Just repacked and put the CV cup back on my MR2 (so, relevelant in that it's a transverse setup, even if it's shifted back a bit, shouldn't be too different with a vw, right? maybe?):
Depends on how far you want to go, replacing the half shaft with cv assemblies would be easiest, as long as you can undo the hub side with an impact to something. if you do want to just do the cup/bearing, that's still doable, you should be able to disconnect the inner joint from the differential with a hefty hand full of torque to the retaining bolts, then pull off the boot and slide off the cup. clean out the liquefied grease, and undoing a circlip should let you pull off the bearings (a hammer will be necessary). clean/replace as necessary and pack in plenty of CV specific grease.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly
(I would recommend cleaning the splines well to aid with shoving the bearings back on the shaft likely to require the aid of a large socket to avoid hammering the bearings, and another hammer.)
all said and done, it would be easier to do the half shaft, but if you're working on the cheap, it's not too bad.
Day and a half sounds excessive. I got one cv bearing removed, cleaned, reinstalled, and reassembled in the halfshaft in, I would estimate to be, less than 90 min sitting under a 4post lift. I bodged around a bit and the most difficult part was getting to the bolts behind the heatshield ...which would have been unnecessary if I had just rotated the wheel. Whoops.