With @profmatt’s recent addition of Poly, this gets me wondering about how difficult it is to do a resort-to-resort transfer during a stay.
For example, maybe we want to stay at a value resort most of the time (to save money), but want to experience the Contemporary one night, etc. You move into one room, but how do you actually get your belongings from one resort to the other when you’d rather be in the Magic Kingdom (or whatever).
Has anyone done a trip where they stay at more than 2 different resorts? How was that?
I haven’t, obviously, but I’m going to. As you know.
Funnily enough I was just listening to this week’s Backside of Magic podcast and they discussed this very issue. Apparently it’s really easy. You simply drop your bags off at Bell Services (or even get them to pick them up from your room) and they transfer them to the new hotel. Apparently they should be there around 3pm.
We’ve done a few split stays (~6-7) and it really couldn’t be easier.
We just call Bell Services when we’re ready to check out, and tell them which resort we are transferring to. When our room is ready at the new resort we go to Bell Services there and just tell them our room number, and they deliver our luggage (including refrigerated items which they keep chilled).
I do split stays all the time. At the first resort I call down to bell services and tell them I am going to transfer to another resort. They come up and get my luggage. At the 2nd resort I call from my room and bell services brings my bags up. I usually carry a backpack with everything for that day with me.
Hmm. You all SAY it is easy, but it actually sounds complicated to me. I’m just thinking out a day. Wake up, pack up our things. We want to be at the park for RD, so we have to get our luggage to bell services before we go. Or, we just leave our baggage by the door and they come to get it? What about tipping them?
And then, come 3:00, we are heading down Splash Mountain when our room is available. We have to stop and let the new hotel KNOW that our room is available? Or they just know?
We would want to show up at our next resort with our stuff there in the room…but if that happens, again, how do you tip? And if it isn’t there, how long do you sit there waiting for your luggage?
I like the concept of being able to try different resorts, but it all seems stressful. (I’ve never ever used bell services ever at any hotel anywhere, so I don’t know what that entails.)
I also wonder about cash. We usually bring cash with us to pay for food/merch/etc. We don’t charge things so that we can keep track of every penny we spend. So, we usually use the in-room safe when available to keep all cash except that day’s money.
In this scenario, that’s probably not going to work. But the idea of carrying potentially hundreds of dollars in cash around doesn’t sound appealing either.
You call as you are getting ready for the park. You tell them how many bags you have and 10 minutes later they are at your door. You go to the park. You are checking into a new resort. You will get a room text. You go to the next resort hen you want to- no assigned time.
I like the idea of it, but it’s hard enough to get out and ready for parks each day and to pack up once at the end, let alone twice. I suppose that could be a resort day in the middle…
The luggage transfers aren’t guaranteed to be done until around 4-5pm, so make sure you have essentials with you.
The first one was Bay Lake to Beach Club. Luggage ended up at the Boardwalk instead, no idea why, but Bell Services tracked it and had it deleivered to our room within an hour of us asking about it.
The last trip was Bay Lake to Kidani and back to Bay Lake. Part 1 went without a hitch, part 2 not so much. We didn’t get back to Bay Lake until after 10:30pm on Dec 30th. Bell Services didn’t have the luggage. Again though, they tracked it down - it was still at Kidani. It was with us by 11:30pm, minus the frozen stuff (chilled was OK). That was delivered half an hour later.
Since we usually have a car, I might consider taking it over ourselves next time, if we were going to drop off the car anyway.
If you phone to get them to collect it from your room, they will ask how many bags. And have any chilled stuff bagged separately. Or to save time, you could take it down to Bell Services yourself.
There are two things I would do: 1. Call bell services from your room. This puts you in “the system”. NEVER bring your luggage to bell services (a ticket is not created consistently in the system. 2. Male sure you get a receipt for your luggage. It will have a tracking number (barcode ) on it.
You may need to call bell services at the new hotel to let them know you’ve arrived. At least that is what happened to us on our split stay. We waited and waited but should have called.
Just maybe ask for a time estimate. When we did it we waited a long time. It was apparently a very busy morning at ASSp and it would have been faster to bring them ourselves.
At AKL I have never had an issue. Great point about some of the other resorts! At SSR I think you really should schedule a pick up at least the night before. I think a good practice may be to ask bell services if it should/can be prescheduled…
