Details, Details, Oh how I LOVE the Details! UPDATE 5/30

:wave: Dellasgirl!

I like the idea of a 'practice' run-what zoo did ya'll go to?

We went to the Little Rock zoo. It is the only one anywhere near us!

669 miles! Wow! That is one LOOOOONG day, but I could imagine it if I could travel sans little kiddos!
 
I have seen a few other folks do this and it looks like immense fun! So, in this post, I will reminisce about my first trip to WDW. I was 3 years old and it was December 1977.

I grew up in western Ohio, so it is about a 20 hour drive to WDW. I have no memory of the trip (probably a good thing), but it must have been interesting. I am pretty sure that we went in my parents’ station wagon which was light blue on the outside, but BLACK VINYL on the inside. :scared1: Oh, and I am also pretty sure it did not have air conditioning. In the car would have been me, my mom and dad, my grandma and grandpa, and my 17 year old uncle! Can you even imagine? Six people in a car for a 20 hour drive. :drive: Of course, to my family this was nothing. We had driven with this same group of people, in the same car, to the Grand Canyon when I was 18 months old!

I have only 3 memories of this trip. The first is that it got cold - at least colder than we were expecting. Grandma went into a souvenir shop and bought us all sweatshirts. They were school bus yellow!!! I have to admit that Disney has really upped the ante on the clothing since the 70s! Those shirts were ugly!

My 2nd memory was sitting outside the Hall of Presidents with my uncle. My parents and grandparents were all inside, but had decided that I probably wouldn’t enjoy it and my uncle was stuck watching me. I thought that must have been the best attraction since we weren’t allowed in to see it! ;)

My last memory was getting tired! I am certain that we arrived in the parking lot before the park opened and stayed until the park closed. I remember standing in Fantasyland having a meltdown because I was tired. I was angry that I had to walk when grandpa got to ride (he was a paraplegic and in a wheelchair). :blush: I think they compromised and let me sit on his lap for a little while.

Up next, Epcot in 1983!
 
Loving your PTR! I got addicted to the DISboards too and am now planning tanktops for DD and in the process of looking for my own autograph book to decorate and design. :artist:
 
:wave: Liz! Glad to have you here! I think this is a great addiction to have. Good luck with your autograph book. Getting everything together is just SOOO much fun!
 
My 2nd trip to WDW was in July 1983. I was 9 years old and we were on a family vacation. We had started by driving to Washington DC, then Philadelphia, then down to my uncle’s cabin in Virginia, then to another uncle’s house in Atlanta, and finally on to Orlando. I don’t remember if we went to Magic Kingdom at all on this trip. My only memories are of Epcot.

One thing that I remember was arriving at Epcot first thing in the morning and heading into an area behind Spaceship Earth where there were telephones you used to make your dining reservations for that night!! Wow, how that has changed!! I remember that we made our reservation for Biergarten. My parents are very mid-western eaters (when we went to Hawaii a few years ago they went to Denny’s for supper), and German food is a normal Tuesday night supper. They were uninterested in any of the other cuisines. :confused3

The next thing that I remember is that my FAVORITE ride was Journey into Imagination!!! I loved the song, the animatronics, and, of course Figment! I still have my plush Figment that I got on that trip. My DDs play with him now. I am glad that the song is back, but still miss the original ride. :sad2:

My mom’s favorite thing at Epcot that year was Kitchen Kaberet. She spent the next 10 years singing, “Veggie, Veggie, Fruit, Fruit” whenever we were trying to decide what to have for supper.

In general, I loved Epcot. As I mentioned in my intro, I don’t ride anything that goes faster than I can walk. That is true now and it was true when I was a kid too. I could ride everything in Epcot - Spaceship Earth, Living Seas, Imagination, Living with the Land, World of Motion, Horizons, EVERYTHING! :woohoo:

Next time, Epcot in 1990!
 
On this trip, I am a sophomore in high school. I was traveling with a group of 55 other high school students from all over the state of Ohio. The program providing our trip was called Ohio’s Space Scientists of Tomorrow (OSST). We received an all-expenses paid trip from Ohio to Florida for 5 days to meet with NASA scientists, watch a launch, and tour the Space Center. One day, they took us to Epcot for a tour discussing all of the science and engineering issues in the park and then let us stay and enjoy the park for the rest of the day.

Once again, I remember riding ALMOST everything. Now, the Wonders of Life pavilion had opened and Body Wars was not my kind of thing - although my friends did try to get me on it!

What I remember most from this trip is that it was my first time seeing IllumiNations! :yay: I loved it. I remember we were sitting on the sidewalk near the Mexico pavilion. I thought the lasers, lights, and music were just wonderful.

This isn’t Disney related, but I have to share one more memory from this trip. I had never been on an airplane before this trip. I was pretty nervous on my first flight. The trip to Orlando was pretty uneventful, so I was doing OK getting ready for our trip home. The group I was traveling with had split into 3 for the trip home with some flying to Cleveland, some to Columbus, and some to Cincinnati. I was on the plane to Cincy. We had a direct flight and from on board the plane, everything seemed fine. However, from my parents point of view it was really scary. Remember that this is back in the early 90s, so they were at the gate waiting for me (remember when you could do that?) As our flight approached, they cleared the runway and lots of fire trucks and ambulances came racing out! It turns out that a lady in the front of the plane had gone into labor! I thought that only happened in the movies! :rotfl2:

Next up , high school band trip in 1991!
 
Happy Easter, everyone! We just finished dinner. I ate too much and ended up skipping dessert. Hope everyone is having a great day! OK, back to the PTR!

In my high school, the marching band went on a big trip every four years. When it was our turn to go, we were thrilled to learn that our director had arranged for us to go to Orlando and play at Disneyworld. :banana:

Our performance was actually really short. I remember riding our tour bus (no plane this time - bus ride all the way from Ohio) into the Magic Kingdom. A cast member came on board and informed us that photography was strictly forbidden while we were behind the fence. The cast member stayed on board the bus watching us from the time we arrived at the fence until we left.

Once we unloaded from the bus and lined up, we marched out into Tomorrowland. We formed a horseshoe shape around our field conductor and played two or three songs then marched back to the bus. That was it!?! :confused3 I was a little disappointed, it just didn’t seem like much.

Oh well, we were at Disney! :cool1: We then had time to tour at Epcot and MGM. I had just been at Epcot the year before, so I remember acting as our group tour guide. My only other memory of Epcot that trip is an embarrassing one. I had paused to take a picture or look at a map or something and my friends kept walking. I was trying to catch back up to them and was jogging. A little boy (about 9 years old) was also jogging and we collided. He fell and his mom was outraged at me!! :guilty: So a note to all you teenagers out there, stay with your group and watch out for running little kids! :rolleyes:

This was my first trip to MGM. I remember riding The Great Movie Ride, the backlot tour, watching Indy, and walking around. I thought it was OK, but wasn’t really thrilled. :confused3

We also went to River Country, which was my first time at a water park. I really don’t remember much about River Country, but I do remember a bunch of really pale Ohioans with really bad sunburns spending 20 hours on a bus going home! :sick:

Now I had a Disney hiatus until I met my DH. Next trip, the year 2000!
 
After nine years with no Disney trip :sad1:, I took my first trip with my DH. We had been married for only 3 months when we took a trip with his mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, 2 nephews (yes, the same ones we are taking on this trip they were only 2 yo and 5 months in 2000), aunt, cousin, cousin’s husband, and cousin’s 2 kids (ages 2 yo and 3 months)! (OK, just naming all the people made me tired!)

All of my previous trips had been the budget sort where we stayed in a Days Inn in Kissimmee and brought our own pb&j’s into the park. This trip was my first glance into “how the other half lives” ;) We stayed on property and ate at park restaurants.

We stayed in the Fort Wilderness cabins. We had 2 cabins for the 13 of us. I loved being able to get on the boat to the MK. It was such a peaceful way to start the morning. I love the anticipation of watching the castle get closer and closer until finally we are there! :cloud9:

This was my first time to have any (except for the 1 Biergarten experience) TS ADRs. We had at least one everyday. That said, the only ones I remember are Teppan Edo (is that what it was called in 2000 or was it still Teppanyaki?) and breakfast in the castle!!! :yay: I enjoyed both of these VERY much. I had been to Japan for work two years earlier, so I had expanded the boring palate that I inherited from my parents and was very comfortable with Japanese food.

Getting to have breakfast in the castle was simply amazing!! I remember there being lots of really good food. I was simply stunned by the detail and beauty in the dining area.

This trip was also my first visit to Animal Kingdom. I love zoos of all sorts, so the animal trails were my favorite. I really like the bats! :laughing: The ambiance in that area is incredible. I could spend hours just looking at all of the details.

Next time, a sad Sept. trip.
 
In September 2001, I had a conference to attend in Orlando. We planned that when the conference was over, DH would fly down and we would spend a couple of days at Disney. However, the next to last day of the conference was Sept. 11. :sad1:

DH and I lived in central Virginia at the time and the plan was for DH to fly down on Sept 13 out of Dulles airport. :scared1: We fretted for two days trying to figure out what would happen. Would DH be able to fly out of D.C? Would I be able to get home? Would Disneyworld even be open? What about Tropical Storm Gabrielle which was headed straight toward us? As you have seen in the PTR, I am obsessive planner and this situation was making all plans useless! :sad2:

In the end, it turns out the DH’s flight was one of only 3 to leave Dulles that day. The flight was uneventful, but because there were so few flights going, when he arrived at MCO, there were NO taxis anywhere! :confused3 It took almost an hour to call a cab and get it to come to the airport to get him and take him to our (off-site) hotel.

Since WDW had re-opened on the 12th, we decided to go ahead with our plans and go to the parks. We went to Animal Kingdom on the 14th which is the day that the tropical storm hit. It rained ALL day! I remember ducking into a shop at one point and the cast members asking us to just stay put because we were about to observe the national moment of silence and they didn’t want people wandering around during that time. We were 2 of only 4 customers in the store. The combination of 9/11 and pouring rain meant that the parks were probably as empty as I will ever see them.

After a wet morning at Animal Kingdom, we hopped over to Epcot. Here is a memory that will shock you! We had just finished watching the movie in the Canada pavilion. We walked out and were discussing the current renovation in the back of the pavilion. We started up a conversation with a couple of cast members. They asked if we had dinner reservations and we said “no”. They asked if we wanted to come in Le Cellier and eat. We walked right in, sat down, and had dinner. When was the last time that happened?!! :cool1:

The next day, we went to MGM as DH had never been here before. Again, it rained all day. I only remember two things from this day. First we played Who Wants to be a Millionaire (which had just opened the day before). It was fun and I wish we could have played again. The second is that we ate at the ABC commissary - yuck! I know lots of people here have had bad experience with this place, and I can testify that it was just as bad in 2001.

Next up, a much happier trip - our first trip with a child!
 
The next thing that I remember is that my FAVORITE ride was Journey into Imagination!!! I loved the song, the animatronics, and, of course Figment! I still have my plush Figment that I got on that trip. My DDs play with him now. I am glad that the song is back, but still miss the original ride. :sad2:

My mom’s favorite thing at Epcot that year was Kitchen Kaberet. She spent the next 10 years singing, “Veggie, Veggie, Fruit, Fruit” whenever we were trying to decide what to have for supper.

In general, I loved Epcot. As I mentioned in my intro, I don’t ride anything that goes faster than I can walk. That is true now and it was true when I was a kid too. I could ride everything in Epcot - Spaceship Earth, Living Seas, Imagination, Living with the Land, World of Motion, Horizons, EVERYTHING! :woohoo:

Next time, Epcot in 1990!

Epcot is one of my favorite parks! This really brought back memories...especially Kitchen Kaberet. The 1st time I went was in 1984 and I miss some of the attractions that were in Future World back then! I also remember getting motion sick in the Canada movie!! :sick:

This trip was also my first visit to Animal Kingdom. I love zoos of all sorts, so the animal trails were my favorite. I really like the bats! :laughing: The ambiance in that area is incredible. I could spend hours just looking at all of the details.

Next time, a sad Sept. trip.

Animal Kingdom ties Epcot with my favorite park (I know...shame on me for putting MK 3rd) but I love AK and the details. Plus I love animals as well! I love to go to zoos just to pass time. Animals are amazing!!

What about Tropical Storm Gabrielle which was headed straight toward us? As you have seen in the PTR, I am obsessive planner and this situation was making all plans useless! :sad2:

I am OCD on planning also! Spreadsheets are my best friends when it comes to vacations! :lmao: One year when we went to Williamsburg, VA I had a binder with our boarding passes, reservation info, and various sightseeing info. My family made fun of me all the way there. Well our 1st day a Tropical Storm came through and totally messed our plans up. They were amazed when I pulled out the binder flipped some pages and came up with Plan B within minutes. They left me alone after that!! :rotfl2:

Hey! I am on board!! I can't wait to hear more! Looks like we will have some overlapping dates at POR! And I still think I could have written a lot of yours...sounds so much like myself!!
 
:thumbsup2I love your pre-trip report so far.

Let me start by saying there is no such thing as too many details. :lmao:

It sounds like you have a fun group joining you. It's nice that you are taking your nephews. Your DDs sound so sweet. Mine is 5 and she is like your DD-4.

11th trip!! Wow, you are a pro! And you’ve been to tons of character meals. We are trying CRT, Tusker House, Crystal Palace and possibly Akershus this time. :banana:

I’m so impressed that your DD6 plays chess.:worship: What a smart girl! My DD plays a mean game of Candyland.

Are you going to bring a double stroller for your two youngest or rent one?

I love your plan for the 3rd day! But I know what you mean about the WS in the afternoon. At least 1900 Park Fare is still all about princesses. Is that Wed, June 9th ? If so, we will be at the MK the same morning. If we miss Fantasmic on Sun, we are planning on seeing it on Thursday like you. Isn’t it crazy how Fantasmic is only scheduled twice during the week? I’m assuming Disney will at least add another show to those nights but do you think they will add another day too? Last June Fantasmic was on Sun, Tues and Thurs with two shows a night. :confused3 If you don’t hop on day 8, will you be at EPCOT all day? I would probably drop CM. :sad1:You don’t want everyone to be rushed and tired on your last day. Could you get a CM ADR for your BB day?

I feel so far behind after reading about your crafts! :upsidedow I haven’t even started DDs invitations! I think the AK shirts sound adorable.:lovestruc I can’t wait to see pictures.

I love reading about all your trips. I hope you are planning to tell us about all of them. :banana:
 
:welcome: TinksThree! Glad to have you here!

The 1st time I went was in 1984 and I miss some of the attractions that were in Future World back then! I also remember getting motion sick in the Canada movie!!

Me too! I understand the need for some more exciting rides, but I loved that everything at this park could be done by those of us who are "ultra motion-sensitive!" I can't believe that someone else has gotten motion sick in that movie. :laughing: I really would do better if they would let us sit on the floor!
 
:wave: elizablake! So happy to have you here!!!

Let me start by saying there is no such thing as too many details.

I am glad to hear that others think this is true. I don't have a lot of friends IRL who what to hear all this stuff. :laughing:

I’m so impressed that your DD6 plays chess. What a smart girl! My DD plays a mean game of Candyland.

We are really lucky that our school has a GREAT chess coach. He is a "Katrina refugee" from New Orleans that volunteers to teach our kids chess.

Are you going to bring a double stroller for your two youngest or rent one?

I thought about getting a double, but with 4 adults available to push we are just going with 2 singles. It gives us better manueverability. :) DS1 will have his everyday. DD4 will certainly have hers at AK and when we do WS in Epcot. I still haven't decided if we will bring it other days.

I love your plan for the 3rd day! But I know what you mean about the WS in the afternoon. At least 1900 Park Fare is still all about princesses. Is that Wed, June 9th ? If so, we will be at the MK the same morning.

Thanks! The girls are princess crazy so DH and I are just came up with a "princess overload" day. It is the 9th. Maybe we will see you around. :)

Isn’t it crazy how Fantasmic is only scheduled twice during the week? I’m assuming Disney will at least add another show to those nights but do you think they will add another day too?

I sure hope so!!!

I love reading about all your trips. I hope you are planning to tell us about all of them.

Thanks again! I love walking down memory lane. Soon, we will hit the point where we got our first digital camera and I will have pics to add. :goodvibes

Karen
 
I thought about getting a double, but with 4 adults available to push we are just going with 2 singles. It gives us better manueverability. :) DS1 will have his everyday. DD4 will certainly have hers at AK and when we do WS in Epcot. I still haven't decided if we will bring it other days.

OK. I forgot about all the adults for a minute. DD4 will probably be OK at MK and HS. If she is like my DD, the mornings were fine but when we returned after dinner she liked the stroller but didn't NEED it. At this point, she doesn't need the stroller as much as I need it to put all my stuff in. :rotfl: Between bottled waters, snacks, and camera equipment we bring way too much stuff. Plus, at my current rate, DD's autograph book is going to weigh about 50lbs and need it's own stroller. :)

Thanks! The girls are princess crazy so DH and I are just came up with a "princess overload" day. It is the 9th. Maybe we will see you around. :)

We will be easy to spot. Just look for 4 adults being ordered around by a little princess. I'm the one carring the 50lb autograph book. My father is the one riding in the stroller. :lmao:

Thanks again! I love walking down memory lane. Soon, we will hit the point where we got our first digital camera and I will have pics to add. :goodvibes

Karen

I look forward to it. :)
 
Joining in. I love all of your details. I had to make a few spreadsheets to make sure the dining plan is going to be worth it too.

I am so glad to hear you liked POR enough to stay there again. I had such a tough time picking a resort and am hoping I made the right choice.

Looking forward to more.
 
If she is like my DD, the mornings were fine but when we returned after dinner she liked the stroller but didn't NEED it. At this point, she doesn't need the stroller as much as I need it to put all my stuff in. Between bottled waters, snacks, and camera equipment we bring way too much stuff. Plus, at my current rate, DD's autograph book is going to weigh about 50lbs and need it's own stroller.

:rotfl: According to the rumors, they are adding new characters soon too (i.e. possibility of Prince Eric appearing with Ariel). I don't know about you, but I didn't make a page for him! Oh well, easy to add. :surfweb:

Karen
 
:welcome: pinkxray!!

I am so glad to have found a group of people who share my fondness for spreadsheets. :lmao:
 
:welcome: TinksThree! Glad to have you here!



Me too! I understand the need for some more exciting rides, but I loved that everything at this park could be done by those of us who are "ultra motion-sensitive!" I can't believe that someone else has gotten motion sick in that movie. :laughing: I really would do better if they would let us sit on the floor!

I know! I felt like I was swaying the whole time! That is also why I will skip Mission Space...even the green side. It did not make me sick last year but it was way to tight in there!!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top