Your favorite "random" Disney parks memory :)

[Newsies]

Without including special, out-of-the-ordinary pixie dust moments (I.E. a cast member bringing you a bouqet of free balloons, an unplanned meet and greet with a rare character that lasted 20 minutes), what's your favorite "random" Disney parks memory that you've shared with your family?

For example- mine is when I was 14 and my mother and I snuck out of the hotel to go play at Magic Kingdom. We told my dad and my sister (who was asleep) that we were "getting a snack". We were staying at the Contemporary, so we hopped on the monorail, went to the Magic Kingdom, had a bakery treat, went on Splash Mountain and the Haunted Mansion, and caught Wishes

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Your dad didn't call security? I would have wondered where the women went for all those hours.

 

[autismmom1]

My absolute favorite (non-cast member related) memory with my family was riding Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was raining just slightly, and we had already seen Wishes this particular trip, so we headed over to Frontierland. I guess everyone was hanging out around the hub to see the fireworks, because NOBODY was in line for BTMRR. We hopped on and just as we climbed up one of the outside hills, with the rain misting on our faces, Wishes started. It was AMAZING! We were wet and laughing by the time we reached the end of the ride and with no one in line to get on, and only a few other people on our train, they asked if we wanted to go again, and we all yelled, "YES!!". We still talk about how special that night was and how much fun it was.

 

[tink 13]

Ours was like the BTMRR story but on Splash Mountain. Nobody in line so we rode 5 times in a row watching the fireworks unexpectedly during the outside part of the ride. One of our favorite most talked about memories!

 

[DemonLlama]

Ours happened on our second trip, and it involves a cast member, but only because she had no idea what had just happened.

My son was very shy and diagnosed with separation anxiety which meant, at nearly 10, he had a real problem going off and doing anything out of his pretty limited comfort zone.

But it was 2002 and Lilo and Stich had just been released on DVD. When the CM warming up the parade crowd before Stars and Motorcars asked who the biggest Lilo and Stich fans were, my son jumped up and waved his arms around. She called him to her, to the center of the completely stranger-lined street of onlookers waiting on the parade. I had about one second thinking, "Uh oh, she's going to have to pick somebody else" when I realized my shy son had just leapt over me and was running out to her. His little sister followed on his heels and we watched what we call our Disney miracle unfold before our eyes. It took me another couple of seconds to get over my shock and get the camera going. Not only was he speaking confidently into the microphone and answering her trivia and outlandishly posing for a photograph, he really got down with that hula dance. When the CM joked "Nicholas is very shy" she had no idea.

That little boy, by the way, graduates from college this year, on track to be a football coach and is an excellent recruiter already. No one would ever believe he's ever met a stranger in his life.

 

[soniam]

The second time I went to WDW, it was just my Grandpa and I. He wanted to take a break, so we rode the monorail around to the resorts. I had never been in the Polynesian or Contemporary. The Grand Floridian hadn't been built yet. He and I walked into the Polynesian, and my jaw just dropped. It was, and still was until very recently, the most beautiful hotel that I have ever seen. They still had the waterfall and the birds. My Grandpa proceeded to tell me all about the hotel. We then went to the Contemporary, and he told me all about how it was built. The whole time he had a beautiful twinkle in his eye, like a child, and a wonderful grin of amazement and happiness. My Grandpa was not the kind of guy that one would think of as a Disney guy. He was a very hard working prison guard of German and English ancestry. Very friendly, but no nonsense. Every time I go to WDW I have fond memories of his excitement and enthusiasm. Every time I see the Contemporary or Polynesian, I get a smile on my face.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Mine occurred during the Year of Dreams with an encounter with a member of the Dream Squad. First, the Dream Squad thought I was a CM (often a mistake when I'm solo) and didn't offer me the "Dream Fastpass". Then I hunted him down later and approached him to ask, "How did you get your job?" Turned out, that was a question he LOVED to answer, and we had about a 20 minute conversation about how he'd applied for his job and how much he enjoyed it. Poor guy, though-you should have seen the look on his face when the lady who almost didn't get the FP approached and said "Excuse me, sir, I have a question-"

 

[Doug M]

DW and myself received free champaign glasses at Cinderella's castle in the dining room (before it was a princess meet and greet meal) even though we didnt book the special honeymoon package they had at the time. I am not certain if the CM was confused on our normal DDP vs the honeymoon version which would have gotten them for us or wanted to give us some magic, but we liked it either way.

 

[DisneyCAL]

My favorite family moment was when we went to AK in 2013. We went at rope drop and walked over to Camp Minnie Mickey for the character meet n greet. There was absolutely nobody there to the point where I thought I went the wrong way maybe. Well the characters showed up and my DS and DD, 2.5yrs old at the time, had a whole 30minutes with all the characters before anybody else showed up. They just walked around hand in hand with Donald, and Chip and Dale. And when DS saw Minnie she had tears in her eyes (the good kind).

My favorite moment with just DH was at Epcot in the Canada Showcase. We were taking a beautiful picture in front of the little cabin by the pond. And went to check the picture and noticed the ducks behind us were should I say "making love". We started cracking up because this is an inside joke with me. Wherever I go there's an animal or insect or some kind "doing it".

 

[Dr.Mickey]

Ours happened on our second trip, and it involves a cast member, but only because she had no idea what had just happened.

My son was very shy and diagnosed with separation anxiety which meant, at nearly 10, he had a real problem going off and doing anything out of his pretty limited comfort zone.

But it was 2002 and Lilo and Stich had just been released on DVD. When the CM warming up the parade crowd before Stars and Motorcars asked who the biggest Lilo and Stich fans were, my son jumped up and waved his arms around. She called him to her, to the center of the completely stranger-lined street of onlookers waiting on the parade. I had about one second thinking, "Uh oh, she's going to have to pick somebody else" when I realized my shy son had just leapt over me and was running out to her. His little sister followed on his heels and we watched what we call our Disney miracle unfold before our eyes. It took me another couple of seconds to get over my shock and get the camera going. Not only was he speaking confidently into the microphone and answering her trivia and outlandishly posing for a photograph, he really got down with that hula dance. When the CM joked "Nicholas is very shy" she had no idea.

That little boy, by the way, graduates from college this year, on track to be a football coach and is an excellent recruiter already. No one would ever believe he's ever met a stranger in his life.

Thanks for sharing. That's an awesome story!

 

[Gorechick]

While on our honeymoon, DH and I were at MK for an early ADR at CRT for his birthday. A CM who was training a group of newbies saw DH's birthday pin, pulled us over and made a HUGE deal. The whole group proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" and we took a group pic. Then we went off toward the castle and got some great pics with no one around and a great breakfast at CRT with a Fantasyland view and confetti and decorations on the table.

 

[Dano13]

Maybe it isn't that rare since I know there is never a huge line for it but my family went on the Carousel of Progress 2 years ago by ourselves. We never had a full ride to just ourselves before. It felt kind of special having an attraction strictly to ourselves.

 

[ktlm]

It was pretty much a monsoon at MK. It was mid afternoon, had poured most of the day, and was to the point where everything was walk on because most people had decided to leave. DD was 3 or 4. She holding my hand and kicking water up and singing as we walked through Frontierland. She looked up at me with those big blue eyes and said "Mama, this is the best day ever! You never let me play outside in the rain at home!"

 

[Newsies]

Your dad didn't call security? I would have wondered where the women went for all those hours.

LMAO. We were only gone for about an hour and a half. We got back to the room and he assumed we had gone for a walk around the hotel. Good try and thanks for the concern, though.

 

[philharmagic fan]

We were at EPCOT the day before hurricane Frances hit in 2004 (we were supposed to fly out that day but they announced they were closing the Orlando airport an hour before our takeoff), and a cast member behind Test Track (near the Odyssey bridges) had a small radio-controlled car that he was driving around with a squirrel chasing it. We watched for several minutes and were practically rolling on the pavement laughing! It may sound weird, but that was the best day we ever had at Disney - hardly any guests there, and the cast members were so friendly! They also found a way for us to stay in our Beach Club room until we could get a rescheduled flight, fed us well, and were wonderful, even though they must have been worried about their own homes and families. If you're ever going to be stuck in a hurricane, Disney World is definitely where you want to be.

 

[Fantabulously Cherry]

Getting selected from the line to be in the preshow for the Backlot Tour was awesome! It think it was 2004.

 

[dashofsunshine]

My favorite memory was from my second trip to Disney. I was 18 and it was our "senior trip" at my high school. I was six the first time I went to Disney with my Mom, so I don't really remember much of that one. Anyway, 18 years old, with my friends, shopping in Downtown Disney. One of the stores had a My Little Pony set up where you could choose your pony, and they had princess outfits to dress the pony in (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, etc.). You could have as many accessories as you could shove into a box, for like $20. My girls and I went crazy I'm pretty sure at one point some little girls came up to try and make a pony box and we were laughing and scrambling around trying to grab everything we could, and the little girls were just like Bunch of 18 year old girls acting like 5 year olds. It was so fun. I still have my pony and all of her accessories. And my high school best friend, who was with me when this happened, died 3 years ago in a car accident...so it's an even more special memory now

 

[Dumbo In Wonderland]

We had a really enjoyable rainy day at Animal Kingdom a few years ago (in 2011). It was pouring but we just didn't care, because the park was literally the emptiest I've ever seen a Disney park in my life. No lines for anything. It literally felt like we had the place to ourselves, and it was special.

 

[Tomh]

I've got a few over the years, and one of them is kind of mean, but I will remember it (as will my dear son) for the rest of my life.

Let's see, first trip, DD14 (then) and I took one of those little mouse boats out. There is like a 250lb weight limit on those things . . . you would think one of the cast members MIGHT have suggested that we MIGHT be a bit too heavy for it, and perhaps we should upgrade to something a little more likely to float with us in it lmao. We came across a small wake from one of the bigger boats, our nose went through it / under it, and quite a substantial amount of that wave came up over the front of the boat and into our laps. DD thought we were going to sink. I assured her we were fine, but to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure myself lol.

Also, first trip, we were there during Hurricane Faye. The day that Faye came through, we were in MK. The weather was fine for use NY'ers, in the upper 70's just a bit of drizzle, and breezy, a perfect summer day. Main Street was pretty much a ghost town, and DS4 (Then) was twirling and dancing in the middle of Main Street in a way that you pretty much never would be able to any other day.

Second family trip, DS5 (then) had an obsession with the golf carts they use at the resorts. Anytime one drove anywhere near us, he couldn't stop watching it. He was afraid they would run us over. I kept telling him just stay with me, and watch where you are walking. The golf cart isn't going to hurt you, you are going to hurt yourself by not watching where you are going. I had literally JUST finished reciting that line to him when we were headed onto the bridge at POR to cross from the main building over to the mansions. There is a post in the middle of the bridge (side to side middle) with a horse head on it to keep surrey bikes and golf carts off. He walks head first into the horse head. His head bounces off it, and like a cartoon the kid falls over backwards, with the back of his head smacking the pavement, like hitting the front of it on that horse head wasn't enough. I felt so bad for him, but at the same time, I couldn't stop laughing, it was like a cartoon. For those concerned, DS was fine, though to this day (he is now 11) I still laugh about it, and he still hits me for laughing about it.

Some years later, DS maybe around 9 at the time, decides to check out the phone booths in UK at EPCOT. I have the numbers on my cell phone. I go to call him, but this group of young people (maybe late teens, early 20's beats me to it). They are laughing, though I can't hear what they are saying to him. They hang up, and I get through, and tell him I am an investigator with Scotland Yard, and we've had reports of young people playing with the phones near the Rose and Crown, making prank calls. I have him going for a while, and I am slowly walking towards him as I am talking. Young group sees me, and knows what I am doing, they are rolling laughing. DS eventually figures it out, and I am waving to him. He comes running at me, and starts beating me, and I am just crying laughing, and he's yelling DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDD. Young group is on the ground laughing at this point, I'm finished, can't even breathe for laughing so hard, son is still beating the stuffing out of me. Every year, I ask him now, Steven, want to go check the phones when we walk through the UK. Every year he says NOT FUNNY DAAAAAAAAAAAAD .. . . yes it is

 

[Nebula]

One of my favorite memories involves ducks. And not Donald and Daisy!

One day we were entering MK and we came across a family of ducks by the water. Mama Duck jumped in the water, followed by each of her babies. Finally, only one duckling was left, and he did NOT want to jump in! Mama and his siblings were all quacking at him, like,"Get on with it already!" By this time, a crowd of people had formed, and we were all watching with bated breath. Finally, after about five minutes, he shook his little butt and jumped in. We all cheered! It was the cutest thing.