Spinoff: How old were YOU the first time you went to Disney World (or Disneyland, etc)?

[Magpie]

Al this talk about the "best" age to take your kids to Disney World...

I was thirty four.

When I was a kid, I used to go to travel agencies and collect Disney travel brochures and dream. But, I knew we could never afford to go there, so I tucked it away as a "bucket list" kind of thing. Which meant I was completely surprised when my husband suggested spending a week at Disney World, on our way back from visiting my relatives in Mississippi (we took three weeks one spring and drove down from Ontario, with the kids).

I'd picked up the Unofficial Guide, made a plan, and we showed up at the Magic Kingdom before the park opened. I still remember walking up to the castle, with everything still damp and the sky glowing, very few people around, and looking over at Tomorrowland and just being utterly floored at the sight of it all.

I'd never seen a real "theme park" before (just Six Flags type things), and this was SO much more than I'd ever anticipated.

It was a truly magical moment, and I do wonder if I would have been as awestruck, if I'd been a child.

So, how old were you, the first time you visited a Disney park?

 

[Colleen27]

I was 18. My mom always wanted to take my brother & I, but she couldn't swing it financially when we were young and by the time she could, we were so busy with school and sports that we didn't really want to take time out of our lives to go. So my first trip was my high school graduation trip, during the year of the infamous cake-stle.

 

[bjscheel]

28. We didn't go anywhere when I was a kid, and as an adult, I didn't care about going to WDW. Until DH suggested we take our princess loving girls there in 2005. The rest is history...

 

[bigbabyblues]

My honeymoon in 1996. I was 20, and the castle was a cake.

 

[E&Cmom]

I went to Disneyland when I was 30. DH and I went on a cruise out of LA and decided to add 5 days at DL on to it.
Beeen twice now but still not to WDW.....next year! Even going as an adult, I still find it magical.

Disney was never on my parents radar. All our vacations consisted of visiting family. I can't complain since I went to Spain 4 times between the ages of 6 and 16 and one of those trips had a side trip to Paris added on.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Disneyland - 10
Disneyworld - 17

 

[prprincess]

1979...I was six years old, and my grandmother took all of her children and grandchildren after my father had passed away. It's been my happy place ever since!

 

[NHdisneylover]

16, with my mom. She had saved for ages. She felt ill the whole time (was diagnosed with cancer the week after we got back) and it was not a great trip beucase of that and we were expecting something more like Six Flags and were not good at adjusting our expectations on the fly.

At 19, DH took me to Disneyland and that was the first of many happy trips to Disney Parks.

 

[DLmama]

1985 - I was 4 years old the first time I went to Disneyland.

I'll be 35 the first time I go to Disney World, next month!

 

[katmu]

1978 - I was 8 years old and my mom had saved up to take my brother and me. We rented a camper at Ft. Wilderness. I still remember River Country and how impressed I was at the huge pinecones I found in Ft. Wilderness. I loved the Magic Kingdom as I had only ever been to Six Flags before. My mom signed me up for a special kids event one evening where I remember having baked Alaska for the 1st time.

That trip was also my 1st time seeing the ocean so an all-around great trip.

My first trip to Disneyland was last year. I loved it even though my kids are now grown and I'm a middle aged adult.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

WDW- I learned to walk in our hotel. When I was 3 we moved to Orlando and got APs, so I have no memories of my first time; it's just always been there. It's just another part of "home" for me- I never get that bubble feeling but it makes it special in its own unique way.

Haven't been to DL yet- hopefully one day!

 

[BLAZEY]

Disneyland and I was 6.5. My dad had just died and my maternal grandparents thought my mum, sister (4) and I needed to get away from the house, the questions from usually well meaning people. We spent a week, and my Grampa told me, now when kids at school ask why I was away, I can tell them I went to Disneyland, and not "my dad died". When you are 6 it was easier to talk about Disney as the reason for you absence from school.
Tokyo Disneyland at 20, Disneyland Paris at 34, Disney World at 37.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

2003 when I was 20 years old. I went with My XH and our DS. XH went every summer as a kid. It was DS first trip also. I about started dancing in the car when we went under the WDW sign.

 

[Kitty 34]

46

 

[Neesy228]

We had very little money growing up, and Florida seemed like a far off place and Disney World was something I read about in books and magazines. Despite all of that, I have been a Disney fanatic since I was little (I have magazines I saved about the building of Epcot)....as luck would have it, my boyfriends dad lived in Florida and we went to visit him the year I graduated from high school. My boyfriend surprised me with a two day trip to Disney. I was 18. We went by bus and stayed at an awful motel, but it was so amazing!

That boyfriend is now my husband (of 18 years) and we have three kids...who have all been to Disney more times than I can count.

We finally made it to Disneyland when I was 40.

 

[disney castle days]

My first time WDW was when I was two years old.

 

[Elle23]

We lived in Tustin, which is just a few miles (10 maybe?) from Disneyland, so I probably 3 or 4 the first time I went.

True story:

My mom found out my dad was having an affair with his secretary when he and the secretary took us to Disneyland and we went home and blabbed to our mom about it (of course we were excited because we got to go to Disneyland!)

 

[TB'sWidow]

1996 an I was 33

 

[Disneylover99]

I think I was 7. I didn't love it til I was 41 though.

 

[MamaLema]

34 - with DH and the kids. We dragged my mom with us even though she really had no interest - then she said if she knew Disney was this nice, she would have taken me all throughout my childhood