Your Best Magical Moments...

[Laura_Lewis]

These are all great stories. Here's one that sticks out in my mind. My mom and dad joined us in DW during a Year of a Million Dreams. This was my parent's first visit and we wanted to make it special for them. Growing up, Disney was not in the budget with 4 kids, but they really wanted to go. Right before the trip, my mom broke her ankle and had to have surgery, so she needed a wheelchair. The day we went to Disney Studios, I was trying to get everyone to go on the TOT. My mom was the only one who was game, so we proceeded to get in line. One of the CMs pulled us to the side and asked us to wait, and let the parties behind us pass. They then handed out the Year of a Million Dreams mouse ears and put us into the ride car by ourselves. What a great picture we have of the two of us with our special mouse ears riding the TOT. Add to that the pleasure of gloating to everyone who sat the ride out.

 

[Greenfairy]

I love these threads. I get choked up every time, but these moments are what makes Disney magical for so many. We seem to be covered in pixie dust when we go, or maybe, I just see so much as magical.

Here are some of my own.

On our first trip DD was 3 and DS was 6. DD was so into Snow White and it was the year before the movie was released again so she was not everywhere yet. DD wore her snow white dress almost every day but we couldn't Miss White anywhere. Finally on our last day we went to the Kodak building as we were told she would be there. We went in and we can't find her anywhere so I asked and was told she would only be in the parade. Upon leaving we got down and told DD we would have to see her in the parade. At that moment a CM walked by and asked if we were having a magical day. We replied yes but I think he saw we were a little blue. He asked what was wrong so we told him it was our last day and DD (wearing her dress) didn't get to see SW but we would see her in the parade. He said "who told you that?" He got on a walkie talkie and spoke to someone. He then told us that she was just busy baking pies for the dwarfs but she would be at the rear drop in about an hour. He then asked the kids if they wanted to answer some trivia. They got every question right so he stopped another CM walking by and asked if she felt magic in the air. She then took us to a secret place where we had a special meet and greet and greet with Cinderella complete with special photopass photographers. I immediately started to cry. we left there to go to the tear drop and SW walked up to DD and took her hand, walked her back to her spot and spent 5 minutes just talking to her. Snow white told her she loved her dress and that she thought she was a princess too. DD was stunned but gave her a big hug and then had a huge smile. More tears from me. Oh ya, all this happened on my birthday.

Taking the kids on IASW for their very first ride and seeing the looks on their faces.

Walking into MK at night after a long day of travelling just as the lights went down and Wishes started.

Snow White's evil queen pointing at DD in her snow white dress and saying the poison apple speech to her. DD looking at me and saying, "I think she thinks I am Snow White."

DS picked to dance in the High School Musical show at HS.

Me being picked to be in Indiana Jones in HS.

DH and DS went to buy a churro to share just before leaving on our last night. The girl at the cart heard my DS say he never had a churro before. She gave him one and said you had to have a whole one if it was your first.

watching my DS dance my DD around like a princess after the electric light parade while waiting for Wishes. She was still in the snow white dress and people gathered around to watch them. They were very cute.

Second and third trip.
Both DD and DS being picked for High School Musical and Jedi training.

DD was Boo in Monster's Laugh Floor.

DH was picked for Indiana Stunt Show.

While hanging behind the castle during Wishes on the first night of a surprise trip, DS looked up at me after a really bright and loud explosion and said, "Now I know my wish will come true. This will be the best trip ever"

Space Chip and dale having everyone sing Happy Birthday to me.

Both kids being picked for the pirate oath and getting official pirate certificates.

Mulan walking all over China with DD. They were like old friend going for a stroll.

And my most magical memory was on our first trip we had breakfast at Chef Mickey before our first full day at MK. After breakfast I was talking DD to the bathroom. Minnie saw us, put DD in the middle and she and I were on either side all holding hands and skipped through the restaurant. It was like out of a commercial. Tears again.

It's no wonder I am hooked. I am hoping for a bit more pixie dust for Free Dining in August so I can plan another trip!!

 

[disneylooper]

My best Disney magical moment happened some years ago. It was our last night (my husband had already returned home) and we were in the MK. I was there with my daughter, son and MIL who was in a wheelchair. We boarded the riverboat, sat down in the wheelchair area next to two men , one of the men started cursing at me for no reason, he was obviously very drunk. My son got scared so we decided to get off the boat before it left the dock. A CM stopped us and asked us why we were leaving, and he said come with him. He took us higher up and let my son "steer" the boat and ring the bell. Afterwards he gave him a certificate. What could have been an awful memory turned into a wonderful experience.

 

[MouseEarsForAll]

You've just had pixie dust all over!

 

[dacky041208]

Our best magical moment happened on our whim of a weekend trip in November 2010. We had joined DVC that summer and purchased annual passes since we knew we had a trip planned for summer 2011.

Given our annual passes, my upcoming birthday, and our desire to experience Disney during the holidays, we set up our weekend trip. We did MVMCP, took a resort tour, saw the Osbourne lights, checked out the WS; we weren't expecting to spend any time in AK since there was so much to see and do at the other 3 parks.

but I had. to. go. see the characters in their holiday outfits! I couldn't resist begging DH for us to find a way to fit it in....so we did- we threw it into our Saturday afternoon- we were just going to Camp Minnie Mickey (thanks to the AP we had the freedom to do this) and that was it.

BUT there was no line for Pooh and Friends down by the boat docks. So obviously we had to add that in really quick. Good thing we did; that's where we met Crystal.

She stopped up on our way down the path and asked if we were having a magical trip. DH and I replied that we were having a fabulous trip, of course, we're in Disney World!! She asked us if we wanted to make it more magical. Obviously you know our answer.

She asked us if we wanted to be in the Jingle Jungle parade- in Mickey's car. uuuum YES!!!!!! Obviously we had to change our schedule around- worth it!

It was so magical; seeing the parade from such a unique perspective. The energy was amazing. All the smiles in the crowd; kids were so excited when we'd say hi and make eye contact. I still remember one little one relaxing in a stroller, waving, and turning to her mom saying "Mommy, she said hi. to ME!" We felt like celebrities!

Here are a few pics for your enjoyment (hopefully they show up as images)

The parade itself was amazing but that moment that Crystal stopped us was the most magical moment of my Disney experiences. To be chosen like that is unforgettable.

We were lucky enough to run into Crystal again in July on our summer trip at Tusker House. We went over and just thanked her, told her how she made our whim of a trip the best trip of all.

CMs like Crystal are the greatest. They are what make Disney World the best place on earth.

 

[Hoosier37]

I'm going to post my top 3 magical moments from my one and only trip, and then go back and sob over everyone else's posts.

1) I had our ME vouchers in my purse when we landed MCO, but after a quick trip to the bathroom I couldn't find them. We had a moment of absolute panic, retraced our steps to no avail, and then made our way to the ME counter hoping to something work out. We walked down the hall and there were two CMs wearing huge Mickey gloves, waving at us and calling "Welcome!" (remember, this is my FIRST ever Disney trip). I told them we had lost the voucher and they laughed and said "But we have them right here." And they did. I guess someone had turned them in. We were put right on a bus and on our way, and I bawled all the way to POP because even that incident was magical to me...

2) Running onto BTMRR with a bunch of other adults, strangers to me, as if we were all little kids. I felt like a kid again.

3) My daughter (age 8) had spent all her souvenir money but really wanted an Eeyore plush. It was our last day and we were hanging around POP waiting for the bus back to the airport. She was crying because we had to leave, and because she wanted the Eeyore. My son (age 11) had some money left and was browsing through the gift shop. He came out, handed his sister the plush Eeyore he had just bought with his own money, and said "After all, this is the place where dreams come true."

 

[Greenfairy]

I'm going to post my top 3 magical moments from my one and only trip, and then go back and sob over everyone else's posts.

1) I had our ME vouchers in my purse when we landed MCO, but after a quick trip to the bathroom I couldn't find them. We had a moment of absolute panic, retraced our steps to no avail, and then made our way to the ME counter hoping to something work out. We walked down the hall and there were two CMs wearing huge Mickey gloves, waving at us and calling "Welcome!" (remember, this is my FIRST ever Disney trip). I told them we had lost the voucher and they laughed and said "But we have them right here." And they did. I guess someone had turned them in. We were put right on a bus and on our way, and I bawled all the way to POP because even that incident was magical to me...

2) Running onto BTMRR with a bunch of other adults, strangers to me, as if we were all little kids. I felt like a kid again.

3) My daughter (age 8) had spent all her souvenir money but really wanted an Eeyore plush. It was our last day and we were hanging around POP waiting for the bus back to the airport. She was crying because we had to leave, and because she wanted the Eeyore. My son (age 11) had some money left and was browsing through the gift shop. He came out, handed his sister the plush Eeyore he had just bought with his own money, and said "After all, this is the place where dreams come true."

Number three just had me choke up. What a great big brother.

 

[crazyboutdisny]

Mine would have to be watching my son step off the Magic Express! We had planned a Disney trip for October of 2010 and my son had returned in early September after a year in Iraq (he is enlisted Army). We hadnt seen him since he had returned. We arrived at Disney a day before him and I will never forget standing there waiting for that bus to pull up! Really....our whole trip was magical being able to spend that time together after being apart from him for a year.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I grew up in Los Angeles County so I'm a Disneyland girl who now lives on the East Coast. My most magical moments - I can think of five, some from my childhood, some with my own children:

1) Watching the Tiki birds with my Grandma Mamie at Disneyland in the ealy 1970s. Little kid me was absolutely amazed by all those colorful singing birds. The Tiki Room is still a personal favorite.

2) My first Government Employees day at Disneyland in the 1970s with my Dad. We got tags to wear on our shirts that allowed us to go on any ride, as many times as we wanted WITHOUT a ticket from the old A - E ticket books. I got to ride the E ticket rides over and over again! I know this is not a big deal now, but back then it was sheer magic!

3) Christmas Eve 2001 at Disneyland. This was my first trip with my children (DS4, DD2). We walked out of Adventureland into the Hub at dusk. The castle was glowing, music was playing, the twinkle lights lit up and the whole scene literally took my breath away. I remember thinking if the beauty of this park can make me, a grown up, feel such awe, what must children think...that they're in heaven?

4) July 2010, my kids' first trip to WDW. We were exiting the safari at Animal Kingdom when a cast member asked us if we wanted a free behind the scenes tour. She took us to meet an animal keeper, see the animal pens, view the lions up close, check out the animal feed, hold an ostrich egg, gave us keychains and stickers...magical!

5) December 2011 WDW mother/daughter trip. DD12 and I were having a late breakfast at Tusker House when we were invited to ride on Mickey's float in the Jingle Jungle parade that afternoon. The look on my daughters face was priceless. They even gave us free photopass pictures of the experience...it was a total treat from beginning to end!

 

[LCoulter]

April, 2011, was the grand opening of the new M&G for Mickey on Main Street and the temp location for meeting the princesses. *We were the first in line for the princesses with DD4 so a couple of CM's led us into the room so DD could have time alone with the princesses.

Aurora, Cinderella, and Bell met her at the door, escorted her to the center of the room where they all sat down and talked to DD for about 20 minutes. *Meanwhile, three photographers were snapping away. *The princesses presented her with signed balloons and Minnie ears with Tierra and veil. *She had such a wonderful time.

We were then invited to see the 3pm parade in the VIP section. *Upon arrival for the parade, we were presented with a framed picture of DD with the princesses.

It was such a magical experience that we will always remember. *k

 

[PennyInPink]

In June, 2000, we took our DD 9 & DS 7. It was a super-tight budget trip..it's all we could afford at the time. I remember staying in our unairconditioned popup at Fort Wilderness when it was as hot as the surface of the sun. There was like zero money for souvineres, but my DD had bought one pin to wear. This was just when pin trading was getting going good., and she was so envyous of the people who had all the expensive lanyards and assortments of pins. After a sweltering long day, we headed back to Fort Wilderness on the bus, and a couple started up a conversation with DD about her single pin on her shirt. They had the "expensive" lanyards loaded with pins, and took her trading offers very seriously. By the time we were near thier stop, they had traded with back and forth with her and she had a ball. As they passed her seat with the crowd that was getting off, the lady dropped her loaded lanyard into my daughter's lap, gave her a quick hug and jumped off the bus into the dark. We never saw them again, buy my DD still has that loaded lanyard and it still makes me tear up. Wish they knew how much that pixie dust meant to us.

 

[csnkrushin]

We had a number of magical moments on our trip it WDW

The most memorable was.our first day our first park - Epcot. We arrived when the park opened and were waiting at the rope drop to ride soaring. We started talking with a CM who had the same first name as my husband and was from our home state . We chatted for a few minutes about recent events back home. The CM asked us how we were enjoying our first trip to Disney ( all 4 of us had 1st time buttons on). We told him this was our first day. After a few minutes he said goodbye. The rope drops and we start following everyone heading to Soaring. Then we hear someone calling my husband... It's the CM and he asks us to please follow him. I think " oh no we have been here all of 10 minutes and we are in trouble!" . We are walking away from everyone else.. We go into a building and down a utility type staircase. Then the CM starts telling our kids that this is the way they take famous people when they come to Epcot. He has us stop outside a set of doors, picks up a phone and says " I have the family". We were ushered into Soaring and got to ride it first all by ourselves. what a magical way to start our first Disney vacation!!

 

[CurlyJo224]

My favorite is from my first trip To Disney when I was seven years old. It was the only big family vacation my family ever took.

I was waiting my turn to meet Mickey. I think this was in the time before the more organized character greetings, I don't know for sure. All I remember was that it was out on Main Street. So there I am with my mouse ears on, waiting to meet the big star. Just as it was my turn, this grown man shoves right in front of me with his camera. The way my parents had taught me, kids don't argue with adults, so to my young way of thinking, now that this guy had shoved in front of me, I wouldn't get to meet Mickey. I burst into tears.

Next thing I know, this white glove reaches around the man, grasps my shoulder, and Mickey pulled me over to him. I had a new Hero.

My favorite picture from that whole Disney trip is a picture of Mickey and a pigtailed, tear-stained, but grinning seven year old me. THAT is magic.

 

[GameDevLovesDisney]

May of last year my girlfriend and I are at Epcot for evening EMH. There's about 2 hours left and we decided to walk over to Soarin and see if the line had dwindled any. Sadly, there was still a 90 minute wait time. We hemmed and hawed over it for a bit since if we hopped in line it would probably be our last ride of the night. We both decide it isn't worth it and start to walk off to head towards something with a shorter wait time when a couple of guys stop us with a "hey, want to go on soarin? We've got a couple extra fast passes and the wives took the kids back to the beach club for the night." Turns out they were given special fast passes after being evacuated from spaceship earth and the look of disappointment on our faces when we were looking at the wait time qualified us for the magical moment. We had some great conversation as we worked our way through the fast pass line. Afterwards we all headed over to Test track since they had enough for another ride before heading back to the hotel for the night after saying our thank yous and goodbyes, assuming we'd never see them again.

The next day the DGF and I headed to Animal Kingdom where one of my sisters is a safaris driver. She welcomed us onto her truck in row 1 and turned around and handed us a stack of fast passes (mostly for everest...she knows me too well lol). The wait times wound up being so short during the day that we didn't wind up using them, so I decided to pay the previous night's favor forward and passed them off to a mother and her daughter as we were heading to the exit to make our ADR. Just as we're heading into the Oasis and towards the main gates we see our friends from the night before, this time with the whole family in tow! Of course now I'm kicking myself for handing off the fast passes to someone else, but good karma is good karma so I don't stress it too much.

The next night is EMH at the MK, and once again I've got a stack of fastpasses in my pocket as the night is winding down. DGF and I are walking through fantasyland when lo and behold we see our Soarin buddies...again! So I casually ask if there were any rides that they hadn't gotten a chance to do that night and they tell me how they wish they had time to ride Space Mountain before they left, but they didn't think they'd get a chance to fit it in because the line was too long for them to wait in and still hit the attractions they wanted to see in fantasyland. With a huge grin I hand them a stack of fastpasses for Space Mountain. My DGF and I still talk about what the odds of running into them 3 days in a row...especially when we never discussed our next days park plans with each other. That's pretty magical in my book!

 

[CarolineB]

I went to the MK on my birthday and was getting ready to watch the fireworks over the castle.

Everyone in the crowd saw a large glow moving across the sky above the castle and we realized it was the night space shuttle launch of the Endeavour (November 30, 2000 launch.)

Now that's a way to remember a birthday. If I wasn't waiting to see the fireworks at that exact moment, I probably would have missed it. Magical!

 

[bluejasmine]

Wow hard to narrow down for me.. Lets see 2010 Poly on our anniversary DH and I climbed into a hammock on the beach and fell asleep together for a little while, woke up to the sound of the boat docking there at the Poly. Sat up and saw the castle.. Very relaxing and romantic..

Watching Wishes with DH on the same trip snuggled up on a lounger at the POly at sun set out point.

Watching wishes together on the porch at Narcossee


Best of all.. Waking up right before sunrise, running down to the CL lounge for coffee and running out to sunset point to watch the sun rise above the castle..I will NEVER forget that.


DSS11 seeing Wishes for the first time ever on the boat eaving the Poly to MK last June..

 

[mooncrumbs]

Reading all of these are bringing me to tears!

My most magical moment of all time was this past November, when my boyfriend asked me to marry him in Cinderella's castle. I had always dreamed of something like that, and he made it happen and made me feel like a princess.

On the last day of that same vacation, we were told by our hotel that we could go to the Be Our Guest restaurant for the quick-service lunch up until 3:30. We arrived a little before 3, and were told it was closed until dinner. We had tried getting reservations before our trip, and it didn't work out, and my only solace was having the quick-service meal. I wanted to cry. The two women who were running the check-in saw our 'Just Engaged' buttons and were asking about the engagement and could definitely tell I was kind of bummed. They told us to hang around while they talked to some people about possible cancellations. We ended up waiting for around 45 mins, and all of a sudden the one girl said that they worked it out, and we could have dinner there after all!

I was so happy I started to tear up, and I couldn't believe that after all that calling for months trying to get a reservation and settling for a lunch, and having that fall apart... and we ended up having our last Disney dinner there out of pure luck. I am so thankful for those cast members who put in that effort for us.

 

[princess barbara]

Having visited many times, there has been so much magic bestowed on us. This past trip was the most unexpected magic. We were at HS and DH and DS went to Lights, Motors, Action while DD and I went to see Indy Jones. We agreed to meet at Starring Rolls later. My daughter and I got there just after the 4pm closing time. I had been talking for months about the Butterfingers cupcake and how badly I wanted one so what a disappointment.

There was a sweet cast member cleaning up the outdoor patio and we were sitting just talking to her about the cupcakes being so good. She asked what my favorite kind was and I told her the Butterfinger one. Meanwhile there was a nonstop stream of people trying to get in the bakery but she had to keep telling them that it closed at 4pm. Lots of upset people!

When she had a moment she unlocked the door and went inside and packaged up a Butterfinger cupcake in a box and presented it to me. We snapped a few pictures of her and I with my present. She was such a thoughtful and nice young lady and it made a nice impression on myself and DD. We went to fill out a card at guest services praising her.

 

[ilostnemo]

So when you all have your room upgraded/switched to even a different resort how/when do you know?

 

[oneplustwo11]

3) My daughter (age 8) had spent all her souvenir money but really wanted an Eeyore plush. It was our last day and we were hanging around POP waiting for the bus back to the airport. She was crying because we had to leave, and because she wanted the Eeyore. My son (age 11) had some money left and was browsing through the gift shop. He came out, handed his sister the plush Eeyore he had just bought with his own money, and said "After all, this is the place where dreams come true."

[/QUOTE]

This just melted my heart. ❤