Split stay

[osugal]

I've never considered doing a split stay before. It just didn't appeal to me. Once I'm settled in I don't want to bother packing up again. Any how we stayed CL at BCR last year and loved if. Loved being next to Epcot. But I really want to be near MK next time. So now I'm considering a split stay between BCR and Poly. Can someone walk me through the logistics of it? Do you have to checkout by a certain time? Do you pay a bill at both places? Do you get a new KTTW? Thx!

 

[osugal]

Bump

 

[mickeynut1]

Disney makes it very easy to change resorts. On the day of your resort change, if you want to head off to a park first thing and don't want to mess with checking into the 2nd resort right away, take your bags to bell services and tell them which resort you're moving to. They will give you a claim tag and will transfer your luggage to the next resort (keep in mind that your luggage may not arrive until later in the afternoon, between 1-3 pm). If you have the DDP at the first resort, any remaining credits will be good until midnight of that day. When you're ready, head over to the second resort and check in, at which time you will receive new KTTW cards for that resort. Any DDP credits (if you have the DDP), will be available right away and will expire at midnight of the day you check out of that resort.

If you want to check in right away, it would be easiest to take a cab over, check in, and leave your luggage with bell services if your room isn't ready. Check in/check out is the same just as if you stayed at one resort the whole time.

With all of that said, Disney doesn't see it as a split stay, but rather 2 separate reservations. So any room charging that is done at the first resort will be paid at check out of that resort, and new charging privileges set up at the second resort. Keep in mind that if you are interested in the DDP and want it for the entire stay, tickets will have to be purchased with each resort. HTH .

 

[osugal]

So if I do a split stay I'm not buying a 6 day park hopper as part of a package? It would be buying 2 sets of 3 day tickets? That's a big price difference.

 

[mmmears]

When we do a split we book room-only for the resorts. Then we buy the park tickets for the whole trip (since as you know 2 sets of 3-day passes are much more $$$ than one 6-day pass).

It is possible to add the tickets onto room keys, but we usually find it's just much easier to keep them separate.

I agree with all the advice the pp gave -- just want to add that a MK Epcot split is great!

 

[mickeynut1]

So if I do a split stay I'm not buying a 6 day park hopper as part of a package? It would be buying 2 sets of 3 day tickets? That's a big price difference.

As the pp said, you can book room only for both resorts and buy your park tickets separately. Or another option would be to do a package (with enough ticket days to cover the entire trip) with the first resort and book room only for second resort as your park tickets are good 14 days from first use (unless the no expiration option is purchased) .

 

[TwistGrl101]

Yes, like the PP mentioned above, you can still purchase your 6 day passes at once under one of the resort reservations...then you would just do a room-only for the other resort. This will only work if are not on the dining plan, though...

 

[tiggerthepuppy]

So does this mess with your dining? has anyone done this and have ddp issues when switching,before and after?

 

[TwistGrl101]

It wouldn't be worth it to do a split stay with the dining plan, because you would have to buy each dining plan separately, which means 2 sets of three day tickets...it would be much cheaper to do it without the dining plan and buy your entire trip's worth of park tickets with one of the reservations. Or you can do the dining plan for half your stay and do room-only and OOP dining for the other half...

 

[mmmears]

We always split, but never do the dining plan...

You could always have the dining plan for 1/2 the trip.

 

[jedi jen]

As others have said, we are doing the dining plan with our first resort stay, so we have a package at the first resort and a room only reservation with the second. It is going to be our first split stay and I am so looking forward to doing an MK resort and Epcot resort on the same trip. How fun is that?!

 

[iloveeeyore]

We did a split stay in summer 2010 and it was so great that we are doing another one this trip (sort of). I have to say that DH was really against doing this, but now that we have done it, we would not hesitate to do it again. Disney makes it so easy to switch resorts that it is so worth it.

There are still 2 sticky issues with this.

#1 - You have to check out of one resort by 11 and the offician check-in time at the next resort is 4. This wasn't a big deal for us, because we just checked out of one, left our luggage with Disney to move it for us, went about our business for the day (we did DTD that day) and when we went "back" to our resort after lunch and shopping, we just went to the new resort. You can do the same thing at a theme park or water park. If you make your day "about" the move, you might find it very time-consuming and thus a waste of a day of your vacation.

#2- You can't do the dining plan at both resorts unless you want to pay for base tickets at both resorts. We used TiW for the trip we did our big split stay, so no dining plan. If you purchase a package at your first resort, your dining credits are good until midnight of the day you check out of your first resort, so you can still do dinner on your move day...then you could pay for the rest of your meals OOP. If the dining plan is really important to you, you are better off staying at one resort...or making your stay at the first resort longer to take advantage of the DP longer (4/2 instead of 3/3, maybe).

We now love splitting! It is a great way to sample more resorts!

 

[Scoobas Wife]

We have a split stay this June for BLT and AoA. We did what iloveeyore said: packaged deal with park tickets for out entire stay and DDP for the BLT and then room only with AoA. That we could also see if the DDP was worth it

 

[osugal]

We're staying CL so we're not getting the DDP. So, this wouldn't be an issue for us. But, I still can't decide if we will want to bother with this halfway through our trip. It's only 7 nights. It doesn't sound like a lot of work but we will have to pack up, unpack and checkout twice. Still thinking it over. It would be great to stay near both Epcot and MK. Although, if I stay at the Poly how long does it take to get to Epcot since we're near the monorail?

 

[Sue M]

We're staying CL so we're not getting the DDP. So, this wouldn't be an issue for us. But, I still can't decide if we will want to bother with this halfway through our trip. It's only 7 nights. It doesn't sound like a lot of work but we will have to pack up, unpack and checkout twice. Still thinking it over. It would be great to stay near both Epcot and MK. Although, if I stay at the Poly how long does it take to get to Epcot since we're near the monorail?

For only a 7 day trip I wouldn't do a split stay. It's very easy to get to Epcot from Poly. There is a short walking path from Poly to TTC & Epcot monorail.

 

[ajpa]

It is possible to add the tickets onto room keys, but we usually find it's just much easier to keep them separate.

So glad I saw this thread!

I was just wondering about that because we are doing a "forced" split stay of sorts - we are staying an extra night to get a better airfare out but the resort we are at is not available for that night so we are staying at a different one.

We are doing room only (no dining) and planning to buy tickets from Undercover Tourist. We are checking out of resort A on Sunday, and checking in to resort B on Sunday night just to sleep, leaving for the airport on Monday.

If we add our tickets to resort A's room key, can we use them to get into the parks all day Sunday even after we check out?

Thanks!