Going solo.. The 3 stages of coworker reactions

Since I decided and then carried out my solo trip plan for next month I am noticing a pattern of reactions to my announced Disney trip primarily from my Male coworkers..the women are all Immediately saying "good for you" but I am curious what their reaction would be if their husband did the same..but I digress..

1. Dude, really? Disney? Of all the places? That's dumb..without your kids?

2. Isnt that expensive? Your wife is allowing you to go to Disney by yourself? Mine would never.. you have the best wife (an aside..my wife and kids are also travelling with her mother that week. I wouldn't dare otherwise)

3. Man, you're living the dream. I am jealous.

Just ordered my Vader magic band and am psyched!

I am going alone this summer. I am single so I don't get quite the same reactions. I get:

1. Alone? Oh...won't you get bored?

2. Alone? Wow! Good for you!
 
At first I was shy about letting people at work know where I was going, but now everyone is in on it and the vast majority of my coworkers aren't weird about it--we joke about how nuts I am for Disney parks, but I don't get made fun of for it. My boss actually seems to think it's pretty cool that I set a goal for myself to visit all the Disney parks in the world, and she'll ask me things about my trips.

The one reaction I got was from an older female coworker (I'm a woman also, if that makes any difference) when I was about to go on my trip to Disneyland Paris last November. Several of my coworkers heard "Paris" and made the automatic assumption that I'd be going to Paris itself and maybe stopping in Disneyland for a day or something. When I corrected this particular coworker I got a shocked "You're going to France--and you're not going to Paris?!" And I just nodded and confirmed that yes, that was indeed the case! I still felt (and feel) the need to defend myself by pointing out that my itinerary had me in London for a full week after most of a week at DLP; while the foreign-soil Disney parks are the primary purpose of my travels outside the country right now I don't only go for Disney--but for a couple of people it was apparently mind-boggling that I didn't want to prioritize the city of Paris over going to Disneyland. That's really the only angle I've had it come from; there's this idea that if I'm going to go to a Disney park outside the USA it must naturally be a sidenote...when for me, the main point of the trip is to see a new-to-me Disney park.
 
Never been to any of the parks except WDW and even there only a couple of times. Definitely curious how Disney translates in other countries and cultures. Maybe one day but I have yet to scratch the surface in the Florida parks.

Good story.
 
At first I was shy about letting people at work know where I was going, but now everyone is in on it and the vast majority of my coworkers aren't weird about it--we joke about how nuts I am for Disney parks, but I don't get made fun of for it. My boss actually seems to think it's pretty cool that I set a goal for myself to visit all the Disney parks in the world, and she'll ask me things about my trips.

The one reaction I got was from an older female coworker (I'm a woman also, if that makes any difference) when I was about to go on my trip to Disneyland Paris last November. Several of my coworkers heard "Paris" and made the automatic assumption that I'd be going to Paris itself and maybe stopping in Disneyland for a day or something. When I corrected this particular coworker I got a shocked "You're going to France--and you're not going to Paris?!" And I just nodded and confirmed that yes, that was indeed the case! I still felt (and feel) the need to defend myself by pointing out that my itinerary had me in London for a full week after most of a week at DLP; while the foreign-soil Disney parks are the primary purpose of my travels outside the country right now I don't only go for Disney--but for a couple of people it was apparently mind-boggling that I didn't want to prioritize the city of Paris over going to Disneyland. That's really the only angle I've had it come from; there's this idea that if I'm going to go to a Disney park outside the USA it must naturally be a sidenote...when for me, the main point of the trip is to see a new-to-me Disney park.

I am working on planning a trip to DLP right now, and honestly, Paris as a city doesn't appeal to me that much. I would also prefer London, so I want to fly in, do DLP, then maybe Paris for a day, but then go to London. I did the same in Japan. We did Tokyo Disney for 3 days, then just a single day in Tokyo before taking the train to Kyoto for the rest of the trip. Kyoto was very cool and held more appeal for me than Tokyo did.

When I talk about my Paris trip, people keep saying ridiculous things like, "Well, it's not primarily a Disney trip." :confused3 Oh, it's not? Well, let's just say that if there weren't a Disneyland there, I likely would be going somewhere else! :thumbsup2
 


I am working on planning a trip to DLP right now, and honestly, Paris as a city doesn't appeal to me that much. I would also prefer London, so I want to fly in, do DLP, then maybe Paris for a day, but then go to London. I did the same in Japan. We did Tokyo Disney for 3 days, then just a single day in Tokyo before taking the train to Kyoto for the rest of the trip. Kyoto was very cool and held more appeal for me than Tokyo did.

When I talk about my Paris trip, people keep saying ridiculous things like, "Well, it's not primarily a Disney trip." :confused3 Oh, it's not? Well, let's just say that if there weren't a Disneyland there, I likely would be going somewhere else! :thumbsup2

Yeah, I'd originally planned to spend time in Paris, but the more I thought about it the less it appealed to me and I ultimately decided it wasn't worth fussing with an extra hotel change to go through the motions. It helped that I'd already been to both Paris and London, albeit both of them very briefly (like two, maybe three days each), so I was going off of personal experience as well as information available to me online and in guide books when I decided to do London rather than Paris. Zero regrets. I did spend significantly more time in London than in DLP simply because London has a much larger variety of things to do, but I gave myself four full Disneyland days (as opposed to the one or two days people who take it as an add-on to a European trip usually recommend). That was just about right. I could have happily filled a fifth day, but by the end of day four I'd done all the rides at least once and had time to redo favorites without feeling rushed. Tokyo Disney is my next international stop, hopefully in 2021, but I haven't done enough research yet to know where I want to focus my non-Disney time in Japan.

And yeah! That's exactly the attitude I got from a few people. Because they would only consider Disneyland Paris as an afterthought, they assumed that it was "not primarily a Disney trip." The thing is, while I adore London and would love to go again, I'm completely unapologetic about DLP having been the primary driver for taking that trip at all.
 
I suppose I'll have to go public when it gets close.
Why????? It’s your vacation, your money and your time. “Vacation” is enough information to give some people.

just dont want to deal with the reactions. Its really annoying
This! I changed my solo into a girlfriends trip. She is the only one who knows about it. I am not ashamed. I have done for my family for years and just want this for me. So excited NOT to be doing characters, photos, etc. :tink:
 
Yup, Magic Kingdom is the only place I've ever felt a little awkward being solo.
Actually I feel fine in Adventureland and Frontierland/Liberty Square. Fantasyland though with all of the little princesses and their exhausted parents and endless queues is like kryptonite to me, I can't stand it!
 


I'm fascinated by many of the replies. How different we all are!

I love having conversations with my coworkers; I ask them about their trips and vacations and I enjoy talking about mine. I backpack solo (sometimes for 6 to 8 days), I road trip solo and I Disney solo so my co workers have questions. I'm just not the type to think they are being judgmental. I see them as being curious just as I am curious about them.
 
I think most of the odd comments are from people who are at least a little jealous. Camping and hunting are really popular in my area, so I have just started telling co-workers (when they ask), "I'm going to the mountains." Just like everyone else. They just don't know those mountains are Space, Splash, and Big Thunder! Sometimes I go to the Beach (Club).
 
First solo trip to Disneyland is in 2 weeks. Husband told me to go alone because he doesn't want to go again and the kids were all right with it as long as I stayed out of Galaxies Edge, (I couldn't justify a $561 a night hotel room anyways).
This is the top of my bucket list and I am so excited! My family likes Disney but I tend to overdo it even for them, to be able to geek out without annoying others will be so wonderful.
 
First solo trip to Disneyland is in 2 weeks. Husband told me to go alone because he doesn't want to go again and the kids were all right with it as long as I stayed out of Galaxies Edge, (I couldn't justify a $561 a night hotel room anyways).
This is the top of my bucket list and I am so excited! My family likes Disney but I tend to overdo it even for them, to be able to geek out without annoying others will be so wonderful.
Cool! You have to go to Galaxys Edge though because you can and we cant (yet).
 
First solo trip to Disneyland is in 2 weeks. Husband told me to go alone because he doesn't want to go again and the kids were all right with it as long as I stayed out of Galaxies Edge, (I couldn't justify a $561 a night hotel room anyways).
This is the top of my bucket list and I am so excited! My family likes Disney but I tend to overdo it even for them, to be able to geek out without annoying others will be so wonderful.

Dont forget to join our June 2019 Check In Thread, https://www.disboards.com/threads/june-2019-check-in.3718220/
 
Since I decided and then carried out my solo trip plan for next month I am noticing a pattern of reactions to my announced Disney trip primarily from my Male coworkers..the women are all Immediately saying "good for you" but I am curious what their reaction would be if their husband did the same..but I digress..

1. Dude, really? Disney? Of all the places? That's dumb..without your kids?

2. Isnt that expensive? Your wife is allowing you to go to Disney by yourself? Mine would never.. you have the best wife (an aside..my wife and kids are also travelling with her mother that week. I wouldn't dare otherwise)

3. Man, you're living the dream. I am jealous.

Just ordered my Vader magic band and am psyched!

That’s exactly why I don’t tell them. Disney is MY happy place, mainly to get away from them.
 
After 25 years of going to Disney, 12 of those being a DVC member, and 2 solo trips (3rd one in the planning) my family and friends have graduated from "Disney again?" to "So when are you going to Disney this year?" I've also become the go to Disney planner in the company I work for, it's a very large company. I get 2 or 3 referrals a year. The scary one was someone planning a trip in less than a month for Easter week. I was speechles (!) and I'm never speechless when it come to Disney. You're right, the people who don't understand are the ones who've never been there.
 
I go solo regularly, and my coworkers (who are awesome in general) are usually all pretty excited to hear about my trip. Even the ones who say "I don't know how you do it, I'd strangle someone if I had to stand in line during my vacation" want to hear if there was a new ride or show and if I enjoyed it. It's actually started a regular workplace chat about what people do to enjoy themselves and relax! I describe my trips as self-care, and that's usually when people get it. And if they don't, well at least I won't have to worry about that negativity at Disney!
 
I was at the point of telling my then future husband that if he didn't agree to go to WDW with me, then I would be going by myself. We're long distance and have been for 3.5 years, so I spend most of my travel time going up to visit him. That means I haven't been to WDW since 2015!

It's not as bad as it sounds, I live 15min from Disneyland, so I still get my Disney fix. But not going to WDW? It's becoming an emergency!

Luckily, my husband said on our honeymoon "Let's do a 2 week trip to Disney World next year, I've never really been". (I knew I married him for a reason!)

But, this isn't until September 2020, so I'm thinking about going by myself early next year to reacquaint myself with WDW for some inside the park planning. I honestly CANNOT wait to have a solo trip there, where I can just do whatever I want to do. I have only ever been with my brother and his family. Even though we would go every year, it was always a lot of "What does everyone else want to do?"
 
When I started my new position, I was telling my new supervisor (who was my old supervisor...Long Story), the dates I needed off this summer. I was then telling her about my trip to WDW and she asked who I was going with for that trip...when I said "myself" she was like..."Ohhhh...I would have thought your mom would have gone." I said that I wanted to do a solo trip for a while and this is my opportunity to go and not be on a "schedule" per say. I was explaining my trip and she looks at me and says...You know...that sounds like an awesome trip to go on.

A couple of my other friends have said that they wish they could go on a solo trip, but just couldn't. I told them that this trip was a special one because of finding an old non-expiring ticket and being able to stay on property. I was off property at first and then the new wrinkle of the old ticket came up. It was a no-brainer then to stay on property.
 

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