Have you ever toured other WDW resorts while on your stay?

[Hnymoon@Dixie]

For this trip, my DH & I thought we'd take a half day & check out all of the resorts we've never stayed at on site.

Just a quick walk on the grounds,
see the pools (not swim in them), the restaurants, etc. Our curiosity has gotten to us since reading all of the reviews on this board. Has anyone else done this? If you go using WDW Busses will anyone stop us?

[hoosll]

We always make a point to visit the other resorts - definitely ride the monorail and check out CR, GF and Poly OR walk around the epcot resorts to see YC, BC and BWI

Each resort gift shop is unique as well - I love the gift shops at WL, AKL, FW, Poly and BC.

Have a drink in one of the lounges....

[Ocean]

Have we ever toured other resorts? You betcha! Our touring actually started out with a character breakfast at another resort. We really enjoy seeing the different theming each resort offers. We've never had any trouble with hopping on different resort buses. The one exception for you might be the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I seem to recall reading that you can't just visit that resort unless you have dining reservations. (You might want to let a reservation figure into your plans.) Happy touring!

[BethC1952]

"Resort Hopping" is one of our favorite activities!

My dream is to have a WDW stay where I don't go to the parks at all, but spend my time seeing all the resorts (and all the gift shops, restaurants and lounges). Unfortunately, every time I book a trip, I end up with someone who wants to do the parks! LOL!

Of course, this trip we're going to check out the Christmas decorations at as many resorts as we can, because "Grandpa" loves Christmas stuff!

Beth

[Greg K.]

During one trip, we had two days of torrential rain, so we spent one afternoon doing just that. We had a car, which made it easier. We were stopped at the gate by the security guard, but we told him what we were up to -- "We're staying at the Grand Floridian, but we'd like to look at other hotels for our next trip!" -- and he waved us right through.

TIP: If it's a slower time of year, and a slow time of the day, and you don't see a mob of people trying to check in or out, ask if you can see a room. If they have one free, they'll usually try to accomodate you.

Enjoy!



:rolleyes:

[KarenB]

We love doing this!! Actually, just last Saturday, we visited AKL. We simply told the guard that we wanted to look around and there was no problem at all!!!! No time limit or questions asked.

Karen

[The_Disney_God]

Yeah.

When I graduate high school, I'm taking a friend to Disney, and thats what we will do for one day. Resort hop.

[Hnymoon@Dixie]

Originally posted by BethC1952
"Resort Hopping" is one of our favorite activities!

My dream is to have a WDW stay where I don't go to the parks at all, but spend my time seeing all the resorts (and all the gift shops, restaurants and lounges). Unfortunately, every time I book a trip, I end up with someone who wants to do the parks! LOL!


Beth

That's funny, Beth, we will be @ the WL for 8 days & will only buy a park hopper for 4 or 5 of the days!!

PS- I see you are in Long Branch, I work just around the corner on Industrial Way West in Eatontown!!!
(we live in Toms River)

SMALL WORLD!!!

HAHA!! No Pun Intended!!

[kimmar067]

(I'm from northern New Jersey area). I, too, like to do this. In fact, when we visited WDW in Nov, we had PS's for Whispering Canyon (we were staying at Dolphin) and loved it so much that this trip we will be spending 1/2 our stay at WL! (we are doing a split stay - CBR and WL) On the other hand, we ALWAYS make breakfast PS's at Chef Mickey's, but we definitely DO NOT care for the Contempo.....:cool:

[sharoncity]

As you can tell, touring resorts is a favorite past time of many of us. I wanted to include a word of caution for you though. You ask about using the busses to do this tour. While you can certainly use the buses, you should remember that there is no direct service from one resort to another. So to do it by bus, you would have to go to a resort and then return to a park before hopping a bus to the next resort. This would be VERY time consuming. If you have a car, just drive from one resort to the next. Otherwise, when leaving MK, hop on the monorail and get off at each of the three resorts and look around. When at World Showcase, walk over to YC/BC and Boardwalk. When at MGM, take the boat or walk over to Dolphin and Swan. From DD, take the boat over to POR/POFQ. If going to TL, take the bus over to CBR and/or CSR. While at AK, take the bus over to AKL.
You get the picture! Have fun!!!!:)

[Kermit]

We love resort hopping, but we usually make it part of our park touring. We really enjoy leaving the parks for lunch at a nearby resort, so we pick one that's close to whatever park we're in.

[Praise2Him]

Last October we wanted to check out resorts for our March visit. We went to the Dolphin and the Beach Club. We went up to the front desk and told them we were thinking about staying there next time and asked if we could see a room. Both were very accomodating and let us. The Dolphin just gave us a key and told us to go look. The Beach Club CM went with us and showed it to us. We've also scheduled meals at various resorts just so we could see them (WL, GF, CR). After the meal we walked around and looked at everything. It's fun!

[Dodie]

We OFTEN do this! It's a nice break AND it's very interesting/entertaining. It's especially nice to tour the monorail hotels, hopping off at each one.

We've never had anyone stop us or give us any trouble doing this.

[MKFan-PR]

We LOVE doing this! We love the MK resorts. What we sometimes do is on one of our last remaining days, we hit MK in the morning, then take the Monorail to one of the Resorts and have lunch (usually Kona or Captain Cook's in the Poly), then hang around the resort, then ride the Resort Monorail loop to GF and CR and back to Poly. Then we walk or take the Express Monorail to the TTC, where we get a bus to WL (WL is a must on all opur visits!). After we're done, we take to boat to MK to finish our day.

For the other resorts, we take a car and have not had any problems with the guards telling them where we're staying and saying we want to look around.

I can't wait to see AKL. I have PS for Jiko so I won't have any problems!

[ehagerty]

Whenever we have visitors (we are DVC members and AP Holders), we always do a resort tour. Two thoughts:

1. Half day is not enough, unless you are working from a restricted list.

2. Make sure you end up at the Grand Floridian from 4-9. Park (yourself) in the lobby with a nice glass of wine and enjoy 5 hours of "free" entertainment - alternating between a very accomplished piano player (who takes requests) and a 6 piece jazz band. (Always check schedule ahead of time - you never know when they are going to change things).

3. If you have limited time, do the "monorail circuit". Ideally:

3a. Park at Polynesian. View lobby/grounds. Be aware that they might want to limit the amount of time in the parking lot - negotiate using the angle that you want to stay at the resorts in the future (mentioned by someone else). They have to limit the parking time or everyone would park there for the MK and there wouldn't be enough parking spots for the resort guests.

3b. Get back on monorail. Pass through GF and MK

3c. When you get off at the Contemporary:

3c-1. Take the elevator to a top floor - go out and walk the outside, top balcony/perimeter for the view. See MK, WL, GF - and eagles!!!

3c-2. Take the boat from the CR marina over to the Wilderness Lodge - get off and see lobby/grounds. Get back on boat to return to CR via Ft. Wilderness (stop but don't get off unless you have time - it is charming, but not stunning).

4. Get back on monorail and get off at GF - See #2

Enjoy!!

[MinnieGi]

We've done resort hopping too and throughougly enjoyed it!

Last visit we did the MK monorail resorts. We were staying at WL so we boated to CR then monorailed to Poly and GF. We toured a room at each resort too. Very nice CM's showed us their accomadations and answered our questions. We checked out their shops and viewed restaurant menus and had lunch at the GF. I highly recommend resort hopping!

Next trip I want to do the Epcot hotels for touring.
Enjoy!

[jwwi]

On our 4/02 trip we stayed at CBR. We went to AKL to check it out after spending the morning at AK. We had a car and told the attendant that we were going for a drink. We were so in awe of the place that we skipped the drink and just walked around. My husband said that we need to stay there sometime. I usually go for moderate/sometimes allstar, who knows maybe next trip? The day we flew home we went to Poly for lunch, we told the attendant and he gave us a 4-5hour pass. Then took boat to MK, switched to another boat to WL. I love that resort, but DH said he would rather stay at AKL. Would have liked to visit GF, but ran out of time.
I have visited WDW in Dec and saw many of the different decorations, for anyone who goes during that time I highly recomend that. The GF is not to be missed at Christmas, we had tea. I could have stayed for hours in their lobby, it is beautiful.

[Beanie]

Yes!! We always do this...it usually ends up with us staying there then! LOL...

While we were staying at WL in May, we went to Boma's one night at AKL for supper...after touring the resort and seeing how beautiful the grounds were, we went to the Lobby, used a phone to dial CRO and got a room for the following week with a Savannah view!! :) I absolutely love touring the resorts!! It helps me decide where I want to stay next! :)

[DeeCee]

We love to explore other resorts. That is what we are going to do on July 4th. I understand that the parks are terribly crowded so we thought this would be a good day to do it.

[Richyams]

The first thing I thought of was number 1, on eghardty(sp)'s list. !/2 day is not enough.

We also do what has been mentioned several times. We explore other resorts by eating at them. All of the resorts have unique dining experiences. The nice part is that you often don't need PS unless it is a monorail resort. Even then, I usually have a loose plan with a hazy sketch of our trip several weeks before. I will make a few PSs just for resort touring.

Our last visit had us spending a good part of a day at AKL. We liked it so much that even though we are DVC members, our next stay will be in an AKL concierge room.

[ThumperThistle]

Yes we have resort hopped too.
The only resort we haven't seen yet is Animal Kingdom Lodge but thats on the plans for this trip.

[eeyore0062]

We do this on EVERY trip! It is a highlight for us. When we do the ones on the monorail, we leave MK during the hot part of the day, and hop on the monorail spend the hot part of the afternoon resort hopping. We have lunch at one, and shop in others, stroll along the beaches and take pictures. We also tend to do this when at Epcot, as well. Leave Epcot about one, and go to Boardwalk, have a beer and sandwich at Big River Grille, and shop. On the night that we eat at Cape May Cafe, after we eat we tour the Yacht and Beach Club, and then walk over to Boardwalk. Afterwards, we catch the bus to Downtown Disney, and from there back to our home resort.

If you want to visit the other resorts, the easiest way is by car, though!

[figmentvi]

Absolutely. That's how we decide which hotel to stay during our next trip.

It's a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon in WDW.

Although I must say I'm pretty spoiled now and will probably only stay at YC or WL. I just love those resorts !!!!

[IAMaGR8DISMOM]

Don't forget to go into the Wilderness Lodge and view the amazing lobby, stop in at Artist Point and have appetizer and beverage.....

love that place!!




:Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc

[DramaTech]

Does the area in the Grand Floridian where the jazz band plays have a dance floor at all? If not, ever seen anyone dancing anyways? Also, is it a nice enough place to put on something a little nicer than normal theme park dress?

Thanks in advance.

[Bim-muv-fab]

Resort hopping is one of the best parts of the trip. A fun thing to do is to take a 1/2 day or a day to relax and just hop around to the resorts, shop, etc. At the end of the day you should have a pretty good "big picture" of the Disney resorts, so you can discuss which resort you think should be next on the overhaul list. There can often be some distinct issues requiring attention that are recognizable when you visit several resorts at one time.

[ebk2795]

We were in Disney in 1997 when the Coronado Springs was to open. On the last day of our vacation, Disney had an open house at the Coronado Springs. We hopped on the bus and went over. It was wonderful. We got to see all the guest areas, and they even had some of the rooms opened to look at. Have any of the other hotels done that before they opened?

[Steven Forrest]

We've been doing this for 12 years now. Usually we get 5 - 10 visits per trip. As others have stated it's great for a rainy day also. Hotel Hopping can be very tough if you'e using buses though. I don't believe you can go resort to resort directly (it's been a long time since I've used the buses).

steve

[Amgrease]

We have annual passes and we make it a point on a lot of our day trips to go to a hotel for lunch. Then we look around in the hottest part of the day. We love to go to the Yacht Club Galley for lunch because then we can walk around YC and BC and afterwards head over to BW for some shopping and entertaining.

[B3LM]

I love resort hopping! On every trip, I always visit all of the monorail resorts plus WL. On our last trip, we visited AsMo because we were considering a future stay there. We drove our own vehicle and told the security guard at the entrance that we wanted to check out the place. Our kids fell in love with AsMo, so we're planning on staying there in November. (Already stayed at AsSp and AsMu and were very happy with both.)

For our November trip, I have one "off park" day that I'm hoping to visit some of the moderate resorts! I'd love to walk around POR and CBR.

Beth

[imbe@aol.com]

Originally posted by Hnymoon@Dixie
For this trip, my DH & I thought we'd take a half day & check out all of the resorts we've never stayed at on site.

Just a quick walk on the grounds,
see the pools (not swim in them), the restaurants, etc. Our curiosity has gotten to us since reading all of the reviews on this board. Has anyone else done this? If you go using WDW Busses will anyone stop us?

Sure, I've done it! I've still not seen them all as thoroughly as I'd like though. And also.... I'm not sure that just a half day is going to be enough time to tour ALL the resorts ..

Judi