First trip! Aug 12-19. We have booked boardwalk 1 bedroom villa. Wondering if we should do a split stay with first 2- 3nights at a resort near magic kingdom since that is where we are going first two days? Contemporary grand flo poly or wilderness? The. The rest at Boardwalk? My kids are going to just turn 13 and 14. Ty
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I enjoy split stays but it varies depending on personal preference.
Pros: being closer to the parks you’re going to be visiting, get to experience different resorts, hedge bets in case you don’t like one of the resorts
Cons: have to pack and move in the middle of your trip.
I find that 2 nights is the minimum to make a split stay worthwhile (1 night is just frustrating), and 3 would be better. Usually I only split if I will be in Orlando longer than a week, but that’s not a hard and fast rule.
For a first trip I think it’s better to stay in one location. There’s a lot to acclimate to and on a split you’d just be figuring it out when you’d have to start all over.
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Hah I missed this part. Yes, for a first trip I agree it’s better to stay in one place for a weeklong stay.
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I agree because it is a first time, stay in one place! Otherwise I would say stay at Wilderness Lodge if you are going to MK both days. But the parks take awhile to get used to and find your way around, so spend your time focusing on that and have a nice home base.
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For a first trip with kids that age I would not recommend spending your first 2 days at Magic Kingdom. Spend your first day there as it’s the quintessential Disney park then check out at least two of the other parks on subsequent days. Then you’ll have a better sense if you want to spend a full 2nd day at MK or park hop and you’ll also have some flexibility in case you get bad weather.
I also would not do split stay. Hopefully you’ll love the Boardwalk - we do. And if you don’t want to take a Disney bus, you can do a regular Lyft / Uber to AK and a Minnie van to MK which isn’t too expensive in the grand scheme of things and adds to efficiency without the move of a split stay. But this is just one guys opinion.
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Contemporary. Contemporary. Contemporary.
Say what you will about the theming, but for the Magic Kingdom, NOTHING beats the ability to walk back to your hotel room instead of dealing with Disney transportation. And in August, a midafternoon pool break is almost a requirement, now that Splash Mountain is down for refurbishing. You can walk back to the Grand Floridian, but it’s an extra 10 minutes or so long.
Changing rooms IS a pain, to be sure. But I wouldn’t blink twice at staying at the Contemporary or Bay Lake Tower with the Magic Kingdom.
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I wouldn’t do a split stay on a week long trip unless there was no option.
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100% agree!!! We always stay at The Contemporary for the first 3-4 days and then switch over to a skyliner resort!
I did this exact BWV and BLT split last fall with my kids. I enjoyed it but with older kids I would 100% stay at BWV the entire time. BWV gives you the walking access to two parks instead of 1 and for only a week it’s a pain to split unless necessary.
Getting the bus to/from MK was 1000x easier than taking the damn monorail home from Epcot to BLT.
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We’re huge proponents of the split stay but moving is one more PITA thing to deal with on a first visit.
My question is first visit or first and only (or only for a very long time)? You get such a different experience from proximity to the different resorts, and they’re all awesome. So if it’s a one time thing, maybe suck up the pain of moving and try both? If you expect to come back in the next couple of years, maybe take it easy on yourself and stick to the single resort… and Boardwalk is a great choice with those ages.