Dining at Resorts w/o Park Passes??

[Suzanne033]

We will be going to Disney in June for a combination of a quick Disney vacation and, more importantly, my daughter is participating in the AAU Volleyball Nationals at Wide World of Sports.

Because of her tournament schedule we will only have time to visit the parks for three days (Sun, Mon, Tues) therefore are only buying 3-day passes.

My questions is this: We are staying off property at Windsor Palms with the rest of the team and was wondering if we find ourselves with a little downtime could we pop over to have dinner at one of the Disney resorts without having to purchase a park pass. Specifically, we were thinking of dining at either the Contemporary (Cali Grill) or the Polynesian to watch Wishes Fireworks on one of the days of her tourney after we have exhausted our park passes.

Thank you in advance for your comments.

 

[figment_jii]

You do not need to have park tickets to eat at the resorts. Have fun!

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

You only need them to eat in the parks so your good to go!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Yes. But you may have a problem at this time getting June reservations, especially at CG or 'Ohana.

 

[luckyfin]

We have watched Wishes from the Poly beach, and while fun- it just wasn't the same for us. Glad I did it, not sure we would plan around it again. I think I would use the night to eat at one of the delicious restaurants at Downtown Disney or possibly (but less likely) at the Boardwalk paired with a round of mini golf. All that being said, we do love the monorail resort restaurants so I don't think you can go wrong either way.

 

[Suzanne033]

Thanks for all your responses!!!!

I have another questions. Can you simply drive up to any of the resorts or do you have to park at Ticket & Transportation?

 

[FireDancer]

Thanks for all your responses!!!!

I have another questions. Can you simply drive up to any of the resorts or do you have to park at Ticket & Transportation?

As long as their lots aren't full, yes. You let them know you are there to eat and they may give you a temporary parking pass (good 2 hours I believe). I can tell you that over Marathon weekend our flight left late on Tuesday so we went to the Poly for come Coffee and to walk around. They just waived us in and we didn't need a pass. We were there probably 4 hours since we decided to go over to the WL for lunch and had no problems with the car staying at the Poly.

I imagine whether or not they hand out passes has to do with how busy the resorts are.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Thanks for all your responses!!!!

I have another questions. Can you simply drive up to any of the resorts or do you have to park at Ticket & Transportation?

If you have confirmed ADR's at any of the resorts they will have you on a list for that day and you should have no problem parking, however if you do get a parking pass it will be for 3 hours.

Now this past December my family and I went twice to the Contemporary. The 1st time was to eat at the Contempo Cafe and the 2nd time was to purchase a watch at their Bay View Gifts store. Obviously we weren't on any lists for ADR's because the Contempo Cafe is a counter service location, however we had our Boardwalk Inn parking pass and the Cast Member working security asked to see a Key To The World card from there, then let us go through. So we got to park without a 3 hour parking pass.

It was the same exact thing when we went to park at the Polynesian to eat at the Kona Island Sushi Bar and the Grand Floridian when we went to eat at Gasparilla's Grill & Games. The Kona Island Sushi Bar doesn't accept ADR's so we weren't on any list and Gasparilla's Grill & Games is a counter service location.