Changing Resorts Mid Trip?

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LabCowboy's picture
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Joined: 03/10/2015
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Changing Resorts Mid Trip?

I am relatively new to this site, and I am officially addicted to reading everyone's trip reports. I love seeing pictures of Disney and hearing about everyones vacations.

One thing I have noticed in a decent amount of trip reports is that some people change resorts half way through your vacation? This may be a "dopey" question but why? Are there deals for changing resorts? Or just want to see more then one resort during a vacation? I am sure there is many reasons why...
I honestly had never heard of anyone doing this until I found this website. (granted I don't ask everyone in the park about their accomodation plans!) Tongue
I suppose I am just curious, because maybe we will do this our next trip. Do you find that it is a hassle dealing with the check in/check out process twice? I'd love to hear from you guys if you have experience doing this!

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We have changed resorts on a few of our trips. We did it once to allow the friends we were traveling with to enjoy two different resorts. I do not think we ever did it based on any kind of savings. Truthfully changing resorts is not a major deal but I prefer to stay put once we are settled in. There is no check out process any more so that was not a problem. Checking in was not a problem either but you can run into the room not being ready. I have found I can enjoy my day more if we are checked in, assigned a room, and unpacked before we venture out for the day.

RobynPrincess's picture
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We are resort changers lol (or split stayers), for me the reason is to try out as many resorts at possible. This next trip in November we will be doing 6 nights club level AKL, then value AKL before moving to either the grand floridian or poly. That's over a 3 week period though.

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JoAnn C's picture
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I did a split stay in October 2014. It gave me a chance to experience two new (to me) resorts - All Star Sports and Port Orleans Riverside. Up until this trip I had only stayed in value resorts. By doing the split stay it helped keep the costs down and allowed me the opportunity to stay in a moderate.

I would definately do a split stay again. It was easy to change resorts. They took care of my luggage. I took a taxi from one resort to the other.

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That was a good question! I always wondered about that. We've never done a split stay, but I can see the benefits, especially with an extended stay.

Though I tend to unpack everything and spread stuff out all over the room, so the thought of having to spend time repacking to move to another resort and unpacking again is the only downside for me.

I also tend to just like to get settled and be done with it.

LabCowboy's picture
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JeffC wrote:
That was a good question! I always wondered about that. We've never done a split stay, but I can see the benefits, especially with an extended stay.

Though I tend to unpack everything and spread stuff out all over the room, so the thought of having to spend time repacking to move to another resort and unpacking again is the only downside for me.

I also tend to just like to get settled and be done with it.

That's a great point that on an extended stay you can truly explore new resorts. I am like you, when I get there I like to unpack and then not look at my suitcase till leaving day!

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Allie's picture
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While we've never done a split stay, we do plan to in the future. The reason being, it is my goal to eventually stay at all of the Disney resorts. It would also help us with costs to do half of the stay at a value and then move to a deluxe (never the other way around! eek ) the second half.

LabCowboy's picture
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Allie wrote:
While we've never done a split stay, we do plan to in the future. The reason being, it is my goal to eventually stay at all of the Disney resorts. It would also help us with costs to do half of the stay at a value and then move to a deluxe (never the other way around! eek ) the second half.

That would definitely give some bragging rights, being able to say you stayed at EVERY resort!

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We do split stays because of availability at the Disney Vacation Club resorts. Not sure how familiar you are with DVC, but you can book at 11 months out where you own points and you can switch if available at the 7-month mark. We often go for 7-10 nights and it's hard to find that many nights together at 7-months out during busy DVC seasons, so we will often choose to stay 3-4 nights at one resort. It allows us to try more reorts and still get a good value for our vacation dollar.

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LabCowboy's picture
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alicemouse wrote:
We do split stays because of availability at the Disney Vacation Club resorts. Not sure how familiar you are with DVC, but you can book at 11 months out where you own points and you can switch if available at the 7-month mark. We often go for 7-10 nights and it's hard to find that many nights together at 7-months out during busy DVC seasons, so we will often choose to stay 3-4 nights at one resort. It allows us to try more reorts and still get a good value for our vacation dollar.

Wow thats cool, I honestly do not know a lot about DVC. I didnt realize you could go to different DVC resorts, i assumed you were commited to the one. Shows how much i know about them! Tongue Our next trip I may swing by one of their stands in the lobby. I looked at pictures in one of their books one time, but never asked questions about them.

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Kristen K.'s picture
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LabCowboy wrote:

One thing I have noticed in a decent amount of trip reports is that some people change resorts half way through your vacation? This may be a "dopey" question but why? Are there deals for changing resorts? Or just want to see more then one resort during a vacation?

I think that there are a couple of reasons people do split stays.

1) For DVC Members who want to try different resorts it can sometimes be difficult to get reservations at the 7 month out mark. Having a split stay in your trip can let you experience other DVC resorts outside of your "home." Many DVC Members will book at their home at 11 months so that they have a room, and then try to get a room at another resort when the 7 month window opens up. Split stays happen a lot during times that special events are going on.

2) Some people would like to stay at Deluxe resorts but can't afford to spend their entire vacation there. Splitting the stay can add a bit of an upgrade to your trip without completely breaking the bank.

3) I've also known folks that go down for work, their job may be providing a stay for part of the trip (the convention hotels mostly) and then they extend their stay for the weekend or whatever at their favorite resort, or the one that best fits their budget.