First Adult Trip - 20th Anniversary - Help?

dekraut

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 8, 2014
Hello everyone,

For the first time ever, my wife are considering taking a whirlwind trip to WDW in November to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

It is such a new experience, thinking about Disney without our kids. I am trying to even begin to understand all of the differences we will notice on our trip with regards to pace, meals, later hours, etc. We have never taken any trips away from our kids in the last 12 years, since our first child was born.

What types of things are different when you go with out kids?

What activities do you enjoy that you could never enjoy as much with kids?

Does Disney do anything special for you if you are celebrating a special date?

Any special things I should look to do since it will be an anniversary trip? (My wife wants to try Ohana, so I think that is already on the list).

We are not fancy people, and are planning to stay at our favorite resort, POFQ.

Thanks for any thoughts/tips/advice.
 
My wife and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary last week at WDW. We have gone, sans children and grandchildren every year now since 2013. I will answer your question the same way I answered a question from a young couple with 2 small boys "What do people your age do here?" Everything, but without the following noises:"I'm tired, he touched me, quit pushing, I want that, I'm hungry, why can't we wait for 2 hours to go on this ride, I don't want to go on Small World, I wanna go swimming, etc." I love my children and grandchildren but we found back in 2013 that we were able to truly savor our trips to WDW much more with just the two of us. Here is my advice, go and enjoy the parks and yourself. It doesn't matter where you eat or where you stay or what rides you go on. Believe me when I tell you that your experiances will be like no other trip to WDW that you have ever been on.
Oh by the way, last weeks trip was the best yet and we are already looking forward to the next trip starting on February 25, 2019.
 
That sounds so great... We are so excited just to spend some time together. We have had one night without our kids in twelve years, so we are having trouble imagining how much fun it will be to be a couple again, even if only for a few days. Plus we will have the 14 hours drive from WV to spend together. What you describe sounds glorious, and you are right - the details matter less without the kids. We are just so eager to slow down and enjoy WDW at a slower pace. Thanks.
 
We just booked our 1st trip without kids for the last week in November w/ free dining. It feels weird to try to plan without kids, different priorities. I'm thinking, not so ride focus but experience focus. Really examine World Showcase at EPCOT, see the details of Disney and eat well. I'm looking for ideas too.
 


I am going with my wife in 16 days and we too are celebrating our 20th anniversary. I have the ddp and my plan is enjoying our stay at the resort and parks including the water parks and not being pressured to entertain children during the time there. meaning we go to the park leave go back to the resort for a dip or a nap or both ....and eat at the finest restaurants the ddp has to offer. There will be no pressure to get the children to every attraction and tire ourselves out making it the best we can to make it memorable for them. It is me and my honey...enjoying some quality time together away from everyone seeing we are so busy. Extremely Excited !!!
 
We went several times before kids, including our honeymoon.

We liked the rides pretty much the same, just at pretty much the same pace as usual.

I miss Pleasure Island! We enjoyed it twice, for a couple hours each time (we're not big partiers).

I'd just go and enjoy your vacation the way you like!

We were going to go for our 25th next month, but changed to Mexico (adult only all inclusive that we've been to twice this winter). We had California Grill brunch at the top booked (which of course we cancelled). That was going to be pretty much our whole day that day. It looks so nice. Of course, we likely would do something that afternoon.
 
Our 20th anniversary is in November, and we're taking a trip sans kids to celebrate in September! It's been really different, planning our park days and ADRs without the kids in mind. We usually have pretty scheduled days so we can maintain some semblance of sanity with our 10 & 7 year-olds. It really has been hard to figure out what to do, where to splurge, and how to do Disney without kids! Here's what we've decided/done so far:

I've only made 2 ADRs (eek!)
We're going to hop over to Universal for a day (upgraded our tickets to Seasonal passes on our family trip in January)
No dining plan, because we aren't really sure where/how we want to eat.
We definitely want to spend more time in the WS, and we'll likely hop every day.
We're definitely getting Memory Maker - if we don't, we won't take photos, and I want to have photos of this trip.
We're doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour, which we'd never do with the kids in tow. They're too young and it'd be too expensive. Check out their other tours - I almost had DH talked into the night one at AK, but he's not an animal lover.
We MAY go to the Blue Man Group show over at Universal.
 


what do you or your wife really like to do? kept in mind WDW is BIG - it has a bunch of stuff to do NOt IN THE PARKS.

that say if there is a ride or show in the parks that you want to do - try to get the fastpasses for it. I love going to WDW solo. It is a wonderful way to get for fun time in your year.

now for couples - there was a guide - since I can't find it - some of my stuff might be out of date - when in Nov - if early you can enjoy the wine/food festavial at Epcot mostly in World showcase.

there are several tours you can do -
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/tours.htm

here is some of the recreation
http://www.wdwinfo.com/recreation/index.htm


food/wine
http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-world/epcot/food-wine-festival.htm

find something you both like to do - and kept in mind sometimes doing things separately can work too
 
Hello everyone,

For the first time ever, my wife are considering taking a whirlwind trip to WDW in November to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

It is such a new experience, thinking about Disney without our kids. I am trying to even begin to understand all of the differences we will notice on our trip with regards to pace, meals, later hours, etc. We have never taken any trips away from our kids in the last 12 years, since our first child was born.

What types of things are different when you go with out kids?

What activities do you enjoy that you could never enjoy as much with kids?

Does Disney do anything special for you if you are celebrating a special date?

Any special things I should look to do since it will be an anniversary trip? (My wife wants to try Ohana, so I think that is already on the list).

We are not fancy people, and are planning to stay at our favorite resort, POFQ.

Thanks for any thoughts/tips/advice.

My husband and I have a trip scheduled without kids for our anniversary coming up in August. We never go anywhere without our kids (17,10, and 3). We usually have a 13 hour drive from Kentucky. But this year we are flying direct from Nashville on a flight less than 2 hours!! We can afford that when we don't have a herd to bring with us.

We visit WDW yearly and with the age gaps of our children we often are split up and running everywhere. The one trip we did have without our children we rode the Mad Tea Party. Yes, the tea cups. We ride this every year with our kids but we can't go super fast because we've always had one too young for the spinning speed. But that one time we rode this without kids, we had a blast. Essentially, IT WAS MY FAVORITE THING EVER AT WDW!! I'm certain I looked like a fool but I didn't care, and on August 24, 25, and 26, I'll do it again!!! So my advice is to TRY SOMETHING AGAIN WITHOUT THE KIDS. The experience may be completely different...a good different.

Oh, and the special thing we are doing for our 13th wedding anniversary trip.....eating as many snacks as we want without having to share with a toddler! We aren't fancy folks either so I think a dole whip, croissant doughnut, bag of popcorn, and a Mickey ice cream will suit me just fine. popcorn::
 
Oh, and the special thing we are doing for our 13th wedding anniversary trip.....eating as many snacks as we want without having to share with a toddler! We aren't fancy folks either so I think a dole whip, croissant doughnut, bag of popcorn, and a Mickey ice cream will suit me just fine. popcorn::

You guys sound like our kind of people! ;) We're planning pretty similar things for our anniversary trip in September - eating whatever we want and riding whatever we want without sharing, taking someone to the bathroom (again), or listening to whining about tired feet. We'll fly from Nashville as well. We made the same flight in January with our kids. It's a quick, easy flight.

We take our kids pretty much everywhere with us as well. This will be our first non-working trip with no kids in a really long time, and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope you guys enjoy your trip in August!
 
First, congratulations on your upcoming 20th anniversary!

DW and I have been making adult only visits to WDW since the mid 90's. It is a wonderful adult only destination.

I will add my vote to considering a tour. We have taken a couple of tours at the AK and really enjoyed them.

You mention returning to your favorite resort, POFQ. If you will permit, I will suggest considering one of the Epcot resorts. I appreciate the price difference but being within walking distance of Epcot is quite special for adults. DW and I are partial to the Boardwalk but all of the resorts are nice. DW and I would enjoy evening strolls around the World Showcase. Being able to walk to so many activities is quite special.
Wishing you a pixiedust: visit!
 
You guys sound like our kind of people! ;) We're planning pretty similar things for our anniversary trip in September - eating whatever we want and riding whatever we want without sharing, taking someone to the bathroom (again), or listening to whining about tired feet. We'll fly from Nashville as well. We made the same flight in January with our kids. It's a quick, easy flight.

We take our kids pretty much everywhere with us as well. This will be our first non-working trip with no kids in a really long time, and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope you guys enjoy your trip in August!
Enjoy yours as well!!
 
If you do stick with POFQ, be sure to check out the Jason and Billy show in the lounge area, Saturday through Tuesday evenings. Their show is almost entirely audience requests and the crowd tends to be adults only (although the show is family friendly).
 
DH and I don't have kids so I can't speak to the difference between going with kids and without (although we did go on an extended family trip with kids last year). But I just want to repeat the suggestion that others have made of going on a tour. DH and I have done a lot of tours and all the onstage details and backstage areas that we have seen have made us love the parks even more. If you love Epcot, I would highly recommend UnDISCOVERed Future World - we took it and loved it. Last fall, my dad and stepmom took the Destinations Discovered tour at Epcot and they loved it. We also liked the Behind the Seeds Tour (Epcot). If you really want to immerse yourself in Disney, I would suggest the Backstage Magic tour which is seven hours, takes you behind the scenes at the parks and other really cool backstage areas (on our tour we saw the area where they refurb ride vehicles and the nursery where among other things they grown the topiary for the parks). If you love animals, I would highly recommend the Wild Africa Trek at AK (we did it once by ourselves and took our niece on our extended family trip last year). If you are looking for something really off the beaten path, we loved the Wilderness Back Trail Adventure (Segway tour through FW) and Archery lessons (also at FW - we spent the day there doing the Segway in the morning and archery in the afternoon, eating lunch in between).
 
Congrats on your anniversary!

DH & I are also headed to WDW for our anniversary in September. He has never been and was pretty reluctant at first. I’ve never been without my children so I am super excited!!!
 
My wife and I are doing the same thing. Our first trip to WDW at the end of Sept/start of October. It's our 20th Anniversary and her birthday! We're excited about the trip. There's so much going on but sites like this really help out. No kids and 5 days to explore (plus 1 day or so at Universal Studios so we can see Harry Potter).
 
First of all.....CONGRATS ON YOUR ANNIVERSARY!!!!

For my wife and I, every trip is an adult trip but with that being said, I will give you some of the things we like to do...

Restaurants ---- We are foodies so we really like signature romantic restaurants like Artist Point, Monsieur Paul, and Le Cellier. In 2015, we went down for her 40th birthday and our 12th anniversary and I got us a tablet at the Chefs Table at Victoria & Albert's. She wanted to eat there but I didn't tell that I got the Chefs Table and I wanted to surprise her with that and was even able to get the staff into the surprise. As adults, we will head to Raglan Roads after the parks close and stay there for a couple of hours talking and drinking (unlike you see most couple sitting at a table each on their own cell phone texting).

Activities ---- We love learning more about the Walt Disney World Resort so for us that means tours. If you are a gardener, then you must to Behind the Seeds Tour. We have also done the 7-hour Backstage Magic Tour and UnDISCOVERed Future World Tour and totally loved them both (but the the Future World Tour first). If you like horses, there is the horseback riding around Fort Wilderness which is nice. For our next anniversary / birthday, I am thinking about surprising my wife with a private fireworks cruise on the Seven Seas Lagoon. The spa is nice. Prior to our dinner at V&A, we spent the morning and afternoon at the Spa at the GF. It is a great way to relax.
 
Congratulations on your anniversary!

Myself and my husband don't have any kids so we always go just the two of us. We've done the Keys to the Kingdom tour (which is over 16s only) and it was great, so informative! Last year on our honeymoon we wore 'Happily Ever After' badges and we got several free desserts with our meals! (including a cupcake at breakfast!)

My husband proposed at the California Grill and it's become our tradition to eat there on our last night and stay to watch the fireworks. Last year we went into Magic Kingdom for a bit, then went to the Contemporary/Poly/Grand Floridian on the monorail for the afternoon and went to the bar for a drink in each place to just chill out and enjoy the atmosphere.
 
Congrats on the anniversary! We are also celebrating our 20th at WDW in November, sans kiddos. We did the same for our 15th and it was a wonderful week. My fav. differences are eating later in signature restaurants to really enjoy the experience, not stressing about hitting every ride or spending too much time in the park, and enjoying more adult beverages. We did the chef's table at V&A for our 15th and it was amazing. Not doing that this time but still looking forward to Cali Grill, Cirticos, Jiko, etc.
 

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