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The Dress Shop, aka A Store Full Of Things I Want. |
If you know me, you know I'm all about Disney resorts. No, seriously, if you know me at all, you know.
Case in point: a couple weeks ago a coworker of mine emailed me; she said she was going to be in Orlando for a single afternoon with her family and did I have any recommendations regarding what they could do in Walt Disney World without buying a park ticket? Clearly I was the person to ask.
Needless to say I dropped everything I was doing and assembled a quasi-exhaustive list of what a couple with a small child in tow might find most feasible when short on time. And just in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I'm passing this wisdom on to you! (Minor tweaks have been made to protect privacy and avoid date-specific times and events but this is basically it.)
- WDW has two mini-golf
courses on property, Winter
Summerland and Fantasia
Gardens. (There are also some full golf
courses if that's something you're into)
- The water
parks aren’t cheap but they are cheaper if the weather’s warm.
- The Magic Kingdom
fireworks can be seen from the observation
deck at the California
Grill; they even pipe in the soundtrack. It’s a bit of a tough get but
availability often opens up in the days before (Disney requires a credit
card guarantor and charges for no-shows). I know it looks fancy, and it
kinda is, but kids are definitely welcome.
- Fort
Wilderness has a campfire singalong with s’mores at 7pm; you don’t
have to be staying at the campground. They play a Disney movie after.
- Also at Fort Wilderness:
I hear the Hoop
Dee Doo Musical Revue is really fun! There are often 4pm shows so
you could do that and then go to the singalong right after if you wanted.
- I can’t vouch for the
food but the audio-animatronic dinosaurs of the T-Rex
Café tends to go over extremely well with the smaller humans. (Disney
Springs)
- The
NBA Experience is purportedly where “all your basketball dreams come
true.” I have exactly zero basketball dreams but maybe you guys have some?
(Disney Springs)
- Disney Springs also has bowling!
- House
of Blues often has free music in the afternoons (and paid evening concerts too, of course). (Disney
Springs)
- And if all else fails,
you can just wander through Disney
Springs and pick a store or restaurant at your leisure. Some
suggestions: The
Dress Shop is super cute if you like vintage and Basin has bar
shampoos I like (no plastic!). At The Art
of Disney you can commission your own Disney drawing and watch it
being sketched. If you like Indiana Jones you should definitely hit up Jock
Lindsey’s (get an Anything Goes).
- Bonus: this is NOT toddler-friendly but just in case you're big Star Wars fans, Imma put THE VOID here. If it’s not busy it’ll only take about 30 minutes so you could kid swap. (Disney Springs)
What's your preferred non-park day agenda?
Don't forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall. It would thrill me extremely if you would leave a comment with any questions or thoughts. See ya real soon!
I could just hang around the viewing areas of Animal Kingdom Lodge for awhile!
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, good call! I was also super into the fireplace in the Palace Library at Kidani - I can only assume AKL proper has something similar. AKL is awesome in general; if only I hadn't fallen so deeply in love with the Skyliner I would make it my default resort!
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