Why it’s Fun to Ditch your (Teenage) Kids at Disney

I’m going to begin this article by citing the Walt Disney World Resort Property Rules:

“Guests under age 14 must be accompanied by a Guest age 14 or older to enter a theme park or water park. To board an attraction, children under age 7 must be accompanied by a person age 14 years or older.”

Glad to have that out of the way. I would not suggest or imply that anyone break Disney’s rules.

Having read up on this prior to our 2016 trip, my husband and I had talked about giving our kids some freedom at Disney when the older two teens hit 14. They’ve always been well-behaved and emotionally intelligent.

Plus, we were **long overdue** for some adult Disney time.

We also wanted them to love Disney as much as we did without us forcing Disney on them.

The girls had outgrown the princess phase, and the boys didn’t want to be attached to our hip 24/7 anymore.

On top of that, we travel to Disney with the grandparents, and their pace was a bit more leisurely.

I’ll also preface this by saying that we know our kids, and you know your teenagers. If you don’t think they’re ready, then maybe it’s a good idea to wait. If they’re ready, go for it!

In 2016, Dylan was 15, Hannah was 15 (my husband’s baby sister and was always like one of our own), Dominique was 13, and Isabelle was a tiny 11 year old. Two boys and two girls, they’d been to Walt Disney World countless times and knew the layout of the parks and the transportation.

For the sake of those reading this article, 2016 was during the era of:

• FastPass+
• Disney Dining Plan (DDP)
• Park Hopping any time

This particular trip was 10+ days in duration, so we gave it a couple of warmup days first so they could get familiar with the transportation and such again.

Then when my husband and I felt comfortable enough, we let them know that we were going to set them free. They looked shocked, excited, and nervous! I mean, we were too.

Here were our ground rules. It was made clear that if they couldn’t handle this freedom, they’d land stuck with their boring parents and grandparents for the remainder of the trip. Needless to say, they nailed it:

1. They were expected to be on their best behavior and follow Disney’s rules.
2. To expand on rule #1 of following Disney’s rules, the 13 and 11 year olds must always be with one of the 15-year-olds at all times.
3. Everyone’s cell phones had to stay on, and we expected a reply within 10 minutes if we called or texted (we gave leeway for them being on rides).
4. Dedicated meetup times and places were established every day. We met up for counter and table service meals and for our scheduled FastPass+ selections. Typically, the teens were never alone for more than 2 hours.
5. Each teen was expected to continue taking PhotoPass Memory Maker photos (more on this later).
6. Each teen could use two DDP snack entitlements daily during their free time however they chose. They also had snacks and drinks in their own backpacks from a grocery delivery order we had placed to our room.
7. Each teen also had their own Disney gift cards with one set allowance on it. They could choose to burn it in one day if they wanted, or use a little every day, however and on whatever they chose.
8. The teens had to ask us permission if they could leave one park to go to another park.
9. That was pretty much it!

Let me tell you, this was probably one of the funnest trips, one that the kids still talk about until this day! My oldest three kids are now young adults, and they still talk about it. The youngest is a senior in high school this year and chooses to stick to our hip these days.

During that trip, we got the best of everything. Family memories with each other, relaxation, adults-only time, alone time with my spouse, and Disney adult beverages without guilt.

My kids talked about being treated like young adults, they got their freedom, were able to be themselves without the helicopter parenting, and they rode everything they wanted to at their own pace.

The day would usually go something like this: We rose very early with breakfast or a snack in the room, loaded the teens up with their snacks and drinks in their bags. I personally made sure they had their MagicBands, gift cards, first aid kit (mostly for moleskin), and check their feet for blisters. It’s just my thing that I look for as a mom. Then we’d head out to rope drop.

We are are very hardcore rope droppers; that’s a habit that I don’t think we’ll ever be able to break. First order of business in the park was our obligatory PhotoPass picture as a family.

After that, I told the teens face-to-face where our shared FastPass+ selections would be, counter service and table service meals were, and so on. I’d then hit send on those exact same plans on the group family text thread **just** for good measure. They all had access to this in MyDisneyExperience as well. I’m a type A Disney planner, so I just needed to make sure there was no room for any misunderstanding.

Then, we’d mosey on our separate ways.

Apparently, my group threads were not overkill. I learned later on that there was trouble in paradise and that the teens did have to police each other. Snitches.

But, in the end, they did everything we asked. This is part of learning how to manage themselves.

Naturally, the girls paired up, and the boys paired up. Very cute.

This is what I envisioned when I asked the kids to continue taking pictures together. Hannah is Isabelle’s aunt (my husband’s baby sister), but the dynamic of their relationship has always been very sisterly.

The boys did not take pictures like this, but the girls did remind them of the Memory Maker rule when all four of them were together. So we did get gems of them on rides together and other great shots like these.

I love that a wonderful Cast Member captured their kinship, made them feel a little “Goofy,” and gave us some pretty cool priceless memories. I’m not convinced that that if the grandparents and my husband and I had been here, that we would have gotten the same results.

The neatest part is that I saw these pictures pop up in the MyDisneyExperience app as I was relaxing with the grandparents somewhere else in the Disney bubble. It was totally cool to see them enjoying themselves.

In later trips, as the kids got older, we did get solo pictures of the boys because we gave those knuckleheads a hard time of it. There’s a ton of them on the thrill rides as well. Those are comical as they learned where the cameras were positioned.

For the sake of this article, I only shared pictures of this specific trip.

We had a great time with my parents too, and they even got to experience their first “drinking around the world” at Epcot. We did this responsibly, of course, splitting drinks between the four of us, drinking a glass of water after each, and anchoring those samplings with food in our bellies. My dad particularly enjoyed taking his time exploring the animal carvings at the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.

Again, we typically regrouped together as an entire family about every two hours. Mealtimes were the highlight of my day.

The kids were very excited to tell us about the rides they conquered or to tell us about the souvenirs they purchased with their gift cards (this was also during the time when merchandise delivery was still a thing). They were also very enthusiastic about showing us pictures of snacks they tried with their DDP snack entitlements. This was when we really, truly connected as a family. I’d ask them about the pictures that popped up in PhotoPass, and they’d give us context as to what the PhotoPass photographer was telling them or why they were posing a certain way.

Before this trip, we were with each other 24/7. My grandmother had a funny expression in Spanish that loosely translated to “fish and people stink after a week.” She is so right.

During previous trips, I felt like during mealtimes, we were on our phones. During this trip, we were truly engaged with each other. The girls would sit with the grandparents, for example, or with us, and really chat up a storm.

After the meal, we’d split up, and do it all over again.

I don’t believe they ever tried park hopping without us during this trip. They did so during trips when they were a bit older, and all of them were older than 14. Funny enough, all of my kids love Epcot, specifically to shop for merchandise at the various pavilions, so this is where they liked to hop to in later trips.

If this trip had happened during present day, I’d have laid the groundwork a little differently.

Instead of DDP entitlements, I think I’d have logged on and added a set daily amount of money to their gift cards for snacking, which is pretty easy to do at https://www.disneygiftcard.com/.

I might not have purchased park hopping at all during this trial trip just to simplify things. Or, maybe I would have, I’m not too sure, to be perfectly honest. That would have been a discussion that my husband and I would have had for sure. Again, I don’t even believe the teens park hopped without us at all during that trial trip.

Genie+ selections would be made with everyone in mind, grandparents and teens alike. Individual Lightning Lane selections would probably be made with each specific rider in mind.

I’ve also have to give credit where credit is due: Walt Disney World Security. Disney is one of the only places that my family truly feels safe, or where we would have even tried this. “Walt Disney World Resort takes a comprehensive approach to security that includes some measures that are visible and others that are not.”

I worked in public safety for more than 15 years and can say that I visited one of the public safety facilities on property. Without saying more, the standards, practices, technologies, and personnel employed by the Reedy Creek Improvement District and Disney exceed minimum industry standards, and I would not feel safe letting my children loose in the Disney bubble otherwise.

Thank you, Disney.

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