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Just in case you didn’t know, Pearson and I went to Walt Disney World at the beginning of January. We were celebrating Pearson’s graduation, my birthday, and our 5 year anniversary (only 6 months late on that one).

You see, I’ve been dying to go to Disney World, just the two of us, since we got married. I think some people don’t understand what the point of going without kids is, but I don’t understand why it’s considered a place just for kids! I love Disney now, as a 28 year old woman. I watch all the new Disney movies when they come out (and re-watch them multiple times). I listen to Disney music on almost a daily basis. I occasionally enjoy a Disney Chanel Original movie, when I can get a hold of them. In fact, I’m probably more obsessed now than I was as a kid.

So anyway, we went as adults, without any kids. And here are my tips for Disney World for Adults! (though most of these tips are also helpful even if you are taking kids along)

ONE || Go at Off-Peak Times

This is seriously my best tip. I’ve always known and said this. In fact, as much as I love Disney, you could not pay me to go in the summer or on Christmas. It’s way too crowded and you can’t even enjoy it! Did you know Disney World had to turn people away because they were at capacity on Christmas this year? Crazy! Anyway, this is especially easy if you don’t have kids in school. There are a couple calendars out there showing when the parks are the least crowded (like this one from touringplans.com who have analyzed years of data to create their calendar), but typically mid-January through mid-February and September are the best times.

TWO || Book Early

Maybe this one is obvious but the earlier you book, the better chance you have of getting what you want. That being said, you can only book dining reservations up to 180 days in advance and FastPasses are 60 days if you’re staying on Disney property and 30 days if you’re not.

THREE || Get Park Hopper Tickets

Okay this is really a matter of what works for guys and what your priorities are. Some people don’t think it’s worth the price or the time it takes to get from park to park and they’ll just buy one park per day Disney tickets. But for us, the park hoppers were worth it because we didn’t do everything at animal kingdom that we wanted to on the first day so we went back on another day. We couldn’t have done that if we just bought a one day ticket for Animal Kingdom.

FOUR || Download the My Disney Experience App (MDE)

Seriously, this app is a lifesaver. It has maps of the parks, show schedules, attraction wait times, locations and schedules of character meet-and-greets, PhotoPass locations, bathroom locations… Basicallyall the information you would ever want. It also contains your FastPass and dining reservations and all your PhotoPass photos, all in one place!

FIVE || Buy Memory Maker

So you can get your picture taken for free from PhotoPass photographers around the parks. They’re stationed at photo-opp places like in front of the castle as well as with the characters. Any time any of them takes a picture of you with their professional cameras and photography skills, they scan your ticket (whether that’s a card or Magic Band – more on that later) and your picture is then connected to your account. You can find all your PhotoPass pictures on your MDE app or online here. Your ride photos are there too. The problem is, they have a watermark and you have to pay to download each photo you want. Unless you have Memory Maker. It’s about $150 – $200 (depending on when and how you buy it) and you can download any and all photos on your account and do whatever you want with them. I especially recommend doing this if it’s just the two of you going because you’re going to want some pictures of the two of you together.

SIX || Seek Out PhotoPass Photographers

If you have kids with you, getting their picture taken is probably the last thing they want to do, right? But if it’s just the two of you, take the time to get some great, professional pictures to treasure! The MDE app shows you where the photographers are. They’re professional and super friendly. They all asked us about Pearson’s PhD and told me happy birthday. One even gave us an extra photo with a rocket from Tomorrowland behind us (below) because “Bio-Physics is sort of like rocket science, right?” And sometimes they’ll even add a little magic touch like on the picture above! Oh and since we’re sort of on the subject, take pictures with characters! There is no shame in two adults without kids posing with Mickey and Minnie or Marry Poppins, trust me!

SEVEN || Get Buttons and Wear Them!

Did you know you can get FREE celebration buttons from any indoor vendor in the parks? No matter what you’re celebrating, they have a button. Think birthdays, anniversaries, honeymoons, graduations. And they have generic “celebration” buttons that you can write anything on! You don’t want to miss out on this because one – they’re free, two – they are great conversation starters for characters, three – tons of cast members will tell you “congratulations” and “Happy Birthday”, and four – some cast members might even give you a free drink or something just to help you celebrate! Oh and a bonus reason is they make super cute pictures!

EIGHT || Get Magic Bands

Magic bands are exactly what they sound like. They’re silicone bands you wear on your wrist with lots of magical abilities! If you stay at a Disney Resort Hotel, you get them for free. If not, you can buy them at a $12.99, $22.99, $27.99, or $32.99 price points. The cheapest of those is just a solid color band with a Mickey shape. But those are plenty cute enough for me. You can purchase them at the Disney Store here or in person at the parks or Disney Springs. So anyway, you link the Magic Band to your MDE account and it then acts as your ticket into the parks, what you scan for PhotoPass photos, what you scan for FastPasses, and your room key if you stay at a Disney Resort! It’s so much easier to have it all right there on your wrist rather than having to pull out your ticket card for everything! Plus they’re super cute! I actually still wear mine sometimes just for fun. Did I mention I’m a Disney Freak?

NINE || Leave EARLY for Everything

Let me tell you a story. On my birthday, we had a reservation to eat breakfast at Be Our Guest at 9:05 am and we thought we left the hotel in plenty of time. We did not account for the fact that the Magic Kingdom parking lot is actually a Monorail ride away from the park. And we didn’t think about the fact that on Monday there would still be a bit of a crowd left over from the Run Disney events that had happened over the weekend. When we finally got into the park, we ran to the back and got to the Beast’s Castle at about 9:40. But they still let us use our reservation! So the moral of the story is, leave early! If not just for reservations (since they’re usually pretty flexible and your FastPasses last a whole hour), you want as much time to spend in the parks as possible anyway. So try to be waiting at the gate for rope drop. That might mean leaving your hotel room like an hour and a half before the park opens! But that’s easy if it’s just the two of you with no kids, right? Well, apparently not for us.

TEN || Book FastPasses for Early in the Morning
(+ other Ride and FastPass tips)

You get 3 FastPasses per day that you can book either 30 or 60 days in advance (as I mentioned in tip two). And all three have to be at the same park. BUT, once you use all three in one day, you can book more. So book them for early in the day so that you have more times to choose from when you add more. And be sure to book more from the MDE app AS SOON AS you check in for your third of the day.

Also, book FastPasses for rides you aren’t excited for. This sounds a little backwards, doesn’t it? Well, I don’t necessarily mean to waste all your FastPasses on lame rides. And of course, you do you. But hear me out. We got FastPasses for Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom. My thought was just the fact that you can’t go to Magic Kingdom without riding Space Mountain, right? So since I know I wanted to ride it, I might as well get a FastPass. But after we got off the ride, Pearson (who had never ridden it before) said he was so glad we got a FastPass for it because he would have been super disappointed if we waited in a super long line for it. So if you’re more inclined to wait in line for a certain ride because it’s your favorite, maybe book a FastPass for something else. Just my two cents.

Lastly, use single-rider lines. Yes even if you’re both riding the ride! This might not work so well if you have kids with you because of course you’ll want to ride with them. But if it’s just the two of you, go for it! Not all rides have them, but usually the single-rider line goes much quicker. And sometimes you can get paired together or right in front of each other anyway!

ELEVEN || Do the Animal Kingdom Safari in the Morning
(+ other attraction and timing tips)

You’ll hopefully beat most of the crowds and the animals are more active in the morning. And right after you do the safari, go to the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail! You get to see even more animals up close and it’s a self guided walking tour. Take all the time you want with your sweetie!

Go see indoor shows in the afternoon when it’s raining.

Do kiddie rides and attractions at night after a lot of the kids have gone back to the hotel to get ready for bed.

Do the frozen sing-a-long at Hollywood Studios. It’s not just for kids. It’s actually super funny with a lot of jokes for adults to get. And if you’re like us, you’ll enjoy the sing-a-long aspect too!

TWELVE || Meet Disney Princesses in EPCOT
(+ other character tips)

Of course you can meet characters, including princesses, in all the parks, but for whatever reason, EPCOT seems to have the shortest lines. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a more “adult” park or because most of the meet and greets are outside or some other reason. Plus I just think it’s cool to meet these lovely ladies in their own part of the world! We met Belle in France! You can also meet, Anna and Elsa in Norway, Aurora in France as well, Jasmine in Morocco, Mulan in China, and Snow White in Germany. Plus EPCOT is home to the Princess Storybook Dining experience where you can meet three or four princesses (on a rotating schedule) at a time!

I believe Pocahontas is only at Animal Kingdom and Tiana, Cinderella and Rapunzel are only at Magic Kingdom. Also, there are very few furry characters at Epcot. Those are mostly at the Animal and Magic Kingdoms. Oh and of course, all Star Wars characters are only at Hollywood Studios along with most Pixar characters. Though you can also see Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland at MK. And lastly, try to catch come characters in training at EPCOT!

Also, whatever you do, don’t waste your time with the Belle Enchanted Encounter at Magic Kingdom. You won’t get to meet her. They take a big group of people in at a time and pick a few children from the group to help tell Belle a story. Those children get to meet her but nobody else does. You just get to sit and watch. 

THIRTEEN || Bring Ponchos to the Parks
(+ other packing tips)

Yes bring poncho’s. As I’m sure you know, it rains a lot in Florida. Like, every day in the afternoon. But this advice is two-fold. The second part is don’t use the ponchos unless you absolutely have to. When it’s raining, try to get inside for a while and wait it out. Or just tough it out if it’s not a very hard rain. If you use the ponchos, then you’ll have to carry around a wet, unfolded poncho for the rest of the day.

Bring zip-lock bags to the parks. These are great for storing wet clothes or ponchos as well as left over food. Really, I’m sure you’ll find a lot of uses for them. They’re so handy!  

Bring a portable phone charger to the parks. And make sure it’s charged up. I think they have charging stations around, or at least outlets. But you don’t want to be stuck in one place while your phone charges.

Bring your own food and snacks to the parks. It will save you money and time!

Bring a towel to the parks. It can just be a little hand towel but you’ll want to use it to wipe off seats that have been rained on.

Buy cute Disney inspired clothes and accessories before you go. This will save you so much money! Etsy is a great place to look. I bought these awesome Star Wars shirts off of Etsy. I also bought personalized PhD t-shirts from Designs by Palmetto Mom (pictured below). And of course, my interchangeable ears that can go on a hat from A and C Ears. Oh and I also bought a cute Mickey Mouse jacket from Wal-Mart (also pictured below around my waist) and several Disney LuLaRoe leggings (some Minnie Mouse ones are pictured below)!

FOURTEEN || Snack Throughout the Day
(+ other dining tips)

If you’re going to buy some fun, Disney themed food (think Dole-whip, Mickey shaped ice cream etc), do that a little bit here and there throughout the day, in addition to the snacks you bring. Then you’ll only eat one big meal in the parks per day and that can be really special. Why would you want to waste the money and time on a full meal from a random counter in the parks when you can do that at a character dining experience or a cool themed restaurant like Be Our Guest. Does that make sense?

Along the same lines, consider doing the special meals for breakfast! The food is usually cheaper and if you do mid-morning at more of a brunch time, you probably won’t really be hungry again until dinner.

Stay hydrated. Oh goodness this is a big one. A few years ago, I went to Universal with my college roommate and I got dehydrated. It was not pleasant. Please bring a water bottle and fill it up a bunch!

Which reminds me! Get ice water from any food place. Because it’s really hot in Florida and guests are doing a lot of walking, cast members are required to give you free ice water if you ask for it. Use this to fill up your water bottles so you don’t have to use lukewarm water from the water fountains.

And lastly, if you’re running late for a dining reservation, go anyway. As I said in tip nine, we were more than 30 minutes late for our breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. And we almost didn’t even try to use it. But they let us in anyway!

FIFTEEN || Use a Travel Agent!!!

Do as I say and not as I do here. My brother and his brand new wife just spent their honeymoon at Walt Disney World and they booked everything through Missy at Keys to Dream Travel. She was in constant contact with them throughout their whole trip. Thanks to her, they used about 10 FastPasses per day! Pearson and I had a hard time booking extra FastPasses after using the ones we booked ahead of time. But apparently agents can see more than we can with all their magical, behind-the-scenes knowledge!

Basically, it’s always a good idea to go to Walt Disney World (or Disneyland)…

Whether you have kids or not. But I personally think it’s extra special and fun if you go with just your spouse. After all, they don’t call it the Happiest Place on Earth for nothing. We had a blast and both agreed that it was the best trip to Disney that either of us had ever taken. And we had previously been there 6 times between the two of us. I’m already wanting to take another trip but maybe our next Disney Vacation will be a Disney Cruise instead.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my grown-up guide to Disney and that you start planning that adults only trip right now!

Have you ever been to Disney World (or Disneyland) without kids? Do you think it’s worth it? What tips do you have to add to my list? Thanks for reading!