After a particularly annoying winter with sicknesses, extended power outages, and cancelled family visits, we were ready for a fun-filled winter escape to somewhere warm. Disney World seemed to fit the bill for a family vacation that would focus on Happy with a capital H, but we weren’t up for a big splurge, and were still easing our way back into super crowds. Our kids’ love of the Animal Kingdom show on Disney + got us thinking about a stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge as a destination in and of itself. We joked about a trip to Disney World without actually going to Disney World (the theme parks, at least), and the more we joked about it the more we thought about it for real…
I grew up in a family where Disney vacations were synonymous with waking at the crack of dawn, sprinting for buses, weaving through crowds to beat others to a line, and racing from one part of the park to the other. Knowing we weren’t up for that kind of vacation after an exhausting winter (and with a 5 and 2 year old in tow), we started seriously considering a park-free Disney trip.
I did a little digging into FB groups and YouTube videos and remembered how much there is to do there outside of the park that you never have time for if you’re racing from one attraction line to another. Having two kids who love vehicles made the prospect of riding buses and monorails and boats and skyliners all day seem far more enjoyable than the visiting crowded parks. I dug a little deeper and found some hotel deals, called the reservation number, and booked with the reassurance that we could move the dates and/or cancel if another winter illness struck just in time to ruin our plans once again.
Amazingly, we stayed healthy enough to head out on our 3 day road trip from Maine to Orlando. We pulled out all the stops to keep the kids (and us?) entertained on the drive, and we ended up spending 6 awesome days in Disney World without hitting the 4 theme parks.
So, what did we do instead? First of all, we chose hotels we knew we’d want to hang out at. We decided to do a split stay at Art of Animation and Animal Kingdom Lodge. Both were hotels we knew the kids would love and be entertained at (watching animals! seeing Lightning McQueen!), and both felt “special” and themed in the same way as the parks.
For little ones, Art of Animation is like a park in and of itself with the multiple themed pools (including a massive Finding Nemo pool!), Radiator Springs cars to visit, and the skyliner right there.
Day 1:
We enjoyed the cozy cone pool in the Cars section of the hotel, rode the skyliner, and explored the resorts around Crescent Lake. This was exactly the day of Florida sunshine we were after!
The beach club - a welcome sight in the middle of a Maine February.
Day 2:
We started with a character meal which was a great way to meet the characters without going to the parks.
Meeting characters and watching the monorail, minus the price of a park ticket. Plus Mickey waffles!
It was easy to pass some time exploring the resorts around the Seven Seas Lagoon, especially the ones with beaches! We even squeezed in a boat ride before heading back to our own hotel pool before dinner.
No beach toys? Crocs will do!
Day 3:
We broke our “no parks” rule slightly and went to Blizzard Beach. Though it is technically a ticketed park, tickets were almost half the cost of the major theme parks, and with how much our kids love pools and swimming, we knew it would be worth it. We had an amazing day riding the chairlift and family raft ride, and watching the kids try one thing after another that was “a little scary… but fun!” The Disney magic revealed itself at Blizzard Beach when our 2 year old had a classic 2 year old meltdown and a lifeguard appeared out of nowhere to give her a small mermaid rubber ducky… stopping the tantrum in its tracks. Nice touch, Disney.
Our kids loved the chairlift, and there are stairs to walk down for those who don’t want to do the raft ride or slides.
Day 4:
We enjoyed some time hanging out with the Cars characters because the Radiator Springs theming of the Cars section of AoA is so impressive. I’m not sure you’re supposed to climb on the cars, but we said some quick hellos to each one and our kids loved “racing” up and down the “road” that connects the buildings on this side of the resort. The colors and general vibe of the Cars section really was great, and our kids still talk about getting to stay “in Radiator Springs”.
We finally said bye bye to Lightning and friends and drove over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our kids loved the Animal Kingdom show on Disney Plus, so they were also so excited to stay at AKL to see the animals they’d seen on TV. After AoA, AKL did feel pretty dark and serious, and we found that we missed the outdoor wandering space of AoA (all outdoor areas at AKL are dedicated to the animals, with the exception of the pool area and a viewing area, so if you like wandering outdoors you might feel a bit boxed in here). That said, the pools with slides and splash pads were great for resort entertainment. There we visited the Jambo house animal lookout and played on the slide at the Kidani pool (a long, annoying, and non-Disneyesque walk through the parking lot from Jambo).
Similar to our strategy with room booking for AoA, we booked a standard view room and hoped we’d be able to upgrade to a partial view, which we did! Again, a risky move, but it worked for us. There’s a special calm and quiet to sitting on the balcony and watching giraffes and zebras slowly eat their dinner, and we ate our dinner on the balcony watching them until dark.
Day 5:
We spent the day at AKL, mostly in the Jambo pool, which only has 1 slide compared to Kidani’s 2 slides, but it was a better size for the 2 and 5 yr old. We coincidentally ran into friends at the Jambo pool we hadn’t seen in years, which was a great surprise (and they were also on a non-parks Disney vacation!).
We enjoyed the pool for awhile and then headed to another resort where we could watch the fireworks. We were even able to have a picnic and s’mores on the beach!
Waiting for fireworks over the castle from the Polynesian Beach
Day 6:
Despite the fact that there were so many non-park things on our possible to do list, we went back to Blizzard Beach on Day 6. The allure of more “beach”/pool time during a Maine winter, the novelty of the chairlift, and the pull towards any place that mixes reggae and Christmas carols convinced us to hit this water park one more time. We spent another awesome day on the family raft ride, lounging on the beach, and bobbing in the waves of the wave pool. We once again spent the evening eating dinner on the balcony watching the animals (mobile order from Sanaa was great!).
Day 7:
We spent our last morning at the pool (note they don’t open until 10am - we were one of many disappointed families sadly staring at the “pool closed” sign at 8am…) and playground before packing up to start the journey back to Maine!
Did we miss going to the parks?
Honestly? Not really. When we passed the gates to Magic Kingdom and Epcot and saw the crowds and lines, there was no part of me that wanted to be in the thick of it. That said, our kids are too young to really know what we were “missing” in the parks. If they’d had their heart set on a certain ride or attraction, maybe we would have sprung for a one day ticket, but at nearly $1000 a day for the 4 of us, we couldn’t justify it when what they mostly wanted to do was swim in pools and see some characters.
Did we feel like there wasn’t much to do?
Hell no. We barely scratched the surface of the list of non-park activities I compiled going into the trip. I’d do a park-less trip again in a heartbeat in order to have time to hit more of the things on my list!
Planning your own park-free Disney trip?
Friends have asked me about this trip so many times that I finally put together a super detailed 5 day park-free itinerary based on the highlights from our trip. I even threw in some favorite non-park tips about:
Resorts - how to select the best resort based on where in the world you like to vacation
Characters - exactly where and how to meet your favorite characters without paying for a park ticket
Magic - think Disney magic requires a park ticket? Not at all! So many magical things happen outside the park, and many of them for free!
Fitness - If you’re a runner or walker, there are so many options for beautiful routes to take to get some steps in.
