What Do You Do on a Non-Park Day?

I don't know that I've ever had a non-park day. Maybe once or twice on our last day when we had a somewhat early departure time. In that case, we usually hit DTD for some shopping and lunch before we head out.

We just hang out at the pool at the Disney resort we are staying. This is usually the first day we arrive. We check in, get our room situated, then hit the pool. Later we go to dinner and just enjoy the resort we are at.

In the past, we've always purchased 10-day no-expiration tickets with all the bells and whistles and used 5 days per trip. That left us with 1 or 2 non-park days per trip. We've spent those days going to a water park, going to Downtown Disney, or just hanging around the resort. Last year I spent my 2 non-Disney days at the Universal parks.

But now there's no significant advantage to buying the no-expiration option. The 5-day ticket without the no-expiration option that I bought for our upcoming trip was exactly half the cost of a 10-day no-expiration ticket. Yes, it would've locked my next trip in at this year's prices, but IMO that's not enough of an advantage to justify spending that much money this year.

For our October trip, hubby will use the last 5 days of his old no-expiration ticket (he couldn't come with me last year), so I purchased a 5-day ticket to match what he has left. But in the future, we'll probably get a 6 or 7-day ticket so we won't have any non-park days. The extra day or two would be so inexpensive there would be no reason not to.

It is very rare that we have a non park day but when we do, we spend a lot of time in DTD.

Usually the day we get there is a non park day so we will either resort hop or go to DTD and the day we leave is also a non park day and we usually do DTD... Now when we go back to buying annual passes and depending on the time of our flights we might not have any no park days

Last time I went we arrived around 3pm, so we grabbed late lunch/dinner at Downtown, took our time looking at all the art that was for sale, and then went for a walk around the resort and to the pool later at night.

This time we'll have the mini golf pass, so we'll do that first thing to stretch out from the day long train ride. Then we'll probably do Downtown and the monorail crawl later in the evening. Our departure day the train leaves just before 1pm, so we won't have time to do much. We'll probably get up early to grab a smoothie at AoA and take a long relaxing walk around the lake. Anything that doesn't involve sitting down!

2009 we spent the morning and early afternoon at Disney Quest. The guys loved it and spent a few hours there but we had the water parks and more passes, so it was free. I played for a little while, but then went shopping while they played.

2010 we did some resort hopping and J took pics at all of them. He takes an average of 1200 pictures per trip and I am in about 6 of those. lol I hate to be in pics. I thought it was neat to see some of the unique thing that make each hotel special.

2011 we did DD.

This year we are going to Universal, IOA, and Seaworld.

We usually have an off-day or two scheduled in the middle of the week. I don't count arrival or departure day as days when a park visit is even possible, unless we come down on the Auto Train and arrive in the morning. I'm not using a day's admission for a few hours (or less) at a park. But we always come for a full week - 7 nights, 6 full days, plus arrival and departure days.

Ooo I love the sound of a cup cake crawl! Why havn't I done this yet!? *puts it on the itinerary*

Most of our non park days revolve around the water parks, mini golf and shopping at DTD. We don't resort hop unless we have an ADR but it's something we should do more of 'just because'!

The only time we ever had a non park day was the day our friend went to the hospital at the end of our trip.

That's pretty much exactly what we do. Our first and last days have typically been non-park days where we resort hop, hit up the Boardwalk and DTD. Though this last trip we did buy an extra day for park passes and decided to do a park on our last day. Kind of a last hooray. And we really enjoyed it!

But during the non arrival and departure days, we're all about park overload

Last year I didn't have any non-park days. The year before the only non-park day I had was my arrival day. I went to DTD. This year, I'll also have a non-park day on arrival day. I'll probably get to Pop around 4:00 so my plan is to explore AofA.

Resort visits and Downtown Disney!!!

AND . . . Sleeping in and sunning by the pool, with a frosty beverage at my side.

Come on folks.... Let's be honest with one another.

The kids are back home.... You're at one of the most romantic places on earth...

If you're like me, you work on your Walt Disney World Watusi moves.

In case you to learn the Watusi.......

Here's a version inspired by the Poly.....

We slept in, played in the arcade and went to downtown Disney where I met Jason (I think that was his name) who is the flare bartender at Portobello's. He made me drinks in every colour I could ask for.

Our normal itinerary has non park days, usually every 4th or 5th day. These are shopping days, but we split some of them and spend a few mornings in the water park, typhoon lagoon.

In all honesty... the only time we "don't" have a non-park day is when we don't have a season pass. So either the first and the last day we may not have tickets for the park, so like Jess said... but its usually Downtown Disney.

Arrival day is a non-park day for us. We usually explore our resort, and hit DTD or the Boardwalk.

Our last non-park day:

1. Sleeping in
2. Character breakfast at O'hana
3. Monorail tour. (wanted to see The Contemporary), but didn't get off.
4. Dad showers and has alone time, makes phone calls, Mom and Kid hit pool; mom has fruity adult beverage.
5. Everyone naps.
6. Mom showers and irons dress-up clothes; everyone gets spiffed up.
7. Signature dining at Flying Fish.
8. Walk around Boardwalk
9. Return to resort and go to bed relatively early.

This was one of the most memorable days of our trip! Can't imagine trying to go to a park, too. This day was between 2 park days, was a great way to catch up on sleep, and our kid was primed to be a good dining partner, (he was).

We are either organizing in the room, eating, at our pool, or at Downtown Disney. Sometimes we resort hop, but not often.

Cool, now I have an urge to find some old episodes of Soul Train...

We usually go to WDW during Christmas. What we'll do is go to the different resorts to see the different Christmas decorations that are actually edible. Boardwalk last year had an awesome gazebo scene and the Grand Floridian had a wonderful gingerbread house.

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Do I see people inside the GB house, or am I imagining that?

No you are not imagining it. The GF gingerbread house is so large that cast members actually work inside of it selling small Ginger Bread houses and "shingles" that you can eat while walking around. There is another 'lived in' house in the American Experience in Epcot and they also sell souvenears from inside it.

Thank you Vettelover! I cannot wait to see this in November, and I will definitely have to sample some gingerbread too.

Here are some pictures of the GFGBH.

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Last year HGTV did a special on the GF chef making the gingerbread house. I definitely need to go to WDW at Christmas.

I'm usually there the first week of November. So I miss all of the final products. I see them going up but never the finished products. This year I get too see it all

What's a non park day?