Help from adults who go childless to orlando

[mackay_j]

Ok before someone sees red about what I'm going to say/ask - we love orlando - we have beeen enough to prove that fact . But only with our kids from toddler ages all the way through until now when the oldest is in her 20's.


We only go to the parks or stay in the villa or find an unusal thing to visit- eg ice/ Xmas stuff at gaylordplams or celebration. We really don't find the rest of the places we gave driven through or gone to very attractive.
Years ago we went to international drive to go to the sports shop was our one and only visit there - we wondered about got hungry and the had the misfortune to try and eat at ponderosa - We have never been back, we have gone to a few surf shops along the 192 and in clearwater but other than that and the parks we don't really take to the place. Shoot me now!

Now next year our girls are tied up in exams both after xmas and after easter which means no hols at theses times. So my DH has a few holiday weeks spare. We thought maybe a cruise (we did one - split with 4 days busch gardens, with the girls at xmas and we were surprised that we really enjoyed it.)

Now here's were need help. It works out just as cheep/ cheeper some dates to book a 2 center holiday 1 week cruise 1 week orlando - than the cruise alone. What do adults do in orlando without family. We do not want to do the parks without the "kids". We are not shoppers so malls are out 'I think my DH would divorce me if he got dragged round a mall in his hoilday


We like nature, antique/ unusual shops villages- celebration type towns/shops are just about doable for DH. We will have a car.

Any suggestions!!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I have started a thread "places to go outside of WDW" and there are some really good suggestions for things to do on there.

We have been to the Blue State Spring park, you can take a boat ride, and enjoyed that.

Also Winter Park is nice (again there is another boat trip but just to view the big houses not so much the nature) and we also visited Kissimmee and went to the lake front there.

Have fun

 

[wilma-bride]

DH and I have been without the kids plenty of times. Away from Orlando, there are some beautiful areas to visit and things to see.

We have been to St Augustine twice. It is a beautiful place, lots of history and plenty to see.

Last year we also did a trip to the Florida Keys and the West Coast, visited the Everglades and a state park, where we saw lots of wildlife (although we had DS with us so it wasn't childless).

There are some amazing places to see if you venture outside of Orlando.

We have also taken cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean (St Maarten and St Thomas).

We love travelling with our children but we also love travelling without them too - the way we holiday is so different when it's just us adults, much more relaxing

Just wanted to add, don't rule out doing the parks without the kids though as the way we tour the parks is completely different without the children with us too. We are far more laid back, take time to 'stop and smell the roses' and see far more than we normally do when we are rushing from ride to ride.

 

[tony64]

If you like antiques you'll love old town Kissimmee.

Not the one with the fair and the car rallies but the old town centre which has lots of antique shops you can browse in for hours.

 

[mackay_j]

DH and I have been without the kids plenty of times. Away from Orlando, there are some beautiful areas to visit and things to see.

We have been to St Augustine twice. It is a beautiful place, lots of history and plenty to see.



There are some amazing places to see if you venture outside of Orlando.

We have also taken cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean (St Maarten and St Thomas).

Just wanted to add, don't rule out doing the parks without the kids though as the way we tour the parks is completely different without the children with us too. We are far more laid back, take time to 'stop and smell to the roses' and see far more than we normally do when we are rushing from ride to ride.

I just can't bring myself to go the parks without them .


Will look at St Augustine.

We are trying not to do the everglades/miami/keys as there is a high chance that we may be having a large family get-together down that way next summer (we have family in the carib and in Italy and there is talk of us all meeting up for our my dd's 21st nieces 21st, newphews 18th , SIL 50th and BIL 60th. ).

Sorry to hi jack the disney threads but
Did you like St Tom AND St Maar as that is cruise we are looking at, which cruise line did you use and what did you think of it.

thanks

 

[mackay_j]

If you like antiques you'll love old town Kissimmee.

Not the one with the fair and the car rallies but the old town centre which has lots of antique shops you can browse in for hours.

I 've stayed in villas theres many times and I didn't even know that, I have never been in old town I thought it was all 192 junk shops and a fair - just shows us- we need to stop the car more. I will google for pics sound interesting.

 

[mackay_j]

I have started a thread "places to go outside of WDW" and there are some really good suggestions for things to do on there.

We have been to the Blue State Spring park, you can take a boat ride, and enjoyed that.

Also Winter Park is nice (again there is another boat trip but just to view the big houses not so much the nature) and we also visited Kissimmee and went to the lake front there.

Have fun

Didn't even see that post- I looked up the blue state park - thats now on my list -thanks

 

[wilma-bride]

sorry to hi jack the disney threads but
Did you like St Tom AND St Maar as that is cruise we are looking at, which cruise line did you use and what did you think of it.

thanks

Yes, we loved that cruise. We cruised with DCL (mainly because the kids were with us and we prefer the shows/adult areas on DCL), however you may wish to look at others if you don't want to 'do Disney' without your kids. We have cruised DCL without kids too - their adult areas are very nice.

St Maarten was lovely. We took a full island tour with Bernard's Tours, which was great. Probably the best day of the trip

St Thomas was also nice but it was unbearably hot the day we were there, which meant we were limited to what we wanted to do in the heat. We went up to Paradise Point, which has great views across the island.

If we weren't to cruise with Disney, we would probably choose Royal Caribbean

Although we have also cruised with NCL before (just European cruises) and really liked them too.

 

[luke]

Yes, we loved that cruise. We cruised with DCL (mainly because the kids were with us and we prefer the shows/adult areas on DCL), however you may wish to look at others if you don't want to 'do Disney' without your kids. We have cruised DCL without kids too - their adult areas are very nice.

St Maarten was lovely. We took a full island tour with Bernard's Tours, which was great. Probably the best day of the trip

St Thomas was also nice but it was unbearably hot the day we were there, which meant we were limited to what we wanted to do in the heat. We went up to Paradise Point, which has great views across the island.

If we weren't to cruise with Disney, we would probably choose Royal Caribbean

Although we have also cruised with NCL before (just European cruises) and really liked them too.

Agree about DCL, we've cruised without kids and loved it (although the attention we got with our 9 month old this time was even better!!).

We are also about to do a Royal Caribbean cruise at the end of may so hoping it will be just as enjoyable

 

[WDGPCFR]

We have friends who go to Disney every year. A lot of the time they don't even go into the parks but enjoy the rest of the amenities.

 

[Shazzie B]

I've only been to International Drive once too - we didn't like it either Some people love it - we're all different

Not sure I could persuade my DH to go to Florida when the kids stop traveling with us next year - mind you that's probably because he knows I couldn't go to Florida without a Disney fix

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I 've stayed in villas theres many times and I didn't even know that, I have never been in old town I thought it was all 192 junk shops and a fair - just shows us- we need to stop the car more. I will google for pics sound interesting.

After many years of saying "we must go there" we finally did in December and had a good time browsing. Also there is a hardware shop so my Dh was quite happy to browse in there. They were updating the lake front and we said it would be nice to see it again.