A disney trip with no parks??

[CathyC]

Anyone ever stayed at a WDW resort and NOT gone to the parks? DH and I have planned a trip in April to warm up, and get away, and have told the kids that there will be no parks this time. The kids seem fine with it, They are excited to hang out by the pool. I was wondering if anyone else had done this and if so what kind of recommendations for what to do once we are sunburned and waterlogged. We are looking forward to relaxing!! Thanks.

 

[jdvm]

We do it all the time-----but without the kids.
There certainly have been many days that we haven't done the parks but we've never had the kids and did a total non-park trip.
I think we'd have a mutiny.
John

 

[byoung]

Be hard not going to the parks here.

 

[DeeCee735]

yes, we have done this, also with no kids......however there is plenty to do with the kids not going to the parks. Downtown Disney, Disney Quest, Cirque Du Soliel, bike rentals, pool, resort hopping (you can spend a full day just at AK Lodge, looking at the savannah animals, having lunch, hanging by their pool (if pool hopping is allowed there), ride the monrail, have dinner at Ohana's (Polynesian) with views of the fireworks, do Hoop Dee Doo Revue (we had a ball here when the kids were younger - they are almost 18 now), the Boardwalk at night, ESPN Zone for a meal and some video games, carriage rides at POR, boat rentals at any of the resorts offering this, mini golf and more! Whew, I tired myself out!

Happy planning and have fun....

 

[bpmorley]

We just did it back in Dec. It's great to just get away. Although the trip was planned so we could do Universal for 2 days. But the rest of the week was just for relaxing

 

[ccigliano]

We've done it but I don't have kids. We stayed at the WLV, lounged by the pool, walked to the campgrounds to visit Lucky, rented a pontoon boat and roamed around Bay lake for a while, sat by the fireplaces and drank hot cocoa out of our refillable mugs, ate dinner at California Grill and watched the MK fireworks from there, ate dinner at Artist Point and went to downtown Disney. This was also before the Magical Express so we did have a rental car and we drove to Vero beach for the day to check out the place in case we want to stay there with our points in the future. I would check out all the deluxe resorts too.

 

[edk35]

We are sort of doing this in Aug. We will be there for 9 nights. We "plan" on only going to EC for 2 days during this time. We want to focus on our first trip HOME....enjoying the resorts we are staying at and dong the "non park" stuff. We have never gone to the water parks, Disney Quest and the kids really want to do that. We plan on sleeping in, pool hanging, DTD just relaxing instead of commando park days. We save those for Jan. now. Have fun.

 

[eporter66]

Not completely, but my wife went down in January and her and my daughter only went to MK for one day. They did the pool, rented bikes and just relaxed.

I was actually going down that week with a couple friends for golf and would not have gone to the parks. There are a lot of things to do in WDW without the parks. But - I am sure when I got home I would have had a little regret about not going at least once!

It's a great place - relax and enjoy your vacation

Eric

 

[loveswdw]

We stayed six nights in March 2005 and only went to MK/AK one day (AK in the AM & MK in the PM). It was actually one of our favorite trips! We went during spring training time and took in a few games. Also had lots of down time and shopping time.

 

[funhouse8]

I have been thinking of doing this too. There is so much more to WDW then just the parks. It sounds wonderful. Not sure if I could do it with the year of a million dreams running but Good luck, have fun and soak up that sun!

 

[dtheboys]

We have gone many times w/ out going to a park....Disney then becomes a nice relaxing VACATION......we love the parks, but we just love the pools, putt putt golf, etc.
This year we have one park day planned...one park in 10 days....that's enough for me.....LOL

 

[WolfpackFan]

We haven't done it yet, but do plan to do so in the future. It looks like AKV could be a destination in itself. DW and myself both feel we could easily spend a week there and not go to any parks. We would probably go to DTD some and maybe some other resorts for dining. We are also interested in doing some siteseeing in central Florida.

 

[Muushka]

We will be at WDW for 7 days in Oct. Staying at SSR and ASMu (free dining, can't help it). Anyway, we plan on going into the parks (MK, Epcot) only 2 or so days. We will not have APs, but will upgrade our manditory park pass to a 10 day with plusses and no exp. We will be going to the water parks (does that count ?) and DisneyQuest (and is that considered a park?? ).

We usually have APs and feel that we must go into the parks each day, whether we need to or not . But it will be warm then and we look forward to experiencing the resort (SSR) and DD.

 

[Dano1182]

we are going to limit our park visits this year.
we go easter week and the crowds are sometimes unbearable and the fun is lost.
We swear we will not go near the Magic Kingdom during that time ever again.
(we said the same thing last year.)
It did not work.Goofy Roller coaster)
.
We have stayed at Universal Hotels in past years and are completly spoiled by the front of line perk.
makes trying to time fast passes very annoying.
This year we are staying at nick hotel and skipping universal.So when we get to WDW we may want some time in the parks.
We will then be at BCV.Hoping to spend a lot of time at SAB.
Planning on maybe a visit to MGM and AK

 

[DisneyDVCdad]

I do not think I could do it! Go to Disney and not visit at least one park! Granted we only go once a year! Maybe later in life that will be option! We have too much fun not to!

 

[rbuzzotta]

We have done this the last 2 years for a total of about 30 days!! We did however go to the water parks a few times!!

We usually go in July/August and this year my younger DD's are already asking to go to the parks!!! I am sure we will buy some more park hopper passes since ours have run out!! We had 7 day park hopper plus that lasted 5 years with still one day left at the water parks!!!!

We LOVE hanging at OKW, swimming all day and then venturing out at night to either DTD, mini golf, off site. Even take a day trip here or there to Clearwater or Daytona beach!!!! My girls also love to shop and the outlets keep them busy all the time!!

We will be back again this summer, July 27 - Aug 10 or 12!!!

 

[Laurabearz]

We took an 8 night no park trip a few years back and had a BLAST.

We stayed at VWL and really enjoyed our time there. We took the boat to FT. Wilderness... did hoop de doo... We had Dinner at Chef Mickeys (to get their character fix) it was a GREAT Trip!

There is Sooooooooooooooo much to do at WDW that is NOT inside a park.

Go for it

 

[shellbelle1971]

We're going in April too and are not planning on doing parks. I want this trip to be restful, and fighting crowds is NOT restful to me! We just want to hang out by the pool, maybe (gasp!) go offsite to do some shopping and eat out, plus all that other stuff that everyone else mentioned.

 

[dvcnewgirl]

I am doing it for the first time in May. I am going 3 nights pre-cruise. I am stressing already about what we will do. I know we will do SAB at least one day since I have never been to BCV before. I have to plan the rest because if I don't then I will be buying park passes that are not in the budget..

 

[Cheryl N. WI]

We are going to give this a try for the first time in June. We have a 3 night stay at BCV at the end of a 2 week stay in FL and I thought it would be a good time to just hang out at SAB and go to DD and maybe Disney Quest and tour some of the other Disney resorts. We do however have a week in our Marriott timeshare the week before and will be doing the parks that week so that will make it easier to stay away those last 3 days lol.