Resort hopping and time taken

[IloveJack]

I'm wanting to visit the resorts on our trip next Christmas, but I'm not sure how much time to plan. Say we're planning to arrive around 10am, and visit the monorail resorts, WL, BC, and end up at FW for a sleigh ride. Plus we need to factor in lunch and dinner somewhere.
Could we do all that in one day, using WDW transportation? Or do I really need to split it up over two days? I'm torn between using up a park day for resort visiting, and still getting to see all the decorations.
And, should we visit any other resorts? I know every one is decorated, but I keep seeing those as the "favorites" when others ask. By the way, we're planning to stay at AoA.

[faline]

I'm sure you can accomplish all of that in a day. I'd probably do it in this order:

Bus to Disney Studios. From there, walk or take the boat to the Beach Club. From there, bus to the Magic Kingdom and hop on the resort monorail to visit the monorail resorts - the monorail goes first to the Contemporary, followed by the Ticket & Transportation Center, the Poly and ends with the Grand Floridian. From the Grand Floridian, you can monorail or boat back to the Magic Kingdom. From here, take the boat over to Wilderness Lodge. From Wilderness Lodge, you can boat over to Fort Wilderness.

Depending on where you are, you can use any of the quick service locations for a meal or you can try oneof the following which is often easy to access even without reservations: Kona Cafe at the Poly or Grand Floridian Cafe at the Grand Floridian.

You don't mention Animal Kingdom Lodge but they also have a pretty impressive tree as well.

[IloveJack]

You don't mention Animal Kingdom Lodge but they also have a pretty impressive tree as well.

I knew I was forgetting one. Thanks, Faline. Where would you put it in your schedule (which is very helpful, thanks!)?

[faline]

I might put it after the Beach Club but that would be a 2-step transfer process - you'd need to bus to Animal Kingdom and then to Animal Kingdom Lodge. From there, you could bus to the Magic Kingdom and continue.

If going to Animal Kingdom Lodge puts you around lunchtime, you might consider Mara or Saana for that meal.

[buzznwoodysmom]

We tour the resorts on all of our holiday trips. However, we have never taken a full day to dedicate just to that.

What we typically do is tour resorts in spurts. We never do a park on arrival day. We spend the majority of our day at the resort we are staying at, then have dinner at ohanas. We tour all the monorail resorts either before or after dinner.

If we aren't staying at WL we always have meal or at least visit WL on every trip. So WL is always a resort we see for holidays even if we have to go out our way to get there.

We often have a meal scheduled at the boardwalk or another Epcot resort during our trip and we tour the resorts in that area at that time.

Any other resorts we tour are either because we had a meal there or because we had some free time and we drove there in our own vehicle.

Have fun no matter how you end up doing it! They are all beautiful resorts, especially for the holidays!

[Tri Minnie]

We loved touring the resorts last December. We found it to be a great break after a morning in the parks. At the time, I was six and a half months pregnant and our other children were almost 3 1/2 and 1 1/2, so we all needed a little downtime. The children could nap and also enjoy the trees, gingerbread houses, etc.

One day we walked from either Epcot or DHS to the Epcot resorts. Another day we took the boat from MK to the Wilderness Lodge for a late lunch. We also toured the resorts on the Monorail loop one afternoon and had a CS meal at the Poly. Most days we then returned to the parks. We did not have park hoppers on this trip. It turned out to be a strategy that worked out really well for our family!

My children did love the trees at Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani. However, we had rented points to stay here and didn't have to figure out the logistics of how to fit this in, too.

Good luck, and have fun planning. I felt this holiday trip was one of our most magical.