If you're looking to stay at the values, check out the new Art of Animation. HTH!
Except that if there are any discount offers, AoA is likelyto be excluded (or only have minimal discounts offered).
I have done the 'discount arrival night' many times. Usually in our case though the 2 resorts offer a bigger contrast- value and deluxe. In our case the difference is usually $200 or more. The difference between a mod and a value is only about $65. If you are doing it purely to save money, it's not worth the hassle and lost time. If you are doing it because you want to see two different resorts, or because you can't get a reservation at your preferred resort, then by all means...
Even with best packing strategies, you are going to lose well over an hour to pack up your room, do the extra check in, take care of the bag transfer. Also, since your second stay is your week long visit- you can't get any of your package perks (park tickets, dining plan) until you check-in to the the second resort. If you don't have a car- you'll either lose over an hour of time doing the transfer by bus (requires two buses) or you'll have to pay for a taxi (likely runs at least $25) So that puts you in the range of losign two hours of vacation to save $40. REALLY not worthwhile, IMO.
When we do resort hopping, we nearly always do it to save upwards of $200. When we do transfers, we nearly always have a car. The only time I did it without ac ar was going to the Contemporary. The CR is unique because you can walk from the MK bus stop.
Still one more thing...and this is a bit delicate - but Disney does give you something for your money. the mods offer more service than the values, and the deluxes offer more service than the mods. (though often for a fee) I like the values for what they offer at the price they offer, but there is a service differnee betwen the different resort categories.
If you are strapped for $$, then there are better ways to save. Watch for discounts, watch for the best airfare deal (taking a late night flight on a Thursday is a GOOD idea- over flying on Friday, Sat or Sun. Tuesday is also agood day to fly.) Many times, I've extended our stays by half a day, because the airfare was SO much cheaper- we effectively got our extra 12hourrs for 'free'- and thus we ended up in our split stay situation, especially when extending the stay at our primary resort wasn not an option.
That said, you have LOTS of time. There are LOTS of ways to squeeze out $65 of savings between now and then. For us, that's skipping eating out a few times. Heck, at WDW, just eating one less TS meal will give us close to that $65! (You could come close to saving that $ by bringing a couple boxes of granola bars).
There are lots of old DIS threads with ways to shave few $ off your visit. If you don have
DDP, one little trick is to eat alate breakfast one morning. then you only need two meals that day - a late buffet breakfast and light dinner. Another easy way to save (even with DDP) is to SHARE food. The near-grad is probably a bottomless pit, but the rest of your family can likely share snacks and meals. Also, bringing few food items - like granola bars can help save a little. Drink water with meals.
WE've also done the offsite route. To do that, you basically need a car. Again, the difference between offsite and a moderate is not likelyto save a bundle. One exception might be if your offsite place is points stay (as in you have apoints membership) The Hyatt at MCO is about the only place that I know of that's easy to do without a car, but it's no less $ than POR. the Hyatt won't save you , but if you are flying on a late arrival flight (or very early departure) already to save $, then staying at the Hyatt is easy. the only other factor would be picking an offsite place that includes free breakfast. When we drive, it sometimes makes sense for us to stop at a place that is about an hour short of the drive to WDW - so long as it also includes free breakfast.
If you chose an inexpensive offsite place- many are located in spots that are a healthy drive from WDW. That's another reason why we don't do it UNLESS there is another compelling reason. (like we plan to go to Universal Studios) Again, you just lose too much time to make it worth doing.
Still, if you are really thinking about the one night discount stay- and you will be doing a package- then you may well be better off doing the one night value stay at the END of your trip. That way you will already have park tickets (and you can pick 8day tickets for a seven night stay) you also can continue to use DDP until MIDNIGHT of the day you check out. Over a week long visit, it's easy to have a few leftover DDP credits. You won't have to check into your new resort until the end of the day.
for my dd High School Graduation. We don't have a set week yet for July, but we are thinking of staying at the POR. I am so confused and have no idea what to do. I am thinking of flying in the night before our week long trip at the World
and not sure of where to stay for one night. 
)
