It doesn’t matter if this is your first Disney Vacation or just another annual trip. There are certain things that make a Disney Vacation a little more Magical. These things set Disney apart from every other theme park. Dare we say, every other vacation! You’re going to need a quick list of experiences that will make your vacation feel like a Disney vacation and not just a harried checklist of things to do. It won’t matter if you’re staying onsite or off-site, keeping to a budget or schedule. Consider this your best chance for a memorable vacation. Here are 12 Important Things Not to Miss at Disney World.
Contents
- 1 The Most Important Things to Do on Your Disney Vacation
- 2 What Should I Not Miss at Disney?
- 3 A Disney Character Dining Experience
- 4 Ride the Best Disney Rides
- 5 Treat Yourself to A Disney Snack
- 6 Watch A Disney Parade
- 7 Stop For A Disney Day Time Show
- 8 Stay Late for A Disney Nighttime Show and Fireworks
- 9 Have A Disney Resort Experience
- 10 Play A Free Disney Game
- 11 Visit The Disney Boardwalk
- 12 Attend an EPCOT Festival
- 13 Dine at a Disney Restaurant
- 14 Do Something Extra Special
- 15 How to Make the Most of Your Disney Trip
The Most Important Things to Do on Your Disney Vacation
This isn’t a list of rides or restaurants. If you’re hoping for those, check out our best stuff at each park post. You can also check out our 12 step plan for planning a Disney vacation and if you’re tackling this one on your own. Our Top 12 things to do at Disney are more about experiences than the bucket list items you’ll be trying to fit into fewer days than possible. It doesn’t matter when you do them or in what order. You can do just one or them all. Here are the things we think most make a Disney vacation great.
What Should I Not Miss at Disney?
Each park at Walt Disney World comes with its own kind of magic. Whether you’re hunting down the best snacks, rides, shows or a fun free Disney Game to play, check out everything to do in each Walt Disney World park below. And if you’re looking for a bite-sized version of this post, check out our Top 10 Things to Do at Walt Disney World story to help you make sure you get it all in before you leave.
Disney World Parks and Areas
Things to Do on a Disney Vacation
If you’re visiting Disney World and don’t want to miss the important stuff, take note of this list! Complete with unique experiences you can only get at Disney, THESE are the most important things to do on your next Disney Trip to help you feel like you’ve really done it all. Whether you’re vacation is 3 days or 12 days won’t matter; just keep these things in mind for the best kind of vacation Disney has to offer.
- A Disney Character Dining Experience
- Ride the Best Disney Rides
- Treat Yourself to a Disney Snack
- Watch a Disney Parade
- Stop for a Disney Daytime Show
- Watch the Nighttime Show or Disney Fireworks
- Have a Disney Resort Experience
- Play a Free Disney Game
- Visit the Disney Boardwalk
- Attend an EPCOT Festival
- Dine at a Disney Restaurant
- Do Something Extra Special
A Disney Character Dining Experience
We’ve admitted many times that we have a love/hate relationship with character dining. But if this is your first visit to Walt Disney World the experience is an absolute must-do! Character Dining is Disney in all its glory. Beloved characters parade around the restaurants, visit you at your table, hug you, pose with you, and chat with you as if they’re actually the real character and not just an actor in a costume. If you’re bringing smaller children, the dining experiences are often better than waiting in the lines to meet and greet characters around the parks.
We most love The Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom with Winnie the Pooh and Friends and the Lilo and Stitch breakfast at Ohana in The Polynesian Resort. But, if you’re on a budget and looking for something special, the Garden Grill over at EPCOT park, features a family style with Farmer Mickey and friends, including Chip and Dale!
Ride the Best Disney Rides
Maybe you’re not up for a rollercoaster or think rides are just for kids, BUT Walt Disney himself perfected the art of animatronics and put them in some of the best Disney rides. They’re all worth a try, but these are our favorites that will give you a 360 view of all the magic at Disney. From the classics to the innovative, try for a few of these during your trip; you won’t find rides like these at your regular theme parks. Our favorites are Pirates of the Caribbean, Spaceship Earth, Soarin, Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safari, Star Tours, and Toy Story Midway Mania. And we absolutely love Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Check out the Best Rides at Disney World post for more options.
Treat Yourself to A Disney Snack
You may think it is not necessary to spend the money on a special snack, but it really won’t be a Disney vacation if you don’t indulge in at least one treat. A Dole Whip is an absolute must-try. You can grab one at the Aloha Isle near the Aladdin ride at Magic Kingdom. If you don’t love a pineapple soft-serve, however, there are plenty of other options! We love the Mickey pretzel, the red velvet Mickey cake pop at the Confectionary, the Mickey Ice Cream Bar, and the macarons in Epcot, France but pretty much anything Mickey-shaped will do. Check out all our Disney Snacks posts.
Watch A Disney Parade
The Festival of Fantasy at Magic Kingdom is the quintessential Disney parade combining many characters, fun songs, and some extra fire-breathing magic. There are others, however, that you will no doubt catch by surprise throughout your time at the parks. Be sure to stop and watch. Some people line up an hour or more before the parades to get the best spots, so they’re definitely worth your time. And if you ever get a chance, make sure the Disney Halloween Parade is a must-see.
Stop For A Disney Day Time Show
All the parks have shows, whether it’s a trolley show, a parade, or dance party. And yet, loads of people just pass them by! They are so worth stopping for. We like the Animal Kingdom dancing parties in the Oasis and Harambe for something different. You can also catch the show at Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom which usually happens around noon or the impromptu shows that pop up all over Epcot and Hollywood Studios throughout the day. All are good, hilarious and really all you have to do is stop and enjoy them.
Stay Late for A Disney Nighttime Show and Fireworks
The nighttime shows in the Disney Parks are way more theatrical than the daytime shows. Since these shows are always changing, for what nighttime show is in each Disney Park, be sure to check out our Disney Nighttime Shows post for up-to-date info on fireworks, nighttime spectaculars, and more. We most like the Happily Ever After Fireworks Show at Magic Kingdom, and Fantasmic! at Hollywood Studios.
Have A Disney Resort Experience
You don’t have to stay at a Disney resort to get the Disney resort experience. But you absolutely must visit at least one of them if you’re not staying on Disney property. You can travel by boat from Magic Kingdom to the beautiful Wilderness Lodge, or hop on the monorail to explore The Polynesian, The Contemporary, or The Grand Floridian. We love watching the animals roam the savanna at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, or you can visit the Port Orleans resorts, just a boat ride away from Disney Springs. You can also venture out to Pop Century, where you can see decades of Disney long past. Right across the bay from Art of Animation, if you venture out to Pop Century you can get two resort experiences at once.
A resort experience gives you the feel of the resort theme, so you can try the food, walk the beach, rent the bikes, check out the resort-specific gift shops, and all sorts of things that will make you feel like you’re on vacation somewhere new. You can even lounge in the lobby without even staying there. Whenever we need a crowd detox we head to the Grand Floridian for classy lounging while listening to the piano. But really any Disney Value Resort will do.
Play A Free Disney Game
Our favorite part of Disney vacations usually involves the fun free Disney games you can play around the parks. Ducktales World Showcase Adventure in Epcot is a spy game that shows you secret places around Epcot with hidden features that interact with you once your phone is in range. Hidden Pascals in Magic Kingdom is extra fun for Tangled fans. And Hidden Mickeys are also absolute favorites of ours that can be played in any park, resort and even Disney Springs.
Visit The Disney Boardwalk
One of the more undiscovered parts of Walt Disney World is The Disney Boardwalk at Epcot, accessible through the international gateway between England and France. Here you’ll find the ice cream shop –Beaches and Cream– at the Beach Club Resort, the hidden pathway over to Hollywood Studios, cute shops, and beaches. The beaches are our favorite part, simply because we always love getting our toes in the sand. It’s an excellent escape from the craziness of Disney and a little bit of a secret…so you’ll feel like you really got to see all of Disney if you’re able to add this into your first( or only) trip. Be sure to check out the amazing Disney Boardwalk Restaurants here; Ale and Compass and Trattoria al Forno are our favorites.
Attend an EPCOT Festival
With annual festivals at Epcot, all year long, this park is the place to be for fun, food and music. We cannot get enough of the Epcot festivals. As all festivals at Epcot are included in the price of a park ticket, we usually think of these as free. Perfect for families and couples and kids, these festivals showcase the countries at Epcot and all the Disney characters we know and love. We love the Flower and Garden Festival as the perfect first experience for newbies to Epcot.
Dine at a Disney Restaurant
There is nothing like a Disney-themed restaurant. Mind you, this experience doesn’t have to be an expensive one to be good. Check out our favorite quick-serve restaurants if you’re sticking to a budget. If you want to have one special dinner during your trip we love Sanaa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Ohana at the Polynesian, and Liberty Tree Tavern at Magic Kingdom. Read up on all our favorite Walt Disney World Restaurants.
Do Something Extra Special
From getting pixie dusted at the Main Street Barber Shop, to Miniature Golf to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, or the Happily Ever After Dessert Party, there are plenty of extra special things you can do at Disney World. While this may not even be on your radar for your Disney Trip, we highly recommend taking a tour of some kind. The Behind the Seeds Tour at EPCOT and the Wild Africa Trek are favorites and really upgrade a Disney vacation experience. Check out all the extra special experience at Disney World to add to your vacation.
How to Make the Most of Your Disney Trip
It’s easy to feel harried and like you have to fit it all in, navigate the crowds, and spend the least money possible, but adding even just a few of these quintessentially Disney things to your plans will give you the feeling that you didn’t miss anything and that it was all money well spent! Have a great vacation! 🙂
Rochelle Mariah is a writer, designer and photographer with an MLIS in Information Science and a B.S. in Arch and Design. Determined to make Planning a DIY Disney Vacation easier she makes lots of lists and drinks lots of coffee. When not designing apparel at Polka Dot Pixie Shop, she's watching old movies and planning the holidays. She has been traveling to Disney destinations since 2010.
