Things for a Family With Young Kids to Do on the "Off" Days

[Tom P.]

Hey folks.

As I've said before, we're headed back to Disney World this fall. Will be staying for 10 days/9 nights at Art of Animation. We are a large family, with my wife and I plus 5 kids ages 8 and under.

Here's my question: Our our previous visits, it's mostly been "all parks, all the time." This time, we're building in a couple of days away from the hustle and bustle of the parks. What do you suggest as the "must do" or "should do" things away from the parks that a family with young kids would hit? Obviously, we'll spend some time at the resort pool and arcade, but beyond that, what do you think makes for nice activities (and ones appropriate for little kids) on a non-park day?

(BTW, I'm talking pretty much about stuff on Disney property, rather than venturing out into the Orlando area.)

Thanks,
Tom

 

[jacknsally19]

There are a lot of fun activities at Fort Wildeness... Pony rides, archery, chip n dale sing along in the evenings. If you are there in Oct or Dec, a lot of the campsites are decorated for the holidays. I think there are also hay rides. It might be nice to schedule a lunch or dinner at trails end and do some of those activities. You can take the bus to MK and then a boat ride to fort wilderness.

Personally, I try to schedule our character meals for the day off to give us a nice activity for the day.

Animal Kingdom Lodge is also a good resort for taking kids to during the day.... Get to see the animals and in the evenings they have storytellers out.

 

[MunchkinSweetPea]

The Lego store at downtown Disney has an area where kids can build and play. There's also a splash pad there. Basin, the soap store, has all different kinds of soaps and lotions to sample. I've easily spent almost an hour there lol. I haven't tried it but I've seen the hot air balloon ride and believe it's under $20. You can explore other resorts, especially their playgrounds. I believe you're allowed a 2 hour free parking window if you tell them you're just visiting. You can schedule a character meal or dinner show at a resort restaurant. If you're feeling particularly tired or overwhelmed do a Disney movie night and order pizza to the room. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

 

[MunchkinSweetPea]

Forgot to mention that most hotels have evening movies by the pool, just ask the front desk for the schedule. There's an arcade in downtown Disney called Quest if I'm not mistaken. There's also mini golf courses.

 

[Thing 1]

Lots of things to do but just be sure why you are choosing to do them. Adding additional days on a ticket is much less expensive than many of the mentioned ideas. We tend to spend way too much money at DTD. We really prefer to have tickets for every day and then take an evening or two out of the park, or take a few hours in the afternoon for the pool and hit a park for dinner. Many kids would be very happy with a day at the pool, or playground hopping, or checking out horses at fort wilderness and these cost nothing. Kids love riding the monorail or the boats between resorts and parks and you don't need a park ticket. A character meal outside of the park is a huge treat. We do love a early night with pizza in our room many trips. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Mr & Mrs DD]

GATORLAND. We love gatorland. There are always families and kids there. You can check out the website. I THINK it's gatorland.com. It's in the Orlando area. We've made it part of our Disney trip a few times.

 

[maramarrie]

We love planning days for the resort and like finding neat things to do there. At AKL you can paint your own pottery and come back for it a couple days later, but I'm not sure if many of the other hotels offer this (or if you have to be a guest at AKL to do it). There are also movie nights, and your hotel will have a list of activities they host with days/times. DTD is ok, but it's a lot more walking that my kids just aren't up for. I prefer to go to DTD marketplace by myself or with a second adult while the kids and other adults stay back at the hotel at night. We sometimes make a dinner reservation at another resort so we can just travel around and check out the other hotels/scenery (you can do this without a dinner reservation, of course). Evenings at the hotel pool are also nice because they are less crowded and there's no hot sun beaming down. We've never stayed at AoA, so I don't know what they offer, but of the places we have stayed AKL is my favorite for fun extra activities (make "snacks" to feed the animals, night viewing of the savannas, kids' lobby parade, ceramics, splash-pad playground at Kidani).

 

[pooh4evr]

Mini golf?

 

[MunchkinSweetPea]

Mini golf?

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/fantasia-gardens-fairways-miniature-golf/

 

[staceyrhood]

I second fort wilderness...so much to do and so much fun!

 

[monorailsilver]

The last time we went, we were there for 10 days. We did 5 park days which involved no pool, only a nap during our mid day break (up early, stay late).

2 of our non park days were travel days so our arrival day we spent at the pool and did chef mickeys for dinner and went back to the pool. The other travel day we spent at the pool until we had to leave at 3.

1 non park day we went to typhoon lagoon. It was our first water park trip since having kids and they could all swim and after returning we went to the quiet pool and then down town Disney.

The other 2 off days we just spent at the pool from 8am til 9/10pm. No naps just pool time. Ok I was out at 8 after I washed and folded laundry and my kids and dh slowly came out. Even though they swam it was relaxing and they love the pool and played pool games from 1-7 those days.

So we don't venture off, down time is what we need. If the kids get tired of swimming they came back and sat with us for a good 3 minutes.

 

[Ava]

We're staying for 9 nights/10 days this trip, so we're planning 2 non-park days (not including arrival & departure day). My girls are 6 and 2. On our first non-park day we're just going to hang out at the resort pool and then go to the 4:00 show of Hoop de Doo Review. On the second one, we're going to Blizzard Beach.

 

[sarahrdh]

I scheduled Chef Mickeys breakfast for our non park day, then we rode the monorail around and resort hopped. We then went back to our resort, swam, had lunch at the food court. Went to DD, did the BBB there, ate dinner at Puck's Express, walked around some but not a lot bc the kids were exhausted by then....after 4 park days! We then went back to resort, attempted the movie, went to arcade then up to bed!

 

[DaughteroftheKing]

We are staying at POR and the kids will do the fishing thing (it's a few bucks to rent a pole). They also have surrey bike rentals.