Split stay, is it a PITA?

[Tiffany Z]

Hi! I have been lurking here for a year or so and you guys are a wealth of information!

I am wondering how much of a pain it is to split? I have 2 kids. They will be 5 and 3 1/2 when we go again next year. I mean how do you move your luggage if you don't have a rental car? Do you just load it up on the bus? I would love to hear the pros and cons. We would love to stay at AKL but the price is a bit steep for us.

TIA!!

 

[eleanor]

WE always split our stay ,sometimes in 3 resorts. All you have to do is call the bellservice and they move your luggage to the next resort. If you plan on using the pool at the next place make sure to take your suits with you ,the luggage usual gets to the next place between 1 and 3 .It"s really easy.We always go to the resort sign in and the go to a park and then go back about 4 and call for our luggage,

 

[pumpkinboy]

This past April we had a split stay: AKL the first weekend, then 6 more nights at BWV.

The actual move is pretty easy. You pack up your stuff, call bell services and tell them you are changing resorts upon check-out and need the baggage transferred to another Disney resort; they pick it up (tipping appreciated), label it, load it on the luggage trolley and give you a receipt. The you go off to the parks for the morning. Early afternoon (2-3) you head to your new resort, check-in, then visit bell services there to see if you luggage has arrived. If it has and you room is ready, they will meet you in your new room and unload (again a tip, these are different bellhops after all). If your room is not yet ready, then they will hold the luggage and deliver it after you get into the new room. If it has not arrived yet, you leave your room number with them and they will call you before they bring it up.

Now the PITA part is that you become essentially homeless for the middle of the day, without access to your stuff. If your kids will nap (always a good idea in the excitement of WDW!) you will not have a room to go back to until your new room is ready. We always take an afternoon break (sometimes a nap, sometimes a swim) in the afternoons at WDW, when the parks are hottest and busiest; so a split stay makes that impossible unless by some miracle your new room become ready early.

The other PITA is just having to pack up your stuff from the first room, and not being able to really settle in.

But then, a split stay can be a really nice way to get a deluxe stay in on a budget. Perhaps you could do a Value or a Mod before your AKL stay. And I emphasize the cheaper room before your deluxe stay; you want to finish off the vacation in style, don't you? The other way, starting at AKL, you will be missing it when you downgrade to the Mod or Value.

Good luck with your planning and decision!

BTW, I am a HUGE AKL fan. It's not for everyone, but our family adores this resrt and everything about it. When we check out, our one regret is not having spent more time just hanging around the resort. I hope you really enjoy it!

 

[unixadm]

We did split stays in May:

First night at Contemporary since we had ADR at Crystal Palace the next morning.
5 nights at Beach Club
Last night at ASMo

Now, we drove, so we had the advantange of organizing a bit.

We had a separate piece of luggage for our first night. Had our toiletries and enough clothes for the 1 day.

Then we went to Beach Club. Their Bell Service moved everything to our room.

When we left Beach Club, we had them bring everything down to my truck.

Went to ASMo and had the small piece of luggage that had our stuff for the last day.

We could have had them move the stuff between the resorts, but we would rather have our stuff available should we need it.

If you have a vehicle (whether you drive or have a rental), you may want to do something like this so you aren't both "homeless" and without any extra clothes, toiletries, toys (for the kids), etc.

 

[Sammie]

Good advice from the others. The moving is painless except you do not access to the luggage until after 3pm so plan accordingly. The pain is being without a room with small children. My SIL would never do it again, as the day we moved, our youngest ones really, really needed a nap and by the time we got our room which was delayed until 4:30 we were all crazy.

 

[Dana_Buckley]

We are doing a split stay in October, I couldn't believe my DH agreed to it. But, I'm the one who does all the packing anyway.

We are staying at the Polynesian for the first two nights. We plan to take advantage of the monorail, zipping back and forth from MK. DS are only 2 and 5. Also, we are going to MNSSHP on arrival day.

Then, when my in-laws arrive, we are switching to POFQ. Hoping all goes smoothly!

Happy planning! Have a great weekend!

 

[DutchsMommy]

We did split stay in Feb AKL and Poly. I wanted to experience both resorts. It really wasn't a PITA but as we only had 3 nights in each I didn't feel like we settled in to either place. In future I have decided that for us we will just stay in one place. There are a number of resorts I still want to check out, so it's just an excuse for us to go more often lol!

 

[melagan]

We are going in Dec. and we are Splitting our stay between ASMo and AKL Savanah View. The kids (9-7) Really wanted Movies and I really wanted AKL so we are doing both, but we are doing the value first so we will be Moving on Up. Plus the move is a super Christmas suprize for the girls.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

It really depends on the person, we have split stays several times and it really has never been that big of a deal to us.

 

[sanibelover]

The real pain is if the line at check-in is long you waste a lot of time in yet another line. There is the possibility that your room won't be ready until way late (have waited until 7:30 pm for a room before....at WL) Also, I agree that you never really get to settle in. We have split our stays before, but from now on we are staying put......

 

[twinklebug]

We're splitting our stay next week between OKW and BWV. I know we'll love OKW, but really really wanted to try a second resort while we're there. I don't anticipate any problems or major inconviences in switching resorts. I'll have our plane carry ons packed with anything the kids or I might need acess to during the earlier hours of the day and bring those over to bell services at BW ourselves so we know where to find them. The rest of the luggage can take it's sweet time making it's way over. Nothing could be worse than last year's trip with being evacuated from the FW cabins over to POR AB and then having to check out from there to head off to another place all within 3 days.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

Good advice from the others. The moving is painless except you do not access to the luggage until after 3pm so plan accordingly.

We just spent our first night at POP then moved to WL for the remainder of our stay. We were warned that it might be 5:00 before our luggage arrived at WL. Our room was not ready until 4:30, so it really didn't matter. We had originally planned on taking a taxi to move our luggage ourselves, then didn't want to take the extra time from our day. However, if we'd had our little ones with us, we definitely would have moved our luggage ourselves. That way, you at least have access to it.