Staying at Two Different Resorts on Trip

[Figaro0826]

My and DH and I are planning our 4th trip to Walt Disney World.
We want to stay the first two nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge
and 6 nights at the Wilderness Lodge.
( was at the Wilderness Lodge for our first anniversary)

My question is , what is the transition between resorts, do they transport your bags, and can you get dropped of Magic Express at one and picked up at the second ?, Or do you need to go to the first one to get magical express? Also, is it just a matter of picking up keys or do we have to do a seperate checkin ? And finally, can you get park tickets and dining plan together for all 8 nights or seperate plans?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.:mickey:

[DakotaDisney]

My question is , what is the transition between resorts, do they transport your bags,
Yes, I believe you can have your bags transferred.


and can you get dropped of Magic Express at one and picked up at the second ?, Or do you need to go to the first one to get magical express?
You can use ME from 2 different resorts. I am using 2 different resorts on my trip in May.


Also, is it just a matter of picking up keys or do we have to do a seperate checkin ?
I would think you have to do a seperate checkin, because there are booked as 2 seperate reservations.


And finally, can you get park tickets and dining plan together for all 8 nights or seperate plans?
You can get park tickets for all 8 nights on one resort. They are good for 14 days. But you can not get the dinning plan for all 8 nights billed on one resort. Any dinning or other premium plans must be booked with each resort for the number of days at that resort. You can get it for your whole trip, but it has to be done in 2 seperate packages, one for each resort. Does that make sense?

[faline]

On our last trip, we spent two nights at Pop Century before transferring over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Each is a separate reservation and you need to check in at each resort. They will transport your bags from one resort to the other. We opted, however, to take our baggage with us and just took a taxi from one resort to the next.

You can't have one package that covers both resorts. You would need to book two separate packages and you would need to have at least one day of tickets on each package. You may also find this a bit more expensive due to the overlap between checking out of one resort and into the other.

You can definitely take Magical Express to one resort and from a different one. However, be sure that you have reservations for both legs of the trip. When we checked in at the airport, we discovered that our return trip from our second resort had not been properly booked. This was resolved with one quick phone call.

[Tinkerfreak]

We almost did the split stay a couple of years ago and decided not to because it was going to cost quite a bit more money. It is treated like 2 different packages so you have to use up all dining credits from the first stay before checking in for the second stay plus you lose the savings you get by purchasing more days. We just did not want to deal with the hassle so we stayed at one place.
Last year we stayed one night at the AKL with a room only ressie. We didn't arrive until late afternoon anyway so we did not get tickets for this day. We arrived, checked in and used the pool for a while and then went to DTD because you don't need park tickets for this. The next morning we checked out of the AKL and took a bus to the MK and hopped the monorail to the Poly and checked in there. They transfered our luggage for us but we were told it would not be there until as late as 3:00. We just headed to the MK for the day and by the time we went back to the Poly our room was ready and our lugguge had arrived. It really wasn't too much hassle but make sure you have everything you need for the day with you and not in your luggage.
The only thing we really could complain about was we could not settle in the first night because we knew we were moving the next day. If we did not have kids with us we would do it again but for now we are sticking to one resort and will just visit the others for dinner or something.

[Figaro0826]

Wow folks thanks for all the wonderful advice, I knew I could count on you.

So I guess this will be the plan:
ME to AKL , hang out at the lodge, get park ticket for next day at AK Park.
Do dining plan for 2 nights.

Then check out , go over to WL , get dining plan for remainder 6 nights and 7 day park tickets, I can see I'll be paying a little more for tickets but for me to stay at a savannah room during Value season will be worth. ME back.
Like the DVC video, I'll be the one in the morning to see my favorite animal and yell
"Giraffe'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We visited the AKL briefly during our honeymoon trip in 2006, ate at Boma's being orginally from Maine you get to try out that many types of food that we just did'nt have . What a great atmosphere they create.

Ahhhhhh, Disney dreamin on a such a winter's day. .......:cloud9:

[2Epcot]

Looks like your questions have been answered, but I'll say I've split my stay between resorts on most of my trips to WDW and it always worked out well. It's a great way to see several of the resorts, especially when you don't get there very often like me.

[dizneeat]

Do you have to do AKL first?
Otherwise, if you turn it around and get WL first, you could get all 8 or 9 day tickets there, which I guess would be cheaper than buying two sets (9 day ticket 223,- without tax, 7 day ticket 219,- + 1 day ticket 71,- = base ticket!!) and get the DDP for the first part. We had a hard time finishing off all our DP credits last time and you could use the remainder of your credits on the day you move from one resort to another. Then pay out of pocket for food at AKL. I guess this could save you some money - sorry, but I am Scrooge McDuck in our family.

[MizMissy]

Sounds like dizneeat's plan is the best cost-wise. Also, for some reason, I thought you had to have at least a 3 day reservation to book the dining plan.

[xipetotec]

My and DH and I are planning our 4th trip to Walt Disney World.
We want to stay the first two nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge
and 6 nights at the Wilderness Lodge.
( was at the Wilderness Lodge for our first anniversary)

My question is , what is the transition between resorts, do they transport your bags, and can you get dropped of Magic Express at one and picked up at the second ?, Or do you need to go to the first one to get magical express? Also, is it just a matter of picking up keys or do we have to do a seperate checkin ? And finally, can you get park tickets and dining plan together for all 8 nights or seperate plans?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.:mickey:

Well I can tell you from VERY recent experience. We were on our DVC, but the process is the same.

We stayed at AKV for 3 nights. Had Magical Express drop us off and bring our bags there. Then on Saturday March 1st, we simply brought our bags down to Bell services, told them where to send them off to, and went to the parks for the day. Then went to BCV.

You DO need to check out of the first resort, and check in to the next resort. And you just go over to Bell Services to get your bags retrieved.

Dining Plan goes by night and is bound to your resort reservation. So whatever number of nights you have on your first resort reservation will expire at midnight on the day you check out from that resort, but then you can simply have the dining plan on your other room. I assume you can do the same thing for park admission ( we bought our tickets at a discount site so this was not an issue for us ).

Finally Magical Express will pick you up wherever you are to go back to the airport. just call them and tell them where you need a ride from.