Resort only stays. What do you do with your days?

[Traveling on cc points]

I have read on the boards though the years that many people do resort only stays and I must admit that I always found that rather strange. My thought was, why in the world would you pay Disney’s ridiculously high prices for average accommodations when the biggest advantage (proximity to the parks, extra magic hours, 60 day fast pass) isn’t a factor. No judgement, I just could never wrap my head around it.

We had absoulutly no plans to do a Disney World trip this year. We usually get AP’s every other year and do several trips within The 12 month period. our last round ended in December of 2019. We did buy another set of AP’s that are not activated (bought from sams club when the huge price increase came out) but don’t plan on activating them until this whole Covid mess in behind us. Our original plan was late 2021 but who knows now.

The wonderful lady I rent dvc points from texted me yesterday morning letting me know that with everything going on with Covid she completely forgot to bank her DVC points and she would give me a great deal if we could use them by January 31st. I told her that we just returned from a Las Vegas vacation and hadn’t planned on doing Disney until things with the park hours/mask restrictions/fast passes/fireworks/luggage service ect.. went back to normal. She completely understood and suggested a resort only stay and again told me that she would give us a great price. I told her that I would have to talk with my boyfriend and would get back to her.

My boyfriend agreed that he didn’t want to waste activating our AP’s if we booked this trip and the price of day tickets isn’t worth the price they are charging for what is currently being offered.
No offense to anyone who does think the currant park experience is worth the ticket prices it just isn’t worth it to us.

We went back and forth for about an hour and decided that even Without the parks, it would be great to escape the cold weather (we live in CT) for Florida’s semi warm weather for a week if the price was right.

I texted my dvc lady to see what was available the last week of January in a studio and to my surprise she came back with 6 different hotels. If you know anything about dvc availability, you know this isn’t normal to have 6 options in a studio less than 4 months out. Out of the 6 options, the only 1 we haven’t stayed at before was BLT. I was now getting excited at the prospect of staying at BLT and had to find out how much it was going to cost.
I won’t piss you guys off by giving the price but it was ridiculously low. I immediately told her to book it!!
She texted my back to let me know it was all set and she emailed me the confirmation page (like she always does)
I go to check the email so I can put the confirmation number into my MDE and not only did she give us an amazing price but she upgraded us to a 1 bedroom lake view!!!

It turns out that there wasn’t 6 hotels with studio availability, she said since her points were going to expire if we didn’t use them so she searched for both studios and 1 bedrooms to give us the most options and decided to upgrade our room rather than let the points expire.
I am beyond excised and grateful right now.

If you have have read along this far, thank you and I am now going to finally get to my question. With no park days, what do you guys fill up your days & evenings doing?

How difficult is it to being so close to the parks without being able to go in?

We will definitely rent a car as we will eat most meals off property so off property recommendations are welcome.

Any reasonably priced local spa recommendations?


Here are my thoughts so far.

We have never done universal but an open to doing a day trip there if we can get a good price on tickets. I looked briefly and only saw the packages for 5 days.

Hanging out by the pool/swimming. This may or may not be an option with the unpredictable January weather.

Disney springs for dinner & cocktails.

Spend a few hours at the outlets

Resort hop

I know it’s unlikely but would definitely buy after hours tickets if they come back.

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

Lucky!!!

Universal sounds great! It probably makes the most sense to go when you don’t have active APs.

In a perfect world, you’ll have nice weather and get to go swimming. I have resort-hopped in the past and I think it depends on your mindset for it. We went on the last day of our trip after eating a huge breakfast, so we were tired and too full and we didn’t really enjoy ourselves. It seemed like it would be a fun thing to do on a resort-only stay though. DVC members are allowed to pool hop too, although I’m not sure if the privilege extends to those who rented points.

Disney Springs is always fun. If you really did get an incredible price renting the points... maybe take the savings and splurge at Victoria and Albert’s?!? It’s closed right now but might reopen by the time you go. If not, California Grill could be really fun too.

In non-COVID times I think there would be more to justify a resort only stay, like being able to watch the fireworks from outside of the park or having all the dining options available. But really, when you’re in Florida in January you can’t go wrong no matter what you do.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I would take a Firestick or Roku device and plan on spending lots of time at the resort watching movies/Netflix and just relaxing if that isn't something you let yourself do too much at home.

Definitely plan some nice dinners out. You can play a round of mini-golf.

 

[skeeter31]

We do resort only stays quite often, both pre and post COVID. But, we’re DVC owners, AP holders, and within an hour drive from WDW. So we’re there a lot. When we do resort only, we spend a good portion of the time in the room (usually a 1 bedroom so we have the living room and kitchen). We’ll go to the pool, go to DS, play mini golf, wander the grounds of the resort, and resort hop for dinners. Pre-COVID, we would cheat once and a while and go to EPCOT for dinner a night or 2 during a resort only stay. But if you aren’t going to use your passes at all, there is still plenty to do.

But for us, especially, the cost of it doesn’t come into play, because the DVC and APs are already paid for so basically our only cost is food and shopping.

 

[msjprincess]

I've done it a few times. Short pre or post cruise stays using DVC points. We relaxed by the pool, visited Disney Springs, rode the resort monorail stopping at each hotel for a drink or bite to eat.

 

[HeatherC]

If you have a car, Cocoa Beach is nice for a day trip and only about an hour or so away.

 

[AlohaNow]

We were just there and on our non-park, fly-home day we booked horseback riding at Fort Wilderness. May not be your cup of tea, but it was really fun! We had brunch at Chef Mickey's just before that (without characters and at the currently lower price) and really enjoyed that as well. I'd definitely be by the pool a lot if I was doing a resort only stay. Have fun planning!

 

[fab1976]

We did a couple nights, no parks, post cruise in January. We did a “transportation challenge”. Drove our rental car to return it at the Dolphin. Took a boat over to the back entrance to Epcot and got on the gondolas. Took that over for brunch at the Riviera. Gondola over to Hollywood Studios and bus to the Polynesian. Spent some time there then we hopped on the monorail. Took it around to the Magic Kingdom and then bus back to Saratoga Springs where we were staying. Not exciting but it was fun to see all the different options there were. And it was our first time on the gondolas which was a great perspective of the resorts along the way.

 

[starry_solo]

Resort hop. That's what sis & I did for a few days before we moved resorts. We tried food at various resorts (POFQ, SSR, Poly), took the monorail loop

 

[Nicolepa]

I am a DVC owner and BLT is our favorite resort! We love no park vacations! Some things we do on a no park vacation:

Mini golf
Ride the monorail and get off at each hotel and walk around/shop, eat or have a drink at each hotel. Last time we were there we did the monorail dining tour. I doubt it is going on right now but it was so much fun.
If fireworks are going go to the top of BLT and watch them. This is a must do for us every vaction. You have to either be a DVC member or staying at BLT to see them. You could also just go up there for drinks. It is still fun to see all the lights at the MK even if there are no fireworks.
Rent a Surry bike for an hour. We did this at Saratoga last time bc my 10yo wanted to and we had so much fun!
Ride all the Disney Transportation
Go to AK and animal watch
Spend a day shopping at Disney Springs
Spend an evening at Jellyrolls on the Boardwalk.
In the summer we pool hop.
Take advantage of the DVC activities at the different hotels.

 

[Starwarsfan2]

The golf courses at Disney are top notch and you get discounts for staying at the resorts. One course even has kickball golf if you don't play regular golf. The Surrey bikes are to me like those paddleboat things. Looks like fun, but end up being a chore. The campground is very nice, and we have rented a golf cart at F Wilderness and just cruised around, but I don't know if they are allowing anyone to rent at present if you are not staying at their resort.

 

[Jennasis]

We are DVC members and did a resort only stay in 2017. We got Discovery Cove tix which included admission for 14 days to SeaWorld, Aquatica and Bush Gardens, so we went there. We also ate frequently for dinner at Disney Springs and even wandered over to BLT to watch fireworks from the Top Of The World Lounge.

It was great!

 

[RangerPooh]

We just got back from a week at AKV and I could have gone pool time daily. It was relaxing. Mini golf is open again and that’s another fun activity.

if open to off property then there’s Universal. There’s also Discovery Cove. It’s amazing!

Due to COVID resort hopping isn’t as easy, although if a monorail or bus takes you there then you’re good.

 

[tjmw2727]

Mini Golf and DS of course.

I would visit a few of the resorts via Disney transport, an easy one would be apps & drinks at Trader Sam's (if its open?) via the monorail.

Bus to HS and then Sky liner ride to Rivera for a meal or drinks on the rooftop bar. Also via skyliner - the boardwalk seems to be opening up again, I haven't been but AbracabBar looks fun.

A meal or drinks at apps at ALK and some animal viewing the if you have an adr you would be able to drive and park, alternately bus to a park and then over to ALK.

Take the boat over to the campground and rent bicycles (if available during your stay).

 

[LuvOrlando]

Do all the stuff you always want to do but never have time for because you are so busy at the parks.
Research all the hotels and note what resorts have fireworks views, my evenings would probably revolve around watching fireworks from different resorts and my breakfasts would be about character dining.

I would probably be too tempted to not go into the WDW parks at least once but I'd keep the annual for a better timeframe and just get a one day ticket or so, no way I'd use an annual when 2021 is still such an unknown.

Universal/IOA would be a visit, maybe just CityWalk but maybe parks too, they seem to have a great deal now.

 

[rwdavis2]

If i was not going to a park I would stay at a Universal hotel. Less expensive, better service and nicer than most WDW hotels. You can still visit Disney Springs if so desired.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We do resort only 2week stay every March. We are DVC. My husband stays a few nights at vero beach for spring baseball games on that side of Florida. My daughter and I spend a couple days at the boardwalk and the rest of the time
at old key west. We get up late, spend the day at the pool. Work out. Play tennis. Go to a variety of restaurants for dinner. If it rains we might see a movie at Disney springs.

Of course this was the old days. I hope we can do it March 2021.

I have no real desire to go to the parks anymore.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

This last trip was the first time we did it..
We really like staying at Disney The rooms are clean, the people staying at the resorts are respectful and there is security in the parking lots.
We have had some bad experiences in Central Florida and I have no worries when staying on property.
We did funspot America ( orlando) for the first time..
$50 unlimited rides... it was so much fun.. no lines the family rode go karts on 4 different tracks over and over saw and fed gators.
Went back to the room went to the pool.
We went to DS rode the skylines etc.
It was truly enjoyable... we had a car this time so we went on the airboat tours. All those things you read about but never have time for.
We wanted to do studios but just was not feeling the waiting in line on vacation thing and we did not want to spend crazy money.
Sea world is really fun especially if you get the unlimited food pass... you can eat every hour it's the best food plan you will ever use.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Swim, swim, swim for the kids. I personally love strolling around all the different resorts.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

We haven't been to WDW since the pandemic began, so I don't know what's possible now, but we have always liked our non-park days as much as our park days. Here are some of the things we like to do:
Are the boats still running?
- Ride the boats to the Trails End Campground - take a walk, see the horses, etc.
- The boats stop at Wilderness Lodge too, and there's plenty to explore there.
- Ride the boats around the Epcot area - get off at Hollywood Studios and walk back to the Boardwalk area/BC area
- Ride the boats that go between Disney Springs and the resorts. (Eat beignets at the French Quarter!)

-Ride the Skyline - walk around the resorts

-Visit the AK resort for a look at the animals and a chance to eat at Boma.

-Mini golf

Sit on the dock at the Grand Floridian or the beach at the Polynesian and watch the fireworks from there. Can you use the Top of the World Lounge? Ditto.

If the weather is good, are the water parks open? We love Typhoon Lagoon for the shady beach areas.

We always eat at Millers, a local sports bar chain that has good food. There's one closer to Animal Kingdom and one close to the MK area.

I don't know how long your stay will be, but the Disney Vero Beach resort is within a reasonable back and forth driving distance. You might want to drive down there and check out the resort for a possible future stay. We love it there!