What do you do on weekends?

JoeSam

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
I'm interested to know what everyone plans for weekends in Florida. I am presuming the parks are too busy, ditto water parks and Disney Quest. Do you go to the parks anyway? Or enjoy your resort? I'm struggling because not planning any parks for the weekends takes 4 full days out of our 14 day stay and I can't fit it all in!!!
 
You CAN do the parks at weekends - generally they do get busier however, it probably depends on what time of the year you are going.

We normally find Universal a little quieter that Disney parks.

Having said that we often either do some shopping, or have a drive out to the beach (or at least a trip out somewhere different) - maybe even just relax for the day, spend a bit of time at the villa pool.

To be honest we do not treat weekends too much different, although if it is a busy time of the year we may just alter our plans slightly.

If you get to the parks early though you can still have a good time at the weekend.
 
We did some shopping on the weekends, although obviously it was a little busier in the outlets/malls then aswell.
 
We tend to do the parks on any day.

We leave the shopping for week days.

This year we arrive on sat, and will be hitting the parks on sun.
 


I wouldn't stay away from the parks on ANY day, even if its perceived to be busy - I can't see the point of buying tickets then not going in, some days we'll have a shorter day in there than others or if there are particularly long lines we'll go to a different section of the park or spend time shopping/eating/chilling then go back to that particular ride on another day. We won't be avoiding EMH 'cos thats the whole point of staying on site! having said that we go in October/november so I guess its a quieter time anyway
 
I still go to the parks and if it gets too busy then we go back to the hotel and have a swim, Ive never noticed that much difference tho really.
 
.... depends on what time of year you are visiting as others have said, but Downtown Disney during the day at weekends is a good option. Follow this with a resort dining reservation in the evening.... perhaps at the Grand Floridian, Poly or Contemporary and if you time it correctly, you get to see Wishes from any of those resorts!

Be choosy with your park on Saturdays - Epcot absorbs crowds quite well, Animal Kingdom does not.
However, if you plan your day for any of the parks and arrive for opening, use Fastpass, you should be able to negotiate the parks even on busy days!
 


We rarely spend a whole day at any park, usually going early and leaving after a couple of hours. Whichever day we go this works for us.

Water parks and Universal are usually much busier at weekends but if you're leaving by midday it really doesn't matter.
 
You've had some great advice already! I don't avoid the parks at weekends either but apply the rules described above :)
 
Thanks v much for your responses. I am visiting at the end of April/beginning May 06, so hopefully it shouldn't be too busy in the parks on weekends.
 
We never treat the weekends any differently - our holiday to Florida is a whole 3 weeks of weekends :D
 
Seaworld is good at the weekends, so are things such as shopping and airboat rides.
 
We go to the parks at the weekend too, following the quieter park days and have not had any problems. We don't do water parks on a weekend because they are supposed to be really busy on a weekend, instead we usually just nip in one for a couple of hours at tea time for a break from the parks.
 
One of the nicest days we had in Florida has nothing to do with the parks (shock!!!).

If you get a chance, I would rent a car for the day (I think I saw a car rental place somewhere on the Disney property) and I would drive down to this little gem of a place called Anna Maria Island. It's about a 90 minute drive from Disney on the Gulf of Mexico and its such a beautiful beach, the water was so warm and lovely, the sand white and soft, very Caribbean looking!

We packed a picnic (you could always just stop at a 7-Eleven and get sandwiches/crisps etc or a Walmart and make your own) and enjoyed the beach all day.

It made a nice break from the parks and was so restful and relaxing. We went in September and the beach was almost empty where we were, by 4pm it was only DH and I and another couple further down the beach, very romantic!

Eloise
 

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