WDW without the Parks - Thoughts

I’d love to hear thoughts of going down for just a short stay and not visiting the parks. I think @OBNurseNH did that earlier this year. Did you feel like you were missing out? What are some advantages and disadvantages?

Have never gone down without visiting some parks. Think it’s a great idea but can’t seem to
Bring myself to do it

I always think there are much nicer hotels for the same money or less elsewhere so if you don’t need to go to WDW for the parks, I don’t know why you’d want to stay there. I also think it would be torture being there and not doing the parks. But maybe it would be easier if you go more often.

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I have friends that have done this…but then they go 3 or 4 times a year

yea. For much cheaper, I would go elsewhere…a beach, the mountains, etc. WDW rooms are expensive

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I mostly disagree. I can imagine being in that bubble and taking advantage of resort activities and such to fill my time and make it worth it. The bubble feels very insulative and the world disappears in a special way when I get inside it.

Re-entry has been particularly awful this time around, and I’m missing Home more than usual already. So forgive me if I seem a little extreme in my thinking :slight_smile:

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I think this is the key here. We go often and I have never done a no park trip, but I could see doing it. There’s a lot to do outside of the parks.

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It’s only my opinion, you are welcome to yours :blush: I don’t feel that bubble. Or to be more specific, I don’t feel it any differently than I do any other time I get on a plane and go somewhere hot and don’t have to go to work or cook or clean. It wouldn’t be my choice. But if someone else wants to do it and is happy doing it, I’m happy for them!

I’m going to point out that you said yourself you can’t bring yourself to do it though :stuck_out_tongue:

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I did go into the parks for food and wine last fall but I spent 4 nights in the world with the plan to go to HHN and Busch Gardens. We also went to DS and spent a night at TotW lounge. I actually love the DVC resorts and I am very happy staying there as my base.

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We are planning to enjoy some of the resort activities/meals the years we take shorter trips just to visit my grandparents. This year we made it a full blown Disney trip, and we’re doing the same at the end of 2020, but if we are able to go in between now and then, we will probably do one resort character meal and some resort exploring/photo taking.

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I attempted to do this back in Jan, which turned out to be one of the coldest weeks there. I stayed at the B Resort and rented a car as well. I kicked around the idea of going just to Epcot for the Arts. I went to DS several times and even did Resort hopping. But I kept getting the itch for going to a park. I was attempting to plan a UO trip for the Christmas holiday 2018, so I ended up going there 1 of the nicer days with a park to park. So for me as nice as it sounds my lesson learned. Not go in Jan, do not rent a car stay on property and go to the parks!

Since I have never even been to WDW, I am really not the person to be answering this, but I won’t let that stop me :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:!

I am going to my first trip in 3 days and having been on this forum for the past 2+ years, I have learned so much about the resorts. Due to time constraints, I won’t get a chance to see any of the other resorts (other than Pop, where we are staying). My answer to that is, plan another trip (yes I am planning a second trip before going on my first trip). My second trip is going to focused on only DAH. No regular park tickets. I will tour resorts by day and party all night long! I think this will work to my benefit because I am coming from the west coast.

All this to say, I think you would have a great time only visiting resorts and experiencing each one, but if you really did get the itch, you could always get a ticket!

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I love your resort/dah trip idea. I could justify the cost of dah if it wasn’t in addition to park tickets.

I bet that’s the trip @SirGreggLadyV was thinking of when she thought we did a parkless trip. That trip we only went to AK and DAH at MK. Otherwise we lounged and visited DS

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That must have been the one I was thinking of.

Thanks for everyone’s thoughts.

I asked Gregg if he thought we wouldn’t feel like were missing the parks when actually there, but it’s not like we are never going back. It will have been 7 months since our 7 day trip; and we’ll only be there two full days and two short days. I’m thinking we can have lots of fun just lazing around the resort and visiting other resorts and Disney Springs. We are planning to do the H20 Glow night on the 27th, so that is a park, just not one of the fab four. :wink:

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I think that sounds like loads of fun!

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We wouldn’t set foot in Orlando without going to WDW. If we didn’t want to go there, we’d go to some other city in Florida, there’s quite a bit of it we haven’t seen. I’d go to the Keys. In fact, that’s what we originally planned to do but DS 27 is a non-diver and wanted to come on the trip, so we decided to go to WDW. All the family loves WDW, it’s a no-lose destination.

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