We are Terri and Chris Sellers – better known on the Passporter Boards as Passporter Guide DrDolphin, and her better half – Crick85. We are two 40-somethings without kids, but love to share Walt Disney World with friends and family – especially our nieces and nephews. We enjoy traveling to WDW a few times a year and enjoying our couples time there and thought it would be good to share some “have quality couples time” ideas with all the Passporter Blog readers – whether the trip be a “couples only” trip for a special occasion like an anniversary, or finding small romantic moments in the middle of a busy family trip.
One of our favorite "couple" places!
First a little bit about us. I am a marine biologist who works for a federal government agency as well as teaching Environmental Science for a small liberal arts college and Chris is a pharmacist at a major hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. We enjoy traveling around the country and taking planned and impromptu trips to Walt Disney World, and being members of the Disney Vacation Club makes that possible.
Disney Vacation Club's Saratoga Spring Resort and Spa
I (Terri) have been a Disney fan since I re-discovered Walt Disney World (WDW) in 2001 while running the Disney Marathon, and began to make multiple trips a year after moving to Jacksonville in the fall of 2001. Chris sort of stumbled (still stumbles) into WDW because of me. We made our first “couples trip” in August 2008 when my sister and her family were visiting WDW and Chris and I had been dating for only two months. He had no clue what was in store for him. Chris’ previous trip before this one was when he was about 8 years old with his family and his only memories of the trip are of riding Space Mountain with his eyes closed and screaming quite loudly.
When we started dating, and decided that Chris would join the family on our trip in August, I don’t think Chris knew what to expect with the size, breath and wealth of things to do at Walt Disney World. He still doesn’t. Since that first trip, we have gone from “a couple” to being engaged and since been married – celebrating many of these events at either Walt Disney World, or onboard the Disney Cruise Line ships, making the most of the romantic offerings in all those locations.
Chris tends to leave the planning up to me, and 95% of the time, really “doesn’t care” what we do… So – for those of you who have significant others/fiances/spouses that travel to WDW with you, but really don’t care about all the magical details that make you love Walt Disney World so much, welcome to our world.
We plan to talk about many different romantic and special things you can do as a couple at Walt Disney World, and even do some reviews of things that we do while on our Disney trips, as well as how to plan for romantic/couples events while in the parks.
We’d also love to answer any questions you might have about Romance at Disney/ Disney for Couples, so we’ll be checking the boards – (http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/disney-romance/) for great questions or blog topic ideas.
Thanks for reading, and we will see you in the happiest (and most romantic) place on earth.
Terri & Chris!!
Wonderful idea. My SO and I are an older couple who enjoy WDW (yes, i do 95% of the planning and he goes along), we love all the special, romantic opportunities at Dsiney.
Great article and honestly Disney really is for the big kids in all of us. Some of us just bring along the family and kids because they have to, but we don’t have kids and its more fun to enjoy together. Disney is so romantic and has tons of quiet spots to enjoy alone. Disney cast members will also assist you if you have a surprise you want to plan.
My DH and I have been Disney fanatics for as long as we can remember. My DH planned on asking for my hand in front of Cinderella’s Castle back in 1996 but the castle at that time was decorated as an enormous birthday cake so he asked me for my hand at a restaurant at the Italian pavilion instead. We really wanted to have our wedding at WDW but my dad said no (hey, I tried saving him money). So we enjoyed a week in April at WDW after our wedding. We did got on one of the first 10 sailings of the Disney Magic in August 1998 several months after our wedding because of the sailing date being postponed several times. What an incredible experience and memories and we have returned 4 more times since then. Castaway Cay is the best island in world.
We are DVC members and have found it possible to explore and enjoy all that Disney has to offer. We love the way Disney hospitality treats you even if you are not celebrating a thing. We return about twice a year and love our home resorts of AKL and BLT. We love going around Halloween so we can enjoy both Halloween and Christmas during our stay and EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival. It is really cool to see MK change over 5 days to a winter wonderland.
We usually stay at Boardwalk since it is so conveniently located and surrounded by other hotels and tons of restaurants. Our last visit we stayed for 2 weeks and split our trip between OKW and Vero Beach resorts. We rented a car so we could explore the Orlando vicinity enjoyed Sea World, Universal Studios, and Islands of Adventure. It was also nice to have a car because we could make late night runs to Downtown Disney for ice cream sundaes and Port Orleans for biegnets which took about 5 minutes instead of waiting for the bus.
Now we can’t wait for our next adventure on another cruise; but this time we are going to Alaska to enjoy mother natures beauty sprinkled with a with a little fairy dust 🙂
Love this concept. Please let me know if you ever want to pick my brain. My DW and I have been married for 13 years in a couple weeks, and we have gone to WDW 11 times in that 13 years. Did I mention ZERO children? A while ago I posted on the DISboards about Disney doing a couples only resort with all King Bed rooms. I got blasted for mentioning something that would leave out children.
A great idea for this column would be the best resort to stay at as a couple. I know my vote already, but it would be a great discussion.
I like the idea of all King Beds! My husband and I are about to celebrate 19 years of marriage with no kids and we LOVE Disney! We would love it more with a king bed!
Off to a great start Terri!
We are without kids as well and LOVE Disney so much. One of the best couple tours to do is Keys to the Kingdom, a behind the scene tour for adults. Ask for Miss Clare as your tour guide, she was awesome and truly knew her stuff about Walt Disney World.
Amy & Chris of Canada
I am so excited by this blog! I am currently engaged, planning my wedding (sadly, not in WDW – only because my FI wants his family at the wedding and most would be unable to make it). What we are planning in WDW is our Honeymoon!! This will be my FI’s first time at WDW and I cannot wait to show him! I am so looking for all the romantic things for us to do. We will spend some time together golfing, since it is a passion of his, but the rest of the world is my passion! I will be very interested in hearing your suggestions over the next months. We are getting married on 12/29/12, so we will either spend New Years Eve in WDW or leave the following weekend. We have not figured all that out just yet! Thanks!
I’m so glad to “meet” other Disney couples! My boyfriend and I are also 40-somethings, and we’ve visited WDW together six times (with a seventh coming up in June!), Disneyland four times, and taken one Disney cruise (so far)! Most of our trips have been just the two of us, though we did take his then-12-year-old son on our most recent WDW trip. (Please don’t think we’re mean for leaving him at home; he’s a special-needs kid and honestly is just as happy to spend a week with grandma, which gives my boyfriend a break from the constant demands of single fatherhood.) Paul, I love your idea of a couples-only resort! (Or perhaps just a building or a section of a resort?) We’re also DVC members and look forward to many more vacations of Disney magic!
We would love a couples only resort with all king beds too. We just made our third trip to Disney World in the past year and can’t wait to return. You don’t need children to enjoy DW.