Activities

A Walt Disney World stay is not only queues and rides. The resort sells a second layer of experiences, booked separately and paid for separately: guided tours that go backstage, animal encounters, four golf courses, official races, low-capacity evenings, and a long list of recreation offered right at the hotels.

Some require a valid park ticket for the same day; others can be booked without ever setting foot in a park. Several carry a minimum age, height or weight. Here is what actually exists, what each one asks of you, and what to know before booking.

Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

The backstage guided tours

These are the experiences most asked for by adults coming back a third or fourth time. You are not riding anything: you are learning how the park works.

Disney’s Keys to the Kingdom Tour runs five hours at Magic Kingdom, lunch included, and goes down into the service corridors beneath the park. One detail to know before dreaming about it as a family: it is restricted to guests 16 and older, and photo identification is required on arrival. This is not a tour for children.

At EPCOT, Behind the Seeds goes into the greenhouses of The Land pavilion, the ones you glimpse from the Living with the Land attraction. An evening variant, Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses, runs at certain times of year. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Caring for Giants brings you within a few dozen metres of the elephant herd, with the keepers answering questions.

The catalogue shifts from one year to the next. Some tours disappear, others return, a few run only in season. We check what is genuinely offered on your dates before putting it in front of you.

Wild Africa Trek, the demanding one

Three hours in the savanna at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, with rope bridges and a safety harness. It is the one activity on property with real physical requirements: 8 years and older, a minimum height of 122 centimetres, and a weight between 20 and 136 kilograms.

One clarification that heads off a common disappointment: the trek includes African-inspired snacks served along the way, not a gourmet meal. Plenty of travellers arrive expecting otherwise.

Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

The low-capacity evenings

Disney After Hours events are sold separately and reopen the park after regular closing to a limited number of guests. Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios all host them. The queues melt away, and that is precisely what you are buying.

Not to be confused with the Halloween and Christmas parties at Magic Kingdom, also separately ticketed, but selling a parade, a show and treats rather than short queues. Each one is detailed on the Disney events page.

The makeover at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

The salon turns children aged three to twelve into a princess or a knight: hair, makeup and costume. The Magic Kingdom location is open. The one at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is closed, a fact that still circulates as current on plenty of websites.

Appointments go months ahead in peak season.

Running through the parks with runDisney

Four weekends a year, the park walkways open to runners before sunrise: Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in January, Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend between February and March, runDisney Springtime Surprise Weekend in April, and Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend in October. Virtual events sit alongside them.

You run early, very early. Registration opens far in advance, and the most popular races fill within hours.

The fireworks cruises

Disney charters private boats, with a skipper, to watch the fireworks from the water. They leave from a resort marina and no park ticket is required. It is one of the few experiences on property that can be booked without park admission, and one of the only ones that works on an arrival or departure evening.

What the hotels offer without leaving the resort

The Disney hotels carry their own layer of recreation, often free and almost absent from the guidebooks. Evening campfires, including Chip ’n Dale’s Campfire Sing-A-Long at Disney’s Fort Wilderness. Canoes, bike rentals, guided fishing, arcades, poolside cabanas, and an archery experience at Fort Wilderness.

For a family taking a rest day between two parks, this is where the day happens, and it often costs nothing.

Capture Your Moment photo sessions

A private session with a Disney photographer in a park setting, booked ahead and delivered digitally. It is offered at EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. A valid park ticket is required for the day of the session.

What to know before booking

Three things, and they account for most of the disappointments. First: these activities sit on top of your park ticket, they do not replace it. A guided tour inside a park requires valid admission for the same day — the cruises and the hotel recreation being the exceptions.

Second: capacity is limited and booking windows open far in advance, often earlier for Disney hotel guests. These are booked before departure, not on arrival.

Third: the catalogue changes. Something offered last year may not be running on your dates, and a temporary closure is not always announced. That is exactly what we verify before putting anything in front of you. The rest of the groundwork is covered on the page on planning your Disney trip.

Talk it through with a Magic Maker

Our Magic Makers are advisors trained and specialized on the Disney destinations. They check what is genuinely available on your dates, book the day the window opens, and tell you plainly when an experience does not suit your children’s ages. The quote is free, and so is the advice.

Write to createursdemagie@voyagesaquaterra.com or call 450-628-6241, toll-free at 1-866-628-6241.