Resorts Bar Hopping & Christmas Display Sight Seeing

[HPDelapore]

Hi all! Will try to keep this short!

New to this forum and was hoping this would be the place to go for some insider info

My family and I are staying at Port Orleans: French Quarter for Christmas this year and we're planning to hit all the parks, but we've found ourselves with an extra day! Half of the family wants to spend it at Universal, and the other half wants Epcot round 2. I'm in my late twenties and single, so I've opted to do my own solo thing!

My idea is to visit as many WDW resorts as I can, have a drink at each, and check out their Christmas decorations and displays. Below is my current itinerary, but I would love any input and suggestions y'all have! Thanks!!!

From Port Orleans: French Quarter ---

*Board bus to Magic Kingdom

*Board Monorail to Contemporary

Contemporary:
The Outer Rim - 12pm (open)

Grand Floridian:
Mizner’s Lounge - 1pm (open)

Polynesian Resort
Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto/Trader Sam’s Tiki Terrace - 3pm (open)

*Board bus to Port Orleans: Riverside

Port Orleans: Riverside
River Roost - 5pm (open)

Port Orleans: French Quarter
Scat Cat’s Club - 4pm (open)

 

[Disneylover99]

Hi all! Will try to keep this short!

New to this forum and was hoping this would be the place to go for some insider info

My family and I are staying at Port Orleans: French Quarter for Christmas this year and we're planning to hit all the parks, but we've found ourselves with an extra day! Half of the family wants to spend it at Universal, and the other half wants Epcot round 2. I'm in my late twenties and single, so I've opted to do my own solo thing!

My idea is to visit as many WDW resorts as I can, have a drink at each, and check out their Christmas decorations and displays. Below is my current itinerary, but I would love any input and suggestions y'all have! Thanks!!!

From Port Orleans: French Quarter ---

*Board bus to Magic Kingdom

*Board Monorail to Contemporary

Contemporary:
The Outer Rim - 12pm (open)

Grand Floridian:
Mizner’s Lounge - 1pm (open)

Polynesian Resort
Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto/Trader Sam’s Tiki Terrace - 3pm (open)

*Board bus to Port Orleans: Riverside

Port Orleans: Riverside
River Roost - 5pm (open)

Port Orleans: French Quarter
Scat Cat’s Club - 4pm (open)

Sounds fun!

I just wanted to say, if you monorail to the Grand Floridian, you can walk or boat to the Poly. If you get there before Trader Sam’s opens, you can swing by the Tambu Lounge at The Poly. Once you’re done at The Poly, you’ll need to go back to the MK to catch the Riverside bus. I’d take the boat from the Poly, since it’s a direct route back.

Enjoy! And just to add, I absolutely love POFQ over Christmas. I can’t think of a more relaxing resort to stay at during this busy time.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

You'll have to do a little back-tracking if you do Mizner's and then Trader Sam's as, from CR, the monorail stops at Poly first, then GF. I would actually suggest getting WL in there - they lobby is stunning at Christmas. I would probably do the following:

Bus to MK
Monorail or walk to CR - Outer Rim, noon
Boat to WL - Geyser Point
Boat back to CR, monorail to Poly to be there before Trader Sam's 3 pm opening
monorail to GF, Mizner's
monorail back to MK, take any EP resort bus that comes first - BWI, BC/YC or Swan/Dolphin
you can then walk around the Boardwalk and visit bluezoo at the Dolphin, AbracadaBAR on the Boardwalk and any of the lounges at BC/YC
If you are still up for more adventure, you could head over to DS via bus from any resort, explore there and then boat back to POR for the rest of your plans. If you don't want to venture to DS, you can walk, boat or gondola over to DHS and take a bus to POR from there (or uber/lyft to POR)

 

[HPDelapore]

You'll have to do a little back-tracking if you do Mizner's and then Trader Sam's as, from CR, the monorail stops at Poly first, then GF. I would actually suggest getting WL in there - they lobby is stunning at Christmas. I would probably do the following:

Bus to MK
Monorail or walk to CR - Outer Rim, noon
Boat to WL - Geyser Point
Boat back to CR, monorail to Poly to be there before Trader Sam's 3 pm opening
monorail to GF, Mizner's
monorail back to MK, take any EP resort bus that comes first - BWI, BC/YC or Swan/Dolphin
you can then walk around the Boardwalk and visit bluezoo at the Dolphin, AbracadaBAR on the Boardwalk and any of the lounges at BC/YC
If you are still up for more adventure, you could head over to DS via bus from any resort, explore there and then boat back to POR for the rest of your plans. If you don't want to venture to DS, you can walk, boat or gondola over to DHS and take a bus to POR from there (or uber/lyft to POR)

Forgive me, what does the EP stand for in "EP resort bus"?

 

[HPDelapore]

Sounds fun!

I just wanted to say, if you monorail to the Grand Floridian, you can walk or boat to the Poly. If you get there before Trader Sam’s opens, you can swing by the Tambu Lounge at The Poly. Once you’re done at The Poly, you’ll need to go back to the MK to catch the Riverside bus. I’d take the boat from the Poly, since it’s a direct route back.

Enjoy! And just to add, I absolutely love POFQ over Christmas. I can’t think of a more relaxing resort to stay at during this busy time.

Thanks for the suggestions! And that's great to know about POFQ! Really looking forward to a little relaxation time

 

[tjmw2727]

Looks like fun - if your feeling adventurous you could add a boat ride to the WL its beautiful at Christmas. (oops just saw this suggested by DW14!) You can do this easily from the CR we really enjoy Geyser Point as well as the Territory Lounge.

I would also flip the POR and POFQ lounges to do POR later and get in a show from Yee Haw Bob - IIRC he starts around 8:30.

Also double check the monorail route to be sure your going in the right direction.

 

[MissionMouse]

Your times and resorts look fine as you can get drinks to go too, if it is critical to you to maintain your schedule. walking from MK to CR is an option, but may involve needing to go through security as we found this path within a security zone during Christmas 2018.

Out of the MK resorts, the GF will provide the most Christmas decorations to include their Gingerbread House that also sells gingerbread food products along with the Wilderness Lodge (not part of your posted plans). If this is actually Christmas Day, expect travel times to take considerable longer amount of time.

Another option is using the new skyliner https://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-world/transportation/skyliner.htm
Beach Club (Martha Vineyard)
Yacht Club (Ale and Compass Lounge)
Board Walk Inn (AbracadaBAR),
Dolphin and Swan Resorts (fDolphin Lobby Lounge)
and you could include ESPN and Big River Grille and Brew Works (Craft Beers).

Then take the Skyliner to the other three other resorts with Minnie Taxi back to your resort

 

[MelanieRI]

Hi all! Will try to keep this short!



My idea is to visit as many WDW resorts as I can, have a drink at each, and check out their Christmas decorations and displays. Below is my current itinerary, but I would love any input and suggestions y'all have! Thanks!!!

My only suggestion is that it's even better to see all these decorations at night. I would divide a monorail resorts/WL/FW loop up (and watch the fireworks esp. Christmas Wishes if possible) one night and then save the Epcot resort BWI, YC, BC, S&D for another night when you may already be at Epcot or DHS and then bounce back to the park you were at for fireworks.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Forgive me, what does the EP stand for in "EP resort bus"?

EP resort bus refers to a bus going to an Epcot resort - Boardwalk, Beach Club/Yacht Clun or Swan/Dolphin.