Your FIRST trip report!

[janamelia]

Post here a report of your first trip - if you recall it.

I’ll start.
When: January 1974
Cast members: DH, DS, DD1, DD2, and me
Parks visited: Magic Kingdom - at that time also confused with WDW.
Admission media: comped tickets
Where we stayed: probably with relatives.
Park hours: no clue
Parade, fireworks, etc.: no clue

I suppose there’s some other main points that could go before, but fill in your own blanks!

We had several family members working for or with (driving delivery trucks) Disney, so we got some sort of complimentary free tickets. Kinda wish now we’d gotten the ticket books . . .

We were in Florida visiting relatives on our move from Norfolk VA to Missouri (Florida was always on the way, in those days - lots of relatives).

One of the great-aunts says you need to go to the Magic Kingdom and gave us tickets she’d talked a great nephew-in-law out of.

I also wish I had more memories of our day at the Magic Kingdom.
I do know it was hot. All of 80 degrees. But it felt much hotter.
I discovered I did not have a knack for reading park maps.
We did see Haunted Mansion and it’s a small world.
We did not see Splash, Space or Big Thunder Mtn because they did not exist.
I do know I was in no hurry to return. Tho most of us would in five years.

Your turn!

[Julianne_fki]

My first visit was to Disneyland in 1970 or 1971. I was around 5 years old. I have two strong memories. One is going on Pirates of the Caribbean which I found super scary. I remember riding in the front row of the boat on my dad’s lap. I was already scared (darkness) so had my face buried in his neck. I remember my shirt billowing in the breeze as we went down the drop and then water drops hitting my back. At one point my dad told me to look at something - that it wasn’t scary. I looked. It was a pile of gold with a skeleton on top. And I was scared! I didn’t look at anything else the rest of the ride. The only other ride I remember is the tea cups. Still feel like a trip to Disney is not complete if I don’t do those two rides.

[vcka]

My first trip to the MK was in 1971 when it opened… not on opening day. I won’t reveal my age but I was in elementary school. I was w/ my mom, step-dad, and little brother and sister. I remember ticket kiosks and “E” tickets. My bro was around 2 and while on the PoC he ducked down on the boat floor when he heard the cannon fire LOL. I remember being in total awe and wonder. I’d never seen anything like it… Went back a few times before becoming an adult and now I’ve lost count of trhe number of visits. It’s my magical place to dream, plan, escape, relax.

[janamelia]

Do you recall meeting characters? We have old Polaroids of the kids meeting the Dwarfs mostly. Kinda dorky costumes. I really don’t recall being aware of characters until our grandkids started visiting in the 90s.

[ninjasherrie]

My first visit was around 1987.
One of my cousins in Miami was getting married and my whole gigantic Italian family flew down from New Jersey and made a 2 week vacation out of it. After the wedding we all went to WDW. We stayed at the Royal Plaza (Now the B Resort) and my 13 year old self was left to my own devices a lot. I met a boy (I think his name was Peter) and we had a thing going, lol. We went to the parks (There were only 2, lol!) A lot and I may or may not have had my first kiss on HM.
My dad insisted on taking this photo of us on our last day there and I was so mad at him for being an annoying dad that I refused to smile. We stayed in touch as pen pals for about a year after that. I think he was from Kansas.

[missoverexcited]

Fun!

When - July 1992
Who - my mum and dad, 37 and 42, me 17, sis 15, bro 13
Parks - MK, EP, HS, TL, Pleasure Island. Plus Universal Studios, Wet n Wild, Busch Gardens, Seaworld and Gatorland.
Tickets - hoppers with water parks, I’m not sure how many days - now UK tickets are 7, 14 or 21 days but it might have been different then. I know we had 1 day left over, so maybe 7.
Where we stayed - a pink motel on the 192, I think it was called something like the Palm Plantation.
Parade, fireworks - I remember the Main St Electrical Parade and seeing Tinkerbell fly.

This was our once in a lifetime trip. We’d never been to the US before and we loved everything. We had bought the UG about a year in advance and we used the touring plans in the back. Mickey signed that UG and I think my parents still have it.

We did Seaworld on the first day, no idea why.

Even though we weren’t staying on property we rode the Disney bus - we hopped to TL one afternoon and then hopped back. It took forever and we didn’t make that mistake again.

Splash Mountain had a soft opening and we rode twice. We were so excited! We loved it and have loved it ever since.

I explored TSI with a really good looking young CM called Josh. I looked about 12 even though I was 17, and I’m sure he thought he was taking the hand of the younger sister as we ran around together, my actual younger sister following behind

We were at least an hour early for RD every day and chatted to CMs and other guests while we waited. I remember characters in futuristic costumes at EP dancing around and waving to the waiting crowds.

I loved the backlot tour at HS.

It’s surprising and sad how little I actually remember of that trip. The heat and constant exhaustion was not conducive to memory making.

[ryan1]

I’ll admit, I’m a little confused by this. I think I’d need to ask my parents.

I THOUGHT my first trip to WDW was right after EPCOT opened. But I also know that I was diagnosed with diabetes the summer immediately following our trip, when I was nine. But that doesn’t work out right.

So, I’m wondering if we actually took a trip to just MK prior, and I’m mixing the two trips up in my head.

Because when I think about it, I remember going to Busch Gardens, Kennedy Space Center, Wet ‘N’ Wild, Cypress Gardens, and Sea World as well. I don’t believe we could have done this all on a single trip.

So the memories I have are probably a combination of two different trips. What I do remember is that as we were driving back home from a Florida Disney trip, we LITERALLY stopped at every rest area between Florida and Michigan. My mom thought I had a bladder infection, and scheduled me a doctor appointment as soon as we got back. That weekend, we did three graduation parties (where I ate nothing but dessert!), and then Monday I went to the doctor. They checked my Blood Glucose Levels and immediately admitted me to the hospital. It wasn’t a bladder infection, but diabetes.

Since I was diagnosed at nine, that would have made that 1982…but EPCOT didn’t open until the FALL of 1982, so this leads me to believe we must have gone back to Florida in the next year or so to experience EPCOT.

[bswan26]

My first trip was in the summer of 1975 when I was 16. I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle (who lived in Clermont) for a week, and we went to WDW twice (we also went to Circus World, Sea World, and Bush Gardens). A few memories:

1. Space Mountgain had just opened a few months prior, so it was the “hot ticket” - an “E” ticket) so everyone poured into TL first thing in the AM. No stranger to coasters, this one really caught me off guard. Being new it was very smooth and ran a good deal faster than it does now.

2. Other than SM, CBJ and HoP were two of the most popular attractions, and frequently had 2-hour lines. We did CBJ first thing on our second day, but didn’t do HoP because my Uncle though it was boring.

3. We had lunch in King Stephan’s Banquet Hall in the castle. It was cool to be in the castle, but the meal was just basic sandwiches. I wondered why it was called what it was because it was supposed to be Cinderellas castle, but King Stephan was from Sleeping Beauty… Of course there were no ADRs back then, so you had to stop at the castle first thing in the AM to get signed up for a time slot. It was the same for the Diamond Horseshoe Review.

4. Ever since I saw it at the NY Worlds Fair I was somewhat obsessed with IASW, so it was high on my list of things to see (to my Uncle’s dismay). I was SO disappointed because it looked nothing like my memories of it and the pictures that I had all but memorized for the last 10 years. It wasn’t until 1985 and my first trip to DL that I found the IASW of my memory.

5. My Aunt was worried that things would scare me; she warned me about the witch in Snow White, the “water fall” in PoC, and the part where you go downhill backwards into the graveyard scene of the HM.

6. A funny anecdote. Back when I was 10 or 11 a friend gave me copy of the Enchanted Tiki Room soundtrack, which I listened to incessantly, (God bless my mother) and had basically memorized. It was high on my list of things to see. I said this and my Uncle said no, it was stupid and boring. I explained to him the background and his comment was “it’s a good thing they didn’t give you a record of WW II”. My Aunt interceded and we saw it. I loved it, and to this day it’s a must-do for me.

7. My favorite souvenir was a “Hunted Mansion Secret Panel Chest”, which was a mass-produced version of a Japanese Himitsu-baku puzzle box (with stickers on the outside simulating the wood inlay work of the authentic boxes, and a picture of the HM on the top). Sadly, it was lost in a fire when I was in my 20s. Almost 40 years after my original purchase, I replaced it with an authentic Japanese box that I purchased in EP.

8. We didn’t watch the parade; I was given the option of the parade or getting on a few more rides with shorter lines, and I easily chose the latter. We left late afternoon both days, so I didn’t see the fireworks.

The next trip was in the summer of 1979 when I went with a friend as part of his 18th birthday celebration (I was 2 years older than him).

[janamelia]

@ryan1 I can sympathize with your parents about the rest stops. On a non-Disney trip to Florida both grandkids we had with us developed some intestinal bug. We were 5 hours going across the Florida panhandle.

@bswan26 DD2 had a “Hunted Mansion Secret Panel Chest” also. Treasured artifact, for certain.

[vcka]

Characters… no but I do recall being enthralled with the Country Bear Jambore. I think I convinced my mom to go in more than once too.

[eeeevah]

My first trip was 1981. I was 2. Remember nothing. We drove from Connecticut to Florida to visit my grandparents - my dad, mom, three sisters, and me - apparently I had a major meltdown on the ride back that has become a favorite family story. But you stick a 2 year old in a station wagon for a 20 hour drive and that’s what you get.

My second trip - the first one I (somewhat) remember - was nearly 4 years later in February of 1985. My aunt and her husband took me, her husband’s mother, and two of his nieces. They hired a limo to drive us to Laguardia, where I rode my first plane. I remember the limo and it being big. I remember sitting with my uncle as we took off into the sky and thinking it was crazy we were above the clouds. (Fun note: original typing autocorrected to “above the crowds,” which I think was also true…)

Pictures would have me “recall” more than I actually remember, so here, in a stream of consciousness fashion, my actual memories:

• Stopping at store on the side of the road to buy a giant bag of Florida oranges
• Going to some “luau” type meal - but I think it was off property
• The Jungle Cruise - I liked the boat and the animals and was scared of the shrunken heads
• Pirates of the Caribbean - the little hill at the beginning was so fun
• The Haunted Mansion - I couldn’t believe we were seeing real ghosts!
• “Flying” on Peter Pan
• Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs - the witch scared the ever living daylights out of me; I closed my eyes for the rest of the ride. Towards the end, my aunt said, “Oh! We’re in the diamond mine now, look at all the pretty jewels!” So I opened my eyes. And the damn witch popped out again. Most terrifying thing ever.
• “Driving” the tomorrowland speedway car was fun but the exhaust fumes were really stinky
• Waiting in very long lines (well, long to a 6 year old)
• Spaceship Earth - SO impressive from the outside. I was amazed we were going to go on a ride inside it.
• The rainbow after exiting Journey Into Imagination
• Watching them dive for pearls in Japan
• Wearing shorts in February
• Losing a pair of sunglasses somewhere and feeling guilty

[bswan26]

@eeeevah

Going to some “luau” type meal - but I think it was off property

May have been at the Poly; they’ve been doing a luau dinner show since it opened in '71.

[bswan26]

There were characters, but instead of having designated locations and lines, they just roamed the parks “randomly” and you met them where you met them. But it was just some added fun and not the obsession that it has become these days.

[seebee]

The only things I remember about my first trip as a kid:
The poly was insane. I thought I was on a different continent.
The monorail blew my mind the second we stepped in from the platform.
I lost my sanity on Space Mountain. Coolest thing in the universe.
The Tommorrowland Speedway came in a close 2nd.
Splash Mountain was a tie for 2nd.
Peter Pan also blew my mind. I laugh at it now, but I still love it.

Fireworks stunk. I was too short to see anything good.

[JJT]

Oh, my first trip I was 11 - the 1976 Bicentennial year celebration was in full swing. Super hot August. My first time on a plane, or even at an airport. We flew out of the JFK TWA hangar, I remember watching the Flintstones on the space-age looking chairs with personal TVs in the waiting area. Think it cost 25 cents for 15 minutes.

My Dad had died the previous December, it only occurred to me a few years ago my sister and Mom may have taken me on the tip to kind of have something exciting to do. (I’m several years younger than my siblings.)

I remember walking down the stairs on the tarmac at that tiny Orlando airport and the heat just punched you in the face as you walked across to the main building.

There weren’t too many options for places to stay, we stayed in the Contemporary, room 4244 - just above the monorail track, where I spent most time watching things when I wasn’t thrown a few dollars to go down to the ginormous game arcade they had then.

The Magic Kingdom was amazing. That first walk down Main Street is still in my brain.

Back then you used the old letter tickets for rides. My sister wasn’t that keen on Space Mountain but was always a good sport. Back then you rode 2 people together like a toboggan with a flat seatbelt around both of you. By the time we got to the end, I had slid way down and she had me in a choke hold.

I remember using our last E ticket on Space on our 3rd day in MK and as we walked off an older couple came up to us and handed me a fistful of E tickets they didn’t use.

The Bicentennial parade was very cool. Lots of Robin Hood characters around the park.

On one monorail ride we looked down and saw Captain Hook outside the CR play beating up / chasing some teenagers. The pool at the CR had music underwater, which intrigued me.

My sister screamed every. single. time. the witch popped out in Snow White. and that was often.
I loooved 20,000 Leagues.

Our CR room had an MK view - I was sleeping on the pull out sofa, so at night we pulled it over to the window and I could stare at the MK lights as I fell asleep.

I was a Disney fan before that - my sister even bought me that gigantic expensive Art of Disney book a few years before and I spent many hours learning to draw everything in it. (I still have the book.)

But after that trip I was really hooked.

[bethro23]

1986 for our honeymoon. Stayed at Poly. How we afforded that, I don’t know.
Of course there was only MK and Epcot. I guess we had paper tickets
You made dinner reservations in Epcot in the mornings at a kiosk.
I remember riding horses at ft. Wilderness, and of course there was River Country where DH lost his wedding band our second day there.

[Julianne_fki]

Fellow “I was 11 in 1976” person here. Love your outfit! I’m sure I had socks just like that. Sounds like an amazing trip. I remember lots of things from that bicentennial year, but we didn’t get a trip to Disney, unfortunately.

[JJT]

We all wore the same socks back then didn’t we?
All came from that giant bin in Sears.

[eightyeightkeys]

1976-I was five years old. I remember the Country Bears, meeting at least some of the 7 Dwarfs, and getting a stuffed cat “Dutchess” from Aristocats as a souvenir. Also, my mom kept my hair very short at that age, and I recall someone mistaking me for a boy and being very upset about that. I have a vague memory of what I assume was 20,000 Leagues under the sea and Snow White’s ride being terrifying. I know we stayed offsite but don’t have any memory of where or what the hotel possibly could have been.

[bswan26]

@JJT

Back then you rode 2 people together like a toboggan with a flat seatbelt around both of you.

YES. I’ve tried to tell people that’s how it was, but the wouldn’t believe me. ANd in the front, the only place to hold on to was a bar in front of the seating hole.