Best memories from your first trip?

[JillC LI]

My first trip was at age 8 and I only remember a few things - If You Had Wings being the highlight. I didn't return until I was 38 with my own kids ages 5 and 7, and I remember every moment of that trip. Some of the highlights include DS's reaction to Tower of Terror, the kids' excitement over meeting certain characters, and the absolute joy that all of us felt during the entire trip. We have been back to Disney Parks 9 more times since then.

 

[ppete1975]

8 years old. Seeing the castle ……. 45 years old... seeing the castle

Nothing turns me into a little kid or makes me smile than seeing that beautiful sight

 

[trainplane3]

Being terrified of going on Imagination.
Really.
I didn't really like rides that were in the dark. I was fine with HM and SM because ghosts=dark and space=dark to me back then. A ride about Imagination shouldn't be dark (so I thought).
After being nudged up to the front of the queue and hesitating, the CM loading the ride came over, talked to me, left, and came back with a blue (I think) flashlight. He told me if something scared me to just shine light on it. He then proceeded to let a empty train go by, load us into the middle of the next, and then left the one behind us empty so I wouldn't mess up any else's ride. It obviously wasn't busy but it was a (hybrid) omnimover so lines weren't an issue at all. He swapped spots with the unload CM to get the flashlight back and talk to me.

Came back later and remember him saying something like "no flashlight this time, right?!".
Talk about something that I can't forget.

I also can't forget coming back in 99 and being in total shock of what happened.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Okay, not really mine (I was 4.5 months old when I went the first time...in utero if you count the times my mom went while pregnant...she rode Space Mountain six weeks pregnant with me). My oldest friend sent me a postcard from her first trip when we were three. They went to AK and saw It's Tough to Be a Bug. She put in the post card that she didn't like the spiders.

Well, we went to DL when we were 21. It was crowded, and we were tired, so I suggested going to see It's Tough to Be a Bug since it was still there at the time. "No." "Why not?" "I still don't like those spiders."

 

[HoustonHorn]

I was 8 in 1985, and my strongest memories are of the hotel. We stayed at the Contemporary, and I remember being amazed at the monorail coming through the middle of our hotel. And we got to ride in the front with the drivers before they shut that down. And one night, my Dad took me to the arcade until the wee hours of the morning so my mom and little brother could sleep. Playing Super Punch Out! and eating a meatball sandwich with my dad in the middle of the night.

Going back in April with my parents, my brother and his wife, and my wife and daughter. Staying at the Contemporary again. I've stayed elsewhere, but when I stay at the Contemporary, it feels like Disney to me!

 

[TotallyBiased]

First trip was around 1980 so I was 10 or so. If I remember correctly, we drove down in a camper with another family who's father worked with my step dad. His son was around the same age and an absolute a-hole. Their whole family were pricks actually. The highpoint of my trip was being in the over the cab bunk and looking down at the adults and accidentally losing my gum in the dad's hair. #Score. We drove down making stops in Washington, DC (I was accidentally left at the Jefferson Memorial while the rest of the family drove 40 minutes down the road without me), Atlanta, GA (this was during the span where there was that serial killer killing kids) at a campground where the adults were in the camper and the kids in tents. Turns out the pond right next to the camp ground was filled with gators and we came out to the remains of ducks scattered around our tents. NC, and finally at Disney. We stayed at a camp ground off-site if I remember correctly. I remember Pinocchio being a jerk, and kicked over my mom's soda. BTMRC was under construction and I remember a pic of me and my brothers at the time in front of the castle. Did most of the classics if I recall. Drove home and dropped the other family off at their house to which they found the guy who they'd had sit their house had a week long party in it. Drunks passed out all over the lawn, interior trashed.

2nd trip went down with my first ex and our daughter (toddler) and my ex's brother. Nightmarish. I don't remember much beyond constant fighting and her biting people's heads of left and right.

My trips have been much better since then, lol.

 

[JohnD]

First trip? My memories are fleeting as I went in the early 1970s with my parents. I vaguely remember my Dad renting a boat at Ft. Wilderness. I climbed in with other friends and family and I remember he took the boat through the water bridge toward the Magic Kingdom. I remember that he took the boat on the wrong side of the docks and was yelled at by Cast Members. I also remember the train at Ft. Wilderness.

 

[Jonathan Dalecki]

November 1987. Little old me there for the first time and also turning 8 years old. Stayed at Fort Wilderness. On the walk from the bus stop to our cabin I lost my dinner in the bushes, and then spent the rest of the night losing my lunch, breakfast, and whatever else was inside me. Still the next day I insisted I was well enough to go have fun. We went to EPCOT Center, where I was very promptly sick once more, this time in the middle of Communicore. So I got to visit the EPCOT emergency healthcare center while my brother and grandmother toured. On the plus side, the rest of the vacation was super awesome, and the nurses who treated me in EPCOT were super nice!

 

[donaldtoo]

Mine and Dwifeys honeymoon at WDW in Dec. of ‘88...’nough said...!!!

 

[LaughingGravy]

1977 -parents booked the now gone Contemporary N garden wing. Tickets used for the horse drawn street car and "If You Had Wings" was first, followed by "Mission to Mars", then, CoP, the attraction that got me hooked. My younger brother cried on the way out of HM. Poor kid. I still feel awful about that, but he's a DVC owner these days, so I guess he got over it. The Fiesta Fun Center with the shooting gallery and the small movie theater were the best in entertainment for after the park closed. We did the water sprite boats the next day. I almost drowned in River Country.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Like the OP, we couldn't afford a trip when I was little. Our first trip was in l977 when the kids were 5 and 7. We drove down from Ohio and stayed offsite at a nice hotel with a nice pool. I remember that the kids couldn't wait to get back to the hotel each day to swim
The main thing I remember is the spontaneity of being at the parks. You could go anywhere and ride what you wanted without much wait at all. But the #1 thing that stands out to me is: no crowds, no strollers (only a few umbrella ones for tiny babies), no enormous backpacks with everything in them but the kitchen sink, and the calmness of touring the place. Also, the grounds and attractions were spotlessly clean, as were the bathrooms. It was a wonderful, magical time to be at Disney. We still go as seniors and enjoy Disney now, but remember the freer times in the 1970's.

 

[bubbles1812]

1995- I was a wee 7 year old and truthfully don’t remember much about the trip. It was the only trip we drove down (from Iowa) and I do remember staying at a dive motel in Georgia, haha.

The only standout memory is from our last night. My youngest brother was 3 at the time and so was somewhat limited in what he could ride but boyyyyyyy did he love Pirates of the Caribbean. On the last night our trip (MK, we always end in MK), instead of watching the fireworks my dad, myself, middle brother (5), and youngest ran around and around on Pirates. Mom took pictures and laughed with us. Must have done it 6-7 times in a row by the time the park closed. Youngest brother had the happiest little grin. I still remember him clutching his little pirate gun in one hand and his plastic Donald Duck in the other.

(1998 was probably the standout trip from when I was a kid. I turned 10 and got three birthday cakes that day and got to go to park (MK) of my choice by myself with my dad. And then we did caricature portraits by the artist at the Poly. There was one also one afternoon every stayed at the pool and my mom and I went to Epcot for character autographs. We watched all 7 dwarves walk out a side door in front of us that trip for a random meet and greet. Years later, I’m thinking we must have been in Germany but I honestly cannot remember where in the parks it specifically was. It was a great trip for a lot of reasons.)

 

[Mrs. Kaz]

The 1st time for me to WDW was when I was only 4 years old going to be turning 5 a few months later. It was the end of December 1999 into January 2000(The Millennium Vacation) as my parents call it. I don't recall much at all from the trip except it was very crowded at Epcot the New Years Eve and we had to get there to enter the park extremely early. I had the best of it I suppose as I was in a stroller for most of the day and could take naps in it whenever I wanted. As for my parents and grandparents they had to as they tell the story just deal with the massive crowds. That is what I remember from that day. As for the other days of the vacation, I remember meeting the characters the most. Rides like Dumbo and TriceraTop Spin were a big hit for me.

 

[KimoKaneki]

Our first trip was our honeymoon Sept 1974. We were 20 years old, too young to rent a car so had to take a bus. We flew on Eastern Airlines. We would be staying at the Contemporary Resort. We were seated towards the front of the bus and I remember the look in Jim’s face when the bus drove under the lake and seeing the Contemporary for the first time. It was Wonderful!
We were there for a week with only Magic Kingdom, which didn’t stay open late at that time, the resorts and Fort Wilderness.
we were the first of our friends to get married and we bought souvenirs for EVERYONE! We bought so much that we needed another suitcase which you could not find at that time. Since we didn’t have a car we could not go anyplace else. What is now Disney Springs didn’t open until the following year. This was before you could ship home, or if you could we didn’t know about it. We ended up taking the boat to Fort Wilderness and a very nice cast member at the store there gave us a large Frito Lay box. They didn’t have packing tape but we bought rope to tie the box shut. When we got off the plane at home we had $6.00 between us. Since then we have returned at least 100 times and we own at 4 DVC properties. Jim passed away 2 years ago but now I take my friends and we toast Jim at Trader Sam’s and especially with his favorite Grand Marnier slushy in France at EPCOT.

 

[Walt Disney1955]

March 1991. Just a kid in 5th grade. I loved it. We just went to the Magic Kingdom the first time down there. I remember my mom insisting that we ride Small World because her hairdresser had told her to go on it and it was more or less the first ride we saw underneath the castle. I loved 20,000 leagues under the sea. I thought Thunder Mountain was pretty epic too. Jungle Cruise seemed real to me and Pirates of the Caribbean was just like nothing I ever saw before.

I remember Hall of Presidents and having my mom convince me that they weren't real. For whatever reason the line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was long and we skipped it (although I rode it in future trips). Honestly, it probably wouldn't have been that long of a wait, they loaded quickly from what I remember.

Lastly, the Skyway was still in business. I remember an older couple from France who are probably deceased by now talking to me. They could not speak English but I could speak near fluent French at the time. My dad kept trying to talk to them in English even though they stared back at him blankly. So I spoke to them and I remember them talking about the excitement of a Disneyland opening in Paris in 1993. I swear to this day they said 1993, even though I know it opened in 1992. Was it just originally scheduled to open later though? Either way, I could be wrong, maybe they did say 1992.

Anyway, fond memories. My dad was one of the earlier visitors back in the day (1973) so he knew what he was getting into.