Need ideas for non-excited husband - trip in October 2014

[jennyincolo]

We are in desperate need of a vacation around here, and I'm really looking forward to our trip at the end of October. And though he is excited about a vacation and a break, my DH is not overly excited about going to disney.

Some history:

We've been to JAX FL - year and a half ago - stayed in a rental, close to the beach, but it was first week of April, cold, and we were overcrowded with another family. It was cold and rainy and chasing a 4 and 6 year old on the beach was not a lot of fun. This was DH's only experience with FL. I went to WDW twice as a kid and loved it - I can't wait to take our kids. I know it can be a wonderful time - DH is not convinced. He's preparing for a let-down.

We now have a 1 year old to add to the mix - so our kids will be 7, 5, and 15 months when we go.

Details about our trip:
We are booked at Wyndham Bonnet creek with a 2 BR deluxe, and my parents will be staying with us for a couple of days (to help with kiddos and see the parks as well). We will be staying a total of 7 days, we have 5 day (non-hopper) park tickets. I am planning a couple of "days off" from the parks during our stay.

What I would love to hear from Disney fans:
1. Has anyone else successfully taken a non-Disney fan and still had a good trip? What strategies did you use?
2. Anything that we should absolutely not miss that will make DH happy with the trip?
3. Anything we should avoid?

I am planning to use the UnOfficial guide for a day planner to avoid lines, we have one ADR at Boma, and I hope to get a night out at the Epcot food & wine festival while my folks are with us.

Any and all advice is appreciated. DisBoarders are the best!!

 

[PuppyPrincess]

What exactly is he not looking forward to? Then I might be able to better tell you what he might like. My DH doesn't like going to Disney. He is not a big ride fan, doesn't like getting up early, would prefer to be relaxing in the room by 7 p.m. so I have to work my schedule to give him down time while trying to appease me since I am used to commando style in the parks. I've found horse and carriage rides and this time we are doing Dine with an Imagineer which are not truly park activities. He is very into that. I know you cannot do the dine option with little ones, but the horse and carriage ride might be something fun. My DH also enjoys eating at the TS restaurants. Again I don't know if this is an option for you, but for us this does include 4 character meals in our upcoming Dec. vacation (we have no children). Disney is not just for kids, although with kids it is so much fun to see it through their eyes. You will enjoy the F&W Fest. HS has a car stunt show your DH may enjoy and the Indiana Jones stunt show.

 

[Jing]

Agree with PuppyPrincess on figuring out what he is not excited about (staying with in-laws would do it for me!). Since this is his first time at Disney, he does not know if he will be a fan or not. My hubs was not until he actually went there, now he is excited for every trip.

 

[pad406]

The first time DW was only going for the kids, never liked any park we had ever done. Now it's THE place she wants to holiday in. So hopefully your DH will be the same

 

[Frozen2014]

For my husband, I could just tell him about the food and treats he'll get

 

[jtowntoflorida]

My husband wasn't excited about our first trip, either. He thought it was a bunch of hype. But after we went and had an amazing time, he totally changed his tune.

So my advice is...don't try to convince him ahead of time. Don't expect him to get excited. Just go with the flow and see what happens. I think you're more likely to set him up to be let down if you talk it up and try to convince him that it's going to be amazing ahead of time.

 

[ChanFO]

My husband is not super excited about our October trip either, while kind of bums me out here and there. The reality for him is, though, it's just too EARLY for him to get hyped up. Me, I've been hyped for six months! He will probably not get on the hype train until we're a week or less out, but I think he will eventually get excited. Might not be until the plane touches down in Orlando, though. Maybe your husband is the same way.

 

[kkmcan]

I would say try to not over hype it for him. Just let it happen. Probably the best time he will have is watching his kids have so much fun and him having fun with the kids. He just doesn't know what to expect so he can't get super excited yet. He'll get there.

 

[mckelvey72]

Does he like cars? And do you have an extra $500 or so dollars? If so surprise him and book an exotic driving experience for him at the Walt Disney World Race track...you can also drive stock cars.

My hubby didn't want to go the first time either but once he was there we had tons of fun. My suggestions...have a plan in place for rides so you don't stand in tons of lines. He was SOOOO frustrated with hearing me talk and plan before the trip. When we bypassed hour long lines and jumped on a ride within 5 minutes...and he heard the CMs tell him to go to Hollywood studios and run for TSM...he realized I did my homework to make the trip more enjoyable for us and he ended up having a great time.

The 2nd trip, I got him the exotic driving experience which he LOVED. He enjoyed the trip but was really excited about the driving part.

My hubby loves seafood so I booked Cape May and Fultons Crab house so he would have dinners he enjoyed as well.

In the end if the kids are having an amazing time so will he. My hubby even got his picture with Tigger at CP

 

[Sgt Mickey]

I just promise my dh an overpriced beer and he is happy

 

[awalker1015]

I just promise my dh an overpriced beer and he is happy

Ha! My DH is not as excited as we are either and the promise of ending days at Epcot with cocktails has done wonders!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I just promise my dh an overpriced beer and he is happy

I got mine excited for our upcoming trip in two weeks that we'll have unlimited adult beverages as part of the Frozen premiere package. And he got excited for our December trip when I told him last night that AK now serves Dole Whips with rum!

 

[ponyboy]

Ok, I'm not a huge "disney fan". I don't think I own a single disney thing and neither does the rest of the family other than some of the kids dvd's and clothes that we've picked up on trips to disney. That said, I'm a huge fan of disney world.

I don't think you have to be a hard core disney lover to enjoy disney world. If he doesn't think he's interested then he probably hasn't paid much attention so he probably doesn't understand what all disney world is about. I always thought it was just like a big six flags. I didn't even realize that there was more than one park until the first year we started planning to go.

Let him know that there's a lot more than just rides. Plus, with kids that young he should really get a kick out of watching them and taking them to do stuff. That's half the fun for me. I would never in a million years ride the people mover 10 times in a row by myself but I love doing it with my youngest son since that is his favorite ride.

You also might entice him with park hoppers so that he can finish every night at Epcot drinking beer and watching stuff blow up and catch on fire. If that doesn't get a man excited then you might be in trouble.....

 

[dvczerfs]

there is a sub form in the family section here on the disboards called "disdads". there are over 700 dads, husbands,grandfathers, lawyers,doctors,plumbers,computer guys, federal agents, you name it that will be more than happy to help you and dh out. post your question on the main thread and im sure you will get some ideas. (oh, better knock first on the club house door.... give them a chance to clean up the beer cans and put the toilet seat down. lol)

 

[Paigesmom2013]

My husband was also not excited when we went last September. He was mostly worried that the kids were too young to enjoy it (DD almost 3 and DD4 months.) Plus, he doesn't really get excited about most things.
Well, our older daughter loved every second of it and that made daddy happy. He started to get into the "magic." (I think he secretly liked the character meals!) And he also enjoyed swimming with the kids at the pool. We stayed at a Value but the pools were great for our liking. So I would suggest a balance of park time and non-park time. I think my hubby also liked Downtown Disney because it was similiar to other outdoor malls we've been to. My only beef with him is that he waited until the week before the trip to chime in on the plan for the week and my type A personality couldn't handle it!

 

[missbrooke06]

And he got excited for our December trip when I told him last night that AK now serves Dole Whips with rum!

What?!?!? Pretty sure I know me and my brother's first stop next trip!

 

[mediadiva]

We are in desperate need of a vacation around here, and I'm really looking forward to our trip at the end of October. And though he is excited about a vacation and a break, my DH is not overly excited about going to disney.

Some history:

We've been to JAX FL - year and a half ago - stayed in a rental, close to the beach, but it was first week of April, cold, and we were overcrowded with another family. It was cold and rainy and chasing a 4 and 6 year old on the beach was not a lot of fun. This was DH's only experience with FL. I went to WDW twice as a kid and loved it - I can't wait to take our kids. I know it can be a wonderful time - DH is not convinced. He's preparing for a let-down.

We now have a 1 year old to add to the mix - so our kids will be 7, 5, and 15 months when we go.

Details about our trip:
We are booked at Wyndham Bonnet creek with a 2 BR deluxe, and my parents will be staying with us for a couple of days (to help with kiddos and see the parks as well). We will be staying a total of 7 days, we have 5 day (non-hopper) park tickets. I am planning a couple of "days off" from the parks during our stay.

What I would love to hear from Disney fans:
1. Has anyone else successfully taken a non-Disney fan and still had a good trip? What strategies did you use?
2. Anything that we should absolutely not miss that will make DH happy with the trip?
3. Anything we should avoid?

I am planning to use the UnOfficial guide for a day planner to avoid lines, we have one ADR at Boma, and I hope to get a night out at the Epcot food & wine festival while my folks are with us.

Any and all advice is appreciated. DisBoarders are the best!!

I think its a question of what motivates your husband. My husband likes doing stuff with family (though he would deny it if you asked) and the last 2 or 3 disney trips have been with my sister and other family members, he loves that part of it so he always went along with it because of my sister and BIL. This trip we are going alone, hah so he is less then excited.

Knowing he may not want to go full tilt like me he is going to bring his laptop and stay at the hotel with our 4yo I am sure at leas once during the trip. He is fine watching her alone and has a nice fancy clean hotel room with cable (we don't have cable at home) so he can work on his computer doing stuff he likes and order her room service and take her to the pool, stuff he likes, while me and the oldest go run around disney world. We plan to do this once during the trip and if its something we need to do more of then we can (if the 4yo is having a hard time for instance.. she can be very hard if she's over tired).

Is doing stuff with the grandparents something that will motivate him? Would he like some down time at the hotel with one of your kids? Does he like food a lot can you find restaurants he would like and make it about the food and motivate him that way.... does he like going to the pool, if he does and your resort has one you can make sure he gets key time doing that...

For my husband, well this trip is end of the day about the kids and something I really want. My husband only cares about going skiing with his dad in february or going out of the country so unless its one of those things he really doesn't say much or care too much and honestly I try not to think about it too much because I can't make him love it regardless and I don't want to spend all my time trying to make him happy and then take away from the care free fun I could be having with my girls. So knowing what I know about him, and knowing what I know about my 4yo we plan to let them both chill a bit.. and I know what food he likes so I've planned some restaurants I knew he might have a chance of liking (but he's picky!). So I def have thought about him but once we get there I am going to "let it go" and just focus on having fun! My drastic measure backup is to use a kids club to watch the kids and make sure he gets some beer

 

[Nztara]

I've learned that my husband is not interested in planning. It took many years for me to accept that he will never get as excited as I do about certain things. Now that I've accepted this, I have my own "party" and invite him to join me for any parts of the adventure he wishes.

He gets anxious about travel, but almost always has a good time once we arrive at our destination. I always try to include a few activities he will enjoy and make sure each place we eat has something he will like to eat.

I also plan trips for less crowded times of year because I know how he dislikes crowds. Between taking steps to make sure there are activities that will be highlights to him, making sure he has reliable food choices and giving him opt in/out options, I find that he usually opts in on the activities I enjoy because I've been considerate of his preferences as well and even enjoys himself.

 

[teambeaman]

My DH is not a fan of WDW or DLR but he does it for me and DS3. He is not a big ride or park person so I minimize the amount of park time and plan activities I know he'll like. We'll also be there the last week in October and I've planned time for him to golf while DS and I go to BB, booked a day at Discovery Cove, and left lots of time open to hit the pools and walk around the resorts. I also booked DS into the Sandcastle club for a few hours so we could go to Shula's to celebrate his birthday.

 

[andysmom]

I am having the same issues with my DH. We leave in 2 days. He has done NOTHING to help plan. This is our first trip as a family, our son is 12. My husband hates all things Disney and thinks that parks (not just Disney parks either) are overpriced, over hyped, and full of people who think they are entitled. He has been to the Disney parks years ago before we were even married. We are doing only 1 day at several parks in Orlando (Universal, Sea Wolrd, Legoland and Disney) and spending 1 day at Kennedy Space Center. He suggested we spend 2 days there :-(