Captain_Oblivious
DIS Dad #257, Galactic Salad Dodger
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
(Or, How To Take An Adults-Only Trip To Disney World And Totally Get Away With It Without Your Kids Rebelling or Changing The Locks)
Psssst.
Hey, you. Yeah, you. With the over-sized cup of coffee and the bags under your eyes. Looking at the DISboards while the boss thinks you’re preparing cover sheets for TPS reports. Come here. Over here. Turn around. Do the hokey-pokey.
Sorry, I just wanted to see if you’d do it.
Let’s be honest. You don’t want to be at work right now. You want to be at Disney World. That’s why you’re sneaking peeks at the DISboards. But there’s more to it, isn’t there? You have a secret, unspoken wish. You can only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it will vanish.
You want to go to Disney World without the kids.
There, I said it. Look around furtively, see if anybody noticed. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Ok, are you back with me? It’s true, isn’t it? You want to go and ride runaway trains without anyone screaming or having to do child swaps and stuff your face with Dole Whips without sharing and walk around the parks without lugging 3 bags and a stroller and stay out past 8:00. It’s ok to admit it, believe me. You’re not alone.
But, hey…it’s just a dream. Might as well dream about winning the lottery, or finding a Presidential candidate who displays humility, honesty, and an actual plan to help average citizens. Impossible, right?
Well, I’m here to tell you that we did it. My wife and I went to Disney World. By ourselves. We ditched our kids. And we lived to tell the tale. They didn’t change the locks or anything.*
*--Ok, yes, we did have to spend the GDP of Guam in the gift shops in order to buy our way back into their hearts, but our peace offerings must have been acceptable, because they let us back in the house.
Who are we?
Hi, I’m Mark, and this is my wife, Julie. You may remember me from such Trip Reports as “…and then Scotty Happened”, or “Operation Big Thunder”. I’m known on the boards as Captain_Oblivious, which actually does have some meaning. Remind me to tell you the story sometime. Others of you may know me as “Dork”, “Jerk-face”, or That Annoying Guy Who Can’t Come Up With Original Material So He Hides TV/Movie Quotes In His Trip Reports (seriously, I’ve already made 4 references in this intro).
We are travelers first, and Disney geeks second. While we love Disney Parks, we also enjoy variety, and the amazing sights of creation all over the country. Someday we’ll have the budget to explore the rest of the world, but for now our trips have been limited to the United States. We’re trying to instill the love of exploration in our kids as well, and have a goal of getting them to all 50 states before our eldest leaves for college.
We have four kids: Sarah (14), David (11), Scotty (9), and Oops (2). Sorry, I mean Andrew. The older kids have been to 32 states, while Drew is not doing too shabby for a 2-year-old with 18 already visited. Not that he’ll remember them.
We love them to death. We love their company. We love watching them grow. We love sharing experiences with them.
And sometimes, we really, really need a break. Those of you who are parents don’t need me to explain that.
The genesis of the idea of traveling to WDW by ourselves came from…well, to be honest, we’ve daydreamed about it for years. Disney World is our escape. We love to go every once in a while and leave the real world and go someplace where everything just seems to work. We love to enjoy the themes and details and take a vacation inside the human imagination. Of course, Disney isn’t perfect and there are hiccups from time to time, but that’s to be expected with any operation involving human beings. I remain fascinated at how such a large and complicated place can be run, for the most part, so efficiently and smoothly.
So, yes, it’s always been that daydream to go as a couple. But it became more than just a fantasy a couple of years ago. Julie and I were looking down the barrels of milestone birthdays in the same year. I was turning 40, while Julie does not age but likes celebrations and thought she’d play along. And we thought: hey, what if we decided to treat ourselves to a long weekend at Disney to celebrate? We’d never seen Disney at Christmas time, and had wanted to go for years. My birthday is in late November. Perfect! We both readily agreed that it was a great idea and started planning…
…and then Baby Drew happened.
In order to pull off the birthday celebration, we would have had to go to Disney World with a 9-month-old who was still nursing. Research showed that it would sort of defeat the purpose of the trip.
So, we put it off until this year. We decided that if we were going to go, then we needed several things to fall into place:
1. Willing and available babysitters.
2. Extra cash to fund the trip.
3. The approval of our children. Barring that, we at least needed assurances that there would be no phone calls to the Department of Child Services.
Requirement #1 was easy. My parents live a half-hour away and are always happy to have their grandkids around. No problem there.
#2 was not as easy. Julie’s father passed away over the summer. Her mother was already gone, and Julie is the only child. The blessing of being an only child is that there is no one to fight with over the inheritance. The curse is that you have to do all the work of closing the estate yourself. Thankfully, her father’s affairs were in order and there was an inheritance. We tried to take care of savings, college accounts, etc.—all the boring responsible stuff that adults have to do. But we also thought we should have a little bit of fun. So we put a little bit aside to make the trip possible.
As far as requirement #3, well, we’ve only ever given the appearance of being a democracy in this family. It’s a dictatorship. Sometimes benevolent, sometimes tyrannical. In this case, it was tyrannical. We’re going. Sorry, kids. They’ve been to Disney World 3 times in their lives, plus a Disney cruise, a visit to Disneyland and a stay at Aulani. So they haven’t been deprived of Disney magic.
We did try to be understanding in speaking with them. We told them they were allowed to be a little upset. And we know that they don’t understand the pressures and stress of full-time parenting yet. I told them that someday in the (distant) future, they’ll each meet someone who they think is special. And they’ll want to travel to Disney World with this person. Without Mom & Dad in tow (unless we’re footing the bill, of course). And that’s when they’ll understand.
We booked our trip, made our dining and Fastpass+ reservations (this was our first experience with Magic Bands), and bought the plane tickets. A hotel room discount was offered during our stay, so we used that to book a room. Our favorite resorts on property are the Wilderness Lodge and the Animal Kingdom Lodge—just amazing, transporting detail in the themes. The kids howled and raised a fuss, since those are their favorite resorts too. They told us we were absolutely not allowed to stay in either place, because that would just be even more cruelty added on top of cruelty.
Well, like I said, this is a dictatorship.
However, having demonstrated our power with an act of cruelty (i.e. going to Disney World without them), we chose to also demonstrate our power with an act of mercy. We listened to our children and avoided booking a room in either of their favorite resorts. Instead, we twisted our own arms and held our noses and took a room at the Polynesian resort instead. You can imagine the disappointment.
We would be traveling from Thursday, December 10th through Monday, December 14th. We tried to plan this long weekend with one question in mind: what would we do at Disney World if we didn’t have to worry about taking care of the kids? This not only influenced our choice of accommodations (more people means cheaper lodging), but also our restaurant choices and our activities. We tried to choose restaurants that we hadn’t tried yet (for the most part) and that the kids would be less interested in. Julie had always wanted to take a behind-the-scenes tour at Disney World, so we went ahead and booked the Keys To The Kingdom Tour for Saturday morning. We’d also been saving up our reward dollars on our Disney Visa card and finally cashed them in for this trip—this worked so well that we essentially gave ourselves free dining for the trip.
So, that’s the boring backstory. Please join in, read along, spot movie quotes, and give me a hard time in the comments—that’s the most fun part of the TR! And thanks for reading!
Coming Up Next: We’re traveling! Without the kids! This is actually happening!
Chapter 2: I'll Get That Kid To Eat. Where's My Screwdriver And My Plumber's Helper?
Chapter 3: Chicken Parm, You Taste So Good.
Chapter 4: Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain.
Chapter 5: Money's Too Tight For Steak.
Chapter 6: Welcome To The Himalayas! Snow Cone?
Chapter 7: Twenty Five Thousand Imported Italian Twinkle Lights.
Chapter 8: Relax, Let Us Pull Up A Chair, As The Dining Room Proudly Presents…Your Lunch.
Chapter 9: Why Don't You Make Like A Tree...And Get Outta Here.
Bonus NYC trip report, part 1
Bonus NYC trip report, part 2
Bonus NYC trip report, part 3
Psssst.
Hey, you. Yeah, you. With the over-sized cup of coffee and the bags under your eyes. Looking at the DISboards while the boss thinks you’re preparing cover sheets for TPS reports. Come here. Over here. Turn around. Do the hokey-pokey.
Sorry, I just wanted to see if you’d do it.
Let’s be honest. You don’t want to be at work right now. You want to be at Disney World. That’s why you’re sneaking peeks at the DISboards. But there’s more to it, isn’t there? You have a secret, unspoken wish. You can only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it will vanish.
You want to go to Disney World without the kids.
There, I said it. Look around furtively, see if anybody noticed. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Ok, are you back with me? It’s true, isn’t it? You want to go and ride runaway trains without anyone screaming or having to do child swaps and stuff your face with Dole Whips without sharing and walk around the parks without lugging 3 bags and a stroller and stay out past 8:00. It’s ok to admit it, believe me. You’re not alone.
But, hey…it’s just a dream. Might as well dream about winning the lottery, or finding a Presidential candidate who displays humility, honesty, and an actual plan to help average citizens. Impossible, right?
Well, I’m here to tell you that we did it. My wife and I went to Disney World. By ourselves. We ditched our kids. And we lived to tell the tale. They didn’t change the locks or anything.*
*--Ok, yes, we did have to spend the GDP of Guam in the gift shops in order to buy our way back into their hearts, but our peace offerings must have been acceptable, because they let us back in the house.
Who are we?
Hi, I’m Mark, and this is my wife, Julie. You may remember me from such Trip Reports as “…and then Scotty Happened”, or “Operation Big Thunder”. I’m known on the boards as Captain_Oblivious, which actually does have some meaning. Remind me to tell you the story sometime. Others of you may know me as “Dork”, “Jerk-face”, or That Annoying Guy Who Can’t Come Up With Original Material So He Hides TV/Movie Quotes In His Trip Reports (seriously, I’ve already made 4 references in this intro).
We are travelers first, and Disney geeks second. While we love Disney Parks, we also enjoy variety, and the amazing sights of creation all over the country. Someday we’ll have the budget to explore the rest of the world, but for now our trips have been limited to the United States. We’re trying to instill the love of exploration in our kids as well, and have a goal of getting them to all 50 states before our eldest leaves for college.
We have four kids: Sarah (14), David (11), Scotty (9), and Oops (2). Sorry, I mean Andrew. The older kids have been to 32 states, while Drew is not doing too shabby for a 2-year-old with 18 already visited. Not that he’ll remember them.
We love them to death. We love their company. We love watching them grow. We love sharing experiences with them.
And sometimes, we really, really need a break. Those of you who are parents don’t need me to explain that.
The genesis of the idea of traveling to WDW by ourselves came from…well, to be honest, we’ve daydreamed about it for years. Disney World is our escape. We love to go every once in a while and leave the real world and go someplace where everything just seems to work. We love to enjoy the themes and details and take a vacation inside the human imagination. Of course, Disney isn’t perfect and there are hiccups from time to time, but that’s to be expected with any operation involving human beings. I remain fascinated at how such a large and complicated place can be run, for the most part, so efficiently and smoothly.
So, yes, it’s always been that daydream to go as a couple. But it became more than just a fantasy a couple of years ago. Julie and I were looking down the barrels of milestone birthdays in the same year. I was turning 40, while Julie does not age but likes celebrations and thought she’d play along. And we thought: hey, what if we decided to treat ourselves to a long weekend at Disney to celebrate? We’d never seen Disney at Christmas time, and had wanted to go for years. My birthday is in late November. Perfect! We both readily agreed that it was a great idea and started planning…
…and then Baby Drew happened.
In order to pull off the birthday celebration, we would have had to go to Disney World with a 9-month-old who was still nursing. Research showed that it would sort of defeat the purpose of the trip.
So, we put it off until this year. We decided that if we were going to go, then we needed several things to fall into place:
1. Willing and available babysitters.
2. Extra cash to fund the trip.
3. The approval of our children. Barring that, we at least needed assurances that there would be no phone calls to the Department of Child Services.
Requirement #1 was easy. My parents live a half-hour away and are always happy to have their grandkids around. No problem there.
#2 was not as easy. Julie’s father passed away over the summer. Her mother was already gone, and Julie is the only child. The blessing of being an only child is that there is no one to fight with over the inheritance. The curse is that you have to do all the work of closing the estate yourself. Thankfully, her father’s affairs were in order and there was an inheritance. We tried to take care of savings, college accounts, etc.—all the boring responsible stuff that adults have to do. But we also thought we should have a little bit of fun. So we put a little bit aside to make the trip possible.
As far as requirement #3, well, we’ve only ever given the appearance of being a democracy in this family. It’s a dictatorship. Sometimes benevolent, sometimes tyrannical. In this case, it was tyrannical. We’re going. Sorry, kids. They’ve been to Disney World 3 times in their lives, plus a Disney cruise, a visit to Disneyland and a stay at Aulani. So they haven’t been deprived of Disney magic.
We did try to be understanding in speaking with them. We told them they were allowed to be a little upset. And we know that they don’t understand the pressures and stress of full-time parenting yet. I told them that someday in the (distant) future, they’ll each meet someone who they think is special. And they’ll want to travel to Disney World with this person. Without Mom & Dad in tow (unless we’re footing the bill, of course). And that’s when they’ll understand.
We booked our trip, made our dining and Fastpass+ reservations (this was our first experience with Magic Bands), and bought the plane tickets. A hotel room discount was offered during our stay, so we used that to book a room. Our favorite resorts on property are the Wilderness Lodge and the Animal Kingdom Lodge—just amazing, transporting detail in the themes. The kids howled and raised a fuss, since those are their favorite resorts too. They told us we were absolutely not allowed to stay in either place, because that would just be even more cruelty added on top of cruelty.
Well, like I said, this is a dictatorship.
However, having demonstrated our power with an act of cruelty (i.e. going to Disney World without them), we chose to also demonstrate our power with an act of mercy. We listened to our children and avoided booking a room in either of their favorite resorts. Instead, we twisted our own arms and held our noses and took a room at the Polynesian resort instead. You can imagine the disappointment.
We would be traveling from Thursday, December 10th through Monday, December 14th. We tried to plan this long weekend with one question in mind: what would we do at Disney World if we didn’t have to worry about taking care of the kids? This not only influenced our choice of accommodations (more people means cheaper lodging), but also our restaurant choices and our activities. We tried to choose restaurants that we hadn’t tried yet (for the most part) and that the kids would be less interested in. Julie had always wanted to take a behind-the-scenes tour at Disney World, so we went ahead and booked the Keys To The Kingdom Tour for Saturday morning. We’d also been saving up our reward dollars on our Disney Visa card and finally cashed them in for this trip—this worked so well that we essentially gave ourselves free dining for the trip.
So, that’s the boring backstory. Please join in, read along, spot movie quotes, and give me a hard time in the comments—that’s the most fun part of the TR! And thanks for reading!
Coming Up Next: We’re traveling! Without the kids! This is actually happening!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: The Secret To Surviving Air Travel? Fists With Your Toes.Chapter 2: I'll Get That Kid To Eat. Where's My Screwdriver And My Plumber's Helper?
Chapter 3: Chicken Parm, You Taste So Good.
Chapter 4: Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain.
Chapter 5: Money's Too Tight For Steak.
Chapter 6: Welcome To The Himalayas! Snow Cone?
Chapter 7: Twenty Five Thousand Imported Italian Twinkle Lights.
Chapter 8: Relax, Let Us Pull Up A Chair, As The Dining Room Proudly Presents…Your Lunch.
Chapter 9: Why Don't You Make Like A Tree...And Get Outta Here.
Bonus NYC trip report, part 1
Bonus NYC trip report, part 2
Bonus NYC trip report, part 3
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