SW1K-The Full Story - In which Benjamin goes on his 1,000th ride on Snow White's Scary Adventures, joined by Snow White herself.
Video of the actual ride, shot by WDWMagic members tk421-sw and thimblekisses (I have no idea if they are still around these days).
SW2K-The Whole Story - In which Benjamin goes on his 2,000th ride on Snow White's Scary Adventures, with the amazing assistance of David Storm from the Dream Squad.
I don't have a blog post for SW3K. It was a cold and miserable day, and the cast member who was supposed to arrange something wound up leaving the company shortly before the event and never passed off the task to someone else. I am not bothered by this. Disney has done amazing things for my son, and they certainly did not owe us a big event.
As of yesterday, Ben has ridden SWSA 3,378 times. Every single time he enjoys it just as much as the last. It just never gets old for him.
As for my own personal memories, I can't say just how much I enjoyed (and how much I miss) watching Merlin do his show at the Sword in the Stone as we stood in the line for Snow White. I don't know how many times I saw that show, but it was always fun to watch. The cast member who played Merlin was always excellent.
I also fondly remember one particular cast member (long gone now), who did something very special for Ben just before the ride closed for rehab the last time. She got permission from her manager, and then just after the park closed she walked the entire ride path and took extensive pictures of the whole ride start to finish. She filled a photo album, and then gave it to Ben to look at during the five weeks that the ride was closed. He still carries around those photos today (although most of the pictures have worn, and I really wish I had digital originals).
Mostly, though, I remember the very first time that we went on the ride. It was both Ben and my first visit to Walt Disney World, and even the very first ride we went on. At that time Ben was completely non-vocal (well, I mean, he made a lot of *sounds* but no actual words). He had no idea what he was standing in line for, and was fidgeting quite a bit. Then when we got in the ride vehicle and started moving, he became absolutely rapt with attention. For 3 1/2 minutes he was completely transported. For a kid who is so audio focused, that ride was basically Benjamin Crack. Every single audio element lifted directly from the movie, with all of his favorite clips. That ride, on that day, was the tipping point for his social and language development. I can trace everything right back to that moment.