How immersed in WDW are you? And How did you get here?

[eileenjez]

My love of Disney started with the Mickey Mouse Club when I was a child in Mass. Moved to CA and drove my parents crazy asking if we could go to Disneyland. Godfather took me for my 10th birthday. Didn't go again until I was in high school when the school sold tickets for the Spring Fling. No World at that time. Met my husband in high school and we started going to DL. Got married and spent our honeymoon at the hotel. $25 a night. Took the kids when they were little every year and then got AP's as soon as they started selling them. I'm only sorry now we didn't get in on the DVC at that time. Even when we moved from CA we still would make a yearly trip back to Disneyland. FF to now we're much closer to Florida so that's our go to now. Still have AP's. As much as I enjoy the World my heart will always be in Disneyland.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

My first trip was in December of 2000. I was 40 and found I had a fair amount of vacation time to use up. I took my 20yo Down Syndrome daughter. That trip felt truly MAGICAL!!!
The following year my mother was coming with us. I decided that if we drove (32 hours) we could save enough on flights to take my niece and her 4 yo daughter. After that we started going twice a year, then friends from work and their children started coming. Now we do annual passes and get a minimum of 3 two week trips from them. Now both my mother and I will have a Southwest Companion pass and I just went to part time at work. Many trips in my future in the next couple years Definitely not moving to Florida though.

 

[nancy155]

Oh my am I immersed!
My journey started in the 60's when my family went to visit my Uncle who lived down the street from Walt. We all went to Disneyland (no I never met Walt). (Remember the ticket booklets!) From there we at least 4-5 times as a family to Disneyland, we always drove there from Colorado! Once WDW opened we went there for our first trip again with my parents as I was still in high school in the mid 70's. Upon graduation from HS and my college Christmas break my parents once again took me to Disney! We always stayed at Ft. Wilderness Campgrounds at WDW.

So needless to say my father gave me the "bug"! I took the kids as often as I could to both Disneyland and WDW, from the time they were 3 and 5, they are now 39 and 37. My daughter doesn't seem to get it, but my oldest son and my youngest son who is now 22 absolutely LOVE Disney and all it is about. Since they are all grown and gone and married I go solo or with friends.

Some of my fondest memories are from Disney from the mermaids who sat out on the rocks in the area of the submarine ride to Carousel of Progress to now all that Disney is. I even remember as a child at Tomorrowland there was a phone you sat at and you could see the person you were talking to. I said "wow wouldn't that be neat!" And look what we have now: Facetime!

 

[memo10]

I was born and raised in FL so I guess I'm really spoiled! Disney has always been a huge part of my life. I went almost every year for my birthday as a kid and then when I was in high school we went on class trips and such at least once a year. My husband and I went a few more times as adults and then we got married and had a baby. We took our first daughter when she turned two. We got our first APs a year later when our youngest was 7 months old and we haven't looked back. We're averaging about 30 times a year right now and I'd guess that I've probably entered the parks close to 100 times in my life and our kids have been close to 75 times.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I went to Disneyworld a number of times as a child. I loved it, but my parents didn't like to vacation in the same place all the time. So, my last childhood trip was in 1989, at the newly opened Grand Floridian.

Then, in my senior year of high school, some parents found out that the senior class trip that kids from my school took to Toronto every year was likely to result in drinking (gasp! as if there's another reason for American 18 year olds to visit Canada). So, they nixed the trip leaving the school organizers in the lurch. To my great delight, they chose WDW as an alternative. I had a great trip with all my high school friends.

A few months later I was cleaning up a hockey rink to help earn money for the college club sport I had randomly joined, and ended up speaking to one of the team members I didn't know too well yet. He mentioned that he had spent the previous summer working as a CM. I thought that was pretty much cooler than cool. We even figured out a day when we had both been in the Magic Kingdom at the same time. After that, he and I became more friendly.

Two years later, he and I would visit WDW with two of our other friends from the team. We'd celebrate our one year dating anniversary on that trip.

The two of us would travel to WDW several more times before and after our marriage, and to Disneyland once as well. We'd celebrate our ten year wedding aniversary in the Magic Kingdom.

When our daughter was 2 we started planning her first Disney trip in earnest. I realized that it was going to be very hard for me to get the rooms I wanted in order for our families to join us. I started thinking of out-of-the-box options. That's when I turned to DH and said the words I know he'd been longing to hear ever since our first WDW trip together some 14 years previously - "I think it's time we have a serious discussion about DVC."

That was a couple years ago. DD has since visited both WDW and Disneyland. In a couple months we'll bo going to WDW again, and bringing one of the friends we traveled with the first time we visited in college (and the wife I introduced him to, and their son).

This is my story of a Disney family in the making. One that I hope will continue for a long time yet to come.