Hey, y’all! So glad you are here today. I feel like reading this title definitely makes me look like a terrible momma, but I am not giving in to mom guilt today (that’s a whole different subject for another day). Before we had kids and we had a trip planned to WDW, people would ask me, “why are you going there before you have kids?” or give me their opinion on how they wouldn’t go without kids. We went in April of 2014 together and it was one of our favorite vacations we have ever taken! That is the beauty of Disney World, there truly is something for everyone…young and old alike. I want to tell you about how we do our “parent trips” as my 4 year old named it this summer (PS…she definitely did not know our location of our said parent trip…)
Let’s start with planning an adult only trip. I actually booked our parent trip while we were still on our last family vacation in November of 2018. I saved some money by booking a bounce back offer that Disney was offering at that time. Saving money is always a plus! I was planning to be finished with my BSN at the beginning of the year and we wanted to celebrate my accomplishment with a trip to my happy place. We also really wanted to remember why it was our happy place…as I mentioned in a previous post, that was not our easiest trip with our kids and we wanted to be able to do all the things we missed out on. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love taking my kids to Disney World, but it is a completely different experience with an adult only trip! I booked our trip for the summer of 2019 because my husband is a teacher so it just made sense for us to go when he finished school for the year. We knew it would be hot, but we also knew we wouldn’t be carrying kids or pushing a stroller so we were just going to go with it!
The next thing was to decide where we were going to stay. We chose Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter and I am so glad we did (one of my favorite resorts on property). We wanted to stay somewhere quiet, but still close to the action. All the parks were a bus ride away and we could even catch a boat ride to Disney Springs! We also got to eat mickey shaped beignets for breakfast and that is definitely a plus in my book!
Our dining reservations were made at the 180 day mark and I wanted to try new and different restaurants that we had not experienced before. We ate at O’hana for dinner, 1900 Park Fare for dinner, and Story Book Dining at Artist Point for dinner (Wilderness Lodge). Two of those three restaurants are character meals and it was totally fine that we didn’t have kids with us! We were really impressed with the character interaction at 1900 Park Fare (the stepsisters are hilarious!) and we want to make it a tradition and already have reservations for our next family trip in April.
Next were fast pass selections at the 60 day mark. This was so different for me than what I am used to for family trips. I won’t lie, it felt a little weird to not have a fast pass for dumbo or it’s a small world, but it was a nice change. I won’t bore you with all our fast pass selections, but I got most of all the popular attractions (at that time) including Seven Dwarf Mine Train, Splash Mountain, Test Track, and Flight of Passage. It was nice to be able to ride together on rides with height requirements instead of one person riding and the other watching the kids and then swapping.
When it was actually time to go, we drove all night. For those of you who don’t know, Disney World is about 600 miles away so it was literally an all nighter. We arrived first thing in the morning and literally went straight to a park. That would not have been super doable with little ones in tow. We also would not have driven all night with kids (some people prefer to travel like that, but it just doesn’t work for our kids). We went hard that first day and ended up crashing at like 7:00 that evening..LOL can’t even stay up late when our kids aren’t around.
The next three days seemed to go by so quick, but we really made the most of them. have you ever heard the saying, “park hop till you drop?”… Since it was the middle of summer, we did take some breaks from the heat/crowds. We didn’t always go back to the resort for our break, but we did spend one afternoon swimming in the pool at the resort. Anything in the AC was considered a break on this trip. We didn’t have to be as strict with our plans, but just enjoy the moment. We watched shows and fireworks that we sometimes don’t get to enjoy with our kids who aren’t night owls and can’t seem to sit still and wait sometimes. We rope dropped most mornings, getting to the park before it opened to get to popular rides before it got too crowded.
We talked (mostly about our kids and how cute they are) and laughed and it was just good to be together at a place we loved before we were “mommy and daddy”. I think it’s easy to lose your identity when you become a parent. You constantly put someone’s else’s needs above your own and you forget to take care of yourself sometimes. This trip was a perfect reminder that we can still have fun and be the best mommy and daddy to our babies. Our kids were well looked after by family and we were so thankful for that! I didn’t really feel guilty for going without them since we take our kids to Disney World pretty regularly. I should add that my dear husband did feel guilty so we ended up taking them for a weekend like two weeks before our trip ( and it was one of the best trips we have had with them so far). We definitely want to take more parent trips in the future, but also go with our sweet Mickey lovin’ babies.
Well I hope you have enjoyed today…for me, this post makes me want to plan another “parent trip” soon…maybe MiMi will be up for babysitting again for a week 😉 I also hope you can see from this post that adults can definitely have fun at Disney World sans kids. If that is you and you would like to plan a trip, call me! I would love to help you plan an adult only vacation at the Most Magical Place on Earth.
Wish Upon A Star With Kelly 