For the first time in our adult lives, my wife and I traveled to Walt Disney World without our children. The 2 of us celebrated her 40th birthday on a 3 night vacation. Our thoughts before our vacation had us wondering what it would be like in Disney World without kids. Would there be enough to do? Would it be as fun or as magical? Would we miss them? Would they be mad at us? Well, all our questions were answered rather quickly. We had an amazing vacation. While it was certainly very different without our children, it was an experience every Disney Dad should enjoy.
We knew that we were not planning a usual vacation to Walt Disney World. We did not want to rush to make it to every ride. We wanted a relaxing pace so we could take in every magical moment. We also planned for a lot of time at EPCOT. We wanted to navigate World Showcase without the attention being on our children. We also wanted to see Fantasmic (finally) as it had been closed for almost 3 years because of the Covid19 pandemic. We added the park hopper option and made park pass reservations. We chose Magic Kingdom for our arrival day, because it was open late and we were staying at Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort. The second day we started at Hollywood Studios and ended at EPCOT. We reversed that plan for the third and final day, starting at EPCOT and moving to Hollywood Studios.
One of the things we attempted that we had never done before on a family Disney vacation, was to have a nice dinner. We made late reservations at California Grill inside of the Contemporary. We had a wonderful day at Magic Kingdom. We rode Splash Mountain (one last time before the new theme). We returned to our resort to grab a drink and watched the fireworks from our hotel room balcony. That was something we didn’t plan in advance but gave it a try when we realized we could. And it was so worth it. It was an experience we never considered, but it was so magical to have a private view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks. We played the accompanying music on the hotel TV and we felt like rock stars. California Grill was amazing and we lucked out with a table at the window with a wonderful view of Magic Kingdom.
The second day at Hollywood Studios we planned for a short stay there. We wanted to get to EPCOT right at 2 when park hopping opened. We watched Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream inside the Walt Disney Presents museum. It was a great show that we were never able to get to with kids. We had a few drinks at Oga’s Cantina and saw Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage. The wait for Tower of Terror never got low enough for us to get in line. There was so much we wanted to experience without having to get on the thrill rides to appease the kids. Another first for us, we took a Friendship Boat to EPCOT. It might be the slowest way to make the trip, but it was so cool. And the boat operators entertain with jokes that imitate Jungle Cruise.
EPCOT without kids was awesome. We did get Lightning Lane reservations for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind twice. That ride is so much fun. We got to enjoy so much of what makes EPCOT unique and fantastic. We stayed until 11pm with extended hours and headed right back the next day at 8:30 for park open. We stayed until almost 5 pm and then finally headed over to Hollywood Studios. This time we took the Skyliner to Carribean Beach from EPCOT and hopped on the other line to Hollywood Studios.
Our night at Hollywood Studios included a Lightning Lane reservation at Rise of the Resistance, drinks at BaseLine Tap House, and a late 9:30 showing of Fantasmic.
Visiting Walt Disney World with only your spouse is so easy. It’s so much quicker to decide on where to go or what to eat. Many decisions become cumbersome when traveling with kids. It becomes even more slow when the extended family comes along. But with just 2 people that are so familiar and comfortable together, we traversed effortlessly through the parks. We were able to do so much in just three days, we both felt like we were there for a week.
