Split stays

[RDP]

Moving once, twice even three times between different Disney accommodation during a single stay seem like a big hassle. Lots of people seem to do it, am I missing something? What are the advantages?

 

[reesefamily22]

My sister-in-law and her family do it every stay. They never have any trouble and get to enjoy more resorts.

 

[Doris1962]

It's not a hassle, but of course it depend how long you stay, usually I love doing split stay when I stay for 10 days and more, It's kind of two vacations in one.

 

[Dizny Dad]

It's not a hassle, but of course it depend how long you stay, usually I love doing split stay when I stay for 10 days and more, It's kind of two vacations in one.

DW and I agree - IF the stay is 10 days or more.

We have done split stays with 3 days per Resort, but it definately makes it a "living out of the suitcase" type vacation; which is what I do much of the time for business.

I am having less and less tolerance for split stays as time goes on. . . . . . .

 

[bookwormde]

We do it all the time, but everyone has a diffeernt style and reasons for doing it. We like having the different experiances during a vacation (12-15) days and even if we wanted to we know that resorts like BCV, BWV, VWL would be verry difficult to get a reservation of that lenght at 7 months.

Packing takes a little time, but in a villa we pack very light. I have a car so I just get up realy early and move to the new resort (soemtimes the room is even ready) and then we go to the parks. We head back to the new "room" for our afternoon break when we get the call that our room is ready

 

[mamaprincess]

We are doing one during a 10 day stay in December. We wanted to stay at both our favorite places. We are doing 5 nights at SSR/THV and 5 nights at AKV. Sometimes it can be a matter of points. If you really want to stay in one location, but the points would be to much for an entire stay, you can do some of your vacation at a high point DVC or room category and the rest of your stay in a different lower point location or room category. Sometimes it's a matter of availability. For instance, you may be booking a last minute vacation or had to change your dates after the 7 mos window and all of your days are not available at your favorite resort so you book what ever they have there then book the remainder somewhere else. I think these 3 scenarios are common reasons for booking split stays.

 

[eporter66]

It might be an interesting way to try 2 or 3 different resorts at a time and save a few points on the lesser expensive ones. Also, if you are booking at the last minute, I can see where it would be the only option.

For us - I like as little hassle as possible while on vacation, and I have had no problem booking a full week at a resort.

We thought about a split stay on this trip because we wanted to stay in an Epcot resort for the F&W fest. But, we could not get a 1 bedroom at either resort at the 7 month window for a full week, so that is when we thought of doing the split. (never checked to see if one opened up and did not waitlist). We love AKV, so we decided and got a full week in Kidani - no biggie.

My issue is that we stop and buy groceries as we eat in the room often, so to pack up the fridge and our clothes just does not seem worth it. It feels good to settle in and just have a week of Disney to look forward to. Our trip is 7 days, so I do see where if you were staying between 10-14 days it might be good to mix it up a bit as well. I am not opposed to a split stay, just does not appeal to me for our week in WDW.

 

[TisBit]

We did a three way split stay, but it was mostly due to room types. We were flying down early and friends were joining us for a week, then we were on our own again. Instead of wasting the points to keep the THV the whole time, we decided to book smaller rooms....and figured if we are moving, might as well try different resorts while we were at it. Also, leaving early was last minute, so we definitely didn't plan it in the beginning.

We waited till we hit the THV to go grocery shopping (we started in a studio) and just packed the first 3 days of clothes in one suitcase. We had bulk of our clothes in suitcases for THV and washed/repacked the small case to be used for the last three days. It actually worked out very well, but I wouldn't necessarily plan this if we were staying in the same room type the whole trip. Plus, IMHO, no resorts have blown me out of the water that I HAVE to stay at them, nor any that I disliked that I would HAVE to move.

 

[kristenrice]

I like to do "split stays" between studios and 1BR's at the same resort. When I bought DVC, I really did not do it to stay in studios. I did it so we could enjoy the 1-2BR's. However, we only have 100 points right now. Someday, we might add on, but right now, it is not in our budget. So, to stretch our points, I book our first two nights in a studio and the last three nights in a 1BR. This saves us quite a few points (over booking a 1BR for all 5 nights) and it lets us stay most of our vacation in the larger villas.

 

[eporter66]

Plus, IMHO, no resorts have blown me out of the water that I HAVE to stay at them, nor any that I disliked that I would HAVE to move.

Nice that someone else feels this way. I really have enjoyed all the resorts we have stayed at. I do want to stay at all of them, but no burning desire. There are certain themes I really like, and pros and cons to all of them. That is why we ignored (luckily it worked out for us) all the buy where you want to stay suggestions. Ignore is probably the wrong word, but we went with value over location. We feel we got a fantastic deal at $79 a point with SSR, and have been able to stay at the other resorts.

We had family come down with us in October 2008, 3 days with my sisters family and then 3 more with my wifes niece. So we stayed at OKW in a 2 bedroom (great value) and did not need to change out. Funny thing was at that time another good friend of ours went down at the same time and stayed in OKW (we planned it), so we had a big group together. In all our trips, it is the only time we had family and friends down with us and it was all on the same vacation. We need to learn to spread it out a little better. It was a lot of fun, but at the same time I enjoy just having my DW and DD.

 

[sleepydog25]

Moving once, twice even three times between different Disney accommodation during a single stay seem like a big hassle. Lots of people seem to do it, am I missing something? What are the advantages?

I'm surprised no one mentioned all those free resort mugs you get!

 

[adminjedi]

We do split stays, but our trips are usually 12-14 days.
When you stay at two different locations, not only do you get to enjoy the unique amenities of each resort, but you do DW differently.
We stay at AKV and enjoy AK and MK parks.
Then we stay at BCV to enjoy Epcot and HS.
When you are close to a park, you hop over for a few rides when you want to and enjoy relaxing at the hotel the rest of the time!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Moving once, twice even three times between different Disney accommodation during a single stay seem like a big hassle. Lots of people seem to do it, am I missing something? What are the advantages?

Hate it and refuse to ever do it again. I hate that homeless feeling in between resorts.

 

[adminjedi]

Hate it and refuse to ever do it again. I hate that homeless feeling in between resorts.

We spend our transition hours sipping cocktails and reading a book poolside at SAB. Not a bad way to be "homeless".

 

[franandaj]

I enjoy doing split stays, as a PP said you do Disney differently depending on where you are staying. So far I've stayed at 3 WDW DVC resorts (4 if you count the THV as different from SSR), and until I've been to them all I might still continue split stays. However it is best if you're staying longer than a week. Even as gross overpackers I find it's not hard to put everything away and switch resorts. This past January we were a party of four and had 28 items that Bell Services moved for us. Half was luggage and the other half was grocery bags and our OL.

For us it was very good that we switched. My DP really didn't like the THV because we were so secluded, me I loved that part of the trip because we were so secluded! Everyone is different!

 

[Cyndibear]

Well, this will be our first split stay. Sure I've done the one night at a value before our DVC stay but this time we'll be arriving on a Thursday, staying at VWL and then moving on Sunday to BLT MK view for 5 nights. Will have 1 BR's at both. We did this to save on BLT points. I am looking forward to enjoying the differences in both resorts. I know unpacking/repacking will be a pain but we have OL's so we'll just live out of those for the VWL days.

Cyndi

 

[It'sJustPoints]

We have done 2 split-stay trips. Last summer we split between Kidani Village and the Boardwalk. This year we did a split of SSR and BLT. So in our first year of ownership, we have already tried out 4 resorts!

We like to plan our park days around where we are staying and what is closer to the resort.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We spend our transition hours sipping cocktails and reading a book poolside at SAB. Not a bad way to be "homeless".

Well, you'd have to like SAB to enjoy that. To me that would be horrid. Noisy, no shade, crowds. Not for me.

I've been a member for 13 years. I've got plenty of time to try out the resorts if I really want to. But OKW calls to me and I'm glad to pack it in and hibernate for my entire stay there.

 

[rentayenta]

We have done 1 WDW split stay- we split 3x in 10 days and it was a bit much. It was before we owned DVC and stayed with friends. It was the trip we purchased DVC. Moving day wasn't hard for me, it was the night before that was stressful. I am a full unpacker which didn't help the situation. I never had that homeless feeling.