Extra Things To Do

[Traver Freeman]

We are heading to WDW in about a month. We had planned on going with some friends, but due to some unforeseen circumstances (broken collarbone/missed work) they cannot come. That means our party of 7 is down to a party of 4.

We are Disneyland passholders, and have been to WDW often enough as well. We are staying for a week. We stayed for a week before and were somewhat bored by the end (if you can be bored at Disney? We were just tired of riding Space Mountain for the 5th or 6th time, the one at DL is better anyway). Since our friends don't go to Disney all that often, we had a lot planned that was specifically for them. Without them coming, we feel we're going to have a lot of a free time we didn't expect.

To complicate things, my wife is pregnant and we have a toddler who can't ride a lot of things. So only two of us would be able to ride the e-ticket rides.

Any recommendations of things to do that you WDW vets can recommend that you do to keep things fun and interesting? Doesn't have to be in the parks.

 

[ErinsMommy]

enjoying and relaxing/playing in the pool. also Disney Springs has lots of entertainment and things going on there.

 

[Traver Freeman]

enjoying and relaxing/playing in the pool. also Disney Springs has lots of entertainment and things going on there.

We do have 1 pool day set aside, and will likely use our free morning to do the same as it's going to be hot. We have not been there since Disney Springs has opened. I was not a super big fan of Downtown Disney (and still am not of our one in DL) as I'm not a shopper. But it looks like Disney springs might be a bit more exciting? We are planning to check it out for sure.

 

[bjcaed]

Lat summer we went and took some time to go to the movie theater at Disney Springs, wanted to bowl but ran out of time. We love both of the putt putt golf courses at Disney World. Lots of great photo ops there!!

 

[Traver Freeman]

Lat summer we went and took some time to go to the movie theater at Disney Springs, wanted to bowl but ran out of time. We love both of the putt putt golf courses at Disney World. Lots of great photo ops there!!

We love going mini-golfing and already have that planned into our trip. Maybe we will do another one as well? We'll have the time. My wife is just really worried she won't have much to do. She really can't ride anything at either AK or HS besides triceratops spin, great movie ride, and toy story. We certainly be doing more shows this trip. But we noticed AK got ride of their parade? So that will cut down on some things we can do there. Does HS still have a parade?

 

[barbliny]

We were just tired of riding Space Mountain for the 5th or 6th time, the one at DL is better anyway).

Totally agree!! Wish I could get over to the west coast more often.

This might be the perfect vacation to visit some of the more 'show-like' attractions in the park that are often overlooked in everyone's quest to get in so many of the rides. Mickey's Philharmagic, Monsters Inc, Country Bear Jamboree, etc.

There are great themed miniature golf courses.
Disney Springs has Splitsville bowling, the Lego store, and there are often free performances that great - like jugglers, musicians, singers, ...

The Boardwalk is a fun way to kill some time and watch the free performances that pop up. You can take the boat that cruises the loop around the lagoon (there are also other free boat rides to be had as part of Disney transportation).

Your resort usually has a list of activities - especially at the pools. Some have outdoor movies. Some have campfires and roast s'mores. I believe the campfire at Fort Wilderness is open to everyone (I am not sure about the others).

There are animal viewing areas at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. And when we stayed there in January there were singers and performers in the lobby one afternoon while I happened to be sitting there (I don't know if it is scheduled or not).

You can visit other resorts - easiest if you have a car. Your toddler will probably love the Art of Animation resort.

You can google free or cheap things to do at Walt Disney World and many suggestions come up.

There is plenty to do at WDW!!

 

[GillianP1301]

Some extras that we have done and enjoyed...

• Family Magic Tour in MK, it's a really fun interactive tour/scavenger hunt geared for younger kids, I highly recommend it.
• Behind the Seeds Tour at Epcot. Very informative and kids get right into it as well.
• Dessert parties - we have done the Wishes one and the Star Wars one and both are fantastic
• Pirates & Pals Cruise - haven't actually done this one yet, but it's in the plans for our upcoming trip.
• Mini Golf, we liked the Winter Summer land courses the best
• Resort time/swimming are always a welcome break
• Enjoy some of the lesser used attractions that aren't on your must do list like Ellen's Energy Adventure, Tom Sawyer's Island, The Riverboat, etc...

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

We are also going in may and staying for a week. Our group of 4 is self DH and 2 DS(18, 21) and have been going multiple trips a year since they weere toddler and infant. So i get the same feeling sometimes of getting a little "tired" of the same rides.

We have a lot of down time at the pool(split stay at Poly and BC) and still 2 days at a waterpark. There are some great area in the water parks for little ones and special floats for them for the lazy rivers. Not sure what resort you are at.

There is also minigolf. Rent a boat and cruise bay Lake -my kids always enjoyed. Chef Mickeys for a meal then ride the monorail to epcot and back, watch fireworks from the CR platform or Poly beach. Character meals like cape May/crystal Palace /ohana/Minnies dine at HS. You can rent a bike(4 person) with your toddler infront, at BW or YC/BC. Take a carriage ride at POR. Movies under the stars at the resorts. Wagon ride at Ft Wilderness, again can see MK fireworks from there. Campfire at FW-forget what its called, I think you can see the horses there as well.

There is taking the boats that go between DS and the resorts, you can ck them out, grab an ice cream at one of them, see the giant paddlewheel. My kids liked the carousel when they were little, the big toy store and especially the splash area/fountains at DS.

We also found they liked seeing more shows, any shows...from the drums at epcot in Japan to the band on Mainstreet. A lot of people just pass over the entertainment but there is a lot and they are good. wdwent.com has the schedules.

That is a few off the top of my head-trying to think of you with a toddler so not including bars, late nights, la nouba....

Have a great trip!

 

[hiroMYhero]

But we noticed AK got ride of their parade? So that will cut down on some things we can do there. Does HS still have a parade?

The only parade on property is in MK: Festival of Fantasy. MK also has Move It Shake It - a dance party with floats in the Hub.

 

[Traver Freeman]

Totally agree!! Wish I could get over to the west coast more often.

This might be the perfect vacation to visit some of the more 'show-like' attractions in the park that are often overlooked in everyone's quest to get in so many of the rides. Mickey's Philharmagic, Monsters Inc, Country Bear Jamboree, etc.

There are great themed miniature golf courses.
Disney Springs has Splitsville bowling, the Lego store, and there are often free performances that great - like jugglers, musicians, singers, ...

The Boardwalk is a fun way to kill some time and watch the free performances that pop up. You can take the boat that cruises the loop around the lagoon (there are also other free boat rides to be had as part of Disney transportation).

Your resort usually has a list of activities - especially at the pools. Some have outdoor movies. Some have campfires and roast s'mores. I believe the campfire at Fort Wilderness is open to everyone (I am not sure about the others).

There are animal viewing areas at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. And when we stayed there in January there were singers and performers in the lobby one afternoon while I happened to be sitting there (I don't know if it is scheduled or not).

You can visit other resorts - easiest if you have a car. Your toddler will probably love the Art of Animation resort.

You can google free or cheap things to do at Walt Disney World and many suggestions come up.

There is plenty to do at WDW!!

Lol, I feel like we are doing most of this already. We have plans to go mini-golfing. We are eating at Boma on our "Off" day so we will check out the animals then. Our day we arrive is Resort Hopping day and we plan to go to AoA and Boardwalk as well as Fort Wilderness Lodge.

We will have a look around at the resort schedules and see if we can find something that is different or unique.

 

[Traver Freeman]

The only parade on property is in MK: Festival of Fantasy. MK also has Move It Shake It - a dance party with floats in the Hub.

That's a shame. They used to have a parade at HS too. We were really hoping they'd be good "time killers", plus our son loves parades as a typical toddler.

 

[Traver Freeman]

Some extras that we have done and enjoyed...

• Family Magic Tour in MK, it's a really fun interactive tour/scavenger hunt geared for younger kids, I highly recommend it.
• Behind the Seeds Tour at Epcot. Very informative and kids get right into it as well.
• Dessert parties - we have done the Wishes one and the Star Wars one and both are fantastic
• Pirates & Pals Cruise - haven't actually done this one yet, but it's in the plans for our upcoming trip.
• Mini Golf, we liked the Winter Summer land courses the best
• Resort time/swimming are always a welcome break
• Enjoy some of the lesser used attractions that aren't on your must do list like Ellen's Energy Adventure, Tom Sawyer's Island, The Riverboat, etc...

We were looking at some of the tours, but aren't they limited to 6 and up a lot of the time? Our son wouldn't be able to go. Though I think he can still do Behind the Seeds, which is one were very seriously looking at doing. We'd LOVE to do more tours, but our sons age is preventing us I think.

Ellen's Energy Adventure! Lol. I forgot about that one. There's a good time-killer and perfect for a good nap not to mention respite from the heat. About all it's good for though. Haha.

 

[Traver Freeman]

We are also going in may and staying for a week. Our group of 4 is self DH and 2 DS(18, 21) and have been going multiple trips a year since they weere toddler and infant. So i get the same feeling sometimes of getting a little "tired" of the same rides.

We have a lot of down time at the pool(split stay at Poly and BC) and still 2 days at a waterpark. There are some great area in the water parks for little ones and special floats for them for the lazy rivers. Not sure what resort you are at.

There is also minigolf. Rent a boat and cruise bay Lake -my kids always enjoyed. Chef Mickeys for a meal then ride the monorail to epcot and back, watch fireworks from the CR platform or Poly beach. Character meals like cape May/crystal Palace /ohana/Minnies dine at HS. You can rent a bike(4 person) with your toddler infront, at BW or YC/BC. Take a carriage ride at POR. Movies under the stars at the resorts. Wagon ride at Ft Wilderness, again can see MK fireworks from there. Campfire at FW-forget what its called, I think you can see the horses there as well.

There is taking the boats that go between DS and the resorts, you can ck them out, grab an ice cream at one of them, see the giant paddlewheel. My kids liked the carousel when they were little, the big toy store and especially the splash area/fountains at DS.

We also found they liked seeing more shows, any shows...from the drums at epcot in Japan to the band on Mainstreet. A lot of people just pass over the entertainment but there is a lot and they are good. wdwent.com has the schedules.

That is a few off the top of my head-trying to think of you with a toddler so not including bars, late nights, la nouba....

Have a great trip!

I wish we could do a waterpark. That'd be awesome. However with a pregnant wife really all she could do is lazy river, and our son is bit young for most of the slides and things, so he wouldn't have much to do either. And since it costs extra, it's not like we can just hop over there if even for an hour.

We might check out the boat thing. That's a nice idea. We do have Chef Mickey's on the docket of ADRs. Carriage ride sounds interesting too. We will look into the FW campfire as well.

 

[LISmama810]

I lived near Anaheim for 20 years, so at Disney World I like focusing on the things that Disneyland doesn't have (or doesn't have anymore), like Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Carousel of Progress, People Mover, the countries in Epcot, etc. Epcot also has that Phineas & Ferb scavenger hunt. My kids loved it and we had a blast watching them.

We're staying at Fort Wilderness this time and are looking forward to the Chip & Dale campfire (free) and stuff. I'm not into horses, but I guess you can do horseback rides. I want to rent a canoe or something, but the rest of the family isn't onboard with that.

We're also considering one of the tours at Magic Kingdom. I forget what it's called, but there's one in particular that looked good for little kids.

 

[Traver Freeman]

Question for any of you who have done campfires (@LISmama810 @barbliny @4HOLIDAYS). My wife is wondering if they still provide s'more kits or if you have to bring your own marshmallows. She says she thought she heard Disney wasn't doing that anymore. Any idea?

 

[barbliny]

Question for any of you who have done campfires (@LISmama810 @barbliny @4HOLIDAYS). My wife is wondering if they still provide s'more kits or if you have to bring your own marshmallows. She says she thought she heard Disney wasn't doing that anymore. Any idea?

According to the page for Chip n' Dales campfire sing-a-long on Disney's website 'bring your own marshmallows and sticks or purchase a s'mores kit from the Chuckwagon Snack Bar'

I also wanted to add in regards to the waterparks - if you have park-hopper tickets it is only $15/ticket to upgrade to them to park-hopper plus - this gives you a number of admissions equal to the the number of days on the ticket (4-day ph gets you 4) to the 'plus' parks - these are the waterparks, ESPN WWS, Oak Trail golf course, and the 2 miniature golf-courses PRIOR to 4 pm.

You already have mini-golf on your itinerary - if you can fit it in before 4 pm - one round pays for the upgrade to plus. And you now have a ton of 'plus' options. So, going to the waterpark for only an hour to play in the children's area or ride the lazy river becomes doable.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

We love going mini-golfing and already have that planned into our trip. Maybe we will do another one as well? We'll have the time. My wife is just really worried she won't have much to do. She really can't ride anything at either AK or HS besides triceratops spin, great movie ride, and toy story. We certainly be doing more shows this trip. But we noticed AK got ride of their parade? So that will cut down on some things we can do there. Does HS still have a parade?

I'm pretty sure she should be able to ride the new pandora rides, definitely the boat ride, and most pregnant women still ride the safari ride. At both parks, we mainly do shows anyway.

The only parade left is festival of fantasy during the day at Magic Kingdom.

 

[GillianP1301]

We were looking at some of the tours, but aren't they limited to 6 and up a lot of the time? Our son wouldn't be able to go. Though I think he can still do Behind the Seeds, which is one were very seriously looking at doing. We'd LOVE to do more tours, but our sons age is preventing us I think.

Ellen's Energy Adventure! Lol. I forgot about that one. There's a good time-killer and perfect for a good nap not to mention respite from the heat. About all it's good for though. Haha.

Family Magic Tour is one of the few for young kids. They recommend 4 - 10. I think 4 -6 is the real sweet spot for age for this one.

 

[cole4/25]

I'd rather be bored at Disney than doing anything now in my 'real' life!! Have fun no matter what you decide!!

 

[Traver Freeman]

I'm pretty sure she should be able to ride the new pandora rides, definitely the boat ride, and most pregnant women still ride the safari ride.

Going before Pandora opens and she is going to sit out on Safari just to be safe.