What is your earliest memory of WDW?

[BigRedDad]

I have two very vivid memories. It was either me or my brother walked off with Mickey Mouse. This was in the very early 70s. This is when he walked around freely, no handlers. While shaking hands, one of us just walked off with him holding hands. the second memory is getting bucked by one of the goats at the petting zoo at FW. We ere about the same size, I guess it thought I wanted to play. It bared down with its head, jumped, and bucked me in the chest throwing me back about 6 feet. Good thing this happened back in the early 70s. Today it would have been a lawsuit and slaughtering of the little guy.

 

[fauna]

I have some very vague memories of the WDW Preview Center, I was three. I mostly just remember everyone being really excited to be there, but not getting why or what we were looking at.

The most vivid memories of my first real trip to the World is of the penny arcade on Main St., If You Had Wings (no tickets needed - we rode that A LOT), and my brother getting a Davy Crockett rifle in Frontierland (a prized possession).

 

[captainkidd]

1986 - Mickey Mouse walking into the park from backstage. I went to hug him, and he pushed me aside.

Amazing that I love Disney World as much as I do.

 

[HeatherK]

I went in June of 1993, and I remember riding the skyway with my mom and sister and we watched my dad on the ground walking because he was very, very afraid of heights.

I also remember going on HM with my mom and the part where you see yourself in the mirror with a ghost scared me so bad I kept on looking behind me to make sure they weren't really there.

I remember I was too scared to meet the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are my all time favorite that I still have a poster of them above my bed. But I was fine meeting anyother character.

And still to this day my mom complains that I made my family wait an hour to ride on Dumbo.

 

[HDS]

Cool thread! I have a few from 1977 and 1986 15years thingy. I'll have to post some of the old 70's photos tonight when im off work =) Some cool shots of 20K leagues. Tinkerbell's Toys.

Its so fun to look back and see how small all the trees where back then.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Waking at 5am at the WL.

 

[WhatJaneSays]

Oh, let me think back.

The first WDW thing that I actually remember myself, vs. just seeing it on video, was going to the Chip and Dale breakfast at Fort Wilderness back when it was just a campground and a few cabins (my family had a motorhome then). It was during the winter holidays in ... I want to say 1987. There was a big screen and they were playing all the old Chip and Dale cartoons on it. I was being a fussy kid and then Donald Duck showed up. I totally wigged out because Donald was my favorite (and still is). My mother told me to be nice or Donald was going to be "very sad" because of me. I don't remember any other part of that vacation but apparently I was a little angel the rest of the trip!

Seriously parents, blackmail works!

 

[Lee]

Wow....let me think.
Two memories from the 1972-1974 range.

Lying on a futon at the Poly, unable to sleep and mentally walking around the park while looking up at the old cartoon park maps that hung in the room.

Getting to meet the Robin Hood character in Frontierland. It was around where Splash is now, but back then it was just a big grassy hill. Got a photo of that somewhere.....

 

[wdwCC]

My parents took me and my sister to WDW when I was 10, and my earliest memory of that trip was watching a parade, and having the Queen Of Hearts try and get me to dance with her in the parade! I wouldn't do it of course.


How about you guys? What is your first memory of WDW?

My family had a reunion there in 94. I guess one of the family worked in corporate in WDW at the time and got us a place to stay in on property, (can't remember where it was), and free park tickets. I remember going from one side of MK to the other on the skyway ride which was removed not too long after that.

 

[Edeyore]

The first memories are not always the best.

The first time I actually went to Disney World was on my honeymoon. I was 26 (in 1986) and had never even been to Florida before. We drove over from Clearwater. The parking lot huge, but fun with the sections denoted by different characters. We took the tram to the ticket area. We then waited for the boat. The ride was long and then we found we still needed to go through another turnstyle to get into the Magic Kingdom. Finally stepping onto Main Street was great and I will always remember it. The time it took us to get there I wish I could forget.

 

[CaptainAshley]

Love this thread. I'm pretty sure most of my first memories, period, take place in Disney World. Two that are really clear in my mind both take place at the Poly though. One is when my family went to the Minnie Breakfast (forgot the original name of that particular character b'fast), and Chip and Dale visiting my table and force-feeding me really bad scrambled eggs. I was obsessed with those guys but it was mortifying at the time nonetheless. My other memory was a regular occurence... but it is of "fake sleeping" on the monorail on the way back at the end of the night and my dad having to carry me back to the room, and seeing that all the torches were lit and there was music being piped through and it was amazing.

 

[MousDad]

Before 2000, my only trip ever to a Disney park was Magic Kingdom sometime in the mid 80s. I don't remember the exact year. I was probably around 9 or 10.

My specific memories from that trip were: Pirates, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, Mr. Toad, Eastern? Airlines, Small World, 20K, Mom forgetting where she parked the car, and me finding the car about 45 minutes after we started looking for it.

 

[bradandsarabr]

Early '70's, I remember the ticket books & waiting in line for a special ticket to the Diamond Horseshoe revue. I remember thinking why there wasn't just one ticket.

I also remember really wanting to ride the Swan Boats but the lines being way tooooooo long.

 

[ShookieJones]

3 things I remember distinctly.
The worst thing about these memories is I can only relive one of them :

Cruisin' on the monorail checkin' out the topairy

20k Leagues! I miss that ride - I really wish my kids could have ridden that just once...

Catchin' a ride on the Skway out of Fantasyland.

 

[Susan Savia]

My first visit was in 1984 and it was everything I imagined it would be...We went to MK first I remember and walking down Main Street and taking it all in was amazing. I remember loving Mr. Toads Wild Ride, the Haunted Mansion and Carosel of Progress.

 

[joel_maxwell]

Oh, 1978. Walking to fantasyland with my dad. I barely barely remember this day.

 

[disneychic71]

One is when my family went to the Minnie Breakfast (forgot the original name of that particular character b'fast), and Chip and Dale visiting my table and force-feeding me really bad scrambled eggs. I was obsessed with those guys but it was mortifying at the time nonetheless.

Was it "Minnie's Minehune(sp) Breakfast"? This dates from the mid-90s, I think.

 

[AREM]

Here are some more things that reading this thread is reminding me of;

I too remember my parents buying me a Davy Crocket rifle, and a coonskin hat in Frontierland. After that, I remember playing at this shooting range and constantly looking slightly to my right at Splash Mountain. I kept wanting to really ride it, so my family finally rode with me! I just adored it.

At the end of that day, I remember that my grandparents bought me a really nice Breir Rabbit stuffed animal. Something that I had forgotten about was taking a small, personal boat with my parents, sister, and grandparents from the Magic Kingdom at night. There wasn't anyone else on the boat with us. With me bundled up, snuggling with my grandpa and holding my stuffed Breir Rabbit close, the driver stopped the boat and we watched the fireworks. It was pure magic. I will always remember that.

And I still have the stuffed rabbit.

 

[Rabflmom]

Man, I am feeling old reading this thread. I remember the year the MK opened because I was in Florida for spring break, but drove right on by on 1-4 because it was raining on the East Coast and went to Tampa for the remaining part of the week. We went to Busch Gardens instead when it was basically the Brewery and the plains where you rode the monorail over the animals or took the train to see them. Not much else at that park that year-Africa area was in the making.

Then the next spring break I went to the MK. Seeing the castle was awesome even then. Park open to 2AM with the lights in the trees making everything so magical.

But my favorite memory was the Bi-centennial year celebration 1975 when I came down to Florida during the summer to see the Apollo/ Soyuz launch and did a day trip to Disney with my niece. My niece was with me and it was her graduation from HS gift from me( I was a 25 year old teacher back then) She was a person who got car sick easier than I did; but we were determined to ride Space Mountain. So we doped up on Dramamine an hour before we got into the bullet( anyone old enough to remember the bullet?) I was heavier than Jan so I got the back of the floor and she sat in front( remember ya had to sit spread legged for the person in front to sit?) We were so proud of ourselves for conquering our fear and riding the coaster. :ROFLOL:
The Bi-centenniel parade was awesome and the park after midnight was your own magical place even though you shared it with thousands-so uncrowded compared to today and EVERYONE including other tourists were just so nice and friendly. It was part of my decision on making Florida my home.

The next best memory is through my sons' eyes when we took them as babies and young boys year after year.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

Driving by the Earful Tower and crying becaus eI thought we were LEAVING WDW (I was 3)

HM-The flaoting ghosts

SSE-Tomorrow's Child and later the Fiber Optics of SSE94

Horizons-Omnispere's

IllumiNations

Laughing hysterically in WoM