Day Trips to Disney or Split Stay?

have2getaway

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 5, 2005
We went to Disney and US last year and had a great time at both. We ended up upgrading our passes for US and are planning a return trip to RPR over February break. All along we have been planning to stay the entire week at RPR and just commute the couple days we want to go to Disney for the new attractions (Star Wars). I am starting to reconsider that plan out of concern President’s week may be too busy to make that reasonably enjoyable. The prices at the Disney resorts are high in comparison to what the same amount of money provides for a resort at Universal. We have considered staying in Disney Springs or Waldorf Astoria on points, but weren’t sure if it would still be a hassle to commute to DHS? My last thought was renting a studio. It will be 5 of us (me, DH, and triplet DS’s age 10. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should we switch to a split stay or just use a Lyft the couple of days we plan to go to Disney? TIA
 
I am trying to figure out the same thing but at a different time. So, I am watching for responses.
I have been at Disney for the week preceding Presidents' Day. Crowds were low until Thursday and then it was packed Thurs -Sunday. We left Monday - Presidents' Day so I can not give you what it was like the following week.
 
I am thinking that for the price, to stay at Universal and skip the hassel of a split stay since a move will eat up valuable park time.
 
I am thinking that for the price, to stay at Universal and skip the hassel of a split stay since a move will eat up valuable park time.


That’s what we were thinking. On our last stay, which was a split stay, we ended up having to tack on 2 hotel stays on the end at Universal due to Storm Harper. We started at US Portofino, then to the Polynesian, and went back to US (Sapphire Falls and RPR) when we were stranded due to the storm. The Polynesian gave us a special rate due to the storm, but it was over $500 a night. After what we already spent on the trip, we couldn’t justify it. The moves were unavoidable due to limited availability at US and cost at Disney, and we were just thankful to have a nice, affordable place to stay, but that experience made us not want to switch hotels again.
 


That’s what we were thinking. On our last stay, which was a split stay, we ended up having to tack on 2 hotel stays on the end at Universal due to Storm Harper. We started at US Portofino, then to the Polynesian, and went back to US (Sapphire Falls and RPR) when we were stranded due to the storm. The Polynesian gave us a special rate due to the storm, but it was over $500 a night. After what we already spent on the trip, we couldn’t justify it. The moves were unavoidable due to limited availability at US and cost at Disney, and we were just thankful to have a nice, affordable place to stay, but that experience made us not want to switch hotels again.

Thank you for your feedback on the experience of a split stay. I think I will plan to just stay at one resort. And then on a future trip, try another resort.
 
I always do split stays, I find it’s a hassle once but nice to have the convenience of being near where you need to be once you’ve moved. This coming Christmas though, we are staying at Universal and just commuting to Disney for the Xmas party :) disney’s prices were also very high for the time!
 
I always do split stays, I find it’s a hassle once but nice to have the convenience of being near where you need to be once you’ve moved. This coming Christmas though, we are staying at Universal and just commuting to Disney for the Xmas party :) disney’s prices were also very high for the time!

We found the same for the February break. For our other trips in January, we were able to reserve a Deluxe Disney resort at a reduced rate. We just can’t justify moving from a Deluxe Universal resort for a reasonable rate to a Disney resort for considerably more money.
 


If you are only planning a couple of days at WDW, commuting from UO is not a big hassle. We have done the Halloween and Christmas parties from UO using taxi with no issue. We also just did a full day (RD to close) at EPCOT on our last trip using our rental car. I didn't mind the travel at all for any of those (it's not that far) and would be willing to do it up to two days for a UO-focused trip. Any longer at WDW, I would definitely do a split stay to make things easier overall. I prefer the hotels at UO, but once you focus on more days at WDW, it's easier to stay there.
 
I've done a lot of split stays. Last year we stayed at RPR Thanksgiving week (club level) and drove over to Disney a few days. The disadvantage is those hard to get FP are not available 30 days out, but we enjoyed it overall.
 
For longer trips we always do split stays. We are going Feb 2020 starting at Disney for 4 nights and 5 park days and moving to Universal for the last 5 nights. We have APs for Universal. The main reason we are doing the split stay this vacation is we want to visit Galaxy's Edge and even though it's a huge unknown for that time period we want to make sure we have every onsite advantage we can get to enjoy the new land. Plus my daughter and I are mega Disney Fans so the onsite stay is important to us. The universal portion is the relaxing family time theme park vacation. It's like two separate vacations during a 10 day time period. But I really think the decision depends on your family. Everyone is different. Mine is happily packs up and moves resorts with zero complaints. I know other Disney/Universal families that think we are nuts! :-)
 
For longer trips we always do split stays. We are going Feb 2020 starting at Disney for 4 nights and 5 park days and moving to Universal for the last 5 nights. We have APs for Universal. The main reason we are doing the split stay this vacation is we want to visit Galaxy's Edge and even though it's a huge unknown for that time period we want to make sure we have every onsite advantage we can get to enjoy the new land. Plus my daughter and I are mega Disney Fans so the onsite stay is important to us. The universal portion is the relaxing family time theme park vacation. It's like two separate vacations during a 10 day time period. But I really think the decision depends on your family. Everyone is different. Mine is happily packs up and moves resorts with zero complaints. I know other Disney/Universal families that think we are nuts! :-)

I don’t think you’re nuts. We did exactly what you described, but in hindsight, we wished we would have ended at Universal, as it would have been more relaxing. Our split stay really went fine until Storm Harper hit, and we just couldn’t afford to stay longer at the Polynesian. We also would have had a hard time eating, since it was MLK and everything was already booked.

Our reluctance to move is somewhat due to the unknown regarding FP for SWGE. Can you get FP at the Disney Springs resorts or any others? Our boys are now 10 and so we wouldn’t be doing the DDP.
 
I don’t think you’re nuts. We did exactly what you described, but in hindsight, we wished we would have ended at Universal, as it would have been more relaxing. Our split stay really went fine until Storm Harper hit, and we just couldn’t afford to stay longer at the Polynesian. We also would have had a hard time eating, since it was MLK and everything was already booked.

Our reluctance to move is somewhat due to the unknown regarding FP for SWGE. Can you get FP at the Disney Springs resorts or any others? Our boys are now 10 and so we wouldn’t be doing the DDP.
😃 Ending at Universal is the Way to go that’s for sure. I just booked us into Hard Rock for our last 5 nights of our vacation.
The Disney Springs hotels all have FP at 60 days.
 
I think it depends on what you use your room for, for us we love having a room on property because at disney we rope drop then head back to the room for lunch break/ ac break then head back till close. Its easier to rope drop /stay late if you are very close.
 
You'd be a little late renting points for a DVC studio at this point, so I'd be concerned about availability. I wouldn't rely on that.

We are doing a quick trip in October and opted just to use Uber each day rather than changing hotels. Switching to a Disney resort will give you the 60 days for FP+, but I'm not sure that's worth a significantly higher cost. What kind of price difference are you seeing?
 
Consider if you're not onsite at Disney, you only get 30 day advance fastpass booking.
This is the reason I completely changed my plans this next trip in November. I was going to stay onsite at Universal and just do an evening event like DAH or MVMCP. Then I decided that I didn't want to be limited to just the MK with SWGE open at HS. Now I booked a night at AoA for our arrival day and bought mid-day magic tickets, so we can book FP 60 days out. Hopefully this allows us a better chance for SDD.
 
I really hated on what to do with my stuff in between hotels so we always get one night at a lowes hotel with out giving up our disney... but we always stay at a value hotel so the price is not that far off.
 
We have HRH booked for 2 weeks this December as part of a holiday package from the UK, which included tickets to both Universal & Disney. When I booked it I thought we'd just Uber over on the days we wanted to for Disney, but then I looked at how much a 3 night stay at ASM would cost and it was $360 - so I booked the hotel. It's more about saving time rather than money, we'll get a lot more time in the parks and the cost of the hotel vs 4 return Uber trips is minimal.

Now I'm really looking forward to staying in 2 resorts and experiencing both Universal & Disney and being able to have a shot hop back to the hotel from all the parks - peace of mind.

When looking at our return in 2022 we will book eveything seperately. Although the package is good, I now know that we can save money and time and have confidence in doing it.
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback. One thing we have been considering is doing a split stay but staying less time at Disney and staying in Club level. If we cash out our points used for Club Level at RPR for 3 nights, it ends up being the equivalent of $400 per night in cash. The cheapest cost for CL at Disney is $666 per night, or we could try Art of Animation. I did find a standard room (not club level) for $450 per night, which is also an option. I’m trying to decide if we would spend more than 266 per night in food and commuting back and forth to Disney, making it worth the switch to Club Level at Disney. DH really doesn’t want to switch at all. Any thoughts? Just thought the extra FP might be nice, but no clue how that even works.
 

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