Maybe I’m old, but resort hopping used to be part of the magic
I was at Disney last month with my best friend and her two kids. My parents bought into DVC when I was a teenager, so I was able to use some points to book us a 2 bedroom at Old Key West for their first Disney trip. I grew up going to Disney and was excited to be there for their first visit so I could show them around.
One afternoon we did Epcot, went back for pool time, then planned to Uber to BoardWalk before dinner so the kids could try those absurdly huge cake slices from the bakery before walking into Epcot through International Gateway in time for our res at Mexico.
Except when we got to BoardWalk, they wouldn’t let us in.
I explained we were already staying on property at another Disney resort and just wanted to spend money there before heading back into Epcot, but they said no unless we had a dining reservation. The gate attendant also implied we shouldn't use the back entrance and wasn't exactly the warmest about it, but that's another issue.
The funniest part is that it didn’t even stop us. We just smiled, said no problem, and had the Uber drop us near Swan and Dolphin instead and walked right over anyway. Which just made the whole thing feel even more ridiculous. (The kids absolutely lost their minds over the cake btw.)
Honestly, it's still kinda irking me and has made me a little sad. Some of my strongest Disney memories as a kid are from resort hopping. Wandering around the different hotels, grabbing food somewhere random, exploring. I knew Disney had been cracking down on it, but I didn’t expect it to apply to people already staying on property who weren’t even trying to park.
That said, the rest of the trip was amazing and every other cast member we interacted with was genuinely fantastic. We went to Universal on our last day, and one of the kids said: “Universal is good because they have more roller coasters, but it doesn’t seem like everyone is happy to work there like Disney.” I mean... kind of a mic drop.