The ultimate split-stay thread

[mel373]

We are leaving next week and doing a 3 resort stay. CBR-AoA-Boardwalk.
Do we have to be in the room to have the luggage transferred. The only issue is at CBR where the customs house is sooo far away from everything. Could we call and leave our luggage in the room ready to go and then get the bus to the parks and hope that Bell services comes and get the luggage out of our room?

 

[Masonmj84]

Good luck in your 14 day journey resort hopping!! This will be my first split vacation and if all goes well then maybe I would tackle a 3 resort split next year. Keep us posted!!

Just finished our 7 resorts in 14 nights trip (2 nights at each of POR, CR, BWI, WL, Poly, BC, and AKL).

Everything went really smoothly. We did online check in at each resort prior to the vacation and never had to check in at the front desk. Just got a text telling us our room was ready (usually between 11:30 am and 2:30 pm). We usually used bell services to transfer our luggage. Luckily, every transfer went smoothly and bags were always delivered by 4 pm.

I'll be posting a detailed trip summary in the trip reports forum.

 

[mel373]

Just finished our 7 resorts in 14 nights trip (2 nights at each of POR, CR, BWI, WL, Poly, BC, and AKL).

Everything went really smoothly. We did online check in at each resort prior to the vacation and never had to check in at the front desk. Just got a text telling us our room was ready (usually between 11:30 am

Glad everything went well! Did you drop your bags yourselves at Bell services or have them come to the room to pick them up for each transfer? And was it time consuming?

 

[dansdad]

We are leaving next week and doing a 3 resort stay. CBR-AoA-Boardwalk.
Do we have to be in the room to have the luggage transferred. The only issue is at CBR where the customs house is sooo far away from everything. Could we call and leave our luggage in the room ready to go and then get the bus to the parks and hope that Bell services comes and get the luggage out of our room?

You can call Bell Services the night before and tell them what time you would like them to come pick up you luggage. Then you can go on your merry way. Most of the time they won't come pick them up from the room if you're not in it.

 

[mel373]

You can call Bell Services the night before and tell them what time you would like them to come pick up you luggage. Then you can go on your merry way. Most of the time they won't come pick them up from the room if you're not in it.

Thank you! One more question... do we have to go with the Bellman to customs house or can they just take the luggage and we can grab a bus from our closest stop. I was going to request the Jamaica section.

 

[dansdad]

Thank you! One more question... do we have to go with the Bellman to customs house or can they just take the luggage and we can grab a bus from our closest stop. I was going to request the Jamaica section.

You do not have to go with them.

 

[Masonmj84]

For those who may be interested, I posted my 7 resorts in 14 nights split stay report on the "Completed Trip Reports" forum.

 

[wdw4rfam]

We just booked our first split stay ever. We couldn't decide between the two so we just booked 5 nights at each. We are doing 5 at boulder ridge studio and 5 at AKL kidani 1 bedroom savannah view. I was always against moving because we tend to move in and spread out. But we're going to try it.

 

[Seabean]

If you folks don't mind, I'd like to bump this old thread with a question related to post #3 on the first page:

Instead, what makes more sense is to make your first resort a MYW reservation and purchase a ticket package that includes tickets for the ENTIRE length of your trip, and then make your second resort a RO reservation.

Ok, consider we're doing a hypothetical split stay: 3 nites at resort A and 3 nites at resort B. Consider these two options:
(we actually have booked our summer 2017 split stay, but still considering options)

Option 1. Book the first stay as MYW, and the second as RO, and get 6 or 7 days of park tickets as part of the MYW part (as that post above suggests)

Option 2. Book BOTH parts as RO and get 6 or 7 days of park tickets as a separate thing.


Which one is more likely to be less expensive? Why?

(and consider that we'd prefer to not have park tickets for arrival day.... can we get the park tickets to start on the second day with either of these options?)

 

[Hawaii2Dis]

Thank you for this! My boyfriend & I are looking at doing another trip to Disney in about 5/6 years for the 50th Anniversary of the MK! We went this past year in June 2016 for our four year Anniversary. I planned everything, and it was such a wonderful trip. His first time to WDW! We stayed at Pop, and loved our room - Standard View, Building 6, Room #6460 !

But as I am planning for this next trip, although far away, I am looking at a split stay. Hopefully we can do a 20 day trip. We live in Hawaii, so itʻs pretty far for us, and I believe this will be our last trip for a while... getting married, starting a family, etc....

The thing is we loved, loved, loved Pop.... should we try something different? We are also thinking about renting DVC points, and my boyfriend keeps talking about staying at AKL. As for me I would love to stay at OKW or SSR Treehouses or even GFV..... the choices are endless.... *sigh* It is so hard when you want to stay at as many resorts as possible. I am just trying to narrow it done to two or three.

But thank you for this thread. I tried to look for some info on split stays and this has been the most helpful !!!!

 

[cruisin5]

Definitely spend a few days at AK, it's so unique with amazing lobbies, dining options, pools and giraffes!

Availability at OKW is usually wide open; treehouses and GFV can be difficult to book so you would need to make plans before the 11 month mark.

 

[Hawaii2Dis]

Definitely spend a few days at AK, it's so unique with amazing lobbies, dining options, pools and giraffes!

Availability at OKW is usually wide open; treehouses and GFV can be difficult to book so you would need to make plans before the 11 month mark.

Yes! AK is on our top list! Thank you for the advice!

 

[jen7233]

Hello! I am curious for those that recently completed split stays with online check-ins. Did you do any room requests, and if so did you get your top requests? We have an upcoming split stay between SOG and Beach Club. Next time, I do have AKL as one I'd like to go to! Sounds amazing.

With the Beach Club I've been debating between ground floor or an upper floor/large balcony. I like the idea of ground floor, but also like balconies to hang our bathing suits out for a bit or have coffee in the mornings on the balcony.

 

[superman007]

I kind of got nervous about the intro to this thread because it mentions not being for Disney newbies! I'm planning a split stay in August with my family. I'm now a little nervous about packing up all of our stuff. However, then I realized we do split stays when we visit our family all the time for Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. and we don't have bell service to move everything!

We're doing 4 nights at CBR then 3 nights at WL. I wanted to try a deluxe, but didn't quite have the cash to go with one on the Monorail line (There's a $100-200 difference per night!). The day between we were going to try to spend a bit more time at the pool in the morning, then head to AoA to check out the Cars features (kids are big fans of those movies). After that try to find lunch at Disney Springs, then head up to WL for check in/swimming, then backyard BBQ for dinner. Is this a reasonable plan?

 

[Masonmj84]

Hello! I am curious for those that recently completed split stays with online check-ins. Did you do any room requests, and if so did you get your top requests? We have an upcoming split stay between SOG and Beach Club. Next time, I do have AKL as one I'd like to go to! Sounds amazing.

With the Beach Club I've been debating between ground floor or an upper floor/large balcony. I like the idea of ground floor, but also like balconies to hang our bathing suits out for a bit or have coffee in the mornings on the balcony.

On our recent 7 resort split stay, we did online check-in at each resort and, off the top of my head, I can't think of an instance where we didn't get our room requests (at the Beach Club, for example, we lucked out and got a corner room with a huge balcony).

And I loved the fact that we never had to check in at the front desk (they just texted and e-mailed our room number once it was ready).

 

[JereMary]

I have question:
We are doing a split stay in November:
Days 1-2 are at the Swan (there was NO availability through DVC for those days)
Days 3-6 are at Kidani Village and are rented DVC points.
I want to link my tickets (purchased from an outside vendor) to my reservation. Will I have any problems doing this? Also, I plan to buy the DDP for my DVC days. Am I correct in believing that since it's DVC I don't have to purchase tickets through Disney to get this?
I feel like I have a very "Frankenstein" approach this time, but it seems to be the only way right now for our dates. Hoping that someone has done this before. Thanks!!!

 

[FelisLachesis]

I'm thinking of maybe doing a split stay on my next trip, just changing the last night to splurge a little.

I have a question regarding ADRs and the day I'm changing resorts. Does that day still count as being on the first reservation regarding booking ADRs at 180+"length of stay"?

 

[dansdad]

I'm thinking of maybe doing a split stay on my next trip, just changing the last night to splurge a little.

I have a question regarding ADRs and the day I'm changing resorts. Does that day still count as being on the first reservation regarding booking ADRs at 180+"length of stay"?

Yup.

 

[LaurenJean15]

My brother and I are staying at Pop on July 4th, then meeting the rest of our family at AKL on the 5th. The room at Pop is reserved under my name and the room at AKL is reserved under my mom's name. (same last name, different addresses) Will we be able to have bell services move our bags for us or will we have to move them ourselves because of the different names?

 

[dansdad]

My brother and I are staying at Pop on July 4th, then meeting the rest of our family at AKL on the 5th. The room at Pop is reserved under my name and the room at AKL is reserved under my mom's name. (same last name, different addresses) Will we be able to have bell services move our bags for us or will we have to move them ourselves because of the different names?

As long as you are a registered guest on the AKL reservation you will have zero issues.