split stay

[Thecorsi4]

Alrighty I have been green lighted to start the planning for our next Disney adventure. My lovely wife has a request for this one and not sure they best way to go about it. She has requested to stay at Disney Animal Kingdom Lodge for a couple of nights(she wants to wake up and have tea with a giraffe apparently). Then move to different resort. Either our old stand by of AOA or try something new.

Sorry long winded to get to question, has anyone done a trip like this and is it a pain? Thanks in advance

 

[CynBeth]

We have done several split stays. We make the first resort reservation a package with tickets for the length of the entire trip and the second resort reservation we book as room only. We don’t do the dining plan so not sure how that works. We rent a car but I understand Disney can have bell services move luggage for you from one resort to the next. The only downside is when making ADRs because the different resorts are 2 seperate reservations you can only make them at 180 days of the first resort plus switch day and then you will have to wait until 180 days of the second resort to make them for the remainder of the trip.

 

[mouse_luv]

We always do split stays anymore and it's not a pain at all. Last trip we stayed at AKL for 4 days then switched to BWV for 2 days. Bell services takes care of transferring your luggage if you call them day of departure from first resort. No problems whatsoever.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We're planning an upcoming split stay (3 nights at BC/2 nights at Poly),and I think a split stay works perfectly with how my family travels. I think the inconveniences of changing hotels are far outweighed by the huge convenience of staying at hotels closer to the parks we want to visit on given days, and the fun of trying out different themes.

How much of a "pain" it is can depend, among other things, on your packing/unpacking style, since having to pack up and move is about the only inconvenience to a split stay. My family packs light and "unpacks light." By that, I mean that our unpacking ritual consists of unzipping packing cubes of clothes and setting them in drawers, hanging a couple of outfits (only what we'll wear at that particular hotel) in the closet if needed, tossing a laundry sack on the floor of the closet to accept dirty clothes at the end of each day, setting a cube of breakfast/snack foods next to the coffeemaker, and putting our toiletry cases under the vanity. We don't tend to spread out and occupy every nook and cranny of the room, and we don't bring enough with us that we could even hope to do that. As a result, re-packing our stuff at the end of our stay takes no more than 10 minutes and as others said, Bell Services will transport your luggage to your next hotel while you go off to a park. That does mean you are "homeless" for a few hours while you wait to check in to your next hotel, although you can still enjoy hotel amenities (pool, etc.) while you wait, as long as you keep the necessary items with you.

Another potential "down-side" is that the Disney dining reservation system will see your two stays as separate for purposes of your 180-day window, meaning that even though you should be entitled to make reservations for your entire onsite stay at 180 days, the reservation system won't permit you to make dining reservations for the second half until 180 days from your check-in date for that half. There are ways around this, though -- for our split stay, I made another "dummy" room reservation at a Disney hotel for the same dates as my split stay (but as a single, 5-night stay). That allowed me to make ADRs for the entirety of the split stay at 180 days from our arrival. Then once the 180-day window for the second half of the split stay passed a few days later, I simply canceled the "dummy" reservation without penalty, and the dining reservations (all of which were now within the 180-day window for both halves of the split stay) remained.

 

[Jess G]

We're planning an upcoming split stay (3 nights at BC/2 nights at Poly),and I think a split stay works perfectly with how my family travels.

How much of a "pain" it is can depend, among other things, on your packing/unpacking style, since having to pack up and move is about the only inconvenience to a split stay. My family packs light and "unpacks light." By that, I mean that our unpacking ritual consists of unzipping packing cubes of clothes and setting them in drawers, hanging a couple of outfits (only what we'll wear at that particular hotel) in the closet if needed, tossing a laundry sack on the floor of the closet to accept dirty clothes at the end of each day, setting a cube of breakfast/snack foods next to the coffeemaker, and putting our toiletry cases under the vanity. We don't tend to spread out and occupy every nook and cranny of the room, and we don't bring enough with us that we could even hope to do that. As a result, re-packing our stuff at the end of our stay takes no more than 10 minutes and as others said, Bell Services will transport your luggage to your next hotel while you go off to a park. That does mean you are "homeless" for a few hours while you wait to check in to your next hotel, although you can still enjoy hotel amenities (pool, etc.) while you wait, as long as you keep the necessary items with you.

Another potential "down-side" is that the Disney dining reservation system will see your two stays as separate for purposes of your 180-day window, meaning you can't make dining reservations for the second half until 180 days from your check-in date for that half. There are ways around this, though -- for our split stay, I made another "dummy" room reservation at a Disney hotel for the same dates as my split stay (but as a single, 5-night stay). That allowed me to make ADRs for the entirety of the split stay at 180 days from our arrival. Then once the 180-day window for the second half of the split stay passed a few days later, I simply canceled the "dummy" reservation without penalty, and the dining reservations (all of which were now within the 180-day window for both halves of the split stay) remained.

Do you know how it works for fast passes if my tickets are attached to my first reservation but I plan on using one 2 days after that check out? I've done this in the past, but I just can't remember how it works lol.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Do you know how it works for fast passes if my tickets are attached to my first reservation but I plan on using one 2 days after that check out? I've done this in the past, but I just can't remember how it works lol.

If your tickets are for your entire length-of-split-stay, and are attached to the first part of the split stay (or if the tickets aren't attached to either stay as part of a package, but were purchased and linked to MDE separately), I think you're golden, and can make your FP+ for both parts of the stay at 60 days from the first check-in date. (However, if the tickets are split up -- if for example you had separate room-and-ticket packages for each part of your split stay, then you'd have two different FP+ windows. I assume you didn't do it that way, though, as that wouldn't be a cost-effective way of booking.)

The only time it gets tricky is if your tickets are part of a package that is linked to the second part of your split stay. For that kind of split, if you want to use the tickets for the first part (a room-only), you have to have your tickets "activated early" (the limit is up to 3 days prior to check-in for the room-and-ticket package part of your stay, I think) when you check-in for the first part of your stay, which means you can't make Fastpasses for the first part of the stay in advance -- you have to wait until check-in for the initial, room-only stay. You'd still be able to make Fastpasses in advance for the second part of the stay, however.

 

[dreamfinder]

Making the resort change isn't that bad. Bell Services will bring your luggage from one resort to the next, but it may not get there until late afternoon/early evening. So don't pack anything you may need mid day. And if as @Weather_Lady indicates, you pack appropriately, IE one suitcase for stay A and the other for stay B, it makes it easier as you aren't trying to repack everything when you change.

 

[Stitch826]

I didn't realize until I began using this website how popular split stays seem to be. As someone that has always wanted to stay at the Contemporary, but cannot afford an entire stay of 5+ nights there, this may be something I consider next time I go. When you take your luggage to bell services, do they tag it for you?

 

[nickys]

A couple more things to consider for split stays.

Firstly most people recommend you move up not down, so start at the value / mod and move to the mod / deluxe.

Secondly, it seems that TAs were told that the new tickets with package stays cannot be activated early.

For this reason, and those outlined by @Weather_Lady, I always recommend you book split stays as room-only with separate tickets. Unless a package will save you a significant amount, in which case you should do the package first followed by a room-only. That way FP booking has one window for the entire length of both stays.

 

[MickeyCB]

We have a split stay coming up the week before Christmas. First 2 nights AK-Kidani, and then second 2 nights Bay Lake. We are DVC so everything is booked separately, room, dining, tickets etc.
The most challenging/annoying thing is as stated above, to book dining at 180 days initially you can only book first 3 days. But, DVC can be called the morning of your first 180 day, (but at 7 not 6 am) and they can manually book for you for the rest of your days.
I was worried about the same issue with the fast passes at 60 days, but it is a separate system, and recognizes your full length of stay..
I am not super excited about getting in on Monday, and having to pack up for Wednesday am, and then be packing up again for a Friday departure. If we were staying longer, maybe 7-10 days, I don't think I would mind it so much.
This is our first time to do a split stay as I booked us late, and couldn't find 4 contiguous nights. It will be interesting getting to experience 2 completely different resorts in one stay.

 

[nickys]

We have a split stay coming up the week before Christmas. First 2 nights AK-Kidani, and then second 2 nights Bay Lake. We are DVC so everything is booked separately, room, dining, tickets etc.
The most challenging/annoying thing is as stated above, to book dining at 180 days initially you can only book first 3 days. But, DVC can be called the morning of your first 180 day, (but at 7 not 6 am) and they can manually book for you for the rest of your days.
I was worried about the same issue with the fast passes at 60 days, but it is a separate system, and recognizes your full length of stay..
I am not super excited about getting in on Monday, and having to pack up for Wednesday am, and then be packing up again for a Friday departure. If we were staying longer, maybe 7-10 days, I don't think I would mind it so much.
This is our first time to do a split stay as I booked us late, and couldn't find 4 contiguous nights. It will be interesting getting to experience 2 completely different resorts in one stay.

Packing cubes.

Or pack one bag / case for the first stay. And another that doesn’t get opened until Bay Lake.