Does the luggage get delivered to your hotel? Has room been ready at 4 or later?
It does get delivered
if you are there. Skier Pete was right that they won't deliver the luggage to your room if you're not there.
As with all checkin, whether it's arrival or split, there is no guarantee your room will be ready by 4pm. It's supposed to be, but we've all heard stories about people not getting into their room by 4pm.
I've done multiple splits and every time, my room has been ready before 4pm. That said, I was never in a position to need that to be the case.
Probably risky to bank on getting access to something you need for the evening as previous posters have mentioned.
Did I hear correctly that in order to do a split stay you have to make two separate reservations at your home resort at the 11 month mark? Or can you just modify your one reservation rather than making two?
You don't have to make two separate reservations, but it would make your life easier.
You can't split a single booking into two parts once it's booked. It would essentially be dropping days and rebooking those days at 7 months. With splitting your original 11-month home reservation into two, you're never at risk of losing the days entirely. The modify function on the booking tool allows the reservation to be held until the new reservation is secured. No risk of suddenly being without a room when you switch the resort.
Keep in mind that if you split a stay 5 days and 5 days, for example, they are treated as separate reservations and your second 5-day window does not open until the first day of that 5 day window at 7-months. That second 5-day booking does not benefit from the first 5 days "attached", if that makes sense.
One more thing about a split stay.... There is that whole “homeless” feeling on moving day. If you’re someone who likes to take a break from the parks during the heat of midday, you may not have a room to go to. Need to be OK with relaxing at the pool, since your room may not be ready until after 5pm.
My preference is always to do an all day park day on the split. The kind of stay where as long as my room is ready when I go back to sleep, I'm good. Say I do a split between PVB and Riviera. I'll do MK while at PVB and then on the morning of the move, I'll drop my bags off (or call for pickup, though that could take longer), and then head to AK, or DHS and spend all day there before heading back well after 4pm to my room, which should (famous last words) be ready by then.
If I plan a resort day, I won't move on that day.