Fun things to do in WDW without using one of the days on your ticket?

[crazymomof4]

Hi, this topic was posted a few weeks ago but now I can't find it.
We just ordered our tickets from Paramount and got the free breakfast. We like to do character breakfasts on "Non-Park" days. That way we don't feel rushed at breakfast bc. we need to get into the parks. What things have you done in WDW that didn't require using a park admission? We have 4 kids ages 2-14. We will be staying off-site. Is the petting zoo still in FW? We used to do that.

 

[junglejane]

Another idea is instead of a character breakfast, you could get an early breakfast at BOMA at the Animal Kindgom Lodge. We did this last year. We were granted entrance to the lodge because of the priority seating. And we spent quite a lot of time watching the animals from the pool area and again from the balconies (sp). Another would be to try to get the pirate cruise from the GF for your younger kids and in the mean time spend some time at the arcade or touring the hotels with the older ones. Just a thought.....Also you could visit POFQ and ride the boat to Riverside and stop for lunch, rent bikes and possibly stop at one of the minigolf spots before heading "home" to your resort. Or go to the All Star Movies playground.

 

[DMRick]

You can just tell the guard you want to look around AK Lodge for a future stay. He'll let you right in, and you can enjoy what the above poster mentioned. Your kids might also enjoy visiting the Allstar Movies..same thing..just tell the guard you want to visit for a future stay. It's a great picture opportunity.

The petting zoo is still there at teh campground, as is the campfire..but I think for the campfire you are suppose to be staying on site..but I'm not sure, and I have met up with people who weren't. One gal told us she asked in the store if it's allowed, and they told her sure..prob depends on who you ask. If you have hopper tickets, you are entitled to use Disney transportation, so you might want to park at T & T (you'll have to pay if you don't have an AP) and take the monorail to the Contemporary and then a boat ride over to the campground. Or go to MK and take the boat form there. The contemporary does give you three hours, if you want to look around there, maybe do Chef Mickey's and a quick visit to the campground at that time. We like to watch the electric water parade (we stay on site usually) from FW beach.

Boardwalk is always a fun place to visit in the evening..just tell the guard you want to visit the shops, etc, and he'll wave you through.

You can take the boat from POR to DTD as mentioned above..but I think to rent the bike's, you may have to be staying in the hotel. They did ask to see our key the last time..but that may have been because of the discount we were using.
Downtown Disney is always a hit with the kids..the toy store and the little playground are fun.

We visited POR from our Disney hotel last vist and enjoyed Bob in the bar area. The kids were having a wonderful time with him (and he sent his thanks to the Diser's who he feels got him his job back!) as were the adults..who he actually got to do the turtle on their backs. Boy does that guy work hard to make sure we in the audience have a great time.

 

[rwodonnell]

We are probably also going to have a non-park day, and we were thinking of going to Disney Quest for at least part of that day. How much time is realistic to expect to want to spend there? It doesn't open until 10 I think, so even if it's a long time, it could certainly be done on a character breakfast day.

Others have already mentioned other thoughts we had for our day we're not in the park, except nobody suggested the watermouse thing. That looks like fun to us. Not sure what the policy is about being an on-site guest.

And you know what else? If you're staying off-site, I hear there's a couple other things to do in Orlando as well that don't even have anything to DO with Disney!

 

[disneyjunkie]

How about spending some time at the BoardWalk?

http://wdwig.com/brdenter.htm

I'm planning to do the MK on the 4th of July (all day). We are going to sleep in on the 5th, then spend the afternoon hanging out on the BoardWalk. The various water boats and surrey bikes look like fun. I'm sure DS11 will have a blast there.

 

[crazymomof4]

Thanks so much for all of your suggestions. I've copied them to a file and we'll go over them as a family and plan our day.....it will be fun! Many of the ideas I would not have known about since the last time we were there was in '94. I want to do the boat ride from POR to DTD and see the AK Lodge too. The Boardwalk sounds like fun. (disnyjunkie, thanks for the link) We've never seen Disney' s version of a boardwalk. It should be interesting for us since my husband & I grew up in NJ and never missed a summer going "down-the-shore" to the boardwalks there.

Keep 'em comin'

 

[tmli]

We're planning a week at the end of August, being our 5th visit in 3 1/2 yrs I want to see everything else not just the parks. Probably only 3-4 park days and the rest of the time will be enjoying the wonderful "world".

 

[kilee]

You don't need to be staying on site to rent the bikes. On our last trip we stayed at a Day's Inn and they took that room key. I thought it was amusing that they took that key.

 

[Lexxiefern]

Another fun thing to do is go mini golfing! There is Fantasia Gardens (very fun course, we did this on our last trip) which is located in front of the Swan. And Winter Summerland located at Blizzard Beach - we plan to try this one on our next trip.

 

[dahess]

These are some great ideas guys! We are going to have 2 or 3 non park days & I love these ideas!

 

[Debbie]

What about The Ole Fishin' Hole at Dixie-oops POR? It'll cost $12.50 for an hour for the entire family! We did this once and had a blast! Click here for details.

Resort hopping always takes a day of our time. I love shopping and checking out the deals in all the hotel stores.

Have a great time. You'll be spending a lot of time just counting heads! I know-we've gone with our five kids!

 

[colleen costello]

Downtown Disney is a treat during the day. It's not really crowded and there is even a McDonald's is you are hungry for some inexpensive junk food! There's an ice cream place and great shops. We ALWAYS head here before we end a vacation.

 

[FoodLover]

I have a whole page on my site of free and cheap things to do without going into the theme parks:

http://www.mousesavers.com/freestuff.html

Mary
MouseSavers.com

 

[Halle]

We always take a ride to Celebration (Disney's planned community) and have lunch there. It has to be seen to be believed. Located only about 15min. from WDW.

 

[fostrmom2mny]

To answer someone's question about Disney Quest. You can litteraly spend many hours there! Since it is @ DD, you could park @ T&T, take monorail to the Contemp. and have your Chef Mickey, then take monorail back to the T&T and switch over to the DD bus.

That would make for a full day. Another suggestion is to zip over to the Belz Outlet Mall for some shopping. You can drive or be adventerous and take the Linx bus. It's not a hard trip at all.

Have fun.
Gerri

 

[Tiggerlover91]

DH and I always head to Downtown Disney when we want to have "a day off" from the parks. It's so enjoyable in the daytime as most are in the parks. We were lucky enough to have ultimate park hoppers, so our tickets got us into DisneyQuest....that was loads of fun!! DH and I like the Westside of Disney more than the Marketplace, but both work for us when we just want to hang out.