A Day off of Disney?

[Frozen2014]

If you like Shopping there is a great outlet mall nearby. Premier outlets on Vineland avenue. There is even a discount Disney store there. Sometimes we shop a bit or take a drive down I-drive. Something fun to do(if you aren't staying there) is to go over to AKL for the afternoon or evening. You can view the animals, have dinner at one of the great TS restaurants and roam the grounds.

Definitely an option. And last night I suggested to DH about booking another breakfast ADR for that morning...so at moment, we have Boma booked...which would allow us to expore the lodge a bit after.

Thank you all as well for the beach names. My DD5 is just starting to swim so I would worry with too rough waters. I will look up the beaches mentioned. That's great. Thank you.

Oh, and we are going thrid week in October. So we catch the Halloween stuff, but not the Christmas stuff yet.

Sounds like a lot of you take longer disney trips (I wish, but am still happy for our 6 nights, which is 4 park days).

 

[Cee]

Oh yes! We go for a week and get 4 day park passes. That leaves arrival/departure day and one other day, non-park. It's usually Wednesday but we are flexible on that. On the "off" day, we will do a late breakfast at Boma, resort-hop, go to DTD, maybe see a movie, or bowl at Splitsville, pool, etc. We've not gone off-site yet, but are thinking about visiting Orlando or CityWalk, Universal at some point.

An off day is a must for us! Enjoy!

 

[selina4disney]

Never done this before...usually we stay 10 days and every day is a park day...but in December we're going for 12 days, and two days we're going to SeaWorld, one day to Legoland, one day for a swamp boat tour, and we might even go to Gatorland. It'll be the first time we've rented a car since 2001, and our first offsite stay ever. It's kind of an experiment...if we hate staying offsite we'll never do it again.

 

[Beer Me]

Personally I would stay on site. I'm paying a premium for the resort and pools and proximity to everything Disney so it kind of feels like a waste to go off site. The family may want to do mini golf or something but I'm perfectly content to lounge at the pool with a few drinks and enjoy whatever amenities the resort has to offer.

I would never do a beach day while staying at Disney. Way too much driving time (at least an hour each way) traffic around the beach, parking headaches, carrying all your crap around, etc. It could end up being more exhausting than a day in MK.

The beaches in Florida are beautiful and worth a visit but I add days before or after WDW and get a room on the beach.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

We just started doing this our last trip. Day off was excellent. We were in akl Kidani and I spent time looking at everything in the resort (like the artwork), talking to the staff about the animals and learning about their culture. Even checked out the art tour.

It was really nice compared to my usual "the hotel is a setting I run thorough on the way to the park"

 

[hvanes]

Ours days "off" have included a trip to Cocoa Beach (loved Jetty Pier!), visiting a citrus orchard, and just relaxing at our resort. One afternoon last trip we took the monorail through the monorail resorts, stopping at each one to take a look around and buy a cupcake.

 

[tcherjen]

We stay onsite, but always have and off day. We enjoy the pool, sleep in, go to DTD or resort hop... Love our off days....

 

[ParrotBill]

Not surprised that many of the days off the Parks are pool or DTD suggestions since many arrive on Planes and DME and don't have a car!

We've been driving lately and definitely go offsite for breaks from the crowds and costs. Here are my suggestions:

1) Go to some restaurants offsite (cheaper, more variety)
2) Go to the Florida Mall (Orange Blossom Trail a little north of the 417 tollway.)
3) Go on an airboat swamp/lake tour
4) Go to the beach. For gentle warm water go to the Gulf side.
a) Clearwater beach is reasonably easy to get to, but is a commercial
area and may get crowded
b) Honeymoon State Park is a little further north at Dunedin, with a
small admission fee but uncrowded award winning beaches. Use the beach
closest to the restaurant for soft and sandy - the further down you go
the more coral/rocky it is.

We like to make a day of the beach and a stop at Starbucks and then a late lunch/early dinner at Sweet Tomato's or Sonny's BBQ. PM me if you want more specific suggestions.

 

[Frozen2014]

Not surprised that many of the days off the Parks are pool or DTD suggestions since many arrive on Planes and DME and don't have a car!

We've been driving lately and definitely go offsite for breaks from the crowds and costs. Here are my suggestions:

1) Go to some restaurants offsite (cheaper, more variety)
2) Go to the Florida Mall (Orange Blossom Trail a little north of the 417 tollway.)
3) Go on an airboat swamp/lake tour
4) Go to the beach. For gentle warm water go to the Gulf side.
a) Clearwater beach is reasonably easy to get to, but is a commercial
area and may get crowded
b) Honeymoon State Park is a little further north at Dunedin, with a
small admission fee but uncrowded award winning beaches. Use the beach
closest to the restaurant for soft and sandy - the further down you go
the more coral/rocky it is.

We like to make a day of the beach and a stop at Starbucks and then a late lunch/early dinner at Sweet Tomato's or Sonny's BBQ. PM me if you want more specific suggestions.

This is very helpful...thank you (and to all posts above)
We would probably catch a light lunch and dinner offsite.

How far a drive is Clearwater Beach? We would be going on a Wednesday in October, so it shouldn't be too busy, right? This is a very good option, and the mall you listed if bad weather.

 

[davale4]

So looks like all of your 'day offs' are basically non-park days but still Disney.

This is a big yes for us. We go to Disney every year for 11 or 14 days. If we do 11 days we only get 5 day tickets. If we do 14 days, we get 7 day tickets only. We do one park and one day off. On the off days we enjoy the resort, pool, DTD, or some ticket event that is not in the parks like Pirates Pal Voyage. We also don't spend all day at the parks, only a few hours. This keeps everyone in the family happy.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We went to Daytona Beach and Hard Rock Universal on our "do nothing" day this trip.

 

[DisneyObsessed87]

Our last trip to the world we did not have an off day as it was only five days... This time we are having an off day on our last full day in Orlando. Going to Seaworld. But also our fifth day is a MVMCP day for us, so we will not be entering MK until after 4pm. We plan on spending time at the pool or mini-golfing if the weather cooperates. Maybe some time in Downtown Disney.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I have been known to do a day at Universal which I will be doing more of when I get an annual there. I just purchase a shuttle ride from Mears for the day.

 

[davale4]

Not surprised that many of the days off the Parks are pool or DTD suggestions since many arrive on Planes and DME and don't have a car!

We always rented a car and we still had our days off on-site. After a couple of times of renting a car we only used to get to and from the airport only, we decided to try DME. We enjoy our days off on-site and it works great for our family. I understand every family is different.

 

[SimonSez]

We've done days off in the past but not on our last couple of trips. We hang around the hotel a bit and then go visit my brother and his wife who live in Orlando.

 

[smraynor]

We like to use our "off days" to do some resort exploring. We really enjoy the Wilderness Lodge Annex where we play checkers and enjoy the little side lobby (we've stayed there a few times). Another great place to explore for us is to do the Cape Canaveral thing as well.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Kennedy Space Center!

AKK

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Kennedy Space Center!

AKK

 

[ParrotBill]

KSC is a good idea too! Worth two votes

 

[Beer Me]

This is very helpful...thank you (and to all posts above) We would probably catch a light lunch and dinner offsite. How far a drive is Clearwater Beach? We would be going on a Wednesday in October, so it shouldn't be too busy, right? This is a very good option, and the mall you listed if bad weather.

At least 90 minutes to Clearwater beach.