When you’re at Disney on vacation you are most likely staying at a Disney Resort and hopefully enjoying all it has to offer. But what about when you are local?! Do you just miss out on the Disney resorts or wait until you can book a staycation?! Absolutely NOT! We have explored and enjoyed the Disney resorts more as locals than we ever did on vacation and let me tell you, they are fabulous to just go and play at! So today I am going to share how we have enjoyed the resorts since becoming locals and all the reasons why this is now one of our favorite things to do in Disney.
How Many Disney Resorts Are There?
There are over 25 Disney resorts in Walt Disney World and each one has it’s own unique theming, dining, pools and amenities. You seriously will never run out of new places to explore or things to do with this many Disney resorts.
If I’m Not Staying There What Can I Do At The Resorts?
Everyone is welcome to come and check out the resorts on Disney Property. You can order food or make a dining reservation at a restaurant, all of the paid amenities are open to everyone as well. A lot of the resorts have bike and surry bike rentals like at the Port Orleans resorts, boat rentals like at the Contemporary and Grand Floridian or even horse drawn carriage rides! You can even ride horses over at the campgrounds! Most of the resorts do movies under the stars in the evening that you are welcome to go to, have campfires with s’mores and tons of other recreation activities.
Although, technically, Disney says that the pools are for guests of the resort only we have certainly enjoyed the resort pools A LOT! Hahahaha! Don’t ban me Disney! Some of the pools require a magic band to enter like at the Polynesian and Caribbean Beach but most do not. Even the ones that require a magic band to enter are still not difficult to go to as people are going in and out of the gate constantly. I know this may be considered a little off color to go to the resort pools even though we aren’t guests of the resort BUT we don’t go when it’s super crowded and we try not to get in the way of anyone staying at the resort. At the end of the day we go and have a good time and then head home, no one is the wiser and we spend money at the resorts usually on food so it’s a win win for everyone. Hahaha!
We have even done bar crawls with friends at the Disney resorts! We started at Wilderness Lodge then took the boat over to Magic Kingdom and hopped on the monorail so we could go to the lounges at Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian. It was so much fun! You could do the same at the Boardwalk resort as you could walk to the Beach Club, Yacht Club and the Swan & Dolphin Resort. If you really wanted to make a night out that adventure you could hop on the Skyliner and hit up the Riviera and Caribbean Beach! The possibilities are endless. Hahahaha!
Having A Chill Day At A Resort
One of our most favorite things to do when we just want to have a chill day instead of going to the parks is head over to a resort. Sometimes we go to one we have been to before and call home like Port Orleans Riverside and sometimes we try something new! All the resorts have really pretty walking trails, beautiful lobbies and great food options.
Our day usually looks like heading over and just exploring and walking around, we might take a dip in the pool or we might not and sometimes we pack a picnic and other times we go sit and eat at one of the restaurants. The nice thing about this is that it can be spur of the moment. You don’t have to have a park reservation or a game plan you can just go and decide what you want to do as you go!
How Do You Get In To The Resorts
Well, this can change depending on the time of year and what resort you are trying to go to. When it’s a very crowded time of year you may need to have a dining reservation in order for them to let you through the gate, but you can always park at Disney Springs and take the bus to where you want to go as well. We typically do a Mobile Order in the My Disney Experience app for something at the resort and just let the Cast Member at the gate know that we are picking up food and exploring the resort.
The only resorts we have ever been told we had to have a full blown table service reservation for were Grand Floridian, Contemporary and the Riviera. We usually park at the Polynesian if we are doing any of the monorail resorts and then just skip over on that. All the other resorts have always been great about telling us to enjoy and sending us on our way, even without a mobile order.
Do You Have To Pay To Park?
Nope! When you are just going in to explore the resort or eat you do not have to pay to park. I’m sure they check overnight vehicles for reservations and what not so they don’t have to worry about someone taking advantage of this.
Conclusion
We absolutely love being able to enjoy all the Disney resorts. When we would come here on vacation one of the things I always wished we had time for was going to other resorts to check out the pools, bars and lounges and just all the things they had to offer. For us, those deluxe resorts were never in our price range so it’s nice to be able to go enjoy them now. It’s also nice when our annual passes are blacked out to still be able to be in the Disney bubble without dealing with Disney Springs crowds! The kids can swim and play and we can sit and relax, or swim too! We can walk around and learn about the resort and just take in all the pretty views. It feels like a mini vacation! Seeing them all decorated for Christmas was truly a highlight of our holiday season this year too!
So if you are local, I highly recommend Disney Resort days! Pick one you love or one you’ve never been to and go have a nice relaxing day at a gorgeous resort, you will not regret it! As always, I thank you all so much for being here and reading along! I hope you enjoyed reading about the resorts and have a magical day!!
