Split Stay Questions

[mouschievous]

We are currently booked at CBR for our January trip. We were gifted 2 nights at Boulder Ridge, so we're staying there our first two nights then moving to CBR. We're excited because it coincides with an MK extended evening hours day!! But I have questions...

1 - Will Disney move our luggage from Boulder Ridge to CBR? If so, how do we arrange that? If not, what's the best option for moving from one hotel to the other?

2 - Boulder Ridge is through a DVC rental. Will we be able to link everything to our MDE? Will the split stay between a DVC and a regular hotel screw up our 60+10 for dining reservations? Would we be better off waiting to modify our CBR reservation until after our dining reservations are secure?

3 - How is the bus ride from BR/WL to Hollywood Studios? We are planning HS for the day that we'd be checking out of BR, and were planning to rope drop. Will this prohibit that plan?

Thank you for helping a WDW newbie out

 

[erionm]

1 - Will Disney move our luggage from Boulder Ridge to CBR? If so, how do we arrange that? If not, what's the best option for moving from one hotel to the other?

Bell Services will move your luggage between resorts. You can either take you bags to the bell stand or call bell services and have a someone come to your room to pick them up. They typically don't actually do the transfer until the afternoon, so you bags may not be a the next resort until closer to 4pm.

2 - Boulder Ridge is through a DVC rental. Will we be able to link everything to our MDE? Will the split stay between a DVC and a regular hotel screw up our 60+10 for dining reservations? Would we be better off waiting to modify our CBR reservation until after our dining reservations are secure?

Yes, you can manually link the DVC rental to MDE using the confirmation number. You will have separate ADR booking windows for each reservation.

 

[jimmymc]

1. Yes they will. Call Bell Services or drop off your bags at the desk and let them know where you're going. Then call the CBR desk once you have your room number and they will bring them up.

2. You will still link everything to your MDE account, just like if you had booked the room using your own points or cash. You will have 2 separate 60+10 reservation days. Disney stopped allowing you to link split stays in the past few years, so be on 60 days before each check in day.

3. Not bad at all. Get on the first direct bus and you can rope drop easily.

 

[lions1995]

Two things I would add:
1) it is not 60 + 10 days. It is 60 plus length of your reservation. So as others have said, you will have two reservation dates.
2) If you are rope dropping HS and moving that day, it will you be up very early. If you are going to ask Bell Services to get your luggage, I would give them at least 30 minutes. Since resort guests get 30 minute early entry, I would suggest being at the bus stop no later than 60 minutes prior to the early entry time. (I personally shot for 75 to 90 minutes)

 

[cruisefortibet]

I just did this, but with Art of Animation and Poly DVC. We left our luggage in our room and called bell services that morning, they moved our luggage over to Poly and it arrived around 3pm. We had to pack some extra things in our park bag since we weren't sure when we'd have access to our luggage later that day, but otherwise was easy.

As for ADRs, like others said, it's treated as two separate windows. This is kind of unfortunate because we found it more challenging to get reservations for the second half of our trip due to having to wait, instead of doing all of our ADRs all at once.

The extended evening hours are great and it is nice experiencing two different resorts in one stay

 

[Deb & Bill]

They will not move refrigerated items, though.

 

[mouschievous]

They will not move refrigerated items, though.

Do you know if they would move them if they were in a cooler or something? Like, if before we leave we take all the refrigerated items and put them in a cooler bag, with no expectation that they would get put in a fridge, I assume they'd take that?

 

[ariel222]

They will move your luggage but keep in mind it sometimes takes a really long time so if there’s something you need take it with you.

 

[CarolynFH]

Do you know if they would move them if they were in a cooler or something? Like, if before we leave we take all the refrigerated items and put them in a cooler bag, with no expectation that they would get put in a fridge, I assume they'd take that?

I have read that they will take them if packed in a cooler or similar. They won't take responsibility for keeping them at proper temperature during transport. The report I remember was right after they made the change, however, so hopefully someone will chime in with more recent experience (and it will confirm they'll still do that). But you might want to call Bell Services the night before to confirm for yourself, since reports here don't guarantee anything. The best way will still be to transport them yourself via rideshare - take everything to the new resort and leave it with Bell Services. They will still store refrigerated or frozen items, they just won't transport those items.