Tips for Having a Lazy Day at Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World is one of those places you visit where you could plan every single instant of the trip down to the most minute detail, rushing around from thing to thing and utterly exhausting yourself before you head back home. Or…you could not do that. Instead, you could opt to go a more chill route—even a lazy one. Disney World doesn’t haveto be a stressful, high-octane experience from start to finish. Why not take at least one day to relax and simply enjoy the calmer pleasures of WDW? Here are 7 tips for doing precisely that, no matter which park you’re intending to visit.

 

7. Stick to Slow-Moving Rides

On a lazy day like this, why would you want the thrills and screams that come with riding roller coasters or Tower of Terror? No, the goal here is to stick with slower-moving attractions. A few of our favorites include Magic Kingdom’ s Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover and Carousel of Progress, EPCOT’s Living With The Land and Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros, and Animal Kingdom’s Na’vi River Journey.

6. Don’t Book FastPasses Back to Back

If any FastPasses you decide to book are too close to one another, you might find yourself rushing from attraction to attraction, which is the opposite of what we want on a lazy day. If you do book a few FastPasses, spread them out and enjoy being able to meander around without a care.

5. Have a Picnic in Front of Cinderella Castle

The fenced-in grassy areas in front of Cinderella Castle are the perfect place to stop, have a picnic, and do some people-watching or merely soak in the ambiance. We recommend doing this when the weather is something other than hot or rainy.

 

4. Sit Down for Live Shows and Other Attractions

You know that feeling you get at home when you can just sit in front of the TV and let the entertainment sort of wash over you for a while? There are several ways to recreate that experience at Disney World, mostly in the form of sitting in theaters to watch live performances or screen presentations. A few favorites include Mickey’s PhilharMagic in Magic Kingdom, Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival in EPCOT, Muppet*Vision 3D in Hollywood Studios, and Festival of the Lion King in Animal Kingdom.

3. …or Don’t Even Get in Line for Anything!

Who says you have to ride anything to have a good time? You could spend several hours in any given park just walking around, enjoying the ambiance, doing a little shopping, watching a few parades, or catching some street performances—none of which requires waiting in line. Our favorite places for this? Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom and the Epcot World Showcase. You can even try your hand at “resort-hopping”, i.e. visiting the monorail or skyliner resorts. This way you’ll have a lot fewer crowds to deal with, but you still get to experience the Disney magic.

2. Book Table-Service Dining Reservations

For a good lazy day, don’t opt for dining options where you have to serve yourself at a buffet table or wait in line at a counter. Pamper yourself with reservations at one or two nice table-service establishments. Allow the waitstaff to help make your day the laziest and most relaxed it can be.

1. Stay at Your Resort and Swim

If you’re staying at an on-site resort, you don’t even need to necessarily leave from there on your lazy day. You can have a perfectly fine time hanging around and having a pool day while it’s sunny, grabbing a meal or two from a resort restaurant, and maybe catching an outdoor film showing in the evening. Ahhhh, we’re getting relaxed just thinking about it.

These are just seven of the ways you can have a lazy day in Disney World. There are plenty of others, but hey, we won’t weigh your mind down with all the possible options. That would defeat the purpose!