What a great way to get around! My birthday was Sunday, April 25. My family and I will usually go to a theme park on my birthday, but my husband’s ticket was blocked out, so that wasn’t a possibility. We decided to still celebrate at Walt Disney World and enjoy a day outside of the theme parks. Honestly, I’m glad that we did it this way, because we had a fantastic time.
We started by going to Beaches & Cream Soda Shop for lunch. This is a hard to get reservation, and I was thrilled to get the exact time that I wanted a few days out! We arrived a little bit early and walked around Crescent Lake.
After a great meal with a wonderful server, we decided to go resort hopping. My husband hadn’t yet ridden the Disney Skyliner, and it was time to change that! We caught the Skyliner by Epcot, and first rode over to Disney’s Riviera Resort. We explored some there. If you haven’t yet seen Disney’s Riviera Resort take the Skyliner over. The walkway between the Skyliner and the resort is beautiful!
Next we caught the Skyliner again, and went to the Central Hub at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. This is where all three lines come together. Since I wanted my husband to ride all three lines we went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and back next. There wasn’t really anything there that we wanted to do, since we couldn’t get into the park.
After returning to Caribbean Beach we took the Art of Animation/Pop Century Line. We spent some time at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. The theming there is so much fun, and we recently watched all three Cars movies so that area had a whole new meaning for us. The Skyliner line to the two resorts is my favorite, I love going over the water. It’s a beautiful ride.
We headed back to Caribbean Beach, then took the line back to Epcot. From there we explored Crescent Lake a bit more, and we also ran into a friend who we hadn’t seen since before the closure. That made my day even more special.
Even though it had reached capacity earlier in the day, we decided to give Disney Springs a try. It was open to cars again, so we parked. We went to the PhotoPass Studio at Disney Springs because we wanted to try the Disney Cruise Line backgrounds. They came out terrible, but it was still fun, and we’ll have something to laugh about on future birthdays.
We wandered around Disney Springs for a while, took a few pictures, and bought cupcakes at Erin McKenna’s bakery. There was a beautiful sunset, so we took a few more pictures. We then returned home.
You might wonder why I’m telling you all of this. The point is really quite simple. You can have a fantastic day at Walt Disney World without hitting any rides or seeing characters. This was a hard birthday for me because there’s been a lot going on in my personal life. Disney was able to still provide plenty of magic, and it was a special day. There is much more to Walt Disney World than just the theme parks. Your day outside of the theme parks could end up being the best day of your Walt Disney World vacation.