Not an adult vacation?

My reaction to your friend is - going to a Caribbean all-inclusive resort is, to me, taking the SAME vacation every year. WDW is constantly evolving, there is something new each time we go, so it is never the same.
I don't normally understand why people make these comments.

Going to the same destination each year does not mean it's the same vacation. If using those metrics WDW would be considered the same but many times, including you, people say WDW is different everytime. Why make the assumption on one end but think completely different on the other end just because the destination is a place you enjoy?
 
Orion - we are a 60+ couple going to WDW next week, and yeah, family members think we're nuts. We're going to see Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, walk around Epcot, going to some nice dinners, have drinks, watch shows and fireworks, explore all the attractions that are new since our last trip. yes, some friends and family think it's weird, but I don't care. Our kids are grown up and we don't have to schedule it around what they want to do, so It actually IS an "adult vacation." Drinking, eating, but no "lounging on the beach" because that sounds boring. (also, I burn too easily!)
My reaction to your friend is - going to a Caribbean all-inclusive resort is, to me, taking the SAME vacation every year. WDW is constantly evolving, there is something new each time we go, so it is never the same.

Thank you very much for this response. I think you nailed it for me. Even with our kids today, what you described is what we do too: strolling Epcot, grabbing caramel popcorn, watching the trains run around, see the koi pond, and eat amazing food. It is always different and always changing and man, I can't wait to see Epcot next year when we go to see all the changes.
 
My long time buddy's jabs and teases come from his belief that Disney is simply not a vacation for adults.

I’m sure this is the case. However, when people make this type of comment, even in jest, I question what their motivation is. Live and let live! If the shoe were on the other foot, I would probably say something like “Have a great time; I know you love it there.” Your friend’s judgmental comments are unnecessary and far more childish than your spending time at WDW.
 
This week he and his wife are off to an all-inclusive Caribbean type vacation. ...

Just bugs me when I hear it.
Here's the comparison you can make to him to shut him up.
He goes to an all inclusive Caribbean beach resort, I've done that. I spend a week in Curacao about every two or three years. One day we took an excursion to see some cliffs and a beach and a cave. That was 5 or 6 hours one day. Then we went on a tour, like 4 hours another day. And then ... what ... we sat around looking at water. It wasn't relaxing, it was soporific. And heaven forbid you fall asleep during the day, then you're up all night, staring at a dark beach.

At WDW, we wake up, and immediately off for a schedule of activities that keeps us moving well past dark, every day. I go to a beach and in 16 hours of waking day I have maybe 2-5 hours of fun. You can only swim or lay on sand for so long. Just for kicks, ask if his wife is packing a book.
 


Here's the comparison you can make to him to shut him up.
He goes to an all inclusive Caribbean beach resort, I've done that. I spend a week in Curacao about every two or three years. One day we took an excursion to see some cliffs and a beach and a cave. That was 5 or 6 hours one day. Then we went on a tour, like 4 hours another day. And then ... what ... we sat around looking at water. It wasn't relaxing, it was soporific. And heaven forbid you fall asleep during the day, then you're up all night, staring at a dark beach.

At WDW, we wake up, and immediately off for a schedule of activities that keeps us moving well past dark, every day. I go to a beach and in 16 hours of waking day I have maybe 2-5 hours of fun. You can only swim or lay on sand for so long. Just for kicks, ask if his wife is packing a book.
I agree! I also know from his descriptions, they take multiple books to pass the time. So you are spot on.

As a family, we like things to do and places to go and areas to explore. Having rides is icing on that cake. When we arrive that first night before the week in the parks, there's no greater sense of "I'm here... I'm home" sort of feeling. You can see it in our photos too... we're all smiling like lunatics.
 
I get three responses to going to disney
1 its for kids
2 you are brave going on holiday alone
3 isn't it sad to be going on holiday alone ignore all three
 
I get three responses to going to disney
1 its for kids
2 you are brave going on holiday alone
3 isn't it sad to be going on holiday alone ignore all three

Being here in my new job and I announced our first WDW vacation since being here, I heard:
1. [sarcasm] So you let the kids decide where you go?
2. [curiosity] Where will you go when the kids outgrow Disney?

And then the weird one:
3. [huh?] WDW represents everything wrong in this world right now and I would never give them my money.

Outside of the weird response, the general impression is Disney is for children and eventually they will outgrow it and we'll obviously go someplace different in the future. They find it hard to believe that my wife and I went alone three times before having kids.
 


As a family, we like things to do and places to go and areas to explore. Having rides is icing on that cake. When we arrive that first night before the week in the parks, there's no greater sense of "I'm here... I'm home" sort of feeling. You can see it in our photos too... we're all smiling like lunatics.
I absolutely feel you. And I never expected to be a "Disney Guy" either. Went once as a kid and once as a young teen, both times with a family that compared it (unfavorably) to Cedar Point and were bored to death. Wife and I took the kids back in 2008 and from that point on it's just time spent between visiting the mouse.

I get three responses to going to disney
1 its for kids
2 you are brave going on holiday alone
3 isn't it sad to be going on holiday alone
My wife and I were at the bar in Jock Lindsay's 2 years ago, celebrating our 20th and we chatted up the couple next to us a bit. At some point, the woman says, "Hold on, you guys sent your kids to grandmas for 5 days so you could come to Disney World without them? ... You're my Spirit Animals Now."

The absolute shock, horror, and delight in her voice, we still talk about her.
 
I absolutely feel you. And I never expected to be a "Disney Guy" either. Went once as a kid and once as a young teen, both times with a family that compared it (unfavorably) to Cedar Point and were bored to death. Wife and I took the kids back in 2008 and from that point on it's just time spent between visiting the mouse.

When I was a wee lad, my parents took me to WDW at its opening. I was all of about 4 or 5 months old. In the 80s we went a couple times. I didn't go again until I was stationed in Florida with the Navy. This was 1998 and I opened and closed MK. I still had to drive home that night, but it was so worth it. I then met my wife in 2000 and while not a Disney-phile, she enjoyed going and still does today.

Now my kids have gone more times than any of their friends could ever dream of. We all love it there. Yes, it seems the crowds are ever increasingly getting crazy-crazy, but we still have fun and let loose.
 
Do you have a relationship where you rib each other about different things?
I would genuinely just not let it bother you. And if it does genuinely bother you, he might not realize that and think that you're taking it as good-natured teasing.

Honestly, one of the guys in my fraternity was a huge Disney fan, and he'd just embrace whatever anyone would say. Completely lean into it, embrace the hobby, and be 100% secure with it. He'd post online that if someone thinks it's childish, he'll prove them wrong with 10 reasons why hanging out with Mickey is ballin'. Or why men who ride It's a Small World find it makes them more attractive. Instead of being on the defensive, he found humor in putting it all out there.
 
We’re going next month with our kids - ages 22, 24, and 29! They can’t wait, and I can’t wait! It’s been 10 years since we went last, and I’m thrilled that they want to go back. There are 51 other weeks in the year to be an “adult”.
 
Here's the comparison you can make to him to shut him up.
He goes to an all inclusive Caribbean beach resort, I've done that. I spend a week in Curacao about every two or three years. One day we took an excursion to see some cliffs and a beach and a cave. That was 5 or 6 hours one day. Then we went on a tour, like 4 hours another day. And then ... what ... we sat around looking at water. It wasn't relaxing, it was soporific. And heaven forbid you fall asleep during the day, then you're up all night, staring at a dark beach.

At WDW, we wake up, and immediately off for a schedule of activities that keeps us moving well past dark, every day. I go to a beach and in 16 hours of waking day I have maybe 2-5 hours of fun. You can only swim or lay on sand for so long. Just for kicks, ask if his wife is packing a book.
I am so with you on the beach thing. Did my first cruise (Disney) in 2018 and had a great time--on the whole it was a much more relaxing vacation than I usually take, and I did like my one downtime day when I just lounged around and read a book between trips down the water slide. One day like that was enough, though, and when it came to Castaway Cay...well, I spent maybe two or three hours on the island and then I was ready to be done. I just don't get much out of a day at the beach, tbh, lovely as it was.

At Disney World, though, I have to deliberately build in time to rest and sleep because there's so much to do and see. I have to wonder if people who enjoy an annual beach trip are just better at relaxing than I am....
 
The funny thing is, to me an all-inclusive caribbean vacation is barely a vacation. IMO those resorts are overpriced and sort of fake? Nothing like what I want to do on my vacations. I like to travel solo & do adventurous things as well as go to Disney, but you won't find me sending passive-aggressive emails to my friends who vacation differently.
 
Yea! My family gives me a hard time and asks "When are you going to grow up?" every time we plan a trip..... I own my home, I have a very good job that I work 40-60 hours a week at. I'm almost completely out of debt (except for my house). My husband and I constantly evaluate our lives and decide what we want to improve and then we work to make it happen. Not to mention that affording consistent Disney vacations requires a certain amount of "adulting" in itself (or bank robbing which I've jokenly considered.) I'm also the only one in my family who can say all of those things... but at the end of the day I just smile and say "I'll never grow up." because they'll never get it, that's the answer they want to hear and it ultimately not worth the fight it would cause if I told them how I really feel.
 
Yea! My family gives me a hard time and asks "When are you going to grow up?" every time we plan a trip..... I own my home, I have a very good job that I work 40-60 hours a week at. I'm almost completely out of debt (except for my house). My husband and I constantly evaluate our lives and decide what we want to improve and then we work to make it happen. Not to mention that affording consistent Disney vacations requires a certain amount of "adulting" in itself (or bank robbing which I've jokenly considered.) I'm also the only one in my family who can say all of those things... but at the end of the day I just smile and say "I'll never grow up." because they'll never get it, that's the answer they want to hear and it ultimately not worth the fight it would cause if I told them how I really feel.
This post made me smile. We sound very eerily similar. Outside of the mortgage, I owe nothing. I work 40 hours a week and save my money. I pay my bills and debts and every year find one large thing or several small things to upgrade or replace on the house. Last year we chose to go to Disney instead, having not been since 2015. Since having kids, that was our longest time away largely due to me leaving the military, moving, and starting a new job. Time just got away from us. It was time to go again.

I feel I make more appropriately "adult choices" than most I know in my immediate circle, yet get similar comments and eyerolls about a WDW vacation. My buddy, my coworkers, and even my new boss all smile that smile, like you are getting a pat on the head. None seem to "get it" and they all act like I must be doing this because of the children, but would rather be some place else.
 
What I tell people is:
Whoever pays the piper calls the music.
:rockband:
:charac2:
:mic:
:music:
If your friend wants you to go on a vacation and they are willing to pay for it, go and have a great time on them. If you are paying for the trip you go where and when you choose to go.
 
I tend to explain it to people this way (usually people are just curious why I keep going, they're not hostile, just a little baffled.) I prefer and "activities" vacation to a "relaxing," vacation. I don't gamble, so Las Vegas holds limited appeal, but you'd never ask why someone goes to Vegas for 5 or so days every year. Disney is my Vegas.

Tends to clear things up for those who aren't into it.
 
We did an AI resort vacation...once. I almost cried with relief when 7 days were over. There was not enough liquor on that island to numb the boredom. Cannot understand how people do those year after year, but I never make fun of my friends who seem to enjoy them.

7 days of WDW is never enough!
 
DH and I are childless millennials and keep coming back to Disney (land and world). I have struggled a little with feeling embarrassed telling coworkers, anticipating those "Again?" "Didn't you just go there?" "What do you even do there?" kinds of responses. But I am finally getting to the point where I just don't care anymore. We do what we love. These trips bring us closer together and make us happier, so that's why we keep coming back. We get to leave everything else behind for awhile and just have fun and act like kids together. I keep thinking that we "should" visit other destinations and be "cultured" and all of that...but when it comes down to it, we are paying to experience joy together, and for us, Disney is where we do that. It's always been "our place."
 

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