Disney is a perfect getaway for parents — without the kids

Adam and Tami Shields have taken their kids to Walt Disney World half a dozen times since last summer. They walked 12 miles a day while racing from ride to ride, meeting princesses, catching shows and seeking out food the 9- and 10-year-old wanted to eat.

For an early celebration of their 27th wedding anniversary, the Marietta, Ga. couple returned to the park in June during the last four days of their annual passes - without the kids. They sampled all the restaurants they wanted to try, rode the rides they wanted, took a tour for people 16 and older and staked out a central viewing spot for the fireworks show.

“It absolutely was more relaxed,” said Adam Shields, 51, a consultant.

For parents who enjoy Disney, there’s nothing like experiencing the theme parks through their kids’ eyes as they see characters come to life and get their first taste of Mickey-shaped pretzels. But leaving the kids at home? For many, that’s pretty great too.

Like all things Disney, the practice also has haters. Kid-free trips have kicked up controversy and heated public opinion, which has already swirled around Disney adults for years. Parents who visit without their kids are viewed by some as even bigger villains, getting labeled “weird,” “pathological,” “maladjusted” and “top tier selfish” on social media.

“Amazing,” is how Andy Sutherland, 41, described the experience of kid-free trips to Disney. He and his wife Liz, owners of the travel agency Come and See Travel, have three kids - almost 2, 10 and 12 - and have made six or so trips to the parks without them while still bringing the kids once a year or more. While their trips to Disney count as work, they say they also welcome the chance to relax with a beer, go at their own pace and skip the lines to meet Mickey Mouse.

“You almost get to be like a teenager again and just run around and ride rides,” said Liz Sutherland, 41. “It’s really fun.”

Not everyone agreed. When the Sutherlands posted a tongue-in-cheek video a few months ago from a trip without their older kids, Liz said she had to disable the Instagram comments after they got violent.

“People feel very, very, very, very strongly,” she said.

No strollers or meltdowns

The $175 billion entertainment company not only welcomes kid-free adults, it encourages them.

An online grown-ups’ guide to Disney World that promises “Magical Moments for Adults” highlights thrill rides, after-hours events and the annual food and wine festival at Epcot.

At Disneyland Resort in California, there’s a culture of locals with annual passes hitting the parks for a girls’ night out or couple’s date night without kids, said Gavin Doyle, founder of the blog Mickey Visit. He said the company has built lounges and bars around themes that will appeal to visitors who are in the prime age to have kids, like a Star Wars-themed bar or a lounge inspired by Beauty and the Beast.

“It’s part of that bigger effort to say this can also be a couples trip,” he said.

Greg Antonelle, managing director for the travel agency MickeyTravels, said that his company has clients who book parent-only trips for food festivals where they can take their time sampling small plates, beer and wine. Many adults “drink around the world” at Epcot’s collection of pavilions representing 11 countries.

At the Florida resort, there are golf courses, spas, an adult-only piano bar and dancehall, a sangria class and a Michelin-star restaurant. Antonelle said sometimes customers will finish a trip with their families and book a return just for the parents.

“You don’t have to worry about the strollers or the meltdowns and you can enjoy the atmosphere and the drinks,” he said. “A lot of the adults that go without kids, they got the love of Disney from when they were a kid.”

Viral video, then a backlash

One woman’s kid-free trip went viral last month after she posted a video of herself dramatically hugging one of her kids goodbye at home before cutting to her dancing with a drink at Epcot.

“When the Mom guilt sets in bc you’re going to Disney without the kids,” it says, before continuing: “But then you remember why you booked a trip without the kids.”

Screenshots of the video by Madalyn Jade Monaghan, a 30-year-old travel agent from Charleston, S.C., made their way to X, where some critics said they would “have to side with the mom guilt on this one.”

The original Instagram reel posted under @maddiesmickeymagic got more than 1 million views, with Disney fans jumping to her defense. But some commenters also wrote “sick, sick, terrible things,” Monaghan said in an interview.

She said her kids, who are 6 and 11, were “completely cool” with her trip and had fun with their dad while she visited the Florida parks with her own mom. The family has annual passes and had visited Disneyland Paris in the summer and returned to Disney World a few weeks after her solo venture.

Monaghan said she booked the trip as part of her effort to generate more business and record videos without taking away from time with her kids, but also to encourage parents to take trips on their own if they wanted to.

“It’s obviously amazing to go with them,” she said. “My best memories of going to Disney are of course going with them … but there’s a lot of stresses that come along with that too.”

Monaghan said she was surprised by the reaction to her trip because it’s such a common practice in her experience: “People just don’t realize that it’s really not that weird,” she said.

But for some who aren’t as familiar with Disney, the mere idea of an adult wanting to leave their children behind to go to a theme park is baffling.

“Gobsmacked,” is how Jennifer Welch described her reaction. As co-host of the “I’ve Had It” podcast, she has ranted about Disney adults in the past - though she has no beef with the company itself. But in an interview, she said she didn’t realize some of those adults were also parents.

“I don’t relate to that and I’m literally rendered speechless that people would do that,” she said.

Welch said she took her own kids to Disneyland twice when they were younger. She acknowledges that many activities are more fun without kids, especially when they’re “in those trench warfare ages.”

“At the end of the day, if that’s what somebody likes to do, swing for the fences,” she said.

Kids get their own vacation time

Parents who spoke to The Washington Post said they had no regrets about their Disney trips - and made sure their kids still got plenty of vacation time.

Shields said he and his wife wouldn’t have gone without the rest of the family if they were taking only one trip a year.

“Nobody was traumatized in the making of this vacation,” he said.

Ashley Aiello, a content creator from Indiana, flew to California with her husband Chris a day before a TikTok event this summer, and the couple, both 41, visited Disneyland together without their two kids for the first time. She posted a video on Facebook of them overlooking a roller coaster and Ferris wheel and wrote: “Getting to go to Disney without kids honestly is a whole other kind of magic.”

In an interview, she said she would have felt more guilty about going to Disney World in Florida without her kids, 9 and 12, because that’s where they usually go as a family.

She described the trip without kids as “a little less stressful” than family visits because “only having to worry about what two people want is different than thinking about what the kids want all the time.”

“I would do it again,” she said.