I have been to disney twice in my life. Once when I was 12 (mid 70s) and this past July for 2 1/2 days with my 17 year old daughter. I want to take my entire family next august for a vacation but I am feeling overwhelmed! I have a son who will be 19 (not excited about being dragged on a family vacation - especially to WDW!) my daughter who will be 18 and LOVED every second we were there (we are both little girls at heart!) my youngest son will be 16 and doesn't care one way or the other about disney and my husband who is going to keep the peace. So you may ask why I am bothering to bring the boys if they couldn't care less, but I truly believe once they experience the magic they will have a great time. Does anyone with teenagers have any advice for the best things to do. We will be there 6 or 7 nights (7-8 days) and the only thing my oldest wants to do is eat good food. BTW he hates "amusement parks" because he does not typically like the rides.

Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks

WDW is more than an amusement park, it's the happiest place on earth!!!:D

I agree that once they experience the "magic" they will be happy that you brought them along. I'm not big on amusement parks because most of the rides are just insane :eek: but at WDW the rides are more enjoyable. Good eats can be found just about anywhere at WDW but your son will probably enjoy EPCOT. Check out the GOOD EATS threads. Also the water parks are fun and their is always Downtown Disney!

Oh, there's SO much to do! You can rent boats, go parasailing, fishing, golfing, biking, horseback riding. There's so much to do without setting foot in a park. I love museums and especially at Epcot and Animal Kingdom, there's a ton of educational opportunities.

There's Downtown Disney and the Boardwalk, the ESPN Zone (Boardwalk), and all kinds of terrific restaurants. Of course, there's swimming, arcades, hot tubs. There should be PLENTY of things to entertain the boys.

BTW, JMHO, but allow some time away for the kids. If EVERYONE doesn't want to do "A" that's cool. Time away from each other will make the time together SO much more meaningful and no one feels "put upon." We took 2 kids, myself and my husband, and my parents in 05. We started out the day together, toured a little bit of the parks, then split up until dinner time. Sometimes we all wanted to do the same thing, so we stayed together, but no one HAD to. Worked great!

Have a great trip! They'll love it--they just don't know it yet!!! :p

Very few of Disney's rides are like amusement park rides. I can think of only one attraction that you go upside down (Rock n Rollercoaster), and a couple that would have anything close to equivalents in ride only at stardard parks (Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest) but both of those are so heavy on the themeing, you'd be hard pressed to really find anything like them in your local 6 Flags park (or whatever he's comparing them to).

I would recommend getting your oldest involved in selecting your ADR locations. And you should make them 6 months before your trip!

I also agree about not forcing the 'family fun together time'! Too much 'family fun' is not fun!

Thanks Everyone. I think I will have my oldest pick the restaurants...or most of them anyway. Maybe we'll do MK last and do Epcot first so he doesn't feel like it is too "childish". I hadn't thought about all the other things, but he loves fishing and renting boats sounds like a lot of fun! I also like the idea of everyone having some separate time.

With your family, I am going to suggest you look into getting a Fort Wilderness Cabin for your stay. The Cabin will sleep six (one double bed and bunk beds in the edroom, one Murphy bed in the living area), has a full kitchen, full housekeeping, barbeque grill, deck, TV. But it's far enough away from the Disney activites that you don't really have to leave the campground (as my parents and in-laws quickly found out much to their delight). The others that want to run around Disney World can. the ones that don't care for it, can do other things.

Water vehicles, canoeing, horseback riding, biking are right there at the campground. Since your boys are older, they can meet up with you for meals.

I found this to be a very nice compromise for those with the Disney bug and those without.

I have a son who will be 19 (not excited about being dragged on a family vacation - especially to WDW!)
Any advice would be appreciated!

Trade in your son. :)

WDW is more than an amusement park, it's the happiest place on earth!!!:D

Well, only because I'm a really picky person sometimes, I have to point out that the "happiest place on Earth" is Disneyland, while Disney World is "the most magical place on Earth". Not that it really matters....

And km64fun, it's just about impossible to convince someone who's never been that Disney parks are completely unlike the standard amusement park. There is so much more to experience, be it rides like Pirates or the Haunted Mansion or the Hall of Presidents, or shows like the Festival of the Lion King or Nemo, or outdoor multi-media (fireworks) shows like Remember or IllumiNations or Fantasmic! Just about everything in a Disney park is much more interesting and fun than the average amusement park, unless you simply enjoy getting thrown around and spun in all directions (which it sounds like your son isn't into).

I've been to a Disney park more than once with a complete novice who I've had to practically drag with me. It takes no more than a couple of rides to see this person now kinda nodding and telling me "NOW I get it!" Convince your kids to give it a chance - the place will do the rest!

There's another thread the OP started about her DVC reservation, so I am pretty sure she's going to be staying at a DVC - which is probaby a good thing, because I don't see one bathroom (like at the campground) mixing well with 3 teenagers!

Now this depends on how much of the trip you want everyone to be together but.... my DH recalls his favorite trip with his family as the one when he was 9 and his 18 year old brother and 19 year old sister were let loose in the parks without the parental units for one whole day and night. A promise like that just might warm up your boys to the idea. Make them promise to stick together, but other than that, rides, parks and meals will be up to them. That's one mighty big candy store to be a kid in!

Hi km64 -- I LOVE going to WDW with teenage boys. We were there with 3 of our boys ages 15, 19, and 21 last summer. Their favorites were (in no particular order):


renting the sea raycers at the Contemporary

the Segway tour at Epcot (pricey, but worth it)

Dive Quest at Living Seas (you have to be scuba certified for this, but they have a snorkeling one where you don't have to be -- again, pricey, but pretty amazing!)

Fantasia Fairways course, if they like miniature golf at all, this is a really challenging "grown-up" putt-putt

staying for the late EMH at MK, all the way til 2am, then sleeping in the next morning

Expedition Everest

As they've gotten older they enjoy sit-down ts meals more. I think they've gotten to where they appreciate the world showcase restarants a lot more. Boma at AKL was everybody's favorite meal of the trip, but they also love Sci-Fi.
If your boys like the water they'll probably enjoy the water parks and there's also DQ if they like video games.

Another nice thing about them being older if you're staying onsite is that it's very easy to split up for part of they day if they want to do something different. We ended up not doing this this trip, but have in the past. For instance they're not big on the parades or stage shows, so sometimes we'd split up for those.

I ended up throwing out a lot of my planning this last trip and going with the flow because they're no longer the little kiddos that gladly followed me anywhere I took them at 6:30am in the morning :p But it made for a really fun trip and we ended up doing a number of things that were new to me too.

I'm guessing you're right and once they get there they'll have a blast! And I bet your husband will catch a bit of the Disney spirit too!

I'm guessing you're right and once they get there they'll have a blast! And I bet your husband will catch a bit of the Disney spirit too!
I'm not trying to be a spoil sport here - but there ARE some people who don't 'get' Disney even after they visit. One of my brothers-in-law is that way - but it's nice because I get to go with my sister (his wife) and he stays at home! He gets some time to do what he wants with the dogs and his motorcycles, she gets a Disney trip, and I get a partner in fun. Win-Win-Win!

My oldest son (now 22) does not like going with us anymore; hasn't been with us since he was 15 1/2. (his last trip, without us, was his senior trip)

However, his last trip with us he did enjoy the mini golf, ESPN club at Boardwalk, the boats at the resort, and he does like fast rides so that wasn't ruled out for us.

His Sr. trip he said he enjoyed eating at Japan in Epcot.

Here's to hoping your boys find the Magic!

The good thing is that your kids are old enough to "do their own thing," and you should be able to accomodate everyone. I suggest that you present options to them as to how they can use their "share" of vacation assets. What I mean by this is, perhaps they don't need to have a park pass covering every day of your stay (the cost is heavily loaded to the first four days, adding days 5 and thereafter are a lot cheaper, per day). You can offer to buy them a less expensive pass, covering, say, two or three days of your vacation, and giving them the option of doing a few activities outside of the parks, per the above suggestions. I would suggest doing Epcot early on, and make sure they get the flavor of the park both during the day, and in the evening. If they like the parks, they then, probably, have the option of cancelling an outside activity planned for later in the week (with at least 24 hours notice, or whatever is required), and upgrading the pass. On their "non-park" days, plan a meal outside of the parks, at hotels, or Downtown Disney, and the family can meet up there. The boys could sleep in, maybe do Disney Quest, or a water park, while the Disney fans do the parks. Check in by cell several times a day. If you happen to stay at Saratoga Springs, you can easily walk to Downtown Disney, both for activities there, and to grab a bus to another hotel for dinner. No reason why everyone can't have a great time.

First off there is nothing better than taking someone to Disney for the first time. The first time I took my oldest he was 13 and wasn't excited about going at all. He loved it. Epcot is still his favorite. This last trip was DS 21, DIL 21, DD16, DD8, DH and myself. The teenager and young adults really liked; Planet Hollywood (not the greatest food but the atmosphere), Disney Quest, 'Ohana's and Le Cellier. We like to hit the park at rope drop, teenager and young adults perfer to sleep in so be flexible with that. Of course they will miss out on something too. They only spent one day at MK. After sleeping in they of course missed out on some stuff the biggest thing was the redone Pirates, we of course rode it twice before 11. Another big hit was the Adventures Club in DTD. As long as you're with them they can get in here and the Comedy Club. Do plan on splitting up and meeting back for meals. They need their space and you'll like them better if they get it.


Vanessa

I can't speak from family experience (I'm an only child and was basically raised at WDW, with trips every year), but I did end up convincing my senior class to visit WDW for Grad Night as our senior trip. While many of them were not happy to be going at first, once we got there I heard almost no complaints and we're talking about forty teenagers going. Now granted, there were a lot of teenagers and it wasn't a family vacation for most of them, but one possible idea might be to allow a friend to join on the vacation. Sometimes it helps for us to have someone around who is not a family member!

Chris