Things to do - non park activities...

[mike.munro]

Hi,

What are the recommendations for those days where you are all 'parked' out?. We are a family of four (two adults, two teenage daughters), will be staying on I-drive and will have a car.

Appreciate your thoughts.

 

[AndRu]

Shopping!
Shopping!
Shopping!
and er ... Shopping!

Teenage daughters are bound to like that, aren't they? There's Wet 'n' Wild on I-Drive which is always good fun. Seeing as my 10 yr old daughter doesn't like the Kennedy Space Centre, yours might not either but in my opinion its a great place to visit. How about an airboat ride?

 

[Frances999]

Disney's miniature golf is always good fun, and there are some other nicely themed courses on I-Drive. You could also visit some of the Disney resorts for shopping and dining and to soak up the theming.

 

[KayleeUK]

I would say shopping, mini golf and waterparks

 

[squitty]

Would have to agree with Waterparks, shopping and mini golf. Our DD's love to do any of these.

 

[tony64]

If you want a real chill out day take a trip to the Gulf coast and walk along the beach,
Warm sea and a crystal white sandy beach will make the hussle and bussle of the parks seem a million miles away

 

[vernon]

Mike, what time of year are you travelling and what are the interests of the girls?

A few ideas are, Early morning/dawn balloon trip over the WDW area (the idea may not fly with teens as they are notoriously difficult to get out of bed LOL) , A helicopter trip, trip to the Kennedy Space Centre, airboat rides ( if you're going in summer the night rides give a better chance of seeing a gator), if you're going in winter/Early spring swimming with manatees at Crystal River, shopping is likely to be popular with two girls, the waterparks/pools always seem to be popular. There are a load of other nature based ideas/attractions in the area I can give you some ideas on those if they'd be popular. I've just bought a book about historic Florida which has some really interesting places to visit, some within an hours drive or so of Orlando (again with some teens this may not fly, others might be interested) final ( for now) idea is the Salvador Dali museum in St Pete's , for anyone interested in art this is a must see. It's a fantastic chance to see how one of the 20th centurys greatest painters grew throughout his career as the exibit is solely the paintings of Dali.

 

[juliebro]

Another suggestion is a visit to Winter Park - a rather upmarket area to the North of Orlando. Unique little shops, pleasant cafes and a very relaxing boat trip around the lakes where you can see the waterfront homes of millionaires. Details of the boat trip is found at

http://www.scenicboattours.com/home.htm

A really nice alternative to the parks when you just feel like chilling.

Julie

 

[UKDEB]

Another vote for Winter Park and the Scenic Boat Tour. It's something we'd been meaning to do for years and eventually got around to it last January. It was a beautifully sunny day, which I think is a must, so you'd need to be flexible with your plans.

We've also been to Celebration for lunch a couple of times. It's not a full day's event, but you could combine it with shopping and chilling by the pool.

Have you been to Downtown Disney? It's surprising how long you can spend there (and how much ). It's more of a nighttime spot, but we enjoy it during the day.

We also love resort-hopping. In December we took the water taxi from Downtown Disney to Port Orleans and had a stroll around. We like to take the water taxi across from MK to the Wilderness Lodge. We've also eaten at most resorts (and drunk at most resort bars! *HIC!*).

 

[UKDEB]

Oh, I've just thought of a couple more things:

You can rent all sorts of water craft from several of the WDW resorts;

There are quite a few activities on offer at Fort Wilderness Campground;

There are several good cinemas in the area - Downtown Disney, Celebration, Universal CityWalk, Pointe Orlando and Festival Bay are the ones which spring to mind.