Split stay question...

[disneymom1229]

Hi! I am looking for a some info from anyone who has experience with split stays. We are in the beginning phase of planning our Aug 2014 trip, I know it is a long way away! But I love the planning, so I'm into it!

We are going when there will hopefully be free dining. I am curious how a split stay works with this. I know that we have to buy a package in order to qualify for free dining, but what happens to our park tickets and dining plan when we change resorts? Do we have to buy new park tickets or can we buy tickets at our first resort that will cover our whole stay? I am concerned that if we have to buy two sets of tickets, the cost will outweigh the appeal of experiencing a new resort. We would like to do 5 nights at POR and 5 nights at the Poly. I am planning on 10 day tickets with PH and waterparks. I know that will leave us a non park day, but I figure with moving resorts, we could use our non park day to make sure we have a smooth transition.

Thanks in advance for any info or advice that anyone has to share!

 

[Allison]

2 different resorts with package stays means purchasing 2 sets of tickets. You,could do room only for the second stay.

 

[mickeynut1]

It is possible to do a split stay with free dining, but you will have to buy tickets for both stays. You could get 10 day hoppers with the first resort to cover the whole trip, but you would still have to purchase at least a 2 day base ticket for everyone with the 2nd resort in order to get free dining for that part of your stay. With that said, these tickets don't have to be used right away and can be saved for a future trip. A 1 day base ticket is required when you're paying for the DDP, but Disney changed the free dining requirement a few years ago and now requires a 2 day ticket instead of 1 day. You would have until midnight of the day you check out of the first resort to use your DDP credits from that stay, with the DDP credits from the 2nd stay going into effect when you check in at that resort, which would expire at midnight the day you check out of that resort. HTH .

 

[disneymom1229]

Thank you very much for your replies.

This with the tickets is what I was afraid I would need to do. I guess I'll have to decide if it is worth the extra $$ for the tickets to try a couple of days at a deluxe.

We have stayed at POR for all our stays as a family and while we really love it there, we would love to stay at the Poly as well. But then we know we would miss POR and the cost of staying deluxe for our whole trip is too much.

Well, with so much time before our trip, I guess I would have plenty of time to save the extra $$.

 

[Sue M]

Yes, with having to buy 6 people 2 day park tickets each would add a lot to your cost.
You could do just do the free dining for your first 5 days as planned, then do a room only for next 5 days at Poly. Do your TS dinners while on DDP, then just do CS when you're off DDP.
Poly has some nice meals in there CS, Captain Cooks, and also serves the Kona famous Tonga Toast for breakfast. And since you'd be on the monorail you can travel around to GF and CR to check out their CS, in addition to the parks. Epcot has some great CS.

And with a 10 day park hopper + water parks, any non park day you can always go to a water park or DTD Disney Quest.

 

[catho72]

Yes, with having to buy 6 people 2 day park tickets each would add a lot to your cost.
You could do just do the free dining for your first 5 days as planned, then do a room only for next 5 days at Poly. Do your TS dinners while on DDP, then just do CS when you're off DDP.
Poly has some nice meals in there CS, Captain Cooks, and also serves the Kona famous Tonga Toast for breakfast. And since you'd be on the monorail you can travel around to GF and CR to check out their CS, in addition to the parks. Epcot has some great CS.

And with a 10 day park hopper + water parks, any non park day you can always go to a water park or DTD Disney Quest.

Excellent advice!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Perhaps price up the value of different discounts. For the more expensive resorts such as the Poly, it seems that a room only discount of 35% might offer as much of a saving, if not more so, than free dining.

 

[wdwrich]

Yes, with having to buy 6 people 2 day park tickets each would add a lot to your cost.
You could do just do the free dining for your first 5 days as planned, then do a room only for next 5 days at Poly. Do your TS dinners while on DDP, then just do CS when you're off DDP.
Poly has some nice meals in there CS, Captain Cooks, and also serves the Kona famous Tonga Toast for breakfast. And since you'd be on the monorail you can travel around to GF and CR to check out their CS, in addition to the parks. Epcot has some great CS.

And with a 10 day park hopper + water parks, any non park day you can always go to a water park or DTD Disney Quest.

The above is good advice. You may also want to consider doing a 7/3 day split instead of 5/5. That way, you could stay on the dining plan longer and still get a few days at the Poly.

 

[disneymom1229]

I'm starting to like the idea of not using the dining plan for the Poly portion of our trip. There will only be 5 five of us for that second half. But the price for 5 2-day tickets is almost $900.00!!! We would probably spend much less than that paying out of pocket. And if we are lucky enough to get some kind of room only discount, it would be even better. We could do any character dining and buffets while we are on the dining plan and then dine a little differently when oop. We have always wanted to eat at the Plaza but did not find it to be a good use of dining credits. Also, we could do some sit downs for lunch when the prices are lower.

I am always so focused on the dining plan that I hadn't really considered all our options. Thanks again to everyone for their valuable insight!!! It is so great and fun to have such a valuable resource at my fingertips!