Disney for 4 adults

Hello, I am apologizing, in advance, if this post gets too long. Our last trip to Disney was in '06, when my son was 16. He started growing out of Disney and we started going on cruises (non-disney)- and that has been our obsession for the last several years. Last Summer DH and I went to visit my Father who lives about 45 minutes from Disney. The day we were to fly home (out of MCO), we spent the day in Downtown Disney, since our flight wasn't until 9:30 pm. Well, that did it, we realized how much we love Disney. My son was, recently, looking at some pics that were taken at Downtown Disney and asked why it's been so long since we have gone to Disney. So, now we have decided to go to WDW either in Feb. or May of 2014. There will be DH, DS, his girlfriend and I. DS and his girlfriend will be 23 by the time we go. Everybody is very excited about this trip. But, I was wondering, for the people who travel without children, how do see the parks. Do you stand in lines to see the characters? I can't see us doing that, so I am hoping that will give us a lot of extra time, for other things. We used to spend a lot of time trying to get autographs and pics with the characters. I, also, figured we could cut out some of the educational type attractions in Epcot. I think there are, probably, only 3 or 4 attractions we are interested in and then we can spend most of the day in the world showcase. So, my question is, what do some of you do while in the parks?

Think its more of a question of how do you approach the parks. Judging by your post you're content to just enjoy the sights and sounds of the parks and not focus on the rides. Something i highly recommend. Its not my thing to use a ride check list, where the only goal is to do all the rides and ignore everything else.
Epcot should be ideal for this as you mention but there are a lot of other places to go and just enjoy being there, the food, the people and all the little things. Maybe do a tour? Visit a couple of hotels, bike at Wilderness Lodge. Dom't forget there's a lot to do outside the parks as well. I personally enjoy renting a boat at the lagoon in front of MK.

Also there's nothing wrong with standing inline and do a character shot. I always travel with a group of friends my age and they remain some of my favorites.

As a solo frequent traveller to WDW I jump around the various parks. During my four/five day trip I will try to visit each park in the morning and on some other day in the evening. Since I am a DVC member I also like to spend a little bit of time relaxing at my resort and pool. I will also make a quick trip to Downtown Disney to check things out. If you are interested in getting character photos but don't want to stand in line I recommend one of the character breakfast. That way you can enjoy your breakfast and let the characters come to you for those candid photos.

DBF and I (24 & 23 years old) have gone to Disney several times in the past few years. Our first trip (June 2012) was his first time ever to Disney and any theme park in general- so we definitely focused on the rides...which I have to admit was NOT as care-free as I remembered it being when I was little
On our second trip (january 2013) we were down for the marathon, and we focused less on the rides and more on the atmosphere/relaxation. We still stood in line for characters (although, usually I was more excited about this than DBF) but we had more fun doing the trip spur-of-the-moment than planned & rushed. I would definitely agree that you can probably skip many of the educational rides at Epcot and save your time for WS...that was (and still is) our favorite part of all the parks. We also really enjoy exploring other resorts, Downtown Disney, and spending time relaxing by the pool/in the room during the afternoons.
Have fun!

I'd also suggest entertaining the idea of the Segway tour at Fort Wilderness - sooooo much fun!

Also, when touring the WS, try eating/drinking/kissing (must be photographed!) around the world!

Honey0701 said:

Also, when touring the WS, try eating/drinking/kissing (must be photographed!) around the world!

Click to expand...

This is such a great idea! Thanks!

I'm 24 and my DBF is 25. We normally travel to Disney with my parents although we didn't get a chance to spend much time together on our last trip with them. Disney with 4 adults is freeing haha. No kids or grandparents to worry about and everyone can stay together or split up on a whim.

We focus on rides and shows mostly but I still love character pics. We won't wait in long lines but ill jump in if its short. We also still do a character breakfast because its a lot of fun!

We love staying late at the parks, park hopping and hitting Epcot for dinner and Iluminations a few nights of our trip.

I wouldn't discount any rides or shows because you are 4 adults. We still do all of fantasyland sans dumbo and love all the "smaller" rides at Epcot. Just go with the flow of what you, your DH, DS and his gf want to do. My parents and I now have a great relationship and its fun to travel with them now that we are all adults. Have a great trip!

We're two adults in our 20's and we just started planning what will be our thrid trip in less than three years.

We don't do too many character lines mostly because we're not that interested; we always meet Mickey though and will hop in a short line if it's somebody we like. To get our character fix we do character meals at least a couple times while we're there, usually a late breakfast at CP and then dinner at CRT on the day we spend at MK. DH loves Pooh and I love princesses so they're perfect for us.

For us Disney has become an eating vacation more than anything. We spend lots of time in WS eating and we always do the Deluxe Dining Plan as our splurge.

We using TouringPlans.com to create our plan of what we want to ride/see/do ahead of time so we make sure we're doing everything we want. Usually we can be done with our list in four or five hours. After we finish our list we'll reride things or ride things we might not do if we were in a time cruch and if we're worn out we'll wander through stores or grab a snack and people watch.

My best peice of advice would be for everyone to sit down ahead of time, talk about what you want to do, and put together a rough plan. Even if you only decide how many days you want to spend in each park and have a short list of must do's. It will be helpful once you get there and it might surprise you to see what everyone in interested in. And don't discount the 'educational' things at Epcot, Living With The Land is my favorite and for my husband it's second only to Malestrom.