A little background…I have been to WDW once, and it was 5 years ago. Planned it all with TP and loved it. We had planned to go in September, but well…decided that we would be happier waiting for another time and canceled our reservation at CBR (8 nights)
I am now daydreaming about a potential trip sometime in the future in whatever a “post-covid” world looks like, and it got me thinking about split stays.
We had planned 8 nights at CBR, but now I am thinking that maybe for the same price we could do like 5 or 6 nights at POP and then 2 or 3 nights at a deluxe (maybe Poly?).
It sounds fun and almost like getting 2 vacations for one, but I guess I am wondering what people think the pros and cons are, and how much of a hassle people have felt it to be packing up to move to another hotel part way through a trip. Do you think it would be better to do a moderate for 8 nights or some kind of split between value and deluxe?
Thanks for any advice, and thanks for all the trip reports with all the pictures, it makes my daydreaming about WDW a lot more fun
I like split stays but also check out renting DVC points because we were able to get a room at Boardwalk Villas that sleeps 5 for $190/night with free parking for both the resort and parks as DVC members don’t pay parking. This is not as refundable as Disney but if you wait until you are sure I was able to get this Boardwalk room split stay with Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary a week out.
Our first split stay was annoying because of souvenirs. Two of our group had been having a great time selecting souvenirs - it was one of their goals: souvenirs.
I hadn’t realized just how much fun they’d been having until we were packing up to move to the Poly. The schedule for moving day was that DH and I were having a non park day, with our then 4 yr old grandniece while the others did multiple parks, (I think). We thought we’d load a few suitcases, drive to the Poly and check in. Which we did except for bags and bags and bags of souvenirs. About the only thing I’d change is to have had something - a big box, an extra suitcase - a wheeled extra suitcase! - for those souvenirs.
We love split stays and have done them quite frequently. The biggest drawback I find is that we are typically ‘return to the resort for the afternoon’ people. And my other travel companions can get cranky when there won’t be a room available until after 4pm (and by ‘other travel companions’ I mean DH and DS).
Given lower hotel crowds this may be less of a problem right now. We requested our Boardwalk Villas room be ready by 8am and I got a text at 7:39am that it was ready with the room number so we were able to drop off our bags before heading to DHS for rope drop.
I think it can go either way. At Yacht Club in August, we were told it can take even longer because of the additional cleaning they need to do in the room and if we don’t hear from them by 4pm to stop by again. We got our room ready text around 2pm.
I did a split stay on my last trip, mostly because I couldn’t get all the nights I wanted at the resort I chose (AKL). We ended up doing a couple of days at BW.
Pros:
We got to stay at BW, which we otherwise couldn’t have afforded. It was wonderful to be able to walk to Epcot!
We got to experience two resorts rather than one.
On a related note, it was nice to have different restaurants nearby at night.
Cons:
We had to unpack, repack, cart the stuff to the lobby at BW, and pick up up piecemeal as it arrived at AKL. It was a huge pain and took up precious vacation time. I will say that I am a very particular packer who needs things arranged just so; someone who throws things in a bag and lives out of their suitcase might not mind this very much.
Overall, I plan to avoid split stays in the future. For us, the time and effort to move is a significant deterrent. I know that a lot of people really like them, though.
DH and I have pretty much done only split stays for the past 3 years and we love them. We always rent a car so the moving of luggage hasn’t been too much hassle. I use packing cubes to help stay more organized. I will say that I prefer at least 3 nights per resort. With 2 night stays, you really only have access to the room for 40 hours or so and it goes by quickly, especially if your 2 night stay is at the end and you have early travel plans.
Thanks, yeah, I think the pack, unpack, repack, unpack, pack to go home is probably my big hesitation. It would just be DW and me, so I am thinking maybe we can pack one bag for first resort and one bag for second resort, but that is probably unrealistic.
Good point about only 2 nights. I was thinking our rest day might be at the second resort so that we could enjoy it more, but that would put it late in our trip
Definitely do your rest day at the Deluxe vs Pop. If you don’t overschedule your park days, you can make it longer till that rest day. Pick a handful of must-do attractions and do them first and then if you’re hot and tired leave and rest. If you go to the early opening till closing you’ll be exhausted after 2 or 3 days. Another option is to pick a park that’s open later for somewhere in the middle and don’t get there early. For us Epcot didn’t open till 11am (really 10 something) so we woke up naturally and we rode three rides and then just walked around world showcase eating and drinking and caught the live entertainment in the America Gardens Theater so this day was restlike for us.
This is totally feasible. We did a split stay between Pop and AKL and I put everything for our Pop stay in one packing cube each so we didn’t touch the rest of our luggage until after we moved. Moving itself was a hassle just because it took forever for our bags to actually arrive at AKL, so just make sure you don’t need anything in them in the meantime. It’s a great way to economize between a value/deluxe stay and see more resorts.
