Because I figured I'd be spending a ton of time at this resort, I decided to go out and do a tour of all the hotels on park property today. The original plan was to start at the Polynesian, hop to as many hotels as possible, end up at Disney Springs by evening, then finish at the Poly for a view of Wishes across the lagoon. This was also an attempt to find the best hotels to catch Pokemon lol.
I ended up hitting all the hotels on the monorail track and then Disney Springs. No fireworks.
Disney really does their hotels right. Well-themed like the parks, tons of activities (both free and upcharge). Everyone was so friendly.
The Polynesian was the first stop. I really liked this hotel a lot. Really convenient to the transport center, great view of the Magic Kingdom from across the bay, and had my favorite decor of all the hotels on property that I visited. This was also where I popped my Dole Whip cherry. It was pretty good, but a tad overrated. I enjoyed it for what it was though.
Grand Floridian felt a bit more formal in contrast to the laid back atmosphere of the Poly. I saw Cinderella's Royal Ball, which was a pretty cool little event for kids. The hotel itself was probably the nicest property on site thanks to how formal it seemed. This hotel has the most diverse set of Pokemon of the hotels I visited, so its probably the best spot on the monorail to go hunting (sans MK of course).
The Contemporary was alright. The atrium and the cool painting were neat. Otherwise, its not as well themed as the other two properties and is probably the most generic of the hotels I visited. The conference center area has some really comfy couches near some power outlets so if you wanna free place to crash that's quiet where you can charge your electronics, the Contemporary is definitely a great spot.
The TTC is the next stop on the trip and this is where things start to fall apart a bit.
- The place is pretty dated and needs a makeover stat.
- Anything not connected to a monorail is a real pain to get to. You have to leave the transport center, wait for a bus to come pick you up, and if you travel far, the property is so huge, it takes forever to get where you wanna go.
- There's a huge-ass bus lot at the transport center that could easily be used to pick up guests that wanna go to the other parks/Downtown Disney, but its totally under-utilized. There's enough room for plenty of buses to go there. I guess there might be issues during school trip seasons or at the end of the night as everyone's leaving the park but Disney should incorporate another lot for that kind of stuff.
- Since they screwed up with the Magic Bands, they should've funneled that money into another monorail beam or something to help the flow of traffic around the property and to make it easier to get to the other resorts/parks.
I didn't get to Disney Springs until 8-ish. About an hour after I left the Contemporary. That involved running around the TTC and waiting for the bus to Disney Springs to show up from the Polynesian.
Disney Springs is amazing though and it was really hopping. All the parking decks were full around the mall. Great for catching Pokemon too as its pretty much nonstop lures and thousands of people walking around. I'm definitely looking forward to making a lot more trips there.
The place definitely feels like an upscale shopping area with tons of stuff to do.
I missed Wishes thanks to the extra hour I spent running around, but I've got plenty of options for that. Can't wait to do it all over again.
I ended up hitting all the hotels on the monorail track and then Disney Springs. No fireworks.
Disney really does their hotels right. Well-themed like the parks, tons of activities (both free and upcharge). Everyone was so friendly.
The Polynesian was the first stop. I really liked this hotel a lot. Really convenient to the transport center, great view of the Magic Kingdom from across the bay, and had my favorite decor of all the hotels on property that I visited. This was also where I popped my Dole Whip cherry. It was pretty good, but a tad overrated. I enjoyed it for what it was though.
Grand Floridian felt a bit more formal in contrast to the laid back atmosphere of the Poly. I saw Cinderella's Royal Ball, which was a pretty cool little event for kids. The hotel itself was probably the nicest property on site thanks to how formal it seemed. This hotel has the most diverse set of Pokemon of the hotels I visited, so its probably the best spot on the monorail to go hunting (sans MK of course).
The Contemporary was alright. The atrium and the cool painting were neat. Otherwise, its not as well themed as the other two properties and is probably the most generic of the hotels I visited. The conference center area has some really comfy couches near some power outlets so if you wanna free place to crash that's quiet where you can charge your electronics, the Contemporary is definitely a great spot.
The TTC is the next stop on the trip and this is where things start to fall apart a bit.
- The place is pretty dated and needs a makeover stat.
- Anything not connected to a monorail is a real pain to get to. You have to leave the transport center, wait for a bus to come pick you up, and if you travel far, the property is so huge, it takes forever to get where you wanna go.
- There's a huge-ass bus lot at the transport center that could easily be used to pick up guests that wanna go to the other parks/Downtown Disney, but its totally under-utilized. There's enough room for plenty of buses to go there. I guess there might be issues during school trip seasons or at the end of the night as everyone's leaving the park but Disney should incorporate another lot for that kind of stuff.
- Since they screwed up with the Magic Bands, they should've funneled that money into another monorail beam or something to help the flow of traffic around the property and to make it easier to get to the other resorts/parks.
I didn't get to Disney Springs until 8-ish. About an hour after I left the Contemporary. That involved running around the TTC and waiting for the bus to Disney Springs to show up from the Polynesian.
Disney Springs is amazing though and it was really hopping. All the parking decks were full around the mall. Great for catching Pokemon too as its pretty much nonstop lures and thousands of people walking around. I'm definitely looking forward to making a lot more trips there.
The place definitely feels like an upscale shopping area with tons of stuff to do.
I missed Wishes thanks to the extra hour I spent running around, but I've got plenty of options for that. Can't wait to do it all over again.
