Visiting resorts?

[Aprilily05]

Hii, newbie here! I've been lurking for a little while and decided to finally post. Anyways..I was just wondering if you were allowed to vist a resort without having a room if you're staying at an off-site hotel? I want to take a 1 or 2 night trip and funds are low so we were thinking about staying at a cheaper offsite hotel but wanted to eat at Boma one day for breakfast. Is this allowed?

 

[fall08CP]

Absolutely. Just don't park at a "prime location" resort and expect to leave your car there all day and utilize Disney transportation. Enjoy! Resort hopping is one of our favorite activities as the theming is unique and wonderful

 

[smidgy]

DEFINTIELY visit the resorts.!! ANYONE can dine at any of the resort restaurants.. bomas is GREAT! you can view the animals at the savannahs.
at boardwalk, you can enjoy the restaurants AND night clubs. and you CAN book a meal at one of the , say,epcot resorts restaurants, and walk to epcot, stay for the afternoon (esp boardwalk), then walk back to your car after illuminations. the only thing you can't do is use the pool. you might have to pay a fee for parking, but if you have a reservation for a restaurant, it's all good.

 

[drenkey]

We love taking time to explore other resorts, trying new restaurants, etc. Have fun exploring!

 

[TinkWink]

If you're at MK one day, you could hop on the monorail to visit the Grand Floridian, Poly and/or Contemporary - maybe to eat a restaurant at one of those! We did a little resort browsing the first evening of our trip, since we didn't have park tickets for that day.

 

[mskayjay]

Absolutely! This is how we decide where we want to stay the next time! DH has never wanted to see Grand Floridian or Polynesian, but since I just happened to book us dining reservations at these places in those resorts he'll just have to see them this time! lol With the exception of pool usage and going into people's rooms, the resorts are open to the public. And, as far as rooms go, we've even gone down to where we see a housekeeping cart and asked if we could see what the rooms were like. They've always let us and been very nice about letting us see other room styles if we wanted to. Great way to pre-plan cause once you've been to WDW, you'll want to come back!

 

[ntsammy5]

Of course! A lot of people treat the resorts like a 5th Theme Park -- Resort hopping is a way of life at Disney. Enjoy your trip!

 

[SharonZ]

I thought there was a parking limit when having dinner at a resort? I didn't think that you could leave your vehicle there and then go to a Park. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[everylastbreath]

I thought there was a parking limit when having dinner at a resort? I didn't think that you could leave your vehicle there and then go to a Park. Has anyone else experienced this?

This is correct - 1st you must have a reservation at the rest. because security will check you name on a list and you will be given a 3 hr. parking pass, which should be enough to eat your meal and check out the resort, but you will not be allowed to stay parked at hotel and go to the parks, you must use general parking for park.

 

[A Pair and A Spare]

if you are interested in seeing the rooms at a resort, just ask at the desk and they will get a CM to open an unoccupied room for you so that you can check it out. we did this at the GF last trip. very pretty room but not as big as SOG and much pricier so I think we'll continue to stay at the Shades.