Non-Ride Things to Do in the Parks

[Earningmywings]

We will be going for our third trip in September. Each time I say we are going to do some of the free activities the parks offer, but have forgotten each time. Can anyone tell me what activities are offered at each park and which you like best? I know about the Pirates Adventure in MK, Sorcerers in MK, Wilderness Explorer in AK, and Agent P in Epcot. Thanks

 

[stsomewhere]

My daughter's favorite non- ride ting is to EAT. MK- looking for pascal and his friends,looking for hidden mickeys, photo pass pictures, dapper dans, parades, look at all th windows and doors on Main street. AK- explore trails, stop and watch birds building nests, street performers, tree of life awakening, epcot- explore country pavilions, look at flowers, performances in countries

 

[coldice371]

Me and my wife always found it enjoyable to grab a hidden mickey book and make our way through the parks looking for them.

 

[Laurelinarien]

Haven't been to WDW yet but my main non-ride activity will be eating, lol. Besides that I'm planning for some chilling time at Tutto Gusto, maybe sampling some wine or even pairings. But it's just the 2 of us, adults.. so I can't really suggest anything for families

 

[KevM]

When are you going? Epcot has concert series during both the Flower & Garden Festival and the Food & Wine Festival.

If you scroll down a little in this link it shows who will be playing during this year’s Flower & Garden Festival.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/entertainment/epcot/flower-garden-rocks-concert-series/

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I’ve done Agent P in world showcase and the pirate adventure in MK. Both were super fun, and really help you appreciate the details and theming in the WS and Adventureland. I’d recommend both!

For unstructured fun, my sister and I tried on hats at each country we could in the world showcase and got pics.

There’s also a ton of exploring to be done in the world showcase

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I keep saying we are going to do the animal tails at AK and in 4 trips we have only managed to do Discovery Island trail once. This year. Really.

We like to spend time on Tom Sawyer Island or ride either the paddle boat or the railroad. We have ridden the monorail just to do something to get out of the rain one day (and it broke down while we were on it - still out of the rain though).

 

[DisDreaming4116]

A fun and cheap (what's that word at WDW?!?) is to do the pressed pennies. There are many machines around at each park and resort. There are cute Disney pressed penny books on eBay for about $15 and work well to display/hold all the coins.

 

[HopperFan]

Did you know there is a glass blower on Main Street? In October we watched her blow pumpkins.

 

[KenHutch]

We have to take one of my daughters maternal great aunts and she is unable to ride 90% of the rides. However she buys pins online and when she gets to the parks she gets on her scooter and away she goes to pin trade all day. I have a couple of dozen pins and they are nice but my daughter tells me that she has an incredible collection of rare pins and has several thousand.

 

[wfjny]

So many things to do, and many have already been posted. I won’t repost them, other than I will reemphasize the whole eating thing. There are plenty of $15 theme park hamburgers there, but there are also plenty of restaurants with their own theming. Think for a moment the quick server place at Pandora. Those cheeseburger pods are cute, my kids love them.

People watching is a great sport. There is only a couple of rides I cannot do anymore at Disney, so I will sit and watch people.

You can get a haircut at the MK. Nobody mentioned, but shopping/window shopping are obvious ones. Then again, none of those are free, but could be low cost.

There is just the walking around and looking at things. For example, some interesting things about Liberty Square. The shutters are crooked on purpose. Back in colonial times, people took the hinges from the shutters to melt them down to make projectiles for their guns. They replace the hangers with leather straps, which over time would stretch, thus causing the shutters to sag. There was no such thing as a public bathroom back then, and you will see they do not exist at Disney either. The one in Columbia House is actually “over the boarder” in fantasy land, while the closest ones the other way are just a few feet into Adventure Land. And the walkway is done in such a way as to see that in colonial times, the street was also , shall we say, sewer.

See if you can count the number of lanterns on the real oak tree by Liberty Tree Tavern. Hint, there is one there for each original colony.

The flags within the MK are actually not standard American Flags, missing some stars and/or stripes, so they do not have to be raised and lowered. Obviously, the one on Main Street is an American Flag, and is raised and lowered each day. Which brings us to the Flag Lowering Ceremony, which I believe is done at 5:00 PM each day.


There is looking at all the names in the windows on Main Street. Those are the names of the shell companies that were used to purchase all of the land for Disney World. In hindsight, some are quite funny. M.T. Lott Co. was one of them, Ayefour Corporation was another.

 

[wfjny]

Oh, and I forgot if you are into trains, there is all sorts of stuff at the main train station (both levels) about how they acquired each of the trains, and how they were restored.

 

[KevM]

Did you know there is a glass blower on Main Street? In October we watched her blow pumpkins.

How did I forget to mention the glassblowers?

There are generally two of them. One upfront using a blowtorch on smaller items and one in the back that makes bigger items using kilns. Always a favorite activity for me when at MK.

 

[Earningmywings]

Thanks so much for all the ideas. We always get so caught up in getting the next fast pass and racing to the ride to get another fast pass, etc. These are great ideas to be able to slow down a bit and still keep the kids entertained. We will be going again in September, last year the kids couldn’t really appreciate the roaming around Epcot enjoying the countries, maybe this year.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Thanks so much for all the ideas. We always get so caught up in getting the next fast pass and racing to the ride to get another fast pass, etc. These are great ideas to be able to slow down a bit and still keep the kids entertained. We will be going again in September, last year the kids couldn’t really appreciate the roaming around Epcot enjoying the countries, maybe this year.

Yep. It's really easy to get caught up in that. The fact that DD1 doesn't care for the more thrilling rides forces us to consider the non ride options.

 

[bernina]

I’ve always wanted to explore the trails in AK more.

Are you staying onsite at a Disney resort? They have a ton of activities too.