Biggest Influence on Your Love of Disney

[ADevereaux]

Definitely My Dear, Departed Dad. :king:

I was also born in South Florida and one of the few natives who have never lived anywhere else. My Dad took me the first year Disney opened when there was only the MK. I have some pictures from the monorail where you can still see construction sites!

I was only five at the time but everytime I go to Disney now, I can feel my Daddy with me.

 

[CoffeeJedi]

My grandfather (indirectly) and my mom.
My grampa was a model railroader and rail-fan or train-buff, just like Walt. He had a pretty good sized O scale layout in his basement, and a pretty impressive library of train books lining the walls. Through him I too developed a love of both trains and miniatures. As well as creating and building things.
The year before I was born, my parents and grandparents went to WDW back when it was just a handfull of hotels and the Magic Kingdom. They spent 3 days there, and a few days at other places. Every day though, Grampa rode the train at least twice.
So when I was finally old enough to go, my mom talked the place up constantly, and my grampa kept telling me that i had to ride the train. Of course, at 8 years old, i really didn't have a grasp on what Disney World was, i kept picturing a standard amusement park with Mickey's face everywhere. Naturally i was blown away when i realized that Magic Kingdom was just a giant model railroad that you could walk around on!
Over the years, my mom and i kept up with Disney news and trivia, but she sort of let it slip away when i got to college. (i however, never did for some reason). I don't really have time to keep up with my grampa's old hobby anymore, i'm still the one designated to run the trains for everyone when we go to my gramma's for holidays (like i'll be doing on Sunday). And even though i never got the chance to do it with him, everytime i ride the WDW RR, i feel like i'm connecting with Grampa a little bit.

 

[clarksfan95]

Tho my dad would show us kids films as we were growing up of Disney cartoons...we, as a family made a trip when I was in 7th grade. My little brother was just born and it was the first trip that I actually could remember things that I did (I had been too young on my first trip)...that was nice and all and it was really fun and I loved going there..but,

It was the opening sunrise in Lion King that started the mania. It was powerful, moving and breath taking all at once. That altered my life forever...my what-would-be career path began to alter and turn towards a career in animation. I attended animation school got my degree and have done considerable freelance, Disney is no longer the animation company that I strive to work for (more freedom if you keep outside those walls), but it definitely was the sunrise that altered my life forever.

 

[Gucci65]

To this day, the opening scene in The Lion King gets me teary eyed. My sisters and I were actually talking about that last night. The first time we saw it was at MGM during the animation tour. We cryed - people were looking at us like we had lost our minds, but the CM on duty nodded his head and said yep, gets me everytime too.

 

[littlered]

I would have to say my dad, even though I was never able to go to WDW with him. My dad had been to WDW before he married my mom. He always told us it was a magical place and we couldn't go unitl we were old enough to "appriciate it" meaning understanding the magic of Disney. But my parents were having kids till I was 16 so we always had kids that were too young and with a large family it wasn't financially possible to do. My dad also passed away when I was 17.

I wasn't sure when I would ever get to go. But luckily I met and married a wonderful man who's a huge Disney fan and wanted to share that with me so we honeymooned in WDW and I was able to "appriciate it for the the first time" I fell in love with it then and cherish each return trip. We have been able to take my 2 youngest brothers and 2 youngest sisters for thier first trips to appriciate the magic. And in 23 more days I am taking my mom. We are so excited.

 

[JimboJones123]

First trip -- eighth birthday. Just me and the G-parents. They had APs and I got exclusive treatment to EVERYTHING. Who needs behind the scenes tours when you grandparents know cast members and can add 5x the value of going with the standard trip. And dang you Disney, I spent the entire trip trying how to figure out those invisible dogs (yes, even in the eighties, kids were more gullible). It was my grandparents "passion" that they passed on to me. I still call it "Disney's World" to this day -- because it is there because of Walt.

 

[LittleLeota]

Ok, I've lurked here long enough. Perhaps I'm showing my vast age, (and likely you're all too young), but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the nostalgia connection between WDW (and DL) and the old original Mickey Mouse Club of the late 50's and Disney's Wonderful World of Color from the 60's. Our first family trip to WDW in 1979 brought all of that back to me with a rush. It was like a walk through my childhood memories - Frontierland, Adventureland, IASM (I'd been to the '64 NY World's Fair) - and I've been hooked ever since. Have recently indoctrinated our 3-year old granddaughter who, incidentally, loves hugging princesses. --LL

 

[eroyee]

love disney

:wave: I was just gonna mention the Mickey Mouse Club. I grew up with that and Disneys wonderful world of color on Sun. nites. But, I really hit the magic when my husband and I honeymooned there in 1999. since then we have been a total of 12 times and heading for 13 next January with my son meeting us from the air force in Okinawa. I just cant wait. I am so excited.....I cant sleep. ha.ha. when I get off the bus at MK and see the train station, tears come to my eyes. I cant help it. when we watched out disney planning video I had tears in my eyes. Its the most magical place in the world.!!!:sohappy:

 

[Chux]

My biggest influence has to be my girlfriend. 3 years ago we went in July, I had never been and didn't really knnow what to expect. I was 21 and figured that it'd be kiddy stuff. I was 100% wrong, I regressed to like a 3 year old, had no concept of what was going on in the world and loved every minute of it. I got to see Everest while it was a fenced off mound of dirt, and have photos for every year that it was being built. July 03, May 04, Xmas 04, May 05, Halloween 05, and now again in May 06. Without her I don't think I'd have ever gone, much less hang out on Disney Message boards, download Travel Channel specials, etc etc.