Your Disney History

1996 MK and DHS (one day each) — part of a two month Grand Tour of the USA

1996 DL (one day) — part of the same big trip

??? DL (one day)

2006 Disneyland Hong Kong (one day)

2009 Disneyland Paris (one day) — not my first trip, maybe my third or fourth (I went at least once in the 1990s and once between then and this trip) but my most recent

2017 WDW and UOR (ten day extravaganza)

2018 WDW and UOR (eight day extravaganza)

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1979 - Disneyland. No memory
1987 - Disneyland with the band. I remember it being super duper hot and being so tired from marching I didn’t want to do much.
1993 - Disneyland. Grad night. Lots of the rides were closed and we got a couple fun hours in the park. I remember complaining and being a huge pain in the rear. I hope my attitude has improved since my teen years!

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Christmas 1982 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot (parents, sister, and extended family; Fort Wilderness in RV)

August 1985 - Disneyland (parents and sister to celebrate my sister’s 5th birthday)

Spring 1989 - MGM, Epcot (parents and sister; stayed offsite)

Summer 1991 - EuroDisney (parents and sister)

January 1997 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM (boyfriend; stayed offsite)

March 2001 - Magic Kingdom, MGM, Epcot, Animal Kingdom (boyfriend; All Star Music)

September 2005 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom (mom and sister; Caribbean Beach)

May 2010 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom (celebrating my 10 year anniversary at work, company paid for trip; Polynesian)

November 2011 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom (7 months pregnant went with husband and extended family; stayed offsite)

December 2015 - Disneyland (husband and our two small children)

April 2017 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom (husband and children; Art of Animation)

October 2019 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom (husband and children; Pop Century)

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We did Kennedy Space Centre in 2000 but once was enough.

I think we prefer Universal to Disney, but we could never skip either one.

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1976 - (Age 11) - My traveling-crazy sister and Mom took me to WDW when MK was all there was. (My father had died the previous fall.) It was Bicentennial year, so lots going on and we stayed in a park view room in CR. Pushed sofa over to window and fell asleep looking at MK lights each night.

I still have some of the travel agent papers, if I recall correctly it was a 3 night / 4 day package, cost was something like than $375 pp, including airfare, and included breakfasts at CR! I remember the ginormous game room they had in CR, felt so grown up heading down there on my own with $3 in my pocket when family napped. (Games cost 25 cents.)

1978 - Was supposed to go with same sister and her boyfriend and his young daughters. Sister’s company told her at last minute she couldn’t take off, so I just went! Great trip, also went to visit some of his family on a sugar cane farm mid Florida. They taught me how to skeet shoot.

1983 - (Age 18) - Summer after first year of college, friends and I decided to drive to Daytona beach from NY. Most of us were engineering students, so also took side trip so we could geek out in the newly opened EPCOT. Stayed at cheapo place in Kissimmee.

Mid to late 80s - 2 day trips to Disneyland when visiting friends who moved out to CA, another blurry trip to WDW. (Off site.)

1996 - First trip anywhere with (now) wife, stayed in WL. Such a great trip. The year Cinderella Castle was a pink birthday cake. They tested fireworks late one night that we could see from our window. Took tour of WL, they let us up on roof!

2000(?) - After some work training, visited gasp Universal with sister and family up from Miami. Sadly, did NOT go to WDW.

2013 Summer - First trip with our kids (DD6 and DS9). Stayed at POR. Only hit MK and HS since we wanted to do the parks we hit right.
(Had originally planned to go previous year, but DW diagnosed with breast cancer. She has just finished her course of radiation treatment right before this trip, so got a DAS card which helped greatly.)

2014 November - Squoze trip in between multiple days school closed for holidays and teacher admin days. So nice and cool! Stayed at CBR, with 1 night at ASSports the night before leaving. (Food court was a zoo at 10PM.) Hit MK, HS, 1st visit to EP (which they LOVED.) Got to see last year of Osborne Lights, original Soarin.

2017 Summer - Another CBR stay (with construction discount!) Avoided HS since, blah with things closed down. Planned MK, EP, first visit to AK! (Good timing since right after Pandora opened.) Let kids choose park for last day: surprised me by choosing EP.

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Probably around 1985 I made my first trip to Disney World.
Shortly after EPCOT opened, so 1989 I went back
I went with my aunt and cousin in about 1992
Went once with my fiancee’ now wife in 2003.
Went back as Florida resident in 2005
Took my kids on their first trip in 2016
Planning my next one for Thanksgiving week of 2019.

And yes, Snow White was a scary one. I have to close my eyes the whole ride. ET on the other hand, not scary at all (it ISN’T because I had a different frame of reference and was a little more mature) Snow White was just scarier. :slight_smile:

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Summer 2002 - Just passing through Orlando and spent 2 partial days in the parks. Completely unplanned. I don’t really count this. Plus, I was pregnant and couldn’t ride much of anything.

11/2014 - First family trip to WDW with DH and our 2 kids. Our best vacation EVER!

11/2016 - Back again and took more family and friends with us.

11/2018 - It’s almost here!!

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This is what I can remember! 95% of my trips to DLR have been for one day. We live in MA, my dad is from CA, and my grandma hasn’t flown since 2005ish. Therefore, we frequent CA to visit her and she’s lived within 45 mins of DLR for most of my life (now closer to 20 mins!).

1996 (age 2) – 1st trip to WDW with my family (parents and older sister) and maternal grandparents
1997 – WDW with my fam, grandparents, aunt, and cousin (mom’s side), and aunt (dad’s side)
1997-02 – probably a couple trips to WDW
2002 (age 8) – I believe my first visit to DLR (my first visit to CA was when I was 5 but I don’t think we went to DLR that time). Only time we’ve ever stayed on property at DLR (at GC).
2004 – DLR in Feb or April. I only remember this trip because my sister and I were excited to ride Dumbo alone at night (each in our own elephant), until a man came up to me and said he was going to have to ride with me (a 4th grader, btw) because there were no Dumbos left, then threw out a “just kidding” probably because I was about to bawl my eyes out. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen my mom scream in someone’s face. Thankfully we’ve never had any other issues at Disney. We also went to WDW for Christmas break that year with everyone else in the world (my mom said never again).
2005-09 – a combo of DLR/WDW (not every year). We often went to WDW during Feb break and CA/DLR during April break. One of these years we did a Universal only trip.
2010 – WDW in April for my sister’s high school graduation with my fam + my aunt and cousin, DLR at end of Dec
2011 – DLR in July (my cousin’s first visit)
2012 – DLR in February (Club 33 thanks to my aunt’s job), WDW in April for my 18th birthday/mom’s birthday/Easter (the only time I’ve skipped school for Disney!), DLR in August. 2012 was a good year :blush:
2013 – WDW in May (while my sister and I were in college), DLR in August
2014 – DLR in Jan (went the last day of the Christmas celebrations), WDW in May (my sister’s college graduation trip & 24 hour MK day)
2015 – DLP for a day with friends (I was studying abroad in London)
2016 – WDW in January (early celebration for my college grad)
2017 – WDW in October (first MNSSHP)
2018 – DLR in July with my fam + my friend (who had never been)

Upcoming: will be in DL for a day in October, planning WDW Oct 2019 with my cousin + parents!

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I grew up on the west coast, so most of mine is Disneyland:

1977: My parents leave infant me with my grandmother to take my brother (age 6) and sister (age 8) to Disneyland. Smart! My siblings were great ages to go and taking a little baby would have been awful for all of them.

Early '80s- age 6ish, Trip to Disneyland, Knott’s and San Francisco with my parents and older brother and sister.

Mid '80s, age 9ish: Another Disneyland, Knott’s, SF trip with the whole family. I think we may have also gone to Sea World.

1989, age 13: I am taken along on a business trip to San Diego, we go to Disneyland for a few days before returning home. Just me and my parents because my siblings were in college.

1993: At Christmas, my parents surprise me (sophmore in high school) and my sister (recent college grad). They are sending us to Disneyland by ourselves as soon as my school lets out for the summer.

1994: My sister and I plan a second trip to Disneyland, with a group of friends.

1995: I go to Disneyland with two high school friends to celebrate our graduation.

1996-2001. I continue to go to Disneyland with my sister and sometimes a friend through college and grad school.

2002: My whole family of five (kids ages 26, 31, and 33) goes to Disneyland together. My brother’s then-girlfriend, now wife, happens to also be there with her family. We stay in the Grand Californian and are ruined for the cheapie hotel forever.

2003: I move to Miami for work. A friend drives cross country with me and we stop at Epcot for two nights to give the moving van time to catch up. I do few one-night trips later in the year.

Early 2004: My sister comes to visit me in Miami, we drive to WDW for several days.

Thanksgiving 2004: My parents come to visit me in Miami, we drive to WDW for several days.

May 2005: I meet my sister at Disneyland during the week of the 50th anniversary celebration kickoff.

New Year’s Eve 2005: After spending Christmas with my family in Seattle, my sister and I fly down to Disneyland for New Year’s Eve. Shortly after we get back to our hotel room, we get a call from our Dad telling us our mom has had a fatal aneurysm. Grand Californian staff is very kind extremely helpful with getting us checked out early, booked on new flights, and into a cab to the airport.

October 2006: I have since moved back to Seattle, my dad, sister and I celebrate my 30th birthday in Disneyland. It’s obviously bittersweet.

2007, 2008, 2009: Disneyland trips with my sister.

May 2010: My first Disneyland trip with a boyfriend, who had only been once when he was a toddler. He loved it. Reader, I married him.

2011: Disneyland with my sister and a friend.

2012: Disneyland with my husband. He gets dehydrated and faints while waiting to get into CA Adventure, knocking out his two front teeth and biting all the way through his lip. We attend the Halloween party dressed as Shaggy and Velma.

May 2013: A Disneyland trip with my sister. It is 104 degrees one of the days and a local friend who had joined us describes it as “What hell would be like if hell were fun.”

January 2014: My sister and I both do the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in Disneyland.

December 2014: I go to Disneyland with my husband.

May 2015: My sister and I go for the Tinkerbell races, I do the half marathon.

May 2016: Another Tinkerbell race trip with my sister: I do all three races, she does the 5K and 10K.

May 2017: I take a very quick trip to Disneyland by myself to do the Pixie Dust Challenge. No one travels with me but I meet up with friends in the parks.

December 2018: Big fun trip to Disney World planned with my husband. It’ll be my first time back in more than 10 years and his first time ever!

If you read all that you can see that there are a lot of ups and downs in my Disney history. It really is a huge part of my life. After my mom died I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to go back to the Grand Californian, but now I am able to remember the fun trip we had there together instead of getting that horrible phone call.

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Oct 1984 First ever trip to LA, one day at DL with husband who hated it, wanted to know where Way-out Land was. Did one day at Universal studios which he liked a bit better

Feb 1988 One day at DL with parents, they were visiting us as we had 6 months in CA.

March 1991 WDW with parents, sister and 5 year old niece. Stayed off-site, went to the parks possibly 3 or 4 days

March 1997 WDW with all the above, 2weeks in Orlando so went to all the parks. Definitely did River Country and Discovery Island, may have been previous trip. No AK of course

May 2005 1 day at DL Paris

Feb 2008 2 days at DLR solo before joining husband in SF

Jan 2012 5 days at WDW, husband at conference at CR.

Oct 2015 1 week at WDW with sister and niece, stayed at OKW, free DDP, did MNSSHP

June 2018 2 days at DLR solo before joining husband at San Diego

Lots of great memories!

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Fun question! This may take me awhile, there have been quite a few trips.

December 1982- First trip. Mom, Dad, brother 11, Me 8. Offsite in Kissimmee.

1984- Disneyland first trip, same crew as above. I remember Knott’s Berry Farm more than Disneyland. Oops.

June 1990- WDW again plus Universal Studios which had just opened. Mom, Dad, brother now 18, me 16. Great memories of this trip with my now deceased Dad (The rocking chairs by Country Bears watching MSEP and Epcot WS which was his favorite place). US was kind of a mess with closed rides, so we got 4 1 day tickets for free to return.

June 1995- WDW with my then boyfriend. I was 21. A 4 day hopper was so cheap back then, I think we paid less than 1K for 2 of us to fly from Virginia, stay off site for 5 or 6 nights, food and tickets. First time visiting MGM, now HS. We also went to Universal Studios that trip, using the free vouchers from 1990. That boyfriend did not last…I got married in 2001.

2003-2004 We lived in Tampa so made quite a few days trips when family visited. DH’s first time to WDW parks (he had been to DL once). First time to Animal Kingdom for me. DD’s first trip at 18 months. DS’s first trip as well, he was 4 months old. We moved to Washington State that summer, so no more Disney for awhile.

May 2009- Kids first trip to Disneyland. Offsite. DH, Me, DD7, DS5. My DH refused to go until these demands were met- no stroller, no naps/breaks, no whining about rides (need to ride all). He thought DL was one and done, therefore wanted everyone to ride everything before he agreed to go. We had a great trip and he got most of these things (Carson was too short for California Screamin so could not ride no matter how much Tim wanted him to).

January 2011- First trip to WDW that the kids would remember. DH, me, DD 9, DS 7. Stayed at POR.

November 2011- First Universal trip for kids. Harry Potter mania was in full effect. Stayed at Royal Pacific for 4 nights and then POFQ at WDW for 3 nights/4 days as well. DH, me, DD almost 10, DS almost 8.

June 2013- Disneyland. First stay at the Disneyland Hotel. DD11, DS9 and me plus met a friend and her kids for a few days. DH and her DH flew in at end and we went to the beach and then Legoland.

October 2013- DD11, DS9 and me. First stay at Paradise Pier.

April 2014- WDW/Universal. DH, me, DD12, DS10. Stayed at Hard Rock and then AOA suites. DH went home after 6 days, the kids and I stayed another 6 at CBR.

November 2014- My first solo (but with friends) trip to DL. Have gone at least 5 other times since then solo with friends/DL liners. Next trip 7 days out. All offsite.

April 2015- DD13, DS11 and me to WDW, Universal, and Disney Dream 4 night cruise. Stayed at CSR, then the cruise, then Royal Pacific.

May 2016, January 2017, October 2017- solo but with friends to WDW. Next trip December at Pop. Stayed at CSR, CR, Pop, POR Royal Room, ASMusic and ASsports.

November 2015- Disneyland and ran Avengers 5K. DD13, DS11. Split stay: Disneyland Hotel and first/only stay at Grand Californian.

May 2016 Disneyland with DD14, June 2016 Disneyland with DS14. June 2017 Disneyland with DD15. July 2018 Disneyland with DS14. All off site.

April 2017- DD15, DS13 and me to WDW and Universal. Stayed at Portofino Bay, CBR, and Beach Club Villas.

Late November/early December 2017- DH, me, DD16, DS14 to Disneyland for DD’s Sweet 16 and DS’s 14th birthday.

April 2018- DD16, DS14 and me to WDW and Universal. Hard Rock Hotel and Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Next trip late March/early April- DD17, DS15 and me to WDW/Uni. Not sure on accommodations except 5 nights at Boardwalk Villas. Maybe 3 nights at CBR and 3 nights at Portofino.

Wow. I kind of forgot how many trips I have had until I wrote it down. The Disney obsession is real!

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1989- WDW, age 4, trip with all the cousins on my moms side.
2011- DLR, my love for Disney reignited with a couple days here.
2011- WDW, trip with in laws, no children
2014- DLR, first trip with a child
2016- DLR, officially obsessed
2017- WDW, there’s no turning back now
Next up… Jan 2019, and hoping for some 2021 50th anniversary fun.

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IIRC, it was the “Fiesta Fun Center” they also showed movies down there in the evenings (well before home video, so it was cool to see a movie someplace other than a movie theater).

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Let me see:

WDW: 1980 (age 2)
WDW: 1986
WDW: 1997
WDW: 1997 (also River Country)
DLR: 2001
DLR: 2002
DLR: 2002
WDW: 2014, All Start Sports
WDW: 2015, Art of Animation
WDW: 2016, Polynesian
WDW: 2016, Contemporary
WDW: 2017, Grand Floridian
WDW: 2017, Port Orleans French Quarter
WDW: 2018, Animal Kingdom Lodge
WDW: 2018, (14 days) Coronado Springs

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OMGosh to 2012. Ruh roh.

Think I spent 90% of my quarters playing the driving game where 8 people drove at once - screen was flat in the middle, 2 steering wheels on each side of the square around it.

Cars were just colored boxes, like something 1.5 generations post Pong.

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1998 Disneyland, age 23, with 4yo daughter(It was Christmas and it was magical!)
2002 Disneyland/Cali Adventure, 27, again with 8yo daughter, first ride on Soarin’. Holy Cow!!
2003 Disneyland/Cali Adventure, 28, still cool as heck! again with 9 yo daughter
2004 Disneyworld, 29, with 10 yo daughter, had a 3 day PH and tried all the parks. Had no idea the size and scale at the time. Had a blast.
2013 Disneyworld with fiance and 5 yr old son. We did it all. FIance knew the parks like the back of his hand. Had our first kiss in ANimal Kingdom.
2016 Disneyworld with husband, 5yo son and 22 yo daughter, stayed on site at POP first time, magic express, the full experience
2018 trip to DW planned, AKL with the family. I cannot wait!!! Getting an annual pass we decided.

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I tried to go through photos to see:

April 2005: My 1st trip. I was 44- POR
April 2007: POR
April 2008: POR
April 2010: POR
April 2012: POR
April 2013: POR/BC
May 2014: BC
July 2014: AKL/Poly
Oct. 2014: BW
Dec 2014: DL
Dec 2014: WL
June/July 2015: YC/AKL
April 2016: AKL/Poly
Sept 2016: Poly
Feb. 2017: AKL/WL
Sept 2017: SSR
Oct 2017: Universal
April 2018: Universal
Sept/Oct 2018: Kidani

Upcoming:
Feb 2019: POR/CC
August 2019 TBD

I think I missed one or two. I thank all of you for April 2013 and on…

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January 1992, 1 day magic kingdom with family. We were visiting my grandmother who lived in a condo in Cocoa Beach, FL, in the winters and stayed at a non-Disney hotel near the park.

June 2012, first trip with wife and 1.5 yr old kiddo. My wife had a conference near universal. We stayed at a cheap motel in Orlando. 1 day magic kingdom through an employee friend’s gate passes. We were broke so this was much appreciated.

July 2018, 4 nights at POFQ with convention rate/big group of lgbt families traveling together. 2 kids now and all 4 parks. We had a wonderful time and I keep trying to figure out how to afford another trip.

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