Resort Hopping Advice Please!

[mom3teach3]

My family of eight (DD10, DS turns 16 while at DW, DS 13, my sister her DD 3, my mom and dad) plan to arrive at Pop on a Saturday afternoon around 11:00. On that day we just want to emmerse ourselves in the Disney culture and go resort hopping. We have only seen the inside of the Value hotels and the Contemporary (went on the Wishes cruise one year). This time we want to see several of the best and maybe eat lunch and/or dinner at a resort restaurant. Please share your FAVORITE resorts that you recommend visititing. Usually on our first day we walk around Downtown Disney. This will be a new experience for us. Please recommend all of the "must see/do" resort experiences. We plan to shop and eat... but is there anything else? I have heard about the s'mores around the campfire. What else? Thank you! Oh and believe it or not I'm already planning for a March 2012 trip.

 

[mbakun]

Definitely check out the Boardwalk area and hotels! Not only do you have the Boardwalk, Beach Club and Yacht CLub hotels/villa, you have the whole boardwalk experience. Shops, restaurants, , ESPN, coffee shop, candy store, bikes to ride,etc. In the evening, it is even better - old fashion boardwalk games, free entertainment, night clubs.

Have fun!
Michelle

 

[Jessica14]

We ate at Boma on night at AKL and went out back and saw the animals being fed. We also walked around the Grand Floridian. It was Christmas so there was lots to see in both places, but I really loved the whole atmosphere of the GF. We ate at the QS restaurant there. We ate at The Wave at the Contemporary. It was a last minute reservation and was very good. I hope this helps!
Jessica

 

[LilGMom]

When you are going would influence my recommendations. If going during a non-holiday season I'd say the Boardwalk area is great, the monorail line is easy and AKL is pretty great. If going during the Christmas season I would say to definitely check out the GF and it's enormous gingerbread house.

 

[Disneyfreak616]

We have a breakfast ressie at Kona and then we are going to tour the monorail line until our tea time at the Garden View Tea Lounge.

 

[daisyduck123]

'Ohana at Disney's Polynesian resort is one of the most popular restaurants. We enjoy both breakfast and dinner there. Breakfast is a character meal with Lilo & Stitch. Dinner is a "must do" for my family every trip. It is fabulous, in our opinion. If you do plan to eat dinner there, reservations are a must, & should be made as close to 180 days out as you can possibly do, because this place books up fast.

Both meals are served "family style", meaning that the server brings a huge platter filled with everything, places it in the middle of the table, and the family servers themselves.

 

[i.love.stitch]

i agree with going to the boardwalk, and if you head over there, you could eat (or just have sundaes) at beaches and cream (at the beach club). But it does get very very busy-and they don't take ADRs, so i would go at an off time. I would go check out the Poly, and they have some great restaurants there too. Animal Kingdom Lodge is another great one too see, and the Grand floridian as well.

 

[crcurton]

I agree. Make a ressie for dinner at Ohana and resort hop on the monorail. That would be easy. You could also take a boat ride from the CR to WL and Fort Wilderness too! 5 resorts with little effort. I had always wanted to check out the Boardwalk but when we finally got there last yr. I was a bit disappointed. JMO tho.

 

[hookedonears]

You must do the Poly. But be warned! We stayed at the Poly during our first trip and were ruined for every place else. We've stayed at other places just to check out different experiences, though nothing compares to the Poly for us. Even the Grand Floridian, which was nice, did very little for us. Walk all around the main ceremonial hut (main building), walk to the main pool, the beach and see the castle, the wharf area.

 

[pepe of ohio]

I agree. Make a ressie for dinner at Ohana and resort hop on the monorail. That would be easy. You could also take a boat ride from the CR to WL and Fort Wilderness too! 5 resorts with little effort. I had always wanted to check out the Boardwalk but when we finally got there last yr. I was a bit disappointed. JMO tho.

We're not resort hoppers per se.....thinks it's a waste of time but that's us after 44 trips, we've stayed at most of the deluxes and have no interest in the values and just a tiny bit in some mods but as the quoted poster stated, best way is to do the monorail resorts....a good taste of the best...throw in the boat rides to WL and FW and you've a great tour set up.

We're WL stayers, really enjoy the MK area, lakes, and resorts. I think shopping on the monorail loop is more exciting than doing DTD. We really have no use for the Boardwalk area, not much to see or do in our past experiences, though we have stayed at the Y&B resort quite a few times, the rest of the Boardwalk holds little.....

 

[msvlwb]

One of our favorite things to do is stroll along the hotels.
If you have the chance I would visit all the deluxe hotels, you can see the monorail ones rather quickly.
We live about 30 min from Disney and went hotel hopping yesterday!
We went to the Boardwalk and had lunch at the ESPN club, walked over to the Beach Club and sat at the beach for about 20 minutes enjoying the sun while our boys went and played in the arcade.
You can take a boat over to Wilderness Lodge from the Contemporary.
Take a boat from Downtown Disney to the Riverside Hotels.
We eat at the food court for breakfast sometimes.
Get ressies for Boma one night and spend some time at AKL.
I think the least interesting to visit are Coronado Springs and Caribbean Beach. Although the food court at CB is good. We liked Coronado Springs to stay at when the kids were younger because the pool and play areas were so fun. Not so much to see if you are just visiting.