Split stays, do you ......?

[eeyoresmom]

For those of you that do split stays, do you go to a park on the day you are switching resorts or do you take a day off from the parks that day? Unless we get lucky, we have a 3 resorts in 4 nights trip coming up and am looking to make the best of it. We will not have a car. I plan on not unpacking the suitcase at all, and packing toiletries in one clear ziploc and just plop it on the bathroom counter. We have 5 days and will do the parks 3 of those days. I'm thinking it will be easier to just go to a park in the morning, then head to the new resort in the afternoon......am I missing something that makes taking that day off a better option ?

 

[goofy4tink]

Wow, that's a lot of moving in a short period of time. I guess it all depends on how much time you want to spend in the parks. I usually hand my luggage off by 7:30am, then go to a park. I leave the park and head to the 'new' resort later in the afternoon, and get checked in. Bags don't usually get to the new resort until around 5ish..which is a pain.
My last trip in June, we moved from BWV to POR...took a cab, with our bags, that time. So much nicer...we had our bags with us, so had access to them if the room hadn't been ready.
If you can afford a cab, I would take a cab to the new resort early in the morning. At the very least, you can have one person take the bags, in the cab, get checked in and then meet the rest of you at the park.

 

[elaw]

Wow, that's a lot of moving in a short period of time .... My last trip in June, we moved from BWV to POR...took a cab, with our bags, that time. So much nicer...we had our bags with us, so had access to them if the room hadn't been ready.
If you can afford a cab, I would take a cab to the new resort early in the morning. At the very least, you can have one person take the bags, in the cab, get checked in and then meet the rest of you at the park.

That is a lot of moving .... even for us (we like to do at least 2/3 nights min per resort). This is what we started doing a couple of years ago. Do the move ourselves early and then head to the park closest to the new resort. That way we're all checked in (They text you with the room number when the room is ready) at the new resort and don't need to worry about checking in and the luggage when were back at the resort tired form a day at the park.

 

[jerseygal]

Anyone have any idea about the cost of a cab from Animal Kingdom Jambo to Grand Floridian???

SO, the idea here is if possible take a cab early to the 2nd resort, check in, let Bell Services store luggage, then go to a park...Hopefully, if you checked in VERY EARLY you will get a text or phone call that room is ready around 1 or 2PM?? THAT WOULD BE NICE!

THANKS in advance!

 

[elaw]

Anyone have any idea about the cost of a cab from Animal Kingdom Jambo to Grand Floridian???

We've found the cab rides ,on average, to be about $15-$20

SO, the idea here is if possible take a cab early to the 2nd resort, check in, let Bell Services store luggage, then go to a park...Hopefully, if you checked in VERY EARLY you will get a text or phone call that room is ready around 1 or 2PM?? THAT WOULD BE NICE!

Yep ... that's the idea. Sometimes the room is ready when you check in but most often, it's not. 1 or 2 pm is a good approximmationof when you can expect the notification.

 

[thisismyusername]

I consider myself to be a very seasoned split stayer: We just did a 6 resort stay, and all but one of our Disney trips has included at least one move.

If we plan to go to a park from the morning to an hour or two after lunch, we usually have Bell Services move our luggage and we don't worry about checking in at the new resort until after we're done at the park. Our luggage is usually to the new resort by about 2ish. We ask at the stand about what time they expect they'll be delivering or what stop the new resort is on their list (from what I understand, there's a runner for each resort who handles moving the luggage from one resort to another, so someone should be able to answer your question and be able to give you a ballpark ETA.)

If we plan to swim at the new resort (we never swim the day of at the resort we're checking out of) and go to the park in the evening after we're checked in at the new resort, we then move the luggage ourselves either via bus/cab/monorail/rental car (we've done all of those methods) and check in at the new resort in the morning. We usually get our room during busy season around 1-2 in the afternoon; if we check in during a slower season, the room is ready more like 11-12 (very rarely upon our usual 10 a.m. arrival). We go to the new resort wearing our bathing suits under our clothes, and I carry fresh undergarments, sunscreen and a comb and any other swimming necessities, as well as a plastic trash bag in my backpack. We expect to be at the pool until the room is ready, but just in case an unforeseen storm forces us from the pool earlier, we are pretty much able to get undressed and changed at the new resort in a common area bathroom or the pool bathroom and throw our wet suits in the plastic bag (which we then give to bell services to store with our other luggage).

What I would not suggest you do is bank on your room being ready at a specific time. While rooms are *generally* ready before 3, all too frequently, I have not gotten email notifications that our rooms were ready rather only to arrive to the resort at 4 or 5, frustrated, only to find that my room was ready but the email notification never went out. Similarly, when we've traveled during slower times, sometimes I've expected the room to be ready upon arrival since the resort is emptier, and it's not ready and winds up not being ready until closer to check in time. I also suggest you do online check in so they have an idea of when you'll be arriving as I think it does increase your chances of getting your room closer to the time you think you'll be arriving.

HTH!

 

[jar]

We did 3-day weekends with a split stay each of the past two years. Both times we went to a park and let Disney move our luggage and we returned to the new room with our luggage there. Last year we went to AK in the morning, took a backpack with bathing suits and took a lunch break at the AKL pool (where we had stayed the night before) then a bus to Epcot before returning to BW. Could not have been smoother.

 

[mevelandry]

For those of you that do split stays, do you go to a park on the day you are switching resorts or do you take a day off from the parks that day? Unless we get lucky, we have a 3 resorts in 4 nights trip coming up and am looking to make the best of it. We will not have a car. I plan on not unpacking the suitcase at all, and packing toiletries in one clear ziploc and just plop it on the bathroom counter. We have 5 days and will do the parks 3 of those days. I'm thinking it will be easier to just go to a park in the morning, then head to the new resort in the afternoon......am I missing something that makes taking that day off a better option ?

You have to keep in mind that it might take 1 hour to check-in and get your room every time... and that is if the room is ready (better luck after 3:00 P.M.)

If you don't mind doing that, go ahead.

That being said, if you spend most days in the park, you might not have a lot of time to enjoy all that each resort has to offer. When we "resort hop" that much, we usually do it when we have many non-park days.

 

[Tigger's ally]

We are seasoned split stayers as well. And we do it this way.

I am the transfer guy. I send family to park of the day and I am the luggage guy. The times we drive down, I load luggage in van and drive to new hotel. The other times, I take it to bell services to have it delivered. When I do this I ride with my family to the park of choice and then they go in and I take a bus back to new resort. I am the check in guy. I check in and head back to the park. They text me when room is ready. Sometimes we go back, other times we stay at park till late.

Key is if you are planning to swim at resort. If we drove, then our luggage is already there. If not, we just pack a backpack and put it in the locker at the park of choice and pick it up as we head to the new resort.

One time, I hit WL at 7:30 with luggage in van and told them I wanted to check it as we were changing to that hotel and I was checking in and meeting the family at AK. They called the front desk and said my room was already open. I hadn't even walked in the great front door to the lobby yet and they were wheeling my bags to my room ! Of course, it was October and not crowded.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Thanks everyone. This is a dvc stay and these are the only studios available. ( BLT, AKV and BCV) I wouldn't choose to hop this much but it is what it is. I am hoping to get it down to 1 or two resorts closer to the 30 day grace period. If we were going to hang out at the new resort that day I would definitely take out luggage over via cab but since we're going to a park until around 3pm I don't think that will help us out. And to whoever posted about not receiving the text\ call. ....that has happened to us sooooooo many times. It is very frustrating.