When did you know that you were hooked..

[LovesTimone]

I was just wondering when did you begin your love of Disney? That moment that you said, I love this place!

For me it started as a child going in 1971 with my parents... I was 10 years old. We always went every year, and I so looked forward to going. I knew when I was about 16, that I was hooked. My parents asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday.. With out thinking I said "Disney"..

I will be turning 50 this month. I was just thinking about all the trips, all the memories from childhood, to adulthood, parenthood, romantic trips( no kids) and to Grand-parenthood, so looking forward to taking them all as a family. Disney and all the magic has been a part of my life. And It always will be.

Please share your moment.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Great story and great thread!

The first day I walked into Disneyland with my kids. October 24, 2003. We had flown into Orange County, checked into the Disneyland Hotel and then walked down to the park. I hadn't been to Disney since I was a little girl, 26 years earlier. Anyway, we entered the turnstiles and had just gotten onto Main Street when here came Minnie Mouse. She walked right up to my two kids (who were 6 and 8) and hugged them, I was able to snap a picture and I remember I had tears in my eyes because it was just so sweet. I knew right then and there we were hooked and 20+ trips later its not changed too much. Except the kids are older and as hooked as me and dh are!

I have that picture sitting out and seeing them hugging Minnie, just a moment or two after entering their first Disney park, it can still bring a tear or two to my eye.

 

[jesswindsor]

I fell in Love with Disney on my first Adult trip in fall of 2005. I have been more times that I could count as a child, but then to me it was just a theme park. As an adult, I actually took my time, and noticed all the details, and stopped to listen to the music, and paid attention to the smells of main street. I paid more attention to how the Disney CM's acted and treated guests like no where else I have ever remembered. How clean everything was. Most of all I fell in love with the fact that I could be a kid again.

 

[WDWLODGE]

My story probably isn't as great, but my great aunt & uncle knew we had planned to go to WDW for our honeymoon. They had a packet of WDW stuff that included two 5-day passports(pre-Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom) from the early 1980's. I think they were purchased for $81 each. Since they were older and no longer able to go to WDW they gave them to us. So we took them along with us to WDW. We were a couple days into our honeymoon and having a great time. We went to the ticket window at the MK to see if we could get anything for the passports. We thought maybe we would get the face value of the passports, well the cast member said he could give us two 5-day park hoppers to replace them. We were shocked and we both looked at each other and said well I guess we are coming back next year. We have been back every year since, except the one year that we went to Disneyland.

 

[Virtucomp]

When I was very young my oldest Sister got to go to DisneyLand on a cross country trip in a camper named Frank with her best friend. When she got back she gave me a board game about the Magic Kingdom.

I played that game over and over but we could not afford to go to Disney world (when it opened).

When DW and I were married we went once before kids and had a great time. It took us ten years to go back a second time with our own two kids. The year was 2000 and we got to enjoy the Millennium Celebration. Our family had such a good time and the kids got along so well that we were hooked on the parks. Every vacation since then has been a wonderful family vacation.

 

[Zeppelin]

As a kid i remember watching the "Wonderful World of Disney" and they did a special on WDW going through the different parks and rides- this was early-mid 70's....fell in love right then and there...

been to WDW/DL about 15 times since, numerous times just by myself...

 

[W.E.D.]

Probably my first trip as a teenager, in '89. I had gone in '76 but I was only 5 and the memories are pretty fuzzy from that trip. By the time '89 rolled around I knew I wanted to spend as many vacations as possible at WDW!

 

[Brian_WDW74]

Since this thread isn't really about theme park planning, I've moved it to the Theme Parks Community board.

 

[manda622]

My earliest (and most magical) Disney memory is from my first trip. I was 4. We were at MK. I was wearing my Minnie Mouse dress and was excited to meet her, but her line was long, and my dad said he wanted to do some of the other characters and come back to her. I got up to the front of the line to meet Snow White and she complimented me on my dress and asked why I was so sad. I told her about Minnie's line and having to wait and she proceded to take me by the hand and walk me over to the front of Minnie's line!

This is a very fuzzy memory from me, that has been filled in by my parents and grandmother retelling it to me. But, I do distinctly remember holding hands with Snow White and walking over to Minnie. Love that memory and the pictures. I was hooked VERY young. LOL

My younger sister and various cousins wore the same dress on later trips and it is still in the family. My sis is currently in possession of it with plans for her oldest daughter (now 2) to wear it on their first family trip in 2014. I hope I have a little girl one day, so she can wear it too!

 

[klmall]

I can't really pick an exact moment I was hooked but on our first family trip in 1990 I saw the three of us having such a wonderful time exploring and enjoying the three parks open at that time. My normally quiet and reserved DH who had absolutely no interest in Disney (and me too for that matter but mine grew enormously) really got into Hoop Dee Doo and Epcot attractions and came home happy!

Here's a picture of him enjoying interaction with a character at MK!

 

[Cinderella's slipper]

I knew I was hooked the first time, I walked under the rail station in the Magic Kingdom, smelled the early morning popcorn and and looked up to see my very first glance of the castle. In that moment, I was a little girl again, thoroughly pixie dusted and apparently so was my husband. It took me 5 years to talk him into our first trip, but ever since 1981 he supports my enthusiasm for all things Disney, but mainly my planning for subsequent trips.

 

[DisneyFairytale]

I don't think I REALIZED that Disney had been my way of life for a long time, until I turned 20, or early into my 20's(I'm 26 now). I grew up around Disney movies, and always LOVED Disney as a child, but when we moved to Canada, the whole thing just simmered down to sticking to movies and the occasional trip to the Disney store. I didn't realize how much I loved it, and how ingrained it was in my blood, until I had a chance to go for the first time to DCA.

Absolutely magic.

 

[Lisab372]

We went to Disney in Sep 2010. I had such a great time and could not stop talking about it to everyone. Many people commented that they had never seen me so happy - and that was just a conversation about my stay.

As soon as free dining came out in 2011 I put down my deposit and decided I had many months to make the final decision. Well, many months later, finances just weren`t going well and I was considering whether or not to cancel. I went online and looked at everything and read so many posts of how great their time was. I turned off the computer and actually was crying with just the thought of cancelling.

We`re leaving in 17 days.

 

[MedicBill]

I basically grew up in Disney World. We live in NY but as a kid my parents took me to Disney every year from the time I was 1 until I finished high school. All of my best childhood memories happened at Disney. After high school I got busy with life.

Last year I finally had my stuff together to be able to take a nice vacation and the only place I could think to go was Disney. Needless to say, Im going back again in 2 weeks.

 

[splashmtgirl83]

I think it all started when I saw The Little Mermaid when I was 7 and fell in love with everything Disney.

 

[LovesTimone]

OP here
These are so great, I really enjoy reading them. I was telling DH about some of them and I said when were you hooked, just kidding around. He said you remember our 1st Christmas together. I said yes.. (Here's a quick back story we had just moved in together and each of us have a DD and we did not want to pressure them during the holidays, we decided that we would spend the day at Disney(we lived in Florida then). We pick up DH's DD at 10:00 am and headed for the MK, we spent all day and night we closed the park down. We had the best day, we even got lucky and got into CP without a ADR - PIXIE DUST ) anyway back to the story at hand. I said yes.. He said remember when we were all huddled together watching the fireworks, I was holding you and you were holding both of the girls and they were wrap around you and each other. He said that he knew that we were going to be a family and that Disney would be a part of our lives from now on. I started to cry, as I am now sharing this with all of you. Well that was 10 years ago, there have been numerous trip to see mickey and a cruise or 2 thrown in as well and we have been married almost 10 years.... oh by the way we had mickeymoon, land and sea.. Priceless -