Favorite experience or memory

[candacewi5]

I am doing a few last minute changes since we leave in less than 48 hours for our 1st trip to WDW. I started thinking about how great the trip will be and all of the memories we will have. So on that train of thought:

What is your favorite experience or memory from any of your visits to WDW? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Any other details you would like to share?

Thank you all in advance for sharing your precious memories with me.

 

[MmmSuite]

My baby boy being the Beast in Enchanted Tales with Belle and him realizing his dream of being a Jedi and fighting Vader!!!! He studied the moves on YouTube and talked about it nonstop during planning and on arrival day. He stood watching a group of kids do it before him and was in awe!

My oldest looking up at me in Frontierland and saying, "Mommy can we come back here, please?"

You couldn't have stopped the waterworks with 100 tissues!

The look on my baby girl's face when Mickey approached her in 'Ohana! She truly couldn't believe her eyes!

My personal favorite moment is long! I copied this from my FB page.

Sooooo I'm hanging out in Chef Mickey's and Goofy walks up to me and clearly reacts! I was like...he must remember me from Epcot! But then I think...I don't want to be this conceited...of course he doesn't remember me. So we take the photo and he hugs me. This sounds weird...but I totally remembered hugging him before. Like the way he hugged.

So I think and think. I jump up and ask for another photo and say...do you remember me? He nods! Score! I'm special. I recall all the Goofys I've met. He starts making a swinging lasso motion. Do a shooting motion! I keep guessing the wildest things and he's shaking his head and struggling to tell me where. FINALLY he gives up, calls me crazy, hugs me, and moves on!

{My MIL} and I describe the actions to {my husband}! He goes..."Was he Woody?"

I yell across the restaurant "Were you Woody?"

He turns around gives me the huge and excited thumbs up and waves to me REALLY happily!

He remembered me because I ran up and him and Jessie in MK the day before and yelled "You're here! You're here! You're here!" and did the Jessie yodel SUPER loudly and they LOVED me!

I'm soooooo glad my silly side took over and I didn't hold back! Because I'll ALWAYS remember that Woody remembered ME!!!!!

Best moment at Disney! HANDS DOWN!

 

[disneydude365]

well let me start by saying how much magic and fun i hope y'all have!!

my favorite memory ? thats hard three though right now are sticking out of all my memories


a few years ago i was wondering frontierland (with a walker) and briar rabbit form the splash mountain attraction based off song off the south was out for their random street show, he came right to me and motioned for me to come partake. he must have noticed i was using a walker because the grip never loosened. we did the hokey pokey with other elected guests ut it was so cool for such character interaction. (what i meant about grip was that i just knew he wasn't gonna let me fall)

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then this last trip meeting peter pan and his love for my custom shirt i had had made for the trip. was seriously the best interaction I've experienced

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ok the last one is more of placement. we had gotten to eat at be our guest and we were following our server we were dining in the ballroom, and we continued to our table and i noticed one that was by the enormous windows overlooking the night with snow falling. it was also right beside the christmas tree it was truly an amazing table, and instead of our server taking us into the middle section she led the way straight to that perfect table!!

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[Lady Marie]

I just wrote about my favorite so far that happened this month at Epcot. Here it is copied and edited from my TR!

We were coming out of The Seas pavilion when I saw a security officer heading opposite of us and I flashed him a brief smile.

We kept on minding our business, but the security guard started walking towards us. OH NO! I started thinking.... Now I am a pretty anxious person in general. I HATE getting in trouble-- I follow letters to the T. DH plays a little fast and loose with rules sometimes which stresses me out. But suffice it to say, I am very aware of NOT doing any thing wrong. So anyway the Security Guard approaches and looks at me and says, "Can I ask you a few questions?"

At this point my heart is pounding out of my chest and my mind is racing. "Were we being too rowdy? Was I laughing too loud again? Oh, god, I had a drink before in the World Showcase! Am I stumbling? Is there some rule that once you have a drink in the World Showcase are you not allowed to come back into Future World? I feel like I would have read that somewhere... Maybe we just look suspicious hanging in this dark area that's deserted because we aren't at Illuminations..." etc, etc.

"Sure!" I said in my best chipper and I'm cool and not doing anything wrong kinda way.

"You having a good time tonight?" he asks.

"Oh, yes!" I say. What I'm thinking is "Yep, definitely the gin-- too much fun; But-- I just had ONE! Yeesh!"

"That's good," he says. "Are you Minnie Mouse this evening?"

I must have looked clueless because I don't think I was processing what was happening since I was too busy chasing my thoughts around in my head. He pointed at my ears.

"For tonight!" I chirped thinking, yes this is clearly a test to see how inebriated I am, if I am prancing around thinking I am Minnie Mouse then I am clearly a menace to Disney society, but by saying only for tonight then maybe I can retain some visage of sanity.

"Well I hate to do this to you-- oh, and it's your birthday," he added noticing my birthday button and simultaneously shaking his head solemnly while reaching into his pocket to pull out a pad. "But I'm going to have to give you a citation..." He was scribbling onto the pad.

I am absolutely frozen in fear at this point thinking "Oh my gosh-- I am totally getting in trouble at Disney World! This is the stuff that happens to DH-- not me!"

He continued, "... for impersonating a Disney character!" He then cracked a smile and handed me a "Disney Citation." We all busted out laughing. I must have been his favorite mark of the night because he had me hook, line, and sinker!

DH and I are still cracking up about this. Definitely our favorite memory so far being that it's just the two of us so rarely get any stellar character interactions. But this security guard was a trip! And despite me and my worst case scenario brain, I felt like I finally saw some of the little pixie dusted ways Disney makes it more than a theme park if that makes sense. I did feel special after I recovered.

 

[Pesky]

Love these. I can't remember anything in particular standing out from our time at WDW when I was a kid -- but that was over 3- uh, it was a long time ago.

What I do remember clearly is from our DLR visit. The kids were so excited when we surprised them with all of their goodies. One of the things I did was to make (with the help of the creative DISigns board) an autograph book for each of the kids. It was over the top. A phone book thick each, a table of contents and alphabetical tabs. Each character had his/her own page with a picture. It was pretty cool. All of the characters and character attendants RAVED about them. On our first day, we met Goofy in California Adventure and he motioned and started asking, through his handler, if Jack Skellington was in there. Oh, yes, I assured him, under NBC and showed him the page. I asked if he was "friends" with Jack and he nodded. He hugged the book and autographed the goofy page for us. Fast forward a couple of days and we were in line to meet Jack Skellington and Sally. Jack saw the books and immediately launched into "Sally! You HAVE to see these books! Goofy told me all about them. Look at the pictures, Sally! A table of contents! Alphabetical tabs! And there we are!" We were all cracking up. And the kids loved the interaction with him and still crack up at his farewell of "have a horrible day!" Even DH remembers Jack on his way to a break and DH on his way to the bathroom telling DH "don't wash your hands! spread the plague!"

ETA: Oh! forgot until I was putting in this picture. At the Rapunzel show in DLR by the castle, there are a few other girls helping on stage and such in costume. Before and after the show, they came down to where the kids were sitting and talked and played with them. One gal (oddly a dead ringer for Belle ) came and sat with DD and talked with her for the longest time. She was so sweet and she and DD had the best time.

 

[dwbrewster]

The two favorite memories I have that come to mind are:

1) My DD(4) at the Frozen sing-a-long (I know I'm sure everyone is SICK of Frozen) and she was singing along with everything but when they got to hers (and every other 4 yo's) favorite song she couldn't contain herself and got out of her seat and started dancing to it in place with the running up the steps and everything.

2) When my DS(2) was taking a nap my wife offered to let my DD(4) and I head to splash mountain since the line wasn't very long. Nothing that stands out that makes it amazing, it was just a great time standing in line where she kept asking me "are you ready to get wet???" and having a blast. Now whenever she is mad at me for not letting her do X or Y she always says "remember when we had that special moment on Splash Mountain???"

 

[MandiC]

Well my very first favorite moment happened our first day in the parks. We went to Epcot that day and went straight to Soarin. My then 7 year old daughter laughed the most joyful, happy laugh during the entire ride! It was one of those laughs that you can't help smiling for.
My second favorite moment was the next day at MK. Both girls wore their princess dresses to breakfast at CRT but my oldest wanted to change into something more comfortable after...then 7 year old insisted on staying in her Cinderella dress. Walking around the park you could just tell she felt like a little princess. The way she picked up her dress when she walked. I have a picture of her on the stairs of the Swiss Family Treehouse holding her dress that way that I will always just love. And then that night riding the carousel with her daddy. She's always been more of a mama's girl, so it was special to see them have a moment.
For my oldest, I loved that she found something she really loved in the Sorcerer's game on Main Street, she's just at the in between stage where she likes princesses but doesn't love them like her sister (I think part of that is personality, she's not the girly girl her sister is either).

 

[aaarcher86]

There's so many...

Their faces when the kids were 2 and 4 when they saw the castle for the first time. I have a picture - it's great!

This last trip my 7 year old went to the BBB and was made up like Tinkerbell - and she looks just like her! While we were watching the electrical parade one of the Lost Boys saw her and got really excited, jumped around, got all the other Lost Boys' attention yelling "It's Tinkerbell!" And they all started waving and jumping around at her. She was so excited!

The Villain Mix and Mingle in the castle at MNSSHP last year. So awesome meeting all the villains. Dr. Faciller (sp?) just finished with our table my oldest made this really high pitched laughing sound. The Dr. swirled back around to us and ducked down perfectly in character and said, "what was that noise you just made dear?" So funny! He was the villain we were least excited for and came out being one of our favorites!

 

[DisneyFirstTimer10]

We've been sprinkled with pixie dust on every trip and so so grateful

First family trip to WDW we were Family of the Day at Boma. It was GREAT! They announced our names to everyone waiting (it was right before opening) and had us follow a drum line into the restaurant while everyone watched. We were served first, and had special treatment the whole dinner- at the end they gave us a certificate with our name on it and took pictures.

Second trip- most memorable experience for me- We were there in February right before Toon Town closed for good- Chatting with a CM at the toon town rope line before it opened. Then he asks my kids to follow him because someone wanted to meet them...... he had them duck under the rope and DH, my mom, and I followed- he told them look down the street and Mickey was there- hands out- waiting for my kids-- CM asked me if they were shy or was this too much for them and I said no I think they are just in shock...He took their hands and led them to mickey- who scooped them up into the biggest hug and then took each of their hands and escorted them into his house, pointing to all his costumes and belongings, Then escorted them through Minnie's house (all while holding their hands) then took us to a room where Minnie was waiting- and had the whole family pose for several shots with Mickey and Minnie- There was a photopass photographer following the entire time and just thinking about it still makes me cry. All the while toon town was closed to all other guests until we were done with the photo shoot.

Third Trip- We were set for early lunch at Brown Derby for the first time- checked in and CM said Happpy Birthday to my daughter (she turned five that very day and was all decked out in her Sophia dress wearing her Birthday pin)- Again, we were there for restaurant opening and were asked to be Family of the Day. Brown Derby was awesome! They made me and DD wear feather boas and DH and son wear top hats- lobby full of guests waiting for restaurant to open. They announced us, then made us walk outside the restaurant where CMs announced to the park guests that we were famous and made them wave at us as we posed. Photopass person took pictures and I was completely embarressed with that attention lol. Eventually they had us go back inside the restaurant where we had to cut a red ribbon to open it for the day- sat us first and then rest of diners started to get sat. Our table was covered in confetti and then they brought us a huge phone---- it rang and the sever told my daughter to answer it- I think it was goofy, maybe mickey, wishing her a happy birthday. At the end they brought us special desserts and a whole printed mini book of all the pictures with awesome quotes and signatures.

Even without those extras- Disney is our magic place!

 

[amyren]

Ahhh I could spend all day sharing my favorite Disney Memories... A couple of my favorites....

On DD's 4th birthday a member of the brass band at MK pointed her out and announced her birthday to a crowd. They played and a crowd of about 20 strangers sang "happy birthday" to her. It was amazing!!

When DS(2) met "Punzel" and Flynn Rider spent about 5 minutes laying on the floor reading to him. It was soooooo unbelievably adorable.

 

[mcjaco]

I have vivid memories of spending a large portion of an afternoon running around the jumping fountains at Imagination back in '82 as an eight year old.

My kids went on their second visit this past November, and made their first foray into trying to jump and catch those same fountains this past trip. Best part of the trip with both of them.

Second best part was getting one of my twin sons onto Goofy's Barnstormer (the other one was passed out). We got in line, and onto the plane, and he was fine the whole way up the hill. Then started screaming bloody murder as we went down and through the course. He was crying, I was freaked. We stopped to get out, and he looked at me, and said, "Let's do it AGAIN!"

He's been telling his brother for the past three months about how HE went on a roller coaster!

 

[sunflowerfields]

Standing in front at the castle and watching tinkerbell fly. It was so emotional I cried. I was 60 at the time (in 2013). Fifty yrs. earlier my step-dad had taken me and my siblings to Disneyland and we stood on the balcony of our hotel with him and watched her fly. Fifty years later it just brought back such wonderful memories from childhood. He was such a good dad.


My husband and I are bringing our children and grandchildren in May of 16 and I am looking forward to all the memories we will have from that trip.

 

[Feberin]

It's fun reading these such a great idea!

My absolute favorite memory was my son dressed up as Buzz getting to meet Buzz. It was great and my son was absolutely thrilled. Plus just walking around with my son in his costume was fun a lot of people noticed him and everyone called him Buzz. He loved it!

I also loved the Restaurant Marrakesh! The whole experience there was so wonderful! Seeing the kids try belly dancing and trying Moroccan food. We were there for over an hour getting to watch the belly dancer twice and the kids were both so well behaved.

Watching Mickey's Philharmagic and the kids reaching out for the 3D objects. Everything was so real for them.

How after almost every ride we went on my son asked to do it again. And the times we were able to say yes.

My daughter loving to collect autographs from everyone. She always had the biggest smile when they signed her book. I think she would loved to have just walked up to random people and get their autographs!

 

[THREEBOYSPLUSONE]

We have only been a couple of times and the last time was 2004 but we have so many memories.

The last time we went we took our sons who were 6,7 and 10. We had breakfast at the princess breakfast in Norway. Our oldest son had his baseball cap on. Our hometown starts with a P and that is what is on the cap. Sleeping Beauty comes over to our table and looks at him and says something about him having his princess hat on.He started blushing and tried to explain it was for his baseball team. Later on the same trip he was getting his face painted at MK and in talking something was said about this and the person painting his face put a little crown on his forehead. To this day we still joke about it.

On the same trip we did the family magic tour. At the end we rode the carousel with Wendy and she sat aside of our 6 year old and his smile couldn't have been any bigger.

Also on that trip our three boys got to open the Tarzan Rocks show they had at AK. They stood up front and gave their best Tarzan yells. It was awesome. Then they were given a mickey bar, a coupon for a free value meal at McDonalds(there was one at AK and DTD then) and a certificate.

Quite a few years before tat before we had kids we had gone with my mom and dad and our 4 year old nephew. My dad was celebrating his birthday and we went to Liberty Tree Tavern in MK. We had told them we were celebrating his birthday so the table was decorated with streamers and confetti. At that time it was a character meal and we had the best character interaction ever. At one point our nephew gave Meeko one of the rolls and he put it in his mouth. We watched as he walked in the other room then and had to try to get it out.

On a different trip when we went with my mom and dad we went to Hoop De Doo Musical Revue. One of the ladies in the show came out and sat on my dad's lap and started talking about seeing him last night. It was so funny because he couldn't hear her right and he got very flustered. We had so much fun.

Can't wait to go back in June to take our now 17 year old and our 12 year old son who has never been there.

 

[bjscheel]

Our best day ever was in June 2011. We were Family of the Day and opened MK.

After that we darted off to meet Rapunzel and Flynn (back when they were in that garden area and you had to wait forever). Older DD (12 at the time) was there mostly for Flynn and younger DD (9) was there for Rapunzel. Older DD drew a Wanted poster of Flynn with a bad nose in her autograph book while we were in line. As we approached, Rapunzel took DD9's hand and Flynn put his arm around DD12 and said "How YOU doin'?" Perfection. Then he looked at her autograph book and said "They just can't get my nose right!" He then spent some time drawing Rapunzel in her tower with Rapunzel laughing over his shoulder. Awesome meet.

Lovely rest of the day and capped it off with Big Thunder during Wishes.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

My favorite moments from our July trip:

My niece, 7, had been wanting to ride 7 MT, but the lines were always way too long. Our last night, we were on our way to ride Splash one last time, and wet saw the wait time was down to 30 minutes, thanks to a thunderstorm. She was so excited to get in line. As we were in the outside portion of the line, the fireworks started and she hugged me and said it was pure magic. I was so happy to have brought her on vacation and give her a moment of joy like that, she had a horrible year from her parents divorce, her mom basically abandoning her, and my brother moving her across the country.

I shall also forever cherish the squeals of delight when DD, age 2, met talking mickey for the first time. Really, most of our memories are my favorites. From riding Dumbo during wishes to DD'S first Mickey Bar, getting drenched on a rainy summer night and having a nearly empty park, even just hav8ng a snack of Nutella waffles by the castle and DD being thrilled by all the birds hanging around begging for our food.

Disney is just pure magic, and I can't think of a single really bad park memory. Even the slight annoyances aren't really that bad.

 

[Camshell]

Here are a couple,

My 7 year old daughter who had just gone to BBB was picked to interact with Mike on the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. He called her the "Princess of Canada" (we're from Canada). She was on cloud nine for the rest of the trip feeling like she was the princess of Canada.

My son hating riding Big Thunder when he was 6 years old ("I'm never going on that ride again), but on his trip at 8 years old he wanted to ride it again, and again. We got there early and he rode it 4 times in a row back to back. It was great to see that kind of growth in maturity.

 

[Newsies]

I had two very magical princess moments this year!

- The first was when I met Rapunzel. I was all by myself that day, and Rapunzel is one of my favorite princesses. I love her story about "getting out of your tower" because I tend to shy away from doing things out of my comfort zone. Well, going to the parks by myself that day was definitely just a little bit out of my comfort zone, I especially felt awkward going on rides and eating by myself. BUT as soon as I got to Punzie, she opened her arms for a huge hug and said "ARE YOU LEAVING YOUR TOWER FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY???" I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a little bit when I left that M&G

- The second time was when I met Merida on the same day. It was thundering, and the CMs warned us all in line that they would have to shut down the M&G if the storm continued to get any closer. Luckily for me, I was the absolute last one to meet Merida that day. Merida and I share curly hair and I really wanted to meet her that trip, so I was incredibly happy. Obviously, the CMs were stressing us all out (with good intention, obviously!) a little bit so I didn't have much time with Merida, but she was very apologetic about it when I met her. She gave me a great big hug the moment I stepped forward and said "I'm sorry, they're just concerned for our safety and YOU know how our hair gets in this weather!" we had a very brief but fun chat about hair before departing, which was awesome because it was EXACTLY what I wanted to talk to her about! Even as I was leaving the CM called me a sweetheart and said I should take refuge in a nearby restaurant until the store blew over. It was a magical greet despite the stressful circumstances.

 

[Jerzetta]

I went with my family when I was 13 and for over 40 years dreamed of the day when I could show WDW to my daughter. Last year we took our DD for the first time on her 4th bday. She had never been to an amusement park so I thought we better introduce her slow and have her first ride be the carasoul horses. Well we got to MK and my sisters joined us and said lets hit splash mt first. I looked in horror because I thought we just had a travel day getting here, long line in the middle of the day and the drop at the end. My DD was either going to have a good first experience or bad. We waited in line and DD was actually having fun. As we got up to the CM my DD said this was her first ride. I of course told him her first ride ever and disney Magic hit. He gave us a set of free fp for any ride in the park over the next 2 days. So we rode the ride and after we went down the final drop. I looked and my DD and all I saw was a HUGE smile and her scream with excitement....again again. I wanna go again. I literally teared up because I knew her excitement was why my heart loved Disney those 30 years ago. We rode splash mt 10 times over the next 5 days. I can't wait to take her back.

 

[jstbcuz]

Gosh, this has brought back some good memories of our own. We had promised to take our girls in 2004 so when the new year rolled around, they asked when we were going. SO we started planning............since then we've been back several times.

One of the best memories was when we took the Family Magic Tour and the kids met Peter Pan & Wendy. They took pictures and then went on Mickey's Philharmagic together. My youngest was Wendy's little sidekick........walking thru the park holding her hand and then sitting beside her during the movie. Priceless.

Another time we were upgraded from a standard room at Wilderness Lodge to a Concierge Room. My husband was like how did you swing this?

Maybe my favorite memory tho, is walking thru Hollywood Studios during the Osborn Spectacle of Lights, it's snowing (bubbles), Christmas Carols are playing and my whole family is singing along (so out of normal for my crew). That will remain with me til the day I die. The big tree and dancing lights at HS has inspired my husband to make our own Christmas scene complete with a "big tree" , candy canes, snowman that all dance to the music as well.