Any other Disney Dads out there...?

[vince971]

Another male Disney junkie here. Lucky to have a wife and 3 kids as nuts about Disney as I am. At first my friends gave me a hard time about going every year but that never bothered me. Some of my friends and family go to the Jersey shore every summer(which I used to do). We go to Disney every year. Gotta do what makes you happy!!

 

[Spartan]

Yep, we're out here. Disney Dad to (soon to be) 3. My wife enjoys the trips, but I do all the planning. She just couldn't believe that we were eating for free last year when I planned around the free dining deal. I didn't become a nut until we stayed onsite for the first time about 10 years or so ago. That's when I realized what a real vacation was all about. My 5 yo son is also a nut. He believes in all the magic, and out of the blue strikes up converstations with me about his favorite rides, and his own cool ideas for future rides. We just recently adopted a little girl from Korea, and I have another daughter on the way due in August. I can't wait to show my little princesses Disney, but it won't be this year. My wife doesn't want to go this year, and I don't blame her. Life is a little hectic right now, and soon to get even moreso later in the summer. I'm really hoping that she'll be ok with me taking our son on a father/son trip later in the year, as long as things are going good with the girls. I just can't seem to let the idea go, nor do I have the heart to tell my son that we can't go this year (he's gone every year since he's been 1.5).

I also listen to Live365 (secretly as I don't really want to explain to fellow co-workers why I'm listening to audio of rides) while I'm at work, as well as lurk around here for the last 6 or 7 years.

 

[jimmalru80]

48 year old Disney Dad here. And I can't get enough of WDW. I do all the planning, set all the ADR's, craft our schedules, etc. I'm the guy reading the books, listening to the streaming on the computer and posting on the boards. And I like it that way. DW enjoys our vacations very much, but prefers to follow the plans I have formulated. It works out well for us.

 

[°O°Joe]

I am currently searching for the "Boo To You" 2005 Halloween Parade audio from MNSSHP... if anyone knows where I can find it I would really appreciate some insight... I LOVE that parade audio - and I only heard it once (live) and I'm dying to hear it again...

I finally got my hands on the entire audio!! I got it from www.dc-torrents.com if anyone's interested... it's just as good as I remember!!

If anyone wants to PM me I could probably skype it to you, it's pretty large though - 45MB, it has all the parade source audio plus the Happy HalloWishes fireworks (not sure if that's 2005 though)...

I'm so excited!! I just had to share that with someone...

--Joe

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

I'm the one who convinced our family to join the Disney Vacation club and have been planning our June 2006 vacation for about 15 months. with nearly daily updates to the master plan.

Certifiable Disney Dad nutter.

 

[rafiki]

Another Disney dad here. I'm not quite as fanatic as many of you, but I have lurked around here since the beginning. My wife is more of a fan of all things Disney, but I am the trip planner. My daughters are 16 and 14 and we have gone to WDW almost once a year during their lives, as well as DL once. My wife and I made lots of trips before DD's were around, both to DL as a child and WDW later. I hate to think how long ago it was when I first went to DL, must have been just a few years after it opened.

Actually, I don't plan much of anything anymore; we've been there enough that we mostly just wing it. We tend to focus on the rides anyway. We're going to our sixth MNSSHP this year.

We were talking about it the other day and DD16 said she she liked going there because when she goes into the parks "It just makes me feel happy." That's the Disney magic.

 

[Karibeth19]

My 35 yr old DH is a HUGE Disney nut; in fact, all three of us are. I'm in charge of planning the vacations, DH is in charge of planning the road trips and hotel reservations along the way (He's my very own Clark Griswold!). We have vacation pictures all over our house, and listen to all the WDW music and ride audio I have on my iPod over the FM modulator anytime we're in the car.

DH is such a Disney freak, he came up with his ultimate retirement plan during one of our trips. While waiting for a boat at the WS entrance to Epcot, we met a retired couple in their 60's who both work in the Test Track gift shop. They talked about how much they loved their jobs and loved WDW. In fact, it was their day off, and they had spent it at Epcot!!!! Hearing how happy they were gave DH the idea for his grand plan. According to him, when we retire, we are going to buy a house in Orlando and and both go to work at WDW from Jan. through Aug. We will also buy a small home in Norman, OK and/or an RV, so we can spend September through December going to every single Oklahoma football game (our other passion!). Sounds great to me!!!!!!

 

[disneyfan67]

I think this is one of the coolest threads I've seen here in a long time. I often wondered how many Disney Dads there were out there and I was kind of wondering if other dads felt the same way. I'll be 39 on 5/2 and I love going to WDW and I do all the planning and leg work. This August will be my family's 4th trip since 2002 and we love it! I tell people that when my kids get to be the age of an adult and don't want to go anymore, their loss because I plan on going to WDW every year.


I can't describe how it makes me feel when I pull up to the Polynesian at the begining of the vacation and walk through the sliding doors into the GCH. A wave of comfort and happiness comes over my me and my wife and we feel like we come home. Yes, it's corny but that's how we feel and it's nice to know that others enjoy WDW as much as we do. After checking in we usually hop on the monorail and head to MK and then another set of pleasant emotions kick in. I rarely talk to other non Disney people about why we go to WDW because they just don't understand and then the usual comments come out. To me there's no other place to vist at this moment in my family's life. I'm not taking my kids to Vegas and I don't gamble anyway, so what's the point? WDW has everything inside their gates that I want in a vacation and we feel safe and secure. Where else can you go and feel that?


Thanks to the OP who started this thread and to the other Disney Dads who posted as well. I really enjoyed this thread and it was fun reading the other responses and seeing people get a kick out of WDW like I do.

 

[photobob]

Hello my name is Bob and I'm a Disneyaholic. My wife had to convince me to go in 1997 and I have been the planner for each of the following six trips. I was so impressed with WDW my first trip that i haven't wanted to vacation elsewhere since.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Hi! I am thrilled to know there are other guys out there like me. We are Disney fans and we are legion! anyhoo...

I am 41; DW is 36; we have two kids (9 and 6). We have been to WDW 6 times now (all since 2000). I never went as a kid, but unexpectedly fell in love with WDW when we made our first trip. DW and I both are nuts for WDW, but I am the one who does the planning. DW doesn't even know what the DIS is She enjoys benefitting from my WDW knowledge, although she knows quite a bit herself. I am always the one lobbying to make return trips sooner rather than later. (She talked me back into my senses after I recently suggested a free-dining trip in August)

I love our WDW vacations so much because when we are there nothing else comes between us as a family. We just focus on having fun and appreciating each other. I am one of those Dads who scurries off to buy a surprise Mickey bar or funnel cake at any given moment -and love doing it!

 

[madswede]

Im a 44 yo Dad who loves Disney but in construction you take a ribbing. Its all good fun (they are jealous i guess )

 

[dacky041208]

Not quite a disney dad, but in a month I'll be a disney husband I guess, our honeymoon is 2 weeks at DW, and planning that is what introduced me to the dis. So far, I am thrilled that I got all this information.

 

[RllngRckBrw]

My obsession is mostly about WDW. My wife had to talk me into my first trip there and now I think she regrets that she did. She does enjoy it, but is not at all fanatical about it as I am. Most people dont understand it in my life. My co-workers think I am crazy, my wife just shakes her head and says I am going to overkill the next trip for her with all of my planning, reading, and listening everything WDW. And even my parnets (who by the way are joining our next trip, so hopefully they will be able to understand) dont get it at all. But to each his own, we all have our activities/places that get us through, WDW just happens to be mine.

 

[mmorizio]

57 year-old father of two here. My wife and I spent our honeymoon at WDW in 1973, we've been hooked ever since. Our 22 year-old daughter is a big-time WDW fan, did the college program, is working in NYC now, and is going back with friends for her first vacation since joining her company. My son (29) is more of a vacation in Europe kind of guy.

 

[ryley26]

My name is Rich and I'm the family Disney Fanatic. At the school I work at the staff always ask me for answer. The teachers call me Mr WDW I love learning new thing and surf the boards constantly. Oh yeah father of 2 DD 13 and DS 11 and a wonderful wife who loves Disney and put up with my obsession.

 

[madthemouse]

I'm divorced, and have been taking my daughter to WDW since she was 4 years old.

I remember people asking why I was taking her to WDW at such a young age. They said that she would not remember anything about the trip. So much for that advise.

Anyway, here we our making preparations for our 14th year of vacationing at WDW. I remember asking my daughter a number of years ago about not going to WDW. Her response to me was, "Dad it's now part of our life". Just as birthdays, Christmas and certain family get togethers are, you just look forward to doing it.

Of all the vacations we have gone on, our vacations to WDW are for me, very relaxing. There is no other place that I can go, where I can check reality at the door.

You could say, that I like WDW.

 

[DisneyJimbo]

Of all the vacations we have gone on, our vacations to WDW are for me, very relaxing. There is no other place that I can go, where I can check reality at the door.

That pretty much sums up why I'm a Dad who's obsessed with WDW. I've never felt as relaxed and happy as I do during a Disney vacation.

My wife and DD7 love WDW, but not as much as me.

 

[Kitzer]

Another Disney Dad nut signing in here... proudly!!! Age 44, father of three. I do most of the planning and am like a little kid months before the trip takes place. Just about every weekend I watch the Disney Planning DVD, or home movies, or anything I've taped from the Travel Channel pertaining to Disney up until the time the trip comes. I book the resort and I usually book the character breakfasts. My wife loves Disney too, so planning a trip is fun and something that brings us together.

As far as other guys giving me crap for wearing Disney apparel or having Disney alerts on my PC or whatever else, "forget about it." If they don't get it, the heck with them. DW is a truly wonderful place and experience for the family. Between the parks, water parks, resorts, shopping, etc etc,. there is just nothing comparable.

 

[Fastcars]

I love going to the parks as much as anybody. I had the opportunity to change jobs and I choose to be close the the Magic. I have an AP and go 2 to 3 times a month. Sometimes I just go by myself because the rest of the family jsut doesnt get the Magic like I do. The guys at work give me grief about going all the time. I reply to them its no different than going fishing for you.

With all the trivia and novelties of the parks it makes me forget about the troubles of reality and live in a fantasy for just awhile. Its great stress relief

 

[Disney Davo]

One more Disney Dad here. Been going longer than I can remember. Grew up in the real OC and lived in Florida for the past 8 years. Just moved back to So. Cal permantely. Like the original poster wife is not that crazy about Disney. I have two teenage daughters and we know both WDW and DL intimately. Can't imagine a world with out Disney!