DVC Owners, do you take non-theme park trips?

[Just People]

Hi Everyone,

We just bought into AKV last week . I was wondering, since buying into DVC, do you take more relaxing vacations? Our plans now are to take 2 7-Night Vacations a year, with 1 of those trips involving theme park touring, the other trip more of a relaxing vacation just lounging around our resort or checking out what else Orlando has to offer. Just wondering how some of you make use of your time in WDW.

 

[luvindisneyworld]

Well we were at AKV from the 7-14th of June and we did 2 parks this time. We love just being able to go to the parks if we want to.

 

[dizneyfan23]

I always take a 2 or 3 day trip to either OKW or BWV in October and go to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal

 

[Mike©]

After many trips ley me say, It Won't Work! Very hard to be there and NOT do parks. A alternative idea would be to only get 3 day park passes on both trips. Three days of parks and your ready to just relax, eat, visit other resorts.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

We will be doing this very thing this December ! We have a 5 night stay at AKV booked over New Years and our AP's will have expired several weeks before. We are not planning on doing any theme parks during this trip, but will still be at WDW.

Some things we might do -

=We have Jiko booked for NYE - it will be my 25th wedding anniversary.
-We plan on touring the resorts to take in the decorations,
-Some slow shopping in downtown disney,
-Sleep in late,
-Explore AKL,
-We'll probably hit the beach at the Poly for the Electrical Water Pagent and fireworks.
-Play some mini-golf.
-Blow any diet we are on at Beached 'N Cream.
-Get a gingerbread house at the GF for my aunt who wants one.
-Watch a movie on the flat screen in the room.
-Hang around the fire pit.
-Get on the Epcot monorail so we can ride it through the lights at the entrance to World Showcase - maybe even wait for the front.
-If a good movie just came out watch it on screen 1 or 2 at the AMC 24 theater. 3 stories tall, great sound system.
-Did I mention Beaches 'N Cream ?
-And most importantly - relax with the ones I love and enjoy !

 

[littlestar]

Yep. We mix our trips up. Some trips are DVC Disney park onsite trips and some are relaxing trips off site at usually Marriott Vacation Club resorts. The best of both worlds.

 

[jarestel]

We don't. If we don't want to go to the parks we will vacation in other non-Disney destinations. But it can save some money not having to buy park tickets or buy theme park food if one is looking to do a relatively inexpensive vacation since the room is already paid for.

 

[kimberh]

We have slowed down during the day, but to not go to the Parks, I would feel like I missed something. We leave much later in the morning, don't stay until park closing anymore. Eat a nice dinner. Use to really eat on the run. We are going to start doing one Tour a trip, we started this last trip. We did enjoy this.

 

[vandy]

Our trips are of longer duration, 10 or 11 nights. We will go ahead and get a 7 or 8-day ticket and have a couple of spare days to do non-park things. Also, some of those days are not full days at the park and that allows us time to do other things as well. Like the previous poster stated, it's hard to be there and not do the parks.

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

We definitely have non-park trips as well as trips where we may go in to the parks only once or twice. We often travel with a larger group of people and spend time connecting with our friends that we never have time to see at home. We joke that we really should go to dinner at home instead of travelling all the way to Orlando for the pleasure.

We have kids (teenagers) and travel with other teenagers. The last three trips the kids have been on we didn't hit the parks at all. We have pool days, shopping days, rent bikes, pool hop, go 'cable skiing' at Orlando Water Sports Centre, go to the movies at DTD, watch the fireworks from the Poly, a game at ESPN, etc...

The other oddity is that my DH and I hit the parks more than the kids as we are usually by ourselves in the fall and wouldn't miss Food and Wine !

It's strange that when people hear we go to Disney twice a year, they kind of snicker at that. Then when we say we don't hit the parks too often they are even more confused !!

 

[castleri]

We have done some very limited park trips - 1 or 2 days, 1 no parks and the rest have 3 or more days in the last 10 years since owning DVC. We bought the non expiring tickets with water park features for the first few years and then APs when we started going several times a year. Buying a 10 day non expiring park hopper ticket can last several years if you are doing limited park days and seems to be the best value if you aren't doing at least 8-10 days of parks in a year. This year DH and I both had APs for last Sept ( mine from previous Dec and his new in Sept 2007), in April he still had the AP and I used some days from a non expired park hopper for the two days we did parks. For our Sept 2008 trip he still has the AP which expires the last day of the trip and I will get a new one since we will be there with DD and DGC for 10 days and will probably be doing something in a park each day even if it is only a couple of hours. Then when we go back in the spring I will have the AP if we decide to do any parks and he can use a couple more of the leftover days on the park hoppers we still have if he wants to do a park. It may be a parkless trip for him and a quick trip into a park to do one or two rides or some shopping for me while he enjoys the sun by the pool.

 

[twinmom]

We are going this July through a series of events that would take too long to explain. I swore I would never go at that time of year again after going last year in July, but.....We will spend 3 days at Vero Beach and then 4 days at WDW. We are going to use the remaining time that I have left on our nonexpiring tickets which will be 1 day at the park and 2 days at the Water Parks. My boys are great with that. Between swimming, mini golf, etc there will be plenty to keep us busy.

 

[groverdog]

We will be doing this very thing this December ! We have a 5 night stay at AKV booked over New Years and our AP's will have expired several weeks before. We are not planning on doing any theme parks during this trip, but will still be at WDW.

Some things we might do -

=We have Jiko booked for NYE - it will be my 25th wedding anniversary.
-We plan on touring the resorts to take in the decorations,
-Some slow shopping in downtown disney,
-Sleep in late,
-Explore AKL,
-We'll probably hit the beach at the Poly for the Electrical Water Pagent and fireworks.
-Play some mini-golf.
-Blow any diet we are on at Beached 'N Cream.
-Get a gingerbread house at the GF for my aunt who wants one.
-Watch a movie on the flat screen in the room.
-Hang around the fire pit.
-Get on the Epcot monorail so we can ride it through the lights at the entrance to World Showcase - maybe even wait for the front.
-If a good movie just came out watch it on screen 1 or 2 at the AMC 24 theater. 3 stories tall, great sound system.
-Did I mention Beaches 'N Cream ?
-And most importantly - relax with the ones I love and enjoy !

That sounds heavenly!

 

[BEASLYBOO]

In August, when you can literally melt tires on the pavement, we still go to Disney (kids are still out of school). We do not do the theme parks, way too crowded and way too hot, and usually we've done them all in June. We sleep in and don't rush. We will hit Typhhon Lagoon water park, it's lush and cool. We'll go to the movies , we do the resort pool. We'll take the boat at night from OKW with the kids, and go to DTD for dinner and ice cream (Ghirardelli's). We have AP's so we'll go to Epcot just to eat and maybe do Soarin or Test Track. We bring movies, like one year we did all of the Bourne Identity movies, one night after the other and then went to see the Bourne Ultimatum. We play Uno and Sorry!. We just spend quality family time away from home, chores and responsibility. We have 11 boys so we also do a few hours at Disney Quest. Disney and Orlando is fun even without the theme parks!

 

[bczang]

My wife and I have a pretty good routine. We have an infant (now 14 months) and we went to WDW a few months ago and are going back over Christmas! We do one day at the parks with our son, one day we have Kids-Nite-Out watch him and we do the parks on our own, and the remaining days we relax at the pool or explore the MANY other things that WDW offers.

 

[twinmom]

. We have 11 boys so we also do a few hours at Disney Quest. Disney and Orlando is fun even without the theme parks![/QUOTE]


11 BOYS! Is this extended family or all siblings? I thought I was going crazy with my 3 boys.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

. We have 11 boys so we also do a few hours at Disney Quest. Disney and Orlando is fun even without the theme parks!

11 BOYS! Is this extended family or all siblings? I thought I was going crazy with my 3 boys.[/QUOTE]

4 friends since the age of 4 - always vacation together! This week it's horse camp! Thanks goodness, as parents we've become close friends as well!

Let me tell you it's never dull, but thena gain you (twinmom) probably know this better than anyone!

 

[alldiz]

I haven't done a completely "parkless" trip but out of a usual 8 night vacation.....we probably go to the parks 4 of them.
I love my DVC......we have a great destination....with a ton of stuff to do....
IF WE CHOOSE TO.
Kerri

 

[JimC]

We generally spend the afternoon at our resort or other activity outside of the parks (boating, miniature golf, pool, etc). When we go to VB it is all non-park activity.

Since we live here many of the other fine central Florida activities we do on day trips or while we are at our Cypress Harbour (Marriott Vacation Club) property.

We also own MVCI in Phoenix and Palm Desert for annual holidays to the southwest.

 

[Steamboat Girlie]

We will be doing this very thing this December ! We have a 5 night stay at AKV booked over New Years and our AP's will have expired several weeks before. We are not planning on doing any theme parks during this trip, but will still be at WDW.

Some things we might do -

=We have Jiko booked for NYE - it will be my 25th wedding anniversary.
-We plan on touring the resorts to take in the decorations,
-Some slow shopping in downtown disney,
-Sleep in late,
-Explore AKL,
-We'll probably hit the beach at the Poly for the Electrical Water Pagent and fireworks.
-Play some mini-golf.
-Blow any diet we are on at Beached 'N Cream.
-Get a gingerbread house at the GF for my aunt who wants one.
-Watch a movie on the flat screen in the room.
-Hang around the fire pit.
-Get on the Epcot monorail so we can ride it through the lights at the entrance to World Showcase - maybe even wait for the front.
-If a good movie just came out watch it on screen 1 or 2 at the AMC 24 theater. 3 stories tall, great sound system.
-Did I mention Beaches 'N Cream ?
-And most importantly - relax with the ones I love and enjoy !

Thank you so much for this list! We are celebrating our 15th anniversary next month at AKV without the kiddies. We don't plan on doing the parks thing. We just want to relax. These are some great suggestions of how to spend our time. We will certainly try Beaches N Cream. And we are eating at Jiko our first night! I can not wait! Oh and we are getting massages at spa/fitness center place!