POLL about getting hooked on Disney

[Tink#64]

I voted for "1st visit", but I'm not sure if that's right or not. I grew up watching everyting Disney. I remember very clearly watching Walt on Sunday evenings! We went to see every Disney movie, but we never visited the parks. Our family vacations were always camping, and that was great, (we didn't realize what we were missing at WDW!).

Neither DH nor myself had ever visited until our 1st trip with DS's. I planned our 1st trip from the time our youngest DS was born. We waited until he was 4, it felt like we'd never get there!

When we finally got there - we were hooked! It was so hard to leave that we actually discussed trying to change our return flight to stay longer! Now when we think vacation - it's automatically Disney! We took last year off to do something different after visitng 3 years in a row, and it's just agony waiting for our trip this year!

[Stan]

I wish you had "the first trip you made with your children" as one of the choices

Didn't think of that one... as it was it took me 2 tries to get a 7 choice poll submitted within the 5 minute limit. Next time I set up a poll I guess I'll do all my thinking and writing offline in a text document, so I can copy & paste within the time limits. Sorry, but as a software geek I'm not real impressed by the poll entry GUI (that's "graphical user interface" for the uninitiated).

Looks like the first view of main street & the castle is the big winner. Makes me wonder what fraction of the general US population thinks MK is pretty much like Six Flags?

[princessjojo]

Like many I can remember growing up watching WWoD on Sunday nights and the MMC, but for me, going to WDW wasn't an option or anything that was discussed in our family. At the time, my parents couldn't have afforded to take us. Afterall, they were young as well. After my parent's divorce, dad and step-mom took all of us on our first trip during Thanksgiving one year. It was ok, but quick. Went back later with a cruddy boyfriend, and for graduation, but they were "ok lets go I guess" trips, not really our first choice.

Today, it is so different. When I lost my job a few years back, I just said, we're going. I decided I wasn't going to live my life for the bank, but for me and my family. The kids were excited, but not jumping out of their seats excited. DH could have cared less. He'd never been before and imagined a Paramount type park like Kings Dominion or Bush Gardens-Williamsburg. I made up my mind that we were going and that was that. We all had a ball and I still look at those pictures today.

The family's second trip was just as great. We started planning is on our way home from the first. DH won't admit it, but he has things about the trip that he loves and we must do. And each time, he makes us buy photo albums just like the one previous just with the current years date. And he's the one to say, it really isn't as expensive as you may think it is overall.

My only regret is we didn't take the boys when they were younger. We often hear others say, I want to wait until the baby is older so he/she will remember it. It's not always about what you remember, but the look on a childs face when they see Cinderella or Mickey Mouse for the first time in real life. It's television come to life for them. And no, they may not remember it, but you will and it will always be special to you as their parent.

[Bethanymouse]

I voted for being born that way! I dont remember a time where I didnt love disney world. My parents took me there when I was 3 years old. I think I loved it even then!

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

My first trip wasn't until 1975 I think. Back then it was just the Magic Kingdom and it was a one day visit. And then I just kept going back again and it kept growing and now even 2 weeks wouddn't be long enough.

[RAIDER]

It has to be the disney movies and the tv programmes watching them when i was a nipper

[Mackflava99]

As a kid i always remembered the Disney show on sunday nights, i was always infatuated with going to Disneyland. We went when i was very young but i didnt remember much. Then we went to WDW when it first opened- i was amazed. ...So it started a trend, then i kept becoming more amazed- had kids and saw the joy on their face...
We were then hooked.

[Not2Loud]

Kind of a hard question for me to answer. I voted for walking down Mainstreet for the first time.

I went to WDW countless times as a kid since it was within an hour. It was just a normal thing to me. It was always fun, but not what it is for me as an adult. DW and I went before we were married in 1999 and then in 2000 the day after Thanksgiving. Enjoyed them, but not in love.

In Jan 2006, we went with our DD (2 at the time) and other family members. 2005 had been a rough year financially for us and we were just on the start of the upswing. Those moments in WDW reminded me of the beauty of family, the beauty of watching your childs face each time a new exciting thing appeared, and the beauty of remembering childhood, and the wonder of imagination. Needless to say, I was hooked then. But it was the walk down Mainstreet that day and having some corndogs at the corner of Mainstreet late that afternoon that cemented it for me.

We went one more time in 2006 before DD turned 3 (DW had left-over passes from 1990's when her family had gotten multi-day passes).

I enjoyed planning our BIG family trip together in for Feb 2007. We stayed at AKL for one night and then FW Cabins for 8 nights.

In 2007, I made a total of 7 trips through WDW. Not all trips included lodging as I was passing through and took advantage of my AP.

I simply love WDW and the magic it brings to me and reminds me to "Keep moving forward."

[Caroleh]

Makes me wonder what fraction of the general US population thinks MK is pretty much like Six Flags?

That's what I thought for the longest time, Stan!!!

I remember the old World of Disney shows, it was one of the few shows we were allowed to watch growing up. When my DD was growing up I'd get her all the Disney movies, because kids had to have them. I had thought about going to WDW, but it was too much money and too far away, plus my ex would never go.

Fast forward to 2005...we had gone to Fort Lauderdale with friends and while we were there they mentioned that sometime we should go to WDW. I sat there saying "No way, it's not our cup of tea. We're not amusement park type of people." At this time my DD was fully grown and out of the house, why would 2 grown adults want to go WDW? That was in August.

In September, I had gotten a game piece from McDonalds that the grand prize was a free trip to WDW or DL and I laid it on my desk at work. On evening I was bored and I called my DH and told him to go to this website and enter this info "for kicks and giggles", because we'd never win. I forgot that we had even entered!! At the end of November, I got a packaged Fed Ex'ed to me saying I was a potential winner for the trip to either WDW or DL. I couldn't believe it!!! So for the next few monthes I knew I was going to go to WDW, because that's the park we chose to go to. I also made plans for my DD to go with us, because it was something I couldn't give to her when she was growing up. I did my research and figured out what we wanted to do, joined INTERCOT to help plan my trip. I had no idea which resort we were going to be staying at, so when I received my reservation # I went to the Disney website and found out it was going to be the Grand Flo!!!

When we got picked up by ME and the first drop off was WL, the 3 of us were saying WOW. By the time we got to see the GF were amazed. When I stepped into the park and saw the castle at the end of Main Street, I had goosebumps. Those goosebumps kept coming thoughout the trip.

It was the first vacation I had gone on that you didn't feel like you needed more time off to rest and we did more running around on that trip then any other. The DH and I agreed we needed to go back, but didn't know when. Shortly after the trip I told the DH I wanted to go back for my 50th birthday and I'd save my money to go. We went in Dec. for my 50th, but this time at WL. That trip he got hooked. Now I have to figure out when we can go again....

[BluewaterBrad]

My first trip in 74, I was in the first grade. We stayed at the CR. I was hooked. I dont know if I am demented or super blessed, but from Jan.18th 2007 to Jan.18th 2008 we counted and came up with 7 different trips with a total of 28 nites in a disney resort! (we live about 3 hrs away) KEEP THOSE ROOM DISCOUNTS COMING GUYS!!

[Hull-onian]

Since I was a little kid, I was hooked. Loved the Mickey Mouse Club. Couldn't miss an episode.

[Suz36]

I grew up enjoying Disney - saw the movies, went to the parks 2 or 3 times - but I was never obsessed with it. When DH and I talked about having children, one thing I was always so excited about was being able to take them to WDW. We waited until DD was 6, DS 3, and now there is no turning back! I don't know how I waited that long, and now I even regret that we did.