What got you back into Disney?

[LIPeter]

We all grew up with Disney movies, and the theme parks, but as some of us got older, that magic disappeared. What was it that brought the magic back to you?
For me, it was kind of a curiosity. Let me explain. A few years ago, I was online reading some articles, and saw one about a father going crazy because his kids kept on playing "Let it go" over and over again. So, I had to go on YouTube and listen to the song. I didn't think it was that bad, but I didn't think it was that great either. I decided to watch the movie, and I thought it was ok. Afterward, I started watching all the Disney cartoons from Snow White to Zootopia. Since that time, I've been to Disney 3 times, and I'm going next year as well. I just got back last week, and had one of the best times of my life. I'm already planning my next trip, and I also joined the Disney movie club. I'm glad to say that the magic is back, and all because I was curious about a song.

 

[com_op_2000]

Sorry for your loss of Disney magic but glad you got it back.
I have never lost it.
Grew up watching "Wonderful World of Disney" on Sunday nights back in the '60s.
I have lived within one hour of Disney my whole life except for college time.
Went to MK the first time in '71.
Was a CM in parades during high school.
Went to EPCOT 13 times with an AP the first year it opened.
Took my DW on dates to WDW before we married.
We are DVC owners since '93. Since '93 we have done an average of 7 trips per year for 25 years.
We have gone to WDW every year since '93 for DW's birthday getaway/our chance to enjoy the holidays for ourselves sometime during the first 2 weeks of Dec.
Went on the Disney Magic the first year it was in service.

 

[MinnieMouse84]

I went to Disneyland when I was four and I've always wanted to go back. Now that I finally am going back, it's reawakened my childhood belief that the characters were all real. Now I obviously know they're not, but I'll try to forget that when I'm there.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Sorry for your loss of Disney magic but glad you got it back.
I have never lost it.

Yeah, I've had some years when I didn't go because I couldn't afford it, but I still liked the theme parks.

I went to Disneyland when I was four and I've always wanted to go back. Now that I finally am going back, it's reawakened my childhood belief that the characters were all real. Now I obviously know they're not, but I'll try to forget that when I'm there.

On the one hand, I never thought they were literally real. On the other hand, it is easy to imagine that they are. It's more fun to just play along.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I never got out.
My parents have gone to WDW nearly every year since 1972 and still go.
So I not only grew up on Disney but continued loving it into adulthood.

 

[LIPeter]

I kinda wished I lived near the park. I'd be there all the time.

 

[georgina]

We did not all grow up with the theme parks! My first visit was as an adult with my kids in 1998. We had fun, and I did start planning our next trip as soon as we got home. We did not go very often, except the year we got APs and drove down twice with our camper. I am the only Disney nut in the family, and now that we are empty nesters, I have done 2 solo trips and one with DH. I am planning to drag DH down next October for our 30th anniversary for Food & Wine, which we have never done. I expect I will continue to go solo while DH goes on his scuba trips, and youngest DD still has 5 days left on a non-expiring PH, so maybe I will take her when she graduates from college. Honestly, the 'magic' is going away a bit the more I go. I am spending 2 nights at Disney in Nov, but 3 nights at Universal.

Oldest child and her boyfriend at the time (now her DH) went with us to WDW in 2013 for our last family trip, but she has never seen the Harry Potter areas of Universal, so I may try to go there with them sometime. They like family trips because I pay for everything! It was her DH's first trip to WDW, and they only had 3 days to join us, but we crammed a lot into it. Her DH has not traveled much, while we made it a priority to take our kids places I had never been, such as Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Mt Rushmore, Grand Canyon, and Acadia NP.

 

[BrianL]

I never got out of the movies, though for a while they weren't making their best work so I didn't pay much attention to them. I am always up for animation though and will gravitate toward the best, which, right now, is Disney.

Now, the theme parks, I went to WDW a couple of times as a kid. But, you know, life happens and I didn't go back or even really think about it. One day I realized I was an adult with a real job and could take any vacation I wanted to. A friend and I wend to WDW in 2010. That's when I got bit and now I am a Disney Parks super fan for life, going a couple of times a year usually.

 

[craedaisy12]

I've always loved Disney growing up. I never went to WDW until I was 12 which helped the love grow more.. Once we started taking family trips when i was 17, it hasn't stopped! Now I've got my husband understanding my love for it, he enjoyed the movies but hadn't been to the parks. We will be going down in 12 days for my 13th trip and his 2nd! We will be celebrating our first anniversary down there!

 

[missnikki411]

I went to Disney several times as a child, with my last time probably being around age 13. I had a friend in college who went to Disney every year and we always asked why she went every year, it's for kids, isn't there somewhere else to go? Then I met my husband who said he went to Disney every year as a child and I hadn't been in 10 years so I was like well, we have to go together now! So I did my first adult Disney trip..... and now I go back every year. It just feels like home to us.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

For me, it happened when I was 20 and in college. Growing up, I was a very anxious kid, and when we would go to Walt Disney World, it was one of the few times that I never had anxiety. At 15, I took my first trip to Disneyland and had a blast, but then life got chaotic. High school, then college, and sophomore year of college my dad passed away from cancer. The following summer, my mom offered to send myself and by then-boyfriend (now husband!) anywhere we wanted, since it had been such a tough year. I asked to go back to Walt Disney World, remembering how it had always relieved my stress as a kid. My husband had never been, so he was just as excited as I was. After that trip, everything changed. We bought annual passes when we graduated college, got married on a Disney Cruise at Castaway Cay, and it's now the biggest part of our lives together. Disney has always been there for me!

 

[NH-to-FL]

I grew up watching Disney in the 50's and 60's but then it faded, or perhaps just suppressed, for many years. Then there was a business conference at the Swan/Dolphin in the mid 90's. I decided to invite my wife along and we booked a room at the BWI during the conference plus a few extra days. I was hooked again. That started our yearly trips to WDW. The trips became more frequent as years went by and culminated in our becoming snowbirds near WDW.

 

[loves to dive]

I was born in Cucamonga and my family lived in Pasadena before I was born so they went to DL a lot. I'm told I went as a baby but who remembers? My mother had a silver charm bracelet that had a Snow White castle and a Tinker bell charm on it she bought there. I was fascinated with that Tinker bell and would play with it any time she had the bracelet on. I then became a Tink stalker, loving all things Tink. As kids we watched the Wonderful World of Disney on TV and went to the movies when a new one came out but that was pretty much it. The family moved around and eventually ended up back here in Georgia where we are from. Fast forward to having a child of my own and my parents living in Clearwater Beach, FL. My son loved all cartoons and Disney was no exception, Mama bought him all the VHS movies when they came out (his favorite was Dumbo he would sit and cry and cry then ask to watch it again.) When he was almost 3 she took us on a trip to WDW, this was around 1982 ish. We stayed in what is now Shades of Green but back then was a WDW resort. I was hooked. After that, she moved back to Georgia and I was a single mom so I would save for two years for us to go to WDW, always staying on property, back then the only things on property were the MK resorts so we've stayed in them all. We have gone at least every other year since then. About 5 years ago, I started going once a year and for the past 3 years have been going twice a year. Most of my trips now are solo trips as my son's life doesn't always give him time off to go with me, Mama and Daddy died years ago, my honey has no interest in going to WDW. He is from south Georgia which is only about 4 hours away so his family would go down a lot when he was a kid in the early 80s and that is all he remembers about it, hates crowds and is a fuddy duddy. I occasionally watch a movie when they come out and have a lot of Disney decorations on my Xmas tree but other than my unhealthy need to go to WDW often, I'm not that huge of a Disney fan. I do still have a Tink obsession (a charm is dangling from the bracelet I have on today and there are a number of her in my areas in our house)and I don't leave the house without some kind of Disney something on my body, mostly watches but always some sort of jewelry or purse or Tshirt.

 

[ludari]

Growing up in SoCal I grew up going to Disneyland and obviously enjoyed it. Then life took over... military, college, work, etc. After going to grad school and working on my career for over a decade friends invited me to join their family on a Disney cruise departing from Barcelona, Spain to Orlando, FL. I agreed and booked my own arrangements (flights, hotel and of course cruise). Hanging out in Barcelona was wonderful but when I got on the cruise ship all those great memories I had a kid came rushing back. I had a wonderful trip and since then have taken multiple Disney Cruises, became a DVC owner, dedicated AP holder, travelled multiple times to WDW, completed numerous Disney marathons, etc, etc, etc. I now use my time at Disney as a way to eliminate my stresses, appreciate life and just live in the moment.

 

[Accident]

I grew up as that family where you went to disney when each child was old enough to remember it. being the oldest it meant I did the most trips but I also skipped some when I was getting started in my career and the family went down while my father was at a conference. Disney was nice, we enjoyed it, but it wasn't a destination for us... My parents did bring my daughter for her first visit when she was 7 but I was locked into a work trip and as much as I would prefer that, It was a be there or your not working here anymore type of emergency trip. I wasn't until she was 10 (just about 11) that I was able to bring her down for our first father daughter trip. Nice trip, we owned the place as it was the week after katrina and nobody was there. But it wasn't that moment yet..

The moment where disney changed was after 6 years of being hit by the recession and recovering, I was in a situation of being in the best financial spot I have ever been. We finally find peopel to hire to create a team for where I was doing all the work (startup in hypergrowth). I was told everyone is up to speed, go home tonight there will be extra in your paycheck tomorrow and we'll see you in just over 2 weeks your on vacation. (it was a thursday). I figured we'd hit a more local favorite or place we've wanted but it was my daughter at 11pm that night saying what about disney. So the shorter version is we decided it was a good idea, booked about 1am and then started to find how to get there. turns out flights weren't an option but I remembered my parents raving about a cross country train trip so found amtrak had sleeping cars to get down there faster than we can fly. My daughter was out of school so we didn't need to be concerned with that.

What was special about that trip is that it was our first just us family trip so to speak. It wasn't in summer and we had no clue that halloween was celebrated for over a month. We had never been to food and wine. It was so crowded it was the end of sept and everything from summer was still going on. We had enough time to see universal for the first time. everest was opened, new fantasy land was opened, diagon alley was opened. basically it was that trip that wasn't stale with all these new things to experience. did some tours, just had a ball with nothing in the way because we didn't plan. it also forced us to experience disney different and it was for the better. now we get why people come a lot.

We enjoyed it so much we actually came back to experience christmas 2 months later but to be honest, we should have waited we left burnt out from disney but that trip is where my daughter suddenly had that epiphany moment that people work here, you can work for disney for a living. This is a bigger deal than most as my daughter has a diagnosed anxiety disorder and it was the first spark in her eye to not only work but excited to try it. This started the discussion about moving here. We were burnt though so we didnt' plan to visit in 2015 until a family friend said they were going and did we want to come at the same time. We booked, they financially had to back out but we kept it as a lets go to disney and really look at if you want to work here trip. We weren't as burnt as we thought and had a great time.. We also did our first extensive off property visits to really check out the place.. Now we live here moving 6 months after that 2015 trip.

The short is, that can't go anywhere not even a movie theater years that turned into our first non-summer disney trip and we were excited on how disney is very different depending on when you go and there is so much we had no clue about going on. We wanted to experience all that stuff and the best way to do that is live here. (it's also cheaper than living in nyc so bonus is there is more money going into the play and savings budget on top of it).

 

[Simba's Mom]

After the first time we went to WDW, I was kind of "OK, now we've been there, done that". We'd only gone because friends recommended it. But it didn't thrill me. But then some other friends decided to go and asked us a lot of questions. In describing things, it dawned on me more and more that I'd REALLY enjoyed it and decided to go back ourselves. Since then (20 years ago), each trip has become more and more magical.

 

[disneyseniors]

We took the kids when they were little, then as everyone before says, "life got in the way". Kids have school interests, etc, and both adults working. Soo..................fast forward to the "kids" with children of their own. We all planned a big family trip to WDW, and we had a blast. Then we were invited with daughter and family one time, and we ended up going to WDW 2 days earlier than them, and stayed 2 days later. Well!! that was a revelation for us. It wasn't all about the family during those alone days. We could do what we wanted, when we wanted, and it was great. I felt a little guilty about loving being alone with the hubby so much, but got over it! LOL!
Since then, we take yearly trips, just husband and me. If the kids/grandkids can get away when we are there, that is fine. We have found a safe, magical place with so much to enjoy, and we intend to visit our special place at least once a year.
So, I guess the accidental staying by ourselves without the kids is what really changed things for us and made us Disney fanatics.
Thanks, OP, for the interesting question

 

[YawningDodo]

I'd gone to WDW once in middle school and once in high school, and by the time I was in college I still liked Disney well enough but it was at the back of my mind, not particularly important to me anymore. Then, in the middle of my freshman fall semester, I see an advertisement on campus for the Disney College Program. So I go to the info session thinking "that's cool, but it's not like I'll be able to do it." And then I realized that yes, I could do it -- it was pretty simple, actually, to put in an application, and then when I got accepted all I had to do was submit some paperwork to let my school know I was taking a semester off. I ended up doing the College Program twice (the second time was in my senior year), and while I have some regrets about not taking advantage of all the opportunities that were available to me while I was there, it was an eye-opening experience. My mom always thought, after I took her to a backstage shop for cast members and she saw how industrial the backstage areas look, that the magic must all be gone for me since I'd seen the back of things and knew the "unmagical" way things worked. It was sort of the opposite, though. I've never lost the ability to suspend disbelief and just have fun with it, and when I do think about what's going on backstage it fills me with a sense of how enormous and how intricate an endeavor WDW is. Knowing how a lot of it works just makes me all the more fascinated.

I had to put Disney on the back burner after that beyond seeing movies now and then, because I went to grad school and then had to get my career started. In 2014 I started planning a trip for 2015 and set myself the challenge of watching all the theatrically released Disney animated movies before I went, and that sure got me reconnected in a hurry. By the time I'd been home from my 2015 trip for a week I realized that this was going to be an ongoing thing, and started planning to visit all the Disney parks of the world. Paris is next.

 

[Auntie Ne]

We live in northern California. Disney used to offer corporate memberships to companies with 200 or more employees. So the company I worked for was a Disney Vendor and we had Magic Kingdom Club memberships. We took our kids to Disneyland at least once a year and even had big (14 to 22 people) family events. Through the club I could book the dates and pay monthly advance payments and we had great deals (like pay 3 adults and get 4th free). We would stay at the Disneyland Hotel and get a block of rooms together. Once Disney eliminated the MKC we could not afford to go. Most of the kids were at adult price range and the cost of the Disneyland Hotel skyrocketed.
I didn't think my kids missed it much with school sports and dating. By the time my youngest son was a senior in high school we didn't think about Disney except collectables for my Mickey Mouse room. When it came time for Senior Night reservations at Disneyland (almost every high school in CA offers a graduation trip for a special Senior Night at DL), he asked if he could save that money for a graduation trip to Disneyworld! He sent notes in his graduation announcements that he WAS going to WDW and please send cash gifts toward his trip! Imagine my shock when he told me he wanted a family trip like we used to take to DL. He had been on-line researching flights and hotels etc. He had a whole three-ring binder filled with trip plans. Yes, that old Disney Magic filled my heart again! So in August, 2006 we made our trip to WDW and stayed at the Port Orleans. It was magical and the magic is still with us.

 

[DisnerdNZ]

I never lost it, but in saying that I only got around to visiting WDW just last year, something about it being a 19hr flight away always put me off, can't wait to go back now though!