Split Stay - Pros/Cons

[Girlyanne]

I just booked a trip in April of 2018 with a TA. But I love the planning and research so that may have been a bad idea. I see many of you plan a split stay. Is this so you can have part at a Moderate and Part at a Deluxe? How does this work? You have to pack and move in the middle of the vacation - what happens with your luggage as you wait to check into the new place? We are planning an 8 night stay currently at the Poly but with a split I could upgrade part of our Poly to CL. That sounds awesome fun.

 

[Lynne M]

People do split stays (which are really just two separate reservations that happen to be back to back) for all sorts of reasons. If you're going from one resort to another, Disney will transfer your luggage to the second resort. Some people choose to take the luggage over themselves in a car or cab. The biggest downside to it, IMO, is that you'll likely be without a room for part of the day that you're switching resorts.

If you're switching from a standard room to club level at the same resort, all you need to do is check out/check in at the Poly front desk. If your CL room isn't going to be ready till later in the day, you can have Bell Services store your luggage until then.

 

[Sue M]

We had a 14 day stay at AKL and we did a week pool view and a week CL. It was great. Disney doesn't recognize split stays, it's booked as 2 separate reservations. On changing day you would have to pack up and bring down luggage or have Bell service come get luggage. Check out of old room and check into new reservation. Before I hand luggage over to bell service I'd check just in case new room is ready.
For awhile you may be homeless. But you would have full use of CL lounge.

Just because you have a TA doesn't mean you can't plan and research. They just make it easier. If you have a Disney Specialized TA she/he can help answer your questions, and TA is the one on hold booking your res, and making payments for you.
Yesterday I just made a WDW payment, all it took was a quick email to my TA-done! Couldn't be easier. It doesn't stop my planning or research. Just helps. I am quite capable of booking my own vacay, but I work full time and just don't have the time.

 

[Girlyanne]

Thanks so much!! I like the TA as she's a Disney fanatic too! I live in a house of boys and men and at times they don't get into the planning. Thanks. We've never done the CL and it would be nice to do it but I can't swing the price for the whole trip.

 

[mco65]

the only time we did a split stay was out of necessity. We booked an xmas trip late and our only option was a split stay. It wasn't terrible but not ideal either because it was one night at POP and the rest at ASSports. Breaking up an 8 day vacation right down the middle sounds great to me.... I wouldn't hesitate to do that!

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Poly CL is one of our favorites. We do split stays as a way to see different resorts. We are a family of 6 and usually have 8 or 10 people with us and never have a problem switching resorts. We pack up our bags and have bell services move the bag. They also will refrigerate your perishables. One time we moved with about 20 bags - all done perfectly. If this is a way to stay CL - I would absolutely do it - I would leave the CL for the end of the trip. The day that you check out of the regular room - you will have full access to the lounge of the CL even if your room isn't ready. So you can go have breakfast at the Poly CL lounge. Enjoy - it is so exciting.

 

[Sue M]

Thanks so much!! I like the TA as she's a Disney fanatic too! I live in a house of boys and men and at times they don't get into the planning. Thanks. We've never done the CL and it would be nice to do it but I can't swing the price for the whole trip.

We couldn't afford entire trip CL either so splitting it was perfect. For you, if you can do a 4/4 that would be perfect! Do CL at end of trip.

 

[terri33inne]

I've done split stays, and would not hesitate to do it again... Disney makes it so easy. Also, switching within the same resort is even easier.

I quite often use a TA (she's a friend so I like to give her the business), but I do all the planning myself. I have her book the package or room, and add any notes to the reservation. The VERY nice thing is that when discounts come out I often get an e-mail from her early that morning with my new invoice as she has already called Disney to apply it to my reservation. I don't have to worry about it. I book all the dining & FP's myself... I think she would do it for me if I needed it but I just manage it myself.

Another nice perk with a TA is that there was one time we were having a great day at HS, and didn't want to leave for a 1:30 Beaches N Cream reservation. I texted her to see if she could get something later... she said she'd check, we went on enjoying HS, and about 10 minutes later I got a text from her with our new time, instead of me standing in the middle of a park on the phone with disney dining trying to do it.

 

[kandb]

We are doing a split stay in August, 4 nights YC and 4 nights GF. We love doing it for mostly the locations. We do MK when we are at GF and EP and HS when we stay at YC. Super convenient.

 

[kitkat33]

Yup we are doing a split stay too - GF first and will do MK while staying there, then going to animal kingdom lodge and will do epcot, HS and AK parks while staying there.

 

[mousehockey37]

We love doing split stays. Yes, we were hesitant at first, but now it's a fun way to go.

Pros:
You get to see a different resort.
It's a different atmosphere each place.
You can vacation on a better budget (if you do it right).

Cons:
If you become attached to the first resort, you may not want to leave, even though you have to.
It's a different atmosphere than the other place
If trying out either one, you may not like the particular resort.

Again, we love doing split stays, but as we get to experience the other resorts, we're starting to narrow down the places we will and won't stay at again. Normally we'll go for about a week and we'll try to do over half at one of our favorites and then try and do like 2 nights at a "new" resort to try it out. As well, like I said, we find a way to make our budget work for us as well. Different rates at the resorts and such, time dependent, etc you can really come out ahead if you do it right and things are available.

 

[Girlyanne]

We love doing split stays. Yes, we were hesitant at first, but now it's a fun way to go.

Pros:
You get to see a different resort.
It's a different atmosphere each place.
You can vacation on a better budget (if you do it right).

Cons:
If you become attached to the first resort, you may not want to leave, even though you have to.
It's a different atmosphere than the other place
If trying out either one, you may not like the particular resort.

Again, we love doing split stays, but as we get to experience the other resorts, we're starting to narrow down the places we will and won't stay at again. Normally we'll go for about a week and we'll try to do over half at one of our favorites and then try and do like 2 nights at a "new" resort to try it out. As well, like I said, we find a way to make our budget work for us as well. Different rates at the resorts and such, time dependent, etc you can really come out ahead if you do it right and things are available.

How do you do it on a budget? When I went through the Disney site to "book" it as a split I came out with it being more expensive...

 

[loves to dive]

I do them just about every trip now. I started doing them on a solo trip, I drive down and usually arrive around 2 or 3. It just didn't make sense for me to pay for a deluxe on that first night when I knew I'd go directly to a park and not get back until after supper so I wouldn't be in the room that much. After the first one, it became a quest to stay in every resort. I've only stayed in two value resorts, Pop and ASSp and pretty much ruled out staying in the rest of them, they just aren't for me but I never say never. I tend to stay two nights in a moderate then move to an Epcot deluxe for the rest of my stay. That can be as short as 2 nights and as long as 5, just depends. We enjoy Epcot and HS more than the other parks so the Epcot resorts just make sense to us. We do MK and AK those first two days. Moving our luggage is not an issue since we drive and I tend to pack two bags, my son just packs one but he's not one for unpacking anyway. I'm an early riser so I get up and take my early morning walk around the resort, drink my coffee and if my son is with me, hope he is up by then. I call and check out of resort #1 and we drive to resort #2 and check in, usually around 7:30 or 8. Sometimes we leave our bags with bell services, sometimes we just leave them in the car, just depends on our mood. After we check into resort #2 (our room has been ready once) we head over to whatever park we are doing that day. When we get the room ready text it depends on what we are doing as to if we go back to the resort, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't . We both have APs so if we go back, it's normally to unpack and head to another park. I'm not opposed to doing a monorail resort/Epcot resort split but have just never found prices low enough to encourage me to do so, MK is just a half day park for us and I hate the monorail, you have to ride a bus to AK no matter where you stay so there isn't much incentive to stay there. We have stayed in all of them through the years except WL. At this point the only resorts I haven't stayed in (including Shades of Green which used to just be a WDW resort and not military) are WL, SSS, AoA, ASMu and ASmov. Most likely won't ever stay in the last 3 but will make it to WL and SSS some day with a split stay.

 

[mousehockey37]

How do you do it on a budget? When I went through the Disney site to "book" it as a split I came out with it being more expensive...

You have to look at what resorts cost what and possibly rearrange your stay some.

 

[mickeymom22]

We love split stays! We do it because I am on a mission to stay at every resort! Disney makes the transfer so easy! Since each resort has its own unique theme, it makes you feel like you have had two vacations in one. It is fun to stay at one of the Epcot resorts when you are touring Epcot and HS. We stay at the PO resorts when we want to visit Disney Springs. The boat ride there is so relaxing. The campground is super fun and convenient to MK. I am wanting to stay at WL next time...The only value I haven't tried is ASSports...so maybe those will be the two we try. Park storming while we are at ASSports and chillaxing by the pool at WL towards the end of the trip. Wow all this talk is making me want to plan a trip...