What are you traditions?

[gzmtlock]

We own at AKV. If we're not staying there, we still try to get over there once. We love the restaurants! But our "tradition" is to speak with at least one of the young people from Africa working as a CM. We have had some really great conversations with folks from many countries on the African continent!

 

[Heather07438]

What has inadvertently become tradition over the past few years is beginning and ending our trip in AK. We noticed it while looking thru all of our Memory Maker pics. Now we do it on purpose... and all our trips continue to pick up right where they left off

 

[Michigan_Minnie]

Chef Mickeys on arrival day and must do Ohana, sci fi and 50s at some point in trip. Also seem to have a bad tradition of someone forgetting their magic band in the room every day!

I link all of ours after the first couple times this happened to us!

 

[DisneyHumbug]

In search of a new tradition. We used to stand around our brick at MK and take a pic of everyone's feet around the brick.....it was a great way to remember who was on the trip!

 

[RangerPooh]

Our family cheers as we approach the Welcome to Disney World arches. It usually includes scrambling to wake up sleeping children.

Arrival day/afternoon is spent at EPCOT. It has evolved into being the first park that we visit each trip. So much so that our oldest DD(15) gets upset if we schedule anything other than EPCOT. Her piece of planning is to remind us that it is the plan. lol.

 

[aokeefe]

Only restaurant that we must do each time is Yak n Yeti. Kids love it and we love the ahi tuna nachos. Having the Landry's card just makes it the one day that I don't have to plan ahead of what time we are going to eat!

 

[DaisyNY]

Always need to have my Mickey Ice Cream Bar and a Mickey pretzel at some point during the trip! When my husband travels with us...dinners at Via Napoli and use to be Artist's Point (We miss that restaurant!)

 

[bwvBound]

Just had a Blinding Flash of the Obvious. My 'traditions' for WDW are different than Disneyland!

I grew up near Disneyland and we went for nearly every occasion: Holiday? Disneyland! Celebration? Disneyland! Bad day at work? Disneyland! (you get the idea)

My mother's tradition, on entering Disneyland, was to stop just inside the gates, under the railway, to point out and read aloud the sign, "Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy."
Her point was to say, "The real world remains outside. Once we walk through this tunnel (under the railway), we are a family together, enjoying our time together but not addressing whatever topic lingers on our minds from outside. Leave the real world aside while we enjoy together today."

If cell phones had existed when I was a teen, I'm sure she would have had us turn them off. How she'd handle all this muss'n'fuss requiring a smartphone simply to survive the parks is beyond me. I can't image it. {{Miss you, Mom!}}

 

[Simba's Mom]

Way back when ticketing was different, they used to stamp your hand when you left the park, then you just showed your hand stamp if you wanted to go to another park. Our tradition was on our last day, we would go to a park and get our hand stamped as we left (sometimes flight times only allowed us to spend about 1/2 hour in the park). That way, if our flight got cancelled, we could head back to a park. That never happened, but at least we always had a great souvenir to look at the next day at home.
Unfortunately, since the hand stamp stopped we don't have any particular "must do", just a ride we must ride, deopending on the park. Like in the Magic Kingdom, we must do the Jungle Cruise because when I was little I had a Viewmaster with the JC ride on itt.

 

[DVCDUDE48]

Each trip we always have our first nights dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express in Disney Springs and always have Ghiraradelli's on our last night. Memories that will last a life time!

 

[CyberPluto]

Our tradition is margaritas at Cava de Tequila in Mexico, usually the day we arrive. That's when I know vacation is real.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

We usually come down Sat - Sat. Our most recent trip was the first time we didn't have tix the day of arrival. We landed around noon and stayed at SS. We went to Springs. It was really nice. I think we might start that as our tradition. Mainly because a lot of times we don't want to hassle with the travel time from a park to Springs then back to a park. Springs is nice to check out a few stores but a majority don't interest us. Plus when we'd go on a park day we'd feel rushed to get back to a park.

Not doing a park also didn't make it seem like such a hectic day. We still had energy when we got into our room at night to unpack and relax for the week ahead of us.

 

[Boopuff]

Our traditions:
-always start the countdown -text back and forth how many days among the family
- DD (29) is a Disney Nut (hatched from the family Disney Nut tree) So the second we announced we were taking her to Disney for her 30th she set up her spreadsheet.
- Since we live a 4hr fight away, we usually can't get in any earlier than 1pm. We eat lunch at the resort and go to AK for the afternoon.
-Always dinner at Disney Springs our first night - and shopping!
-We get an ornament the first night (personalized year/date) so it's done before we leave.
- Now that the kids are adults they always want to "drink around the world"
-We used to ALWAYS go to the biergarten on every trip (DH fave) the kids finally put an end to it on our last trip.
- always have FUN!

 

[com_op_2000]

Our traditions since '93:
1. Every year the first two weeks in December we go for my DW's birthday celebration and our get-away for the holidays for ourselves.
What we found out before DVC is that the holidays were becoming such a rush that we were not enjoying them ourselves.
When we became DVC members and went that first year for my DW's birthday we started enjoying the holidays more. We found that by setting aside time for us we were forcing ourselves to relax.
2. My DW cries after every trip. It is so lovely to set in the car on the way home and watch her tear up thinking about how lucky we are to be DVC members and the enjoyment we get out of each trip.

 

[DduzDis]

We almost always try to to Frozen Ever after on arrival day so we can get a FP+ on that day for it. We are trying something new this time as well...(trying something new each time is also a tradition)... Two families of 4 with ours and @bigdaddybyrd. Moms are having a mom dinner at Cape May (crab legs) while dads take the kids to Beaches and Cream (dinner then the Kitchen Sink). We'll meet back up after dinner and walk into EP 18 days from now.

 

[DVCKev]

We always do Raglan Road on arrival day to start the party right!
We always do Hoop de Doo for dinner the night we do AK and that morning we always have breakfast with Donald!
My son demands we eat at Teppan Edo once every trip, and I have made us eat a signature meal at Narcoose's for steak and lobster every trip lol.

 

[TTA Rider Matt]

It's always MK our first and last day, several Dole Whips, at least one meal at the Plaza, and the weird one I have is always walking through the World Traveler at the International Gateway!

 

[bakerworld]

When we first began vacationing in WDW we always booked the Hoop-De-Doo and the Poly Luau (it was called that back in the 90's). The arrival day we would always go to the MK because walking down Main Street felt like returning home.

Now just us, we always plan to do some we've never done in WDW - it can be anything either small or large - on the first day but before we do anything we hit the pool bar to toast the start of our vacation.

 

[deckert]

Our family has a tradition of making MK the last park of our trip. We go to Gaston's Tavern about an hour before the park closes and all have a LeFou's Brew.

 

[ganban]

We’ve started a tradition of having one last meal out the day we’re leaving, usually breakfast. Since we usually travel with one of our children and their family, this is the last hurrah for the trip. A special time together before stepping back into reality. Always bittersweet.