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Health & Fitness

Dear Disney World, Women Without Kids Love You, Too.

Events geared to adults already exist at Disney theme parks. So why doesn't anybody know about them?

A week ago I had an exceptionally deep conversation with a NotMom who travels with her husband to Disney World almost every year. She explained rather matter-of-factly that once she stopped being sad about not being a mother, she realized that the lack of a child was not a good reason to abandon her love of all things Disney. I nodded and said, “Amen!”

Clearly, my new friend is a bigger Disneyphile that I am, and I’m fairly nutty. Over the years, she’s determined late October (excepting Halloween) and early to mid-November are the times with the fewest children at the park. Her reasoning is that parents will take a child out of school around holidays, but generally leave a window of time where kids actually stay in school. Summer is obviously out of the question.

She introduced me to the Epcot® International Food & Wine Festival (this year it’s Sept. 28-Nov. 12).  Famous chefs, wine pairings, international food kiosks. Her description of a week there was succinct: “We ate and drank our way around the world.”

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Oh my.  

Now I’m huddled with HubbyMine actually considering a return to Epcot®. We laughed trying to imagine a Disney facility closed to children for even a day. And yet…

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I had the idea for this post in my head when the NY Times ran a piece from Adam Nagourney, who recently visited DisneyLand with an adults-only group. It’s really informative article, and it provided the stat I’d been Googling for:

Nearly one-third of all the people who attend DisneyWorld in Orlando, FL and DisneyLand in Anaheim, CA are there without children.

The 1/3 number is so consistent that Disney has named us: “nonfamily guests.” (warm and fuzzy, ain’t it?)

There’s :30-second commercials of older adults enjoying DisneyWorld without kids, and there’s an adults-only nightclub. But geez, if you have an event just for adult palates every autumn, how come I’ve yet to meet another adult who’s heard of it?  To find any mention of no-kids activities on the park’s website, I finally typed in “romantic”, but a serious acknowledgement of no-kids Disney freaks would be appreciated.

Makes me wonder: Knowing how expensive on-site Disney hotels can be, would you pay extra to have a childfree floor? A childfree hotel? Resorts do it all the time, marking up the quieter facility (hmmm, which one would that be?) as much as 65%.  For Disney, I’m talking heresy, I know. But, still, what if?

Years ago, I was lucky enough to enjoy a memorable night at Disney Land on an evening when the park was closed to the public. I don’t know what the public was told, but I’m testifying that hundreds of television execs rode rides, watched movies and partied quite hard, sans enfants. It can be done, that’s all I’m sayin’.

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