Resort touring ideas?

I love hotel hopping and do quite a bit of it on vacation.

The Monorail crawl for drinks and shopping is always a must for me, I don't quite feel like a trip is complete if I haven't at least stopped by the Polynesian and hung out in the lobby for awhile.

The walkway around Cresent Lake hits all of the Epcot Resorts and is actually quite beautiful at night when all the lights are twinkling. I love taking the boat for a ride around the lake, it's relaxing and nice. It connects to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. There's lots of food, drink and shopping opportunities around the Boardwalk. Beaches and Cream is a favorite of many fans at the Beach Club.

Animal Kingdom Lodge is quite stunning and really something to see, with lots of dining options.

I also highly suggest hopping a boat to the Wilderness Lodge and eating at Whispering Canyon. If you take the boat walk through the pool area up to the hotel, it's so pretty.

Also don't get your hopes up too high on visiting Bay Lake Towers as the are usually quite strict on limiting access to the tower only to DVC members. although they may have relaxed that rule but I doubt it.

Doc, don't be to disappointed. That lounge is exclusive only to owners of Bay Lake Towers & their guests. We are DVC owners at SSR and we can not get in either unless we are there with someone that owns at BLT. They are opening it up for a short period this summer for all DVC members as a test though.

Our family tradition is to visit as many of the resorts as possible in a day around Christmas time. It's so beautiful when all the resorts are decorated, and each is different and specific, not just generic holiday decorations.

Many times, especially in the summer heat, we visit a resort for an afternoon or a snack. Our last adventure took us to AofA since we had never been there. We strolled around and found ourselves across the lake at POP century, so we explored there also. Had a very nice relaxing cool down before returning to the parks in the evening. You can take the boat from dtd to PO or Riverside, we did both in an afternoon. I love the beniegts (sp?) at PO, yummy.

We usually park at Boardwalk in the self parking, and walk to the back gateway of EPCOT since we go to the concerts a lot. I LOVE the whole bw area, all around the lake. We spend a lot of time there, just wandering around and enjoying the views that never get old. Yacht and Beach clubs are nice to visit too, and of course Beaches and Cream or the Hurricane for a treat.

AKL is one of our faves too, the only thing is you have to either drive or take a bus there, it's out of the way and you can't walk. We visit AKL often, walk outside and see the animals, then get zebra domes from Mara and eat them by the pool. It's fun to browse in gift shops in all the different resorts too. They all have all the typical Disney stuff, but they also have things unique to each resort. Wilderness Lodge has a nice shop, and I believe we get a discount w an AP. I am not good about asking for discounts, I don't think about it at the time. Also get a discount at EOS in dtd. Last yr for 4th of July we went to the Poly and sat on the beach for the fireworks while we ate our Dole Whip from Capt'n Cooks. There were a lot of people but not like the crowds at MK - we didn't even go in the park. Resorts are a whole different part of the Disney experience, have fun!

We usually take the bus, but it depends on where we begin and end our day, and where we parked. We took the bus to AofA, but we were at dtd for lunch at EOS and decided on a whim to check out AofA. We took the bus back to dtd then. The bus went to Typhoon Lagoon first, but it wasn't too long of a ride. The bus wasn't crowded, and it was nice to sit in the ac and relax. We didn't wait for the bus longer than 5 minutes, there or back to dtd.

There are actually 2 bus stops at Dtd, one at Marketplace and one in Westside. It's easier to find a parking place at Westside especially during the day. We park at Westside and either walk through or take the boat over to marketplace. The bus station is out in front of Marketplace, farther over near the edge toward the dtd hotels. Then there's one in front of Westside, I think it's near Planet Hollywood, but could be wrong- I'm sure someone will correct me!