How to Spend Your Day Off at Disney

When you plan your Walt Disney World vacation, you generally think of all the attractions and dining inside the theme park. As travel advisors, we always recommend at least one resort day, if you can fit it into your schedule.

Today, we're going to talk about how you should spend your resort day as adults or with your family.  

Listen in with travel advisors and destination experts Ryan and Julie. He is your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation and She is a Disney loving Maryland mom of three and a specialist in family travel.  

Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel.

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Transcript

Julie: 0:00

Welcome to All Things Travel. When you plan your Walt Disney World vacation, you generally think of all the attractions and dining inside the theme park. As travel advisors, we always recommend at least one resort day, if you can fit it into your schedule. Today, we're going to talk about how you should spend your resort day as adults or with your family. Listen in with travel advisors and destination experts Ryan and Julie. He is your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation and I am a Disney loving Maryland mom of three and a specialist in family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel. I love to have a resort day. It's really great to have a day to reset, the parks can be over stimulating, and I'm excited to share what I recommend that my clients do with their families when they don't go to the parks at Disney World. Ryan, do you guys like to have resort days? Do you typically just keep going?

Ryan: 1:04

I would say to be honest, we don't necessarily have a full resort day, but we would do like half days in the parks.

Julie: 1:11

Yeah.

Ryan: 1:12

we may have shorter part time than others, and then use the rest of the day for pool, for naps you know,

Julie: 1:20

Don't give away the tips yet.

Ryan: 1:38

up the resort day and they kind of jumped on it. And I said, I'm glad that you did, because everybody that comes back says, you know, Ryan, I wasn't quite sure about just having that day at the resort, but I'm so glad we did.

Julie: 1:52

Agree. And I think that's one of the biggest feedback that we tend to get is people come back and everyone says, Disney is not a vacation. I really wish we would have had an off day. And when you think about it, like your arrival day and your departure day, it's hard to do like a full resort day those days, depending on your flight times.

Ryan: 2:11

What I always tell people is, Hey, if you want to think about it, this way You have paid so much money for this great resort that if you were anywhere else you would be doing all this stuff at the resort So take advantage of the pool take advantage of the quick service restaurants. Have a drink at the bar And enjoy the actual resort because these are really good places to stay Beyond just the fact that they have awesome theme parks attached to them

Julie: 2:41

I always say I could go to the Polynesian and just stay at the resort for a

Ryan: 2:45

really shocker Shocker

Julie: 2:48

I know. I know.

Ryan: 2:50

Well hey, before we get into talking about our ideas for a resort day, if you want to learn more about why people choose to travel, their travel motivations for families and groups and couples, go back to last week's episode where we had a really interesting discussion about why people are traveling now. Alright, so Julie, I know you came up with some ideas, as usual, I'm kind of the adult centric list here. But a lot of these things could be for most everybody. I'll call out the

Julie: 3:21

I kind of, I kind of am concerned that you are the representation for the adults that we have,

Ryan: 3:28

Which is sad, right? If I'm the representation for the adults, we are in real trouble on this podcast. So, the obvious, and I know this is not for everybody, when I think of adults, having an alcoholic beverage or two sounds pretty good. So the obvious to mind comes a monorail crawl, which you can do with appetizers as well. Taking the monorail, Around to the different resorts and seeing the bars or lounges. I love the idea of sangria university at coronado springs I've had clients do that in the past and they've absolutely loved it

Julie: 4:00

Wait, tell us about that.

Ryan: 4:02

It's during the day. So it really does lend itself to a resort day And it's at the three bridges Bar, which is at Coronado and they teach you about sangria and you learn how to mix sangria and Obviously with that you have different appetizers and sangria to enjoy and you get a little certificate at the end that said that you Graduated from sangria University.

Julie: 4:26

Wow, do you have to reserve

Ryan: 4:28

Yes. Most of these things I'm going to talk about you have to reserve, and most of them do have a fee associated with them, but, but I've had rave reviews, and this is something that I've wanted to do myself many Disney trips.

Julie: 4:41

Can you do it if you're not staying at Coronado?

Ryan: 4:44

absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah. And then another thing at Coronado, because I just love that resort. This is not a, a program thing by Disney, but I love Spanish tapas, and I love Spanish red wine, and Toledo, is one of the most underrated, beautiful restaurants at Walt Disney World. Why not go up there in the afternoon and make your own tapas and wine tasting? How amazing would that be, Julie?

Julie: 5:13

love that idea. That makes me want to go on my next adult only trip to Toledo. And I never think about doing that.

Ryan: 5:19

But you know, it doesn't have to be with alcohol There's other class like activities that disney has you can go to amorettes patisserie over at disney springs and do a cake decorating class you can do a A painting class at coronado springs. You can do a mosaic art class at animal kingdom

Julie: 5:39

I think that they also have something, a painting like that at Contemporary as

Ryan: 5:44

I I believe so. I believe so. You know, why not be active? It's Obviously there's golf, mini golf, foot golf, are all there. But you can have things like Segway tours, you can fish, you can rent a pontoon boat, or a little speedboat. Using the spa at a resort. Again, these are world class resorts. Use the amenities. There's lots of things that, You may not think about because you're focused on the parks, but how fun would it be to fish for an afternoon and just relax? Or take a pontoon boat out on the lake and just have a good time. And all of these things that I'm talking about can be booked through My Disney Experience on what's called the Enchanting Extras tab under Things to Do. And then my last thought, and again this isn't adults necessarily, but Is to go to Cirque du Soleil at Disney Springs. make it a Disney Springs brunch and show, or show and early dinner. Why not?

Julie: 6:45

Those are some awesome ideas, Ryan, I am thoroughly impressed and

Ryan: 6:50

and you don't say that to me very often, so I will take the compliment. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Julie: 6:56

First no, I want to have an adult only resort day, And I am having an adult only trip coming up, but, I mean, we're gonna be at the parks a lot, so, hmm, maybe I'll rethink my plans.

Ryan: 7:08

So Julie, I know you're going to talk about things, and some of these are the same as mine as I'm looking at the list, but that's okay, because, families can do a lot of this stuff too. But before we do that, I want to talk about where in the world does all things travel?

Julie: 7:22

okay.

Ryan: 7:23

As I went back and looked at some of the locations that popped up recently with listeners that I haven't seen before, a place that came, Up was Moose Lake, Minnesota, and you want to know what Moose Lake, Minnesota is known for Julie? It is the agate capital of the world. What is agate? Agate is a kind of quartz that has like these beautiful brown rust tan colors in them. And at the Moose Lake Bank They have the largest agate in the world at 108 pounds. I just love finding those cool little things and I want to take a picture with our listener in front of the largest agate in the world and just have a fun time in Moose Lake because I bet I could get a fun Moose Lake, Minnesota t shirt.

Julie: 8:17

I love that idea.

Ryan: 8:19

So, hey Moose Lake, reach out to us either on Facebook or via email, because I would love to send a thank you gift to the agate capital of the world.

Julie: 8:29

So now that we've covered everything you can do or a lot of things you can do When it's adults only at Disney and you're not going to the parks. Let's talk about with a family. I think when you travel with your family and when I say with a family, I mean, like you have kids with you, whatever age they may be, I think you definitely need a resort day, especially if you have little ones, I mean, they get so overstimulated in the park. I get overstimulated in the park. It's the type of thing where they're going to bed at 9 PM. And so am I like, we are so tired.

Ryan: 9:00

Oh, I, I

Julie: 9:01

sure you remember

Ryan: 9:02

9 p. m. is by like the fourth day at Disney as I'm getting acclimated. Before that, it's like 7 p. m., 7. 30 p. m. By 9, I'm like, okay, this feels almost normal.

Julie: 9:15

Well, and because so many times I, a little bit of an aside, I have people ask, well, you know, we don't share rooms at home. How's it going to go on the trip? And I'm like, you're all going to be going to bed at the same time. Trust me, you're going to be exhausted. So

Ryan: 9:28

remember, Julie, my first trip to Disney, my kids were four and six, I believe, maybe seven. And I remember we were at Port Orleans Riverside, and they would go to bed, and I remember being in the bathroom with that divider sheet up, reading the Birnbaum's Guide to Disney for whatever park we were visiting the next day, so that I would have a game plan.

Julie: 10:00

And look how far you've come.

Ryan: 10:01

And Little did I know that would impact my life so so much. Ha, ha,

Julie: 10:06

a, what a glow up,

Ryan: 10:08

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,

Julie: 10:09

man. Okay, so I don't do that because I'm going to bed

Ryan: 10:13

There ya go. There ya go.

Julie: 10:15

anyways, so we always have a resort day in our trip, at least one, if not two or three just because my kids love the pool and you'll almost find that when kids come back from Disney and you ask them what their favorite thing is, sometimes they'll mention a ride. But like 80 percent of the time it's the pool.

Ryan: 10:35

and, and obviously this can be for an adult's group too. I would just time it, to be honest, I would time it in like midmorning before people started to come back. I remember the first time my family did this like it was like Nine in the morning and we're in the boardwalk pool, and I'm like what in the world are we doing? Because I'm like I'm watching all these people walk to the parks and everything It was the most relaxing time at the pool. It was amazing

Julie: 11:05

Yeah, and so the pool is generally open at either 9 or 10. You have to check your resort. Most resorts have more than one pool. And depending where you're staying, they not only have the pool, but they'll have like a water playground or a splash pad or a variety of things. Of things to do near the pool games, things like that. So it's not like you're just sitting there. Part of the reason I love the Polynesian so much is their pool. You can sit there, you've got delicious food with you and you can see the castles. So yeah, you still, you feel like you're still very immersed in Disney, but you're having this amazing pool day. So while you're there enjoying the pool, we also like to take advantage of any of the on site activities that are going on. And those are going to vary from resort to resort because what you can do at Animal Kingdom Lodge, you're going to have some really specialty type activities going on there. They have tours of the restaurants different sort of activities are going to be African inspired. Whereas over at the Wilderness Lodge, they have scavenger hunts and things like that around the lodge themed to the wild. Their theme at the Polynesian, they might have things like making a lay, it just varies from resort to resort, but you're always going to see the resort activity sheet, so that's a great place to look. We do really love in the evening taking advantage of the s'mores. Almost every resort does s'mores in the evening and the movies.

Ryan: 12:26

Movies under the stars. And what I will say too with the s'mores, so they do have s'more kits for purchase, but the marshmallows alone are free.

Julie: 12:35

Oh, that's cool. So you could just do the marshmallow that's, it's such a great way to end the day, you know, do the pool, relax in the room a little bit, do some of the resort activities, do your s'mores, and then every, I want to say every resort does movie under the stars where they have that big blow up

Ryan: 12:51

so. Yeah,

Julie: 12:51

screen and they're showing a Disney movie and it's just really, it's pretty calm, right? My kids love doing that. We don't sit out there and watch the whole thing, but they'll sit out there and like watch a little bit. Sometimes before that they'll have like a dance party going on and they'll always get into that. It's just really fun Another thing we love to do is we love to visit the nearby resorts So depending where you're staying may decide Where you're going to go visit if you're staying on a skyliner resort, you might go visit Other Skyliner resorts. If you can walk to other resorts, you might choose to do that. When we stay on the monorail, we like to go over to the Grand Floridian, especially at Christmas time, see the gingerbread house, kind of just go explore around. As you're doing that, the kids think that the Skyliner, the monorail and the boats are free rides.

Ryan: 13:39

yeah, absolutely.

Julie: 13:40

sometimes if we have a free day and it's kind of not a great pool day, we'll just ride the monorail around.

Ryan: 13:47

You have the boardwalk here on the notes and I was just thinking, obviously we love the boardwalk at night, right? But what if You do kind of a boardwalk walk during the day. Whatever resort you're at on the boardwalk, you have breakfast. And then you maybe walk around the boardwalk for some exercise. And maybe you go over to the Swan and Dolphin and play mini golf. And,

Julie: 14:11

love that.

Ryan: 14:12

some shopping at the bigger store over by the boardwalk. You can really utilize that area for a variety of things during the day and during the night.

Julie: 14:23

The skyliner is right there, so you could, if you're saying at like pop century or art of animation, that's an easy way to get over there. And even if you're not, you could just ride the Skyliner around. I love riding the Skyliner. You get to go right over Epcot. It's so pretty. Yeah, there, there's a lot to do over there. I love that idea, Ryan. So another thing a lot of people forget about is Fort Wilderness. If you go over there, they have the Tri Circle D Ranch. I'm not sure if you have to reserve this or not, but there are like, horses over there. You can go and see them.

Ryan: 14:52

I think you have to reserve the writing. I don't think you have to reserve the just

Julie: 14:57

Just going to see them. Right. So that's really cool. A lot of people don't know that that's there and it's easily accessible by boat from the Magic Kingdom. So if you can get yourself to the Magic Kingdom, you can easily get to Fort Wilderness. And I just think it's really fun to see Fort Wilderness because it is original to Walt Disney World. So I think it's just like a really cool place to go and see, because it's been there for so long. You mentioned mini golf, so I have that on my list as an option. That's not something that we personally do, because I think the transportation getting there is a little bit

Ryan: 15:28

It's a little challenging. Yeah.

Julie: 15:30

So it's just like some logistics you have to think about. And my last suggestion, which you also mentioned, is going to Disney Springs. If I'm going to take my kids there, I'm definitely going to take them to Rainforest Cafe or the T Rex restaurant. Not because I absolutely love their food, but because it's something for my kids to do while they're eating. I will say we don't really go to Disney Springs a lot because I do find it to be like, a lot with

Ryan: 15:56

it can be a

Julie: 15:58

feel like, yeah, it doesn't feel like the break that I want on my resort

Ryan: 16:03

and I will also say at night with kids once it gets dark. It is dark at disney

Julie: 16:09

Yeah, and I, I'm not a fan of that. I think last trip we went to Disney Springs on the day that we arrived to go to the Rainforest Cafe and we were mostly going there because we found placemats in my house from the Rainforest Cafe from like the nineties. My kids kept asking me. What it was and it was a place that I always used to go to with my grandparents and they've since passed away. So we finally decided we would, we would take the kids there and order some of their favorite dishes that we used to get with my grandparents. But again, as soon as it got dark, I was like, we need to get out of here. There's just a lot going on and it's kind of hard to navigate if you're not used to navigating Disney

Ryan: 16:47

Google Maps works really good at Disney Springs, like the walking Google Maps, which I know sounds kind of silly, but I've used it before, especially at night. And We did not go to Disney Springs either when the kids were younger, but now almost every trip, it's like, it's part of the experience, because they like to go shopping, or they want to go to the Lego store, there's restaurants over there that they want to eat at, so it really does add to your trip, whether it's part of a resort day or not.

Julie: 17:16

Yeah, I get that. And sometimes that's something that I recommend to do on an arrival day or a departure day depending on your flight times. I

Ryan: 17:24

an arrival day dinner at Disney Springs I think is perfect.

Julie: 17:28

It is, if you're coming in early enough. Or I've recommended brunch or lunch if you're leaving late on your departure day.

Ryan: 17:36

If you'd like to have a resort day during your Disney trip, let us know on the Facebook page what you'd like to do. As your travel advisors, we will build a resort day into your trip and give you recommendations personalized to your family. You can reach me at ryan at creatingmagicvacations. com

Julie: 17:54

And you can reach me at julie at creatingmagicvacations. com.

Ryan: 17:59

We look forward to talking to you next week on All Things Travel as we discuss the top seven considerations for your next all inclusive vacation.