We are visiting Orlando during the Christmas holidays and would like to see the decorations of the Disney resorts and dine in on site Disney restaurants. Is there a way to do this even though we wont be buying tickets to get into the actual parks?

Downtown Disney is a bunch of little stores / restaurants that you don't need tickets for.

You should be able to get into any of the Disney hotels without park passes. There may be a few exceptions, but I can't think of any now. Same for the hotel restaurants. You may have to pay to park at some places though.

Have you seen Samantha Brown's Christmas episode of the hotel decorations?? It's so beautiful there that time of year - you'll love it.

You can see the decorations at the hotels and Downtown Disney, but not at the parks without tickets.

Grand Floridian, Swan, Dolphin, Beach and Yacht should be exceptional. Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge should be entertaining.

If you go to one of the hotels without a lunch/dinner reservation or are not a guest of that hotel, you might be stopped at the parking lot entrance and turned around. I think you may have to be on something they call the "magical list". That was our experience last fall at two separate Epcot hotels. We had dinner reservations at one and used some fast talking at another.

Please verify this yourself.

Vic is right. To get into the parking lot of any Disney Hotel, you either have to have a reservation at a restaurant, or at the hotel.

A few months ago my wife, daughter and I were at WDW. My wife wanted to go to the Mall at Millenia and wanted to drop us off at the Contemporary so we could catch the Monorail. Even though we were staying on Disney Property, the Guard would not let my Wife in to the parking lot.

If you want to see the decorations, the only way is to park at the Magic Kingdom lot and take the resort monorail to either the Contemporary, Grand Floridian, or Poly Hotels. Then you leave you car at the Magic Kingdom lot and can use the buses from the entrance to the Magic Kingdom to go to any resort. And you do not need admission.

The decorations at the Epcot area resorts are spectacular.

As for dining, you can eat at any of the resort hotels...go to allearsnet.com for menus. Are you talking about this year? There are people who made their reservations in June...act quickly.

We are regular visitors of the parks, downtown disney and the different resorts, visiting 8-10 times a year. We also live close enough to make day trips, so we often only go to a resort for dinner (without reservations) and have never had any trouble getting through the gate. Closer to 9/11 they used to verify your room reservation, but they don't even do that anymore.

If you don't want to take a chance park at downtown disney and hope on any hotel bus, I have also never had to prove to a bus driver that I was a guest at any resort.

If you are going to have dinner in any park, you need passes for that.