Split stay- anyone?

[FinallyDisney]

We're contemplating a split stay. Any opinions....advice??? Anyone done a split stay and regret it or done a split stay and thought it was great? It's our third trip in three years and we'll be there for 8 nights so I thought it might be fun to do two 4 night stays. Still haven't decided on which resorts. One thing at a time

 

[ScotteHansen]

My thoughts are that a split stay is a great way to experience another hotel, or for alot of folks, one or two nights in an upper level hotel that you normalllu couldn't afford.

My opinion of the downside is that when we stay at the world, part of the trip is popping ourselves out of the day to day life reality. When you switch hotels, and have to spend time packing up and moving over, checking out and checking back in, it does bring back a small dose of reality.

If you were coming for the fist time and were trying to march through disney commando style, then I would say don't waste the time for a room you will barely see. But since you are frequent visitors, I would think it is worth it definately.

Another thought would be the level of hotel. Switching from a value to a moderate...ehhh. I don't think is worth it. Switching to a monorail hotel, or the swan dolphin by epcot, worth the time to switch.

Mt thoughts...

 

[tam626]

For me it would be too much of a pain to pack everything up twice. I see alot of people do it though.

 

[ABCanada]

We have done it a number of times. Disney moves you bags. You need to be prepared to be without a room from 11-4 but if you plan for it it is not an issue.
We coordinate the parks with the resort so save significant travel time to and from the parks.
We are light packers so do not find packing up an issue.
Enjoy the variety of resorts.

 

[duffy]

We did it Feb 2008. 5 nights at the Wilderness Lodge, and 3 at the Dolphin. We loved it! We got to experience 2 wonderful deluxe hotels.

We are not the type to unpack everything and put all our clothes in the drawers. We usually just get our daily outfit from our suitcases, and kept our dirty clothes in another bag. (We had driven down, so we had lots of room to bring lots of things like a portable hamper.) So, when it was time to switch, we only had to toss our toiletries back in, and zip up our bags.

Another plus: we had the dining plan, but since it was only for the Wilderness Lodge portion, we had plenty of unused credits, and we got lots of food "to go", and snacked on them while at the Dolphin.

I would advice you to make the switch on a day that you've perhaps planned as a "slow" day. So, you could switch hotels, go to a water park, or Downtown Disney, etc., and not worry that you're wasting time.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

We did a split stay last June, we went from a studio at SSR to a 1br at Beach Club. They do move it all for you but for the first couple of nights at SSR we basically lived out of the suitcases to avoid the whole unpacking to repacking to unpacking process.
I don't think I'll do the split stay by choice unless it means more days at my favorite place...
I'd rather play than pack!

 

[OKW Lover]

We've done split stays but try to avoid it if at all possible. For us, a split say eats up too much time on the change over day because of the pack/un-pack cycle.

Add to that you are "homeless" for the better part of the day so no mid-day break from the parks.

 

[DiznyDi]

We do split stays on a fairly regular basis. I don't mind the transition though you do lose about a half day making the change. It's just DH and I, so no kids are involved. If we had youngsters, I may be hesitant. Have fun planning!

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

We did a split stay in 2006. Wasn't planned that way, but we changed hotels 2 days in due to the love bugs at ASMo.

Make sure you are going from low level hotel to high. And then be prepared to be ruined for life once you stay at the deluxe.

We went from ASMo to Contemporary. Now all we want is to stay deluxe, but can't afford it...some day.

 

[DBarber600]

We have done split stays almost every trip.

Since we drive, I pack more than 1 bag: 1 bag for one hotel, another for the second. The second just stays in our car until we "move". I have it down to a science which bags to bring in at which hotels. Luckily we drive because I think I bring like 8 bags ...

My husband is an early riser, so he drives to the next hotel to check us in between 6:30 and 7:00 on moving day. He leaves our bags at the bellhop station - they'll hold them for you until your room is ready. Usually the rooms are ready before 3:00 but sometimes they're not. We call while we're in the parks to check. We just plan for NOT having the room that day so we plan a day where we don't go back to nap. Maybe sleep a little later, early dinner, slower pace.

It's a great way to save money and experience other hotels. Previous posters are right - you'll never want to stay at a value again...

 

[sellsje]

We're going to try it early next year. We have 3 nights booked at POP and 5 nights at AK Villas. The first 2 full days we are touring commando at DHS & EP. On Check out day we'll sleep in. Upon check out at 11 we'll leave our bags at the front desk for transfer to AKV. Then we'll board the bus to MK for a couple laid back hours. Head back over to AKV for check in. Make sure all is ok and The boys and I will head back for EMH (we have no park hopper)!!!

After that we're going to relax at the villas...

 

[TinkerDaisy]

We are thinking of doing the same thing. We almost did last time. I would like to do 1/2 at POR, and the other at POLY. POLY is our "dream hotel". We are going to save our butts off and hope to do 4 days there when we go in Sept 2010. We usually go for 9 days total so I think it wouldn't be to bad. Plus we usually only do 5 days in the parks and one or two in the water parks. I would really like to be blessed enough one day to do a whole trip at the POLY. Someday maybe. Some other hotels we want try after that....Contemp. YC, and GF. My husband would like to do AKL someday too. My kids are into saving this time too. I made little banks for us to save each week, I will deposit our money into the bank each week, and reward the biggest saver of the week, with 5.00 Disney dollars! Let the games begin!!!

 

[stitch34]

We LOVE doing split stays! our main issue is, we can never decide which resort to stay at and want to squeeze them all in! Or, try something new, but still need to swing over to X resort for a bit because we always stay there and it's sentimental to us - like how can we go to WDW and NOT stay there!?

Our last two trips were 7 nights and we did a total of 3 resorts... 5 at one, and then one night at each of the other two at the end of our trip. Saving it for the end works for us, by then we are in the mood to relax, have hit our must-haves in the parks, and can make the time to spend some time at new resort to actually enjoy it.

Our next trip is only 6 nights - yet somehow we are going to do 4 resorts - 3 nights, then one, then one, then another one. Just last week managed to work our schedule to squeeze in that fourth resort - mainly because it was bugging us how can we NOT stay there at all when we always do!? Really wish we were staying longer, like 8 nights, and seriously would toss in a night at the CR then too!

Also, we're going during value season, and plus with AP rates - so is a nice time for us to try out some more mods and deluxes!

So yeah, call us super crazy!

Now, we don't really unpack. We work out of our suitcases. The night before we switch resorts, I then go and make one suitcase the laundry suitcase, another put in the stuff we no longer will need during the trip, and then another I just put in all the outfits we will need for the next 2-3 days - wake up and toss in the toiletries and stuff and call for someone to pick up the luggage and off we go!

Sometimes we just take a cab from resort to resort - saves valuable time for us!

For us the tricky part with so many resorts is working our schedule so we have some time at each resort to enjoy it, while still having park time. We have a harder time fitting in our 2-3 table service dining meals per day than we do dealing with the split stays!

 

[janiejake]

Done two split stays. First, not so much by choice--added a day to our ressie at POR, and no room availability. Had to pick that day up at CSR. We were able to get a 'taste' of CSR-enough that all 6 of us expressed a desire to book POR again next vacation, and not tobother with CSR in the future. Not our tastes.
Second split stay was by design. From POR to Swan. Always wanted to try the Swan, but could not swing it for the whole trip(needed two rooms). The Swan is now on our list of resorts we'd like to return to. Location, location, location.
A split stay is not that big an inconvenience. It's nice not to have to unpack and repack, but if you plan, it works. We'd just make arrangements with Bell Services, and head off to the park of our choice.

 

[xipetotec]

We're contemplating a split stay. Any opinions....advice??? Anyone done a split stay and regret it or done a split stay and thought it was great? It's our third trip in three years and we'll be there for 8 nights so I thought it might be fun to do two 4 night stays. Still haven't decided on which resorts. One thing at a time

Well it IS a drag to have to re-pack and unpack between stays. BUT it IS very fun to be able to see/experience two hotels. We've done this twice. once cause we had no choice ( Pop century -> Beach Club cause we didn't have enough points for our whole stay ) and another because we wanted to ( Animal kingdom Villas -> Beach Club Villas ). For us, because we just wanted to "check out" another hotel, we booked only two days at AKL, then the rest of our stay at BCV so we could feel nice and settled in at the latter, but still be able to say we'd stayed and experienced AKL.

 

[Kcat1971]

We are doing a split stay. We have 1 week at an offsite condo & then 3 nights on property. We did this for our last trip too. I like it because we get the spaciousness of the condo for the majority of the trip but also get a little bit of the magic of staying on property too.

 

[honeydiane1953]

A split stay is not for me. Once I get into resort and organize I am there!! With soo much to do and see changing resorts would not even be on my radar. When u get "home" from parks i looove resting.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Well, I posted here already, not in favor of the split stay, just for the reasons stated above.
However, to save dvc points, I think it's wise to move out of the dvc unit on Friday and Saturday nights.
Or maybe just start out on a Friday in a moderate then move on to your DVC resort on Sunday...
Now that was as clear as mud.....

 

[AuntTonia]

I'm doing a split stay in a few days just because I added an extra night and the CSR which my 1st 3 nights are for is not available.
I could book another Mod for the whole 4 nights or stay at CSR for the 3 nights and split my stay.
I thought about doing the last night at a Deluxe really want to try the Poly But I don't think it would be worth it this time. If it was for the 1st day I'd do it. I'm just going ahead and doing ASMu.

The way I have it planned CSR 3 nights check out- give bell service my luggage to move (called and had them note this on my ressie that I was doing a split stay and would have to have my luggage moved.) I'll do the bus to the MK, that day happens to have EXMH. Sometime around 6:00 I'll go to ASMU to check in and get my luggage rest,change or I might just stay in the Park the whole time and check in when I'm done. Then the next morning check out and head to the airport.
That's why it's not worth me paying for another mod or deluxe because I don't plan on being at the resort other then to sleep and bath.

I do plan on unpacking at CSR just to make life easier there. But when I pack to go to ASMu I plan on packing as if I was going to the airport, but I'll leave my pj's and an outfit for the next day on top.

I don't see taking a taxi or making a special trip to go check in unless you need to activate a package deal...tickets..dinning. Everything you have from the 1st resort should be good until midnight of your check out.

 

[ScotteHansen]

I thought stitches tip of taking a cab between the reosrts was a great tip. Disney will move your bags for you, but if you want to have that definate knowledge that your stuff got to where it is going, then packing up, slipping into a cab and jetting over to the new place is good.

You still won't get into your room til four.....maybe a small chance of early check in.... but you can go to the parks knwoing its all good.