The Ducks of Disney

There’s so much to see and do at Walt Disney World that it can be tempting to spend your entire visit running from place to place and attraction to attraction. After all, you’ve got Advance Dining Reservations at Be Our Guest at noon, then you have those fast passes for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and of course there’s the Festival of Fantasy Parade and character meet and greets, and who has time to stop and examine the windows on Main Street or have a casual chat with that friendly Cast Member inside the Hall of Presidents?

I get it. For a lot of Guests, this trip may be their only chance to visit Walt Disney World. The ability to make repeat visits is a decided luxury, and if you’re only going to be there once, you want to experience as much of that magical world as you can. Still, it’s worth slowing down. Not only will it allow you to catch your breath and keep from getting overwhelmed, but there are so many tiny or hidden pleasures at the parks that you may miss.

Take the ducks for example. No, not Donald, Daisy or Uncle Scrooge. I mean the actual ducks. You can find them in all of the parks, but my favorite place to watch them is ambling down Main Street USA. However, some Guests have met them in their hotel pool. You might also catch them listening to the piano player at Casey’s Corner, or swimming in the Seven Seas Lagoon. On one particularly memorable occasion, a duck cut in front of me while waiting to meet a character near the Magic Kingdom entrance. Luckily, a thoughtful cast member informed him he’d need to wait in line just like the rest of us.

The Ducks of Disney are so popular that they’ve now got their own Instagram page and Disney produced a small documentary about them on their official website. They are a distinctly charming part of that ineffable thing known as Disney magic. The next time you find yourself in the parks, take a few seconds to stop and watch the ducks. You won’t regret it.