Not doing parks, suggestions?

[lllovell]

More more!!!

This is great info! We are going down for spring break and taking some days off from the parks to try to not make it a CRAZED trip for once Also taking some dear friends with us hoping to add new neighbors to DVC

 

[kweaver]

From allearsnet:

Horsing Around Rentals, located at the lower end of the High Rock Spring pool, rents bikes and surrey bikes, as well as tennis, basketball and shuffleboard equipment. Its hours are generally 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but are subject to change seasonally.

Rental Prices (sales tax not included) as of 6/04 are:

Bicycles per 60 minutes - Guest: $7.51 Member: $6.80
Bicycle per day - Guest: $20.65 Member: $18.68
2-Seat Surrey per 30 minutes - Guest: $16.90 Member: $15.28
4-Seat Surrey per 30 minutes - Guest: $20.65 Member: $18.68

NOTE: Must be 18 years old to rent and drive surrey bikes; must have legal guardian 18 or older to sign waiver for bike rentals.

Information about Fishing Excursion, Specialty Cruises, Water Sports and additional recreation offerings is also available at Horsing Around rentals.

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks Katie!

 

[momoftwins]

1. Where is the Turf Club?
2. Does the Ft. Wilderness post a list of the movies that are shown? Are they shown nightly? During April would we be eaten alive by mosquitos or bugs?

Thanks!

 

[kweaver]

I find the movie schedule on the Ft Wilderness/Camping board at Intercot:

http://www.intercot.com/boards/ultimatebb.php?/topic/16/903.html

I think it only comes out about one month ahead.

I'd bring a jacket or wear long sleeves at night unless you plan to be really close to the campfire. It gets very buggy over there.

The Turf Club is near the lobby/AP...upstairs. Very nice facility.

 

[kweaver]

You are welcome, Shan! I'm pretty sure I remember seeing small bikes at SSR last year...but I don't remember training wheels. I wasn't specifically looking for them, but I'd be surprised if Disney didn't have that covered.

 

[WDWMom]

The Poly is a great place to pool hop (well they all are). They are very much up-to-date on PH. Go to Fort Wilderness and walk around. You can see Cinderella's horse, ride ponies ($2 a ride I think) there is a petting farm. All lot's of fun for little money.

I would pool hop and resort tour. CS is interesting and so is PO (the Dixie side)

 

[living la vida mickey]

You can also rent the boats at DTD and the Contemporary. Definitely do the putt-putt golf. Check World of Sports and see if anything that they would enjoy is going on over there. I also vote for La Nouba. It was amazing. Have a great time.

 

[Pa@okw95]

There is Universal and Sea World that comes to mind. In Tampa there is Bush Gardens. Near Tampa, exit 17 off I-4 is a Casino. My wife and I went there quite a few times our last trip. You have the water parks and miniture golf course or if you golf you have plenty of golf courses at WDW. There is enough restaurants to choose from to fit anyones desire.

 

[loribell]

I just wanted to add that my family LOVES the mini golf course by BB. We have done both and we enjoyed Fantasia Gardens but love WinterSummerLand.

We have also enjoyed activities at FW while attendingMickey's BBQ but haven't done the campfire, hope to get that in this summer.

Lori

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks everyone. Everything we do will be with my little girls sooo...

We're definitely doing TL and BB. We did Sea World last summer. It was really nice, but I don't think we'll go back again for awhile.
I want to do Universal, but my oldest is scared of everything. I think we're gonna wait on Universal until she is a little older. Now my little one would ride on anything she is tall enough for.


Since we've already done all the WDW dinner shows, can anyone tell me about the Medieval Knights? Has anyone done this recently and what is your opinion?

Thanks!

 

[Ksp]

Can anyone attend the movies at FW, or do you have to be staying there?
We will be at BCV; could we still go to the campfire/movies?

 

[dallastxcpa]

Can anyone attend the movies at FW, or do you have to be staying there?
We will be at BCV; could we still go to the campfire/movies?

Anyone can attend the movies.
Lensham,

The smores package contains graham crackers (not sure which brand) hershey's chocolate (2 whole bars), marshmellows and roasting sticks. You can bring your own smores stuff and just buy the roasting sticks (around $0.50 each).

As far as the bikes at SSR, I believe I remember seeing training wheels on some when we were there in December.

 

[lenshanem]

dallastxcpa,
Thanks! Sounds like it would probably be safe, but maybe I'll just pack us the stuff anyway and just buy the sticks.

Perfect about the training wheels. My four year old still needs them.

 

[Ksp]

Thanks!!

 

[jnrrt]

My girls also love the giant horses at the campground - I think they're the ones they use at MK, and they really are neat.

We have gone to the campground sing along several times and you only need to be at an on-site resort to go. You can bring your own stuff for the smores. Also, the last time we went, the singer was really awful (very surprising), so we actually left and played on the playground right next to it - my girls were just as happy.

Boma at AKL is also a favorite, and then you can visit the animals while you're there! We apent a ton of time out back looking at the savannah, and talking to a CM from South Africa.

 

[gopherit]

I too recall seeing bikes with training wheels back in August. Seems like back then they had surrey bikes sitting out but were NOT renting them -- maybe that has changed now.

One note about the surreys -- my DS was VERY disappointed to learn he would NOT be allowed to pedal! There is a height requirement for a "peddler". At age 9 (and while I can't recall how tall he is, I know he's at 95% of height for his age group), he did NOT make the requirement. They told us (both at BWV and SSR) that he would have to sit in the middle -- no peddling for him. He couldn't even SIT in a seat with pedals below it -- he had to sit in a non-peddling seat (which is the middle). Or of course, in the basket. (Now just IMAGINE me stuffing all 72 pounds of him in there! ) SO for a family of 5 -- that means we would have to rent the 3-row surrey ( so as to have 3 middle seats) or rent a double surrey and stuff our 4 yr old in the basket (a tight fit -- if even possible, which I doubted.) then place one ds in the front middle, then one ds in the back middle. In either case, that leaves only DH and I to peddle the load -- Yikes!! <a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008_ZSzeb04242US' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_3_1v.gif' alt='Fainting' border=0></a> We decided to just wait 'til eldest son was tall enough to help! THen at least we would have 3 peddlers...and dd and middle son could then ride in the "center" seats front and back.

Just something for us odd-sized fams to consider!!

Shan, your kids will enjoy Community Hall -- my kids loved it there! Our eldest wasn't feeling too great during the latter part of our stay and the CMs there were so nice to him, to all of us. They also treated my dd like a queen. The kids really enjoyed the pool games -- they were doing an "Olympics" theme when we were there, with all sorts of events (balloon toss, "horse races" across the pool, cannonball contest, hulahoop contest, etc.) The kids didn't even participate in all the events, but enjoyed watching the others do it! Be careful not to plan too much for your "non-park" days ! We always have several non-park days per visit and I'm always amazed at how these days have become, sometimes, more CrAzY than park days! So much to do, never enough time to do it all!

What about tea at the GF (not the fairy tale/Alice one, but literally, the afternoon tea?) Maybe your girls/mom would enjoy that. My dd loves thinking she's "all that" and dressing up! Perhaps you could pool-hop to the GF pool afterwards.

One idea -- morning at DTD (get those silhouettes, play at LEGO, etc etc!), then afternoon at SSR pool, dinner at WCC or Chef M's, then a boat ride over to FW for fun and smores and a movie. Now THAT's a jam-packed day to rival any park day!! We often combine a dinner at a resort with pool-hopping (i.e., eat at WCC, then pool-hop there, or BWV pool with lunch on the BW, etc.). I'd imagine you could do the same at Poly (Ohana), GF (ParkFare), etc.

If you're ever there with DH and sans a sitter, try dinner at Shula's. Complimentary childcare for 2 hours in Camp Dolphin (or whatever it's called). Our kids had a blast, were fed dinner "picnic style" (I'd bet they could readily work with food allergies of any nature), did crafts, watched movies, were given tokens to play the games in the arcade -- my trio thoroughly enjoyed it, and DH and I had an AWESOME dinner at Shula's. (I think the more kids you have, the better this deal is! We came out pretty cheaply here, even with the $$ of Shula's!) Same deal for Palios' too, I understand. Just something to keep in mind down the road, although I know you usually take fam along. DH and I never get a dinner out, even at home, and the kids had a great time sans us parents, it's a real win-win! DH was so surprised (I got extra brownie pts for that planning! )

ANYHOOOO... Have fun on your trip, and be sure to leave some time to go with the flow and relaxxxxxxxxx.....

Cindy

 

[ErinC]

One note about the surreys -- my DS was VERY disappointed to learn he would NOT be allowed to pedal! There is a height requirement for a "peddler". At age 9 (and while I can't recall how tall he is, I know he's at 95% of height for his age group), he did NOT make the requirement. They told us (both at BWV and SSR) that he would have to sit in the middle -- no peddling for him. Or in the basket. Now just IMAGINE me stuffing him in there! SO for a family of 5 -- that means we would have to stuff our 4 yr old in the basket (a tight fit -- if even possible, which I doubted.) then place one ds in the front middle, then one ds in the back middle, leaving DH and I to peddle the load -- Yikes!! <a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008_ZSzeb04242US' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_3_1v.gif' alt='Fainting' border=0></a> We decided to just wait 'til eldest son was tall enough to help! THen at least we would have 3 peddlers...and dd and middle son cound ride in the "center" seats front and back. Just something for us odd-sized fams to consider!!

CIndy

This was our exact situation. We rented the surrey at Boardwalk last May. All three kids were just passengers. DD8 sat in the middle of me and DH. DD4, and DD1 sat in the basket. We were fine until we started up the hill by the bridge to epcot. Dh and I were pedalling with all our might! I'm sure we were great entertainment for the folks waiting to watch the fireworks! We made it around crescent lake in 15 minutes. When we got back to the Boardwalk DH said that was enough for him and we returned the bike with 10-15 minutes of time remaining on our rental. We were exhausted!! We won't do it again until the kids are older and can help pedal. It wouldn't be so bad if you can stay on a flat surface, but the hill by Epcot and down by the Swan, Dolphin did us in!

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks Cindy and everyone for all the great ideas...

We have rented a surrey once before at BW and it about killed us! EGADS! That is WORK! I wonder how many return it after that first loop?