10 Reasons to Go on a Disney Cruise (Without Your Kids!)

Two years ago, my husband made me go on a Disney cruise without my children. Guys, I was MAD at him. I honest and truly got on that airplane and said, “Do NOT even talk to me until we land. I can’t even LOOK at you right now.” I had never been on a cruise before and I had never left the country, either. To do both of those things while the kids were back home completely freaked me out. Plus, we weren’t just going on any cruise. We were going on a DISNEY cruise. Without our kids? It just felt so… wrong. I was certain it would be miserable, that the ship would be overrun with children, and we’d have a terrible time.

I was wrong. Completely and totally wrong! Quite frankly, we’ve talked about taking another Disney cruise but then we realize this time we’d need to take the kids and we say, “Ugh… never mind.”  And seriously, I’m the kind of person who typically doesn’t like to even leave the house at all unless ALL OF US go together. But we had an incredible time without our kids.

• First of all, the adults-only beach at Castaway Cay. The adult beach is so far removed from the family beach that you cannot even HEAR any children. There is a separate tram that takes you over to the private beach and is completely isolated from the rest of the island. The adult beach has its own lunch buffet, its own float rentals, its own bathrooms. It’s so quiet because no one there is stressed about children. I got to lay on a float on the ocean and float with my eyes CLOSED. And any momma out there knows that when you have kids and there is water, you don’t even get to blink. I was so relaxed from that day that my whole body felt different–and it lasted about three months!

 

• Second, you have more flexible cabin options. We had a HUGE cabin. It was actually only rated for three people, though, despite being so large. And the room was actually not any more expensive than the regular family cabin options. We loved our room! It had two huge porthole windows and so much space. And if we’d brought the kids, it would not have been an option.

• If you participate in the Fish Extender gift exchange, the gifts are all for YOU, not your kids. Do you know about Fish Extenders?!? You can go do Disboards.com and join a group for all the people going on your cruise with you. You get to know each other online and you fill out a form with some info about your travel group. Then when you are on the ship, you hang a bag of some sort over the fish shaped hook outside your cabin. And the other people from your group come around and leave you presents! It’s so much fun! Some people give homemade gifts, some give candy, some give you things that are useful on the ship. You just never know what will appear in your bag throughout the cruise. And sure, that’s fun for the kids, but you can participate as an adult and have a blast, too! In my group, about half the cabins on my list were adults only, so it wasn’t just us.

• Kids clubs are really popular on Disney ships. That means that quite often all the kids are IN the kids clubs and not out roaming the ship. I was so nervous that there would be kids just EVERYWHERE reminding me that I am a horrible parent for leaving mine at home. But we really didn’t see all that many kids over the week. They were all happily playing in the kids clubs.

• You get true down time. On the TV in our cabin, we had access to an on demand library of literally every Disney movie ever made. Not just the cartoons, either. EVERY Disney movie was in that library. We could lay on the bed in the nice cool cabin after a day out in the hot sun and watch movies without anyone whining that they were bored or asking what we were going to do next. One night we laid in bed and watched Cool Runnings and ate a box of Cheez-Its. It may have been the best night of my life.

• Evan. I mean, yours probably won’t be named Evan but you’ll get own personal version.  Evan was the poor soul whose job it was to sweep up my crumbs when I was eating. I am a MESSY eater. It’s just something I’ve come to accept about myself. But Evan was there at every meal to sweep up my crumbs and keep my table area neat and tidy. I need an Evan in my every day life! But I’m pretty sure if I had three kids at the table with me, Evan would’ve been focused on their spills, their crumbs, their messes. And I never would of known the luxury of having a crumb person. (And let’s all hope that Evan has been promoted by now! Poor kid worked HARD!)

• The adults-only pool area. Granted, if you put your kids in the kids club, you can still enjoy this part. But I still think it would be different to know that you could get a call at any moment that your child needed you for something vs. knowing that you could just soak in that hot tub and enjoy yourself without a care in the world. We really enjoyed the adults only pool, as well. There are adults-only areas in other parts of the ship but wee don’t drink so we didn’t go check out the bars. I’ve heard that they are fantastic and well decorated and a lot of fun.

• Excursions! When I was looking at all the excursion options, many of them had age minimums that would have excluded us from going. Without the kids, we had a lot more options for what we wanted to do. We ended up going to Atlantis, which we could have done as a family. But I would imagine that the “lazy” river (more like river rapids!) at Atlantis would have been somewhat stressful with the kids because it’s hard to stay together. (Side note: you totally need a waterproof camera on a cruise!)

• Delight in the details. There are so many little things to stop and notice. And the reality is that if you are trying to keep track of your kiddos, you may not notice the adorable pattern in the carpet, the or the lampshades, or the cool clocks that let you know what time it is at each Disney park around the world (my favorite thing!). We got to wander around at a slower pace and soak it all in.

• Cost. Let’s just be honest here. The cost for two adults to go on a Disney cruise is a heck of a lot cheaper than the cost for a family of five! We got to make sure WE liked cruising and didn’t get seasick and didn’t hate being on the ship, etc. It was like a test run of whether or not we should do it as a family, without the huge cost involved with taking them only to discover we all hate cruising!

I’m not saying that taking your kids on a Disney cruise is a bad idea. Lots and lots of people do and have a great time. I’m just saying if you want to go on a fantastic cruise without your children, don’t rule out Disney as a “kids ship” or only for families. It’s not at all. Go without kids and truly enjoy yourself!

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