One trip - two resorts - Advice?

[Tinkerbellfan]

Hi Everyone,

I am at the starting stages of planning a trip for 4 adults to WDW in late November/early December. The party will consist of me (32), my boyfriend (30), my mom (62) and her fiancee (62). My boyfriend have gone to WDW a handful of times since 2001. My mom and her fiancee havn't get in over 15 years.

My boyfriend and I love the Wilderness Lodge and really want to stay there especially with the Christmas decorations. My mother really wants to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge and possibly the concierge level for the Morning safarri.

We have two options - we can spend 3 nights at each reports (which my boyfriend isn't excited about) or we stay at different resorts. I am concerned about staying at different reports because The Animal Kingdom lodge is so far away from everthing else. And, even though we will be renting a car, I feel like we could loose a lot of time waiting for each other.

We also may consider getting a dining meal package so we are curious how staying at two different resorts may effect this.

So, my questions are:

Has anyone split there 6 night vacation between two resorts and if so, was it worth hassle?

Has anyone stayed at a different resort from their traveling companions and if so, was it worth the hassle?

Thanks!

[auntfrannie]

I split a 10 night stay between Yacht Club and AKL. It wasn't any hassle at all because the resort will transfer your luggage for you. Changing resorts with the dining plan does up the cost for some reason. I looked into splitting my resorts for my upcoming trip and it was going to cost $500 more.

The bus service from the resorts is pretty good. Even though we have cars with us we only used them to go to DTD. My group of 7 didn't stay together every day so we always had different transportation going on.

I will say that we were really disappointed in the Mousekeeping at AKL but it was great at the Yacht Club.

[richardsa98]

I think when it comes to Mousekeeping you can't compare resorts because we had AWESOME Mousekeeping at Animal Kingdom Lodge and terrible Mousekeeping (to the point where we stopped leaving our day to day tips) at Wilderness Lodge! It all depends on your service worker:)
As far as AKL being so far away, it really isn't any farther than anywhere else and the bus system is great! You should however consider that both hotels are wonderful experiences! I would never trade the opportunity to stay at either one of them;)
My vote, if it matters, is to split your stay and get the best of both worlds:thumbsup:

[Trixie1822]

split your stay !!!! :thumbsup:
We did that the last time in the world and trust me, it was very great... and no problem, the resort take care of all.

[BigRedDad]

I wouldn't recommend for a party to stay at different resorts. The timings would make everything be delayed for one reason or another. If you choose to stay at different resorts, make plans to meet somewhere in the park at specific times. This way if part of the party is not there yet, you are not stuck waiting.

Example:

8AM Gates to MK
9:00AM Front of Splash Mtn
9:30AM Front of Big Thunder Mtn

This way you are not losing your precious time as crowds begin to grow while someone else is taking their time.

Personally, I am fretting my trip with our family in 2009 the more I think about it. There will be a 2 year that wants to do something, my 3 year old will want to do something else. The grandparents are going to be pulled in different directions, in-fighting will start, and it will no longer be a vacation.

[Brer Mickey]

We have split our stays between resorts many times, and have also stayed at a different resort from others in our party. As others have already noted, the transfer between resorts is generally seamless as the resort CMs transfer your bags for you.

As for staying at seperate resorts, we did that once in 1999 with my parents staying in the cabins at Fort Wilderness and me and my family at Boardwalk. We had a rental car (there were six of us total), but we spent alot of time driving back and forth between the resorts. It was all because my dad was too cheap to rent his own car/pay for boardwalk which he could have easily payed for.

Resort hopping from my point of view is great. You get to compare the resorts in the same trip, and it adds a little excitement in the middle of the trip.

I would however, definately not split resorts between parties again. It sounds to me that everyone is going to have to compromise a little and if you can get that out of the way early, then everyone will have a great time planning and anticipating the trip.

[Tinkerbellfan]

Thanks so much for all of your replies!

[mouseketeer mom]

We split our stay between AKL concierge, and the WL villas this past Jan. into Feb. We did 4 nites at each. I was glad we split the stay because I don't know that I would've been happy the whole time at AKL..it IS far from everything. I didn't even feel like I was in Florida. The only tricky part was keeping track of stuff with the kids and staying organized so moving day wasn't too stressful. Since you're not travelling with kids, moving day should be easy! I would not hesitate to split a stay again.

[Tinkerfreak]

Another think to think about is if you are planning to do a package plan it will cost alot more. Each resort stay is considered a seperate reservation so it costs more for tickets because the more days you buy the cheaper it is per day. Another thing is the dining plan, you have to use up all of your meal credits from the first resort stay before you check out or you lose them, they can't be carrier over to your stay at the next resort. We considered doing this last year but it would have cost us alot more money. This year we are considering a split stay but we won't be doing a package deal.
I think alot of people love to do split stays and it sounds like a great way to experience 2 different resorts but make sure you get all the info first. I'm sure someone at Magical Journeys would be very helpful with this.

[Mickey91]

I am pretty sure you cannot split your dining. It goes with your first resort. We have switched when we had too. The first week of Dec. '06 was booked solid throughout all of WDW except the $1600.00 Villa at SSR (yeah right). We had to split between WL and Pop. I would not split the vacation for anything I could avoid. It would be much better to stay at separate resorts. Just make sure you have a firm time to meet and it shouldn't be a problem.

As far as the tickets, if you decide to split your stay, you can still place your tickets for the entire stay on the first resort. Your park days do not have to match your resort stay. This will save you $$. After the 4th day, each extra day is only about $2 a person. Then book a room only for the second resort. If you add dining to the package, just make sure to use all your credits by midnight of the day you check out of the first resort.

Have fun! It is a beautiful time of year. Make those reservations soon!!!! For what is suppose to be one of the slowest weeks, the resorts were sold out last year!