@Jeff_AZ said it all. Twinsies! I remember barking at my family to hurry up, unofficial guide in hand, preteen years, and we ended up the family of the day at Animal Kingdom! The compulsive personality thing is so outrageously true, too. It’s like if couponing and musicals made a baby.
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And now, thank you Julianne, I have just finished reading this article about why we say “to a T” or “to a tee” (both of which are correct, @eeeevah and phew for that right?!)
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I have a similar story. First trip for my kids to DLR was in 2010, then we all went to WDW for the first time in 2012. My younger daughter was 9 and had this stuffed Ray from Princess and the Frog. We were watching the parade and she was holding Ray up and Prince Naveen spotted her. He pointed at Ray, then looked to the sky and back and said, “Ray?!” He also got Princess Tiana’s attention and both waved right at me daughter. It was amazing! Of course I was already well and truly hooked at that point, but still.
A friend was gifted a DLR trip by her sister for her and her kids. She was kind of making noises about “corporate Disney” grumble grumble. Then they walked into DL on the first day and within 5 minutes Pluto came up and interacted with her daughter - free-roaming Pluto not a M&G line. That was it! She was hooked.
I was hooked from my earliest memories. I visited DL at age 4 or 5. I have distinct memories of the tea cups and Pirates. But I don’t really remember a time when Disney and Disneyland weren’t a big part of my life.
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I’ve never seen it as “to a tee”. Is that a thing? But from now on I will only say “to a tittle”!
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“To a tittle!”
Tee hee. Or I guess also T hee!
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My story is like many others. Went as a kid several times and was hooked from the beginning. Because magic is real and it lives in Disney World.
But as an adult? I don’t think we’d have planned to go more frequently than every four or five years except I was recommended to use Touring Plans. And so suddenly the 60 minute+ waits in line of my youth didn’t have to be a thing. Which made it palatable for the littles.
And then the “MOMMY MOMMY! LOOK! IT’S SNOW WHITE!” experience at the Parade brought DH and me to tears. And we knew it would have to be a much more frequent event.
(Still need that dvc contract though…)
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Please let me know your preferred method of being enabled.
I am here to help
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Wow - you just described how I feel so succinctly.
I kind of feel this way too - like “will it really be great? It’s soooo costly. I’m sure it’s a one and done” and now I’m plotting how to get back lol.
When I think back on our trip, my very big Star Wars loving 8 year old built a Kylo light saber from Tattoine Traders. We were walking around SWGE, and we saw stormtroopers walking around. It was then that I realized that Kylo would probably be exiting his ship (thanks liners). After the show on the platform, Kylo walked the crowd and told my kid (speaking directly to him) that the first order is his destiny. I have not seen my kid smile so big in a long time. I expected DS4 to love WDW and be enamored and feel the specialness of characters. I did not expect my 8 year old to believe it so deeply. He knows characters are not “real” but in that moment, he 100% believed. And that was probably the most special moment of the trip. That - and when he hugged me before Fantasmic and told me he had the best birthday ever. Maybe I’m chasing that feeling of just pure joy.
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This was my daughter at CRT except Cinderella told her she loved her shoes and reminded her to wear shoes with buckles (and showed her that she does now) so you don’t lose them.
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This is true I think for us “Disney adults” as well. I 100% believe even though I know it’s not real. It’s a lovely break from ugly reality.
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I agree so much with this!
I think for me it is of course the obvious escape and Disney bubble with all of the Disney magic.
My daughter didn’t start to speak until she was around 3 and our first trip was her third birthday. That trip will always be the most magical, but there are two moments that I will never forget.
First, was her first time seeing Minnie and Mickey Mouse (or mee-yowk and key-yowk as she called them at the time) yelling to them, hugging them, and being so stinkin’ excited that it still melts my heart to think about it. They are still her favorites to this day.
The second was at Akershus when Cinderella came over and grabbed her hand (she was also dressed as Cinderella) to take her for the Princess Parade completely unexpectedly. Cinderella held her hand the whole time and she just looked up and stared at her in awe the entire walk around.
I think it’s also magical for me having loved so many of these characters myself as a child and then getting to share them with her and experience it all over again through her eyes.
BUT also getting to engage my OCD and have a plan and then see the plan come to fruition and have everything all fall into place…chefs kiss.
I love how you said the idea of the gold star because that is exactly how I feel.
It’s the best of both worlds, I can totally detach from my home reality, but still feel like I am accomplishing something. On other vacations, I still find myself needing to check in with work and have a hard time stepping away, but I think at Disney I am so focused on my plan and everything there, that I don’t even take the time to think about work and real life. I’m not really sure I’ve ever felt that same escape anywhere else.
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Oh wow… today you are just all putting my deepest feelings into words… I don’t think I’d realized this but it’s perfectly true for me as well!
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I went once as a kid (10 years old, with my aunt and uncle). I loved it, but didn’t think much of it again, until we had a 2.5 year old and we were trying to figure out what to do for a summer vacation. I wanted something relaxing that I wouldn’t have to think a lot about and I looked at club med and a bunch of other things. Everything seemed like such a hassle, and I randomly started looking at Disney World. You’ll pick me up from the airport and deal with my luggage? Sold. I booked a trip through southwest like less than two months before we left.
The first few hours were rough as my daughter cried after we checked into the hotel as she just wanted to swim and we forced her to go the Animal Kingdom. You can see how thrilled she was with everything here.
I also discovered I was pregnant a week before we left and almost barfed on the bus to the Animal Kingdom. We then took her to the Rainforest Cafe, where she cried every time it rain.
Despite these initial hiccups, she had a blast, and we returned a few years later with her baby brother, and we now go every other year for our family trip.
All of us in 2009:
And all of us in 2022:
One of the best parts has been how the kids’ interests have changed and what they love to do as they grow. I had no idea my crying 2 year old would LOVE roller coasters when she was four but bail out of my favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion. My son hates roller coasters, like me, so we split up and do “slow boat rides”
I worried when they were little that at some point they would think the parks are lame and I’ve been so happy that they have continued to love it.
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Totally this.
I do like theme parks in general, I liked UOR, but WDW is a whole different world. I was just in DLP for the first time in ~20 years and it was great, the main park felt very much Disney and it’s similar to Magic Kingdom, but still not quite the same thing as stepping into any of the WDW parks. Of course, nostalgia plays a role too.
I’m not sure when my first time in WDW was but it was the early 90’s as a kid. We went several times in 90-00. So lot’s of memories from there. I had a long break til I was 21 and went with my now DW. It was a one time thing, it took almost 15 years before we went back with our own kids and that was the time I fell for WDW again.
I can also name a couple of exact moments - one was my son, then 4 I think, meeting Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and smiling like never before, and on the same day my daughter (7 at the time) putting on a dance show during the MK parade and people around her cheering for her. Just some of those magical moments that you remember for a long time
I also do like the planning aspect. My dad used to have guidebooks that I loved to browse and I remember feeling like a real pro after picking out some tips from them.
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Same for me. Stepping into a world where everything feels magical allows me to fully disconnect from the real world. And the detailed theming and wonderful cast members are what make the whole experience special and magical. Not the attractions per se.
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I was 8 and we first travelled as a family from Australia in 1982 to Disneyland. My mum was a huge fan and from then on my sisters and I were hooked. No overseas trip is complete without a visit to see Mickey! I first went to WDW when I was about 18 and was amazed. Even took my husband back on our honeymoon (DL and WDW!) in 1999. We’ve also done Tokyo, Hong Kong and Paris. I’ve passed my love of Disney onto my kids, who are now also fans. Perhaps not as much as their Disney nerd Mum! For me it’s the theming and attention to detail. Disney calls it ‘overmanaging’. I’ve done some Disney Institute courses too, amazing! I love being engulfed in the bubble and as a planner, I enjoy the trip prep and planning almost as much as the trip itself. I also love the community and podcasts. Like a trip without a trip. It’s been a long time between trips (thanks COVID!), but will be back later this month. I’m guessing stepping into the Magic Kingdom will bring a few tears!
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Spending vacation not driving 
Honestly being the only driver it bums me out sometimes and makes me less motivated to plan much knowing that aspect. 2nd to that would be DD9 meeting Peter Pan, Pluto & Tigger. Even at 14 now, still wants to see them again.
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I was hooked as a child. My parents are from Florida, their best friends, some of my aunts and all of my grandparents lived in Florida when I was a child, so Florida is where we went every summer. Sometimes we would stop by Magic Kingdom for one day, once we did multiple days in a Cabin at Fort Wilderness (and went to River Country! Which was magical). When Epcot opened we did a “one day” stop by. A year or two later I went with a youth group to Epcot -this was between 9th and 10th grade and I have this memory of independence and feeling like an adult, and a cute boy flirting with me (I was 6 feet tall!) instead of my adorable friends. Also, because I had been before, l loved that I got to show everyone around. My last trip was when MGM studios opened. And then I didn’t go back until 2015.
With all love for the magic of the place in my heart, I over planned the trip, there was a hurricane off the coast making it 100% humidity and like @missoverexcited my 5 year old was scared of everything. Instead of giving up on it, I managed to work back to a few shorter trips, with reasonable schedules.
Without DME, my DH would never have gotten hooked. The ease of DME, and never having to drive when we finally stayed on property checked the “relaxing” box for him.
With repeatability, came comfort and tradition for my family. We all love amusement parks and rides and each trip we peeled back a different layer of the onion. We all have bonded over these traditions, and seeing my tween daughter skip around the hub is the best feeling for a mother.
As the instigator of my family’s trips, what has me personally hooked:
- I love the planning tetris and hacking the systems (whithin what Diseny wouldn’t frown on). Like @Amuething my love language is acts of service - so making the trip magically unfold is so fufilling
- I love the community I have built
- I had a solo trip to DLR after work and was everything I need for me - because “acts of service is my love language” experiencing the magic just for me, was more needed than I could ever have imagined.
- everyone needs a hobby, why not Disney. I mena the corporate soap opera alone is fun.
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