Doing "other" stuff on your Disney vacation?

[mshanson3121]

How many of you do non-theme park things when on your Disney vacations?

We have 8 full days, we definitely are doing SW, DC, and then planned on each park once, ideally twice for MK, allowing a free day for a break/rest.

However, if I'm honest... I would really be willing to drop a park day, and sub it out for a local sight-seeing, eco-tour etc... day. I feel like we're driving 30 hours to get there, we'll be in a place where we can see things we'll never see anywhere near our home, I'd like to see some!

And, I know that our in-laws who are traveling with us, would really like to have some time, too, to head into Old Town for one of the car shows (FIL is a HUGE car guy - used to be a drag racer, still builds cars etc...).

While I know that the kids are going to LOVE Disney and I'm thrilled to be doing this and they're so excited about it... they're also the type of kids that honestly would be just as happy at a cheap amusement park, at a beach, and DS loves animals/nature, so I know he'd love some "non-park" stuff.

So... just curious to hear from those of you that do other stuff on your Disney vacations. Have you ever sacrificed a day or two at the parks for other things? We always could add an extra night to our stay, but I'd really prefer not to.

 

[spiderann]

when DH and i went a few years back, we did Disney and only Disney (Magic Express and everything). DH loved not having to drive for a week! however, when we go this June we are staying offsite so rental car is a must. i am currently planning for my 7 day trip - 2 park days, one sleep in/waterpark day, a park day, a Universal studios park day, another sleep in/waterpark day with downtown disney at night, then another sleep in/early lunch ADR followed by park day. I'm hoping this time we won't be as wiped out as we were the last time. hitting the parks early and hard each day will wear you out. rest days are a must and we don't even have kids yet!! lol

 

[cedricandsophie]

Fr. every two weeks at DW we might go to parks one day and do three parks that day. In March we go to baseball games, either at ESPN or In Kissimmee. We always talk about going into celebration for a drink or dinner since it's so pretty. And we play tennis and workout during day. Otherwise just lay around pool or go to a movie at downtown Disney.

 

[cmsb]

We have almost the same vacation planned! We are doing SW and Aquatica, though. We have a free day planned about halfway through the trip. Our plan is to spend the day enjoying our hotel (AoA) and go to Medieval Times for dinner. Last year, we went to LEGOLAND (although still a park) and took a day to visit Downtown Disney and relax. We haven't done any other touristy stuff, but we love having a day of down time!

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

We are starting to mix it up a bit, but still 'keeping it on Disney property' (partly because we fly in and part of our holiday is not having to drive at all). Last year we spent a day at DTD to see LaNouba and this year we are going to try to get on the hot air balloon. We love staying on-site and all of the Disney that goes with it.
But... for years when I was a kid/teen/young adult, my parents took us to Florida for two weeks and we did Old Town (very cool), Busch Gardens and watched baseball games (also an old theme park that was called Boardwalk and Baseball in Haines City). If we were there in the winter we'd go to see the Tampa Bay Lightning. We even saw the Orlando Magic play once.
Lots of stuff to do there for sure.
Have a great holiday

 

[cakebaker]

For the first time since we started going to WDW a very long time ago, we went to Universal at the end of our trip last year just to see the HP stuff. Other than that, it's all WDW the entire time. While we may visit something on the drive down or back, once we're at WDW we don't leave the bubble. We really have no desire to do anything else in the area.

 

[disney world dreamer]

whenever we road trip it we always do other things as well.
we always used to trod trip it but in the last 10yrs we've only road tripped in 2006, 2009, and july 2014.

i'll give you a quick run down of what we did in july 2014. (which is close to what we had done on previous road trips)
we drove from the buffalo new york area and took the inside route down and I-95 back up.
-july 6th:drove all day and stopped for the night.
-july 7th:the lost sea and lookout mountain (which includes ruby falls, rock city, and the incline railway). then we drove a bit farther and stopped for the night.
-july 8th:stopped at the florida welcome center and then drove to davenport
-july 9th:universal studios
-july 10th:homosassa springs (home of the manatee) and weeki wachee springs (home of the mermaid). because we've been to both a number of times we easily completed both in one day but if its your first time going you can easily take most of a day for homosassa and a good half day at weeki wachee.
-july 11th:seaworld
-july 12th:titanic experience in the morning and checked into our disney resort in the afternoon.
-july 13th:MK
-july 14th:epcot
-july 15th:HS
-july 16th:relax day
-july 17th:MK
-july 18th:checked out of our disney resort and drove to silver springs to go on a glass bottom boat ride and then drove to myrtle beach
-july 19th:hung out at the beach and got burnt to a crisp even with wearing plenty of sunscreen
-july 20th:i was miserable with my sunbrun but went to boardwalk on broadway
-july 21st:drove to wilmington NC to see where one tree hill was filmed and then drove to ashville
-july 22nd:drove the rest of the way home

 

[cgattis]

Not sure where you're traveling from, but there is a drag racing museum (Don Garlits) in Ocala, right on I-75.

Also, not sure what kinds of cars he likes, but Eckler's (a Corvette parts specialist) has a nice place over in Titusville too. Would be a good stop if you happen to go over to KSC or the beaches. It's neat to see the cruise ships at the port--you can watch them go out from Jetty Park.

I keep saying we are going to make time to go to Silver Springs and ride the glass bottom boats, and go see the Weekee Watchee mermaids, but we haven't yet

ETA: PP and I were typing at the same time! Already done some of my wish list

 

[jkquinn]

LaNouba

I think that LaNouba is a must see attraction of you have never see it. A really great Cirque show.

 

[grecorj]

Renting a car to go to Kennedy Space Center this upcoming trip.

 

[Cormoran]

We have visited the Harry Leu Gardens near old town Orlando. It's a great botanical garden. I believe it's known for it's Camellias. The gardens are really nice and peaceful. Another place we've visited is the Silver Springs State Park. It's kind of an interesting swamp land with wooden walkways over the wetlands. We've also visited Kennedy Space Center and we'll be visiting there again next week.

We always like to explore other areas around Orlando.

 

[pjhootch]

We frequently try to go spend a day at a beach. 90 minutes (ish) to Daytona. 1 hour or so to Cocoa beach. 2 hours to St. Pete Beach or Clearwater. For calm gulf waters head to St. Pete Beach or something in that area near Tampa. For crashing Atlantic head to Daytona or Cocoa. The space coast is interesting, and it is easy to make a day of it and do Kennedy and Cocoa Beach.

 

[pachelbel9]

We are arriving 2 days ahead of our family so that we can take a day trip to Clearwater Beach.

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

We have family in Central FL so we will visit before or after Disney, we have tried it during the trip and we just don't like leaving the Disney Bubble. If we do a non-Disney theme park vacation then we will explore more. We always drive so we have a vehicle.

 

[amylevan]

We've done Kennedy Space center, baseball games and a day at Daytona Beach. (And then of course, universal & sea world, but they are still theme parks - and you asked about non-theme parks.) And we have camped the last several trips, so we always spend some time doing camping things, even if those things are technically on WDW property.

The last time we were there, I really wanted to head over to one of those places where you can see manatees in the wild, but we couldn't fit it in.

I know it's sort of against the culture of the DISboards, but there is more to enjoy in the world than just WDW.

 

[Alfalfa]

Kennedy Space Center is really cool, especially if you can catch a launch. Watch their website for possible dates.

And as other long time WDW fans have noted, it can be worth going to Universal just to see the Harry Potter stuff.

 

[Kayabee]

On one of our non-WDW trips to Orlando we did an airboat ride combined with Kennedy Space Center. My kids loved the airboat, got to be up close and personal with alligators.

 

[dsdeleon]

We have done most extra things and other parks/attractions and my favorite had to be the guided bass fishing excursion on Bay Lake. A couple hours of straight up joy!

 

[prune1977]

How many of you do non-theme park things when on your Disney vacations?

We have 8 full days, we definitely are doing SW, DC, and then planned on each park once, ideally twice for MK, allowing a free day for a break/rest.

However, if I'm honest... I would really be willing to drop a park day, and sub it out for a local sight-seeing, eco-tour etc... day. I feel like we're driving 30 hours to get there, we'll be in a place where we can see things we'll never see anywhere near our home, I'd like to see some!

And, I know that our in-laws who are traveling with us, would really like to have some time, too, to head into Old Town for one of the car shows (FIL is a HUGE car guy - used to be a drag racer, still builds cars etc...).

While I know that the kids are going to LOVE Disney and I'm thrilled to be doing this and they're so excited about it... they're also the type of kids that honestly would be just as happy at a cheap amusement park, at a beach, and DS loves animals/nature, so I know he'd love some "non-park" stuff.

So... just curious to hear from those of you that do other stuff on your Disney vacations. Have you ever sacrificed a day or two at the parks for other things? We always could add an extra night to our stay, but I'd really prefer not to.

Do you mean non-theme park things or non Disney things? We've never went offsite as we always use their transportation because I drive a lot for my work so its one of my favorite things about disney vacations is not having to drive. But we almost always never spend our entire time at theme parks always take a day or 2 off and spend it doing some thing at DTD or the resort. We've also taken a trip where we only did resort activities. We did this at AKL Kidani and loved it, so much to do at AKL. When we were at BC we stayed at the resort 2 days and it felt like we were at the beach. Also one trip we did the water parks and loved them especially BB.

 

[puffkin]

We go so often and always rent a car, so we have done a few things in the area, although our trips are primarily Disney. We learned the last time we visited Universal and now that my kids are older that going forward, we will do just a universal trip rather than trying to combine it with Disney, its just too much. Some of the things we have done:
-Spring Training Baseball (Phillies)
-Clearwater Beach
-Cocoa Beach
-Clearwater Marine Aquarium (to see Winter)
-Ringling Museum
-Orange picking and eco tour (Showcase of Citris)
-Sea World
-Gator Land

On my list is to see the manatees at Silver Springs if we are there in the right season and to see the weekee watchi mermaids. But we primarily do the Disney parks, water parks and down town disney as my kids still really enjoy it.