Touring the Resorts

[figment_jii]

I was thinking of touring many of the resorts while I was at WDW this time and for that a car might be needed. I vaguely remember there being a gate at the entrance to each hotel parking lot. Do you have to be a guest of that specific hotel to be able to park in the hotel parking lot?

Any advice on touring the hotels in WDW?

 

[BigGreen73]

I have seen some people use DTD as a connect to tour other resorts. Go to DTD, hop a bus to a resort. Rinse and repeat.

 

[ccigliano]

After 9-11, I seemed to recall that it is harder to go from resort to resort with a car. Each resort does have a gate with a guard booth and you need to either have a ressie at that hotel or a dining ressie at one of their restaurants to get in. Depending on which resorts you'd like to check out - Disney transportation is pretty efficient. The Poly, CR, GF are all on the monorail in addition to boats on the lake that run to WL and FW from MK and CR. For the AKL, just take a bus back after visiting the AK - then take a bus back to DTD - do some shopping and back to your resort. Let us know what other resorts are on your list and I'm sure someone here can tell you how to get there. With the Magical Express and Disney transportation you probably won't have to rent a car.

 

[beth_cam]

you can tour Contemporary, polynesian, grand floridian from the monorail. Contemporary is extremely strict about not letting people park unless they are guests of that resort or have a dining reservation at a reasonable time for the time they are parking (no parking at 8 am for your lunchtime reservation). Grand Floridian waved us through with no real questions, Polynesian gave us a 2 hr parking pass for our breakfast reservation. There came a downpour so we hung out a while after taking well over 2 hrs and there was no problem. You can bus/boat to the other resorts but you can't go directly from resort to resort that way.

 

[figment_jii]

We hadn't really decided which resorts, but were thinking of the ones near the Magic Kingdom (like CR, GF, and Poly) and then the moderates near Epcot and because we've not been to WDW since they've been built, the All Stars.

We visisted Port Orleans and Dixie Lands once before and I just remember it took a long time to get from the Yacht Club to other resorts. Maybe the transportation system has improved (it was about 10 years ago).

Sounds like DTD is the place to start and then to go from there! Thanks!

 

[brisus]

We were just in the world in April and visited many of the resorts by car. We showed our parking pass issued by our hotel to the guard at the gate and entered with no problem and was not asked with we had a dining reservation. We have done this in the past with the same results. We did have ressies for lunch but was not asked, it seemed as long as we had a valid parking pass from our resort we were let through with no problem at all. Have fun!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

When wanting to tour the Magic Kingdom Monorail Resorts my suggestion is to park at the TTC and from there take the Resort Monorail to each of them, if you would not be doing this after going to the Magic Kingdom. Last month when my parents and I stayed at the Contemporary I saw a lot of cars from our Magic Kingdom view being turned away from parking at the Contemporary, during all hours of the day. Maybe it had to do with the fact that a huge Gospel singing group was staying there, however I am sure you would not want to be told that you need to turn around and leave.

I can't speak for how strict they are for parking to look around the Polynesian and Grand Floridian, however I am sure there are times when they have been as strict as the Contemporary. So I say again the best thing to do if you want to look at the Magic Kingdom Monorail Resorts if you're not coming from the Magic Kingdom, is to park you're car at the TTC.