Best Ways to Pass the Time Between Disney Trips
If you are like my family and only able to visit Disney once a year or two, the time between trips can seem like an eternity! For many of us, the planning stages are great fun and can help the time pass, but keeping Disney close to the heart during the downtime can be just as fun. Here are some of our favorite ways to pass that time.
The EPCOT Challenge
Our most favorite way to pass the time between trips is what we have termed “The EPCOT Challenge”! With our Disney-loving friends, we eat at a restaurant in our area that serves the cuisine of the EPCOT countries! We start with Mexico or Canada and make our way around EPCOT in order.
Although we have not been able to find a Norwegian restaurant within an hour’s drive of our town, we improvise and each family makes a dish representative of Norway, and we enjoy our meal at one family’s home.
When we go to the restaurant, you can imagine the cheers we get as we walk in wearing our Mickey Mouse ears! It’s a great way to make sure that you spend quality time with friends, eat at restaurants that you might not ordinarily visit, and it makes the next Disney trip seem that much closer!
Disney Treats Night
Let’s face it, nothing compares to a Dole Whip at Disney! But making our own can lead to lots of family fun and great memories. There are lots of easy-to-make versions of the recipe easily found on the internet, so find one, and get started!
All of the ingredients can be found in your local supermarket and made within 15 minutes. With Mickey Mouse ice creams about to be sold at supermarkets, having Disney treat night with your family or friends has never been easier!
You can even buy a “kitchen sink” ice cream bowl and reminisce about the one you had the Peaches ‘n Cream! Use a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter and make Mickey rice krispy treats dipped in chocolate. The possibilities are delicious!
Trivia Time
How tall is Expedition Everest? What year was Disney born? When was Space Mountain first opened at the Magic Kingdom? Test your Disney knowledge by hosting a Disney trivia night with your Disney friends! The winner of the monthly trivia night gets to keep the “golden” Mickey Mouse trophy until next month!
It’s a great way to increase your knowledge of everything Disney, and enjoy talking about your last Disney trip, or your upcoming trip. You can make your own Disney trivia questions, or buy a boxed set of trivia questions. With so many topics – movies, music, parks, Walt Disney, cartoons, and many more – you’re sure to have different questions every time!
Listen to the Land
After my first trip to Disney as a middle schooler, I was excited about growing my own plants and vegetables without soil! Turns out that hanging a tomato plant from a nail in the ceiling and spraying it with tap water does not help a plant grow.
But, with so many commercially-available options for aquaponics and hydroponics readily obtainable or buildable, you can have a small-scale version of “Living with the Land” right inside your home. A wonderful side benefit is all of the fresh vegetables and spices you can grow.
Some of the companies selling residential vertical gardens were even started by former cast members working at The Land pavilion. What better way to have some of the EPCOT science and magic every day!
The Disney Store
I know you’re reading this and thinking, “The Disney Store isn’t the same!”, but a visit to a nearby Disney store can give you the same feeling as being in one of the many wonderful shops in the parks. It also gives you a chance to stock up on some of your favorite Disney souvenirs, and put the extra Disney magic bounce in your step!
We sometimes combine a Disney Store visit with a trip to a restaurant during our EPCOT Challenge for some extra fun! It’s the perfect place to stock up on Disney shirts for your next park visit.
It’s a Small World
For most Disney fans, the sight of those very words makes you start singing the song and thinking about the Magic Kingdom! With nearly every Disney song ever written (including songs from the parks and even the ride queues) readily available on-line, it’s easy to play all of your favorites whether in the car or at home. Although my non-Disney friends think it a bit unusual, I frequently play the music loop from the Test Track queue in my car or at work!
Brush Up on Disney
With so many different biographies written about Walt Disney, there is no shortage of written material to keep your knowledge of Disney at it’s sharpest! The extent of available Disney-related books runs from the parks to imagineers, and Ub Iwerks to Michael Eisner. One of the more hard-to-find books, Storming the Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, the Raiders and the Battle for Disney (John Taylor) should be on every Disney fan’s reading bucket list!
Collect Disneyana
Collecting Disneyana will ensure that your house is filled with treasured memories of visits to the parks! With such a large number of Disney items having been produced since 1928, it may seem overwhelming to have a Disney collection. Most of us Disney fanatics already have a large number of items, but you can expand your collection by adding items of a particular character, or era, etc.
For example, you might decide to collect Mickey hats, Goofy figurines, or bisque Mickey figures from the 1930’s. Other unique Disney collectibles might include Disney nametags (available through various bid sites, such as eBay), or Disney theme park costumes.
Hidden Mickeys
I don’t know how the imagineers do it, but they somehow manage to place hidden Mickeys even in my home town! As you’re reading this, I’m sure that you already have at least a few that you can think of in your own home. Hidden Mickeys is one of those little things that only Disney fanatics like us find pure joy in finding, whether in the parks or at home.
They can range from the arrangement of plates on a dinner table, to coins on the counter at the grocery store. Challenge your Disney friends to find as many as they can during the day, text pictures of them to each other, and see who found the most!
You can also make your own around your home to keep the magic alive. Creating a hidden Mickey backyard firepit, or a subtle arrangement of rocks in your garden area, can help carry you through the long months between trips!
Disney Cams
Although I can’t always be at the parks, a fun way to break up a day is to watch some of the live cams of action at the parks. I do admit to being a little jealous of those that are at the park when I can’t be there myself, but it reminds me of how much fun I will have the next time I’m there. And the MickeyBlog frequently features live video feeds of attraction openings and live events, so be sure to stay posted!
Disney on Us
I always find that I am happier when I wear Disney clothing! Am I the only one who sometimes wears his Magic Band even when I’m not at Disney?? It often leads to a conversation with someone about their own trip to Disney and their favorite ride.
My Disney friends understand that it’s just one of the ways I can feel closer to Disney when I can’t be there. For those of you not wanting to attract the extra attention of wearing your Magic Band outside of Disney, you can expand your wardrobe by adding Disney ties, polo shirts or sweatpants to your clothing options.
A Mickey Mouse lapel pin can add a flair of Disney to a dressy affair. If you didn’t get clothing items during your last trip to Disney, you can purchase clothing on-line, or at The Disney Store.
My Disney Experience
There’s no doubt that the My Disney Experience app on your smart phone can help you navigate around the parks by managing reservations, checking wait times, and keeping current with park closing times. Even if you are hundreds of miles away from Disney, you can still check the wait times for rides.
You can also see which ones continue to be popular and use it to help you decide upon Fast Passes for your own trip. It also reminds us how much fun we had checking the app, and how excited we will be when we are back at Disney checking the app!
Rock and Roll
This may seem like an odd choice to add to the list of favorites, but listening to Aerosmith always brings my heart and soul to the Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster! When Aerosmith plays on the radio in the car, my family members all look at each other and smile, all of us knowing that we are thinking about the high-speed take-off and fast ride at Hollywood Studios!
On cold and snowy New England days when we are missing Disney, playing Aerosmith lifts our spirits and gets us excited about our next trip no matter how much longer we have to wait!
What special Disney things do you do during your time between trips?
Thanks to Jim Enright for writing this article!
I am a high school special education and STEM teacher in NH, where I live with my wife and three boys ages 14, 13 and 11. Between visits to Walt Disney World, I enjoy reading about all aspects related to Disney, collecting Disneyana, and finding ways to keep the Disney magic around me all the time. My favorite Disney experience is when I participated in the College Program and lived at Disney’s Vista Way!