Split stay w/a package - how does that work?

[crusoe2]

We're thinking about splitting our week between Pop and the Polynesian but we've never done that with a package before. My plan is to spend Sat, Sun, and Mon nights at Pop, switch to the Polynesian on Tues and stay there Tues, Wed, and Thurs nights. We would check out of Pop on Tues morning before going to DHS for the day and should each have one day's park admission and one table service dining credit left on our Pop room keys. Will we have any trouble using these in between the time we check out at Pop and check in at the Polynesian? Also, I had originally planned to wait until the end of the week to use our snack credits to splurge at Goofy's Candy Cauldron before we head home. Am I correct that if we split our stay between the 2 resorts that we'll need to use the snack credits on our Pop room keys by the end of our check-out day there (Tues)? Anything else I should consider? TIA

 

[MPHARJ]

You should check out of Pop before heading to a park that day, schedule a time for bell services to pick up and move your luggage, unless you are moving it yourself. your dining, snack credits are good until midnight of the last day of that package. If you purchased extra park days on the first package you can still use them. For instance I purchased 10 day MYW w/ water parks for our first package and a one day base ticket for our second package for our split stay. I have our meals planned to use the credits by midnight that day and will start on our new plan the next day, but use our old cards for the parks, a pain to cary all of the cards and not confuse them yeah can be, but I enjoy the split stays and it is rather simple. Enjoy!

 

[buzz1fan]

We are thinking of doing a split stay with the same resorts. I may add the deluxe dining at the Poly stay since there are so many places to eat there and near there. I am planning our first half of our trip at HS and AK. Then our Poly trip for AK and Epcot. I too am only purchasing the 1 day part ticket since we have to have a park ticket in a package.

We split this past June with ALL Star Movies and Poly, and took a cab over to the Poly at about 745 ish, and checked in then went to the MK. It was an amazing boat ride over.

 

[MatterhornMiss]

I might be mistaken, but I believe if you are getting the DDP (unless you are an AP holder or DVC member where the DDP can be tied to the room reservation), you will need a separate package for each resort (so you'll have to work out the number of days you want on each MYW pass--it doesn't have to equal your length of stay, but the DDP credits is based on nights at the resort of each ressie. I think you have to have at least one day MYW pass to get the DDP). You are correct in that all of your credits from the first ressie expire at midnight of the check-out day. You will get new credits as soon as you check in to the next hotel, so these may overlap some--just keep tabs on both room keys.

 

[crusoe2]

Thanks for the response. You just made me realize something, tho. If we split our stay we will end up paying more for out tickets, won't we? Even if we get most of our park days put on the first set of room keys and can use those all week, we'll have to get at least a one-day ticket at the Polynesian in order to also get the dining plan. Won't that one day cost quite a bit more this way than if it was just added onto a multi-day ticket? For instance, we really only plan to spend 5 days in the parks but when I booked the package we now have at Pop I got 6 day hoppers on the off chance that we decide to go into a park on arrival day. It was only about $6 more total so why not? But if I revert back to a 5 day ticket at Pop and a 1 day ticket at the Poly, I'll pay alot more than $6 for that 1 day. Hmm, we may have to re-think this.

 

[buzz1fan]

Yes you do, it is a bummer. YOu could do a room only when you get to the Poly, and pay for your meals OOP. For me, I figured it out and having the plan was worth it for us. Paying for the extra day ticket is frustrating, I think I am going to get a 9 or 10 day ticket, then get a one day ticket. We are staying for 7 nights total. I am not going to get a park hoper, but with the more day ticket, we can go to a couple parks a few of the days.

I am still not sure exactly what hotels to pick. I loved the Poly, but I am intrested in CBR now with the new pool too. Along with AKL.

 

[crusoe2]

Yep, definitely a bummer. I had done a rough estimate in my head and was thinking that doing the last three nights at the Polynesian would add about $900 more to the overall cost. I didn't factor in the added expense of breaking up our tickets. If it's true that I would have to book two completely seperate packages (and I'm pretty sure that is correct) then it would add more like $1500 to our overall cost. Based on the different scenarios I just priced out on the Disney website, it would actually be a couple hundred dollars cheaper to just book a room only at Pop for our first night and then spend the remaining 5 nights at the Polynesian. But we would still be looking at an increase of about $1300 or so. If we dropped the dining plan and just went with room only it wouldn't be so bad. But that would also mean dropping some of our ADRs and we were really excited about all of them. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Yes you do, it is a bummer. YOu could do a room only when you get to the Poly, and pay for your meals OOP. For me, I figured it out and having the plan was worth it for us. Paying for the extra day ticket is frustrating, I think I am going to get a 9 or 10 day ticket, then get a one day ticket. We are staying for 7 nights total. I am not going to get a park hoper, but with the more day ticket, we can go to a couple parks a few of the days.
I am still not sure exactly what hotels to pick. I loved the Poly, but I am intrested in CBR now with the new pool too. Along with AKL.

You cannot do that. You cannot use "extra" days on your tickets to park-hop. If you try to go to a second park, the turnstile will not unlock and the CM will see a message that you've already visited a different park that day. You can ONLY go to more than one park in a day with the park-hopper option. It costs only $2/day to add extra days to your ticket, but is $45 to park-hop.

Check this ticket thread (written by a DIS-er who sells tickets at WDW) for complete ticketing rules:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684

I wouldn't want you to get there and think you can use 2 days of your ticket to park-hop and not be allowed in.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Yep, definitely a bummer. I had done a rough estimate in my head and was thinking that doing the last three nights at the Polynesian would add about $900 more to the overall cost. I didn't factor in the added expense of breaking up our tickets. If it's true that I would have to book two completely seperate packages (and I'm pretty sure that is correct) then it would add more like $1500 to our overall cost. Based on the different scenarios I just priced out on the Disney website, it would actually be a couple hundred dollars cheaper to just book a room only at Pop for our first night and then spend the remaining 5 nights at the Polynesian. But we would still be looking at an increase of about $1300 or so. If we dropped the dining plan and just went with room only it wouldn't be so bad. But that would also mean dropping some of our ADRs and we were really excited about all of them. Oh well, maybe next time.

If you make regular trips to the World, you can book one package with a 1-day base ticket and keep it for a future visit. It will not expire after 14 days if it's not used. Then next time you can get a room-only reservation and upgrade the 1-day ticket to however many days you need. It helps to think of the 1-day ticket as a "deposit" on a future visit!

 

[buzz1fan]

You cannot do that. You cannot use "extra" days on your tickets to park-hop. If you try to go to a second park, the turnstile will not unlock and the CM will see a message that you've already visited a different park that day. You can ONLY go to more than one park in a day with the park-hopper option. It costs only $2/day to add extra days to your ticket, but is $45 to park-hop.

Check this ticket thread (written by a DIS-er who sells tickets at WDW) for complete ticketing rules:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684

I wouldn't want you to get there and think you can use 2 days of your ticket to park-hop and not be allowed in.

I will check this out. When I called they told me I can do this. That was the one reason i would purchase a 10 day ticket for a 8 day trip. They gave me the idea when I called and asked how to book a split stay. Thank You for passing on that link.

 

[buzz1fan]

Yep, definitely a bummer. I had done a rough estimate in my head and was thinking that doing the last three nights at the Polynesian would add about $900 more to the overall cost. I didn't factor in the added expense of breaking up our tickets. If it's true that I would have to book two completely seperate packages (and I'm pretty sure that is correct) then it would add more like $1500 to our overall cost. Based on the different scenarios I just priced out on the Disney website, it would actually be a couple hundred dollars cheaper to just book a room only at Pop for our first night and then spend the remaining 5 nights at the Polynesian. But we would still be looking at an increase of about $1300 or so. If we dropped the dining plan and just went with room only it wouldn't be so bad. But that would also mean dropping some of our ADRs and we were really excited about all of them. Oh well, maybe next time.

If I am thinking about it correctly, you only need to purchase a 1 day ticket on your second stay along with dining. Depending on how many people in your party will make the price of the ticket. That should be the only extra you need to spend, you know what i mean. For us it is a little over 200 for the extra ticket. Not counting the higher room rate.

Maybe in 2009 they will change the ticket policy with the package. Wishful thinking!!

 

[crusoe2]

Yeah, we did consider just getting the 1 day tickets so that we could have the dining plan all week. But the extra $200 or so for that on top of the big increase in the room rate (about $324 a night more) is just too much. This all started because DD really wants to stay somewhere with a pool slide and since we have some meals and things booked at the Polynesian at the end of the week we thought it would be nice to just transfer there for the last few nights. But after crunching the numbers, the lowest I could get it for splitting the trip evenly between the two resorts would cost us about $1200 more than just staying at Pop all week. And if we do less than 3 nights at the Poly I don't think DD will really get to use the pool enough for it to be worth the extra expense and trouble. Staying at the Polynesian those last few days would be great and oh so convenient, but since the main thing we were going for is a pool slide, we can get that at one of the mods for a LOT less money. We can upgrade to a mod for the whole week and it would only add about $400 to our package. DH has left it up to me and said to do whichever I prefer (isn't he great!?!) but I'm still mulling it over.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I will check this out. When I called they told me I can do this. That was the one reason i would purchase a 10 day ticket for a 8 day trip. They gave me the idea when I called and asked how to book a split stay. Thank You for passing on that link.

Sorry to say, but the CMs you speak to when making your reservations are not the best-trained staff. You can call 4 times and ask the same question and get 4 different answers. The CM you spoke to was most likely nowhere near WDW and has probably never been to WDW and really has no idea. I mean, in theory, it sounds good - use 2 "days" off your ticket to visit 2 different parks. But in actuality, it would be stupid for Disney to allow this given the way the ticket prices are structured. That would mean that some guests are only paying $2 to park-hop for a day, where it costs everyone else $45.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Yeah, we did consider just getting the 1 day tickets so that we could have the dining plan all week. But the extra $200 or so for that on top of the big increase in the room rate (about $324 a night more) is just too much. This all started because DD really wants to stay somewhere with a pool slide and since we have some meals and things booked at the Polynesian at the end of the week we thought it would be nice to just transfer there for the last few nights. But after crunching the numbers, the lowest I could get it for splitting the trip evenly between the two resorts would cost us about $1200 more than just staying at Pop all week. And if we do less than 3 nights at the Poly I don't think DD will really get to use the pool enough for it to be worth the extra expense and trouble. Staying at the Polynesian those last few days would be great and oh so convenient, but since the main thing we were going for is a pool slide, we can get that at one of the mods for a LOT less money. We can upgrade to a mod for the whole week and it would only add about $400 to our package. DH has left it up to me and said to do whichever I prefer (isn't he great!?!) but I'm still mulling it over.

If your daughter just wants a pool slide, it would be easy to upgrade to a mod for the whole week. $400 for the week isn't bad and you'd get some other benefits, also. There are lots of threads on this page about "which moderate" and the pluses and minuses of each, so do some reading and look at some pictures and see what appeals to you. We enjoy CSR and they have a terrific slide!

 

[crusoe2]

I think the only mods that still have availability that week are CSR and POFQ. Claire, how did your kids do on the slide at CSR? DD is only 5, hasn't learned to swim yet, and has never done a pool slide. I wouldn't want to start her on anything too advanced and the one at CSR looks pretty big. But we love the look of the resort.

 

[buzz1fan]

Yeah, we did consider just getting the 1 day tickets so that we could have the dining plan all week. But the extra $200 or so for that on top of the big increase in the room rate (about $324 a night more) is just too much. This all started because DD really wants to stay somewhere with a pool slide and since we have some meals and things booked at the Polynesian at the end of the week we thought it would be nice to just transfer there for the last few nights. But after crunching the numbers, the lowest I could get it for splitting the trip evenly between the two resorts would cost us about $1200 more than just staying at Pop all week. And if we do less than 3 nights at the Poly I don't think DD will really get to use the pool enough for it to be worth the extra expense and trouble. Staying at the Polynesian those last few days would be great and oh so convenient, but since the main thing we were going for is a pool slide, we can get that at one of the mods for a LOT less money. We can upgrade to a mod for the whole week and it would only add about $400 to our package. DH has left it up to me and said to do whichever I prefer (isn't he great!?!) but I'm still mulling it over.

My husband told me it is up to me too. I am considering the CBR (for the week) since the new pool will be open when we go next summer or considering the AKL (3 nights)for the end of our POP Trip. We really like the zero entry pool. My son was scared of the poly slide last month. It was to dark inside the tunnel for him. It is so hard making these decisions.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I think the only mods that still have availability that week are CSR and POFQ. Claire, how did your kids do on the slide at CSR? DD is only 5, hasn't learned to swim yet, and has never done a pool slide. I wouldn't want to start her on anything too advanced and the one at CSR looks pretty big. But we love the look of the resort.

My son was 5 last year and went on it and liked it, but he had had a couple of years of swimming lessons already. (We live in Florida - almost everyone here has a pool!) I think you can borrow life vests from the marina or the lifeguard for non-swimmers. Ask on the CSR thread and I'm sure someone will know for sure. The water is the same depth at the end of the slide at both resorts, 3.5 ft.

My husband and I stayed at POFQ for our anniversary trip in January and it was nice, too. I prefer CSR's food court and the overall feel of the resort, though. I also like the bus transportation at CSR better than POFQ. The pool looked fun; the slide was cute. You can also use the pool at POR when you stay at POFQ.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[crusoe2]

My husband told me it is up to me too. I am considering the CBR (for the week) since the new pool will be open when we go next summer or considering the AKL (3 nights)for the end of our POP Trip. We really like the zero entry pool. My son was scared of the poly slide last month. It was to dark inside the tunnel for him. It is so hard making these decisions.

We've stayed at CBR twice and originally booked there for this trip. (That should give you some idea how much we liked it.) But I got indecisive and started thinking I'd like to try somewhere different this time. Now I'm thinking I wish I'd stayed w/CBR and it is completely booked for our week. I bet the new pool is gonna be awesome.

I agree, it is really hard to decide this stuff. There are just so many variables to take into account and I don't want anyone to be disappointed w/the resort I've chosen. I worry about basing our resort decision on whether or not the pool has a slide because I'm not really sure that my DD is ready to try one. She's pretty fearless but she hasn't spent a lot of time in the water. That's good to know about your son's reaction to the Polyn pool slide. Maybe that wouldn't have been the best one for DD anyway.