We are headed to WDW in 3 weeks for our first adult trip with just my wife and I. We’ll be checking out food and wine, keys of the kingdom and enjoying the parks without the kids. We have gone as a family a few times and as recently as June. But I haven’t broken the news to them that we are going without them yet. They know we’re going someplace but that’s it. I need to let them know soon. Anyone have experience with this? Or any tips? We travel without them periodically but not usually to one of “their places”. I haven’t found much online about this. Any thoughts are welcome.
One option is to just say “hey, you were just there and now we’re going to do some different stuff that you wouldn’t care about” and hope for the best.
It’s going to be tough no matter how you break it to them.
How about:
“You want to go to Disney? Then hmmm dip dip dip dip dip dip dip boom boom boom boom boom boom Get A Job! Sha-na-na-na, Sha-na-na-na-na” 
My kids were fine with it when I told them about my trip. I did emphasize all the boring grown up things I was planning. Good luck!
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I did an adults only long weekend last year with my mom. Kids stayed with dad. DD10 was a little jealous and made a few comments, understandably. Agree to emphasize that you are doing mostly boring adult stuff, and that you will be bringing them again another time (assuming you will).
Yeah, we’re planning a family trip this year and an adults-only trip next year (with some old non-expiring tickets I found when cleaning out the garage, yay!). Started telling the kids about it NOW, while they’re looking forward to this year’s trip, so it won’t be a surprise to them later.
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We did an adults only trip in January, after a family trip in May 2014. We broke it to them in stages. First, we explained that we’d be going on a trip and that Grandma and Grandpa would be watching them (and made that sound really fun). Later, we told them our trip was to Florida. Then, even closer to the trip, we asked them if there were any special toys/games/presents that they wanted us to get for them at WDW, while we were in Florida. They were super into Big Hero 6 at the time, and asked for a Baymax toys. Ultimately, we kind of got them thinking that Mom and Dad had to go to WDW, to pick up their presents! 
We probably didn’t need to do all that. But we did, and it worked for us.
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Ah, breaking it to them gently. Reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:
A man is on vacation and his brother is taking care of his cat. The man calls his brother to check in and asks, “How is the cat?” The brother says, “The cat’s dead.” The man is distraught. He says, “You can’t just tell me like that. You have to ease me into it. The first day, you tell me the cat’s on the roof and you can’t get her down. The second day, you tell me the cat fell and she’s in a coma. Then on the third day you can tell me the cat died.” The brother apologizes profusely. Then the man says, “It’s ok. Don’t worry about it. How’s mom?” The brother responds, “Mom’s on the roof and we can’t get her down.”
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Bahaha! Yes, yes it was kind of like that…
Incidentally, they promptly abandoned their Baymax toys and commenced fighting over my wand from UOR (though they are clueless about Harry Potter). Kids.
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We did the same with DD6. She is looking forward to mamaw only time and of course had her list of what we have to bring back. She has been super about it. She said she is glad we get to go celebrate our anniversary and she can go in the spring!!! We just asked if she would be ok with it if we went and did adult stuff she wouldn’t want or couldn’t do. She said are go. But don’t ride spaceship earth without me. 
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