That one moment **TISSUE ALERT**

[devores]

I know there have been several threads on here about the Disney Magic. What I wanted to know is, what was that one moment at Disney that really impacted you?

Mine is the time we were at Epcot. Im not sure exactly how this all happened, but we witnessed a little girl interacting with Mickey. The little girls was deaf, and Mickey was signing to her. The mother of the girl was welling up watching her little girls excitement. We almost could not hold back the tears. This was the moment I truely understood the Magic of Disney.

So, what was your moment?

 

[onelilspark]

I can't even remember mine! But my parents tell me about it all the time.

My very first trip we came in right as the afternoon parade was going on at the MK. Minnie leaned down and waved to me. According to my parents, we could have gone home right then and I still would have been hooked for life!

 

[Heluvsme]

As a family we'd been to Disney numerous times (and so many times prior to having kids), but the one moment that stands out to me involved my 2nd child, my son. My son was a very late talker. We had already been through numerous evaluations for him and because he always fell into a 'gray' area with the testing, we didn't have a definitive diagnosis. Receptive/Expressive lang. delay? Autism? Natural late talker? Apraxic? We just didn't know for sure. Well, when he was 3 we took our annual trip to WDW and there was just something magical about it. He started talking, he started being more interested in things, he was so full of joy and trying to communicate everything he saw to us! While in line for It's A Small World he said "Mommy" and he clapped his hands and said "Ride." It was by far a turning point for us, for him. It truly will always be a trip to remember for our family. From that point on, his speech really took off. We continue to go to WDW every year, and it seems like every year he is still making improvements!!

I think the curiosity and wonderment that Disney evokes works magic, I truly do. No one will ever convince me of anything different.

 

[pat fan]

I guess on our first trip, our youngest was 7, and we were watching the fireworks at MK and he leaned over (while watching the sky) and gave me a half hug and said "Thanks for bringing me here mom".....just the way he said it, still makes me well up.

 

[jayandstacey]

Our one moment also happened to be our first moment.

Our DD5 had a fair number of health complications from Type 1 diabetes, including many hospital trips starting around her first birthday. We saved our money and wanted to take her and her younger brother on a Doosie of a Disney vacation, her first. So we booked 10 days at the Beach Club and hoped for a relaxing vacation during a slow first 10 days of November. We also hoped for some magic but didn't have any particular expectations. The rides, atmosphere and "escape" were all that we were looking for.

We arrived midday to beautiful weather and decided to head to Epcot through the International Gateway. As we scanned our tickets, our DD saw Snow White a few paces away and ran to her. Snow White talked with our daughter, got to know her and, well, you know... No one else was around... it was about 10 minutes worth of hanging out with Snow White.

Our DD talked about how she recently was a "townsfolk" player in the local high school production of "Beauty and the Beast." - "Oh really?" said Snow White, "Then I'd like you to meet my friend." Snow White took my daughter's hand and they skipped all the way over the bridge into France, where Belle was in her courtyard and my daughter was in heaven, just beside herself and talking as fast as she could. Belle was happy to "finally meet someone else from my village!"

We spent about $6000 on that trip. It was all "paid back" in the first 15 minutes.

Amazing.

 

[Lolie]

While I was standing in front of the Partner's statue a year ago I asked to nobody in particular "Why is it called Walt Disney World?" and a cast member said to me....

"Because a big brother loved his little brother so much, that he would do anything it took to make sure his little brother's dreams came true."

Walt died before Disney World opened, and even though Roy finished off the plans he wanted to make sure everyone knew who made it all happen and whose dream this really was.

 

[t_catt11]

Here I am, a grown man, with tears on my eyes at my desk, while I keep this window open at work. Thanks, Disers!

 

[DisneyLover75]

As a family we'd been to Disney numerous times (and so many times prior to having kids), but the one moment that stands out to me involved my 2nd child, my son. My son was a very late talker. We had already been through numerous evaluations for him and because he always fell into a 'gray' area with the testing, we didn't have a definitive diagnosis. Receptive/Expressive lang. delay? Autism? Natural late talker? Apraxic? We just didn't know for sure. Well, when he was 3 we took our annual trip to WDW and there was just something magical about it. He started talking, he started being more interested in things, he was so full of joy and trying to communicate everything he saw to us! While in line for It's A Small World he said "Mommy" and he clapped his hands and said "Ride." It was by far a turning point for us, for him. It truly will always be a trip to remember for our family. From that point on, his speech really took off. We continue to go to WDW every year, and it seems like every year he is still making improvements!!

I think the curiosity and wonderment that Disney evokes works magic, I truly do. No one will ever convince me of anything different.

OMG! My son has almost exactly the same story.

Last May, when he was four, the only word he knew was Mama. He didn't even TRY talking other than that. He signed, but that was it. He is autistic. We went to Disney and spent six days there, and he was enchanted!

Within two weeks of getting back, he was talking! Not conversations, but lots and lots of words! He still mispronounces words, and still has some trouble, but that made an enormous difference for him. Unbelievable.

I'm excited to see if this upcoming trip will have a further impact on his development!

 

[disneydreamer1970]

The moment I witnessed did not include a Disney character but did Santa Claus! While waiting on Main Street with DD to see Santa a couple of years ago there was a family in front of us that had two children, one of which was handicapped and could not speak. He was so scared of Santa, and mom wanted nothing more than a picture of he and his sister with him, and it just didn't happen. As they walked away, Santa motioned to a Cast Member to quietly get mom to turn around with her camera as he walked up behind him in his wheelchair with his sister walking next to him. As she went to take the picture the little boy caught Santa out of the corner of his eye and looked back at Santa and began to smile! It was a picture perfect moment! Mom was crying as well as myself and several other people in line that day! I still get choked up when I think about it!

Trish

 

[kiranic]

My magical moment happened on my DD's 7th birthday. We had been to the BBB and she was dressed like Tinkerbell, her favorite character. During one of the parades, when she was up on her daddy's shoulders, Captain Hook came over and shoot his hook at her. She said "I think he thinks I am the real Tinkerbell." When the float with Peter Pan and Wendy came by I was taking pictures. My husband said, "Did you see that Peter Pan just pointed right at DD." I was disappointed that I hadn't seen it until I looked in the camera viewer and saw that I had "magically" caught the moment in the camera. (I don't have the picture loaded to photobucket or I would post it.)

 

[Kurby]

we had gone only once when i was a kid and i hadn't been back until dh took me a few months after we got engaged.

ya ya disney will be fun -

we flew in, checked in and headed over to mk

oh this is kinda cool

ya right - i'm standing infront of that round garden thing infront of the castle watching the show and dh looks at me and askes what's wrong.

here i stood - a 30something women standing in themiddle of a bunch of people, tears running down my face.

to this day i still don't know why i was crying, its not like i remember going as a kid it was just emotional for me.

to this day i get that twinge of emotion the first time we walk down main street each visit.

 

[kiranic]

My magical moment happened on my DD's 7th birthday. We had been to the BBB and she was dressed like Tinkerbell, her favorite character. During one of the parades, when she was up on her daddy's shoulders, Captain Hook came over and shoot his hook at her. She said "I think he thinks I am the real Tinkerbell." When the float with Peter Pan and Wendy came by I was taking pictures. My husband said, "Did you see that Peter Pan just pointed right at DD." I was disappointed that I hadn't seen it until I looked in the camera viewer and saw that I had "magically" caught the moment in the camera. (I don't have the picture loaded to photobucket or I would post it.)

Okay I found it!

 

[angela3676]

Here I am, a grown man, with tears on my eyes at my desk, while I keep this window open at work. Thanks, Disers!

dito, except for the man part. I'm such a push-over for good stories like these.

 

[Cinderella3]

We went to WDW in Dec of 2007, there we stood in line to get an autograph with characters at Mickey's tent(Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy) we was the next to get our picture and there was this little girl with a walker, just so happy to see them. My son, who at the time was 10 , told her " it is more important if you get the picture then I do", so he let the little girl go, the characters gathered up in one photo so the Mom could get a great picture. The Mom thanked my son, he said no problem and gave her a big smile. The CM came over and told my son that since he was more interested in passing along the magic of Disney that My son got to get a picture of all the characters. I was so proud of him..

 

[suejai]

I had three moments on our first trip last May. We were watching Wishes on our first evening, I turned to see tears streaming down the face of my big tough biker husband, I was already crying. Then our 16 year son turned to us to tell us 'thank you for bringing me to Disney' sees us crying and starts crying himself. Our 13 yr son looks at us all bawling and asks why are we all crying.

A momemt that again made my DH well up was watching a little 2 or 3 yr old girl walk straight into Buzz Lightyears arms with such complete innocence and trust. I guess he's not as tough as he makes out (I already knew that )

My third moment was watching Wishes on our last evening. We were sitting at the edge of the terrace at the Noddle Station (I know now that it is not a great place to watch from) but it IS right under Tinker Bell's flight path. I was turned talking to my husband when he said 'look Tink is flying' I leaned forward and she pointed at me and blew me and my DS a kiss. I was thrilled to say the least! I'm not sure how she did this hurtling down a wire at that speed, but she did and it was such a nice ending to our trip.

Sorry for such a long post, but it is hard to narrow it down to just one moment - our trip was filled with so many, that we are going again this May.

 

[SomDayMyPrnceWillCom]

I was 35 years old the first time I went to WDW with DD11. I was so enchanted from the moment I stepped on the ME bus until our trip back home. I'm a big softie, but DD11 is not so much. She likes thrill rides while I prefer the shows. I had seen Nemo, FOTLK, Philharmagic, ITTBAB, Little Mermaid etc. and was touched each time I saw the next one. BUT - I knew I would come back every chance I got when I went to see Beauty and the Beast live on Stage. I cried. In the middle of the day, I was tearing up and crying as DD11 watched me out of the corner of her eye and just sighed b/c there goes her mom again crying. I LOVED 4 for a Dollar singing before the show began (reminded me of Rockapella from Carmen Sandiego).

And I absolutely loved my "independent tough girl" get the biggest smile on her face when a character would hug her. And I mean "full on wrap your arms around each other" body hugs. She adored the costume characters and even though she tried to act all teenagery and she was too big for that... the pictures that year and the next showed her with the biggest grins on her face.

I'm definitely hooked for life.

 

[DWFan4Life]

for us, it's when we had a surprise birthday trip for our elder DS. It's his 5th birthday and first time in Disney. The day of his birthday, he hug and kisses us and thanking for the birthday trip his experiencing.

 

[urbandonovan]

My "moment" was the Sunday after 9/11. I was ticked that the UT/UF football game had been cancelled and was just sick of the endless loops of the two planes smashing into the towers being the only things every single television station was airing, so at like 10 pm Saturday night I just snapped and told my wife we were going to EPCOT the next day (she was ecstatic, she had never been). So, early the next morning, we jumped in the car and made the drive down from Gainesville. There couldn't have been more than a couple thousand people in the park that day. It felt as if we had the whole park to ourselves. My moment came at the American Adventure. We were standing in the rotunda, listening to the Voices of Liberty perform before the show started. As they started the Star Spangled Banner, an old man sitting in a wheelchair next to me attempted to stand. He was having a difficult time getting up and his wife was doing her best to keep him seating. He kept beating her protests away and finally I had enough and just grabbed him under his arm and lifted him. We stood there, two complete strangers, listening to our National Anthem at the end of one of the worst weeks in our history and we wept like little babes. At the end of the song, he looked at me and just said, "Thank you." I nodded and he was back in his chair and off into the theater. It was a moment I'll never forget.

 

[jzzikamarie]

we had gone only once when i was a kid and i hadn't been back until dh took me a few months after we got engaged.

ya ya disney will be fun -

we flew in, checked in and headed over to mk

oh this is kinda cool

ya right - i'm standing infront of that round garden thing infront of the castle watching the show and dh looks at me and askes what's wrong.

here i stood - a 30something women standing in themiddle of a bunch of people, tears running down my face.

to this day i still don't know why i was crying, its not like i remember going as a kid it was just emotional for me.

to this day i get that twinge of emotion the first time we walk down main street each visit.

I know exactly what you mean...nothing like seeing that castle! We just came back from a trip this past week. When I saw the castle (the first time in 10 years!) all I could do was cry!

 

[Corjack]

Ours was last year when we took our DD4 for her first trip. We had a 6:30pm BBB appt and then were staying for evening EMHs.

We had mini corn dogs at Caseys and then started back toward the castle to go to her appt. SHe was in her Cinderella dress and as we came around the corner Lady Tremaine was there signing autographs. We were like 2 or 3 in line and when my DD walked up she was very nervous about waht LT would say. She made some small talk and told DD she " looked better in that dress than 'someone' else she knew". My DD was so excited.
So then we headed to her BB appt and she loved it. When we came out of her appt she looked so pretty. Several other little girls were pointing and calling her little Cinderella(she LOVED THAT TOO). She asked DH if he would be her Prince and dance with her and they Danced right there in the crowd like no one was watching. We had not ridden the carousel so we went and got in line. Everyone was telling her how pretty she looked. Then a Dream Maker came over to DH and i and told us that he was looking for a little girl in a blue dress to lead the carousel by riding Cinderellas horse and be made Honorary Princess. (DD taps me on the arm and says...I have a blue dress on, ) So he gets us out of line and anounces to everyone she is honorary princess and gives her a certificate. She gets on the carousel first. She is just BEAMING.
Later that night we go to the Laugh Floor and DD gets picked to participate and they ask her where she is from and then Marty announced to everyone she is Princess Gracie of Indiana. It was like mushy magic for her. She felt like everyone really believed she was a Princess.

At the carousel I cried and I cried when I watched Dh dance with her behind the castle. A few years before this we thought we would never be parents and here we were in the most magical moments with our kids.

DS was a baby last year and will be 18mo this year. I cannot wait for some Magical Disney memories for him!

I have a few pics!

Jackie