Tell me what you like and dislike about Split-Stays

++ Everything mentioned by @PrincipalTinker

I started doing split-stays when the All Stars where less then $100/night as a way to better accommodate late afternoon/evening flight arrivals. This avoided consuming a more expensive resort night stay and burning a night of a Dining Plan.

We extensively use the mesh packing cubes which reduces the packing/unpacking to a bare minimum. As PrincipalTinker pointed out make sure you get a call into Bell Services well in advance of your planned departure from the first resort so you don’t spend time waiting for them to come to your room (believe it or not morning can be a busy time) and do get a receipt.

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I’ve done a split stay with Pop and WL twice. Did Pop Saturday to Wednesday and WL Wednesday to Saturday. I use packing cubes which are amazing. Everything for the first stay goes in one suitcase/one color packing cubes. Everything for the second stay is in a separate suitcase/different color packing cube. The second suitcase does not get opened until the second resort. Things we will use in both resorts (like toiletries) go in a smaller suitcase. On our WL days we did MK all day Wednesday, Thursday morning, and all day Friday. We did an afternoon at DHS on Thursday. Used the pool all day Saturday before we flew out that night. We went back to use the WL pool as well on our MK days because the boat ride made it so easy to go back and forth between MK and WL. On our Pop days we did Epcot, DHS and AK. As long as you are organized and packed accordingly, plan your park days around your resort stays, a split stay is awesome.

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Do you ever find it frustrating to keep yourself at the close resorts only depending on where you’re staying? Or do you guys sometimes park hop from say MK to AK when you’re staying a WL? I agree it makes sense to go to the parks your close to when staying at a split-stay. Just wonder if it limits anything? Of course, there are no rules, if you want to go to a farther away park, no one is stopping you.

I have to add: I have had some “issues” during stays. One stay in particular I did not get the room I booked and although it was a great trip, the second stay was what made it magical . In that case, I was so thankful for the split stay.

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I’ve done split stays, but mostly not planned (because I decided to add days and couldn’t get them at my home resort.)

In September – if I go – I have a BWV 4 night and WL/CC 5 night stay planned. WL/CC is my DVC home resort, but I’ve not stayed there yet and want to! I’ll focus on MK and AK those days, and hang at the resort.

For the BWV (which I got with points, just a couple of weeks ago) I’m doing EP HS EP HS so the reason is to be able to walk – which I cannot wait to try.

Otherwise I would just stay in either AKL or WL/CC, my home resorts.

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We did a week at Old Key West followed by 3 nights at the Poly. Yikes.

The luggage was easy less of a problem than the souvenirs. SOME of our group like shopping.

Having been blindsided by that once, I knew to bring something on future trips to put all those shopping bags in.

In a better world I’d do the short stay first and the longer stay last. Tho we usually stay at one resort.

For many trips we’d have the next resort in mind before leaving home. We’d have supper at the target resort to check it out.

And now we have to eat at/revisit favorite resorts tho there aren’t as many to check out now.

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We had annual passes and it was our second trip in six months (Oct 2017, April 2018). Prior to that we had been once a year so we knew what we wanted to do. I plan obsessively so I knew that we would be doing mainly MK while at WL. I didn’t find it limiting at all. I found it convenient to be so close to the park I would be visiting. Now that the Skyliner is open and we’ve stayed at Pop again (Dec 2019), I’d be more likely to stay at Pop the whole trip because of the ease of access to DHS and Epcot. My kids are 11 and 17 so that may make a difference as well as they love DHS (Star Wars) and Epcot.

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We are planning our first split stay in May. Primarily because we are using rented points for part of the stay but want to go more days and won’t be able to get the same resort for cash. Also we have a cruise in the middle so we may end up at 3 different resorts. I’m dreading the packing / moving, and hope they restore luggage transfer before then. But we will have a car so worst case we will pack it up and move it ourselves.

Experiencing multiple resorts sounds awesome. Being closer to certain parks on certain days will be convenient. Hopefully the length of our stay will make it all worth it.

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Wow, let us know how that 3 resort/cruise goes!

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If I was traveling solo, I might want to do a split stay. But I pack light. And I don’t unpack and “move in” when i get to a hotel. My wife and kids, not so much. It wouldn’t be worth it.

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Ooo, I love that idea. If I ever have a solo trip, I might have to do that!

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My sister will unpack for one night. :thinking:

For longer stays with a kid - and we’re not doing a laundry day - I’ll unpack completely. Then each day’s clothes go into the suitcase as we’re done with them. Checking out day, packing is easy peasy.

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We have done multiple split stays (and are doing another one next week–Riviera and Poly). Sometimes we have had to do split stays because of what was available for our DVC points, but our trip next week is a split stay because we want to try out Riviera but we also love the Poly.
We always have a car so luggage delivery is not an issue. And I love packing cubes so repacking is not an issue.

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Have a great trip!

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Thanks. I’m still unsure how I feel about it.

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Don’t worry, it’ll be great once you get there!

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Thanks. I think it will be.

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Psst…you will likely run into me and the kids. :smile: I too am not sure how I feel about it, but we seem to be going. Changed our resort from the cabins (we just stayed in a beautiful cabin in Montana) to Beach Club Villas. I know SAB is closed, but my kids rarely swim anymore so it didn’t matter.

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We had something similar planned for our trip that was cancelled. One night at Bay Lake Theme Park View followed by a week (that was not yet booked) at BC or BW. We wanted to be close to MK for a night since transportation to MK isn’t great from the other areas, but also for fireworks views. Then we wanted to be close (i.e. walking distance) to HS and EP. Were even thinking of a stay at AKL at the end for 1-2 days to be close to AK and we love AKL.

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Is this true??? I had not heard that the luggage transfer was not available. I have a split stay in Sept, looks like i will need to figure out how to do the transfer.