Spliting Resort Stays ???

[hopelea]

For those of you who split your hotel stays, WHY??

We are booked at POP for five nights. I really wanted to stay at WL or a monorail resort, but inlaws can't afford it for five nights.

Is it worth changing to stay two nights at a deluxe? How is it handled? Do you have to check in and out?

Any details you can give me would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[twocat]

I'll try to answer your questions.
I did a split stay in Dec between the BC and Poly. Loved being able to stay at 2 different hotels. We worked it out that on moving day, we didn't make any concrete plans for that day. We left the BC and moved over to the Poly and were not able to check in right away (10 am or so). Went to the MK and kept our stuff in the car which we parked at the Poly.
If you don't have a car, bell services will transfer your luggage for you.
You definitely have to check in and out. AND pay 2 deposits.
We spent 4 nights at the BC and 3 nights at the Poly. I really liked the 4/3 split as opposed to a 5/2 split. We were able to 'make ourselves at home' at each resort.
If you pick a monorail resort or WL, maybe try to plan your MK days aroound when you'll be there as opposed to Pop. Go to the other parks when you're at Pop. It's nice to have easy access to the MK from WL or the monorail resorts. If you have any specific questions, ask away!

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

I'm glad you asked this question. I've always wanted to do a slpit stay. I've never done a split stay because I have always feared that it would be a hassle or I would be wasting a lot of time moving from resort to resort. One great thing about the DIS board is that you learn how to do things effienctly. Now I have the confidence to stay at 2 resorts and not worry about tedious things. So on our next trip, we are going to be doing a Poly/BC trip or a WL/BC trip. (I've been wanting to try the BC and I love the WL & Poly so I will have to chose between the 2.) I wish we could have done it this time but since we will only be at WDW for 4 days (just for MNSSHP) we really didn't have time.

 

[Kim1964]

We did a split stay in August. The original plan had been to stay at the YC for the whole thing, but our cc company changed the number of miles we needed for free tickets, so having to buy more airfare threw the budget out of whack. Spending the first 3 nights at POR and the last 3 nights at YC covered the difference. We stayed within our budget, which is super important to me....I don't enjoy vacations that cause us to incur debt.

We had a rental car, so it wasn't a big deal to check out of POR and wait for the YC check in. I also split the packing between the suitcases so that we only had to open one at each hotel.

It was fun to have 2 different resort experiences in the same trip. I think it's a good idea to book the "better" hotel for the 2nd part of the trip.

 

[Wafflestoo]

Split stay in August between... Villas at Wilderness Lodge... rented points from DVC owner at a low rate. It was a VERY inexpensive way to stay on the Wilderness Lodge property. But... points are only cheap during the Sunday through Thursday time period then they ZOOM up in expense for the week-end days... so we stayed at the Poly for the remainder of the week. The hotel moved our luggage on our switch day. We went to the parks and then checked into our hotel room late afternoon. Luggage had been waiting for us at the hotel and they brought it to the room very quickly once we were there. I am planning on doing it this way once again this summer.

Meg

 

[Got Quattro?]

we split stays between Port Orleans and Contemp. 3 days each. We have also done many 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 day stays. IMHO if you can't stay 3 nights, it's not worth the effort.

cgeck in Sat at @ 2:00pm...you get sat night, all of sunday, then you have to wake up and pack to be out of the room by 11:00am, and are not shure your new room will be ready before 3:00pm.

It takes a few days to settle in and enjoy the hotel.

 

[Daryl]

I am a split stay NUT!!!!! I Love hopping on a monorail to the MK. I love walking to EPCOT and MGM. Leaving a park at night and avoiding a parking lot or bus queue is just great. Disney will even transfer your bags. WDW is such a large place. Being as close as possible to the major Theme parks is always a highlight of every trip for me.

 

[Allison]

We did this in June and it was cool. We had the best of both worlds-we stayed at BWV and enjoyed walking to MGM and Epcot. We then moved over to the Polynesian and went to MK and AK. It was very nice to experience both atmospheres between the Epcot resorts and MK resorts.

We also did this in June 2004 when we split a stay between the Beach Club and POR. We wanted to stay at BC but splitting the stay made more sense $$-wise.

 

[cjsmom5]

We do this every year now. We arrive on Thanksgiving and that weekend is always high so we stay at POFQ Thurs-Sunday and move over to a deluxe on Sunday. For a couple years it was Animal Kingdom Lodge and this year we are at the YC. It isn't bad as we then stay at the YC for 7 nights (8 days). My DH doesn't like having to unpack/pack and then unpack/pack again but for us since there are enough days at the deluxe to settle in ... he is okay with it. I just can't bring myself to spend those prices to stay at a deluxe over Thanksgiving. We enjoy the split stay, too.

We never have a car and always use Disney bell services. Never have had a problem. We check out, give them our luggage, go to the new hotel, check-in ... seldom is it ready but when we stay concierge we get the use of the lounge ... and then go to a park. We come back around 4pm and have always gotten into the room without a problem ...call bell services and luggage delivered within 15-20 minutes. It really is a smooth process.

 

[LuvTigger]

Another split stay nut here!

We've done this about 3 times now, and some of the stays as short as one night! For us (we don't have children, so that's a factor), it's not that big a deal.

We bring extra suitcases (by packing a smaller suitcase with out clothes in it in a bigger one), and use the extra suitcases to temporarily store our souvenirs and dirty laundry until we can do the final packing on the night before our departure.

Except for one stay, we use bell services to transfer our luggage. We just call them and ask them to transfer our luggage to the next resort, and no problem! A couple of times we just left the bags in the room with the tip underneath (they told us we could do this), and went on our merry way. Bags usually get to the next resort by 3 p.m.

Why do we do this? Partly to save on costs, but we also like the experience of staying at different resorts, because each resort is an experience in itself. We usually start off with a value or mod, then move up to a deluxe. One trip, we did all 3!

As long as you're organized, you can do it.

 

[golden1]

I am doing it because of the DVC renting points expensive weekend thing. We will start out two nights at the All Star Family Suites and then move over to BWV for 5 nights. I am bringing a small suitcase for the first two days so I don't have to totally unpack. Our plan for our change day is to check out at All Stars, go to Epcot, tour in the morning and then walk over to BWV and check in in the afternoon. I am hoping this goes pretty seamlessly.

 

[KatGarcia]

We are doing our first split stay this coming december/january with Pop & CSR. I LOVE the idea of being able to experience 2 different resorts with 2 totally different feels to them. I think it was somewhat confusing to me only regarding the dining plan, but once i wrapped my head around considering it 2 seperate vacations we did fine and have a great time planned! I think we will DEF do a split stay again next time around so we can check our a few more new resorts!!! Have a great trip!

 

[Dizz42]

Love the split stay! DH and I have done this many times, however, it's just the two of us with no children. I heartly agree with many posters here that a little planning really helps whether you're a family of 2, 3, 4 or more.

A little advice - make sure you have whatever you need for the day handy and not buried in your suitcases, i.e. medicine, swim suits if you are going to swim at your new resort, stuff you usually take to the parks, etc. Your new room may not be available until late afternoon. Also, do the better resort last. It's a treat!

Hope you enjoy your 2-trips-in-1!

 

[mm6mm6]

Last year we stayed 5 nights at Port Orleans Riverside during the summer at $149 per night. We went to the parks during this time and we were hardly at the resort except to sleep. What little time we did have, we spent enjoying everything POR had to offer (we even did some cane pole fishing and caught some little bluegills).

Then we packed up our stuff into our minivan and checked out.

Only to check in again at the Animal Kingdom Lodge with a Savanah View room. Our stuff was easy to unload again but now we did not plan on going to the parks. We wanted to just stay at the Resort and enjoy everything they had to offer.

I think Resort hopping is a great way to experience more Disney Resorts than you normally would. Obviously if you did this every year, you'd double the number of Resorts you would have first hand knowledge about.

We really enjoyed AKL but at $389 per night, it would have been a waste to have stayed there the first 5 nights when all we did was sleep.

Next time I'd love to do 5 nights at Pop Century and 2 nights at the Polynesion!

 

[ppony]

Also another split nut here!
Why? Because we can only afford to go to WDW every 3 or so years and can't usually afford to stay at a deluxe the entire time so it's a nice way to experience more resorts and the nicer ones faster (faster being realtive when it's every 3 or so years). It's also somethig fun we look forward to on each trip. The move up to the deluxe! Though we still enjoy the moderate. We use express checkout all the time so we never have to go to the front desk to check out. We just leave the room and that's that. Until this trip, we have always put our luggage in our trunk (not safe I know) but we'll be using Disney to move our luggage this time and they do a great job of it. So with the exception of checking in twice, it's a breeze, and I seem to be lucky I geuss in that I hardly EVER wait in any lines at check in. We also never unpack out clothes to put them in dressers or anything. We just have them organized in the cases and have a bag for the dirty clothes and it works well for us. Some people unpack and they HATE redoing that. So it's not for them.
I prefer to spend at least 3 nights in a place but if you can only afford 2 be it time or money, STILL I would say do it!
Group hug to the split stay nuts!

 

[hopelea]

KatGarcia.......I called Friday to check on changing my reservations and the CM was so confusing that I said "never mind". I didn't understand what she was saying about the dinning plan, reservations.......it all sounded so confusing that I thought it would be more trouble.

HELP.......

 

[Allison]

KatGarcia.......I called Friday to check on changing my reservations and the CM was so confusing that I said "never mind". I didn't understand what she was saying about the dinning plan, reservations.......it all sounded so confusing that I thought it would be more trouble.

HELP.......

I'm not sure I can help a lot but basically doing a split stay means you have 2 different reservations. If you have a package it means you will have 2 different packages. This means you will need to purchase tickets for each of those packages which is more expensive than purchasing one ticket to cover your length of stay. Many people will just purchase a one day ticket on one of the packages.

This has not been an issue for us during our split stays as we don't use the dining plan. We have room only reservations so we just check out of one and into the other without needing new tickets or dining credits.

 

[hopelea]

OKay, thanks.......I think I will wait until we travel w/o the dinning package. This trip is an adults only trip. I think I will wait until I have my dd's with me so they can experience different hotels!!

Thanks again for the help.

 

[KatGarcia]

Actually the way they worked out the split stay for us was to make almost everything connected to the first reservation. We are staying for 10 days and we have, connected to our first reservation, a 9 day park hopper pass and the dining for the time of our stay at Pop. Then the second reservation has only one day on the pass and the dining for that reservation. They told me you only need one day of the magic your way park tickets to get the dining plan so they made it that much easier for me. At first i didn't get it either and i had to call back and make the CM explain it again, but trust that they have done this before and know what they are doing! The hardest part to me was making sure we kept our pooled dining credsits seperated for each resort.

Hopefully that helps make some sense of it...if not ask away and I will do my best to help!!!

 

[Disney Doll]

It's really not that big of a deal. You call Bell Services, have them transfer the luggage to the new hotel and go and check-in to the new hotel.

I've never minded splitting stays. In some ways, it feels like 2 different vacations, which is kind of nice.