After finishing up my New Orleans cruise trip, the next trip series is all about my recent visits to Disney. Whether it’s Disneyland or Disney World. Before getting into my recent Disney trips as an adult, I wanted to talk about me visiting Disney as kid.

My childhood memory isn’t the greatest. Those few visits won’t be enough for individual posts but, I still wanted to share what I could remember.

First Time

Disney World

My very first time at a Disney park was Disney World in Florida. I went with my mother when I was about 4. I remember driving up to the resort hotel on the shuttle bus. It was dark outside, the lights brightening the whole entrance. Lit up images featuring Disney characters were bright on display. I distinctly remember seeing the image of Mulan as we drove past. That was the moment I got excited that we were in Disney World.

In the mornings, we’d eat breakfast in the hotel. We had a character breakfast one morning. I remember all of the different characters coming up for pictures. There was Chip and Dale, Donald Duck, Goofy, and of course Mickey Mouse. I actually remember Goofy’s ears flopping in front of me as we posed for our pictures. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach from all the excitement.

After breakfast we’d walked through the courtyards to get to the different shuttle buses. The courtyards had these giant sculptures of characters and items from Toy Story like Woody and the yellow and blue striped ball that had the red star. I think we stayed at the All-Star Movies Resort.

The Parks

Based on memory, I think we went to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and EPCOT. I don’t remember going to Hollywood Studios (I didn’t even realize it was place until my 8^th grade trip).

We walked through Mickey and Minnie’s houses in Magic Kingdom. I thought the cartoon looking building was so cool (the houses are no longer there, unfortunately).

I’d also walk around getting autographs from the different characters while in Magic Kingdom. I still have that autograph book.

I don’t have much memory of what my mom and I did at EPCOT from this trip but there’s proof that we went since we took a picture of the giant golf ball. I’ll get more into the golf ball later.

I remember on one of the last days getting a Mickey-shaped ice cream bar dipped in chocolate. The coolness of it was refreshing. The bite of chocolate with the vanilla ice cream got me excited, wanting the trip to continue. I remember the ice cream dripping down my fingers as it melted. It caused a mess, making my hands sticky. At one point, it melted down so much that the rest of it fell of the stick and crashed on the ground.

I cried, whining how I didn’t even get to finish it. I’d asked for another one but we’d already exited the park. This was the last thing I remembered about my first visit to Disney World.

Disneyland

My first time in Disneyland, and really just California Adventure, I’m having a hard time remembering. I think I was 5. I actually don’t even think we went to Disneyland. I only remember going to California Adventure. The park has just opened for the first time in 2001 so everything was new.

I distinctly remember being bummed I couldn’t ride the roller coaster because I was too short. To this day, I still want to ride it.  I’m pretty sure the fact that I couldn’t ride this soured the whole visit because I really do not remember anything else. I don’t remember us riding any other rides besides the carousel. I also always keep remembering that there were barely any people there. Almost as if we were there before the park officially opened.

To be honest, it almost feels like a dream.

Even if that’s true, I did get another chance to go to Disneyland which I’ll talk about it the next post.

8^th Grade Trip

Though I do think I visited Disney World at least one other time outside of my first visit, the next trip I remember was my 8^th grade chorus trip.

I’d been going to private schools most of my life but in 8^th grade both my mom and I decided I should switch to public school so I’d at least know some people going into high school instead jumping right in.

I’d joined choir because I’d always been in chorus whether it was at church or at the private schools. I even got to be a part of the honors chorus (don’t ask me to read any sheet music because I’ve completely lost the skill).

We, along with band and orchestra, had songs selected to perform for a competition at Disney World. If I remember correctly had a small solo along with four other students but I was so unbelievable nervous to sing in front of an audience of what I imagined to be huge.

Well, when the day came, we’d driven down in a coach bus, went to a practice room to get ready, and then we were told all the performing events were cancelled due to the weather. When I tell you I felt nothing but relief washed over me, it was freeing.

Then, I felt bad because we technically didn’t do what our main purpose was…I quickly got over it and enjoyed a “work-free” trip.

EPCOT

We were grouped off with chaperones from all three groups of students and they let us go to the different parks. I think we went to one that same day we were supposed to be performing but I can’t quite remember.

I do remember the first park my group went to being EPCOT and how we got stuck in the golf ball. The iconic “giant golf ball” that is the signature piece to let you know you’re in EPCOT is actually a ride called Spaceship Earth. It’s mostly educational as you ride up and down on a very slow coaster.

The thing is the ride kept stopping. It was fine going up but then it got stuck when we were going down backwards for 45 minutes!

I was so annoyed because a good chunk of the day was gone riding that and there wasn’t much else we could do (this is why I think we went the same day as the cancelled performance). I had disdain for EPCOT after that. However, it changed on my latest trip which we’ll get into in another post.

Hollywood Studios

I’m actually not sure if I did Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom next. I do remember this trip being the first time I’d heard of and been to Hollywood Studios.

The lines of course were long as usual but the only things I remember riding were the Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

The closest thing I’d ridden to Tower of Terror was Acrophobia in Six Flags Over Georgia and the ride scared me. I liked roller coasters but the feeling of falling is awful for me…sometimes. I was scared at first thinking about it. But once I was one the ride, it was thrilling! I felt like a lot of the rides at Disney weren’t intense. Of course this makes sense because it’s mainly for smaller children. But this was the first time I felt the thrill I’m always searching for when going to amusement parks.

Then, we went on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. The cast members – what Disney’s staff is called – made us sit in the front row. Normally, I wouldn’t mind it so I was excited to sit in the front. This was my first time riding it so I didn’t know what to expect.

If you’ve ridden this coaster before, then you know just how fast the take-off is. Imagine all that wind directly in your face with no seats to break it for you. We were going so fast I started tearing up.

I don’t remember doing anything else here besides these ride. This was before all the Star Wars things were added.

Magic Kingdom

Here at Magic Kingdom I remembered doing a few more things. What stuck with me the most was the 3-hour wait for Space Mountain at the time. I remember standing out in the hot sun, playing my new iPod Nano (4^th Generation) that I’d bought with my own money (either Christmas or my birthday because I didn’t have job).

It was fun but wasn’t has intense as Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. My group also rode the Railroad ride that took us through different decades while transporting us across to a different section of the park. Then we rode the tea cups.

I found out from this experience that I do not do well with continuously spinning rides. I felt nauseous and the people I was with wanted to keep spinning to the tea cups faster and faster so I just kept my head down for majority of the ride.

On to the Next

My visits to Disney World and Disneyland as a child were fun (even if mildly annoying at some times). I was excited to see what more I could do when I was older following my own schedule.

A couple of roommates from college said they went with their family every few years and then we’d all said we’d go to Disney World one day. It took a few years after we graduated but we finally did it. That trip will be coming up this month. First, though, I’ll share my trip to Disneyland in California when I visited other friends from college for my birthday.

I love amusement parks and I’ve always been a Disney kid. I’d like think I grew into a Disney adult since I still want to visit other Disney parks around the world and I love Disney Cruise Line.

Have you been to a Disney Park? Which one is your favorite? Which one would you want to go to?