When Was Your First TIME at WDW?

[jaredjohn4]

November of 1975, I was student teaching in Ft. Lauderdale. I rode a motorcycle from western Illinois to Florida. On a weekend I jumped on my bike and rode up to Disney. I pulled into Fort Wilderness and asked if they had a site available. They said yes, so I stayed for the weekend. It was a great time. College kid, limited money, motorcycle and a backpack tent. After that I knew I had to come back.

 

[badeacon]

April 1973 on spring break in Bradenton from college and drove over for the day.

 

[leebee]

March 1999. DD was 5, so I was 42. DH had a conference in Orlando, so we decided to go along with him. My sister, BIL, and 1yo niece came along, too. We stayed offsite, didn't do any Disney sit-down meals, and I am not sure that FastPass even existed. I didn't know about TheDISboards or any other planning site, although I had a copy of the Unofficial Guide. I am sure we did everything wrong, but we were hooked, and here we are all these years later, still going to Disney at least once, if not more frequently, every year. I'm guessing I'm up to trip #36 or something like that. In fact, my next trip starts in 23 days! DD (now 32) and I will be at Coronado Springs for three nights. She has to go home so I'll then be at ASSp for an additional 3 nights, SOLO!

 

[zebrastreyepz]

Summer 1972. I was 5.

 

[zippy2]

Sometime in the late seventies my high school band marched in the parade! What a great trip.

 

[Dulcee]

Summer of 1987, I was 6 months old.

Fortunately, my mom was hooked, and we returned more or less every summer for the rest of my childhood.

 

[FastPasser.]

It was in the early eighties. We were living in NH. We took our two kids, ages six and twelve.

I was amazed. And during that visit I decided that I would work there some day.

Twenty five years later I became a CM and 20 years after that I became a Disney Company retiree.

 

[brandtb]

My first visit was a day at Epcot in 1988 at the tender age of 23 with my then-girlfriend just months before graduating college. My family was never big on vacations other than to the local beaches (which I loved). As a kid, some of my peers got to go to the 'world and the 'land on vacation and of course I was green with envy.

We would always watch Uncle Walt on Sunday nights in the early seventies, and when hearing him talk about Disneyland and his plans for Florida I REALLY wanted to go -- but it didn't happen.

My first time staying at the resort was in 2000 at the age of 34 with she who became my wife and that was my first visit to Magic Kingdom. On our last day we had a photo shoot with Mickey and when I met Mickey for the first time I got emotional because that was something Other People got to do.

After that, we were hooked. Check the sig.

Our first cruise was in 2016 and now that my wife's knees are fixed we can visit the theme parks again.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

October 2003. Took my 3 year old with my now XH.

 

[Lou'sMommy]

My first visit to WDW was before it opened in July of 1970. We always vacationed in St. Augustine, and my parents like to just drive around the state and see various attractions like Silver Springs and Cypress Gardens. We were pretty far afield when we came across the visitors' center for the Disney park that was being built in central Florida. I was 6 years old. I remember they handed out orange juice and that one of the cast members said that maybe I could be a Musketeer one day! I still have a little Tinker Bell and a Peter Pan bracelet that we bought that day. Sweet memories!

 

[disneyseniors]

My first visit to WDW was before it opened in July of 1970. We always vacationed in St. Augustine, and my parents like to just drive around the state and see various attractions like Silver Springs and Cypress Gardens. We were pretty far afield when we came across the visitors' center for the Disney park that was being built in central Florida. I was 6 years old. I remember they handed out orange juice and that one of the cast members said that maybe I could be a Musketeer one day! I still have a little Tinker Bell and a Peter Pan bracelet that we bought that day. Sweet memories!

That is so special - to be able to visit WDW before it was built!
We visited Florida before there was even a mention of WDW. We visited the Atlantic coast down to Miami. St Augustine was so beautiful at that time. Everything was unspoiled and not built up yet. We visited Cypress Springs, Silver Springs to name a few. I remember driving through endless orange groves. We never knew at that time just how special it was before Disney and the related vacation businesses. I'm glad you got to do some of that too.

 

[rangerxenos]

Sometime in the mid 1970s, I can't remember the exact year. I actually won my first trip through my paper route, if you signed up a certain number of new Customers you won a trip. 300 kids were persuaded to put in the work to hit their number, they never had that contest again, LOL!