On our first ever visit to WDW in Apr 04, it was just my mom(52), my sister(18), and myself(31) but we talked my relatively recent widowed grandmother(75) into going back with us for the Dec trip. So some thoughts on travelling with older adults: Grandma has had both knees replaced and has a limited range of flexion in them so we discovered Space Mountain seats are too low and too cramped(other than problems getting in and out, she didn't mind the ride). After that we were a little more careful with evaluating ride entry. Grandma(and Mom) skipped Splash Mountain, Rockin Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror but otherwise did everything including Test Track.
The first day/night I had booked a Candlelight Processional dinner package with dinner at the Garden Grill(which we had planned on even before I found out about the package) and then the show. It was awesome and we tried going to see the Processional again 2 nights later but it was Saturday and we didn't get in line early enough. The point though is that Epcot is a rather large amount of walking which Grandma did all of and then we hit MVMCP at MK the next night. By the third day, we decided we would get a wheelchair for Grandma because her knees got so they were quite painful. We had planned on going back to the rooms to relax each afternoon but that only happened twice out of 7 days there. It's so easy to get caught up in wanting to do this or seeing that show that time gets away and before you know it, it's 12 hours after you left your rooms that day. Our solution for the our next trip(s) was to buy DVC so we know that we will always be going back so we don't have to try and do everything each trip. Even after 13 days there in 2004, there's still stuff I haven't seen or done.
Meals with older people: portion sizes are a real problem. We did Garden Grill for dinner, Mama Melrose's for dinner/Fantasmic, Planet Hollywood for dinner, and Chef Mickey's for breakfast. Grandma liked Chef Mickey's the best becuase of the buffet style so she wasn't overwhelmed with the amount of food. No, we aren't too old for characters just because the youngest in the travelling party is 18. It was really neat interacting and Grandma got more character kisses that I can count.
Another note on wheelchairs and Disney transportation: don't wait in line with everyone else, wait just to the side of the front of the line and the wheelchair user/party gets loaded first. Grandma can walk OK just not long distances so that made transferring for rides easier but we got "yelled" at by the Transpo people for trying to wait in line to get loaded. Now we know.
So by all means take your older friends and relatives. Grandma enjoyed herself and hopefully we made her first holiday season in 55 years without Grandpa a little better than it would have been otherwise.
The first day/night I had booked a Candlelight Processional dinner package with dinner at the Garden Grill(which we had planned on even before I found out about the package) and then the show. It was awesome and we tried going to see the Processional again 2 nights later but it was Saturday and we didn't get in line early enough. The point though is that Epcot is a rather large amount of walking which Grandma did all of and then we hit MVMCP at MK the next night. By the third day, we decided we would get a wheelchair for Grandma because her knees got so they were quite painful. We had planned on going back to the rooms to relax each afternoon but that only happened twice out of 7 days there. It's so easy to get caught up in wanting to do this or seeing that show that time gets away and before you know it, it's 12 hours after you left your rooms that day. Our solution for the our next trip(s) was to buy DVC so we know that we will always be going back so we don't have to try and do everything each trip. Even after 13 days there in 2004, there's still stuff I haven't seen or done.
Meals with older people: portion sizes are a real problem. We did Garden Grill for dinner, Mama Melrose's for dinner/Fantasmic, Planet Hollywood for dinner, and Chef Mickey's for breakfast. Grandma liked Chef Mickey's the best becuase of the buffet style so she wasn't overwhelmed with the amount of food. No, we aren't too old for characters just because the youngest in the travelling party is 18. It was really neat interacting and Grandma got more character kisses that I can count.
Another note on wheelchairs and Disney transportation: don't wait in line with everyone else, wait just to the side of the front of the line and the wheelchair user/party gets loaded first. Grandma can walk OK just not long distances so that made transferring for rides easier but we got "yelled" at by the Transpo people for trying to wait in line to get loaded. Now we know.
So by all means take your older friends and relatives. Grandma enjoyed herself and hopefully we made her first holiday season in 55 years without Grandpa a little better than it would have been otherwise.