The thread about what everyone does to spend time when NOT planning a Disney trip got me thinking about our individual Disney histories.
I thought it could be fun to share your own personal Disney History. That is, when you first went, and the trips you’ve had since then. And if you’ve never been but just planning your first, share that as well!
Since I started this thread, that makes me NUMBER ONE (well…I mean, number one poster in this thread). Ages and years are approximate based on my fuzzy memory.
Age 9 (1982) first trip to Walt Disney World, including Epcot.
Age 12 (1985), first (and only) trip to Disneyland.
Age 14 (1988), trip to Magic Kingdom with friend’s family.
Age 22 (1995), honeymoon at Walt Disney World, all four parks. (Only time we ever stayed on site.)
Age 24 (1997), took our 5-year-old niece for two days at Magic Kingdom.
Age 28 (2001), first trip to WDW with our two (at the time) kids, DS4, and DS3.
Age ?? (200?), somewhere in here we had another trip…the details elude me.
Age 38 (2011), family trip to WDW for 6 days (first with all 5 kids)
Age 43 (2016), trip with family to WDW, minus oldest son, for 5 days.
1981 (age 8)- Magic Kingdom one day visit
1987 (age 13)- Disneyland
1989 (10th grade class trip)- EPCOT
2008- Magic Kingdom on Black Friday with my DH, 3 and 1 year-olds
2010- Disneyland for the day
2010- 2 day trip with DH and Kids (MK and DHS) Beach Club
2015- Trip with just me and the kids- AKL- MK, AK, EPCOT
Coming up- Thanksgiving Week 2018- CL at GF The four of us
Thanks! A great idea. Will be fun to see all the trips people have taken to Disney.
Mine is a short list.
(1976) Disneyland Don’t remember many details.
(1983) WDW: MK and original EPCOT: One week trip, 3 park days with side trips to Kennedy Space Center and Busch Gardens.
(1993) WDW with kids: MK, EPCOT and HS (in its MGM days) One week trip.
(2015) WDW (only time to stay on site) Lucky to see the Osborne Lights in their last season.
Strangely, all the WDW trips were in December, so I’ve only seen it dressed for Christmas
Not sure when, or if, we’ll go back. Looking at a possible trip to Disneyland
Age 19 (Nov 2007) Week long trip with DBF’s (now DH’s) entire family of 20 to WDW and all it involves. MVMCP
Age 28 (Nov 2016) Week long trip with DH to WDW. MVMCP
Age 30 (June 2018) Week long trip with DH to WDW. We both became passholders.
Age 30 (July 2018) Weekend last minute trip (literally planned 4 days before) to WDW
Age 30 (August 2018) Midweek trip with a friend and her 5yo son. Stayed off property. Without DH.
Age 30 (September) This weekend DH, his mom, and I will be at WDW F-M. Doing MNSSHP.
I visited Disneyland in 1985 at the age of 7 and all I remember is being terrified in the Haunted Mansion and annoyed my 4 year old sister wasn’t. And being so tired from walking and how unfair it was that my sis could ride on my dad’s shoulders but I couldn’t. So, sounds like I was a joy to be with the whole trip.
We visited Disney World and Epcot in 1990 as a family and then I visited those same parks again with a friend, her mom, and aunt in 1992. We took a train from Maine to FL. Those trips blend together for me.
Taking my kids with my mom next month, and it will be my first time at HS and AK.
A short list for me too. All trips 2 weeks from the UK, all in summer.
1992 - aged 17, first trip with my parents, 15yo sister and 13yo brother all staying in the same motel room in Kissimmee.
2000 - me, my DH and DS5, my parents, sister and her DH and brother, first night in a motel then in a villa owned by my mum’s friend in Davenport.
2012 - me, my DH, DS17 and DS7, my parents, sister, BIL, nieces 7 & 4, nephew 2, and my brother, in a villa - can’t remember exactly where but it was further out than we’d stayed before.
2016 - me, DH and DS11 at POFQ.
Next trip - me, DS14 and my parents, at POFQ, in August 2019.
After that I would guess it will be at least 5 years before we go again, and I really doubt we’ll stay on property unless the pound is very strong!
Age 4? 1982? - DW. The only thing I remember is being on a Pirates (?) ride and being pretty scared that pirates were shooting across the water at each other.
Age 13. 1991 - DW. Again, I only remember one thing - the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It may have been named differently back then.
Somewhere in the early 2000s, I went to DL for a couple of days. I honestly don’t remember any of it.
2015 - Took DD7 and DS2 (almost 3) to DL. I realized on that trip that my daughter wasn’t scared of anything. She rode Space Mountain 10 times.
2017 - Took DD9 and DS4 (almost 5) to DW. Got off to a rough start (we knew about TP, but hadn’t read the forums to get details). We didn’t enjoy the first two days - our expectations were too high, the crowds were high and there was a lot of rain. We didn’t even know about EMH, and we seemed to keep winding up at the parks with EMH (not staying on site, we didn’t get to participate). We didn’t even know you had to take additional transportation to MK. Everything seemed to settle down after a couple of days, but I vowed to make the next trip better.
2018 - DD10 and DS6 to DW the week after Thanksgiving. Gonna be epic.
1998 - WDW (I was 3!) Week-long visit with both grandmas, mom, & sister
2008 - WDW (13) Week-long visit with immediate family
2011 - DL (only time) Spontaneous New Years Eve trip
2018 - WDW (23) Planning on heading back to the world and including Universal for a week in about 2.5 weeks (but who’s counting ), with DH, sister, mom, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and sister-in-law
As you can see, I hit up the world about every 10 years (pretty much the only economical way to do it as a recent college grad )!
This is fun. I bet there are some here with too many to list! I have 14 trips complete, 2 more scheduled in the next 6 months! And then perhaps a break for a few years.
June 1981: first trip as a kid with my family (FW Cabins)
July 1982: loved first trip so much, returned with my family again (off site)
April 1984: school trip (off site)
April 1987: high school trip (off site)
May 1994: 3-day trip with friends (off site)
June 1998: evacuated with soon-to-be DH from Key West for hurricane/tropical storm and headed north to Disney for a couple days (off site)
Sep 2003: first family trip (2 nights) with DS1 (off site)
Nov 2008: second family trip (6 nights) with DS6 and DS4 (ASMo)
Nov 2010: third family trip (7 nights) with DS8, DS6, and DD1 (CBR)
Dec 2012: fourth family trip (7 nights) with DS10, DS8, DD3, and DS1 (CBR)
Nov 2014: fifth family trip (7 nights) with DS12, DS10, DD 5, and DS3 (POR)
March 2017: sixth family trip (7 nights) with DS15, DS12, DD7, and DS6 (POR)
May 2018: adult trip with DH (AKL)
Oct 2018: girls trip with friends to F&W (WL)
March 2019: seventh family trip (9 nights) with DS17, DS14, DD9, and DS8 (Pop or POR-FQ)
This is easy for me…just one trip!
1995, age 15, with my dad, stepmom, two younger brothers. Stayed at one of the All Star resorts, maybe sports? I think it was fairly new at the time. There was no AK yet, and the studios were still MGM. Most of what I remember is just from pictures. There was an Ace Ventura show, and I have a picture of a parade at MGM with Laurie Metcalf in a car. Oh and we ate lunch at the 50s Prime Time Cafe, and at the time I was miserable (like, who are these people telling me what to do??) but it was actually one of the places I put on my list of things to do when we go this year!
Oh and @ryan1 I gotta agree with what you put in your other post…these forums are dangerous. I’m already thinking about when I can plan our next trip (and this year’s trip isn’t until November!!)
I have trouble remembering years for my first 2 trips, but I think I have this right.
Feb 1991: first trip to DW. We were in Orlando for a week, but we did Universal and I think Sea world as well, but that might have been my second trip. I was with my parents, sisters and friends of the family.
Oct. 1993: DW and Universal. Maybe Sea World. With my parents and sisters
April 2007: Honeymoon for 5 nights to DW
Sept 2016: First time my kids went to DW. Week long trip.
May 2018: week long trip to DW.
Hopefully May/June 2020 will be our next trip. My best friend is joining us, as she has never been to DW.
Edited to add: Almost forgot my DL visit in 1996. I was on a trip with our school chorus in California. We spent one day in DL and got to sing near the castle. That trip is when I learned Space Mountain is so much better in DL.
1979 – Age 7 – First trip. Only MK available! Stayed at CR and had a blast at River Country. (flew out of O’Hare in Chicago on May 26, one day after the tragedy of AA Flight 191. I never noticed, but my mom said she and my dad worked very hard to distract us at takeoff because wreckage was still, obviously, strewn everywhere and very visible).
1987 – HS Band Trip – MK and EPCOT. 4 day Offsite stay and performing in MS Electrical Parade!.
1991–Spring break offsite. Three parks now!!!
1993–Spring Break stayed at CBR. Storm of the Century stranded me in FL and we had to spend an extra two days at WDW. Oh Darn!!
2003 – Port Orleans Riverside – Now 4 parks!!
2010 – WDW Race Weekend – AS Music. It snowed.
2018 – Poly and Beach Club
2018 – YC – First time at food and wine.
From the late 90’s through the 00’s we had family near Cocoa Beach/Melbourne area, so we had many one or two day park excursions during that time, but I don’t count those as: (1) I can’t remember them all; and (2) they weren’t really “Disney Vacations” just something to do for a day or two while visiting family.
Oh, I haven’t been to either one since I was a teenager. We thought about doing universal, but the costs for 5 people is just too much for us to do DW and the other parks. We have talked about a universal only trip with maybe the Kennedy space center when our kids are older and all 3 can ride most of the attractions. And when the Nintendo area is open.
I did universal on my first two trips - I think it was two days the first trip and only 1 day the second.
It just isn’t worth the money & time away from Disney for me.
Of course it probably helps that my BF isn’t into Harry Potter or ‘roller coasters’ so he doesn’t care that we don’t go
), with DH, sister, mom, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and sister-in-law
)!
