Split Stays (hassle?)

[oceanmarina]

Hi all,

My DH is taking me and our 2 kids to celebrate my 40th this summer. I could not decide between the Contemporary Bay Lake Villa & Animal Kingdom Kidani Villas Savannah View so we decided to do a split stay(4 nights each).

It was a little bit of a hassle in terms of booking. Since we wanted deluxe dining, I had to buy a separate 1 day ticket for the 2nd part of our stay, costing us an extra $315.00. We also have to use all our dining points & snacks for the first 4 days (they expire at midnight the day we chhange hotels)

Has anyone done a split stay? Is it a hassle in terms of changing rooms? We don't want to lose a day changing rooms if it's going to be a hassle.

I appreciate any advice, feedback,
Thanks,
Marina

 

[mickeynut1]

It's not a hassle to do a split stay as Disney will transfer and store your luggage for you. But one thing that could be an inconvenience is your room at the second resort might not be ready until later in the day. Official check in is 3:00 pm and although you can check in as early as 7:00 a.m. and receive your KTTW card with DDP credits, your room might not be ready until 3:00 that afternoon. Bell services will store your luggage for as long as you need or want, but you may be without a place to relax, naps for the kids, etc. until later in the day. But other than that, it's not a big deal, IMO, to change resorts .

 

[NOLA_Tink]

We did a split stay in 2010, and I swore I'd never do it again. I felt like I wasted way too much time sorting & packing all of our stuff into our luggage, checking out of hotel #1, traveling to our new hotel, and checking in at hotel #2. More than half of my day was totally gone (which is valuable in Disney) & didn't feel like it was worth it. No one likes packing, and doing it in the middle of your trip is a real bummer.

 

[Sammie]

Many like, I don't. We had several easy moves, then we had a disaster and after then I said, never again.

Disney lost a piece of our luggage during the move and it took them over night to find it. That affected our ADR for that night as we needed the clothes in that bag.

I also don't like the thought of paying for a room that I have to vacate by 11 and might not get into until after 4pm.

Check in for Bay Lake and Kidani will be after 4pm. There is a lot I could do with an extra $300 and it would not be to spend it to be moving from one resort to another.

 

[AshleeH]

We did a split stay in 2010, and I swore I'd never do it again. I felt like I wasted way too much time sorting & packing all of our stuff into our luggage, checking out of hotel #1, traveling to our new hotel, and checking in at hotel #2. More than half of my day was totally gone (which is valuable in Disney) & didn't feel like it was worth it. No one likes packing, and doing it in the middle of your trip is a real bummer.

This ^^^.

Some people love it - we hope to never do it again. Not only did we have to go through the obvious checklist of repacking, getting our luggage together and checking out, but we were assured our tickets for that day were still good, even though we hadn't checked into WL yet. They said we could leave our car parked at the Contemporary, so we walked to MK and were denied access. After 30 minutes at Guest Relations (long line) we were told there was nothing they could do, so we had to walk back, pile in the car, drive to WL and check in and by that time we had wasted half the day. It was a total bust and it was our anniversary on top of it, so it all just culminated in one bad experience. We're staying at Bay Lake this year and my husband was telling me today how relieved he is that we will just be able to unpack and relax in one place.

The one benefit I can find to a split stay: I am very curious about all of the Disney resorts and would eventually like to stay in all of the Deluxes - this was a good way to see more than one on one trip.

It should be noted that we knew we would not be split stay people, but after a bad experience getting stuck in MK at closing in 2010 for more than two hours, we said that next time we would stay at the Contemporary where we could control when and how we left the park and didn't have to depend on Disney transportation. This was a spur of the minute trip that started out at Saratoga Springs and then turned into a split stay when a few days in the Contemporary opened up. I kept checking back, but no more days ever opened up for the rest of the week and then my in-laws said they were driving the RV down and spending the last few days with us, so we decided to move our second half of the stay from SS to WL since they were going to be in the RV park and it was closer.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

When my family and I have done split stays we had no problems on the day we would switch resorts. However one major difference is we always happen to have our own car while we are at WDW, so it was easy driving where ever we were going and we would bring all our luggage with us, instead of having a Cast Member from Bell Services transfer our luggage to our next resort.

 

[suemom2kay]

NO NO NO... Definitely not worth it, esp. if you have to re-purchase a 1 day ticket. Put the $300 toward your next trip to WDW and stay in the other resort than.

We did split stay last time because we're DVC and had to change dates. Couldn't get the whole trip at the BC so we split between BW & BC and it just was not what we wanted to be doing on vacation. So looking forward to checking in, unpacking, repacking, checking out just once this June.

 

[Couchy]

DH and I just did a split stay in Dec. We had to b/c we could only book the Dolphin for the 1st 3 nights. We then moved to YC for 2 nights. We hated moving. We never got to fully unpack in either place because we were never there long enough. Hated the hassle of it all, living out of suitcases, packing up, moving over to YC, unpacking, checking in, checking out, checking in, checking out... never again

I can't imagine doing it with kids

 

[wdwrich]

DW and I have done several split stays and for us, it was no problem. The plus side is that it feels like two vacations in one. We don't do the dining plan, so that wasn't an issue. We packed up most of our stuff the night before the switch. The next morning we either gave our bags to bell services to move or we put them in the trunk of our rental car, then went off to a park for the day. In the late afternoon we checked into our new resort and moved into the new room. No need to miss out on a vacation day to make the switch.

 

[I Love Pluto]

We have done 2 split stays. We vow never to do another one again.

Your luggage is "somewhere out there" between 11 AM & at least 3 or 4 PM.
It's a waste of time to pack, unpack, pack again, unpack again, etc.

When we first arrive at WDW - it is comfortable when we are reunited with our luggage, and we have a new "home". Why go through this again & again?

If we want to experience another resort, we have a meal there and walk around afterwards. It works out better - and our luggage is still in our original room. We still have "home" to come back to.

 

[dtstampz]

I have done split stays, mainly to have a cheaper first night, and to try new resorts. That being said, I don't do dining plan, there's only 2 of us with APs, and I always take a cab to the next resort, so I don't have to worry about luggage issues.

 

[goofyredraider]

DW and I have done several split stays and for us, it was no problem. The plus side is that it feels like two vacations in one. We don't do the dining plan, so that wasn't an issue. We packed up most of our stuff the night before the switch. The next morning we either gave our bags to bell services to move or we put them in the trunk of our rental car, then went off to a park for the day. In the late afternoon we checked into our new resort and moved into the new room. No need to miss out on a vacation day to make the switch.

This is what I'm hoping for....we are staying for 12 nights total (long trip) 6 at POR and 6 at BC. We are driving, and we don't plan to use bell services (I worry too much about something getting lost). So, we plan to just load up after breakfast and drive over to BC and try to check in - if our room is ready, great! If not, the stuff will stay in the car and we'll go over to Epcot until after lunch and we'll come back mid-afternoon or when it is ready and get settled and head back.

 

[Turtlegirl]

We have been doing splits between AKL and Poly our last few visits. We LOVE it and it has never been a hassle. You get the excitement of checking in twice!

Luggage has always been moved timely and without problems. We love the best of both worlds-AKL is close to DHS and AK and then we ride the monorail at the Poly to Epcot and MK so we tend to do the parks closest to which resort we're at.

We work around the need to buy the 1 day passes if you're on the dining plan by NEVER using the KTTW card issued at the second hotel for park entry-use it only for the dining plan credits associated with your second stay. You can go to Customer Service at any of the park entrances and ask for 1 day paper tix which you can then keep for a 1 day visit or give or sell them, usually recouping most of the cost for having to buy the 1 day ticket.

 

[elaw]

... Has anyone done a split stay? Is it a hassle in terms of changing rooms? We don't want to lose a day changing rooms if it's going to be a hassle ...

As far as it being a hassel, It seems to be very subjective and depends on your vacationing style. For me, not a hassel at all. I only remove from my suitcase whats needed for the particular resort stay (I pack to accomodate this) so it's no big deal for me. I take my luggage down to bell services (early) and take care of the transfer (luggage doesnt usually transfer til 3-4:00 so I always have a small backpack with essentials with me), then its off to the parks for the day .... check into the new hotel around 1:30-2:00 (most of the time the rooms ready) and explore the resort after that. call bell services at the new resort after 4 .... get the luggage and then we're most often back to another park for a few more hours.

 

[kappyfamily]

We are doing a double split stay this time with BC/BLT/AKV for 8 nights. We've done split stays 2 other times and it really is no big deal. We will be getting cabs to all the resorts and bringing our own luggage so no need to wait on them bringing it for us and when it will appear.

We will have washers and dryers since we are staying in villas so we arent packing a ton of clothes anyway. So we will probably only have 2 suitcases between us 3. Really not that big of a deal!

Since you are staying 6 nights at each it REALLY is not a big deal! You will fully be able to unpack and then take a whopping 30-45 minutes to pack the last day and move to the next spot.

Obviously some are really opposed to it, but we love it and love being able to see and stay at a ton of new places. In 3 trips we have stayed at 7 different resorts!

Have fun!!

 

[emmysmommy]

I've done a split stay and loved it! We moved from BLT to BC and the morning of the move, simply got a taxi went to the new resort, checked in and had them hold our luggage until our room was ready. No problems. Like one of the pp stated - it was like having a second vacation.

 

[kaligal]

I hate the split stay. It's such a pain in the butt. My advice is to pick a hotel and stick with it. You can do another one next time.

I'd go into all the reasons, but you're going to do it, anyway.

Best of luck.