Two or three different hotels @ disney world?

[daf]

We (me, husband and 3 yo daughter) are going to be in WDW for ten nights. We thought we would spend 7 nights in Art of Animation and 3 nights in a savannah view room in AKL.
But there are no 7 available contiguous nights in Art of Animation, only 4 (which we already reserved), and we still only want three nights at the AKL.
So we have two more nights that we're not sure what to do with.
If the wilderness lodge wasn't under construction, we'd definitely go there for the two extra nights.
What third hotel would you recommend?

Or-
Is it a bad idea to split the stay between three hotels?
We just have a feeling that more than three nights in AKL would be too much, and it's also far from the major parks.
Any ideas?

 

[HopperFan]

Have done it many times, I don't enjoy it but no harm in trying.

What about POR Royal Room, I bet your DD would LOVE IT!

 

[IrishNYC]

I had a split stay booked for our trip later this year, and then I decided I couldn't handle the stress of moving resorts. It's just not for me, so three different resorts would have me needing a vacation from my vacation.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

WL should be complete this summer, but I still wouldn't split between 3 resorts. Personally, if it's in the budget, I would do POR and AKL or AKL and an MK deluxe, but would not do 3 resorts.

 

[daf]

Thanks! I did look into the royal room in POR as an option and it does seem like a great one, but I guess you're right about not splitting the stay that much... So I guess I'll go with AoA and AKL (can't skip AoA because my girl saw pictures of the pool area and she's in love with it)

Thank you!

 

[Hopefully]

NO WAY would I ever do a 3 night split. Too much.

 

[DG25]

We are doing a 3 split in May, last year we did a 5 split. I think it depends on you and your family. We pack very light. We are easy come easy go, unless I have one of two daughters. When one of our daughter comes I would never ever do a split, because she is the slowest, worst morning person, she is the messiest, sloppiest and forgetful person I ever met, it bugs the heck out of me, but with her we would never split a stay. With everyone else in the family even her daughter, it is fine. Me and DGD went last year, 15 nights, 3 nights in each resort, WLV, BLT, BWV, AKV and Poly V. We did Great and loved it. We did need a car, which made it easy. We never fully unpacked except bathroom stuff. We brought along a hamper basket for dirty cloths. Since we are up early, easy packers, one suitcase for 15 days each and small ones at that. We are out of resort and to breakfast by 7:30, to parks and not back to new resort until 1:30 or 2 and by then we usually can just get our room, if not we have our suit in car and swim for a while and then go to room. It would bug us to stay in same place for so lone.

We pick our parks for the most part by where we stay, and also where we eat. We do AK while at AKL, we eat tucker house, Boma, we go on tours like sense of Africa. We go to Epcot and HS from poly and BWI, we eat at the boardwalk and Epcot resturaunts. We do MK from WLV and BLT, we eat chef Mickey and whispering canyon, we do our horse back riding and such. To us it just makes so much more sense, and if we don't like one resort, we are only there for 3 nights.

In May we are doing 16 days, we are GF CL, BRV, WL CL. Not as much of a move, but a different more relaxing by the pool and more MK, but we will have a car and get to all parks. But over all plan is to be in the park only 5 hours a day, so we have much more time to do other things and relax more.

So if you are able to as a family, than go for it. It takes very little to no time for us to move around. But with a 3 yo, or if one of you need an hour shower, or 2 hours to put on makeup, and needs everything out of every suitcase, like my daughter, than I would say don't do it.

 

[JETSDAD]

We did 3 resorts on our last trip. We had a split stay scheduled between BLT and Poly but got away a bit sooner than expected so added a night at WL. We just live out of our suitcases when on vacation so it wasn't really a hassle and we enjoyed getting to try out a few different resorts.

 

[Sue M]

I have done a 2 resort split several times, and enjoyed it. But if I had to pack up a 3 yr old, no way! I wouldn't even consider a 3 resort stay with a toddler. My daughters are adults and everyone can pack for themselves. I just have to worry about packing my stuff!

How did you decide to divide your split between AoA and AKL?

 

[Babsy]

We (me, husband and 3 yo daughter) are going to be in WDW for ten nights. We thought we would spend 7 nights in Art of Animation and 3 nights in a savannah view room in AKL.
But there are no 7 available contiguous nights in Art of Animation, only 4 (which we already reserved), and we still only want three nights at the AKL.
So we have two more nights that we're not sure what to do with.
If the wilderness lodge wasn't under construction, we'd definitely go there for the two extra nights.
What third hotel would you recommend?

Or-
Is it a bad idea to split the stay between three hotels?
We just have a feeling that more than three nights in AKL would be too much, and it's also far from the major parks.
Any ideas?

First, I am a little confused. You say 7 nights AoA and 3 nights AKL. Then you say 4 nights and 3 leaves 2 extra? Are you staying 9 nights or 10 in total?

We love split stays. With 10 days I would do a three way split easily. We usually plan on at least three nights per resort, so I would do 3/3/3 (or 4/3/3).

We have split stays with our DS and DDIL with our two DGD's (currently 4 and 7, but we have moved them when one was still a 2 year old toddler). Our DS and DDIL don't like to move resorts, so DH and I pack up and move everyone. We don't find it hard at all. However, we do organize with the split stays in mind. Also, we use packing cubes and toiletry bags so packing up and unpacking is literally done in a few minutes. Packing up the kids is a bit more effort, but not too bad. We bring an extra bag for our laundry, so that is added as we go along. We either get Bell Services to take the bags for us or we bring everything in a taxi to the next resort first thing in the morning. We head off to the parks and meet up with the kids at lunch time or back at the new resort at days end.

At the new resort we just call bell Services with our room number at the end of day and they bring up our bags. In a few minutes we are all set up again. It is so easy and we get to experience the different advantages of different resort on every trip. Also, we stay in a moderate or value first and then move up to finish at a deluxe resort. That overall reduces the cost of staying deluxe and makes it possible for us to enjoy resorts that we could not afford otherwise.

BTW, I wouldn't worry about the AKL being far from the theme parks. It is farther than many from the MK, but it is reasonably close to everything else. Even the MK is only an extra 5 - 10 minutes further away. We don't even notice the difference, but we are so excited that when we get on the bus we are chatting about our day and not thinking about the time. (Then again, we are NOT rope drop people and we are pretty laid back on the number of rides we experience.) Plus, the AKL has so many activities and great dining options that you may love staying here for more than three days. The two pools are really nice, Mara's is a great quick service. Sanaa, Boma and Jiko are must do restaurants for us on every trip whether we stay at AKL or not. WE love the theming and atmosphere of the AKL!

I would second everyone's suggestion on the POR resort for your third option. If booking RR's book pool view and you are almost certainly going to be in Oak manor on the side near the footbridge. While staying at POR you can take the boat to DS, if that is in your plans. So much nicer than taking the bus from other resorts! Another option is POFQ, which has a pool and splash area that your daughter may enjoy and is a smaller resort with only one bus stop. The smaller size appeals to many people that stay here.

If you do the three way split:
You would be trying 4 nights value (AoA), 3 nights moderate (POR) and then 3 nights deluxe (AKL). How cool is that?

Whichever way you go, enjoy your trip!!

 

[housetomouse]

We did a split stay once and I didn't like it. Packing and unpacking isn't relaxing for me and eats up time that I could use for something else. Then you can't get into your bags for a certain amount of time while they're in transit and you have to plan/pack for a day without them (or in your case, two days). Maybe not a big deal, if they get to the next hotel quickly, but you never know. Disney does a good job of this, actually. I switched rooms within our hotel once, within our same building, and I didn't even like that. We aren't the lightest packers though so it maybe easier for you to pack up and move hotels. Your stay is also longer than I've done (I think we had 7 days when we did the split stay).

 

[NYCANC]

We did that (not really by choice!) in January.
We had 10 days at the Poly but due to the winter storm had to get out of town 2 days earlier to make sure we got there.
We did our 1st night at POP Century and the 2nd night at POR. Neither one had two night availability. On our 3rd day we moved to the Poly.

It wasn't too bad. We took just what we needed from our luggage and had pretty much what we needed those two days in our backpacks.
We used the hotel to transfer our larger bags and went off the Disney Springs and MK.

The hardest part for me was just drying off and repacking our toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste).

Have fun!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

I think splits definitely depends on you and your family. for DH and I splits are easy. We aren't really the type to unpack into our rooms and tend to pack light and live out of suitcases, so for us it's as easy as zipping up the suitcases and sending them to the next hotel. But some people REALLY hate to split. They like being able to settle into a "home" for the week and be done with it, which makes sense too just depends on what you feel like your family would prefer!