Things to do beyond the four parks
Walt Disney World is four theme parks, but it's also two water parks, a shopping and dining district, four mini-golf courses, a marina network, a working stable and a nightly campfire. Beyond the rides there's a whole layer of things to do that suit young children well, like a pony ride or an evening film by the pool. Some of it is a paid treat you book ahead and some of it costs nothing. Much of it fills a relaxed afternoon.
On this page
- The short version
- Quick facts
- Water parks
- Disney Springs
- Mini-golf
- Fantasia Gardens
- Winter Summerland
- Which to pick
- Out on the water
- Boat hire
- Fishing
- Fireworks cruise
- The surf pool
- The ranch
- Pony rides
- Archery
- Campfires and films
- Bikes
- Golf
- The family end
- Championship courses
- Themed meals
- Afternoon tea
- Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
- Character meals
- Tours
- Tours for children
- Older children and adults
- The spa and downtime
- At Christmas
- Questions
Far more than four theme parks
Water parks, mini-golf, boats, a ranch and quiet resort evenings, all away from the four theme parks.
The four theme parks are what most families come for, but they're only part of the property. Alongside them Walt Disney World runs two water parks, the free Disney Springs district, four mini-golf courses, boat and bike hire, guided fishing, a working horse ranch, championship golf and a nightly campfire. A lot of UK families plan the whole trip around park days and never find out the rest is there, so a pony ride, a boat ride with Cinderella Castle across the water or an outdoor film is easy to miss even though it's short, open-air and away from the park queues.
Nearly all of it is a paid add-on rather than part of your park ticket, and much of it sits off the park-bus network, so it takes a little planning to reach as well as to pay for.
Mini-golf
The easiest paid activity to do with a toddler, and it works for the whole family across four courses.
On the water
Self-drive pontoon boats, guided fishing and a private fireworks cruise, all on Disney's own lakes.
The ranch
Pony rides from age 3, wagon and carriage rides at any age, archery from age 7 at Fort Wilderness.
Free evenings
The Chip 'n' Dale campfire and outdoor films cost nothing, open to any Disney guest.
For the grown-ups
Championship golf, a spa and backstage tours, easiest when another adult can mind the children.
Book ahead
Fishing, fireworks cruises, tours and the boutique are the ones that sell out early.
Quick facts for UK families
The water parks and Disney Springs
Three of the largest things beyond the parks, each with its own full guide.
Walt Disney World has two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Typhoon Lagoon has one of the largest outdoor wave pools in North America, and both parks close in turn for a seasonal refurbishment, so one is usually open at any time of year. They each need their own ticket, added to a park ticket or bought on the day, and there's far more to say about the slides, the toddler areas and the shade than fits here, so both have their own guides.
The two water parksEach water park has its own guide
Our Blizzard Beach guide and our Typhoon Lagoon guide cover each one for a family with young children: the toddler areas, the height limits, getting there and when to go.
No ticket neededDisney Springs
Disney Springs is the open-air district of shops, restaurants and entertainment at the edge of the property, and you can wander it without a park ticket. It's an easy evening or a rainy afternoon out, reachable by free Disney bus from every resort. It's a big enough place to warrant its own guide, so our Disney Springs guide covers where to eat with children, what's free to do and how to get there.
Mini-golf on four courses
One of the most accessible paid activities on the property for families with young children.
Walt Disney World runs two mini-golf sites, each with two 18-hole courses, so there are four courses in all and none is tied to a park ticket. There's no height or age limit, the child price starts at age 3 and under-3s play free, so it's easy to fit in with a toddler who can't manage a full park day. A round takes roughly an hour to an hour and a half, and it works better from about age 4, since a very young toddler may not last all 18 holes. If you have the UK 14-day Disney Magic Ticket, it includes one round of mini-golf for each ticketed day as long as you play before 4pm, so many UK families get most of their mini-golf without paying for it separately. A Disney vacation package booked direct comes with four mini-golf rounds too, so it's worth checking what your ticket or package already includes before you pay on the day.
Both sites open from 10am to 10pm, which makes mini-golf easy to slot around a nap or into an evening. There's no need to book, though a walk-up at a busy time can mean a 30 to 45 minute wait at Fantasia Gardens, so an early or late slot tends to move faster. If your family wants to play both courses at a site, or go round the same one twice in a day, keeping your receipt gets the second round at half price, which is worth knowing before you decide how long to stay.
Near EPCOTFantasia Gardens and Fairways
Fantasia Gardens sits by the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin near EPCOT, and it's the one you can walk to from the EPCOT-area hotels (BoardWalk, Yacht Club, Beach Club and the Swan and Dolphin), which makes it the realistic no-car choice for a lot of UK families. The complex has two very different courses. The Gardens course is the family one, themed on the 1940 film Fantasia, with interactive obstacles: marching broomsticks, dancing hippos, a xylophone that plays as your ball rolls over it and a couple of holes that spray water. The Fairways course next to it is built around real golf skill, with hills, bunkers and water hazards, so it suits older children of about 10 and up, teenagers and adults rather than toddlers. The main thing to know is that Fantasia Gardens has very little shade, so play at opening around 10am or in the evening rather than in the middle of a Florida afternoon.
Near Blizzard BeachWinter Summerland
Winter Summerland is next to Blizzard Beach in the Animal Kingdom resort area, and Disney buses run there when the water park is open. The theme is a Florida Christmas: Santa built an off-season retreat for his elves, and they split into a snowy Winter course and a tropical Summer course. Both are obstacle courses rather than skill tests, with a snowman who squirts water, a Santa buried in a sand mound and a shared finale inside a log campground where you putt between two model trains. It has more shade than Fantasia Gardens, and the Christmas and elf theming is recognisable to any young child whether or not they know the Disney films.
Which to pickWinter Summerland suits younger children slightly better
It has more shade, neither of its courses is a challenge layout so there's nothing to steer a young child away from, and the Christmas theming needs no Disney knowledge. Fantasia Gardens has the edge on location if you're in the EPCOT resort area and can walk to it, or if you want the harder Fairways course for older children alongside the family one. Either way, mini-golf works best as part of a relaxed half-day, taken early or late to dodge the midday heat.
Out on the water
Disney runs self-drive boats, guided fishing and a private fireworks cruise off its lake marinas.
Several resorts sit on lakes and waterways, and Disney runs a set of water activities off their marinas. Most of them are open to any Disney guest, not just those staying at the resort with the marina.
Self-drive boatsBoat hire on the lakes
The family boat is the pontoon, a wide, stable, canopied boat that seats up to ten, driven by an adult of 18 or over with a licence. It's charged as a flat fee for each half hour whatever the size of your group, so it spreads well across a family, and life jackets are provided in infant and toddler sizes. Children of any age come along as passengers, and the loop around Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom-area marinas gives you Cinderella Castle from the water, a view you can't get on foot. The other self-drive option is the Sea Raycer, a little two-person motorboat you have to be 12 and about 5 feet (152 cm) tall to drive, so it's really a treat for an older child taking the wheel rather than one for little ones. Between the two sits the Boston Whaler Montauk, a smaller open-hull motorboat that seats up to six and is driven by an adult of 18 or over, priced by the half hour much like a pontoon, so a mid-size family group has a middle option if the ten-seat pontoon is more boat than they need. It's a little less stable than a pontoon, so a family with a baby or toddler may prefer the pontoon's steadiness. Fort Wilderness also hires out kayaks and canoes on its calm waterway, where a young child can ride as a passenger with a paddling adult. All of these are walk-up rather than booked ahead.
From a dock or a boatFishing, guided or from a dock
Disney's lakes are stocked for catch-and-release bass fishing and no Florida licence is needed. There are two ways to do it. The guided excursion puts you on a boat with a Disney guide who brings all the gear, runs two or four hours from a resort marina and is charged per boat rather than per head, so it works out better for a group. Trips leave at set times through the day, and the earliest, at 7am from a couple of the marinas, takes you onto EPCOT's World Showcase Lagoon before the park opens, a quiet way to be on the water first thing. Guides are good with children, and the family boat is the wider pontoon barge that takes up to five; under-18s go with an adult and under-12s wear a life jacket. UK guests book it on the Disney UK line rather than a US number. It suits a family with a real interest in fishing more than a fidgety toddler, though. For young children the simpler option is dockside fishing, cane-pole at Port Orleans Riverside and rod-and-reel from the dock at Fort Wilderness, which needs no booking, costs little and can be picked up and dropped in minutes.
Fireworks from the lakeWatching the fireworks from the water
A fireworks cruise is a private pontoon boat with a Disney captain who takes your group to a viewing spot for the nighttime fireworks, with light snacks and soft drinks aboard. There are two: the Magic Kingdom cruise watches Happily Ever After from Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon, and the EPCOT cruise watches Luminous: The Symphony of Us from Crescent Lake, so you can pick the show you'd rather see from the water. It's booked for up to ten guests and charged per boat, so a full boat brings the cost per head right down and a small group pays a lot each. It's crowd-free and seated, so a tired toddler often sleeps through it. These book up to 60 days ahead. The EPCOT cruise is the cheaper of the two.
Worth knowingThe surf pool, and what's closed
If you've read older guides that mention parasailing, water-skiing or wakeboarding, those have gone. The watersports centre at the Contemporary closed in 2018 and hasn't been replaced. The one active surf offering is at the Typhoon Lagoon wave pool, run before the park opens and after it closes, but it uses a fixed wave of about five and a half feet and is aimed at experienced riders now rather than beginners, so in practice it suits a confident teenager or a surfing adult rather than a young child. You don't need a water-park ticket to take part.
The ranch at Fort Wilderness
A working stable, pony and wagon rides and archery, on the same site as Cinderella's carriage horses.
Tri-Circle-D Ranch at Fort Wilderness is a working stable of more than 90 horses and ponies, including the ones that pull the Main Street trolley and Cinderella's carriage. You can visit the stables between 10am and 5pm and meet the horses without paying or needing a park ticket, and it's open to any Disney guest. From the Magic Kingdom-area resorts you reach Fort Wilderness by boat and then an internal bus. Children who are too big for the pony rides can still come and meet the ponies, which for a horse-mad child is a treat in itself.
Rides at the ranchPony, wagon and carriage rides
Pony rides take children from age 3, under 80 lbs (36 kg) and no taller than 48 inches (122 cm), so they suit toddlers and pre-schoolers. The child holds on while an adult leads the pony, it's a low fixed price and it's walk-up only, so arrive early because the queue builds. Wagon rides pulled by draft horses run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, take any age who can climb the steps aboard and last about 25 minutes, though the evening timing can clash with an early bedtime. There's also a year-round private carriage ride, seating up to four adults or two adults and three small children and charged per carriage, which you can book ahead. Older children of 9 and up who are confident can join a guided horseback trail ride at a walking pace through the woods.
For older childrenArchery
The Fort Wilderness archery experience takes children from age 7, which makes it one of the activities an older child and a parent can do together. It's booked ahead rather than walked up to.
Campfires, films and bikes
The Chip 'n' Dale campfire and outdoor films cost nothing and are open to every Disney guest.
A good deal of what there is to do sits around the resorts in the evening. The Chip 'n' Dale Campfire Sing-A-Long at Fort Wilderness has a cowboy leading songs, Chip and Dale turning up for a meet-and-greet in the early evening, fire pits for toasting marshmallows and an outdoor film to finish. It costs nothing and any Disney guest can go, and the early character part suits toddlers well, with an open-air feel much like a UK holiday-park evening. The marshmallow kits aren't included, but you can buy them at the Meadow Trading Post or the Chuck Wagon on site, and the film runs late enough to be a stretch for very young children on early bedtimes. If you're not staying at Fort Wilderness, allow around 45 minutes to an hour each way to reach it.
Most resorts also put on Movies Under the Stars, free outdoor screenings of Disney and Pixar films on select nights at your own resort, so you don't have to travel for those. From the Magic Kingdom-area resort docks you can also watch the Electrical Water Pageant, a string of illuminated floats that has crossed the lake every night since 1971, for nothing and with no booking.
On two wheelsBikes and surrey bikes
Several resorts hire out bikes by the half hour, with children's bikes, child seats and training wheels at most of them, and helmets provided free, as Florida law requires them for under-16s. A few resorts also have surrey bikes, the multi-seat pedal carriages with a canopy. An adult rents and steers, a child tall enough can help pedal and smaller ones ride along as passengers. The BoardWalk promenade around Crescent Lake and the wooded trail at Fort Wilderness make the best circuits, and it fills an hour without leaving your resort.
Golf, for a first round or a serious one
A free putting green, a 9-hole family walking course and two championship courses.
Walt Disney World has a proper golf programme. There's a free putting green a small child can use, and there are championship courses professionals have played. Guests at Disney-owned hotels get a free taxi to the courses, arranged through Bell Services the evening before, since there's no bus to them. If you're flying without clubs, TaylorMade sets rent at the courses in men's, women's and junior sizes with no need to book them in advance, and shoes rent too, so a family can turn up and play. Each player needs their own bag and set, though, since sharing a bag isn't allowed.
To start withThe family end
Oak Trail is the family course, a 9-hole walking layout with junior tees and no forced water carries that takes about 90 minutes and suits a child of roughly 7 or 8 upward learning the game. Babies, toddlers and any child who needs supervision can't come onto the course, and no prams or pushchairs are allowed on the course, though a non-playing adult can walk alongside an older child who's playing. If you have a keen young golfer, under-18s can play Oak Trail at a heavily reduced round rate through the Youth on Course partnership, which needs a junior membership set up beforehand, so a child's round can cost a fraction of the adult green fee. Alongside it is FootGolf, where you kick a football round 9 holes towards oversized cups, which needs no golf skill and works for mixed ages from about 6, though it runs afternoons only on certain days. The easiest of all is the Greatest Green Ever Played, a free 18-hole putting course by the clubhouse with no age limit and no booking, open to anyone with a putter, and you can borrow one from the golf shop.
For a keen golferThe championship courses
For a serious round there are the Magnolia and Palm courses, both dating from 1971 and both with PGA Tour history, the Magnolia known for a greenside bunker shaped like Mickey on its 6th hole. A third course, Lake Buena Vista, is closed for a major renovation, so golfers are pointed to Magnolia and Palm in the meantime. The official golf page has its current status. The realistic family pattern is one parent playing a morning round of four hours or so on the free taxi while the other's with the children, or a shorter twilight nine when bedtimes allow. There are junior clinics and camps for children aged 7 to 17, and adults can book instruction as well, from a short private lesson to a half or full-day golf school and on-course playing sessions, by appointment. Green fees change with the season and time of day, so check the current rate rather than a quoted figure.
Themed meals and dressing up
Afternoon tea, a dress-up makeover and character meals, each a treat to book ahead.
At Walt Disney World a meal or a makeover can be a planned outing rather than a pause between rides, and a couple of these suit young children particularly well.
A sit-down treatAfternoon tea at the Grand Floridian
The Grand Floridian runs a Victorian afternoon tea in its Garden View Lounge, with Twinings teas, scones and small bites on a tiered stand and a light Alice in Wonderland feel. It now runs as a single sit-down tea that welcomes children, with a separate, cheaper children's menu, rather than the dedicated princess and character tea parties that used to run here and have since closed. You book it ahead, no park ticket is needed and the Grand Floridian is a monorail hop from the Magic Kingdom-area resorts, which makes it an easy treat for an adult and a child while others do something else.
Princesses and knightsBibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is the makeover salon inside Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom, where children are turned into princesses or knights by a Fairy Godmother-in-Training, with the Fairy Godmother herself appearing. It's for children aged 3 to 12, and the packages run from a knight's outfit at the simpler end up to a full princess dress at the top, so there's an option for a mixed group. It suits ages 4 to 7 best, since the bright lights and strangers doing their hair can overwhelm a just-turned-3-year-old. A park ticket is required, and the slots open 60 days before arrival and go within minutes. The current salon is at the Magic Kingdom only.
With the charactersMeals with the characters
Character meals, where Disney characters come round the tables while you eat, are one of the most popular ways to spend a mealtime, and for a young child they can beat queuing to meet a character in a park. They're a whole subject of their own across the resort's restaurants, and the popular ones book up early, so it's worth reserving as soon as your booking window opens.
Tours, and time for the grown-ups
Guided tours for various ages, and the adults-only options that open up when another adult can mind the children.
Disney runs a set of guided tours and back-of-house experiences, and which ones a child can join comes down to age.
For younger childrenTours the children can join
Two suit families with young children. Behind the Seeds at EPCOT is an hour walking through the greenhouses and fish farm behind the Living with the Land ride, open from age 3 though it holds attention better from about 5, and it needs an EPCOT ticket. Caring for Giants at Animal Kingdom takes children from age 4 to see the elephant herd up close with a keeper, it's one of the cheaper tours and it needs an Animal Kingdom ticket. Both last about an hour and don't ask much of a pre-schooler.
For older children and adultsTours for older children and adults
Others have real age floors. The Wild Africa Trek at Animal Kingdom, with rope bridges over the hippos and a savanna drive, starts at age 8 and a height of 48 inches. A night safari at Animal Kingdom Lodge, with night-vision devices, also starts at 8 but runs late. Keys to the Kingdom, the five-hour backstage walk beneath the Magic Kingdom through its service tunnels, is strictly age 16 and up. At EPCOT there's supplied-air snorkelling in the aquarium from age 8, or scuba diving in it for certified divers from age 10. If money's no object, a private VIP guide can run a whole park day for your family with no age limit at all.
A break for the grown-upsThe spa, and time to yourselves
The property's only full-service spa is at the Grand Floridian, with massages, facials and nail treatments, open to any guest with a booking. Treatments are for adults, with teens allowed from 14 alongside a parent and children able to have a simple nail treatment from 5. The spa, the championship golf and the age-16 backstage tour are the clearest windows for the grown-ups, and they open up most easily on a trip with grandparents or a second adult who can take the children to a pool or a park for a morning. All three take limited bookings that open before you fly.
At Christmas
A few extra things run over Christmas.
Over the Christmas period Fort Wilderness runs horse-drawn sleigh rides through the resort grounds, a 25-minute ride seating up to four adults or two adults and three small children, charged per sleigh and welcoming any age. For a UK family visiting in December it's an unusual thing for children to do and good value for a group, and it sits naturally alongside the campfire and Fort Wilderness's general Christmas feel. The exact dates are set each year and the ride only runs on certain December days, so check the official page for the season you're visiting.
Behind the Seeds at EPCOT also runs a Christmas version through its decorated greenhouses in the same period. As with everything seasonal, the calendar shifts year to year, so treat these as a December extra to confirm nearer the time, not a fixed part of the plan.
Questions parents ask
A few things families check before planning the days beyond the parks, plus the official links and when this was last checked.
Which of these do we need to book before we fly?
More than UK families expect. The guided fishing trips, the fireworks cruises, archery, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and the behind-the-scenes tours all open for booking well before you fly, some of them months ahead, and the popular slots go fast, often before you've settled your park days. Mini-golf, the pontoon boats, the pony rides, dockside fishing and the free putting course are walk-up, so they're the fallback when nothing's pre-booked.
What can we do without hiring a car?
A fair amount. Fantasia Gardens mini-golf is a walk from the EPCOT-area hotels, the Grand Floridian spa and afternoon tea sit on the Magic Kingdom monorail, and Fort Wilderness (the ranch, the campfire, fishing) is reachable by boat and bus rather than car. Outdoor films (Movies Under the Stars) run at your own resort, so the only trip is out to Fort Wilderness for the campfire. Disney hotel guests also get a free taxi to the golf courses, arranged through Bell Services. The things that really want a car are Winter Summerland when its neighbouring water park is closed, and the golf if you're not in a qualifying Disney hotel.
Our toddler can't manage a full day of rides. What else is there?
Plenty that asks nothing of a toddler's stamina, and most of it needs no booking, so you can fit it around a nap and decide on the morning. A pontoon trip, dockside fishing, meeting the ponies at the Fort Wilderness stables and the early-evening campfire all move at a walking pace, outdoors and with no queue.
Do we need a Disney hotel or park tickets for all of this?
Mostly no. The water parks, the four mini-golf courses and Disney Springs need no theme-park ticket, and anyone can pay in on the day. The boats, guided fishing, the spa, afternoon tea and the Fort Wilderness ranch are open to any Disney guest with a booking, not only guests of the resort they run from. The exceptions are the in-park treats: Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique needs a Magic Kingdom ticket, and the family tours need the ticket for their own park. Staying in a Disney hotel opens some booking windows a little earlier but isn't needed to do the things themselves.
Useful links
- Walt Disney World recreation: the official list of activities, with current hours and booking.
- Walt Disney World golf: the four courses, mini-golf, FootGolf and the free putting green, with live rates.
- Tri-Circle-D Ranch: pony, wagon, carriage and trail rides at Fort Wilderness.
- Blizzard Beach: our guide to the water park.
- Typhoon Lagoon: our guide to the other water park.
- Disney Springs: our guide to the shops, dining and entertainment district.
- Tickets and passes: how UK tickets work, including the mini-golf inclusion.
- Walt Disney World with little ones: our guide to the resort, its parks and hotels.
Last updated 10 July 2026.
