How crazy are we? Split stay at New Years

We are planning a trip over the Christmas/New Year’s break this year. Currently, we have reservations at SSR on points for the whole stay. We’re in a studio for now in order to conserve our borrowed points. We are thinking of the following split stay:

12/27-12/31 - SSR Studio (points) (maybe change to OKW depending on availability for lower points cost)
12/31-1/1 Swan or Dolphin - My husband has Marriott points that will get us a room at one of these resorts.
1/1-1/4 - Hopefully a studio or even a 1BR at AKL or WL (depending on 7 month/waitlist availability)

Here’s our thinking. We’d like to spend NYE at Epcot. I’ve been reading up on the reality of traffic after the festivities. I have no desire to spend hours in stop and go traffic, so a walk over to an Epcot resort sounds like a good plan, even with the hassle of repacking and checking in/out. We like the idea of the Savanna views at AKL or the ambiance at WL, which is why we’re thinking of those resorts at the end of our stay.

Has anybody else done a split stay like this? How was it for you? We are very realistic about our holiday plans and how to make sure we keep it enjoyable.

Allison

My main concern would be is the Swolphin allowing one night only reservations on Dec 31? Many hotels have a multi-night minimum stay at that time.

We did a multi split stay over Christmas and New Year in 2016.

Started at BLT 23rd to 26th, Kidani 26th to 30th and back to BLT until the 6th Jan.

I would have preferred a week at both, but the dates didn’t work for that. And we wanted to be at BLT for NYE.

I would absolutely do a split to be near Epcot for 31st, but not for just one night. That’s just too much hassle for me. Apart from anything else, how are you going to switch on the 31st? The roads are gridlocked. And I mean totally gridlocked, all the way back to the main gate and beyond, things were at a standstill. DH couldn’t get back to BLT and ended up going off (the main road, is it the 192?) at the next exit and going back to the DS exit instead, parking there until around 8pm when we were directed around past Golden Oaks.

Getting anywhere by car is a nightmare, the only transport that was moving from around 11am until evening were the buses, and you can’t take luggage on them.

I think you need to move to the Swan on the 30th!

When we were on the Starwood site, it didn’t give a 2 night minimum warning for points - at least not that I saw. But, I’ll double check when I go back in. But, I’m glad you mentioned the traffic on NYE, I didn’t think that it would be busy that early in the day. Plus, cutting the first part of our stay short by one day frees up points so that we can be in a 1BR vs Studio without borrowing too much from our 2019 use year.

This is some good food for thought. I’m also thinking about our ADR issue. From what I understand, each reservation is when the 180 day window starts, so that would be 3 ADR windows, right?

Hmmmm…more thinking…

You’re using your own points?

MS can make ADRs for you for the whole of a split stay. I believe they do this by making a dummy reservation for the whole time at the first resort, then booking the ADRs through the “normal” system and then cancelling the dummy reservation.

Whether they would do that for you with the Swan/Dolphin in the middle I don’t know. They might if you ask them nicely! Certainly worth a shot. :grinning: