Disney is one of my favourite places. I’ve now been to Disney World three times in the last five years which is quite a bit in my opinion. I wouldn’t say I’m a complete fanatic, but I definitely enjoy everything about the parks, characters, and rides. I have a more wholesome planning post that I wrote from my last trip here. Disney parks are always full experiences and when I go, I do a lot of other things along with the traditional rides you think of at a theme park. Here are my top things to do other than go on rides at Disney World!
Character Experiences
One of the top things to do at Disney parks are to do meet and greets. There are tons of different characters all over the park. Some of the more popular characters such as Mickey, Minnie, etc. may have places they stay at all day long. Other characters you can only find at special events (such as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party) or you can also see them at character dining experiences. I would say I enjoy meeting characters, but I’m not gonna wait in a long line for one. I’ve done a lot of meet and greets that i’ve only had to wait 15 minutes or so. It’s all about timing.
If you have young ones, this might be more of a pull. If character meeting will be a bigger part of your trip, you could try and fast pass them (I personally would never use my first allocation of fast passes on a character meet) or you can look into a character dining experience!
Tip is to bring a thick sharpie so a character in a full costume can sign a bit easier. The character attendants should have have lots of markers on hand too if you forget yours! Characters can actually sign anything and not just an autograph book. I’ve gotten a giant button signed from Parkbound Buttons, I saw a girl getting a denim jacket signed which was super cool. You can definitely be creative!
Epcot Scavenger Hunts
During this most recent trip, Epcot’s annual Flower and Garden festival was happening. This festival is incredible in general, but there’s also a lot of fun extra things you can do. We did Spike’s Pollen Nation Exploration! scavenger hunt. For $5.99 USD, you’re given a map and you have to find Spike (the little bee) in different flower gardens throughout the park. This is an awesome way to see all the amazing festival set up. The hunt was actually quite a challenge, there were a few that we couldn’t find!
Even if you don’t finish the map (we were determined though!) you can hand it in to one of the souvenir shops and get a choice of sew on patches! A super cute souvenir that we worked for!
Throughout the year Epcot has a few festivals (Food and Wine, Festival of the Arts, etc.) that you can do scavenger hunts with. We had a ball doing this one (even in the rain) so I would highly recommend!
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom Card Game
This is one of the coolest things you can do in the Magic Kingdom. Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is an interactive card game that you play throughout the park. You can get a pack of cards for free at the Firehouse on Main Street. Using your magic band, you open up ‘portals’ around the park. You use the cards to defeat baddies and finish the questions. They have three different difficulty levels. The easiest you can use whatever spell you want, but as the difficulty gets higher, you have to use specific spells.
This game is super fun, but a full game takes a good couple of hours. I wouldn’t do this instead of a ride, but I think it provides a great way to walk the park. We usually do this on our second day of the Magic Kingdom!
A Pirate’s Adventure – Treasure of the Seven Seas Scavenger Hunt
This is another scavenger hunt you can do only in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom. This one is interesting as after you do two maps (they probably only take half an hour at max each), they give you a fast pass for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride! This one can get a bit busy since all the scavenger points are mostly in the gift shop. It’s still a really fun way to get a fast pass!
Pin Trading
Last but not least is Pin Trading! This is one hobby that I never got into on prior visits, but I started looking into it for this trip. I did quite a bit of research before the trip, which was both good and bad. Pin Trading is essentially the trading of disney enamel pins with (mostly) cast members. What my research yielded before the trip was that pretty much 90% of the pins that are traded in the park are fakes. People buy massive amounts of fakes on eBay and trade them in the parks. This was so unfortunate to hear and I ended up getting kind of obsessive over trying to figure out if the pins I was trading for were fake or not (a lot were really hard to tell!).
I ended up just trading for pins that I liked. I did always ask to examine them to see if they were obvious fakes. I came back with quite a hefty collection which I’m happy with! It gives me a bit of unease though not knowing if the pins are fake or not (other than the ones I bought). These thoughts take a bit of the fun out of it! The pins are still super cool and I love each one of them!
And there’s my overview on some fun things to other than the rides when you’re at Disney World! If you have any questions, I’d be happy to discuss!
Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
*Purchased