Touring the Walt Disney Resort at Christmas Time

For the last two years, we have gone to the Walt Disney World Resort area very close to Christmas Day, including Christmas Eve, and the day after Christmas.  We are Annual Weekday Select Passholders. We have blackout dates during the holiday season and can't go into the parks during that time, but we still crave Disney, so we take the opportunity to tour the resort.

The resort is extremely crowded the week before and after Christmas and a few days after New Year's Day, but touring the resort area is very do-able because the bulk of the people are in the parks.

See the photo below and in the captions I'll explain the approach we took this year in regards to where we toured and how we transported around the resort.

Our journey begins at Disney Hollywood.  Because we bought our first Annual Passes on Christmas Eve at Disney Hollywood, we start our journey with the renewal here.  Disney Hollywood is a great place to start due to it's access to the canal boats that are accessed from the parking lot.

So you can see here where we meet the boat.  Just look for the large Christmas tree in the front and go north.

This is a cool photo as it has an exposure of the Dolphin hotel and the inside of the canal boat.  .On the way to the Dolphin you can access the Boardwalk which gives you access to the International Gateway to Epcot.  Anyone can enjoy the activities on the Boardwalk, but unless you have tickets, you can't go through the International Gateway, but this is a very good viewing place for the Illuminations Fireworks presented at Epcot nightly.

Here is a beautiful and typical Central Florida Sunset taken at the docking area of the Dolphin Hotel.

Walking into the Dolphin.

The first time I saw this tree Christmas Eve 2015, it captivated me.  It's made entirely of white poinsettias. This whole area has a very wintery Christmas-y atmosphere with great music and a bubble blowing show where bubble machines shower resort visitors with bubbles while playing festive Christmas music.

If you are into toy train sets, this train constantly circles around the Christmas tree.

This display of Santa sitting in his living room is made of 100% chocolate.  This silly little ham is trying to mimick Santa but doesn't realize his pose is opposite of Santa's.

The Dolphin and Swan are not owned by Disney but they were at some point and still have a lot of the Disney Magic feel to it.  This Swan fountain at the Swan hotel is one of the many, many fountains on the Disney World Resort.  There is a fountain post to the blog definitely slated for the future!

From the front of the Dolphin, you can wait for a Disney Transportation Bus to take you to your next location.  This beautiful scene can be viewed from the waiting area.  Since the picture was taken at dusk, you can see that the Christmas lights are starting to come on for the evening.

We ended up waiting 20 minutes for our bus to the Magic Kingdom and the kids found a bench to rest their paddies.

Oh to be skinny again.  They should enjoy it while they can.

This is the photo that inspired this blog.  While waiting for our bus, I turned and looked behind me and this was the view I saw.  I call this Disney framing.  I don't know how they do it, thinking that one project may be built years before the other, but this is proof that when Disney puts up a building, they plan everything so that every view is artistic.  Here these trees seem to have been planned to frame the Boardwalk buildings.

So, while we're still waiting for the bus, I looked across the street and saw another Disney framing example shown here of the Tower of Terror at Disney Hollywood Studios as seen from the Dolphin Hotel.

This photo and the next one show more examples of Disney framing of the Boardwalk area from the Dolphin.

We finally caught our bus to the Disney Ticket and Transportation Center where we caught the Ferry which we took to the front of the Magic Kingdom.  I'm sorry I didn't take pictures while on the Ferry.  I've taken a ton of them, but I guess that's probably why I didn't think to take some.  

Anyway, our objective was to take the Ferry to the front of the Magic Kingdom and then take the little boat to that takes off south of the Monorail to the Grand Floridian.  On our way we spotted this very brave and very friendly bunny having a petunia snack.

While walking to the boats, this sunset view caught my eye.  Florida does have the best sunsets!

Before catching the boat to take across the lake to the Grand Floridian we took the paved walk along the shore which is about 1/4 mile and ends with this peaceful place.   

I took this photo while waiting to board our little boat to get to the Grand Floridian.  I love how the lights are showing at dusk.

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Another example of Disney Framing.  These trees frame Disney's Contemporary Hotel as seen going back on the walkway back towards the boat dock to get to the Floridian.

Walking toward the walkway.  At this point of the walk, we thought the walkway went all of the way to the Floridian, but it does not.  It is interrupted by a canal that leads to the Magic Kingdom.  

At this point, we got to the end of the walkway, where we learned that we couldn't go any further, and this guy decided to take a little rest on the bench before heading back to the boat dock.

Disney at dusk is magical!!!!!!!!

Well, we finally made it on our little boat.  This is always a fun experience.  The boat captains that run this boats are always gentlemen, very kind, and funny. They definitely have the Disney magic.  Here's my 14 year-old disembarking at the Grand Floridian.

Evening falls on the Grand Floridian!

Look at this beautiful blue evening sky!

Disney evening lighting is the best!

Everything about the Grand Floridian is grand, especially the tree!!!!!!

One thing I have learned about Central Florida is that large Christmas trees are the order of the day.  You will find these tall Christmas trees in many Central Florida locations, especially, and of course, at Disney!

This large real gingerbread house is famous.  Many people go to the Grand Floridian during Christmas time to see this gingerbread house.

As a musical family, we decided to go and check out where the band in the Grand Floridian plays.  It was fun to see the little mess the band members left behind.  It gave a peopling feeling, meaning that real live people work there.  The stacks of music that they were literally a foot or more thick!

This wreath is hanging across the hallway from the gingerbread house and is an example of the many beautiful wreaths that are hung around the entire Disney resort.  Like with the fountains, I could do a separate blog post on the wreaths.

We've done our Disney Christmas Resort touring twice so far, and I'm certain we have only seen the tip of the iceberg of Disney Christmas Decorations.  It's so fun to be able to go the resort and take in the Disney Magic without having to fight the crowds.

We are newbies at this Christmas Resort touring thing, so if you would like to share with us your ideas of places to visit at Christmas time at Walt Disney World, please share below and we'll check them out next year!