Simba22
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2006
- Messages
- 4,783
OK, so at the suggestion of some other DISers (you know who you are 
) I am posting some flashback pics.
The first time I ever went to WDW was in 2002 and I was 20 years old. Of course, at the time, I knew NOTHING about Disney except that I was really excited to FINALLY get to go. It was just me, my mom, my sister, and my brother. This was right after my mom and dad got divorced.
I have only a few pics because they are already (horribly) scrapbooked and it was too much of a pain to scan them. (Then, they somehow got moved to my Recycling Bin and I spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out where they were on my computer!)
Our trip was from 9/14 - 9/20 2002. We stayed off-site at the Club Hotel by DoubleTree. My mom got the hotel for free if we agreed to go on a time share thingy. It was supposed to be an hour and we got stuck there for 3. They would NOT let us leave...and no, it was not for the DVC!
This hotel was actually really nice. It was right down the street from DTD, and we actually walked there almost every night. The hotel offered a shuttle to the parks, but if had known at the time, we could have just walked to DTD, caught a resort bus, and used Disney Transport whenever we wanted. The problem with off-site hotel shuttles is that they schedule pick-up and drop-off only once or twice a day so if you miss it, you end up taking a cab. NOT cheap. At one point, we got a cab driver who made me sit in the front with him. Keep in mind this was a year after 9/11...the country was still terrified of anyone Middle Eastern. Our cab driver's name was Hash. And he kept talking about Jesus and God and all kinds of stuff on the ride to where ever we were going. And I was totally freaked out.
I have no idea what order we did the parks in.
This is my first ever picture of the Tree of Life:
I remember the ONLY thing I wanted to accomplish on this trip was meeting Tigger and I got to do it!
Funnily enough, I take more pics of Cinderella Castle NOW, than I did on our first trip:
Me and Mike, hanging out by the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. We did not go on it....I remember we were all just sitting there...taking a break, I guess!
This will show you exactly how UN-Disneyfied I was at the time. This is one of only a few pics I have from MGM and it got stuck into the Magic Kingdom pages in the scrapbook. Look at what I have it labeled as!
So all I really remember about that trip is that it was HOT. EXTREMELY HOT. I remember we were in AK, walking through Dinoland, and we could see the humidity rising off of everything around us. I know we did the Safari, Pangani, and Maharajah because I have 8000 pictures of animals, but I remember specifically that by the time we got to Dinoland, we were like "OK, that's enough!" and we left and headed back to the hotel to go swimming.
I remember being too afraid to go on ToT, and my sister getting yelled at for using flash photography on PoTC (they actually CARED back then!). And of course, EE didn't even exist. Oh, and the HM was closed for refurb.
We had no ADRs, so we ate Continental breakfast in the hotel every morning. We ate QS at the parks for lunch, and most nights we walked across the street from the hotel to Uno's or whatever else was there. I think there was a McDonald's there but I might be making that up.
So that, in a nutshell, was my first ever trip to WDW. The following year, 2003, is when Lumar and I met. And then we went to WDW again in July 2004 with my step-dad, my mom, my sister, and my brother...but I have absolutely NO pics of that trip. I'll describe it a bit in the next flashback!
) I am posting some flashback pics. The first time I ever went to WDW was in 2002 and I was 20 years old. Of course, at the time, I knew NOTHING about Disney except that I was really excited to FINALLY get to go. It was just me, my mom, my sister, and my brother. This was right after my mom and dad got divorced.
I have only a few pics because they are already (horribly) scrapbooked and it was too much of a pain to scan them. (Then, they somehow got moved to my Recycling Bin and I spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out where they were on my computer!)
Our trip was from 9/14 - 9/20 2002. We stayed off-site at the Club Hotel by DoubleTree. My mom got the hotel for free if we agreed to go on a time share thingy. It was supposed to be an hour and we got stuck there for 3. They would NOT let us leave...and no, it was not for the DVC!
This hotel was actually really nice. It was right down the street from DTD, and we actually walked there almost every night. The hotel offered a shuttle to the parks, but if had known at the time, we could have just walked to DTD, caught a resort bus, and used Disney Transport whenever we wanted. The problem with off-site hotel shuttles is that they schedule pick-up and drop-off only once or twice a day so if you miss it, you end up taking a cab. NOT cheap. At one point, we got a cab driver who made me sit in the front with him. Keep in mind this was a year after 9/11...the country was still terrified of anyone Middle Eastern. Our cab driver's name was Hash. And he kept talking about Jesus and God and all kinds of stuff on the ride to where ever we were going. And I was totally freaked out.
I have no idea what order we did the parks in.
This is my first ever picture of the Tree of Life:
I remember the ONLY thing I wanted to accomplish on this trip was meeting Tigger and I got to do it!
Funnily enough, I take more pics of Cinderella Castle NOW, than I did on our first trip:
Me and Mike, hanging out by the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. We did not go on it....I remember we were all just sitting there...taking a break, I guess!
This will show you exactly how UN-Disneyfied I was at the time. This is one of only a few pics I have from MGM and it got stuck into the Magic Kingdom pages in the scrapbook. Look at what I have it labeled as!
So all I really remember about that trip is that it was HOT. EXTREMELY HOT. I remember we were in AK, walking through Dinoland, and we could see the humidity rising off of everything around us. I know we did the Safari, Pangani, and Maharajah because I have 8000 pictures of animals, but I remember specifically that by the time we got to Dinoland, we were like "OK, that's enough!" and we left and headed back to the hotel to go swimming.
I remember being too afraid to go on ToT, and my sister getting yelled at for using flash photography on PoTC (they actually CARED back then!). And of course, EE didn't even exist. Oh, and the HM was closed for refurb.
We had no ADRs, so we ate Continental breakfast in the hotel every morning. We ate QS at the parks for lunch, and most nights we walked across the street from the hotel to Uno's or whatever else was there. I think there was a McDonald's there but I might be making that up.
So that, in a nutshell, was my first ever trip to WDW. The following year, 2003, is when Lumar and I met. And then we went to WDW again in July 2004 with my step-dad, my mom, my sister, and my brother...but I have absolutely NO pics of that trip. I'll describe it a bit in the next flashback!
The one of you and Tigger is so cute!
If we said "The Club Hotel" they were like 
and then we would say "The one with the pineapple!" and they were like "OOOHHHH!!! OK!!" 
That is so funny how you labeled MGM as MK! 
I steal pictures from it from time to time and post them on my FB, indicating how many days I have left til we go back "home!" 
We've done a lot of your ADR's -- Rose & Crown, Yak & Yeti, Sci Fi, Plaza, and 50's Prime (although we've not done that 50's in years). We LOVED Yak & Yeti, loved the onion rings at Sci Fi last year and the Plaza is always our final meal of our trip. 
. We have been to O, Mystique, and Love (the Beatles one) all in Vegas. I really would love to see La Nouba, so great that you got a deal on the tickets.
So we swapped it out for this year and since we're going to DTD that night to see La Nouba, we'll eat dinner at Planet Hollywood instead. We've been to Sci-Fi in the past and had both a good and an "off" experience. It wasn't HORRIBLE...but a couple of us didn't feel well after eating there. It's accidental that we're eating here this time around...I couldn't get an ADR at Mama Melrose's...but it's good to switch things up, I think! 
