Meet Cruella, PassPorter Guide

Well, many years went by and I didn’t have much exposure to Disney, except for the Mouseketeer Club and the Wide World of Disney on TV, two of my favorite shows. I dreamt of going to Disneyland, but living in NY I knew the chances were slim. When I was in high school, my mother had two children (as if my 3 brothers and I were not enough!) a boy, Keith, when I was a sophomore and a girl, Joyce, when I was a senior. She then proceeded to have 10 operations in the next nine years leaving me, the only girl in the earlier group of kids, a lot of time to explore my maternal side. Needless to say, Joyce, Keith and I became very close during their growing up years, so much so that they (and I) felt they had two mothers. During their early years, Disney had a film festival every Saturday in the summer. They showed all the old classics, one or two a week, and we went to every one. We grew to love these old films and enjoyed seeing them over and over. The magic of Disney took hold and set our imaginations soaring! It inspired us to exercise our imaginations beyond anything we had done before For example, on warm summer nights, at bedtime, I would tape lollipops on the willow tree in our front yard. Then I would tell the kids to close their eyes, twirl around and I would whisk them outside to ‘Candyland’ and they just loved it.

I had heard about a magical place called Walt Disney World. I knew that I had to take them to this place to experience the magic in a way they had only dreamed of before. It took me a few years to save up enough money, but finally, in 1978 I had enough. I’ll never forget the first day we approached WDW! From the moment we parked the car we all knew we were in another world. Taking the monrail, entering the MK, seeing the castle, flying with Peter Pan…it was all so wonderful! We had a magical vacation that made a lasting impression on all of us.

Today I am a 49 year old woman who has 2 boys of her own (David ,16, and Andrew, 12) and a wonderful husband, (Tim, whom some of you might know as WildForWD). We all embrace the magic as much, if not more, than I did back then. Joyce and Keith, now all grown up and married, still join us in our WDW obsession and we all travel there as often as time and finances will allow. We dream of joining the DVC or, better yet, moving to Celebration and becoming CM’s ourselves!

I work in Information Technology for a financial services company in NYC. We used to be located in the World Trade Center, but 9/11/01 put an end to that. I survived the attacks on the WTC (I was on the 50^th floor of WTC 2 when the attacks took place) and many health problems in the last two years. WDW has helped me to heal from all of it. I’ve been there 3 times since the attacks and wish I could stay there forever! Tim and I have plans to celebrate our 20^th wediing anniversary on board the Disney Magic in October 2003. We also look forward to seeing our PassPorter friends in the parks then and again in December of 2003, when we go down with our two boys and my mother. We have tentatively made plans to visit Disneyland in 2004, a dream I hope to finally fulfill! To date I have been to WDW more than a dozen times, and it will never be enough!