

Thank you. However, when you say "the ADR time frame was split", I am not sure I understnd what you are saying.

 

[Leigh L]

Thank you. However, when you say "the ADR time frame was split", I am not sure I understnd what you are saying.

When your 180 day opens up, you can only book for the number of days of your reservation (Shades of Green is treated like a participating "Good neighbor" hotel, so I'm guessing the Hiltons are the same?)
For instance, I was able to book 2 days' worth of ADR for my SOG stay, and then had to wait for the next 180-day mark for my Coronado stay to make the rest of my ADRs.

Although, I just realized, since you have the one night, so probably won't matter. The only way it would affect you is if you wanted to make an ADR for your arrival night, you could only make that dinner at the 180-day mark. The next day you could book ADRs for the rest of your trip.

I hope that makes sense?

 

[Brian918]

When your 180 day opens up, you can only book for the number of days of your reservation (Shades of Green is treated like a "Good neighbor" hotel, so I'm guessing the Hiltons are the same?)
For instance, I was able to book 2 days' worth of ADR for my SOG stay, and then had to wait for the next 180-day mark for my Coronado stay to make the rest of my ADRs.

Although, I just realized, since you have the one night, so probably won't matter. The only way it would affect you is if you wanted to make an ADR for your arrival night, you could only make that dinner at the 180-day mark. The next day you could book ADRs for the rest of your trip.

I hope that makes sense?

I didn't realize that I could only book 1 night ADR's at a time at a "good neighbor hotel." If my main goal (after a cheap place to crash for the night before) is to get an extra day headstart on our trip-long ADR / FastPass planning, then it sounds like I need to stay at a Disney All Star hotel....or forego that extra day headstart and just crash at the airport Hyatt.

 

[Leigh L]

I didn't realize that I could only book 1 night ADR's at a time at a "good neighbor hotel." If my main goal (after a cheap place to crash for the night before) is to get an extra day headstart on our trip-long ADR / FastPass planning, then it sounds like I need to stay at a Disney All Star hotel....or forego that extra day headstart and just crash at the airport Hyatt.

Unfortunately, you'd have the same issue even if you stayed at a Disney resort. The ADR system will treat two different reservations separately, so still 2 different 180-day dates. You can book all of your ADRs at the 180-day mark for your Contemporary stay though all at once.

Your FP planning you can definitely do all at once at either a participating Good Neighbor or Disney resort and get a jump start on FP (I've done it successfully several times).
For FP purposes, Disney treats your 60-day window as a length of stay as long as you've booked at a qualifying resort for each of your reservations.
So, yes, you can gain a 1-day advantage there .

 

[Brian918]

Leigh - Thank you for taking the time to educate me. I appreciate it.

So, then if I stay at the Good Neighbor resort for one night, I dont get a jump start on my ADR's. But, I can get a one day jump start on our fastPasses?

That being the case, I would probably choose a Hilton (free room / free breakfast) and probably just an elevator up to the room with luggage...as opposed to an internal bus. Of course, I would lose the DME and need to Lyft to the Hilton and then again the next morning to the CR.

 

[lanejudy]

Thank you both. I am hoping someone has done a night before at a "good neighbor hotel" and can chime in if the ADR and FastPass was seamless or if there were issues.

Be careful about the offsite hotels. I don't think "Good Neighbor" hotels have the 60-day FP+ booking. I believe that is select "Disney Springs area" hotels which offer the 60-day FP+ booking.

These are the WDW Good Neighbor hotels.
These are the Disney Springs area hotels.

There are Hilton properties on both lists and you didn't specify which. If you want the 60-day FP+ booking, it will make a difference.

Enjoy your

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Leigh - Thank you for taking the time to educate me. I appreciate it.

So, then if I stay at the Good Neighbor resort for one night, I dont get a jump start on my ADR's. But, I can get a one day jump start on our fastPasses?

That being the case, I would probably choose a Hilton (free room / free breakfast) and probably just an elevator up to the room with luggage...as opposed to an internal bus. Of course, I would lose the DME and need to Lyft to the Hilton and then again the next morning to the CR.

Which specific Hilton are you thinking about? Keep in mind not all "Good Neighbor" hotels participate in the 60 day FP booking benefit. The current list that does participate through 2020 is as follows:

WDW Swan Resort
WDW Dolphin Resort
Shades of Green
B Resort & Spa
Best Western Lake Buena Vista
Doubletree Suites by Hilton - Lake Buena Vista
Four Seasons Orlando
Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
Holiday Inn Orlando Disney Springs
Waldorf Astoria Orlando
Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista Disney Springs
Wyndham Lake Buena Vista

 

[Leigh L]

Thank you @lanejudy and @GADisneyDad14 !

I didn't realize not all "Good Neighbor" hotels participated. I thought if they weren't renewed for the Disney privileges, they were no longer designated "Good Neighbor"
(Edited my above post to clarify it's participating Good Neighbors so my post doesn't offer incorrect info!)

 

[Brian918]

Which specific Hilton are you thinking about? Keep in mind not all "Good Neighbor" hotels participate in the 60 day FP booking benefit. The current list that does participate through 2020 is as follows:

WDW Swan Resort
WDW Dolphin Resort
Shades of Green
B Resort & Spa
Best Western Lake Buena Vista
Doubletree Suites by Hilton - Lake Buena Vista
Four Seasons Orlando
Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
Holiday Inn Orlando Disney Springs
Waldorf Astoria Orlando
Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista Disney Springs
Wyndham Lake Buena Vista

Thank you for this information. I'm wide open, but would be fine with any of the 3 "Hilton" properties or the Waldorf, thankfully all listed above.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thank you @lanejudy and @GADisneyDad14 !

I didn't realize not all "Good Neighbor" hotels participated. I thought if they weren't renewed for the Disney privileges, they were no longer designated "Good Neighbor"
(Edited my above post to clarify it's participating Good Neighbors so my post doesn't offer incorrect info!)

Ha! Yeah, it’s confusing. I used to say “some Disney Springs hotels” and people would jump on me because it’s not totally accurate. So these days I just say “the non-Disney hotels that participate in the 60 day FP booking privilege” to keep it generic.

 

[StephanieP]

We are in a similar situation *hopefully* this July. We are flying in late on July 6th and staying at All Star Movies for the night, then checking in to the CR for a week the next day. Good luck with your decision and planning!

 

[Shellyred8]

There is a Hampton Inn close to the airport that has a free shuttle to and from the airport. You could use your Hilton points to stay here. They have free breakfast in the morning. In the morning, you can then take the free shuttle back to the airport and then hop on the DME to the CR.

 

[Brian918]

Thank you all for your help. I went ahead and booked the Waldorf using points...figured that would get us closest to the CR for the next morning. Tried yesterday and again to link this reservation number up to our MDE with no luck. I had read somewhere else that this might take a couple of days. I hope that once I am able to link into MDE, then FastPasses will work ok (when that time frame comes up).