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

[MrJT]

I was 5 when I first went to Disneyland.
18 for Tokyo Disneyland
32 for Walt Disney World
33 for Disneyland Paris

 

[monorailsilver]

WDW-1975, I was 3 1/2, my parents knew someone who knew someone that help build the Polynesian (so the story goes) so we stayed there with my moms cousin and her kids. I know we stayed in what is now the CL building and we had lagoon view as I remember watching the fireworks from the room at night and my mother shutting the curtain to tell me to go to sleep.

DL-1977, I was 6 3/4

 

[Bilberry]

I must have been 7 or maybe 8 when we visited Disneyland.

 

[mom2rtk]

At 29 I spent one day in Epcot. At 36 we finally visited the MK with our boys (4 and 6) for one day.

As a kid our "vacations" were typically being dumped at Grandma and Grandpa's for a boring week helping them around the farm.

 

[jevs]

I think 26, and it was Disneyland Paris.

 

[design_mom]

We had a camper when I was young. When I was 4, we took a road trip out west. Mostly to see the national parks. We spent one day at Disneyland, but I really don't remember it. I remember the Mickey shaped balloon and It's a Small World, but that's about all. (The thing I remember most about that trip was that you weren't allowed to bring any fruit into California -- they had inspection stations. We were unaware of that and had stopped at a roadside stand and bought a bunch of fruit. I remember sitting at the inspection station eating as much fruit as we could so we wouldn't have to throw it away.)

For WDW, I was almost 6, so 1978. Unbeknownst to me, while I was at kindergarten, my mom had been packing and prepping the camper for the trip. (Normally, I would have known we were planning a trip because I would have seen her getting the camper ready/packed.) When I got home from school on the last day of kindergarten the camper was parked in front of the house. My parents said "Get in! We're going to Disney World!" It was awesome.

 

[mickeyboat]

I was 19. I went with my boyfriend and his parents. We got engaged there!

 

[soccerdad72]

I was 16 when our family went to WDW. At that time (1988), it was just MK and EPCOT, so our week long trip also included days at Cypress Gardens and Wet 'n Wild, plus a couple other things. I think we spent 3 days in the two parks.

Last fall was my first time to DL - we took our boys and surprised them (they thought they were going to WDW). It was their first time to the west coast, which they both have been wanting to do.

 

[rastahomie]

Seven years old, in 1978. My mom's mother had been wanting to take the grandkids to "Florida Disneyland" ever since she first heard about it. Then in 1974, this new and groundbreaking roller coaster called "Space Mountain" opened up, and that sealed the deal for her. Why it took four years for her to build the bridge from "we have to go" to "we're going," you'll have to ask her. And since she died in 1995, good luck with that.

We took a three-vehicle caravan filled with siblings, cousins, parents and grandparents from central Illinois to central Florida, a distance of about a thousand miles. Did I say a thousand miles? Because it felt like ten thousand. We stopped every few feet for coffee or a smoke break or whatever. There was no air conditioning in our vehicles. My stepdad allowed only two kinds of music on the radio: Country, & Western. Mom was too cheap to buy food on the road so we ate bologna sandwiches out of the cooler.

It was murder.

Of course, when I entered Main Street USA and shook hands with Mickey, it was worth it!

SIDE NOTE: We stayed at Fort Wilderness, which marked the first and only time I stayed on-site; that is, until 2005 when Mrs. Homie and I decided to stay on-site. We will never stay off-site again.

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: Every WDW trip I took, from 1977-2006, was accomplished by driving there. In 2002 Mrs. Homie and I flew, and we vowed to never drive again. Well, we're going in December, and guess how we're getting there? We're driving.

 

[DVC-Don]

I was 38 on my first visit in 1990. And I only did Epcot.

I was 52 on my only visit to DL. It's so small compared to WDW, so probably will not go back there.

 

[godders]

1993 for Disney World - I was 4 and I only remember a little bit including doing an Aladdin character meal. Apparently my mother had been very resistant to going
Luckily my Dad wore her down and the indoctrination began

1997 for Disneyland - Again I don't remember much but I remember torrential rain that soaked us as we walked through the car park and sitting in the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Still never been to Disneyland Paris even though its only a couple of hours away

 

[karmic]

In 1985 I was 31- was in Miami for a work conference -DH flew down and we drove to WDW and stayed 2 nights off-site-only MK and Epcot then

My 1st Disney attractions were at age10 at the NY Worlds Fair.

 

[RedAngie]

Visited MK for the first time on my 14th birthday in 1975.

Epcot was in 1983, a few days before my 22nd birthday.


My mother told me we went on It's A Small World (Pepsi) and the Ford convertible ride at the NY World's Fair, but I don't remember them. I DO have vague memories of the revolving theater (but not the content of the show) at General Electric's Progressland (Carousel of Progress).

As a kid our "vacations" were typically being dumped at Grandma and Grandpa's for a boring week helping them around the farm.

I was a bad Mom. ExH and I dumped the kids with the grandparents when we went to WDW in 1995. DD#1 was old enough (5), but DD#2 was only 2. I know many parents bring kids that young or younger, but DD#2 would NOT have been able to handle it.

 

[mom2rtk]

I was a bad Mom. ExH and I dumped the kids with the grandparents when we went to WDW in 1995. DD#1 was old enough (5), but DD#2 was only 2. I know many parents bring kids that young or younger, but DD#2 would NOT have been able to handle it.

It wasn't an age thing. We didn't start going to Grandma and Grandpa's until we were old enough to help out. And only once did my parents actually go somewhere on vacation while we were there. Just not in the budget. But man, I hated those farm trips. I still remember my Grandma being hacked off all week one year because those dang Watergate hearings had pre-empted her "stories".

 

[Micca]

DLR 1965, I was 9.

 

[oneandonlytara]

I believe I was a couple months shy of five when we went in '90. I can't really remember. It may have been '89. Details of that trip are pretty fuzzy.

 

[RedAngie]

It wasn't an age thing. We didn't start going to Grandma and Grandpa's until we were old enough to help out. And only once did my parents actually go somewhere on vacation while we were there. Just not in the budget. But man, I hated those farm trips. I still remember my Grandma being hacked off all week one year because those dang Watergate hearings had pre-empted her "stories".

Heaven forbid the "stories" get preempted.

I wouldn't be surprised if some viewers were peeved when As The World Turns was cancelled after JFK was shot.

 

[nycdisneygal]

11 for DL
About 16 or 17 for WDW
37 for Disneyland Paris
Had planned age 40 for Disney Tokyo but then we planned a baby and she was only 3 months old then --- so SHE had her first WDW trip at age 3 months ( and DD1 had hers at age 9 months). Maybe age 50 for Disney Tokyo!

DH first DL age 30 ( I took him for his bday)
age 31 for WDW (with DD1 for her first trip)

 

[munari]

I was 23, and had never been to any kind of amusement/theme park at all. We could never afford it when I was a kid and I just grew up disinterested, but then a friend convinced me to go with her to the Tokyo Disney resorts and my whole world opened up!
It's been almost 10 years but I'm finally getting to go back to Disney soon!

 

[kmb584]

6 months.

The first trip that I remember was when I was 3.