3 hotels in 5 days - Crazy or Not?

[MagnificentMaleficent]

Hi everyone! My family is going to Disney World in October to celebrate my mom's retirement. We've been debating and arguing over where to stay. One idea is a split stay between Contemporary and Beach Club - 2 nights each. Also, my brother and I are flying down a day early to hopefully spend a day and a half at Universal. Wanting to save some money, I was thinking about staying at a value resort that night.

My brother, however, thinks it is insane to stay at 3 hotels in a span of 5 days, and that it will waste too much time. From what I've read online, it seems like a split stay is not inconvenient. What I'm thinking is:

1) my brother and I fly down, check in to All Star Sports or similar, uber to and from Universal.
2) The next day we bring our luggage to bell services early in the morning for transfer to Contemporary. We Uber to and from Universal and
meet our parents at the Contemporary that night where we can pick up our luggage at bell services there.
3) We can do the same thing when we transfer to Beach Club.

Is this feasible or is my brother right in thinking it is crazy? Also, for anyone who has gone to Disney and Universal in the same trip, do you think it's better to stay at Disney while going to Universal, or stay at a Universal hotel, or stay at an offsite hotel?

Thanks for any advice!

Your brother is right, unless you absolutely must do a split stay due to availability limits. You know the old adage "time is money" ? Why would you want to waste so much time packing, unpacking, checking in and checking out when your time could be so much better spent enjoying the awesome amenities of either the contemporary or the beach club, even better still having more time for the parks.

Also, why would you stay at sports then move to DCR or BC? That's like going to taco bell before eating at a nice steak house resturant, doesn't make sense.

My advice, stick to one resort. Enjoy your time with your family and making magical memories at the parks.

 

[Honus27]

We might stick with one resort while at Disney. When my brother and I go a day early though, we're thinking about staying at a separate hotel close to Universal since we're only going to be there for 1 day.

The only thing that is worrying us is that we want to check out of the hotel the next morning and store our luggage somewhere (possibly at bell services at the hotel) while we go to Universal for that full day and before going to Disney that night. Is there a secure way to store our luggage for that time? If the hotel even lets us store our luggage there, I'm not sure how safe that will be for our stuff.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Most hotels will store your luggage behind locked doors all day. I do it most last days if I do not need to go the airport straight away. Email a prospective hotel?

You will lose some time checking in and out, but you will save the time of two long drives from WDW to UNI - which was my other frustration of staying on Disney property and commuting back and forth all the way up Int. Drive.

 

[Honus27]

What about transportation from Orlando Airport to a hotel by Universal? We were thinking that, since Disney has free buses to their property, it might be more convenient to stay at a value resort the first night. That way we could Uber to and from Universal and Disney would transport our luggage to the Contemporary the second night.

The Empress Lilly, how long of a drive is it from DW to Universal? Just looking at the distance the computer says between 15 and 20 minutes but I'm sure with traffic and construction it's longer. But is it as long as 45 min, or around 30?

 

[wdwfan757]

I'm not sure why so many people are against it. I split stay nearly every time I go and I'm doing BayLake/BC/POR next week. If you dont normally formally unpack anyway, it's not inconvenient at all, especially now that you dont have to go to the desk to check in. I pick what parks I want to go to and where I want to eat and pick hotels close by.

Wake up, drop your bags off at bell services and tell them which hotel to go to. Go to the park. Enjoy your day and come back to your new room at night or use it as an excuse for a midday break. I don't know what's inconvenient and a hassle about walking to and from MK from contemporary one day and walking to and from Epcot/HS the next? Although I could completely understand why bigger families and those with young kids who need an early afternoon nap would find it tedious to move and be homeless for a few hours

 

[DarthVader]

'm not sure why so many people are against it.

I don't think its that peopel are against splitting up your stay but rather the OP is only staying there 4 nights (5 days) and in those 4 nights he's thinking of changing his resort 3 times, that's almost one resort each night and the level of complexity in managing that arrangement is not worth any sort of benefit, especially as they seem to be doing it, just as a compromise.

I can see one potential issue, you're going to resort A, the next day you head off to resort B, and of course you need to wait for your luggage to catch up, but something happens and its delayed, yet you're getting ready to get to resort C and now things are really confused as to where your luggage is. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill and that's not a feasible scenario but that's something, I'd be worried about.

Also one reason to go DisneyWorld is to enjoy yourself, changing hotels nearly every day takes time away from that very act, even if you don't unpack. You still need to go through the process of directing the staff to send your luggage to the next resort, check in. Make sure your magic bands are tied to your new hotel, etc etc.

 

[21stamps]

I don't think its that peopel are against splitting up your stay but rather the OP is only staying there 4 nights (5 days) and in those 4 nights he's thinking of changing his resort 3 times, that's almost one resort each night and the level of complexity in managing that arrangement is not worth any sort of benefit, especially as they seem to be doing it, just as a compromise.

I can see one potential issue, you're going to resort A, the next day you head off to resort B, and of course you need to wait for your luggage to catch up, but something happens and its delayed, yet you're getting ready to get to resort C and now things are really confused as to where your luggage is. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill and that's not a feasible scenario but that's something, I'd be worried about.

Also one reason to go DisneyWorld is to enjoy yourself, changing hotels nearly every day takes time away from that very act, even if you don't unpack. You still need to go through the process of directing the staff to send your luggage to the next resort, check in. Make sure your magic bands are tied to your new hotel, etc etc.

The time frame is exactly why I gave a recommendation against it. They won’t have any time to enjoy the actual resort...which I would think would be a factor in choosing those specific resorts.

 

[DarthVader]

The time frame is exactly why I gave a recommendation against it.

Agreed, but I was responding to wdwfan757 who didn't understand why so many people were coming out against the notion of splitting the stay 3 times for a 5 day stay

 

[KBLovedDisney]

My advice? Don't. My family did this every single trip when I was growing up. We lost a LOT of time enjoying being in the parks because we had to get up and move several times during the trip, packing and unpacking and then re-packing. Stay in one hotel the entire stay, or 2 at the most. It was a headache as a kid to enjoy what little of the parks we got to visit during the day after moving hotels in the morning. Just don't.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

What about transportation from Orlando Airport to a hotel by Universal? We were thinking that, since Disney has free buses to their property, it might be more convenient to stay at a value resort the first night. That way we could Uber to and from Universal and Disney would transport our luggage to the Contemporary the second night.

The Empress Lilly, how long of a drive is it from DW to Universal? Just looking at the distance the computer says between 15 and 20 minutes but I'm sure with traffic and construction it's longer. But is it as long as 45 min, or around 30?

Somewhere from 30 to 45 minutes, from WDW to UNI. Closer to 30 maybe.

UNI is about midway from the airport to Disney, and Uber fares are quite doable. Experiences vary, I've learned from this thread. But me, I literally drove from the airport all the way to WDW, then drove all the way back to UNI, then all the way back to WDW. Like flushing time and money down the toilet. Simply because I was too stupid and lazy to book a hotel next to UNI for my first two nights. I thought the hassle of unpacking wouldn't be worth it, but I totally regretted that. It's what, five minutes to get my toiletries into the bathroom and get a shirt and shorts out of the suitcase? (And maybe underwear. I hear you wasteful 'mericans wear like new clean underwear like every day. Talk about destroying the planet!)

 

[OneofThree]

Just looking at the distance the computer says between 15 and 20 minutes but I'm sure with traffic and construction it's longer. But is it as long as 45 min, or around 30?

I used to live one street over from Universal Orlando, for years. If you've got a rental car and avoid the debacle that is I-4 these days, it's as little as 15 minutes depending on which Disney resort. Without a car, I agree with others who say it makes more sense to stay at, or near Universal.

 

[durangojim]

IMO if you’re going to stay at a deluxe, stay at the deluxe and enjoy the resort. Don’t waste time transferring. What I don’t understand is if you’re willing to transfer and waste all that time, why not just stay at a modera or value the whole time?

 

[eliza61nyc]

Yep crazy.
I enjoy wdw hotels. I also enjoy relaxing unless I'm staying more than 7 days I don't split my stays.

last May I stayed at the Grand Floridian, first part of my stay was a cash reservation, the second part was on dvc points. Not even switching resorts and I had to go down to the lobby where it took 90 minutes. evidently cash and points are two different systems and the cm on duty got confused. lol

 

[BuddyThomas]

I did a split stay a long time ago and never again. The day of the switch disrupts the entire trip. It's just not worth it, especially for a 5 day trip. Whatever you do, have fun!

 

[Sparksfly]

My family did 3 hotels..well technically 2 in 12 days. We stayed in both the nemo and cars suites at art of animation (3 nights in nemo and 4 nights in cars) and then switched over to all star movies for the remainder if our stay. It really came down to availability issues so we had to split in order to fit around it and because it was my sons birthday and he was dying to do both Art and All-Star (and i didnt mind the cheaper price of All-Star lol). It wasnt difficult at all. We like to keep things semi packed in our suitcases throughout our stay anyway, so on hotel change days i would just spend an hour either the morning of or the night before and make sure eveything was packed and waiting at the door for bell services. They took care of everything from there while we went to the parks. All we had to do is take the bus to the new hotel when we left the park that day. I did online check in for everything so we never even had to go to the desk...just directly to and from our rooms. There was never an issue. It actually worked out very nicely and I would do it again for sure.