Non-theme park activities recommendations

[maloned]

Recommendations (Don't know if this is the correct forum): What are your favorite things to do, eat and experience inside Walt Disney World property that is not inside any of the 4 Theme Parks.

Thank you so much! Taking the kids to the water parks and staying at Saratoga Springs, but can't go to the parks. I have two more days to fill. Appreciate any and all recommendations.

 

[Dave006]

Lots of options are available outside of the 4 Theme parks. It would help to have a range of ages for your children and the second part of the question would be are you looking for free, low cost, or cost is not a key factor to at least consider.

Dave

 

[DCLPrincess]

Mini golf is a great option. Also you can go to Disney Springs or the boardwalk and walk around. We also like to resort hop. You can go to AK Lodge and see the animals. Disney Springs and the resorts have so many great places to eat.

 

[OneinThree]

Another vote for Disney Springs -something there for everyone.

 

[Dave006]

Some quick thoughts.

Basic tour of the different resorts and sample some of the food at one or more. Each of the resorts have activities for children every day.

You can take a ride on all the type of transportation, Monorails, boats including the Ferries, resort launches on Bay lake and the Seven see lagoon between the resorts. You could visit the Animal Kingdom and spend 4-6 hours watching the animals on the Savanas.

You could go to Trails End Buffet at Ft Wilderness, visit the work horses, ride the horses ($), rent a boat. You could also rent bikes and ride around Ft. Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge. It is quite a relaxing area.

Dave

 

[maloned]

I have a 10 year-old daughter and a soon to be 7-year old daughte. We are willing to try different things at different price points if we find it of-value.

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

Go over to Animal Kingdom Lodge and see the animals, artifacts, etc...They will have some activities going on at the resort

Do a carriage ride at Port Orleans (about $50 for about 25 mins).

Do a wagon ride at Fort Wilderness (about $8 per person I think)

Go to Fort Wilderness for the campfire with smores and Chip and Dale (free)


Surrey bike rental at several locations...Boardwalk, Art of Animation, Saratoga and probably more I am forgetting

Balloon ride at Disney Springs (Aerophile)

Get the kitchen sink ice cream sundae at Beaches and Creme at Beach Club resort. it is about $25 but serves 5+. They also have a smaller version that serves 2 or 3 for about $22 and you can keep the little "kitchen sink" container

Go over to the Polynesian resort and get a Dole Whip at the quick service place, Captain Cooks, and watch the MK fireworks from the "beach" area


Cinderella greets guests several days a week at the Grand Floridian at about 3:30 . Do a Google search for "Princess Promenade at the Grand Floridian"

 

[OneinThree]

One other favorite of ours is to rent a pontoon boat on Bay Lake and go out there with lunch.

 

[maloned]

Would a day at Port Orleans be something fun? Activities and lunch?

 

[PrincessNelly]

Mini golf
bowling at Splitsville
Dine In AMC (fun if you've never been to one)
resort hopping (watching animals at AKL)
boat/bike rental
resort character meals
watching fireworks from outside the park
walking the boardwalk area (they have live entertainment sometimes)
Swimming
Arcade
Exploring Disney Springs

 

[Wild4Walt]

The main pool at POR is a lot of fun for both kids and adults. There is also hair wrapping and caricatures. You can also do a fishing excursion at POR.

 

[TotallyTink]

I've done a resort stay at Disney without going to the parks. We did mini-golf at Winter Summerland, shopped at Disney Springs, watched the fireworks from the Poly Beach (but I wish we had watched from the TTC instead), and watched the Electric Water Pageant. We planned to do the campfire at Fort Wilderness with Chip and Dale but we never made it. My husband and daughter did the archery program at Fort Wilderness and she loved that! We spent a lot of time at AKL watching the animals, talking to the CMs, and we did a free restaurant tour of Boma and Jiko in the afternoon that included free samples of a few items. There was also a program to use night vision goggles to see the animals on the savanna after dark.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Saratoga Springs has its own recreation room, and I've heard there are board games you can play there.

Go to Fort Wilderness for the campfire with smores and Chip and Dale (free)

To clarify, attending the campfire program is free, but the smores are not. You can buy a smores kit there, or bring your own smores ingredients.

The main pool at POR is a lot of fun for both kids and adults.

To use a pool at any WDW resort, you need to be staying at that resort (or at its "sister resort", if it has one). You would need to be staying at POR or POFQ to use the pool there.

Would a day at Port Orleans be something fun? Activities and lunch?

Their table service restaurant serves only dinner. You can get lunch at the food court. It's one of the better resort food courts IMHO, though probably not worth a trip to POR only for that. To join in the activity programs in the swimming pool area, you'd need to be staying at that resort. Not sure if you'd find enough as day visitors to do for a whole day, but most Wednesday through Saturday evenings there is the Yehaa Bob show in the lounge at 8:30PM.

Some of my favorite non-park activities are watching the Irish step dancing at Raglan Road, riding the water taxi boats anywhere on property, and the Ft. Wilderness campfire program.

 

[MacMama0930]

I haven’t had my trip yet, but I am planning on doing a horse drawn carriage ride at Ft Wilderness. I think there’s also horse back riding there.