Your first trip to Disney, what you remember ?

[L&Lfan]

My first Disneyland trip was in 1968. I was 8 and most of my memories are from home movies of the trip my Dad took although I still have the guidebook, a wall map and some unused attraction tickets. We stayed at the Candy Cane Motel and visited for one day.

My first Walt Disney World trip was in August of 1972. I was 12. I still have the View Masters slides and wall map I bought with my allowance, the guidebook and some unused attraction tickets. We stayed offsite at probably a Holiday Inn or Travelodge and went to the park for one day, from opening til closing. My parents, both in their 40s at the time, were real troopers in that summer heat.

 

[scrump]

I was 6. One of my favorite movies of all time was (and still is) Peter Pan. I went on the ride for the first time and couldn't believe how the movie came to life right before my eyes. The nursery in the beginning, the streets of London below, Mermaid Lagoon...omg it all blew my mind away. It really was magic to me.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

I was hardly a teenager, my sister just a toddler. There was only Magic Kingdom then ( hard to imagine now). My most vivid memories of that vacation are the monorail rides and going thru the Contemporary Resort, the Electrical Parade ( it was all white lights, I believe) and the Haunted Mansion ride. From that vacation forward, I have always known Walt Disneyworld to be the most wonderful and magical place for me

 

[bcla]

Disneyland at maybe 5 although my parents told me my first time I was 2. Don't remember all the details, but I remember we'd always go on Pirates and Country Bear Jamboree was my favorite attraction. I distinctly remember holding the ticket book in my hand and asking my parents which rides we should use our tickets on. The other thing about the ride tickets is that they seemed to actually keep the line short.

Never went to WDW. Almost did so when visiting Miami in 2006. Caught a red eye from San Francisco to Miami although I knew there was a storm heading into Florida. Really odd too as I saw the San Francisco Giants manager on the flight even though his team took charters. I think he owned a home in Miami and was going to catch up with the team in Atlanta. I was hoping the storm was just going to lightly hit the Keys and then miss Miami. Cancelled my plans in the Keys, but before I left my dad suggested maybe I should just head to Disney World. I holed up in Miami and waited out the storm but if I did go to WDW the storm would have caught up to me. I don't think it closed, but exactly what can you do there in tropical depression force winds?

 

[Figarro]

My first Disney park was Disneyland Paris in 2007. I visited a friend who was working in Switzerland at that time, and we went to Paris together.
My parents couldn't take us to Disney when we were little, but I had always wanted to go there (any Disney park) so I asked my friend if she was OK spending 1 day in Disney out of our week-long trip to Paris and she agreed.

I still remember how excited I was when we arrived there (and my friend told me that she'd never seen me that excited before), the crowd (I did not expect it to be that crowded, but I was a Disney newbie and we still had fun regardless), and the raining umbrella photo op.
We went to Phantom Manor and I was so worried because I was (still am) a chicken about scary stuff, but I found out that it wasn't scary at all.

 

[OneOftheB's]

There has been some debate as to when my family went to WDW. My dad’s memory isn’t great and my mom is gone. My brother swears he remembers the shoes he was wearing, so he says it was when he was 14, so I would have been 6. I feel like I was probably 4 or 5, so our trip fell somewhere between 1977-1979.

I remember two things clearly and have fuzzy memories/ feelings about a third. My clearest memory is driving the RC boats by the Jungle Cruise. I also remember riding Space Mountain with my brother and wanting to get off half way through (I’ve never liked the “bigger” coasters since) and my brother losing his shoe on Space Mountain. CMers had to find it while we waited. The warm fuzzy is from Peter Pan. I still get that feeling of absolute joy whenever I ride Peter Pan and I can only imagine it has some residual childhood memories from my first trip.

 

[Meriweather]

I was 3, so don't remember much (this was Disneyland). I do remember riding Dumbo and it was over water then and my hat blew off into the water

 

[lorimay]

It was in 1973 after we moved to South Florida from NYC.
I was 8, I remember the Orange Bird little guy and the Tiki area where they did Tikibird show. I also remember coming in on the ferry, that was cool.
Those terrible blue strollers, my sister was a baby.
I pushed my daughter in the same strollers in the late 80's, LOLOLOL
Back then it was MK only, so one day at Disney then we would drive over to the west coast of Florida for a beach week.

 

[ZTator]

1987 was my first trip to WDW, we stayed 4 nights at Caribbean Beach Resort it was brand new , we paid 69.00 a night. My husband and my then 2 small children saved for 2 years to be able to go. I can remember taking the boat over to Magic Kingdom getting off confused to where to go, then we stood in the middle of main street and could not believe our eyes the castle was something like we never seen before we were in awe, we never in our life had as much fun as we did that vacation. It bonded us as a family, and it was the first place we were able to all do something fun together. That was the first of many trips for us. I could cry thinking about it , to be honest.

 

[CT Yankee]

My brother's wife is from Southern California and her family visited Disneyland frequently when she was growing up. I spent the summer after high school graduation visiting them and she and her sister took me to Disneyland for a day. This was my first trip to any kind of Disney property. Throughout the day, I had the pleasure of hearing them reminisce about their DL trips and it was an absolute delight to witness these two adult sisters recapturing some of their youth in these fond memories. On the drive to Anaheim, one of them said something to the effect of, "The first one to spot Matterhorn wins." When I asked what do they win, the in-perfect-unison response was, "Nothing, you just WIN!" That sentiment stuck with me and appealed to me on a few levels; the friendly sibling rivalry, the bond between sisters, the joy of winning just for the sake of winning. Flash forward about 15 years and I began carrying on that tradition with my own kids any time we approached a landmark destination (Disney cruise ship, a stadium, the Gateway Arch). It brings back warm memories but is also a little bittersweet. Her sister died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 52. The memory I like to hold on to of her and of that wonderful day is that excited look on her face when she exclaimed, "you just WIN!"

 

[lovin'fl]

Spring break 1980. I was 7 and my brother 12. Epcot was being built. We stayed off resort somewhere near the beach. There was a lot of college spring breakers in our hotel partying and it bugged my parents. We did 1 or 2 days at Disney. I remember PotC, Country Bear, IaSW, the railroad and the Skyway. My DH happened to also go around the same time with his family. Then our 1st trip back, with our own family, was in 2003. Was the first time I flew too, 1980.

 

[SaintsManiac]

WDW in 1979. Lost my ears on Snow White's Scary Adventures I was scared to death.

 

[PollyannaMom]

This:


I had the misfortune of timing my first trip (which also happened to be my honeymoon) to when they had frosted the castle like a birthday cake.

But I was not deterred. I'd been a lifelong fan of Disney television, and had always wanted to go. I had a wonderful first trip, and have now been able to experience three "first looks" at the castle - that one, my first view of the real thing (on DS's first trip a few years later), and my first view of it lit up for Christmas (a little over a year ago).

 

[tazdev3225]

My first trip was in June 1989. My little brother's school was sponsoring a trip and my mom asked if we would like to go to. We stayed off site at a Ramada. My kids were 16 months, 3 and 6 my brother was 10. We had to do everything with my parents which at times was annoying but they were OK with heading back to the hotel a couple times so my daughter who almost never napped could take a nap.

I think what I remember most was watching the joy in my kids faces and the cries of my 3 year old who only wanted to see Pooh. As we were leaving to head to the airport and back home Pooh finally made an appearance. My parents, really my mom, REFUSED to let me take my daughter down to see him, we needed to get the rental cars back and get to the airport. We had 3 hours so we had time. My mom REFUSED to let it happen. We sat in the airport for 2 hours listening to my poor baby sob, "I see Pooh, PLEASE!!!" I should have ignored my mother.

 

[J'aime Paris]

My first trip was to Disneyland when I was 4.
I remember the Los Angeles airport being 'scary'...that's about it.
Thankfully my parents took lots of pictures, and those show I was having fun, lol!

 

[Angienharry]

I never got to go to Walt Disney World as a child my first trip was in 1996. My two sons were two and four years old. It was just amazing to me to see Disney through the eyes of children. The things that they liked and wanted to spend time doing were not what I would have planned but I decided to forgo planning and trying to make the trip “special” and just relax and let it be special all on its own. It was very magical.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

First time: Being outside the entrance in the perfect Florida sunshine. We stayed offsite, so while we enjoyed it - it wasn't as magical as the second time we went.

Second time: Stayed in the Contemporary Garden Wings with a view of water (and water light parade). Only the Contemporary and Polynesian existed then and you could easily go back and forth to swim or get food. The hotel arcade was the biggest I had ever seen in my life. Epcot hadn't been built yet, so everything was contained in that little circle. We did the Luau, the Hoop Dee Doo, everything on tv was Disney park related. The only boring part was Lake Buena Vista (where they had the Golf Course Resort) as it was still in developmental stages almost seemed like plain old woods and swamp. I saved all the brochures then because I just wanted to know everything about WDW then.

 

[Wakey]

Pink castle with candles on. And the great Epcot show they had then when they sent up a mass of fireworks, and everyone cheered when their country lit up. Never did like the later show.

 

[Donzie]

1981 WDW. I remember riding the monorail through the Contemporary Hotel. Climbing through over and over again the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse and imagining that I lived there. And spending my lunch/food money on bb's for the Frontierland Shooting Arcade. Actual lead, pinging noises that can take an eye out by golly. It is now converted over to led infrared lights. Not as popular today but I enjoyed Westerns and Huck Finn and survival Swiss Family Robinson stories then.

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

May 1991, I was 5. I remember Snow White’s Scary Adventures absolutely terrifying me, and eating at San Angel Inn after riding Gran Fiesta Tour. My sweet nana was the one who took me, and I remember we walked through Cinderella’s castle and found out there was a restaurant inside. She wanted to take me but it was too much $$$. We also went on a monorail ride and we were in awe of how the other half lived at the Contemporary. We stayed at the cheapest possible hotel offsite which was fine, but even at age 5 I felt guilty that everything was so expensive for my nana.

She passed away a few years ago and on the 5 year anniversary of her death we went to WDW and stayed at the Contemporary. On that trip we ate at CRT for the first time. I felt like I had “made it” and like my nana would have been so happy that I can give my kids the things she wanted to give me. We had a tightly planned agenda on that trip and there was only one afternoon open for swimming, but it was drizzling. We went to the pool anyway and the sun came out. The most beautiful DOUBLE rainbow appeared in the sky. I felt like it was a sign from my nana that she was watching over us.