Do You Recall Your First Impulse to "Do" Disney? About This Page:

[toddjodybrent]

I was just thinking about our first impulse to indulge in Disney travel. For us, it started when our son was small and being rocked to sleep while the Travel Channel played on.

Then, when the husband was about to turn 40, we booked our first Disney Cruise. It then became apparent that we may not get as much out of the cruise having not visited the parks, so we put in a trip to the World four months before our cruise.

Fast forward 5 years and here we are with 8 trips to the world, 4 Disney cruises, and 1 Adventures by Disney tour under our belts. (Sounds a bit like the 12 days of Christmas song, doesn't it?!?)

And, while it ALL started with a mouse, for us it started with a dream of a Disney Cruise while watching the Travel Channel.

What was your first impulse that lead you to travel with Disney?

[rella]

To celebrate our 25th Anniversary along with WDWs 25th Celebration

[OneLittleSpark]

My Gram (who raised and adopted me) brought me to WDW when I was 11. Then she brought the whole family in 2005 when I was 27 and my DD was 9 months old. But my true WDW obsession started when we booked a trip for Sept 2009. Gram died of colon cancer in March of 2009 and had told me that she wanted us to take my DD age 5, to WDW with some of the money she left for us.

I respected her wishes (it wasn't that hard, really), but had a twinge of guilt. I decided on that trip, that it was needed. To get away from the sadness, to understand and see that we can still go on, we can still have fun, there are still wonderful memories to be made. I think that Gram knew this as well and that is why she told me to do it.

Since then, my WDW obsession has grown tremendously! But I know that it all started with a trip to run away from sadness and grief, to a happy place! It will always be my happy place. Even when I get teary on IaSW (Grams fave ride), Space Mountain (the ride Gram rode with me when I was 11 and she was terrified and screamed the whole time..she wasn't much of a rider) or at Wishes... when I still think of Gram everytime!

[queen2]

Well mine was in 1978 when my children were, 3,7, & 9. We went with my twin & her 3 year old son & DH. We had the best time. Of course some of the rides are gone now & Disney has many new rides. I have lost how many times we have been there. since 2000 I have been about 12 times. I have a trip planned for May with a friend. In September we have a family trip planned.
I have been on 4 DCL cruises, one planned for 2013.

[Teresa]

For us it was 1994. We had just gone through 4 years of "heck" with DD Samantha's injury and constant hospitalization, plus we'd had a baby (DD Kathryn) in 1993 - and she had sleep apnea fairly badly. DH's mom died just a little before Kathryn was born, and it all just heaped on me. I thought "I don't want my children to die and me say "wow, wish I'd done XY or Z with them while they were alive" (we were told Samantha wouldn't survive much longer and there were a few huge scares with Kathryn).
So, we planned a spur of the moment trip to WDW - where Samantha wanted to go. We went with almost no idea what to expect, no ADRs (I don't even know if they had those back then), no idea even what the child in the wheelchair could do. We didn't even know we could fly her wheelchair, so DH and I left on a Friday and drove all day (with the power w/c in the van) and picked my mom and the kids up at the airport on Saturday morning (with a manual chair).
We've now gone so many times, we don't remember! There have been years we've gone 3 or 4 times and years we've not gone at all.

[Huntermom]

As a child, I watched Disney on TV every Sunday night and dreamed of going to Disneyland, something that would not be in my parents' budget. Disney opened when I was in college and I went for day with college friends the spring break after it opened. I was in love!

I've been many times since with family and friends but have never really been able to capture the magic of that first time. My sons like, but do not love, Disney. My DD is a true Disney fan and prefers it to other vacations.

[chezp]

For our honeymoon. I had such fond memories of visiting as a child with my parents and couldn't wait to take Mark there. Fortunately, he'd been with his family a couple of years earlier and loved it as well.

[emilyandlogansmom]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but it was the episode where Jon & Kate went to Disney. My children are about the same ages as theirs and, at the time, I really enjoyed watching the show. I had grown up going to one of the WDW parks during our annual trek to Florida, but had been so busy "growing up" that the thought never occurred to me on my own.

The wheels started turning and then Free Dining was offered. My babies were almost 2 and almost 3 (read: FREE!), so our total trip with airfare and dining was $1600.

My life had become so wrapped up in babies and deployments, that having something else to focus on was a blessing! I was hooked!

[lazanya]

For me, it was when I got to go to WDW with my High school band & choir during my senior year to perform at the Magical Music Days. I didn't get back to WDW until my Honeymoon in Dec. 1996 and lucky for me, my DH was just a Disney fanatic as I was!

[Tigger71]

A childhood love of Mickey and a chance comment to my soon to be (back then) MiL ended up at DL courtesy of my inLaws paying for our honeymoon. A dream turned into reality and the trip was better than both of us could have imagined...Here we are planning almost yearly trips!

[Tink and co.]

I grew up in Southern California and Disneyland was just part of growing up. We visited every chance we got (which was fairly often). I made my first trip before I was even born! As I grew up and had my own kids, it was just a natural part of family life. My kids are lucky, though, I never had more than a day trip growing up, and now we always visit for several days and stay in a Disney hotel when budget allows.
WDW was always a distant dream for me growing up (like traveling to Europe or the moon or something), and after we made that first trip in 2004 (along with a Disney Cruise)....well, that just sealed the deal on two coasts!

[HollyH]

I never went as a child. I knew that it was an impossible dream. My parent's couldn't afford it, and even if they could have, they wouldn't have brought us as it was out of their comfort zone. My father is extremely picky about food and isn't very flexible about doing things that he doesn't want to do. I also have a younger brother with autism who can become very difficult if taken out of his routine (and my parents wouldn't ever challenge his routine much at all).

So my first trip to WDW was as a senior in college. That trip was inspired by those famous Super Bowl commercials ("I'm going to Disney World!"). I had a great time but the Disney bug didn't really "bite" me until DH and I took our son when he was 4. DH kept saying it was a once in a lifetime trip before we went, but was talking about "next time" even before we left WDW for the airport to fly home.

We bought DVC this spring, and I'm glad I bought direct from Disney because we took our first Disney cruise this summer and we are hooked on that now!!

[KMB733]

My parents had taken my sister and I has children, and we always begged to go back, but they could never afford it. As an adult, I went to Florida with some friends (We went to Universal). After coming home, my BFF and I decided we wanted to go to WDW and we ended up booking a trip that was just 6 months away. After that we were hooked!!

[RobinKay6573]

I was lucky enough to go to Disney World twice when I was a child, once in 1979 when I was 5 and once in 1984 when I was 10. There wasn't another trip to WDW until I was in my late 20s in 1999 when my sister moved to Kissimmee. I have gone to WDW at least once (sometimes twice or three times) a year since then. My parents moved to Florida from Vermont in 2007 and my dad started working for Disney in 2010. It has been alot of fun. I grew up a Disney kid (my parents didn't allow us to watch PG movies until we were in junior high). We watched Wonderful World of Disney every weekend and had shelves of Disney books!

[shnewell]

Great question! It's great to hear everyone's stories.

For me, it was just a place with so many happy memories. My parents took me in 1981, when it was only Magic Kingdom. I remember they were building Epcot then, and there was so much excitement about a whole new park coming to WDW.

I wanted to go back so badly, but we didn't make it back there until I was in college. I went with my parents and my grandmother and it was a fantastic trip.
We enjoyed it so much that 2 years later, we went back with my mom's sister. This was the summer before my senior year of college.

We had so many happy family memories from these trips, including one that still lingers to this day. We had ridden the Maelstrom and as we approached the CM at the disembarkation point from the ride, he greeted us with, "Hello brave vikings!" For some reason, it just tickled our funny bones and, to this day, we sometimes still greet each other this way.

Then I went to law school and met my DH. We started dating during our final year of law school. It must have been fate because it turned out that we grew up 10 minutes away from each other and he loved Disney too!

After taking the bar exam a few months after law school graduation, many people take a vacation as kind of a last hurrah before starting their first job as lawyers, which they know will be demanding and stressful. There was no question in our minds that we wanted to take our bar trip to Disney World. Both of our cars were pretty old, so we borrowed DFIL's Jeep and drove the 17.5 hours straight through from Houston to Orlando (we stayed in Kissimmee). We had a fabulous 5-day vacation, and the rest is history!

Our first 3 vacations together (including our bar trip and honeymoon) were to Disney. Now we own DVC because we just can't get enough!!