Walt Disney World...From an Adult's Perspective

Perusing the internet lately, I have come across a couple of articles related to visiting Walt Disney World sans-kids.  Both had some interesting points of views and recommendations of things to do when you don't have any little ones in tow.  But as I was sitting there reading those articles I thought, "wait a doggone minute, my wife and I have been visiting Disney for the past several years and we don't have any children, so why am I not offering advice along these lines as well?"

So here it is...my view of Walt Disney World from the perspective of someone who has never had a child but is a huge fan of the mouse and a soaker in of the magic.

First off, who said you had to be kid in order to act like a kid??  We approach WDW with as much enthusiasm as any child and get a big case of the "can't sleeps" the night before we head down to the "House of Mouse."  Isn't that one of the beauties of going on a Disney vacation?  Don't we all get to once again go back to the memories of our childhood and relive some of that knowing we are in a judge-free environment?  I mean for Pete's sake, where else can you go and see grown adults wearing some of the goofiest hats you have ever seen, no pun intended, and having a ball doing it?  So my point is, don't think you have to go to WDW and act your age even if you don't have kids and even if you are an adult by the law of the land standards.  And this also means that you should be able to ride Dumbo, Peter Pan's Flight and all of the other "children's rides" without feeling the need to hire a kid so you have an excuse to ride them.  Disney is ageless so act like it and be a kid again.

Secondly, if you happen to not have any young ones, enjoy the fact that you are free from any worries about nap times, eating schedules or ride height limitations.  That alone allows you to enjoy WDW on a much more relaxed pace.  My advice...get up early and get to all of the parks as soon as they drop the rope.  You will notice that the parks start filling up more the later that it gets in the morning.  You can rest assured that many who are arriving an hour or so after the park opened are the ones with kids.  They had to get their kids awake, get them dressed, get them fed and then get them corralled onto a bus or into a car.  Meanwhile you and your significant other awoke, got ready, grabbed a quick bite and were at the park 15 mins before the opening gong and already had 4 attractions chalked up before the family with kids got into their first queue line.   So enjoy your early morning conquest and go have a cinnamon roll to celebrate!

Thirdly, take some time to stop and smell the adult roses.  Kids see things through kid's eyes, naturally. What a child may miss is the amazingness of the Disney engineering, the artfulness of the cast member's performances and the awesomeness of the sheer size of all that makes up Walt Disney World. The daily performances of getting people in the parks, on rides, ushered into shows, fed, cleaned in rest rooms etc is an incredible and mind-boggling feat in and of itself.  Take time to notice that and appreciate that. Notice the lack of trash blowing around.  Notice that the food, even the quick service food is actually pretty good considering it is being made at a feverish pace behind the scenes in mass quantities.  Pay attention to the detail that goes into almost every attraction's queue line.  Stop and admire the beauty of the landscaping.  Pause and marvel at the engineering that went into that attraction that either almost made you piddle your pants or shed a tear from the memory it brought back.  Take a moment to really enjoy the hundreds of music scores that you can hear during your visit, either at the parks or even back at your resort.  Watch the fireworks shows for crying out loud and comprehend that they do those on that scale EVERY DAY!  That alone is incredible.  Just stop and really appreciate what too often goes overlooked by the critics and by those adults who think WDW is just a place for kids.

So let me just sum up by saying that, if some adults go to WDW and come back and say it was too boring or too "childish," mark them and avoid them because they have lost their ability to stop and enjoy some of the more simpler things of life and those are not usually the happiest people to be around.    Disney is meant to be a place to go to where you can suspend reality for just a few moments and let us all focus on things that can make us smile.   Doesn't the world need more of that these days?  Doesn't the world need some more Walt Disney's to help us remember that dreams are what keep us going?

So there you have it...Disney through the eyes of a 45 year old kid who will ride Dumbo with his wife and watch her get as giddy as a 5 year old while doing so.