Our Disney History

[mmouse52]

Born June 1952. First time to Disneyland was the day after it opened to the public. My parents drove from NY to Calif. First day Disneyland was open to Important people. Next day was for the little people. I have movie pictures of myself holding a Mickey Balloon on the Merry go Round. Very sweet. For my 20th birthday in 1972 my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I replied "I want to go to Disneyworld" ..(sounds like a commercial)....... LOL....... Well that"s what we did. We stayed at the Polynesian and I"ve been back now around 35 0r so times. I have always loved it and my house is a version of Disney. I have to admit I only took children once. My 5 little cousins.. Could not wait to get home and rebook without the little ones. Let"s face it, at 50 (still sooooo very young) you need to go down with other adults and have fun your way. I have to say that I"ve stayed at the Poly many many times, contemporary twice, Carrebean beach once and Wilderness Lodge 4 times. Going back in Nov. day after Thanksgiving to the Wilderness Lodge. I still love the Poly first. Would never go back to Contemporary and would like to stay at the Yacht and Beach maybe next year. In 2005 when Disneyland turns 50 I am consisdering it.

 

[Lesley]

This is a long story so hang on....

Born in 1972, I was a huge fan of the Mickey Mouse Club (70's version, of course....was there one before that? ) I had this certificate declaring I was an "official Mouseketeer" signed by Mickey Mouse himself. I think my grandparents got it on a trip to WDW in the early days....

Anyway, my first visit there was at the age of....um...7 or 8, I was in second grade. The same grandparents who had visited WDW took me and we stayed at the Contemporary. I was a rather timid child and found WDW quite overwhelming....I was afraid of a lot of things (including the 20,000 Leagues Lagoon and the Polynesian....lol) But there were some things I found simply magical.....Peter Pan's Flight, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I was afraid of the Jungle Cruise but we did go on it and I loved it! It was a fun trip, though I can't say it didn't have its down sides. I didn't like the food (terribly picky eater I was...), I missed my mom, and there were so many frightening things! I have photos of myself with Chip and Dale from this trip....

Fast forward many, many years.....I w
as a metalhead teenager, serious and tough. Disney stuff definitely was not cool. This followed me into early adulthood....but soon I found myself going into the field of early childhood education and getting married. My dh-to-be and I had no money to speak of....we were college students, he was working full time...luckily my mom paid for most of our wedding. We weren't going to have a honeymoon...until my mil-to-be offered one as a wedding gift. Not thinking to ask my opinion, my dh said we'd like to go to WDW. I was happy to actually be getting a honeymoon, even though it was not at all what I would have chosen....just disappointed it wasn't the honeymoon I had always hoped for and that my dh didn't bother to find out if there was anyplace special I'd like to go. So we went to WDW....stayed offsite, without a car. Walked around the International Drive area in the July heat and took shuttle busses to the parks from our hotel. In spite of this all we had an awesome time! I was so impressed by the Disney parks (we only visited the MK and Epcot, I think...) the way the large masses of people moved around so smoothly...the cleanliness...the continuity of the theming. As a long time Dorney Park annual pass holder it was very obvious to me that this was not just some amusement park. I marvelled over the little things I had missed out on as a child that were so cool!

We returned home determined to go again....and "do it right" this time by staying on-site. All my summer job and babysitting earnings were saved up. I researched and planned. I found the Unofficial Guidebook (yes, these are the beginnings of my trip planning mania that led me to the DIS years later...) and I crunched numbers, and saved pennies here and there until we could go. We scheduled our trip for the week after my college graduation for 5 days at the CBR. It was a great trip despite my morning sickness...I was 5 weeks pregnant with our ds! We heard about DVC while at CBR.....and knew that the time was not right for us to join...but that someday we'd look into it again.

It was quite a few years before we could go again....life didn't exactly work out as we had planned and travel just wasn't an option. But finally we got to the point where we were ready to go again...this time for as long as we possibly could on a limited budget..tent camping for half the trip. And once again...I was pregnant...only 5 months rather than 5 weeks this time. I discovered the DIS and actually attended a few meets before our trip. I was in planner's heaven!
But, this was the trip where I noticed things beginning to slip....where I saw that former standards were not being upheld. A ketchup and mustard smeared trash can at 8 am....maintenance workers out in broad daylight where anyone could see them working (never saw that before...part of the magic previously had been how the parks appeared to stay perfect without being constantly worked on...though obviously it was all being done after hours)....hmmm...things aren't quite the same as back in 1994. We arrived the day the Skyway was closed for good. We were disappointed. But we still were looking forward to the next trip, even though we weren't sure when that would happen. We had recently become a one income family and had a second child on the way.....

It was the next trip that made us into who we are now....DVC members and total Disney geeks. On short notice we decided to go to WDW instead of the beach....next thing we know we're in the DVC office at the BW signing papers and writing a $10,000 check! We were so relaxed on that trip that it became extra magical....long line? So what, we'll do it next time...And we were thrilled that our 6mo dd was in love with Pooh, Mickey, Minnie and all the others. Maybe that's when they finally separated our minds from our money...lol. But it was soooooo nice!

So anyway....it really was the end of ee that sent me to car 3. As a general pessimist I've never been a car 1 sort of person....I've always been cynical of the motives of big corporations and how they manipulate the masses. Even though WDW had seemed somehow "pure" I saw things that concerned me very early in my WDW history....things that made me worry that the orginal "magic" was being chipped away. On my first 3 trips to WDW I felt very much like they really wanted me to have a wonderful time....since then I've often felt like my wallet is more important to WDW than my enjoyment.

Sorry, I'm not good at being concise! That's about it....we enjoy WDW but dread the thought that the day may be coming when we enjoy it less and less....only time will tell, I suppose.