Wow -- what a great question.
Short answer -- After dipping my toe in the water on a last minute day trip to Disneyland after not visiting a Disney park in 12 years (or watching any Disney movies for at least 5 years), my love for Disney snowballed out of control to the point where I now own 30+ movies, I am a DVC member, an AP holder, and a TIW holder.
How did it get to that point?
Settle in -- because this is going to be a long answer.
My dad was a police officer and my mom stayed at home, so growing up, we just didn't have the money to do much, and as such, my family didn't do many family vacations. In fact, I can really only think of two. The first was a road trip in Texas (we're from Houston) to San Antonio (I was probably 5 or so). My second was to WDW in 1989 when I was 8 years old. I was all about thrill rides back then, and just couldn't understand why WDW was so popular. There weren't really any big rides. I LOVED space mountain, but but that was pretty much it. I can only imagine how my parents felt when I said something to the affect that our local Six Flags had better rides.
I always liked the Disney channel as a kid -- but the parks just didn't do anything for me. I think I was in that in-between age where I was too old to be caught up in the magic and too young to appreciate all of the details and full immersion of the parks.
Didn't go again until High School band trips in 1997 and 1999. Had a lot of fun, but we didn't get to ride a whole bunch since the parks were really crowded, Fastpass didn't exist yet, and we had limited times at the parks. Still had a fun time though -- but no overwhelming feelings that made me have to go back.
During college, I randomly went in January 2003 when I got suckered into clicking on a timeshare advertisement on some website (typical -- click here if you would like 3 nights free in Orlando). Ended up adding on a few more nights and my fiance and I flew out with my parents meeting us there to help defray some of the costs (that "free" off-site hotel was not free). The hotel was a complete dump, but there was nightly karaoke that made it memorable. As far as the parks, lines were incredibly short and we had a blast riding everything. My parents had a lot of fun too and even ended going to one of the Disney timeshare tours. I got back from that trip with a renewed interest in Disney -- and even bought some DVDs of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King (admittedly an odd purchase for a 22 year old male with no kids at the time).
Life then got in the way -- law school, being poor, etc. Then I worked at a big law firm and NEVER had time off to do even think about vacations.
Fast forward to May 2015 -- DW and DD1 (2 at the time) and DD2 (3 months from being born) were in LA for a vacation and we decided to try and do a day trip at Disneyland. Much to my surprise, DD loved it and lasted the entire day with only 1 nap. Not one meltdown. I then made a mental note that we should try WDW out in 2 or 3 years once the baby-yet-to-be-born would be about the same age.
Well, late October of 2015, a friend of mine asked me how we liked Disney and if we'd go again (his daughter is same age as mine). I told them we had a blast and would probably be back in a few years. He then asked if I had any suggestions, which then led me to tooling around on the internet looking for advice I could send him. I don't know what it was, but reading all the blogs and such, something about trying to "optimize" the trip got my juices flowing. I had no idea there was so much to learn! Within a week, I had booked a week vacation with a split stay at POR and VGF (club level) for February 2016. Figured I would "do it right" since we probably wouldn't be back for another few years.
Well -- let me just say that staying Club Level at the Grand Floridian was AWESOME. Being on the monorail with two kids and a stroller is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than dealing with the buses. The first 3 nights at Port Orleans were so tiring. We made the mistake of doing EMH the first night until midnight, so we didn't get back to the hotel 1 pm. Also -- we had no luck with the buses those first three nights. I think each wait was more than 15 mins -- and with so much waiting, each bus was completely full. Having to hold the girls b/c they had fallen asleep in the stroller waiting for the buses was not a fun experience.
But that all changed once we moved to the monorail. The last 4 nights at the Grand Floridian were amazing. From the moment we stepped off the monorail and entered the 2nd floor of that lobby -- I just felt at home. It was so calming. Such a welcomed reprieve from POR. There was a piano player taking requests in the main lobby, and all the CMs were so helpful. Check in took less than 5 minutes, whereas at Port Orleans, check-in took 30+ minutes. Needless to say, we fell in love with the Grand Floridian. Loved everything about it.
While the trip had some ups and downs, it was the only vacation I have experienced where I was so overcome with emotions that I could barely keep it together. I shed quite a few tears watching my not-quite-three year old DD experience the magic. The two things that really got me were Wishes and the Frozen show in Hollywood Studios. I don't think I have to explain Wishes -- but with Frozen, the very end where they make it snow, it was so awesome watching her lose her mind when she thought it was actually snowing inside the building. In addition to those two moments, she also had so much fun with the character meals -- and riding the Tea Cups and Barnstormer over and over and over. I remembered thinking that despite being there for a week -- we had barely scratched the surface.
After I got back home, I remember thinking about how much fun I had...and I knew I wanted to go back...but the lodging was so expensive, I just didn't see how it would happen anytime soon.
In order to feed my subconscious addiction, I then started buying disney blu-ray movies everytime I went to Costco, and would watch them with DD1 (now three). Next thing I know -- I joined the Disney Movie Club (for my kids of course -- at least that's what I told DW), and ended up with more than 30+ disney movies in the collection. DD1 is now fully addicted to everything Mickey Mouse (and DD2 is getting there).
A few months later, I had DD1 at work with me on the weekend so I could catch up on some work. She was watching The Lion King -- and for some unknown reason, I started researching the DVC. I don't remember seeing advertisements for it while we were there -- I just remembered that my parents had mentioned that Disney had a timeshare thing way back when, so I'm not sure why I even thought about it that day. Mentioned the idea to my wife -- and within a week, after spending probably 40+ hours researching everything, we purchased a resale contract at VGF. I then added a second contract at VGF a month later when I started mentally planning all of our future trips with extended family and realized we needed more points. I then added a third contract at BCV via direct purchase in order to get another home resort for F&W, as well as to get AP discounts and other member benefits.
Since then, DW and I have done an adults only trip for F&W. We have trips booked with one set of grandparents coming up end of January 2017; I have a solo trip booked for October 2017 (we bought APs and we had BCV points to use); and we just booked late November 2017 with the other set of grandparents. So I will have gone from only going to WDW in 1989, 1997, 1999, and 2003, to going five times in less than 24 months. I'm also planning on taking DD1 the following year for a daddy/daughter only trip for her 5th birthday and we're going to do nothing but princess stuff (BBB, tea party, etc...).
Funny thing is that I made fun of my older sister when she and her husband took their 4 year old daughter to Disney back in 2011. I made it abundantly clear that it was a complete waste of money to take a kid that age, since they would have no memory of it. Of course, those statements were made prior to having my own daughter -- so I just didn't understand that the trips at that age are just as much for the kid as they are about getting the joy out of watching your child experience it all.
In summary -- one thing just led to another, and the next thing I know, I have become a full fledged Disneyholic.
