Planning Thoughts & Tips

Split Stays

A split stay just means you’ve booked more than one hotel for your visit. There are a lot of reasons people do this and it’s usually not because the hotel they wanted was booked up.

Split Stays at Disneyland, CA

While the parks at Disneyland are fantastic, the “Good Neighbor” hotels skew the average way down on the hotels. You’ve got your three deluxe hotels - The Grand Californian, The Disneyland Hotel, and Pixar Place (nee Paradise Pier) - which are great, but they’re priced out of reach for most people and of course there’s only three of them. Everything else just feels tatty by comparison [I must speak my truth!]. It’s a real shame. This is where WDW benefits from having started life as a swamp in the middle of nowhere and why Disney was smart to secretly buy up as much of it as they could before anyone caught on. You can stay at one of the All Stars, or PopC/AoA, at WDW for the same price as the least expensive Good Neighbor hotel in Anaheim and still get the full Disney experience. And maybe you hop on a bus (or the Skyliner, which is objectively cool!) to get to the Parks, but the bus is clean and comfortable and smells nice… You’re in the bubble! At all times! And when the kids are small, All Star Movies is just as magical as any of the deluxe hotels - that giant Buzz Lightyear butt is hard to beat! We recently ended a Disneyland trip at a Good Neighbor hotel thinking it was a way to wrap up our trip, but the drop in quality was steep. TBH it was a depressing end to the trip.

This is where split stays can be really useful. If you want to have Park time and resort time without completely breaking the bank, here’s what I would suggest:
Start your trip at the Good Neighbor (or just cheaper) hotel and go at the Parks from dawn til dusk so you’re not in the room too much. Then book a Big 3 for the remainder of your trip, starting with a resort day so you can take a break after those dawn-to-dusk days you just had. Wrap it up with another park day (or two), then take your time on checkout day, maybe with a character brunch or something special at the resort. You can spend that entire day at the resort even after you’ve checked out so, depending on how far you have to travel, make it count.

It’s tempting to think that the last day doesn’t really matter and that the last night is what counts. If you’re someone who likes to sleep til 2 in the afternoon then jump straight in the car - or if you have a 7AM flight and have to be up and out of the room at 4AM - that might be true… but if you’re planning to wake up and have breakfast or do anything but leave immediately, I recommend making your last day a proper Disney Resort Day!

Split Stays at Walt Disney World

There are a couple of reasons. First, similar to the Disneyland split stay - but without the patina of sadness - a WDW split stay can save you money. You could spend most of your trip at a value and then spring for a last night (or two) at a deluxe with a theme park view. So many people do this that Disney offers a free inter-resort luggage transfer service. It’s not something you have to strategize - just know that your bags won’t show up til later in the day and you cannot specify when, so plan accordingly!

There are a couple of other really great reasons for a split stay, though. First is experiential. Waking up with a Zebra chillaxing outside your window at Animal Kingdom Lodge is a one-of-a-kind experience (so I’m told - I haven’t actually stayed there yet). So is staying in a Tiana-themed princess suite or doing god knows what in the Cabins at Fort Wilderness. Aside from the inconvenience of having to repack your bags, getting to experience different types of lodging is a big draw at WDW. You can definitely do that by resort hopping but there’s something nice about going to bed and then waking up somewhere (the same somewhere!) rather than just stopping by for dinner or drinks and not getting the full vibe.

The second reason is geographical. I like to be within walking distance of things as much as possible, which is one of the reasons I love BLT so much (it’s 5 minutes from Magic Kingdom. In a pinch, I’ll take the main tower or garden wing of the Contempo, even though I preferred it before the Incredibles theming took over.) Staying at BLT is great for MK, but so is staying at the Boardwalk and being able to walk over to EPCOT. It fun to be on a Monorail resort, but the Skyliner is great, too! This is where the experiential and geographic intermingle.

Split Stays at Tokyo Disney Resort

Two Words: Exclusive Tote Bag.

I know, that was three words. Listen - the hotels have their own exclusive merch, including a - frankly - elevated tote bag set that you can only buy if you are staying at the hotel. So the more hotels you stay at, the more exclusive merch you have access to. They will also transfer your luggage but who even cares!? You get to buy an exclusive bag for, like, I don’t know, $130? No one knows... I got the Disneyland and the Fantasy Springs versions and of course and there’s a deeply unhinged part of me that regrets not having gotten the Mira Costa one as well - even though it was not altogether appealing and I had to draw a line. (There’s also an Ambassador hotel version, but we didn’t stay there.) This legendary tote has a smaller bag inside it and a little matching luggage tag. The rivets are mickey shaped! But of course you can NEVER use this bag in case it gets scuffed! Although I suppose the true flex is to use the bag like it’s no big deal. Maybe you use it to buy potatoes at the market or to carry odds and ends at a car boot sale? I don’t know your life! I saw a woman in the lobby of the Mira Costa wearing Disney x Gucci sneakers carrying a Fantasy Springs tote she had clearly used as her carry on bag (on a filthy airplane!) - and she looked bored. It was a triple flex.

On a similar note, I will try to pick up a fridge magnet from any hotel I stay at which, while not unto itself a reason for split stays certainly taps into that same deeply unhinged part of my brain that spent $250 on tote bags just so I could put them in a cupboard and never use them!

Split Stays Everywhere Else

The other resorts are pretty isolated so your options really boil down to a price/proximity equation within the bubble. The same is true in Tokyo, really, because the exclusive merch is only at the deluxe hotels.

To Incredi-Pass or Not to Incredi-Pass

Here’s how I mathed my math on the Incredi-pass this year. Your mileage may vary. (All prices are including tax.)

I have 3 trips on the books between September, 2025 and January, 2026. This is pretty unusual!

• September, two-day park hopper: $359.68

• October (no park tickets yet - but tix for me and the kid to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party):

  • two-day park hopper: $442.99;

  • one-day park hopper: $264.12

• January, 2026 - one week solo trip. (proposed 8-day Park Hopper): $940.90
  

An Incredi-Pass is: $1,649.69
With the $100 GC (which you bet I am factoring in!) it’s $1,549.69

Total Spent on tickets just for me:
With one-day option in October: $1,564.70
With two-day option in October: $1,743.57

If it was just the $$ amount and we were only doing one-day park hopper for the October trip, we would save a whopping $15 by getting the Incredi-Pass. But I know us, and I know that we’re 100% going to want to do a 2-day park-hopper. That’s the first thing. We are not going to be able to sit at the resort and wait until 4pm when we can go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We are going to want to go to a Park, even if it’s not MK - which it will be because we’re 5 minutes from the entrance and about 10 minutes from Sunshine Terrace where the Dole Whip awaits…

So, with the 2-day park-hopper we are looking at a savings of: $193.88

Even without that, we’d be saving more than just the $15 though. We’re also saving an additional $259 by re-booking our hotels in September and October at Annual Passholder rates, so let’s add that to our savings as well.

Now we’re up to a savings of: $452.88.

There are also discounts on merch and dining in the parks - up to 20% in some cases, which is pretty great too. Finally, there’s a discount of several hundred dollars when you renew the pass for the following year, which presumably is to discourage people from leaving gaps in between passes and trying to make the math work out a bit more advantageously by staggering annual passes so they effectively last longer (make sense?).

Before you rush to buy an Incredi-Pass - or any other large purchase - make sure the math actually maths! And be careful that you don’t start planning extra trips thinkng, “Well, it’s free!” or “I can pay for it in monthly installments, so I won’t even notice!” There’s always an opportunity cost. Disney have done their research. They know that you’re more likely to go more often if you think a big chunk of it is free. The hotel is not free!

Thinking about a Trip?

I love planning, but even I find it daunting. It’s work! And even if you like doing the research, when it comes time to score the reservations, the ADRs, the special bookings, and all the rest of it, it can be difficult. A lot of it is time sensitive. If that all sounds like too much work for a vacation, you might want to try using a licensed Disney Travel Agent - one who really knows their stuff, like the folks at Best Day Ever.

You probably have questions.

How much does it cost to use a travel agent!?
Nothing! It’s free. Disney pays the commission, not you!

So I have nothing to lose?
That’s right! In fact, even if you’re a seasoned Disney Vacationer (Vacationeer?), like me, there’s stuff you don’t know about. You can’t possibly keep up with every event or special offer (they’re not always on the website!)… that’s the Travel Agent’s #1 job. Whether it’s your first trip, or your 100th trip, a Disney Travel Agent is going to make it even more amazing. And if you’re a seasoned Disney Adult, just let them know.

So I can say, “I’m a Disney Adult…”
That’s right! They’ll be all, “I see you!” And they’ll cut right to the chase.

Is it OK if I ask you a few more questions “offline”?
Yes, of course! Use my “Contact” form (it’s in the footer).