Cruising DCL without kids: Would/have you?

[Buckeye218]

I admit it is a joy to interact with your own children on a Disney cruise.

However, sailing without your kids is no reason to short-change your vacation experience w/ your spouse. Other cruise lines would offer a significantly inferior cruise experience IMO.

While your children are and will always be a huge part of your life, your spouse is your lifemate.

 

[Maza]

DH and I will be taking our next cruise without our children. I can't wait

 

[Bsb1012]

My friend and I both work at high schools and we are off over the summer. I've enjoyed not taking my kids on these cruises, but I do take them to Disneyland...twice in one year! I was hesitant about it, but with the quiet parts of the ship... I'm good just relaxing. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you. If they were there, I'd be doing what was best for them. I do see the little ones on board and miss my own, but when I'm relaxing and just reading a book (which never happens), I thank my lucky stars that I have the ability to leave the little ones at home.

You need it for your sanity sometimes. They are not deprived! Do it for you!

 

[disneypoor]

Ok, this thread is to blame for what I just did. Yep, I booked my husband and I on the Dream WITHOUT our children. We are getting ready to take a cruise for spring break, and we are taking them to Disneyland the beginning of August, so I don't feel bad. They've been on 8 Disney cruises, so I don't think they've been deprived. (Can you tell I'm looking for confirmation that it's okay?)

Anyhow, we will be celebrating our 20 year anniversary in September, and just for the heck of it (and because of this thread), I priced 3 night cruises for that time frame. To my surprise, an inside cabin was just over $900 for the two of us, and a verandah was $1115. We booked the verandah. We got to talking about it and decided that there really isn't anywhere we can go for that price that would include food, entertainment, beautiful beach time, etc., so we went for it! Plus, we're DVC, so I booked us a pre-night stay at Bay Lake Tower. We're going to have a blast, and our kids are totally fine with it.

Thanks for this thread! I'm so excited to try DCL with just my husband!

Susan

 

[Lreip]

Congratulations sounds like a well deserved 2nd honeymoon

 

[disneypoor]

Congratulations sounds like a well deserved 2nd honeymoon

Thank you! I think after 20 years of marriage, a second honeymoon sounds wonderful!

Susan

 

[FJS961]

We did 1 three night Dream cruise without the kids and it was wonderful!!!!

We got to do things we haven't done, like serenity bay, hang in adult areas exclusively, do the later night time entertainment. We never set foot in MDRs. Don't feel bad for the kids, we took them a few months later on a 5 night double dip cruise.

 

[Lisa Lisa]

Ok, this thread is to blame for what I just did. Yep, I booked my husband and I on the Dream WITHOUT our children. We are getting ready to take a cruise for spring break, and we are taking them to Disneyland the beginning of August, so I don't feel bad. They've been on 8 Disney cruises, so I don't think they've been deprived. (Can you tell I'm looking for confirmation that it's okay?)

Anyhow, we will be celebrating our 20 year anniversary in September, and just for the heck of it (and because of this thread), I priced 3 night cruises for that time frame. To my surprise, an inside cabin was just over $900 for the two of us, and a verandah was $1115. We booked the verandah. We got to talking about it and decided that there really isn't anywhere we can go for that price that would include food, entertainment, beautiful beach time, etc., so we went for it! Plus, we're DVC, so I booked us a pre-night stay at Bay Lake Tower. We're going to have a blast, and our kids are totally fine with it.

Thanks for this thread! I'm so excited to try DCL with just my husband!

Susan

Glad I could "help!"

Since DH and I decided to go ahead with the DCL cruise, I have gotten more and more excited thinking about all the awesome things we'll be able to do: Palo, Remy, massages, parasailing together at CC, Serenity Bay, tastings... the list goes on and on. The one thing I'm not looking forward to is telling DD, so I think I'll put it off as long as possible!

I've been reading everyone's replies and I really appreciate all the input!

 

[disneypoor]

Glad I could "help!"

Since DH and I decided to go ahead with the DCL cruise, I have gotten more and more excited thinking about all the awesome things we'll be able to do: Palo, Remy, massages, parasailing together at CC, Serenity Bay, tastings... the list goes on and on. The one thing I'm not looking forward to is telling DD, so I think I'll put it off as long as possible!

I've been reading everyone's replies and I really appreciate all the input!

I'm totally thankful to you. Now, my husband might not be, but he'll warm up to it. We kind of have a lot of trips planned in the next 6 months or so, so he freaks out a little every now and then. I just calmly try to remind him that this anniversary trip was actually a money saver. If we had waited to book something later, I'm sure it would have cost more, right? And, he knows that we HAD to book something. I mean, how often do you have a 20 year anniversary? Thanks again for the help! I'm also getting totally excited thinking about all of the things we'll get to try (like Serenity Bay) without the kids. Bring on September!

Susan

 

[chrisshell64]

We do not have children & we are doing our 7th Disney cruise in 3 weeks. My husband asked me to marry him on the Magic, we were married on the Wonder, celebrated our 10 yr wedding anniversary on the Dream, and are sailing the Fantasy for the second time. We get to act like kids and the couples SPA treatments are wonderful.

 

[lundve]

We left our 3 and 5 year old home with Grandma and did a 4 night cruise in October 2010 - without them. It was great - and we had a lot of fun shirking those parental responsibilities. We love Disney too much even as adults to want to do anything else...

 

[Keyser]

OK, just so you know there are some alternative views, I'll post mine, similar to what someone else posted earlier. I would pick something different rather than DCL without my kids.

My first cruise was, oddly enough, a conference held on board the Wonder (that was the strangest conference ever - met in morning, had most of the afternoon off, then met again for the late dinner and met again until about midnight. I was there without my family, rooming with another conference attendee. The cruise was enjoyable, but I spent the whole time thinking about how I wished my kids could be there, and how much they would be enjoying it, feeling kind of guilty that I was there without them. I've been to lots of conferences in lots of places and haven't really felt this anywhere else. It was enough that we planned a family trip on the DCL shortly after.

As others have said, there is plenty to do and enjoy as adults only. But, if you are like me, you may feel a lot of guilt about getting to do DCL specifically without your kids. On the few occasions my wife and I (who spent celebrated our 5-year anniversary, pre-kids, at WDW) have to travel on our own, we have picked someplace other than Disney for that reason. As the kids get older, it'll be less of an issue, though.

 

[disneypoor]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I just have to tell someone this! We just booked our first ever "without kids" DCL cruise yesterday for our 20th anniversary, and today they offered a $100 OBC for our sailing! I called, and they applied it. So, the cruise that we already thought was pretty cheap just got even better.

Okay, I'm done now. I just don't have anyone else to tell that will get it. Sorry, OP! I'll start my own thread if I get overly excited again!

Susan

 

[SandyandKaren]

We have done several Disney Cruises without our kids and they are wonderful. We stayed in the Adult Only areas most of the time and really enjoyed each other and these beautiful ships. My kids understand and are not Disney deprived. We spend time with and without them at WDW and the DCL.

GO and treat yourself to a special celebration!!

And Happy Anniversary!!

 

[Summerl30]

For a honeymoon absolutely. After a wedding you need much more of a relaxing time. Any other holiday without the kids, no. But we like cruises that are more port intensive without the kids. That's really the only reason.

 

[tweis]

My DH and I are taking a 3 night cruise on the Dream without our kids and are really looking forward to Serenity Bay! On our cruise the past June, we were only able to visit Serenity Bay for maybe 30 minutes because our children did NOT enjoy Scuttle's Cove. We also never even saw the adult pool area or even considered dining in Palo because our kids while they enjoyed the clubs when they were there they did not LOVE the clubs and never asked to go. So we are super excited to try things we missed on our first DCL cruise.

 

[carmie3377]

I haven't read all the posts but what I have read has helped convince hubby and me to try to squeeze in a Disney cruise for just us! Our kids, like many others on here, are not Disney deprived in the slightest. And they are being surprised with a Fantasy cruise in March for their bdays!

We are hoping for a 6 night out of Galveston for April or May. Now hubby just needs to get me his schedule!

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