Has anyone not taken their kids?

[dyna]

I haven't been child free yet gonna do that in a few weeks.

What I have done is when my older ones graduated high school stopped taking them on ANY FAMILY VACATIONS. WHY? Because I got tired of their complaining about where we was going or when we was going or even better lettin mom and dad buy the ticket gettin in the car gettin to the hotel then deciding this isn't what they wanted to do and refusing to go into the park. This happened more than once and unfortunately it was not a disney visit cause then I'd at least had the satisfaction of using any unused ticket.

NO I've never ever felt guilty about leaving them home.

 

[Snoopygirl]

My DH & I just went this past May for our 10 yr. anniv. w/o our kids (1 & 5). We had such a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. It was nice to do whatever we wanted and not have to worry about the kids being tired or needing a nap or any of that. It was a blast!! We are planning a family trip to WDW in Sept. 2006! It will be our kids first time! We are excited.

 

[DeborahA]

My DH and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary at WDW-BWI last Nov. We had been to WDW many times with our 3 boys. When we got there alot of the memories we had with our boys started coming back to us. We made a pact that we would talk about those memories only at breakfast each day. We had a wonderful--but different time.
We are planning to celebrate our 26th this year and we can hardly wait. Deb

 

[SqueakyMouse]

For every trip we take with the kids, dh and I take one without them. When we took the kids to WDW in May, those 10 days were devoted to the rides and meals that the kids enjoy. So what if we didn't get to ride Soarin' that trip? We knew that dh and I would be in WDW without the kids in July so we could see it then. It really reduces the frustration we tend to feel on "family" vacation when we used to try to do what everyone wanted to do but ended up making no one happy.

Dh and I enjoyed a long weekend at the F&WF last Oct. over our anniversary. I doubt that our children would have enjoyed anything we did that weekend; but we sure had a great time. My advice: go and enjoy!! If you're feeling guilty during the trip, take back some good gifts.

 

[Lorelai]

nhmomx2 -

Where did you find Jiminy Cricket?? Love the picture! My DD loves him, but we've never been able to find him in the parks!

 

[lisamomof3]

I'll also tell you to go ahead and go without the kids. Last June, our family went for a big vacation, my mom and dad also came with us. A lot of fun and we had a great time. Then we got back and my husband found out that he was going to a conference in Orlando in September!! So considering it would be short Fri-Mon, I am a teacher so I could only take two personal days, we figured we'd go by ourselves. It was great! We did feel guilty about not bringing the girls, but we saw and did adult things that we didn't get to do in June. Went to Pleasure Island, etc. Also, because of low crowds we were amazed at how much more we could see in such a short time! We could go at our pace. Now I don't feel so guilty because we are going back next June. Oh I wish we could go again during low crowds, but being a teacher, and not wanting to pull our kids out of school we have to go during our time. Sorry I rambled, Just go!

 

[disneyfreakjackie]

We went without our girls in May 2004, we had a family vacation in WDW 12/03 so I didn't think we were TOO mean!!

Well my mom and dad watched them and when DH pulled out of the driveway with them I started CRYING LIKE CRAZY!!! I felt SO guilty! (The girls were 15, 13, 7 & 9 at the time). I called DH on the cell phone and said, "We are NEVER doing this again!!" WAAAAAAAA!!! I miss them already!!! WAAAAAAA! DH: "Do you want me to turn the car around and bring them home?? We'll lose all that money." I said, "No, but we're NEVER leaving them again!" WAAAAAA!

We did miss them TERRIBLY, but it wasn't as bad as I thought . . . we are going to WDW without them again in 38 days!! (We were all just there in May, 2005!)

I'm sure I'll cry and feel guilty again.

 

[pearljim]

You bet - no kids, no grandkids at least one time per year (usually in Jan when the holiday rush is over) for at least the past 5 years. We love taking the kids to WDW but we love just the two of us, very relaxing!!

 

[nhmomx2]

Lorelai - he was outside of Innovations when we were there in April. I've looked for him for years. He is very rarely spotted. It was Earth Day Weekend so we thought we might have a shot. We walked out of Space Ship Earth and my DH said, "There's Jiminy Cricket" - my response "That's not funny!” I swear I went from a responsible 38-year-old mother of 2 to a 4-year old in as many seconds!! My kids were mortified. My 7yo DD wrote in her scrapbook that I embarrassed her (of course her spelling wasn't correct, but there was no mistaking what she was trying to say!!).

 

[disney1990]

You would probably feel more guilty if you take your children. Because, you will want to spend all your time at Epcot.

Last year we went to our first F&W Festival. We would get up and go to a park -- say MK. About 11:00 we would look at each other and say -- time to go to Epcot.

We repeated this every day for the week that we were at Disney World.

We had an awesome time.

Go as an adult only trip and enjoy!

 

[Goofy DS]

GO!!!!!!!
It's a great time for a relaxing trip where you don't feel like you have to do all of the rides etc....!
My DW and I went last Jan and LOVED IT! We did the "Keys to the Kingdom tour" that our kids couldn't do (you have to be 16) and had a ball!!
Your kids will speak to you again. It only took ours a few days to start speaking to us again. So go, have fun, and enjoy the quite when you get home.

 

[Yensid_MD]

Of course we have gone without the children and loved every minute of it. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the nicer restaurants, sleeping in and all that goes with vactioning w/o kids. Go and have a great time.