Disney Magic Prior to YOAMD

[SunnieRN]

I was reading the yoamd threads and it got me thinking of previous disney trips and some of the magical things I've experienced!
My brother and I were teenagers and took a trip to disneyland on our own. On that trip we were in disneyland which was set to close at 7 p.m. We were kind of lingering and "taking our time" leaving the park, not in any hurry to get on the monorail back to the disneyland hotel (I gave him the trip as a graduation gift). A CM came up to us as we were going to board the escalator to the monorail station. She said...tonight there is a private party in the park. The party hosts said we can invite 200 guests to stay and enjoy the park with them!
We got to stay for three hours of a virtually empty park. We never found out who the "hosts" were.
Two days later we asked to ride in the front of the monorail into disneyland. The CM showed us where to stand and wait. When the monorail pulled up we entered the front car. A min or two later Michael Landon and his family entered the car with us.
We were dumbstruck and started to get up to leave, but he told us to keep our seats and that if we didn't mind he would like to ride with us....what a nice gentleman and his family was very sweet..two wonderful memories!!!

When my daughter was 1 1/2 we took her on her first disney trip. We were waiting in line for Snow White in fantasyland. All of a sudden my daughter screams, "MOM its Harry Hendersons DAD!!!!!!!!!!"
My daughter was very shy, very quiet and very petite...she never even yelled let alone screamed!
I look at her and say "what?"
She yells again, at the top of her voice, "It's Harry Henderson's DAD!"
Well of course myself and about 100 other people are looking around for what she was yelling about and there was John Lithgow, in line with his family.
I could just see him trying to melt into the crowd....I was so embarrassed.
The next time she started yelling it, I covered her mouth and tried to explain to her that he was an actor and he was there with his real family...That his other family was a pretend family and they were not at disneyland...This just didn't suffice. She started saying "but he should be with his real family, the ones in the movie, not those people!"
Everyone around us was laughing hysterically by this point and I could feel myself turning so red that my cheeks were burning.
Finally she settled down...we went on the ride. After we exited the ride, she was walking really slow, looking down at the hedges....I said "what's wrong?"
She said, "it's him, it's harry hendersons dad!!!!!!!"
She ran behind the bushes before I could stop her. There was John Lithgow eating a hot dog. She said "where is Harry".
He told her that harry wasn't real, that he was there with his real family and that he was trying to hurry and eat the hotdog before his wife saw him so she wouldn't get mad at him.
She of course asked why she would get mad...in the meantime I'm trying to pull her away and saying...sorry Mr. Lithgow, she really thinks you are your movie character....
He says "It's ok, she's a cute little button of a thing, and I'm enjoying talking to her."
So then the final straw occurs, my daughter looks up at him and says "Well if you're not supposed to eat a hot dog then why are you?"
I about died...I was so embarrassed!
He said...because sometimes it's fun to be bad!
She laughed....he laughed....
I said, "well thank you so much, we really enjoyed talking to you."
I start pulling my daughter away and he says "would you like my autograph Rachel?" to my daughter....
She says......."Why would I want your autograph?? This is for the princesses." Needless to say I about died....it just made him laugh though.. he was so very sweet about it.
Last one...on July 15, 2005, also my birthday, I was in disneyland for a week to celebrate disneylands 50th. I met a lady that morning who wished me a happy birthday and her grand daughters started talking to me about my trading pins. We talked for a few minates and then I gave them each a pin. She turned to me and said that she was waiting to offer something to the right person...and I was it!
She gave me a ticket to the balcony seating for fatasmic! I got to watch fantasmic and have fantastic deserts as her guest!!
Well if you made it through this entire post I thank you! Now tell me your disney magical moments!!!

 

[starbox]

When I was a kid we had very little money. I grew up in Florida, but going to Disney was a BIG DEAL and something my parents really had to save for. This was in the 1970's, back when the ticket books were still used. To afford the trip, my parents took us to Fort Wilderness where we camped in a tent (the cheapest lodging possible at the time). On our way into the campground, the guard at the booth saw that my parents had two kids and said a family had left a pair of ribbon-things and asked them to give them to a family with two kids. Mom put them in her purse.

The next day we went to the MK and got a big talk about how we'd only get one ticket book each - so we had to choose carefully what we would do. We rationed our tickets carefully but after a few hours we noticed families wearing the ribbons we had just getting on rides without tickets. My parents asked someone and realized that we had been given all-ride passes. She bought buttons to attach them to our shirts and we were able to ride everything!!! I can still remember riding the carousel over and over again.


I am 37 years old and am still grateful to that family.

In my own family - we took DD9 to Disney when she was 4 and on her last day in the MK she got a horrible headache. I gave her some medicine and took her to first aid to ask if there was a quiet place she could rest until the Tylenol kicked in. DD was so sad an pitiful. The nurse asked who her favorite characters were, and then led her to a little room with a cot. DD laid down and fell asleep. About 30 minutes later, in walks Chip and Dale (her favorites) carrying a book and box of Kleenex. Their handler said they heard she was feeling bad and wanted to come cheer her up. I have never seen a little girl so overjoyed in my life.

To this day, she considers Chip and Dale her special friends - and she wants to be a doctor. I really think that her experience at Disney first aid made a huge impression and made her want to be a doctor.

 

[unknownname]

Awe that's super awesome.