Here are some fun activities you can do in your home if you're missing your favorite Disney park!
1. Listen to DPark Radio
DPark Radio is a radio station that plays background music from all the theme parks as well as ride through music for all your favorite attractions. You can get the DPark app on your phone, the website on your computer, and even through Alexa and Google Home.
2. Draw characters from memory
Trying to draw characters without looking up what they look like is a fun game to play with your family. Don't worry if they don't look good, that's the fun part!
3. Scrapbook
When I got back from my college program I started making a scrapbook of all the things I did during my program. Finishing it became a fun quarantine activity.
4. Watch Disney+
I doubt this activity is new to anyone since quarantine, but it's still my favorite thing to do when I miss Disney. I would recommend The Imagineering Story, a documentary of the entire history of imagineers. Another new favorite of mine is Prop Culture which follows a man trying to hunt down old Disney movie props.
5. Zoom call your Disney crew
Now more than ever it is important to keep contact with your friends and family. We are all feeling pretty alone, so to help us feel more connected try to organize a time when your Disney crew can hop on a call! Regular zoom calls have been keeping me connected, which helps a lot these days. If you have a smaller group, House Party is a fun app where you can play games while you video chat.
6. Learn to draw characters from Disney animators
On YouTube there is a collection of videos where Disney animators teach you how to draw a variety of characters. Much like the animation studio in the parks, all you need is a paper and a pencil (no erasers). The animators will walk you through step by step and you can follow along at home.
7. Do a Disney puzzle
I've completed at least six puzzles during quarantine and they're very addictive. You can work on them while watching Disney plus, or while listening to DPark Radio.
8. Make Disney brackets/ranks
This is one of my favorite things to do because they are fun to make on your own, and also fun to debate other people about. My family and I made a Walt Disney World dine-in restaurant bracket and it was a great group activity. We used poster board and markers and came up with our favorite restaurants. Another activity that I've been working on is tier systems. I made a blog post about my WDW attractions tiered list.
9. Plan your next trip
Since we are not sure when the parks will open again, or what the opening will be like, it's hard to plan future vacations. One of my trips has already been cancelled. Keeping that in mind, it's important to stay positive and think about all the happy times ahead when things are back to normal. Here's to hoping I can still run the 10k in November!
10. Read Disney books
Lastly, this is the perfect time to get a lot of reading done. If the weather is nice where you are, I recommend reading outside. I've been reading a few books from the "Twisted Tale" series which is a Disney story retelling. More great reads for someone who is missing the parks is "A Historical Tour of Walt Disney World", The "Kingdom Keepers" series, and "One Day at Disney"
