Dads, need your WDW advice!

[bellebud]

Yachtsman Steakhouse is a must do for us each trip - dh drools just talking about it.

DH did the Richard Petty passenger experience once, which he thought was really cool.

DH and ds (when ds was 6yo) tandem para-sailed at the contemporary and love, love, loved it.

DH loves renting the water mice at various resorts and riding around the lakes w/ ds.

We rented a pontoon boat and really enjoyed driving around bay lake.

DH and ds did a bass fishing excursion at the contemporary once - it was ok.

At the parks, dh enjoys the lights-action stunt show at DHS.

He enjoys thunder mountain railroad at MK.

He enjoys Buzz because he loves getting high scores and 'beating' me.

The main thing dh enjoys is not waiting in lines and avoiding crowds, which is easy to do w/ a little planning.

 

[skyman8963]

another Dis-Dad here, got to do Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear nothing better than shooting. Any MEAT is good, Turkey Legs and Filet Mignon are my choices. If you can get a baby sitter for a night, Epcot, the Bordwalk and ALCOHOL go great together.
Also give him the camera to take pictures of the girls, you will see smiles for sure.

We are all proud dads.

 

[katied]

DH is not a huge Disney fan. He'll come with about once every other year. He does love to see DS have so much fun.

However, the key to a happy family vacation really comes from me ...

1) Do not push DH to get up, get going, etc. and act like we have a rigid schedule that must be followed. DH is not a morning person, so I just have to ease up and know we'll be back, so if we can't squeeze everything in, that's OK. (DH does understand things like breakfast reservations, and will of course get up to get to these on time, but I also know better than to book something before 9 am).

2) Let DH take a break. He really likes to have a chance to lay down, even if just to watch TV. If we can get DS to take his nap, the DH likes more adult break activities ... (I think some of the dads out there have already made some suggestions along these lines).

3) Plan for a sitter for 1 nite, so we can have an adult evening out.

4) Plan that DH will want to stop for his espresso before we do anything in the am, and plan that DH will want to stop for a beer at Epcot or another drink in the other parks while walking around in the evening.

Overall, the key for me is to not make it all Disney, and not all about DS. But, to understand DH's idea of a vacation is a more relaxed pace. This means that if he wants to sleep in, maybe I'll take DS to MK myself for the am, and DH will join us in the pm. Or maybe DS and I will spend some time at the pool first.

 

[Cruz91]

Make sure you let HIM 'drive' at Epcot. I think if there's a park that is more geared towards DD's, it's probably Epcot. If he's a 'geek', he'll love all the stuff at Innoventions. If he's Joe Cool, he'll love grabbing a drink or two around the countries. Let him be in control that day, and you'd be surprised how much he'll get into it.

To that end - it may not be a bad idea to do a little Epcot research and find things you think he'll be into. Then you can drop subtle hints between now and the trip to get him thinking about how cool that would be. For example......

'Hi Honey... you know, I was just reading today that they have a cool new attraction at Epcot's Innoventions! You can go and design your own roller coaster ride, and they download it to a robot simulator, and you can ACTUALLY RIDE the ride that you designed!!! Isn't that crazy?!'

Manipulative? Yes. But we men are simple creatures. Sometimes you not only need to lead us to water, but you have to shove the funnel in our mouths and make us drink it!

 

[cruisinpan55]

He is going to the happiest place on earth! He'll be just fine. No worries and have a great time!

 

[ajh88]

My DH is a Disney nut - he's the one who got me hooked, but one place I didn't see mentioned (which isn't really overly Disney anyway) is ESPN Club at Boardwalk. DH and my step-son LOVED going in there and just looking at all the stuff (and they flipped over the TVs in the bathroom). Plus, the Boardwalk was a lot of fun just to walk around.

The food wasn't great, but it wasn't too shabby either.

 

[momofrrr]

Our kids are much older but here is something we really enjoyed on our last trip - Play the Kim Possible game at EPCOT. We broke into teams and agreed to complete our mission and meet back at a designated spot, first one back wins. You can't really play the same game because they are randomly activated. With your ages you might just want to stick together. It is a lot of fun (even the DS22 commented that it is very cleverly done). Your 8yo will love it. What it did for us was make us see things we have just walked past at EPCOT. Have a great trip!

 

[littlelovebug]

We went to Disney for our honeymoon almost seven years ago, and for our upcoming trip in April, DH has checked with me several times to see if I have Fantasmic on our itinerary! He also hopes that our taller-than-average DD4 will be willing to ride EVERYTHING, especially Test Track! He also liked DeVine at AK, Innoventions Plazas at EPCOT and all of the "sensory shows," like "It's Tough To Be a Bug!"