Help with boys ages 10 and 12

[grumpygirl06]

Hi all. I have been reading the boards all day and have yet to find information on how to keep 2 boys entertained who are 10 and 12. We went to Disney in 2000 when they were 6 & 4 and it seemed so much easier then, because they were interested in the characters, etc... We are going to Disney in June, 2006 and I am afraid they will find it boring. How do I keep the boys involved and interested. I have tried to have them help plan how we will spend the days but they are not interested. I guess the hormones are starting to kick in, especially with the 12 year old. I am soooooo excited I can barely stand it and literally have been online all day (It's a rainy day here in Maryland) Any suggestions?

 

[DISUNC]

Hi all. I have been reading the boards all day and have yet to find information on how to keep 2 boys entertained who are 10 and 12. We went to Disney in 2000 when they were 6 & 4 and it seemed so much easier then, because they were interested in the characters, etc... We are going to Disney in June, 2006 and I am afraid they will find it boring. How do I keep the boys involved and interested. I have tried to have them help plan how we will spend the days but they are not interested. I guess the hormones are starting to kick in, especially with the 12 year old. I am soooooo excited I can barely stand it and literally have been online all day (It's a rainy day here in Maryland) Any suggestions?

I take my (now 12 yr old) nephew every year. TRUST ME ..they wont be bored! He is the same way..."just take me there & entertain me" attitude.

They are at the age of RIDES RIDES RIDES & MORE RIDES! Also he is very into the water parks. He loves Future world at Epcot, Soarin; TT; MS! He even really likes The world showcase at Epcot...Just take it slow there...lots to see.
MGM- TOT, RR, ST...ALL must do's. He can sit thru the Indiana Jones show ALL day long. Fantasmic. Eating at the Sci Fi.
MK- He has a thing for the BUZZ Lightyear! Also must do's..SM, POC, and TIKI BIRDS (why this I dunno!) HM.
AK - Is a hit ot miss with him! He likes all the Animal things, but not many rides. We will try Everest out though.

Last year (11Y) NO PICTURES or AUTOGRAPHS with characters!

And he is CRAZZZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYYY about the Penny Presses!

Hope this helps....You will have a great time.

THEN AGAIN...THIS CAN ALL CHANGE TOMORROW.

 

[grumpygirl06]

Thank you. I know it is late for a Saturday evening, but I am kind of miffed that my boys seem so disinterested. They were excited at first and now, well, seem to care less. I am kind of disgruntled because I am sooooo excited (have only been to Disney a few times, in 1976, 1985, and 2000) and want them to be excited, like they were in 2000. I know they are older but come on!! It's Disney World! I appreciate yor feedback!

 

[DISUNC]

Thank you. I know it is late for a Saturday evening, but I am kind of miffed that my boys seem so disinterested. They were excited at first and now, well, seem to care less. I am kind of disgruntled because I am sooooo excited (have only been to Disney a few times, in 1976, 1985, and 2000) and want them to be excited, like they were in 2000. I know they are older but come on!! It's Disney World! I appreciate yor feedback!

I am at work goofying off!

Don't be miffed! They are typical boys! I was once one myself!
Once they are there, then you will hear "lets do this" & "i gotta do that before we go"....stuff like that. Also, you ar going in June. At their age June is a lifetime away!

Plan what you must, but leave room for changes. We are going in July for 10 days this time. It leaves plenty of room for changes.

 

[Cupmom]

Once they get to Disney that "too cool" attitude will magically disappeared. Last time we went my son was 10 and had a blast. He loved RNRC, rode it to many times to count. He took pictures with the characters too.
This year he will be 2 weeks shy of his 14th birthday and he is still dying to go. I think he is a little sick of me asking and telling him about all the stuff

Remeber Disney brings out the kids in all of us preteens included

 

[formernyer]

Thank you. I know it is late for a Saturday evening, but I am kind of miffed that my boys seem so disinterested. They were excited at first and now, well, seem to care less. I am kind of disgruntled because I am sooooo excited (have only been to Disney a few times, in 1976, 1985, and 2000) and want them to be excited, like they were in 2000. I know they are older but come on!! It's Disney World! I appreciate yor feedback!

They are going to have a great time. I'd suggest not pressuring them so much to help out. It's hard for kids to get excited about things when they are still very far off. We were in WDW last week. It was a last minute trip. I told them about it three weeks before we went and they were excited, but not to the point that they were talking about it. They were only excited to the extent that they liked looking at hotel pics, etc. About 4-5 days before we left they got a little more excited. By the time we got there, they were thrilled.

My kids have also outgrown the age where characters are exciting, and they were actually kind of anti-characters because they didn't want anybody to think they were babyish. I had a hard time convincing them that they would enjoy Crystal Palace. I finally showed them the menu and that convinced them that they'd like it

I never pressured the kids to hug or pose for pics with the characters while we were there. In fact, I was happy to not have to deal with the character lines. We just took character pics from the side when we saw an opening without another guest in the pic. The kids actually started to get excited about the characters, but only as a game to see who would spot one first and it was even more of a game to them if they spotted one that we hadn't seen yet. At CP they actually let me take pics of them with the Pooh characters, but they made it clear that it was just for fun. Same thing with parading around the restaurant...they did it, but made it clear that they were "too old" for it and just playing around.

Both kids had a total blast during the trip and can't wait to go back. The poster above was correct...at this age it's all about the rides. The more rides, the better. Get your fast passes ready because you're going to be going from one to the next to the next

 

[rlovew]

Have them look into Disneyquest. At that age my brothers thought it was amazing, you could fight pirates, ride a white water raft, and build coasters all day long and there was a never-ending set of videogames to try.

 

[Dustmouse]

I'm in a similar situation with two DS's (12 & 14). Our last trip was in 2001 when they were 7 & 9. Right now neither of them seem to care much about it. They are happy that we're going but not EXCITED like their mother. They humor me and tear a page off of the countdown calendar everyday, but it hasn't set in yet. (BTW, it's 57 days!) So, I am contented to plan and wait for them to catch up with my level of enthusiasm. It will probably be about the time we board the plane. (My husband just looked over my shoulder and commented that "we are extraordinary individuals and that our level of enthusiasm cannot be sustained by everyone...and that we need to give the normal mortals a break.") Ya, whatever!

Anyway, I switched from 4 character meals in 2001 to only one this year. Went from trying to do EMH every morning to breakfast in the room. Allowing more time at the World Showcase and less time in Toon town. Doing the dining plan so they can stuff themselves silly or be wasteful and not drive their father crazy! All in all..... should be a great trip!!! Yours will be too, just keep counting down!

 

[dandave]

My boys turn 10 and 12 in September. I am often stumped that my little men don't seem nearly as excited about a vacation as I am. Suggesting that perhaps we shouldn't go, usually is the quickest way to measure how much they really do want to go.

"I don't know... Maybe we shouldn't go to WDW in September."
"What!? No! You said we were going. Why can't we go?"
"Oh! You do want to go? OK. We'll go."

 

[travellady]

We just got back last night from a week at WDW, stayed at POR - my DH 49, me, just turned 50 , and 12 year old going on 18 son. He was not overly excited about going either, after all it's spring break, he really wanted to hang out with friends, etc. etc. So, we decided to let him call the shots this time and hang out with him. Why not, we'll have many years without kids as they grow so quickly. I have 2 grown sons, both 27, and learned over the years to go with the flow since before you know it, they've grown up and gone. So, this 50 year old women spent the week hanging with a 12 year old boy doing his thing.

Here's a rundown of our week and let me add it was a week he truly enjoyed. Let me also add that yesterday morning we were getting ready to leave POR, he looked at me and said "This has been a nice relaxing week". I asked him why he felt it was relaxing and he said because he didn't have to get up to an alarm clock each morning. Go ahead and read my account of a week at WDW doing 12 year old stuff and it will help you get into your head what relaxing means to a 12 year old active boy:

1st day:
- decided to hang at the resort after sleeping until noon (we are from the Seattle area so it was really only 9 AM body clock time)
- ate lunch at 1
- rented a Sea Ray and son and husband drove it to Downtown Disney and back
- rented a surrey bike - son and I rode it about an hour; he wanted to go further but I managed to convince him the extra money wasn't worth it (when in truth my energy level was not where his was by this time)
- dinner at Boatwrights
- spend an hour in the gift shop planning what to buy
- head over to DisneyQuest at 9 PM; get in for half price after 9 until 11 PM closing; do most of the virtual realty rides; son disappointed when it closes and he still hadn't played every machine
- back on bus from Downtown Disney to POR
- ice cream in food court at 11:30 PM
- bed at 2:00 AM

2nd day:
- slept until 10:30
- breakfast at the resort counter service
- hung at the pool until 1
- took bus to Contemporary, rented another Sea Ray, this one faster than the one at POR
- into Magic Kingdom at 2:30, rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, hotdogs at Caseys
- headed over to MGM, did backlot tour, Rockin Roller Coaster (not Tower of Terror this year, too boring per the 12 year old)
- boat from MGM to the Boardwalk for dinner at the ESPN club, played in arcade after dinner
- bus to Downtown Disney
- shopping at Disney Team Sports; son spends close to an hour looking at everything and ends up with 2 t shirts at closing time; we are the last to leave the store
- it's midnight and we catch a bus back to POR

3rd day:
- Mom up at 8, enjoys a leisurely cup of coffee and a newspaper by the pool
- husband and son slept until 10:30
- mom brought husband and son breakfast in bed from counter service
- at noon headed to Animal Kingdom, rode Everest (all loved it), Primevel Whirl
- headed to Epcot, ate at Sunshine Food Fair in the Land, rode Test Track, rode Mission Space twice, spent tons of time in Test Track gift shop
- back to POR for an early evening, mom and dad exhausted

4th day:
- slept until 10:30
- breakfast at food court
- Mom and son head to Typhoon Lagoon; dad decides to chill for the day since he's catching a cold
- mom and son close down Typhoon Lagoon after doing every slide and then some, head over to Lost & Found at TTC from TL to pick up son's baseball cap (he'd lost it on Space Mountain and surprisingly they found it)
- head back to POR so we can shower to get ready for 18 holes at Funtasia mini-golf
- finish mini-golf and head to Gulliver's for dinner; it's now 9:30, mom is exhausted, son isn't quite ready to call it an evening
- bus to Downtown Disney from Gulliver's, mom convinces son she really needs to get back to POR as it's close to midnight and tomorrow we fly home
- food court still open when we get back so time for another midnight ice cream snack

5th day:
- get up at 9:30 to catch Magical Express at 10:30
- quick breakfast on the way out
- home to Seattle

Today:
- mom and dad are really relaxing and son is hanging with friends after a great week of quality family time doing 12 year old things at WDW

 

[tammydel]

OK, I'm posting mostly because I liked the title of your thread!

But I'll second (or third) the Disney Quest idea. Also maybe some fun non character meals? Like Whispering Canyon or 50s Prime Time or Sci-Fi. How about some water sport activities - my daughter and I parasailed and it was amazing! Maybe if you show them that Disney isn't all Dumbo rides and pictures with Mickey (as if there is anything wrong with that!) and there are "cool" things to do?

My guess is they will act like unimpressable boys until they see Mickey, it will bring out the in them.
(been waiting for a reason to use that icon!)
Tammy

 

[formernyer]

Sounds like your son had a blast and I guess that's most important.

As a parent (and the person paying for the tickets), I'm not so sure I could ever stick to a schedule like that...Sounds like you had hopper passes that were hardly used, plus water park tickets, Disney Quest, mini-golf fees, bike/Sea Ray rentals, etc.

I know when we were there my main concern was maximizing our time in the parks since I had paid a small fortune for the tickets.

 

[hockeybabe]

My kids are huge WDW fans, but after our second trip, they dd9 and ds10, told me that kids at school were telling them that WDW was for babies, and it's boring. I did the mommy thing, and told them that those kids were "just jealous" But seriously, I told them that it was not likely that those kids had been to WDW recently, and if they had, they probably didn't do it "right". So, your kids may be feeling pressured at school to not care, but once they get to the most magical place on earth, they'll blend in with everyone else having the times of their lives

 

[twinsmamma]

Hi all. I have been reading the boards all day and have yet to find information on how to keep 2 boys entertained who are 10 and 12. We went to Disney in 2000 when they were 6 & 4 and it seemed so much easier then, because they were interested in the characters, etc... We are going to Disney in June, 2006 and I am afraid they will find it boring. How do I keep the boys involved and interested. I have tried to have them help plan how we will spend the days but they are not interested. I guess the hormones are starting to kick in, especially with the 12 year old. I am soooooo excited I can barely stand it and literally have been online all day (It's a rainy day here in Maryland) Any suggestions?

i have twin 12 yr old DSs and we went in dec05 my boys loved it. they were not into planning as wwell but I think that at this age they just dont care about that stuff. They did the character thing again one even got autographs again event hose he got them when he was 10. They even got red faced when a princess hugged them. so i wouldn't worry too much about if they will like it they will. there is so much more that character there to do. Disney brings out the est in everyone just let them be and they will let you know what they want.
disney quest is also a great draw for my sons 5 floors of video and virtual reality that you dont have to pay for, well they dont anyway. they would spen d all day and night in there if i would let them.
we are going again aug and they said that they do not want to get autographs and or stand in line for characters unless they see one they do not have. They want to go back to chef mickeys though. so dont worry they will have fun how can you not.
"It's the only plce where a mouse runs people through a maze." and we love it and keep paying for it.

 

[grumpygirl06]

Wow, thanks for all of the "support" and the great ideas. I am feelingmuch better about the trip. I guess when we spend so much on a vacation, (my husband says "Mickey Mouse is a thief!") that it is disappointing when we don't get the reaction we are expecting. I will post when we return and let everyone know how they (and I) did.

60 days and counting!!!

 

[QueenT]

Thank you. I know it is late for a Saturday evening, but I am kind of miffed that my boys seem so disinterested. They were excited at first and now, well, seem to care less. I am kind of disgruntled because I am sooooo excited (have only been to Disney a few times, in 1976, 1985, and 2000) and want them to be excited, like they were in 2000. I know they are older but come on!! It's Disney World! I appreciate yor feedback!

I feel your pain, grumpygirl06, but there is hope! We went on a trip in 2001, dd16, dd15, ds13, ds11, dd6. I was the only one who was at all excited. The kids did nothing but grouch. However, when we got to the world, they all found things they enjoyed, and now they refer to it as the best vacation they ever had. I think they just couldn't envision

We are going again this fall, all of us, and now the older girls are planning there own parts of the vacation, they are very into it.

 

[mom23boyz]

We went last year with our 3 boys ages 10, 8 and 4. We'll be going again after a Disney cruise next year and they'll be 12, 10 and 6. Last year, I purchased the book WDW for Teens by Teens and WDW for Kids by Kids for the two older ones to read. They loved those and they really helped them get excited. My oldest even enjoyed looking through the Unofficial Guide.

You can also purchase a book about Hidden Mickeys. That's a fun thing to do while you're there, and they can search online for info about Hidden Mickeys as well before they go.

Penny presses were also a big hit...I printed off a list from the internet before we went and we had a good time looking for those machines. While we were there last time, I found a cool computer game where you build your own Disney roller coaster. They have since had a great time doing that at home on our computer (the characters rate your ride after you've finished building it!)

Just some ideas...hope they help!

 

[01Sweetpea]

We're headed down to WDW for Thanksgiving with 13 & 11yo boys & 11yo girl. While none of them are as excited as me, and none of them want to plan... there was a consensus that HDDR is a MUST DO!

My 11yo boy wants to do the family Magic tour again, but I think they are a bit old for it, however I haven't been able to find a tour that is teen appropriate.

So while the kids aren't into the "planning" aspect, when they hear me talk about it they are excited about going.