Why mix up resorts?

[raddisneyfan]

I would consider a split if I was staying for more than 7 days....as others have said either to have time at another resort or to be close to a specific park.

 

[Sparkly]

Personally, although the idea of changing resorts to be in a different area (say moving from OKW near Disney Springs to BLT near MK, which is what I did one trip) is fun, the practicality and logistics can be a pain.

Getting Bell Services to hold and transfer your luggage is easy, but being roomless for most of a day doesn't always work out, like if you suddenly don't feel well and want to return to your resort to rest for a bit or just need a break and the room isn't ready yet.

 

[roydavid7771]

We do split stays for basically 3 reasons:
1. I'm on a bucket list mission to stay at every resort.
2. I like staying Deluxe, but the cost isn't always possible for a full vacation, so we balance it with a value.
3. I like to avoid transportation as much as possible, so being able to walk (or skyliner, or monorail) to a park is important. On a trip where we can swing an Epcot and MK area resort split, we only need to use busses for AK and DS.

All of the above, especially #3. We also like to stay at one of the resorts along the Sassagoula so we can take the boat for our first night or two to Disney Springs. We then transfer to whatever DVC resort we're staying in (most likely BCV) to be close to the parks...

 

[Genie+]

We just came back from a split stay.
The first half was BWV, then on Tues we changed over to BLT.

This made Extra Evening Hours even better! So easy take a midday break before Epcot’s EEH on Monday and quickly get back to our room after the late night. Same for MK on Wed.

We mostly did EP/HS while at BWV, and MK/AK while at BLT. Alot of time and energy was saved.

 

[MomOTwins]

We do a lit of split stays.
#1 reason is transportation. For our upcoming trip, by switching from Riviera to Poly we can have non-bus transportation to all parks except AK.
#2 is resort amenities. We he split gives us some extra variety on QS breakfast options and different pools to enjoy during our daily midday breaks.
#3 is cost. We are using DVC points this trip but same logic applies to cash: weekends are pricier than weeknights. So by staying at the lower cost resort on our weekend, it evens out the price a bit.

 

[Misha72683]

We are doing it for cost and convenience. My mom really wants to stay at AKL but it is more remote + deluxe, so we are staying there for the final 3 nights of our stay and AoA the first few nights of our stay, saving a ton of money but also having skyliner access for those days.

 

[Pickles516]

We’re doing it because we can’t really spring for a full week of deluxe, but really want to experience the poly. So we’re doing AoA for the HS/Epcot leg of our trip and Poly for the MK leg of our trip.

 

[projectx3]

I understand wanting to see different resorts but... most of our time is spent in the parks. So it's not like we're at the resort much as it is. We have an 8-night stay coming up at POR; we'll spend two days just hanging out at the resort enjoying the pools, fishing, bikes, etc. I don't feel the need to go through the hassle of packing and unpacking a second time switching resorts, and the time wasted doing it.

But hey... if that's what you enjoy, have at it.

 

[kanerf]

I always do split stays. Part of it is because I have smaller contracts that don't allow me to make 7-10 day reservations at 11 months. Instead I usually make three reservations for 3 or 4 nights each adding up to 10 (which is my normal visit). I have a MK stay, and Epcot area stay and perhaps AK in the middle or one of my other resorts. It works well for me and I enjoy getting a new fresh room every 3 or 4 nights and different dining opportunities as well.

 

[CeeCee101]

Why does it seem like so many people change their resort at least once (twice?) during a vacation?

Is there some savings to be had by booking shorter stays?

We are family of five with young kids so I’m looking to do a trip that doesn’t have too much shuffling.. but the larger resort rooms are killer pricing.

We do it for location, Epcot hotels then to MK hotels.

 

[Genie+]

I understand wanting to see different resorts but... most of our time is spent in the parks. So it's not like we're at the resort much as it is. We have an 8-night stay coming up at POR; we'll spend two days just hanging out at the resort enjoying the pools, fishing, bikes, etc. I don't feel the need to go through the hassle of packing and unpacking a second time switching resorts, and the time wasted doing it.

But hey... if that's what you enjoy, have at it.

I hear ya on the packing/unpacking part. But to me it’s worth it. The tradeoff is walking to and from 3 parks. Hitting Early Entry is literally a walk in the breeze. We left our room 15-20 minutes before it started and it was quick getting back at night. So it helps us get enough sleep even when enjoying the good early and late park hours.

We just got back and used this method: 2 check-in luggages (free on JetBlue w/cc) and packed one for first half and one for second half of stay, just one carry-on we packed with toiletries, swimsuits, and anything else we needed for both parts of our stay. Worked out well.

5 nights or less we prefer just one resort. 2 nights feels too quick to me, not enough time to settle in and really enjoy a resort. I’d only choose split stay with at least 3 nights at each.

 

[Misha72683]

We are packing two separate suitcases, one for each hotel. So that will help a bit.

I am one of those people who has to put my clothes away even if I am only going away for a night, so the packing and unpacking doesn't phase me.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Why does it seem like so many people change their resort at least once (twice?) during a vacation?

Is there some savings to be had by booking shorter stays?

We are family of five with young kids so I’m looking to do a trip that doesn’t have too much shuffling.. but the larger resort rooms are killer pricing.

Totally personal opinion but I have 2 teenage girls and the thought of having them pack/unpack more than once is a no, now if I had 3 young kids, that I know I'd be doing the packing for, that's a non-negotiable hard no! Everyone can do their own thing but I'm a simple person and don't need to experience 2 resorts in one vacation and even choosing a value first to add deluxe on the end could be a compelling budgetary reason but at some point, my time on vacation is worth something and having to move 5 ppl more than necessary is just not worth it to me. As far as savings for shorter stays, your lodging expense will definitely be less as would food/incidentals however, tix are front loaded on cost so anything less than 4 days will be incrementally more money than a longer stay per day. That's disney's way of incentivizing guests to stay longer and eat/buy more.

I'd recommend staying off property for a large family. Either renting a condo/airbnb or a vacation suite hotel to get more space and much more bang for your buck. If you really want to stay on property, look at the 5th sleeper rooms at POR or CBR, also there are suites at -the Art of Animation/All Star Music .....or the cabins at Fort Wilderness, they sleep up to 6. Other affordable option is book two adjoining rooms at say a value or moderate and you/spouse stay in each room. However, this will still likely be more per night than off property options that keep your whole family on one room/home/unit.

We are 4 and the 5th sleeper rooms have always been great, I don't love the one bathroom only with teen girls so for 5, the suites might be better as they have 2 full bathrooms.

 

[danceintherain]

We did a split stay last time, and it's not my favorite. It was for cost reasons.
For our next trip, my parents are paying for 5 nights at BCV. The original plan was to do a 4ish nights at Universal beforehand, but flights ended up being much more expensive with less convenient times than expected. So we'll probably be adding 1-2 days and 2 nights at Disney. BCV seems to be booked.
So, I'm trying to decide between a single room at a Deluxe or a suite at AoA. This will be our last chance to fit in a single room at a Deluxe, so I'm leaning that direction, but I haven't discussed it with my husband yet.
AoA would give us more space.
Or we could do a cabin at Fort Wilderness which would give us some proximity to the Magic Kingdom, but the cabins aren't most conveniently located.

 

[hes122]

When we went last time all of the resorts weren't open again yet, but we did it to try something new. We like Pop a lot and wanted to be there for the convenience of the Skyliner, but weren't interested in the Pirate rooms at CBR (which was all that was left when we booked) and the rooms at Coronado weren't out of our budget so we decided to check it out.

That being said, had I not been sitting on a discount code we likely would've just stayed the whole time at Pop (and that would've been fine with us).

I'd consider doing a split stay again, but the makeup of the group going would ultimately be the determining factor as to whether or not it was worth it.

 

[Pickles516]

I hear ya on the packing/unpacking part. But to me it’s worth it. The tradeoff is walking to and from 3 parks. Hitting Early Entry is literally a walk in the breeze. We left our room 15-20 minutes before it started and it was quick getting back at night. So it helps us get enough sleep even when enjoying the good early and late park hours.

We just got back and used this method: 2 check-in luggages (free on JetBlue w/cc) and packed one for first half and one for second half of stay, just one carry-on we packed with toiletries, swimsuits, and anything else we needed for both parts of our stay. Worked out well.

5 nights or less we prefer just one resort. 2 nights feels too quick to me, not enough time to settle in and really enjoy a resort. I’d only choose split stay with at least 3 nights at each.

The way we pack it takes me maybe 5 minutes to re-pack my entire family so it’s not really a consideration. The time saved by good location/transportation will far outweigh that five minutes.

 

[AndyJ]

I am planning a two week trip at the moment and travelling from the UK. 5 nights at POP for easy access to epcot and HS. Plan is to book a resort near MK for the final 9 nights via DVC rental.

 

[hmansionlover]

We did it when we were at DL. Whole trip was a surprise to the kids. We traveled to San Diego with elder parents who wanted to visit old friends and they needed help navigating. We told the children we are going to San Diego with Grandma & Grandpa and while we are there we will go to the world famous zoo. Which we did. Next day we told the kids to pack their bags we are going up the coast to Anaheim. They had no Idea what was at Anaheim. Just before we got to the train station for Anaheim we pulled out the kids pin trading lanyards and told them your going to need these. They flipped out and finally realized they were going to DL. We made reservations for 1 night at Paradise Pier. Next day while wife and kids went to the park I made up some excuse to move our luggage to the DisneyLand Hotel. On the way back to the hotel they thought we were still staying at we said why don't we check out the Disneyland hotel and see what it looks like. When the kids saw the pool with the monorail slides they said it would be really cool to ride on those knowing from experience at WDW pool hopping was not allowed and they could not. When my wife said well why not go up to our room and put on your bathing suits my kids lost their minds. Split stay worth every dime plus time to move.