What's your earliest WDW memory?

[luvsmickeymouse]

Boy, i remember the ticket books! My first trip was in April of 1972....I was 11!

 

[dreamalittledream]

Ahh the memories! I was 4 and it was 1974. I remember the Treehouse and stopping to tie my shoe right by the exit. Some woman was amazed that I could tie my shoe and I showed her how I did it with the bunny ears. I also remember on later visits walking thru the park at night with my younger brother. My parents let us go out on our own and we rode the HM many times in a row. WE were staying at Poly and we tried to ride in the front of the monorail as many times as we could.

 

[TiggerDaisy]

It is kind of funny because this memory doesn't really have to do with WDW. I don't remember it, but I guess my parents had taken me and my half-sister to WDW when they were married. My parents ended up divorcing when I was five. I can remember being at my grandma's house in Troy, New York and giving my Mickey Mouse stuffed animal a bath. I guess he was dirty and I thought that if I cleaned him with soap and water, he would be fine. During his bath, his eye fell off. Besides losing an eye, he never quite fully recovered from the bath. I don't know what ever happened to my one-eyed Mickey because my mom ended up giving the majority of my stuffed animals away when I went to college. I wish I still had him though. Just thought that I would share this story.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

This site has a list of the old closed attractions at WDW

http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/


And one of early memories of Disney is staying at the Golf resort (now shades of green) and the overwhelming smell of Orange Blossoms in the air at that time Disney was the only thing in the area other than the Orange Farms.

 

[leighe]

I can remember the way the lobby of the Poly smelled. I can also remember leaving the MK for the last time on the ferry and my dad telling me to wave goodbye to the castle and just crying and crying.

 

[johnvree]

1973 - I was 4. The only thing I remember vividly was the Haunted Mansion. The outside of the HM looks different in my memory - kind of like it was out in the open on a hill. I suspect because the landscaping was not very mature. Anyway, it didn't exactly scare the pants off of me but, for some reason, I had nightmares for years about those glowing ghosts combined with the crazy brooms from Fantasia chasing me down a long road through the woods in the middle of the night. We were in my grandfather's station wagon and I was watching them gain on us through the back window.

Wow, creepy dream. I am sure I will be having it tonight now. Glad I dredged that one up.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Did WDW ever have America Sings?

I'm so glad they still have Country Bear Jamboree--it's a reason to fly across the country to go to the MK rather than DL alone!

 

[spot28]

My first visit to MK we stayed at the Contemporary, my mother is very afraid of heights. I still have images of my mother sliding along the wall to our room so she didn't have to see over the railing!

Another, seeing Bruce Jenner at River Country... I believe it was 1976 after he won gold. For some reason Kristy McNichol was there too. We actually have a photo!

 

[pennst8r]

We were there the first year MK opened--grandparents lived near Tampa. I have a picture of me with a VERY outdated Pooh--honey pot on his head! (Yes, I'm old!) But the thing I remember most, is that we rode the Haunted Mansion, but I kept my eyes closed because I was scared. Nothing my sweet GF said could make me look! We got the Viewmaster reels so I could see it , but I was so mad at myself!

 

[daisyduck123]

It was 1976...I was in the 5th grade.
I remember my family of 5 getting off a bus/trolley of some sort in front of the MK entrance. As I stepped off the bus, I remember stooping down & swiping my finger on the asphalt & saying aloud "Wow, I've now touched Walt Disney World". I remember mom laughing.

 

[krissy2803]

It was 1971. Dad was stationed in Tampa. I remember the monorail and many topiaries. I didn't see as many this past week. Which was my first time back since 1971. I also remember the ticketbooks. My most profound memory was of 20,000 leauges (sp?). That was the coolest ride!

 

[PaMom001]

I remember 20,000 leagues. I also remember the ticket books. I went down with my family in December 1976. I was 9 and would've been 10 in January 1977. We drove from Pennsylvania to Florida. We had stayed in motels(they are still around and may have gotten better so I won't say which one it was). It seemed that every time we got a room, someone was already sleeping in the room. Christmas Eve we spent in Georgia with friends. I cried because Santa wouldn't know where we were.

I remember going on the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. While we were waiting in the queue, my mom told me to bend down and pick up something she saw on the floor in the next lane over. I picked it up and opened it up and found out that it was a $20.00 bill. My mom told me to be quiet. I also remember having to wait in the line for the bathroom for so long that I wet myself and my sister was mad that we couldn't see the parade or ride some rides because people were watching the parade. My mom dried my pants on a hand drier.

I can't remember where we stayed while at Disney. I was back with my family in Dec. 2003. My sister, bil, their 3 kids(ds, ds, dd), our dad, myself, my dd. Our mom couldn't make due to an illness. We are due back in WDW Dec. 2005. Hopefully, everyone will stay well. My dd keeps talking about which rides she wants to go on.

 

[DisneyPhD]

I was 3 years old. It was 1974. I remember being in the car and asking my dad "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are are there yet?" I guess I must of been really cute because it didn't even get him mad and normally that would of.

Also I remember walking around and 2 of my older brothers swining me by their pinky fingers (I was a very small 3 year old)

That same trip we "ran into" my older brothes friend and their family outside the castel. We didn't even know they were going on a trip. It was really funny (we were from Michigan.)

I apears that kids who go early in life don't "remember it all always," but they will become total WDW nuts! (I know this is true in the case of my DD's. Of course my oldest is now 4 and she remebers details from a trip when she was 23 months old.)

 

[Jen D]

We went over Thanksgiving in 1977, which would have been around my seventh birthday. My memories are sketchy but I have some specific ones:

- I rode Space Mountain with my Dad. This is pretty intense at that age! I remember the darkness and the shooting stars and all of it.

-Also remember Haunted Mansion with my Dad, when we looked in the mirror at the end and saw one of the hitchhiking ghosts sitting next to me. I was blown away! This really stuck with me.

-I remember eating a nice Southern style fried chicken dinner somewhere nice, off Main Street. Even at age 7 I remember thinking it cool and unusual that we were having such a nice elegant meal at a theme park (I had been to Six Flags before.) Not sure where this meal was, maybe in what is now the Plaza or Crystal Palace.

-- We did the Teacups and after we got off my older sister threw up.

-- Remember Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

I don't remember the castle, and I don't remember meeting characters. There are a couple of pictures of me and my sister in front of the castle. My mom always complained that we weren't smiling in the pictures and we spent all this money at WDW and we couldn't even smile. This is how she probably justified never taking us back even though we lived in Atlanta and went to Florida every year! Except for a school day trip to Epcot (1984), didn't make it back until 2001.

 

[eowensby]

I was almost 5 in 1984 when I went with my parents, my aunt and uncle and my 3 cousins. I remember standing at 20,000 leagues and my youngest cousin, who had just turned 3 and was potty training, peed her pants. My poor aunt had to go trapsing across the MK during the afternoon parade to find a shop that sold shorts small enough for her. I'm sure she paid a ton for them. We were all so jealous that she got Mickey Mouse shorts and we didn't. I can still remember exactly what they looked like! They were Navy and White Vertical Striped with an embroidered Mickey at the hem. Boy I wanted those shorts!

I also remember the same cousin hugging Foulfellow and then biting him on the nose!
I learned to read that trip and I was reading a Donald Duck book.

We went quite a few times when I was a child and now it's so exciting to take my DD. Walking through the turnstiles at the MK just floods me with memories and takes me back to when I was 4. So if you see someone taking longer than usual to push the turnstile, it's probably me....just let me have my moment and hop in another line if you can't wait.

 

[Chicago526]

We went in 1983, when I was 7, my brothers were 11 and 13. We stayed at the Contemporary, which along with the Poly and Ft. Wilderness were the only Disney places to stay! Imagine, only two Disney hotels to choose from! It was a huge trip, we actually flew, the last two times my family went (without me, I stayed with grandma since I was so young on the last trips) they had taken two days to drive down from IL, and two days to drive back. We were able to fly because Eastern Airlines was struggleing and had discounted both the tickets and the WDW package to the point where it was too good a deal to pass up, even for my cheap-skate parents!

We went in the fall, I'd say it was sometime in early November. We had soooo much fun! Truely, the best memories of my childhood were there! The first thing I remember was getting to the room and looking out the window (not much to see, garden view since we were in one of the wings) and asking my dad if the tv got the Disney channel (this was back when DC was a premium channel like HBO was!). We headed straight for the parks, even though it was only open a few more hours. Splash wasn't open yet, but we rode BTMRR. Later in the week, my dad would take the boys on Space Mtn while mom and I rode rides in Fantasyland (mom wouldn't ride Space, and dad was nervous about all three kids being on a ride where he could be next to us to make sure we were okay, the year before my brother had tried to get off a roller coster at Six Flags when he decided he didn't like it! Not wanting a repeat performance from me, I was baned from any big rides that he couldn't sit next me on). We also went to Epcot, and were one of the first (if not THE first) group to see the Universe of Engergy (dinosaurs) ride. The wanted a test audience, and we happened to be walking by and they waved us over "How would you like to see the ride before it officialy opens?" Heck yeah! I remember the fog they pumped in smelled really funny (I think it was supposed to make it smell like a swamp).

I also remember my first encounter with Mickey. This was back when characters were sent randomly out into the park, so comming across him was a BIG deal. I didn't have an autograph book, so I just shook his hand!

And the one day it was warm enough to swim, we went to River Country. To this day, I'm still mad at my mom, she wouldn't let me go down any of the water slides because I wasn't a good swimer (I was, she just didn't think so!) and she didn't think Dad could watch me AND the boys at the same time (ummm, gee mom, there WERE lifeguards on duty!!!!) so I had to stick to the baby stuff!

Yup, great trip. I think 7 was the perfect age to go, I was young enought to "believe" but was tall enough and brave enough to tackle all the big rides. Best of both worlds!

 

[Piglet42]

This is something I posted on the thread about the funniest thing you ever overheard in Disney World. This was around 1984 or 85, I was either 5 or 6 years old. I went with my mom, her friends, and thier children. The other kids were all teenagers, so I was the baby of the group. At the time I was scared of roller coaster, but my mom managed to drag me on both Space and Thunder Mountain (Splash was not there yet). After we got off the second, I was pretty much tramatized and sadly asked my mom if there were any more mountains to go on. Her reply - "Just one more, Death Mountain." Then I was pretty much scared of Disney the rest of the trip.
Now, 20 years later, I will ride Rockin Roller Coaster back to back as many times as possible, so the fear is over.

 

[Piglet42]

Oh wow- I just realized I went from "Earning my Ears" to "Mousekeeter"

 

[Bride In The Attic]

But the thing I remember most, is that we rode the Haunted Mansion, but I kept my eyes closed because I was scared. Nothing my sweet GF said could make me look! We got the Viewmaster reels so I could see it , but I was so mad at myself!

That is funny - I got my very first view master at one of the gift shops in the contemporary - probably early 70's....we bought the WDW slides to go in it and I can still remember some of the images! Wish I still had that thing!

 

[slduck]

Between age 4 and 5, I almost fainted in the Haunted Mansion