Like many Disney fans, I love my Walt Disney quotes. My favorite is, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” It fills me with a sense of hope, that no matter how old I get, or what stage of life I am in, that Disney is always there with me, growing and evolving.
I am raising my two kids in the ways of Disney. I started them off young with weekly showings of my favorite Disney films, like Aladdin and Peter Pan. They taught me the meaning of patience, when they watched Cars on repeat for two months straight. And while many people believed that it was foolish to bring both a 2 and 4 year old to Walt Disney World “before they would remember it”, I was determined to give my children the childhood Disney experiences that I never had.
In 2009, my family of four embarked on a magical, seven night Walt Disney World vacation. We walked over the bridge in the Wilderness Lodge lobby multiple times every day, as that was the most important way to start our day. We followed all of the sage advice from the multiple guide books and online forums that I read, and we were up with the sun and at the parks each morning to see it all. And see it all we did, our photo album reads like a Walt Disney World advertisement!
Our stage one Disney journey was complete. Taking toddlers to Walt Disney World was equally challenging and magical at the same time. Their world was only 3 foot tall at the time, and my two year old princess declared with absolute certainty that Cinderella’s castle was her own.
There was no doubt in their mind that they weren’t actually standing in Mickey Mouse’s house, or that the 6ft tall Donald Duck wasn’t real, it was a magical experience for the entire family, ages 2-37. Never did we once feel that our kids were too young to enjoy the trip. Did they fall asleep in the stroller a few times? Yes. In fact the two-year-old slept through our entire Chef Mickey’s dinner and several parades, ask her she’ll show you the photos!
But they had the time of their lives, and it left an impression on them that lives to this very day. Disney World is a magical place!
Fast forward almost five years, and we surprised our kids with our much anticipated return trip Walt Disney World on the last day of school. Five years had put a lot of new knowledge in their little 6 and 8 year old heads, and we were excited to experience the magic of Disney with our new adventurers. With knowledge came a whole new set of touring challenges, as they now had their own opinions on what they wanted to do of course.
Touring the parks with children at this age was new to us, and magical in its own way. The magic of Disney was intoxicating to them again! Secret pirate adventures, sans parents, were taken and talked about non-stop.
A princess and pirate makeover were a necessity, and of course, character meet and greets were constant. More rides were ridden, and favorites were marked, and ridden again for good measure. Our first ever 3am park night was achieved and we rode nearly every ride in the Magic Kingdom in under five hours. The magic of that night sparkles in my son’s eyes even today if we talk about it.
The magic of eating in Cinderella’s castle, now that we would officially let her claim it again, seeped into us all, even if the food was less than stellar. Meltdowns were had, such as when one of us, which might have been me, wanted to ride it’s a small world and no one else did. But new parts of Walt Disney World opened up to us in the form of “thrill rides” and the World Showcase.
We diligently visited each country and had our passports stamped, colored our Duffy Bears and played our Perry the Platypus game, multiple times. We designed our car at Test Track and hit 64.9mph multiple times. But during the trip both my husband and I felt it, this was the end of an era for our family. This would probably be the last trip where the fantasy was reality for our kids.
Upon our return to the real world, we made decision to return to Disney fairly quickly. We wanted to hopefully get one more trip out of our children before they began to “grow out of Disney.” Thus, a trip was booked for only 16 months later, and we counted down the days with our children this time. As our trip approached we found that our children were making their own plans. In this technical day and age, they were doing their own research!
Over last Thanksgiving, we embarked on a new kind of Disney trip, one where rides became the focus in the parks, most characters were passed by, Epcot became an educational experience, the back story of rides and attractions was topic that held great excitement, and more time was spent relaxing at our hotel pool… and surprisingly, it was just as magical as our last two trips.
Hidden Mickey searches were launched, the World Showcase held more mystery and stories than ever before, a trip to the moon on the feared Orange side was taken, and finally gathering enough courage to ride Rockin’ Roller Coaster was the accomplishment of the trip!
We found out that we no longer can get up with the sun and make pre-park opening reservations, because now we need our sleep, but late nights wandering through an empty park are just as special.
While riding Splash Mountain for the 4th time in a row (thank you Christmas Party crowds), and for the 10th time on the trip, my husband and I sat behind our children, instead of beside them. They were now old enough to ride rides without us, but we watched them laugh and point at Brer Bear’s predicaments like they were seeing it for the first time, and we realized that the magic of Disney was evolving with our family, just like Walt had promised.
The evolution of our Disney trips happened faster than I would have liked, as I am sure any parent can attest to, children grow up too quickly. But while the magic of Disney has changed forms, it has never wavered, instead it has grown. As we plan our next trip back in 2017, when we will have a budding teenager and a tween, I look forward to discovering the new magic that Disney will lead us to discover.
Together with the kids we have put together videos from our 2009 and 2014 trips, and full trip reports can be found on the Dis Boards for 2009, 2014 and 2015. I hope you enjoy reliving the magic with us!
