In February of this year, the My Fangirl Life team went on a trip to Disney World. Why would three full-grown women want to go on a trip to a place that’s for kids? Well, because it’s not actually just for kids! Today I’d like to share with you some ways to enjoy this magical land when you’re a grown up. So here it is – Disney World for Adults.
#1 – Disneybound!
Though adults aren’t actually allowed to dress in costume to visit Disney World (what if you’re a cosplay master and people think you’re actually a Cast Member?), you can do this awesome thing called Disneybounding. This means dressing in everyday outfits inspired by your favourite Disney characters.
Here are some examples from our trip:
We did different Disneybound outfits for each of our days at Disney World, and we even did inspired outfits for our Universal Studios days. Check out our outfits as princesses, cats, Wonderland friends, Little Mermaid characters, villains, Frozen characters, and Hogwarts students and Harry Potter characters.
#2 – Ride Strategy
When you’re visiting Disney World with a kid or two in tow, sometimes it’s worth waiting in the longer lines or bypassing things you want to do to avoid trekking from one end of the park to the other. When you’re a group of adults, you can save a lot of waiting time by walking those lengths!
Our strategy started before we left. Kris researched the least busy days to visit each of the parks and set up a logical schedule for us based on things we would want to see or do and quieter times at each of the parks (there are no real, actual quiet times). Next, Kris scheduled our Fastpasses for each day of the trip so that we knew we were guaranteed to do all the things that were really important to us.
When we were actually at the park, we used the Disney World app to check wait times on rides or for characters, plotting out what we wanted to do. We made the decision that we were happy to do a bunch of extra walking in order to avoid ride times, so we were able to plot out our route for the day maximizing ride times and minimizing wait times. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll probably have to wait in a few long lines for the biggest rides, but you can really pack a lot more into the day this way.
#3 – Meeting Characters
I know this sounds like a part of the trip that would be for kids, but some of those characters are just so darn clever, which makes it fun for adults too! Check out my post on it here.
#4 – Late Night Hours
The Magic Kingdom is the busiest park almost all the time, but it also sometimes has later hours in the evening than the other parks, especially if you stay at a Disney resort and can make use of the Extra Magic Hours. I believe one day on our trip this park was open until 3 AM! If you make use of this time, you can often get on rides that have long lines without as much of a wait, and without quite as many children around. Sometimes it’s even worth leaving the parks to take a nap around dinner time and coming back to enjoy an evening of festivities.
#5 – Real Food
If you’re on a budget, the quick service meal stations are probably where you will be going (it’s what we did), but if you’re more of a foodie, there are lots of great places to eat fancier meals. By spending a little extra time and some extra money, you can have a real adult meal – not just food fit for kids.
#6 – Drink Your Way Around the World
We spent an evening at Epcot drinking our way around the world… in the Epcot World Showcase, that is! This can get a little expensive, but we chose to share a drink in each country and that helped a bit. By choosing drinks that were fitting for the country we were in, we were able to get the full multicultural experience (i.e. Sake in Japan, wine in Italy, etc.). This is a fun group activity, and it’s even better if you can time it to finish when the fireworks start!
Do you have any tips for enjoying Disney World as an adult? Share in the comments!
Cheers,
KG
