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Post by littlemama on Apr 5, 2015 23:24:24 GMT
Will you have a car or are you staying on the property with no car?
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Post by tallgirl on Apr 5, 2015 23:30:23 GMT
We love eating dinner at both 'Ohana (Polynesian resort) and Whispering Canyon Cafe (Wilderness Lodge). You can watch Wishes from the beach at thePoly after dinner, or at least you could before the construction. If you can't watch there then watch from the TTC dock. It's a great view, not crowded at all and they pipe in the music.
You can also stroll along the Boardwalk at theBoardwalk resort. Entertainers (magicians etc.) come out starting around 5 pm and they are fabulous!
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Post by miss_lizzie on Apr 5, 2015 23:37:59 GMT
Do you like water parks? Disney World has great ones! I love to grab an inner tube and just ride on the lazy river.
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smga1
Shy Member
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Post by smga1 on Apr 5, 2015 23:52:54 GMT
You are not allowed to use other resort pools. On our off day, we went our resort pool, play mini golf and visited some deluxe resorts. Ak lodge is amazing with great resort activities.
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mlana
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by mlana on Apr 5, 2015 23:54:03 GMT
If you are staying on property, the hotel should have a fantastic pool. On one of our trips, we stayed at one hotel but were able to use any pool in any of the hotels that were in the same value category as our hotel. We used our pool in the evenings and tried another hotel's pool on a chill day.
We enjoyed visiting some of the other hotels, especially the Wilderness Lodge. We booked lunch in one of the restaurants and that gave us the right to explore parts of the hotel before lunch.
Marcy
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Post by littlemama on Apr 5, 2015 23:56:07 GMT
If you check out allearsnet.com they have all of the menus with pricing. A lot of people rave about the restaurants at animal kingdom lodge, but I think the food is fairly exotic if i remember correctly. I have not eaten there.
A day at downtown disney or universals city walk along with pool time will be welcomed by all no matter the ages, so you'd just have to plan dinner. Have you done the luau at the Polynesian? We haven't, but have always wanted to. City walk is mostly restaurants with a little shopping, honestly I'd stick with downtown Disney.
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Post by Tamhugh on Apr 6, 2015 0:00:58 GMT
Definitely visit the other hotels. Take the resort monorail and visit those three hotels. Grab a Dole Whip at the Poly.
Go to the Boardwalk and watch the live entertainment. Have a pastry from the bakery there and ride the Friendship launches or rent a surrey to go from hotel to hotel. Find a nice place to sit and people watch or a great spot for some family photos with a beautiful backdrop.
Play mini golf at Fantasia Gardens or at Summer/Winterland.
Wander around Downtown Disney and enjoy the live music. DH and I did this one night. We grabbed a drink (alcoholic or non) and just walked around. Everytime we saw a live performer, we would sit and listen for awhile, even if it wasn't our type of music. It was one of our favorite nights. They often have food trucks there now also. If you walk down behind Wolfgang Pucks, there are benches and a walkway along the water. We had a nice time just sitting there and chatting one time. The boats were going by and you could see the lights everywhere, but it was a lovely, peaceful oasis.
Plan a photo scavenger hunt with your kids if they are old enough for cameras or cell phones with cameras.
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Apr 6, 2015 0:05:11 GMT
I like 'Ohana for a fun meal. There is also tea at the Grand Floridian. I like to ride the monorail and hop off at each of the resorts. You can also walk around the Boardwalk area - maybe get some ice cream at Beaches and Cream then check out those hotels.
I was just thinking that the hot air balloon at Downtown Disney would be fun. They have been doing lots of improvement there.
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Post by 950nancy on Apr 6, 2015 0:11:31 GMT
We went to Universal one day and drove to the beach another day.
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Post by 950nancy on Apr 6, 2015 0:12:21 GMT
We also went to different hotels to check them out for our next stay.
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Apr 6, 2015 0:26:07 GMT
FWIW, if you decide you need an extra day in the parks, you can add it at Guest Services at any of the parks....maybe at your hotel, too. Since you already have 7 days, the price of another day is very low. It might be fun to plan a tour or dessert party (if you can get one). that day. Lazy pool day combined with a special tour or event - that might be my Disney ideal day.
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Post by littlemama on Apr 6, 2015 0:46:09 GMT
If you check out allearsnet.com they have all of the menus with pricing. A lot of people rave about the restaurants at animal kingdom lodge, but I think the food is fairly exotic if i remember correctly. I have not eaten there. A day at downtown disney or universals city walk along with pool time will be welcomed by all no matter the ages, so you'd just have to plan dinner. Have you done the luau at the Polynesian? We haven't, but have always wanted to. City walk is mostly restaurants with a little shopping, honestly I'd stick with downtown Disney. We ate an AK restaurant the last time we were there. We are not adventurous eaters at all, but I really wanted to try something different, so we went to JIku. I think that was the name of it. We tried really hard to like the food, but it just wasn't "us," but I give us credit for trying. This time we're sticking with stuff we know we'll like. Then maybe the luau or the bbq at wilderness? |
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Post by vspindler on Apr 6, 2015 0:51:22 GMT
It wasn't at Disney but we spent half a day at Gatorland during our trip to Orlando.
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Post by tallgirl on Apr 6, 2015 1:45:56 GMT
You can't take the monorail to the Boardwalk - other than that, sounds like an awesome day!!
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Post by Outspoken on Apr 6, 2015 3:09:14 GMT
Which resort are you staying at?
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Post by hennybutton on Apr 6, 2015 5:01:57 GMT
I highly recommend a day at the Kennedy Space Center. It's about an hour from Disney World by car. It's absolutely fantastic. It's a good antidote for Disney overload.
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Post by pas2 on Apr 6, 2015 11:12:51 GMT
Last trip we went to Sanaa at Kidani Village the week before Christmas, very easy to get early seating midweek the day of. It was great, we got to wander out on the porches to watch all the animals for probably an hour before dinner, 'sthen were seated right at the windows for dinner. The food was not as adventuresome as Boma was so everyone liked it. Must get the bread sampler it's so much fun. The whole night was so relaxing and the staff was so friendly and answered a million questions from the kids. I think we saw way more animals than on the safari ride at AK, we sure took a ton of pictures.
We love touring the various hotels and used WDW transportation to do it. Boardwalk is also nice and DTD. When the kids were little we did Ohanas. Sitting on the beach for the Electrical Water Parade is one of their fondest memories.
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motherlemur
Junior Member
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Post by motherlemur on Apr 6, 2015 11:22:36 GMT
Just a heads up....Whispering Canyon Is at The Wilderness Lodge and not Fort Wilderness - two very different places. and as someone else said, you don't take the monorail to the Boardwalk. From The Wilderness Lodge you can take the boat over to the Magic Kingdom then take a bus to The Boardwalk. there really is a lot to do on non-park days. have fun.  Jill |
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Post by pas2 on Apr 6, 2015 11:23:40 GMT
Remember that the buses only run from resort to park, never resort to resort. If you aren't in a hurry you just pick the bus to the park closest to the hotel you want to go, then hop off and right on the bus to the hotel of your choice. Last trip we didn't bother with a car and it was great, we weren't planning on going off property that trip.
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Post by anxiousmom on Apr 6, 2015 11:29:33 GMT
I highly recommend a day at the Kennedy Space Center. It's about an hour from Disney World by car. It's absolutely fantastic. It's a good antidote for Disney overload. This is what I was going to suggest. It is a lot of fun, very informative and everyone I know seems to enjoy it. I had never been, in spite of living not all that far away, until I took the kids along with my mom. We all had a great time-and it was even more interesting because of the stories my mom told. I grew up in Florida, and for a while lived in Vero Beach. Apparently, while we were there, we went to see one of the Apollo rockets take off. I don't remember it at all, but my mom did and shared the story with the kids and I. Anyway, part of what I thought was so cool was listening (eavesdropping LOL) to every one talk about their "space" memories as we were walking around. The day we were there they were preparing to launch one of the shuttles and got to watch the transport inch along to the launch platform. I recommend to everyone that they go. It is one of those interesting places that gets lost among all the Disney love. And Gatorland. People should go there too. It is a quirky place, but most people love it.  |
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Post by Florida Cindy on Apr 6, 2015 12:25:36 GMT
The Kennedy Space Center is fantastic! I'm not a science/space person. But, I loved the Kennedy Space Center. It's worth the trip! |
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Deleted
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May 18, 2024 14:39:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2015 12:32:52 GMT
Cirque du Soleil is a fabulous way to spend a few hours in the evening. I just took my girl scout troop and they all loved it. Disney Quest is also fun for kids that like games.
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Post by bearmom on Apr 6, 2015 13:43:27 GMT
We had a fun day resort hopping. Did the monorail resorts (easy) the rode the bus to a park, got on a bus to a resort (Coronado Springs), walked around, got on the first park bus and went back to a park, got on the first resort bus we saw (Port Oleans and French Quarter) walked around those resorts, took the boat to Downtown Disney., then bussed to the Epcot resorts (Beach Club, Boardwalk, Swan/Dolphin - not Disney, but neat to walk through).
It was a lot of bus riding, but we had a fun day.
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peabrain
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,588
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Post by peabrain on Apr 6, 2015 13:53:36 GMT
Ok, here's what I would do. I've heard good things about it! Orlando iflyI think there's a groupon if you google |
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Post by houston249 on Apr 6, 2015 13:54:48 GMT
When you say parks, are you talking exclusivley Disney? If so....
If Harry Potter is an interest of your family. You also have the Universal parks. My kids have gone a few times before the HP stuff exsisted and had a blast. As a family? We went and spent our day exclusively in the Harry Potter section of Universal. This was before the second section opened. To get to the second section you need a 2 park pass. But if you factor in time and travel costs... It is a thought.
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melissa
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by melissa on Apr 6, 2015 14:35:10 GMT
There's really plenty to do, as you can see on this thread, without ever leaving WDW. WDW is far more than the 4 theme parks. Some of these have been mentioned, some have not. You can visit Downtown Disney where there's Disney Quest, Cirque, bowling, and music and even dancing at night in some of the venues. There are the water parks. Every resort has at least one pool, most have more than 1. You can visit the various resorts (very fun to do once decorated for Christmas.. there's a whole world of hidden Mickeys at that time of year). There are outdoor movies at night at many resorts as well. There are the small beaches at some of the waterfront resorts. You can see the Electric Water Pageant from these locations at night. You can see fireworks without ever going into a park. At the Contemporary and Bay Lake Towers, you can not only see the MK fireworks, the music is piped in. There are also running trails. You can play tennis, golf or go boating. You can even go fishing or ride horses. If you do the latter and visit Fort Wilderness, you can see the blacksmith shop where they apply the horse shoes to the horses that work in the parades, etc. They have an archery range there as well.
One of the most memorable days we have ever had at WDW was the day we did the all day tour. I believe it is called Backstage Magic Tour now. It was an 8 hr day where we went backstage at each park. We had a tour of the utilidors, the corridors beneath the Magic Kingdom, went behind the scenes at the American Pavilion in Epcot to see the animatronics up close, backstage at the Animal Kingdom for parade preps and animal care, a visit to the greenhouses where they were preparing for the Flower and Garden festival, and so much more. I loved the visit to the costuming department to see how everything worked (they use a giant Cricut like machine to cut the patterns... not so impressive now, but it was to me then as those machines were fairly new to the general crafting world). It was an amazing day and worth every penny!
When we go to WDW, we often spend a single day in the parks. That's it. My husband often doesn't go to the parks at all. As you can see, there is plenty to do and there is also much to be said for a day of relaxation when you've been busy running around the other days!
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