So what got ya hooked?

[meandmcgee]

Disneyland two years ago......now we are off to the World in 15 days!!!

 

[dustyraye]

I'd been to WDW a few times before I really got hooked. It was on a trip a few years ago, when I realized that I was really able to leave real life behind when I was in the World, much more than on other vacations. I have one of those jobs that seem to take over your life, and require that you are thinking about work 24x7. At WDW, I was able to let go of that for really relax for a while. That's when I started to notice the little details that going into making the magic, and pretty soon I was hooked!

 

[OKW Lover]

How did I get hooked on Disney? Wow - that's a question with a long answer.

For me it goes way back to my childhood in the 50's and watching uncle Walt every Sunday night and seeing the plans and then opening of DL on TV. My playmates used to all comment about how their parents had said they would be going to DL 'next year'. In reality that wasn't a real likelihood for us, growing up in a blue-collar, factory environment some 2500 miles from California (where-ever that was!). But the dream remained.

Fast forward to the late 60's/early 70's. Disney wasn't cool anymore and I drifted away as college and the draft got in the way. But then, in the late 70's a re-awakening. In 1978, I got to go on a business trip to Orlando for training. One day the seminar broke at noon for the day and that left the whole afternoon to do something. What did I do? You guessed it; rented a car (we were on the upper end of I-Drive) and drove down to WDW. Really enjoyed it, but the next visit would have to wait a while.

In the 80's though I found myself going to WDW more and more frequently, getting my first AP in the mid-80's. I remember my first stay on property. After a tough day at work I boarded a plane in BOS for the non-stop to MCO. From there it was a van-shuttle to the Contemporary and I had a really severe headache by that time. Dragged myself to my room in what I now know was the south garden wing, threw myself down on the bed and just lay there for a while. Then, all of a sudden I hear this electronic music outside my window. What's that? It was the Electric Water Pageant! That's when I knew I had arrived.

Fast forward a few more years to a really nice trip at the Poly. With the benefit of an AP discount, and knowing the loopholes in the WDW reservation system at the time I had booked an AP room for a cheap price and innocently asked them to note my preferences for "Tonga, 3rd floor". The building has since been renamed, but yes - it was the concierge building. Got there and sure enough my requests were honored and I had a great MK view room on the 3rd floor. Sunday morning early, I'm sitting on my balcony having a cup of coffee and reading the paper, just enjoying the beautiful weather, listening to the sound of the boat and train whistles coming over Seven Seas Lagoon. A light mist was rising off the lagoon making it look like the MK was actually floating in air. Then a couple of hot air balloons come floating by. Absolutely magic!

But it gets better.

Fast forward to December 1994. I'm at WDW to meet up with a bunch of Disney friends I had become acquainted with through Compuserve. We had a reception on Thursday night at OKW and that's when I first met Valerie, the woman I subsequently married.

OK, so since this is the gay and lesbian board, let me continue.

As it happens, Val's daughter is lesbian. I didn't get a chance to meet her until the day before Val & I got married. It could have been awkward, especially since Val had just gotten divorced and her daughter hadn't quite dealt with that yet. But Val & I invited her and her partner to join us at Old Key West the next December and they instantly fell in love with it too. In fact, they bought DVC themselves. Since then, they've had a son and we delight in spoiling our grandson.

For us the magic just keeps on coming.

 

[TagsMissy]

Many family memories of road trips to DL as a kid... living on the West Coast our tradition was take the old 101 along the coast of WA. OR, CA... spend my birthday in SanFran then onto Anaheim for a handful of glorious days there then drive back on the I-5.

Then in the late 90s hubby (then boyfriend) and I wanted to visit our friends in Miami and decided let's check out WDW for a few days... Little did I know that 4 days was NOT enough! So we did our 1 park a day, chaos I tell you! AK had just opened within a few months of us getting there. It took us a decade to return but we did with a vengeance taking 3 trips in one calendar year and becoming DVC members on the 2nd of the 3rd trips. So I guess we'll be coming back for more

I need to get to HK, hubby went to the Disney Park there on his last trip back and so he can't have possibly been to a Disney park that I've not been to! And my brother used to live in Japan and so you see the trend there... I'll need to check that one out too! Strangely I've never given all that much thought to Disney Paris??

 

[zeitzeuge]

Let's see. I don't remember my first trip when I was 5 years old back in 1970. Mom said I had a good time.

The next trip I vaguely remember was in 1974, but I remember my love for anything Disney starting then. By the time we went again in 1979 I was hooked.

The strange thing? We weren't able to get back to DL until 1985. I was a Junior in College. I have absolutely NO recollection of this trip. I didn't believe my mother until she pulled out the photo's from the 1979 and 1985 trip just last weekend during my trip home to Nebraska. I vividly remember things from 1979, but not one photo (and I'm in many of them) from 1985 sparks any sort of memory. Kind of scary.

After college and gradschool, money just wasn't very plentiful so I never made it back, but always had my love and fascination for all things Disney. It wasn't until 4 years ago, when I finally went back that everything came flooding back to me and I've been on a non-stop, Disney-hugging adventure ever since.

I can't get enough.

 

[dreweyj]

I have always been fond of Disney movies. My favorite Disney movie ever was Peter Pan - and still is in most aspects. But upon the release of Toy Story, it moved right up there with it. But even so, I wouldn't say I was a Disney fanatic.

Anyway, this past November I went to the World for my first time ever, and I was so amazed at the entire experience. It was the best vacation I have ever taken. From the moment I saw Cinderella's castle to the moment I used the dining plan to get the filet mignon at the Hollywood Brown Derby to each of my first rides on the Mountains, I became instanstly engaged and totally submerged in the complete experience.

I also have to give tons of credit to the folks on this board. If it weren't for you and your great ideas, I wouldn't have been nearly as prepared. When searching for information to plan that trip, I discovered this website, and it was through the threads on here that I was able to adequately draft up an itinerary to get me thru those wonderful 8 days. In fact, I even found a paintbrush on Tom Sawyer's Island - something I would never had known about had it not been for this board.

I guess to sum up all this, I could say that due to the immense joy and positive energy you all have for the DIS and everything I encountered during my first visit to the World, I gained a higher level of excitement too. So much so, I guess you could call me a fanatic... I mean, I am going back again in April!!!!!

 

[HelenParr]

Great thread.

I did not go to WDW as a child. Didn't really think about it, or really know about it. In grad school, my then brand new girlfriend thought it would be a great Spring break idea to drive from New England to WDW, in part to see her family who had moved down, and in part to show me WDW. While that sounds like a recipe for disaster in a new relationship (did I mention she wasn't out to her family yet?) it went really, really well.

She was a CM the summer between high school and college so already had the love of Disney. I was fairly skeptical. Seemed like a little kid thing to me, but I went along for the ride.

We stayed with her family in Orlando our first night there, and drove to MK first thing next morning. With each element: tram, ferry boat, entering MK, Main Street, the Castle...wow. It became immediately obvious to me this was just as fantastic as she explained. That was 1993. We're still together. Both fully addicted to WDW. Happily we can afford to fly, because that drive would be killer at our age.

Every trip, I still stand out at TTC and marvel at it, pretty much like the first time.