How to make your boyfriend LOVE Disney

[brandihead2012]

Thanks for reading! a little about me, I am 24, I have been to WDW more than a handful of times. It is something that I shared with my grandma before she passed away. My boyfriend however has been once. He has never ever been into the park and witnessed the magic. He has road the trains and monorail. I want to go when the Magic Kingdom is completed, HOWEVER I can not get him to agree to going. Can anyone suggest anyways to make him WANT to go. I know he would for me=, but i want to make sure he has a good time as well. Suggestions please?!?!

 

[Gina]

I'm afraid if he isn't into it, then he isn't into it. That's why so many of us are single -- we've been through that already, and are not willing to compromise again on something that is so important to us. (Been there, married that!)

Really your only choices are to accept that he doesn't want to go and never go again, go without him, or cut your losses now. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[lovindisney4ever]

I took my boyfriend for the first time this year. I am Disney OBSESSED so he knew that eventually I was going to drag him. He knew how important it was to me so he went to make me happy. But I tried to plan things that I knew he would enjoy also. I see from your picture that you guys are Michigan fans (GO BLUE!!!), so obviously he is a sports fan. When you make your trip go to Wide World of Sports, take him to the sports shop at Downtown Disney, find restaurants that offer his favorite foods, etc. My boyfriend loves the thrill rides so I made sure that we hit all of them. We ended up having a great time, he didn't promise to ever go back but he said he was glad that he experienced it atleast once and that I can go with the kids or someone else next time, lol! Good luck at getting him there

 

[brandihead2012]

I'm afraid if he isn't into it, then he isn't into it. That's why so many of us are single -- we've been through that already, and are not willing to compromise again on something that is so important to us. (Been there, married that!)

Really your only choices are to accept that he doesn't want to go and never go again, go without him, or cut your losses now. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Right, I told my mom, i was going to have to start dating through the Disboards :S ha, thank you for your input.

 

[brandihead2012]

I took my boyfriend for the first time this year. I am Disney OBSESSED so he knew that eventually I was going to drag him. He knew how important it was to me so he went to make me happy. But I tried to plan things that I knew he would enjoy also. I see from your picture that you guys are Michigan fans (GO BLUE!!!), so obviously he is a sports fan. When you make your trip go to Wide World of Sports, take him to the sports shop at Downtown Disney, find restaurants that offer his favorite foods, etc. My boyfriend loves the thrill rides so I made sure that we hit all of them. We ended up having a great time, he didn't promise to ever go back but he said he was glad that he experienced it atleast once and that I can go with the kids or someone else next time, lol! Good luck at getting him there

Such good ideas! I looked into Golfing, he loved to golf. I get the planning videos and show him the things we could do. I also thought about buying him a lanyard to get him interested in the pin trading. Thank you for your suggestion!!

 

[DISaholic's]

My suggestion is to find what he loves and then find what in Disney can fit.
Ie:

• Does he love to eat? Go during Food and Wine Festival or get the deluxe dining experience.
• Does he love cars? Get him the Super Car driving experience
• Does he love beer? Do Beers around the World at Epcot.
• Does he love music? Check out who is playing at the House of Blues in DTD and get tkts.
• Does he like to fish and the outdoors? Stay in the Ft Wilderness Cabins and rent a boat to go fishing.
• Does he like sports? Many National League teams use the WW of Sports Complex for fall/spring training. Go during that time.
• Is he an exercise nut? Sign him up for one of the awesome disney running races.

Use one of the above ideas to just get him there then
Once you get him in the door...don't go commando through the parks and make him try on funny hats if thats not his thing. Take your time, take lots of breaks and make the trip fit his personality. If it doesnt' work out well you can't say you didn't try, but I'd say try first!

 

[mrFDNY]

Hi gang,
While i'm a 34 year old man who was born with the disney bug, i know others are'nt always disney nuts like us. I found this out when my sister in law expressed wanting to take thier 2 girls, my nieces with us on a trip. My brtoher in law was not interrested at all. So me ,my wife and siter in law came up with a plan. To him disney was rides like its a small world or peter pn and he was not interested in those. I put the " male spin" on disney for him.

We had them over to dinner and i was showing him some of the more male friendly things to do in Wdw. First off, he loves to play golf, so i showed him disney championship golf courses. I showed him how you can drink around the world in epcot and guys and beer, enough said, right?

He likes water parks, so i showed him the 2 multi award winning water parks disney has, all the thrill and roller coasters disney has. The fishing excrusion you can do and so on. The next day they booked a trip with us. Since then, they go with us every year.

You need to put the " male spin" of disney and introduce him to it. Good luck!

 

[brandihead2012]

My suggestion is to find what he loves and then find what in Disney can fit.
Ie:

• Does he love to eat? Go during Food and Wine Festival or get the deluxe dining experience.
• Does he love cars? Get him the Super Car driving experience
• Does he love beer? Do Beers around the World at Epcot.
• Does he love music? Check out who is playing at the House of Blues in DTD and get tkts.
• Does he like to fish and the outdoors? Stay in the Ft Wilderness Cabins and rent a boat to go fishing.
• Does he like sports? Many National League teams use the WW of Sports Complex for fall/spring training. Go during that time.
• Is he an exercise nut? Sign him up for one of the awesome disney running races.

Use one of the above ideas to just get him there then
Once you get him in the door...don't go commando through the parks and make him try on funny hats if thats not his thing. Take your time, take lots of breaks and make the trip fit his personality. If it doesnt' work out well you can't say you didn't try, but I'd say try first!

Thank you, Might have to try the funny hats! Once I get him there, I think how happy I am he will be content as well!

Hi gang,
While i'm a 34 year old man who was born with the disney bug, i know others are'nt always disney nuts like us. I found this out when my sister in law expressed wanting to take thier 2 girls, my nieces with us on a trip. My brtoher in law was not interrested at all. So me ,my wife and siter in law came up with a plan. To him disney was rides like its a small world or peter pn and he was not interested in those. I put the " male spin" on disney for him.

We had them over to dinner and i was showing him some of the more male friendly things to do in Wdw. First off, he loves to play golf, so i showed him disney championship golf courses. I showed him how you can drink around the world in epcot and guys and beer, enough said, right?

He likes water parks, so i showed him the 2 multi award winning water parks disney has, all the thrill and roller coasters disney has. The fishing excrusion you can do and so on. The next day they booked a trip with us. Since then, they go with us every year.

You need to put the " male spin" of disney and introduce him to it. Good luck!

Thank you for putting the male spin on this! I appreciate your feedback! I think Epcot is going to be easy, as well as AK and Studio. MK is going to be so hard though. I bought Disneyland Kinect and he plays that with me, so there might be some hope!

 

[DisneytheKid]

As a former BF (now DH) I would say show him how important it is to you and the love of Disney will follow

 

[ladyelenawf]

As a former BF (now DH) I would say show him how important it is to you and the love of Disney will follow

I just want to thank you for giving me hope.

 

[GraceMonica]

Im in the same boat. My BF has been once and all he remembers is space mountain. So, I'm planning a trip for just the two of us! (I've never been without family or a big group of people, so its going to be different for me as well) Im in the process of showing him the Disney Parks Dvds and other Disney related things to get him excited. Im also going to get his input on the meals we should eat, since we both love to eat. I want to go for 8 nights/nine days, so a Saturday to a Sunday and spend the first portion of the trip in a value resort doing 5 or 6 park days...and the last weekend there in a moderate resort so we can relax without parks. Only way I can justify staying in a moderate!

Our trip wouldn't be until late summer/fall of next year, so I have a lot of time to get him excited about it. Plus, I told him id pay for most of it ...that's how I got him to agree in the first place! (He's saving up for a house...so im saving up for the vacation!)

 

[LockShockBarrel]

My advice is kind of negative but I think it's important. Be very careful about how you go about this because you can easily go from suggestions to pestering. Good luck though!

 

[lilsk8nmac]

over two years ago, my bf was the same way. But he started to see how passionate I was about it and how much I loved it. He also heard the music to illuminations RoE and fell in love with it (he's a musician). Well that combined was what did it. It started to click for him. We are going for the first time together this summer and I cannot wait to show him the rest of the magic that Disney entails.

There are some out there that might never come around to your love of disney, but there are some that will, you just have to find a way to incorporate it with something they love and see if it sticks.
I wish you luck!!!

 

[brandihead2012]

Thank you all for your advice!! This is why I love the dis!

 

[DCTooTall]

As others mentioned.... There is so much beyond the Magic Kingdom and princesses at the resort which he may find interesting. For a guy who's not into "Disney", often it's just not totally realizing all that it really has to offer.

So.... You know him, so think about what he might enjoy doing.

Does he Enjoy fishing? Try a fishing excursion.
golf? Disney has several great courses onsite.
Watersports? Go Jet Skiing or Parasailing on Bay Lake.
Regular sports? Wide World of Sports has a lot to offer, including the affore mentioned Spring Training games.

Food and Wine can be a blast, including drinking around the world.


The biggest general suggestions would be to not only figure out what he likes to do, and potential activities at the Resorts that would appeal to those interests.... But also just relax and don't force it or have him running around trying to do everything. If he likes you and understands your Disney obsession, it may not be super difficult to get him to actually agree to go once....even if it's just to share something you enjoy. If you run him ragged however and he doesn't have the opportunity to really enjoy the place, there is no guaranteeing he'd be willing to do it again.

The other big suggestion would be to make EPCOT your first park. The reason I usually suggest this for people looking to introduce their Male friends to the wonderful world that is Disney is because quite often....in large part because of Disney's own advertising.... A lot of guys only see Disney as a kid's or girl's destination with it's Princesses and Castles and 'boring' rides like Small World and Dumbo. EPCOT is a much more Adult park than the Magic Kingdom which can help expose them to all that Disney has to offer, without the overdose and system shock of Fantasyland and princesses. They can also enjoy exploring the different countries and the beverages which can be sampled....... So it ultimately is a really good way to ease someone into Disney and keep their mind open.

Something that can be quite easily forgotten, is that if someone comes in with the preconceived idea that Disney is just Castles, princesses, and lots of kids and cartoon characters....Rushing them straight into the Magic Kingdom can often just confirm what they are expecting and therefore close them off to the open mind that they'd need to truly experience the magic and enjoy themselves.

 

[Rhiannona]

I wasn't so sure how excited my boyfriend was with going to Disney with me for a day... So I looked into things.

I found photos of interesting foods at service stations he might like to eat. I looked into what kind of beer was where. I told him interesting facts that applied to his interest that weren't so.. Obvious about Disney.


And then, we were at a mall and it had a huge Disney store. The whole thing that sold him on it would be fun to go to Disney? The smile on my face when i walked in there.

We also agreed when we went into the park that we would take it easy, if it wasn't a high priority ride for us we could easily skip it. Since we aren't big line waiters we enjoyed the time together exploring and taking in the sights.

 

[catra121]

Just one more thing that I would like to mention. I was in this situation with my BF and I was very excited to take him to Disney and share my love of Disney with him. We had a great time but aside from thinking about activities he would like to do, also keep in mind his vacation touring style.

My BF loves fishing, sports, eating, etc...but he is also VERY laid back and doesn't like a strict schedule. He doesn't like to get up early but he can stay awake until the wee hours of the morning with no problem. That's sort of the opposite of me and how I tour Disney with my family so I made sure to take this into account when planning our Disney trip together. I couldn't afford any of the extras that others have mentioned so my focus was on picking a resort that suited his style (I would be happy at ANY Disney resort) and planned our days to be as laid back as possible while still hitting all the things that I loved/thought he would enjoy.

The trip was a success and although he is not a Disney lover like I am he understands how much I love it and will go again (he went back for my parents vow renewal in Disney and we're talking about a trip next September). What he likes best about Disney is how happy I am when I am there. It made a huge difference that I planned our first trip with his touring style in mind though because when we went with my family I could tell that if that had been his first experience back at Disney (after his one bad one as a child) he would never have gone back again.

Good luck!

 

[Karabee]

I just booked the trip. I realize that this might not be as practical for you, but I just went ahead and booked. Granted I'm the vacation planner so that helps I also made sure to book during Food and Wine Festival and to make sure to pick some really great restaurants since we love to go out to eat. I had to show him it's more than just an amusement park. Going during F&W was huge - that's the part he loved the most.
I also would be very careful picking which resort. I chose WL and we both didn't really like it, so I wish I had stuck with my gut and picked AKL or something else.
If he likes to golf, point that out. If he likes to try different beers/wines, point out the tastings you can go to and the different amazing wines (i.e. AKL has so many African wines). I know the water park was also a huge hit for my BF.
I know many would not be pleased I'm saying this but take Mickey out of the equation when talking to him about it. That helped me out.

 

[ohsnapxitsamanda]

My boyfriend wasn't really into the whole Disney thing like I am. It wasn't that he didn't like it--it just was never a big part of his life like it has been mine. I was down there on the College Program for 9 months, and I knew that it was my chance to get him down there so he could finally experience Disney World for himself. Once again, he wasn't too crazy about it....he just wanted to come down to Orlando to see me. However, after spending 2 days at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios, he fell in love with it and wants to go back.

So even if your boyfriend will only go for you, that's a start. Find something you know will interest him (for my boyfriend, it was the fact that he could get a real German beer in Germany ), and experience that with him. He might not fall in love with it, but once he realizes that Disney isn't "just for little kids", he'll like a lot more.

 

[Dommiekazommie]

my DF was exactly the same. I've always loved Disney but living in Australia I didn't get to go to a Disney park until I was 22 and I went on a once in a lifetime trip with a Disney obsessed (like me) friend (her Dad lives in Miami so she goes to WDW every year) id already been with BF 5 years at that point so he wasn't going anywhere. Needless to say one trip wasn't enough, and as soon as I got back I kept begging him to go. He agreed to go one but I didn't get him there until 2010. I convinced him to do 5 days at Disney and 5 days in Vegas over his birthday. And planned the whole trip for him. I got him a birthday present he got to open each day we were there. About 3 months before we went I got him the birhaums (spelling) Disney book and asked him to read a section a week and highlight anything that sounded good or fun. That got him a little more excited, and I went through an made sure we'd included pretty much everything he'd highlighted. Including restaurants where all I ate we're fries (lol. He loves steak. I'm a veggie). When we got there he loved it. Even called iy the best holiday ever! He's not a Disney addict like me, but he did agree that every second holiday can be a Disney one!!!!! So were going back in September for 12 nights!

The one thing I realized is that while I'm totally commando and chris went along with me, he didn't love that style. His fave day of the first trip was the day he was getting over a tummy bug and we went to Hollywood studios and took it slow. We still got there for rope drop but didn't rush ourselves, just wandered around and fd what we wante (after Toy story midway mania of course) and went back to rest at the resort for a few hours. So this trip were doing 12 days and I've promised him much more relaxed pool and resort time!

He also loved the character interaction, which I didn't think he would at all. So that's something to give a trh even if you don't think your tough manly man would want to! Lol!

He even defends Disney now, when people are bagging it. So huge improvement right there.

No matter what I think he'll give it a try for you. And I know a lot of chris agreeing to go back is seeing how happy I am at Disney.