My (Disney) World is Rocked by a Family Secret!

[lebeau]

I was going through photo albums at my mom's house and discovered something shocking! I always thought that I had been to Walt Disney World only twice as a kid. Once to the Magic Kingdom in 1977 and once to Epcot in 1988.

And yet, it turns out there were pictures of trips from 1981 and 1982. And I'm in them!

I can't even express how surprised I was by these pictures. And yet, so many of my early WDW memories make so much more sense now.

If you want to see all the pics and read about the experience of discovering them, here's a link to a full blog post on the subject:

http://lebeauleblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/my-disney-world-is-rocked-by-a-family-secret/

Anybody else ever have anything like this happen to them?

 

[Shmily1]

Loved reading your story and seeing your blog! We were there during those years too but I haven't added any old pictures to my blog yet (it's sooo new!). I haven't seen Dumbo that deserted in forever!!

 

[lebeau]

Loved reading your story and seeing your blog! We were there during those years too but I haven't added any old pictures to my blog yet (it's sooo new!). I haven't seen Dumbo that deserted in forever!!

Thanks for the kind words. I started looking through photo albums totally expecting to see a castle picture and a Dumbo picture from 77. I figured anything else would be gravy. So I was pleased to see some of the old characters and how they had changed.

But it completely reorganized my childhood memories to realize I had been to the Magic Kingdom 3 times as a child rather than just once! A lot of my fuzzy memories started to make sense.

For example, a lot of my memories as a kid were of my dad complaining about lines. He still complains about the line for Dumbo and he hasn't been in over two decades. But every time he brings up that 77 trip, he talks about how deserted the place was.

For years, I thought he must have misremembered. But those 77 pictures definitely show that the place was a ghost town that day. It was Mid-November and kind of overcast. And this was before Disney began aggressively filling rooms during the off season.

So on that trip, we could ride what ever we wanted to over and over again. No wait. Not even for Dumbo or Peter Pan. We had the characters we happened to bump into all to ourselves. If they were looking for volunteers for a show (like the Sons of Liberty) we were the only ones there.

It's easy to see how Dad got spoiled by that. The next three times he went (81, 82 and 88) were during spring break and the parks were packed. Thus the memories of him complaining so much.

 

[scjo68]

I liked your blog and pictures!
I really enjoyed the picture of Brer Rabbit.
You can probably tell by my avatar, I am quite the Brer Rabbit fan. But honestly, I wouldn't have thought that he was the rabbit in your picture. He has changed!

 

[castmemberb4]

I remember all of those characters!
Especially Pooh with the honey pot on his head.
I went to WDW for the first time in 1975, I was 12

 

[Rora]

I love your blog! So fun! And what a great find!

 

[lebeau]

I liked your blog and pictures!
I really enjoyed the picture of Brer Rabbit.
You can probably tell by my avatar, I am quite the Brer Rabbit fan. But honestly, I wouldn't have thought that he was the rabbit in your picture. He has changed!

Thanks for the kind words!

It was interesting to me to see how all the characters changed. Brer Rabbit looked much more like an Easter Bunny you might see at the mall these days.

Another interesting part to me was to see how meet and greets have changed the dynamic of the character experience. I only know one of the kids in that picture with Brer Rabbit. The others are complete strangers. I'm guessing they have a similar picture in their photo album and wonder who that strange little girl is.

I remember all of those characters!
Especially Pooh with the honey pot on his head.
I went to WDW for the first time in 1975, I was 12

The hunny pot cracked me up!

If you were twelve in 75, your memories are probably much sharper than mine. I was almost 7 in those 77 pics. And my memories were hazy. But now that I know about the 81 and 82 trips (I was 10 and 11 respectively) my memories make a lot more sense.

I love your blog! So fun! And what a great find!

Oh, thanks! Glad you liked it.

Yeah someone described finding these pictures as discovering a lost treasure. That's definitely how I feel about it. It's almost like getting 2 free trips to the Magic Kingdom! (I just already took them.)