How much of a pain is a split stay?

Meridagal

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 21, 2016
My family is a family of 4, dd 6 & ds2. My dd still believes princesses and I know those days are numbered. I want to book art of animation little mermaid or the Royal room at riverside before she won't believe the magic that the princesses decorated the rooms for little girls. I'm thinking about 3 days at little mermaid then 3 days at riverside in the royal room or animal kingdom lodge standard room. Animal kingdom is for me because it's animal kingdom and amazing! Animal kingdom is about the same price as royal rooms. We would do 6 days at the royal rooms but that is bit over budget. We are savings for our 1st Disney cruise this summer. We will have our own car, but split stays make me nervous. Any advice from you pros?
 
I don't think they are a pain in any way at all.
But, I'm not an unpacker. The only thing I take out of the suitcase is my makeup bag and my toiletry bag. Which are both extremely easy to put right back in the suitcase.
I put all our clothes in packing cubes and just take out what we wear each day and put dirties in the bag left in the room meant for laundry. I put that right back in the suitcase. On moving day, everything goes back in the suitcase and it gets zipped up.
Take bags to bell services, or call, whichever suits us. Send bags off to new resort. Hop on bus to park (you can even make rope drop with ease if you want). We stay there all day, leave park on bus to new resort, head to room, call for bags. And we've moved. It's just that easy. We don't loose 1 minute of time in the park either. Matter of fact, we plan our longest days on moving day since our bags won't make it till 3 or 5 and we figure we'll be homeless most of the day anyway.
We are doing 4 resorts in 7 days for NYE so we don't have to deal with buses for crowded park nights
2 nights at POR
1 night at CR for MK on 30th
1 night at BWI for Epcot on 31st
3 nights at POFQ (I'm even considering dropping this to 2 nights and adding in 1 night at YC instead, so we can finish the trip easily at Epcot)
 
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I don't like giving up any time in the park to deal with moving to a new room. I like having a "home" while we're away. If you're determined to do it, I'd stick with just 2 resorts on this trip. We stayed at AoA in a LM room when my daughter was 12 and POR Royal Room when she was 15, and she still really enjoyed it then as well.
 
I don't think they are a pain in any way at all.
But, I'm not an unpacker. The only thing I take out of the suitcase is my makeup bag and my toiletry bag. Which are both extremely easy to put right back in the suitcase.
I put all our clothes in packing cubes and just take out what we wear each day and put dirties in the bag left in the room meant for laundry. I put that right back in the suitcase. On moving day, everything goes back in the suitcase and it gets zipped up.
Take bags to bell services, or call, whichever suits us. Send bags off to new resort. Hop on bus to park. We stay there all day, leave park on bus to new resort, head to room, call for bags. And we've moved. It's just that easy.
We are doing 4 resorts in 6 days for NYE so we don't have to deal with buses for crowded park nights
2 nights at POR
1 night at CR for MK on 30th
1 night at BWI for Epcot on 31st
3 nights at POFQ (I'm even considering dropping this to 2 nights and adding in 1 night at YC instead, so we can finish the trip easily at Epcot)
Do they bring the bags to your room? If you had a car would you just drive your car to the resort that day? When does the luggage normally arrive to the new resort?
 


Do they bring the bags to your room? If you had a car would you just drive your car to the resort that day? When does the luggage normally arrive to the new resort?
They will bring your bags to your room if you call for them. It's not like ME bags where you don't have to be there.
If you had a car I honestly don't know. We haven't ever driven for a split stay and it's been years since we've driven to Disney period. Wouldn't you want your car at the park? I'd guess you'd load the bags in the car and just drive to the park and then drive to the resort when you are done.
If you did use Disney luggage transport they arrive between 3 and 5
 
I don't like giving up any time in the park to deal with moving to a new room. I like having a "home" while we're away. If you're determined to do it, I'd stick with just 2 resorts on this trip. We stayed at AoA in a LM room when my daughter was 12 and POR Royal Room when she was 15, and she still really enjoyed it then as well.
Which did you prefer? If we did a split stay we would limit it to two resorts.
 
They will bring your bags to your room if you call for them. It's not like ME bags where you don't have to be there.
If you had a car I honestly don't know. We haven't ever driven for a split stay and it's been years since we've driven to Disney period. Wouldn't you want your car at the park? I'd guess you'd load the bags in the car and just drive to the park and then drive to the resort when you are done.
If you did use Disney luggage transport they arrive between 3 and 5
We normally just use Disney buses since my ds is only 2 and loves them. I'm thinking that day we would drive to the park then drive after park close to the new resort. It's January so we would probably pack up the car, not worried about makeup melting.
 


I don't think they are a pain in any way at all.
But, I'm not an unpacker. The only thing I take out of the suitcase is my makeup bag and my toiletry bag. Which are both extremely easy to put right back in the suitcase.
I put all our clothes in packing cubes and just take out what we wear each day and put dirties in the bag left in the room meant for laundry. I put that right back in the suitcase. On moving day, everything goes back in the suitcase and it gets zipped up.
Take bags to bell services, or call, whichever suits us. Send bags off to new resort. Hop on bus to park (you can even make rope drop with ease if you want). We stay there all day, leave park on bus to new resort, head to room, call for bags. And we've moved. It's just that easy. We don't loose 1 minute of time in the park either. Matter of fact, we plan our longest days on moving day since our bags won't make it till 3 or 5 and we figure we'll be homeless most of the day anyway.
We are doing 4 resorts in 7 days for NYE so we don't have to deal with buses for crowded park nights
2 nights at POR
1 night at CR for MK on 30th
1 night at BWI for Epcot on 31st
3 nights at POFQ (I'm even considering dropping this to 2 nights and adding in 1 night at YC instead, so we can finish the trip easily at Epcot)
You are truly a Disney veteran & master.
 
We don't think they're a pain at all. We do them often and never lose a minute of park time. We drop of bags at Bell Services at resort #1 and ask them to deliver our stuff to resort $2. Hit a park at rope drop. Head to resort #2 around 5PM, once in our room call Bell Services and ask for our stuff. Get freshened up and head to dinner at a park. Stay at park until close.
 
We did a split stay in March: 4 nights at POR and 3 nights at AKL. Kind of weird because I think these are two of the ones you are thinking about doing. It was just DH and I so we didn't do a royal room, but we really enjoyed trying two different resorts. Our goal is to try every resort so split stays are awesome for that! I will say that we liked POR better than AKL, but that's because we actually liked being able to walk outside to get places and walk by the river. We also liked the small pool by our building in the mansion section. I would definitely try a split stay if I were you!
 
Which did you prefer? If we did a split stay we would limit it to two resorts.
They are very different. The LM rooms are fun and that whole area is overstated and colorful in a good way. But the rooms are a very long way from the buses and food court. So I probably wouldn't do that again.

The Royal Room at POR is beautiful in an elegant way. It's probably my preference. It wasn't exactly close to the bus stop and food court, but it didn't strike me as being as far as the LM rooms. But we had a car with us on the POR trip and didn't on the LM trip.
 
The only "split stay" that we have done involved a cruise. We did 2 nights at AoA, then 4 nights on the cruise and then 2 nights at GF and every transition was seamless. Disney makes it so easy!
 
I don't think it's a pain as long as you are at the park the entire moving day and aren't big on midday breaks since your room and/or luggage may not be ready until 4 pm or after. We did it for a trip in August. We dropped our bags at Bell Services at 8 am and went to DHS. With that heat of August we are midday breaks by the pool people. Our bags didn't get to our second resort until after 4 pm (with all of our swim clothes) which I knew was a possibility so we just took a nap instead (our room was ready around 2 when we got back). No biggie but for future splits I will plan moving day as a park all day kinda day or take our bags via Uber to our second resort.
 
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A lot of people are okay with them, but for me, no...not at all. I like to stay put and enjoy my resort. We did the split stay once, and I felt like I was having to start my vacation all over again. It just didn't work for me.

But, if you are going to do it, I definitely think that 3 days at one resort and 3 days at another is a good amount of time for each resort, and I wouldn't do any more than two resorts.

Good luck!
 
It's only a pain if your 2 year old really needs a nap every day. We did a split stay in Sept bc we had to (couldn't get 4 straight nights in a DVC studio) and our son definitely needs a nap...especially at Disney. We were fully prepared to attempt to have him sleep on a pool lounge, lobby couch, or something similar at our second resort, but we got super lucky and our room at the Poly was ready at 1:00 on our check in day there. At our first resort, OKW, our room wasn't ready until 4:30. It wasn't a huge deal bc it was our arrival day, and we were only spending the first night there anyway, but it would have been rough had that been our second resort. Our son needed a nap and a real bed after being at the MK from 8 AM until 1 PM :-)
 
A lot of people are okay with them, but for me, no...not at all. I like to stay put and enjoy my resort. We did the split stay once, and I felt like I was having to start my vacation all over again. It just didn't work for me.

But, if you are going to do it, I definitely think that 3 days at one resort and 3 days at another is a good amount of time for each resort, and I wouldn't do any more than two resorts.

Good luck!

I've never done one, but I'm with Lisann on this one. To me it seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth. I don't necessarily unpack everything (unless I'm on a cruise), but I don't want to have to repack and deal with moving resorts. Just easier to stay put.
 
I know a lot of people like to experience more than one resort, but to me, it is a pain. I've done them out of necessity a couple of times, but usually only a night followed by a week elsewhere.

I like to unpack and settle into a room, and don't like wasting time packing back up and not having a room for a whole day possibly. This is especially true with young kids.

Honestly, I think you should choose the resort you want to stay at, and the kids will enjoy it if you do!
 
I don't think they are a pain in any way at all.
But, I'm not an unpacker. The only thing I take out of the suitcase is my makeup bag and my toiletry bag. Which are both extremely easy to put right back in the suitcase.
I put all our clothes in packing cubes and just take out what we wear each day and put dirties in the bag left in the room meant for laundry. I put that right back in the suitcase. On moving day, everything goes back in the suitcase and it gets zipped up.
Take bags to bell services, or call, whichever suits us. Send bags off to new resort. Hop on bus to park (you can even make rope drop with ease if you want). We stay there all day, leave park on bus to new resort, head to room, call for bags. And we've moved. It's just that easy. We don't loose 1 minute of time in the park either. Matter of fact, we plan our longest days on moving day since our bags won't make it till 3 or 5 and we figure we'll be homeless most of the day anyway.
We are doing 4 resorts in 7 days for NYE so we don't have to deal with buses for crowded park nights
2 nights at POR
1 night at CR for MK on 30th
1 night at BWI for Epcot on 31st
3 nights at POFQ (I'm even considering dropping this to 2 nights and adding in 1 night at YC instead, so we can finish the trip easily at Epcot)

I'm curious...what is your reasoning for all of these resorts? I understand the desire to stay close to the parks but I'm not getting the whole sequence
 
I'm curious...what is your reasoning for all of these resorts? I understand the desire to stay close to the parks but I'm not getting the whole sequence
It's rather rambling and complex thought process, I'll warn you in advance. But it makes sense to us and we've thought it out
It's easy to explain why we picked CR on the 30th and BWI on the 31st. CR Garden room was the least expensive room we can walk to the MK from and BWI was the only room available by the time we planned the trip that we can walk to Epcot.
The first 2 nights (4 nights really) are at a time where there is no promo at all, we are paying rack rate. Painful but what can you do, you want to go to Disney for New Years, that's what you do. It's one of the few nights of the year without a discount. We were going to wait to go down on the 30th, early morning, for this reason.
But, HS added the Sunset Blvd stuff and it ends on the 31st so in order to fit it in we have to get there on the 29th. We could fly out late on the 28th or early on the 29th and it worked out cheaper to fly out late on the 28th, even adding in the hotel costs. Plus we function better late night than we do early morning AND we'd have a room. If we arrived at 8 AM we probably wouldn't have a room yet, and who know how long till we would. So, late flight it is.
I don't want to pay the price we are paying at CR for that night, or even the night of the 29th. We don't mind the bus travel that day, we'll be at HS and there are NO rooms at any HS resort for the night of the 29th anyway. So we are at POR (though actually changed this to FQ today, found a King room)
As for New Years Day, I had us at YC for the rest of the trip but when they opened the AP promo up I found a good deal for FQ (King) that was $450 less than YC. Since our park days during that part of the trip are at AK it really didn't matter much which resort we were at, we'd have to use the bus anyway. And quite honestly, buses to AK from the Epcot resorts is really the worse of all, they have all shared on our trips (most recent was Oct). No idea if they will in Jan or not but I know what we'll face at FQ, and we love the PO resorts so, we switched. And saved money. Since we have 4 nights at rack rate, 2 nights at pretty pricey resorts at that, saving money was good, and we didn't hurt our transportation in doing it, probably helped it.
The only thing we lost was, our last day is always at Epcot. If we'd been at YC, we could walk back to our resort to catch the Uber to MCO. From POFQ we'll do what we usually do and that's bring our carry on bags to the luggage lockers at the front and just call for our car from there.
So, our crazy trip will be as follows (I'm actually looking forward to it, I'm rather proud of figuring it all out and only planning it a month ago)
fly in, land at 1 AM, Uber to POFQ, sleep in, head to HS, back to FQ, sleep in,
Send bags to CR, Bus to MK or Uber to CR and walk to MK (which depends on waits for bus that AM)/back to CR/back to MK/back to CR (we have a nap break planned once we get room). Sleep in
Send bags to BWI, Monorail to Epcot, walk to BWI/back to Epcot/Back to BWI, (we have a nap break planned once we get room) sleep in
Send back to FQ, Boat or walk to HS, bus to FQ, etc for the rest of the trip
 

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