Two hotels during one stay?

[nottellin']

We are going to DL at Christmas and we REALLY want to stay at the DLH, but in all honesty, I just can't justify the cost. We would be paying $3115 for a view room, if we stay all 7 nights at the DLH. As much as I love the DLH, I do know it is just a hotel. Do I love the atmosphere? Absolutely, but not for that kind of money.

So we are thinking about spending 3 nights at the DLH and 4 nights on Harbour. Does anyone else do this? How much of a pain is it? My DH thinks it will be a huge headache and would just rather stay in one hotel the whole time. He is willing to pay the $$ for DLH, but I'm not. So he thinks we should just stay on Harbour the whole time.

Normally I would say fine but it is important to me to stay onsite for Christmas day.

I guess I'm just looking to hear of experiences people have had switching. Is it the headache my DH thinks it is? Or is it fine?

TIA!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

We change hotels a lot at WDW, have only changed rooms in the same hotel at DL. It is a bit of a pain. You have to be out of your first hotel, usually by 11:00, and you spend the time to pack up everything. Then, you cannot usually get into your new hotel until late afternoon, so you are homeless for a while. Not a terrible inconvenience unless you take a break during the day.

If you decide to do this, I would spend 4 nights at the second hotel. By spending 3 nights at the first one, you wouldn't have accumulated as much stuff already.

When we change, we also make sure that we are upgrading for the second hotel, the nicest one last. We do this a lot, but it is always nice when you can check in and get settled in for the whole stay.

HTH

 

[summer0407]

We did this back in March but we only stayed offsite for 1 night. What we did was pack a duffel bag for the one night at HOJO and had all the other luggage packed separately for DLH. Maybe you can do something similar pack two separate bags. Not sure how hard that would be for multiple days but it worked fine for us we had no problem at all. I love staying on site as well but I have learned it's much closer walk to the gates on harbor and we spend the money we save on packages, meals, etc.

 

[dreamerliz]

We did it in 08 and it was great! We went from the Candy Cane Inn by taxi to the GCH. Our room was ready so we went right up! Ooohheed & Awwed and tried out out the beds and then headed to Storytellers for Lunch. Was no big deal to me. Doing it again in November. I'm excited to try out the restaurants in Gardenwalk and around the Hilton, as well as downtown Disney!!!!

Oh I can't wait!!!

Liz

 

[bumbershoot]

We did a few days at PPH and then more days at HoJo during our first big trip to DLR. Moving hotels was not a pain at all.

On that trip we happened to leave our bags in the trunk of the car, but I wouldn't recommend that. Our car is a Grand Marquis, in other words it looks like a cop car, and the trunk is big and you can't tell it's packed...but I've since learned that people can punch a hole in the lock and open it... We now just park bags with the hotel's front desk (so far I know that Carousel and HoJo both have locked rooms where they keep luggage).

We also got in late one night, stayed at the Hilton on a priceline price, then got up early-early to move over to PPH. Checked in around 6am, left bags with Bell Services, got parked, got our keycards etc, and headed over for MM! Easy peasy, if you don't mind being a little bit tired. (if it hadn't been a MM day we would have slept in another hour)

Neither move was much of a headache at all. Both were worth it for time-efficiency (getting in the night before) or cost-efficiency (not spending teh whole time at PPH).

 

[c&m]

We have done hotel switches, and you kind of lose half a day in the switch. I don't think I'd do it again. It's time I don't want to waste during my vacation, and a bother to pack everything/everyone up and truck it to the next hotel. And then if your new room isn't ready, you'd be storing your luggage and wouldn't be able to get into your room till you return at the end of the day - which may not be fun if you have tired kids.

Also, consider how much time do you spend in your hotel? If you spend a lot of time relaxing at the hotel, you should book the DLH. But if you plan on spending a lot of time at the parks or just touring around, you should just book a cheaper place on Harbor. For us going to DL, we always book a cheap place on Harbor since the parks are all we do; but at WDW, we always stay on-site since there's always time spent relaxing at the hotel.

Some people don't mind the move, and I guess I wouldn't mind if it were just my DH and me. But with a family, it just adds complication to a day that doesn't need to be complicated.

 

[amamax2]

Like several others, we stayed at Candy Cane Inn then switched to PPH one visit. It wasn't a pain at all, but we did extra planning for it. Like one pp, we packed a separate clothes bag for each portion of the trip, that way the only mid-trip packing we had to do was toiletries. We got up early on moving day - we'd had the kids shower the night before so it was just my DH and I that needed to shower, Candy Cane Inn offers free breakfast, so my DH went to get stuff while I got the kids up and dressed, and we were at the PPH at 8:30 am - and our room WAS ready, so that was great. But even if it hadn't been, we'd have just left the luggage at the hotel.

So I guess it depends on where you are coming from (is it reasonable to bring clothes for each segment of the trip), ages of kids (can you get them up and moving in the am), are you staying somewhere that offers breakfast or can you bring breakfast with you so you don't have to spend time on that, and how much you are willing/able to "prepare" ahead of time.....

 

[btrinfo]

It can be a little bit of an inconvenience, but just the packing. Before we went to the park in the morning we checked out of the Grand California drove over to Hojo left are bags with the front office walked to Disneyland. I think it was a ten minute walk and there might be a shuttle even too. We came back around lunch time to check in, worked out great.

 

[ORDisneyfans]

We recently did this, stayed 2 nights at DLH then switchd to PPH concierge for 5 nights. It was easy for us as we had a rental car and just put bags in trunk in shared parking lot for a few hours. Requested late check out at DLH and early check in at PPH. So maybe 2 hours in between. We wanted to try both hotels and DLH was less $ on the weekend than PPH concierge. My opinion 7 nights is a long time in one place! I would break it up a bit. We have done 4 at Disney and 3 in San Diego too. Have fun whatever you decide! Disney at Christmas is magical!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

We've done this each time we've stayed onsite ~ usually just 1 nite but this past July our 1st 2 nites were at the DLH. We plan it so our last day or 1st is a MM day *we've had APs twice and like to experience MMs *the only way to do that with an AP is by staying onsite.

 

[DizMe]

We did it last November. We stayed 1 night at FFI and then took a taxi early in the AM over to GCH. We had GCH concierge for the next 2 nights, which was great because they told us we could leave our bags and go on up to the lounge and start eating . This gave us a free bonus breakfast we hadn't expected. It also turned out that we could check in immediately, so for us, we lost no time plus got a breakfast and snacks out of the deal

 

[letitsnow]

We are doing 3 hotels for 5 nights! are we crazy? Its to save money. Hojo didn't have an entertainment rate for the first night so we will be staying at the Sheraton Park Hotel with a family rate of $49 plus parking. Then we go to Hojo's in a Kid's Suite for the next two nights with the entertainment and last we will stay at the Worldmark Anaheim. Its $49 for the last two nights if you go to their presentation. It turns out to really look legit. I confirmed my reservations with the actual hotel.

So with all the changing hotels I hope we can manage. We are going with a large group so my kids can stay with family members while we are checking in, touring facilities and all that...

I can't wait!