Splitting Trip Between 2 Resorts

[DisneyMomChristine]

We are considering splitting our time between The Contemporary (for the convenience of the monorail) and Art of Animation (because our young girls will just LOVE the themes). How smoothly does this transfer go? Any info from those who have done this (splitting time between 2 Disney resorts) would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[vicki_c]

We are considering splitting our time between The Contemporary (for the convenience of the monorail) and Art of Animation (because our young girls will just LOVE the themes). How smoothly does this transfer go? Any info from those who have done this (splitting time between 2 Disney resorts) would be GREATLY appreciated!

You will most likely be effectively homeless for the day. Disney will transfer your luggage (just call Bell Services at the first resort and tell them where you are moving to) but you most likely will not have it at resort 2 until later in the afternoon.

There can be complications with the dining plan and ticket requirements (relative to what is economical to do). Are you doing dining or buying tickets in a a package?

 

[dansdad]

We have found it to be relatively easy. We don't feel like we lose any park time when we have done a split stay. Here is how we do it. Call Bell Services at resort #1 and tell them where we are moving to, they come get our bags, check out of resort #1, jump on bus to whatever park we want to for the day, about 5 or 6 jump on bus/boat/monorail to resort #2, check in, call Bell Services from room, freshen up, head out to park for dinner.

Just like Vicki_c mentioned, it does get complicated if you have a package with dining. But whenever we have done a split stay we usually just do a room only for one of the legs of the trip.

 

[DisneyMomChristine]

I'm glad to hear the move itself is easy. As for the dining plan, we were planning on doing a room/park/dining package. Where does the trouble come into play with the dining?

 

[dansdad]

I'm glad to hear the move itself is easy. As for the dining plan, we were planning on doing a room/park/dining package. Where does the trouble come into play with the dining?

Disney does not recognize split stays. So you would have 2 completely separate reservations. And if you know how Disney's pricing works, it is quite a bit more expensive to have two 4-day tickets than to have one 8-day ticket. So you have a couple of options and I'll use 4 nights at each for example:

1. Book 2 separate packages (room/tickets/dining). This would be the most expensive.

2. Book first package with room/dining and purchase 8-day magic your way
tickets. You would not be able to use any dining credits after 11:59PM of
the day you check out of resort #1. Then pay out of pocket for meals
the second half of your stay.

3. Book a room and ticket package for resort 1 with 8-day magic your way
ticket. Book room only for resort #2 and pay out of pocket for meals the
entire trip.

I hope that makes sense. Number of days on your tickets are unrelated to your length of stay at a resort. Dining credits are directly tied to the number of nights at a resort.

 

[vicki_c]

I'm glad to hear the move itself is easy. As for the dining plan, we were planning on doing a room/park/dining package. Where does the trouble come into play with the dining?

Your stays will be two different stays. To get the dining plan (free or paid), a ticket purchase is required with each reservation. So, you can:

1. Book each stay as a package with tickets and dining (not recommended).
2. Book the first stay as a package with dining and tickets. Book the second stay as a room only (so no dining plan). You would use your tickets from the first stay for both parts of your stay (so either purchase the full length you need with reservation #1 or just buy the minimum required for the package with dining and then upgrade them at the park).

Or....what dansdad said while I was still typing!

 

[CoolPool]

Disney does not recognize split stays. So you would have 2 completely separate reservations. And if you know how Disney's pricing works, it is quite a bit more expensive to have two 4-day tickets than to have one 8-day ticket. So you have a couple of options and I'll use 4 nights at each for example:

1. Book 2 separate packages (room/tickets/dining). This would be the most expensive.

2. Book first package with room/dining and purchase 8-day magic your way
tickets. You would not be able to use any dining credits after 11:59PM of
the day you check out of resort #1. Then pay out of pocket for meals
the second half of your stay.

3. Book a room and ticket package for resort 1 with 8-day magic your way
ticket. Book room only for resort #2 and pay out of pocket for meals the
entire trip.

I hope that makes sense.

4. Book a room/dining package and purchase 8-day magic your way tickets. Purchase a second set of tickets for the minimum length for a dining package for the second part of your stay with dining but do not use these tickets; save them for a future visit. Or upgrade the 8 day tickets to APs and purchase the dining plan for both parts of the trip. Or buy APs and forgo the dining plan altogether in favor of the TW card. Ha! So easy to figure out! (Just kidding).

 

[disd55]

I would say book AoA before CR, if you haven't already. I would be disappointed by the time I get to AoA if I did CR first, going from deluxe accommodations to Value accommodations, or Holiday Inn Express as I think of it. We did CSR then BWI and when we got to BWI we found out the dining plan was CANCELLED. We were not notified before the trip that we could only have the dining plan at one resort! It ended up working out in the long run, and we ended up saving money, because we didn't always want full meals during our BWI stay.

 

[DisneyMomChristine]

Wow! So many options. Thank you for your help. I really think the best/easiest option for our family would be to pay out of pocket for meals. Especially since this is our 2nd time, we don't feel the need to do as many table-service character meals. Thanks again!

 

[mirage0306]

3. Book a room and ticket package for resort 1 with 8-day magic your way
ticket. Book room only for resort #2 and pay out of pocket for meals the
entire trip.

Yup, this is how we're doing it! We did a triple split last summer (I wouldn't necessarily recommend that) and the best thing to do is in the morning, call bell services to bring your luggage to the new resort. That day, go to a park, and in the late afternoon you can go over to the new resort and check in.

Alternately, you can go over to the second resort as soon as you check out of the first, and you will have access to everything, and could use the pool. You would just have to make sure you keep everything you need with you. But we found the first option worked just fine.

Have fun!

 

[Syndrome]

We almost always split our stays. Sometimes between 2 resorts, 3 or even 4 resorts during the same stay .

We always book room only with a pin code or discount offer for each resort individually. Since we have no interest in free dining ........ this works best for us, and we pay out of pocket for all meals. This way we get a great deal on the room.......none of which are a package. Then we just get our park tickets seperate........either from UT, or the main gate for our entire stay. No park tickets or dining is linked to our room reservations. The only downside (if you could consider it a downside) is we have to pay 1 nights deposit on the room for each stay we are doing. The balance for each is due when we check in.
The actual switching of resorts is easy. We just pack up in the morning with our luggage, and head off to the park..........or sometimes a pool (either at the resort we are leaving or the one we are going to, they are both available to us on check-out / check-in day). If we are at a park for the day, we usually stop back at the new resort midway through the day to check in. It has been very easy for us so far as we have always had a rental car. This trip is the first time we wont have a car, so we will have to rely on Disney to move our luggage ....... hope it all goes well. For this reason, we are only spliting our stay between 2 resorts this upcoming vaca because we are not yet 100% sure how the Disney will handle the luggage move.

We just love trying all the Disney resorts we can, but we still have our favorites we love to stay at. So usually every vacation we will try at least 1 new resort, and one of our favorites.

Spliting stays is great ......... DO IT !

Syndrome

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I was hesitant to try a split stay myself, but found it very easy. Take a look at my blog about it below:


http://www.disunplugged.com/2012/07/17/resort-hopping-101-the-art-of-carpetbagging-around-the-world/