Booking a 'Hotel Hopping' trip - possible?

[Figments Friend]

Greetings friends...

Back again with another topic i hope many of you here can help enlighten me on.

2 friends and myself will be rooming together this September at WDW on the 40% Off Offer currently 'out there'. We have decided to stay at the Poly, which gives us a great price per person since we are splitting the costs.

The topic came up between us regarding what i would call 'Hotel Hopping'. One of my friends suggested it might be fun to use the discount and stay at a different Resort every other night we are there ( 6 nights total). Kind of like a Resort 'sampler' of sorts...giving us a chance to try out some of the more expensive Resorts on a discount offer.

An example -
Stay at the Poly 2 nights, AKL a night or two, and maybe even a Moderate for one night.


So my question is this - Has anyone ever even attempted this before ( multi Resort stays at different hotels) and if so, how does Disney actually make this work? What i mean is - how do they handle the booking of such a varied itinerary in regards to your Key to the World, Park Tickets ( which are often on said card..) and the like?

I am curious to your responses ....exspecially interested in comments from personal experiences doing something along these lines.

I have heard of Honeymooners and some other Guests staying a night or two at a Deluxes' top room offering and then moving to another less expensive room, but this is usually at the same Resort. I am talking about actually checking out, and going down the road to check into another Disney Resort altogether.

It is under consideration for the sheer adventure of it...but i realize that all this 'Hotel Hopping' is going to eat up some time moving baggage from one Resort to another. Still, i felt it worth finding out more about and knew THIS was the place to find some insights.

I look forward to your responses!

:wave:

 

[Monty]

Technically, you'd have separate bookings for each stay. So separate KTTW as well.

You could either put your full vacation's tickets on the first room keys and use them for park access while having different keys for your other resort rooms or have separate tickets, thus avoiding confusion of which keys are room keys and which are tickets.

It could be done to transfer the tickets from room key to room key, but you'd have to have a lot of patience.

As for moving from resort to resort, you could have Bell Services transfer your bags, you'd just have to check in at the next resort.

 

[NeriBeri]

We're doing this for our honeymoon.

When I spoke to Disney, I tried to get it all under the same reserveration. No go. We have three separate reservations (3 nights at GF, 1 night AKL lodge, 6 nights at AK villa).

We did three park tickets with our GF stay since since we're carrying over a couple of meals from the dining plan to the day we're at AK. (To keep the confusion down). Once we move to the villas, we're starting over with new park tickets and dining plan.

Hope that helped.

 

[Dwarful]

Personally, I wouldn't want to deal with that much checking in and out and getting settled into a new room. But that's just me. We have stayed at two resorts during one stay ...but that was on a two week trip, not three resorts in one week

 

[CleveRocks]

We're doing this for our honeymoon.

When I spoke to Disney, I tried to get it all under the same reserveration. No go. We have three separate reservations (3 nights at GF, 1 night AKL lodge, 6 nights at AK villa).

We did three park tickets with our GF stay since since we're carrying over a couple of meals from the dining plan to the day we're at AK. (To keep the confusion down). Once we move to the villas, we're starting over with new park tickets and dining plan.

Hope that helped.

Oh no!!! You're throwing away a lot of money for no reason! PLEASE let me talk you out of it.

The number of days on your park ticket has no relation to the Dining Plan. You write that you're buying a 3-day ticket for your GF stay because you'll be using leftover Dining credits on the day you're checking-in to AKL (since that's also the day you're checking-out of GF). But the DDP isn't linked to park tickets.

But that's actually a moot point because of what I'll say next.

You're gonna buy a 3-day park ticket as part of your GF package, and then a 6-day park ticket as part of your AKV package, right? The 3-day base ticket costs $219 and the 6-day ticket costs $231, for a total of $450 for those 9 park days.

But if you bought a 9-day park ticket as part of your GF package, that 9-day ticket will cost you $240 ... only $21 more than the 3-day ticket! You're buying the 6-day ticket for $231, when you could add 6 days to the 3-day ticket for only $21. In other words, you're throwing away $210 PER PERSON ($231 - $21 = $210). That means you're throwing away $420 for the two of you. Four hundred twenty dollars!

OK, so not to confuse you, but I just realized you'll want the Dining Plan while at AKV. OK, in order to buy the Disney Dining Plan, you'll need to book a package. Disney defines a package as room + at least a minimal ticket purchase. So you can book your GF package with an 8-day ticket, and then book your AKV package with a 1-day ticket. The 8-day base ticket will cost you $237, and the 1-day base ticket will cost you $79.

$237 + $79 = $316. Three hundred sixteen dollars is STILL a lot less than the $450 you're paying now.

PLEASE try to follow all of this. You could end up paying literally HUNDREDS of dollars for no reason whatsoever.

I know that my post is pretty complicated. Please let me walk you through it step by step if necessary ... I hate the idea of knowing someone is throwing away hundreds of dollars just due to not understanding the system. :wave:

 

[amykissangel]

We've gone from the Swan to Dixie Landings (all those years ago ) and here are some thoughts:

Because we were a family with three children, it involved a LOT of packing up to move. Fortunately my mom's an amazing organizer, but she did mention that it would've been a whole lot simpler staying at one place.

Since you're young and excited for the adventure, I'd recommend trying two resorts. Since it's the 40% off, perhaps two deluxes? If you're moving more than twice, I think everyone will start to get a little irritated, even if they were prepared. It's nice to come back to your room and be able to set our your things on the counter, etc, without thinking that in two days you'll just have to put it all back in again. And to continually pack and repack souvenirs is a little tricky too - and making sure no one leaves anything behind. Just a few thoughts

 

[nolatron]

While it would probably be a logistical nightmare, this would be a great package Disney could offer.

A "Round The World" type hotel package where you can book differents hotels for your stay (maybe minimum 5 nights or something), you only check in once at hotel #1 and all hotels/rooms are made ready for your arrival on the needed dates, the same room card is used for all your hotels/parks tickets, and bell services takes care of moving your luggage if you want.

Somethign we'd never see I'm sure but would be a cool way to more easily stay at all the resorts Disney offers.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Be sure to take checkin and checkout times into consideration...since you need to be out of your room by 11am and may not have a room until 3pm or later, there is at least 4 hours that you would not have a room.

If I were to do it, I would schedule at least 2 nights per resort, so you would have at least one full day at that resort with full access to your room - giving you a true sample of that resort.

 

[NeriBeri]

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/member.php?u=25523CleveRocks,

I sent you a PM (Don't want to hijack this thread). If it didn't go through for some reason, please PM me.

Thanks,

Neri

 

[CleveRocks]

neriBeri,
I tried to send you a PM in response, but it was too long for a PM and I couldn't send it, so I'm posting it here. I'm not thinking it's hijacking the thread since we've already been discussing this here, and others may benefit from it, too.

Let me try it a different way.

Disney has 2 types of resort reservations. They call them "room-only" and "package."

The definition of room-only should be self-explanatory. Nothing else, just the room.

The definition of package is a bundled purchase of the room and park tickets. In addition, you can also choose to add a Dining Plan to a package (but you CAN'T add a Dining Plan to a room-only reservation).

Disney calls their park tickets "Magic Your Way." They do this because you can truly have the tickets any way you want. Your ticket purchase is not limited by or dictated by your resort stay. If you are staying only 1 night, you can buy a 10-day park ticket with your package (or a 7-day, or an 8-day, etc.). Likewise, if you are staying at the resort for 10 nights, you can decide to buy only a 1-day park ticket as part of your package.

When you add a Dining Plan to a package, THAT is very much tied into the number of nights you're staying at that resort. If you buy a Dining Plan, you MUST pay for as many days on the Dining Plan as the number of nights you're staying at that resort. So if you're staying at GF for 3 nights, you must pay for 3 days of the Dining Plan.

As you know, your Dining Plan credits expire after 11:59 p.m. on the day of your check-out. BUT TICKETS WORK DIFFERENTLY. Tickets don't expire just because you checked out of your Disney resort. henced the ability to book a 1-night resort package with a 10-day park ticket. Tickets expire 14 days after the first use of the ticket.

Disney has an interesting pricing system for its theme park tickets. One day costs $79. The second day costs $77. The third day costs $63. The fouth day costs $6 (yes, six dollars). And the fifth day through the tenth day cost $3 each (yes, three dollars each). This means that a bigger ticket will cost you less per day than several smaller tickets. For example, a 10-day ticket costs $243. A 5-day ticket costs $228. This means that you could pay $243 for a single 10-day ticket OR you could pay $456 for two separate 5-day tickets. I hope this example illustrates the point to you.

This means that, as part of your GF package, you really should buy a park ticket that will cover your entire honeymoon, rather than buying one that will only cover you for your GF stay, and then buying another small ticket to cover your AKV stay.

So, under normal circumstances, I'd recommend you buy a 9-day ticket as part of your GF package, and then book room-only reservations for your AKL and AKV stays. But since you want to use a Dining Plan, you CAN'T book a room-only reservation for your AKV stay because, as you now know, you can't add a Dining Plan onto a room-only reservation, a Dining Plan MUST be part of a package.

So I'm recommending you buy an 8-day park ticket as part of your GF package, and then the minimum 1-day ticket as part of your AKV package.

Let's do a price comparison:

Your method: Buy a 3-day ticket for the GF stay and buy a 6-day ticket for the AKV stay. A 3-day base ticket costs $219, and a 6-day base ticket costs $231. The total cost of your 9 park days is $450.

My method: Buy an 8-day base ticket with the GF package and a 1-day ticket with the AKV package. An 8-day base ticket costs $228 and a 1-day base ticket costs $79. The total cost of your 9 park days is $307.

As you can see, your method costs $450 for 9 park days, and my method costs $307 for 9 park days. Why pay $143 more per person than you have to?

I never even asked about your night at AKL. Did you book that as a package with a 1-day ticket, or did you book that as a room-only reservation?

 

[alanbrai]

The idea of "Hotel Hopping" sounds great, will get to experience more of WDW on one trip. I though would not do it, have to spend time packing, checking out and then checking in when you could be at the parks or even the resorts pool relaxing. I really do not think it is such a good idea if you are only there for 6 nights, that length of time I do not think is even long enough for just one resort and exploring WDW.

 

[polynesiangirl]

We've done it (and I like it/would do it again.) That said, a few caveats:

* It has been somewhat easier to pull off on trips where we had a car, because then you can just pack up all your stuff, jet over to the next resort and (assuming your room is ready) get settled in.

* It's not impossible if you don't have a car, it just may take a little while longer for you to be reunited with your luggage. On a past vacation I had had to haul my work laptop along with me (long story, ugh), and I didn't feel OK with just leaving that with the bell services. So I lugged it and a few other "need for that day" items all the way over to our next resort (which meant hauling a bunch of that stuff with me on, yes, the buses and the monorail.) If you have anything that's expensive/important/fragile, you're going to have to do the same thing if you're not OK with just leaving it with the bell services folks.

* You will need to allow yourself some extra time for the obvious reasons -- re-packing, handing off the bulk of your luggage, etc. This never cost us more than an hour or two (and we go all the time so we were OK with losing a little bit of time,) but it's obviously not as fast as staying in one spot the whole time. It can also add some stress to your trip which not everyone is OK with.

We've never booked a package (we buy our tickets separately and frequently have days left over from previous trips, and we book the rooms as separate reservations,) so I can't help you out there.

Overall for us it's been a fun way to see different resorts and if you're a pretty mobile group (i.e. I probably wouldn't attempt a multi-resort stay if you have a huge group or small children,) I say go for it.

 

[NeriBeri]

Thanks for your reply, CleveRocks. It makes sense now.

For background, here is what we are doing:
We are staying at GF for three nights and will be using the Premium dining plan. (I already know the cost and what's included with the plan - we know this is what we want.) Since we arrive mid-morning on a Wednesday, we won't be using our breakfast meal for Wed. Thursday we're on the plan all day. We have other dinner plans on Friday night so we won't use that meal either. The next day (Sat), we are checking into AKL on the concierge level w/o a dining plan. We are using our breakfast meal from GF to eat at Boma and then our dinner meal to eat at the Rainforest cafe for lunch. For dinner, we are doing the safari, which includes dinner at Jiko. The next day we are headed to an AK villa and will pick up a new dining plan for the remainder of our trip.

The reason we were thinking of splitting the park tickets with our hotel stays is because we are using the park hopper option and as we understood it, park tickets are tied to your "Key to the World." We wanted to make it as seamless as possible and did not want to worry about which key goes with which stay. Will we use the GF keys to get in and the AK for meals? It's not that big of a deal if we do. $143.00 savings is worth it.

Thanks,

N

 

[CleveRocks]

The reason we were thinking of splitting the park tickets with our hotel stays is because we are using the park hopper option and as we understood it, park tickets are tied to your "Key to the World." We wanted to make it as seamless as possible and did not want to worry about which key goes with which stay. Will we use the GF keys to get in and the AK for meals? It's not that big of a deal if we do. $143.00 savings is worth it.

Thanks,

N

Thanks for the details. That helps.

NOW, I'll save you even more money!!! Ready? ...

The park hopper option costs a flat rate of $52 per ticket, no matter how long the ticket is. If you by separate 3-day and 6-day tickets, and you want to hop with each ticket, that means adding $52 to the price of the 3-day ticket AND another $52 to the price of the 6-day ticket.

This means that the 3-day park hopper ticket will cost $271, and the 6-day park hopper ticket will cost $283, for a total of $554.

By my method, an 8-day park hopper (bought as part of the GF package) will cost $289, and a 1-day BASE ticket (bought with the AKV package) will cost $79, for a total of $368.

Your method with park hoppers = $554.
My method with park hoppers = $368.
Buying the 8-day hopper and the 1-day base ticket will cost you $186 less PER PERSON as compared with buying the 3-day with GF and the 6-day with AKV.

$186 savings per person, so that's $372 total savings!

WOW!

[I'm strongly assuming, or even SUGGESTING, that there will be one day out of your last 6 days when you won't be park hopping; therefore, I recommended the 1-day ticket with the AKV package be a base ticket and not a park hopper. By not park hopping on one day in the last two-thirds of your trip, you'll save money by not adding the park hopper to that 1-day ticket.]

So when you book it, just tell them you need an 8-day park hopper on your Grand Floridian package, no ticket with your AKL room-only reservation, and a 1-day base ticket with your AKV package. Simple!

Now if you'll just kindly forward about 20% of that to me as a tip .... :ROFLOL::lol:

[By the way, all the prices I quoted are WITHOUT the 6.5% sales tax.]

 

[NeriBeri]

Dude,

You're my guru of Disney.

Seriously, if I can repay you in any way, please let me know. I am incredibly appreciative of your generosity and help.

- N

 

[CleveRocks]

Repay me?

Here's how:

Spend a few years enjoying yourself becoming a Disney guru yourself, and then pay it forward ... come back and do the same for others.