My Love of Disney
My love of Disney is something I have thought a lot about this year, mainly due to the pandemic and how I felt when all the parks around the world were closed. I had two trips canceled due to the closure as well as two RunDisney race weekends down the drain - Star Wars in April and now Wine & Dine in November. The closure and cancellations were obviously smart by Disney but I couldn’t help being sad about it because the happiness Disney brings to me is practically unparalleled. The only other thing that compares to the love I have for it is when I travel internationally (have I mentioned Epcot is my favorite park 😉). My sister and I have loved Disney our entire lives. Obviously I was exposed to Winnie the Pooh at a young age and to this day he is still my favorite character.
We got to go on our first trip to Disney World in 1984. Magic Kingdom and Epcot were the only two parks around. Dad took plenty of park pictures but the one below is the only one of us in it (our Mom and Grandma are on the right). 🤦♀️ We are playing in a fountain at the Contemporary Resort where we could only dream of staying now. Without pictures I still have memories from that trip. I remember that we all got on Space Mountain but then we ALL got off because it said people with heart conditions shouldn’t ride and our Grandpa had recently recovered from a heart attack. I wish I knew why we all got off and not just my Grandpa. 🤔 At Epcot I remember how cool I thought the Rainbow Tunnel was. And in World Showcase we got to get umbrellas in the China Pavilion and I got a glass paperweight with a yellow flower on it in Japan. In 2019 to commemorate that trip, my sister and I went to Disney 35 years to the day of our first visit. We visited Magic Kingdom and Epcot just like that trip and had fun riding the classic rides and recreating photos.
The photo on the left my Dad took on May 18, 1984 and I took the one on the right on May 18, 2019. I tried to compose them exactly like he did. It was fun to see the differences in 35 years.
Even in high school when still liking Disney was probably one of the nerdiest things you could do, we didn’t care. It was the time when Disney was coming out with hit after hit like Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast and the Little Mermaid. Anytime we went to the mall (which, TBH, was a lot for teenagers in the 90’s) we’d beeline to the Disney store. We had an abundance of shirts, hats, mugs, stuffed animals, VHS tapes and CD soundtracks. I can still picture exactly how that Disney store in the Dayton Mall was set up. During Spirit Week of my Senior Year of High School I wore a Mickey hat on hat day and used a Winnie the Pooh sheet on Toga Day. Notice the sheet here and the one above in the first set of photos. 😂 To this day I still have a pillowcase from this sheet set.
While the parks are a huge part of my life now, growing up it was those movies of the 90’s that influenced me. There is a lot to learn from Disney movies. They provide lessons to children and adults alike by using adorable characters and songs you can’t get out of your head. While at times the princes come in to save the princesses, you also see independent and strong women who stand up to injustices. Belle taught us that truly getting to know someone means it doesn’t matter what they look like on the outside and Jasmine stood her ground so she could save her kingdom. While this was seen in the animated versions, I loved how they hit on this even more so with both of those live actions in recent years. Who wouldn’t want those women as role models? And you also have movies like Frozen or Coco that show how important family is even when things feel like they are going all wrong.
#SistersForever
About two years after we moved to Florida we finally made our first trip to the parks as adults. One of our friends from Ohio was going to be there and we met up with her at Animal Kingdom. That was the ‘newest’ park so it was what we wanted to visit first. Being immersed in the Disney magic once again was so amazing that the next year we met that same friend at Magic Kingdom - and we finally got that ride on Space Mountain. The next year in 2009 Disney was doing a promotion where you could get in free on your birthday. Obviously this was very convenient for my sister and I so we decided to go to Epcot. Once we explored World Showcase, we were sold and knew we’d be getting passes. What wasn’t to love about being able to ‘travel’ to other countries, try their food and drink and be surrounded by all things Disney at the same time?! I even got to meet Pooh in the United Kingdom which obviously made my day.
Celebrating our birthday with Pooh and friends!
Being at the parks as an adult is an escape from reality and a time to relax and just enjoy life. I’ll never forget a trip in 2017 when I physically felt this. It was a super stressful time in my life at my job and I was going down for a girls weekend with my sister and my friend. I had arrived at Hollywood Studios before them and it was also my first trip with my new camera. I wandered around by myself with a glass of wine and taking photos and as I did, I physically felt stress leaving my body. Knowing I was going to be there for the weekend, away from the stressors of my life, made it feel like I had a weight lifted off my shoulders. I realized then that was one of the reasons I loved Disney so much, I had just never physically felt it before. I have thought about this on every trip since and just take those first few moments of being inside the parks to take a deep breath and enjoy the moment.
A photo from that day in 2017 when I realized how important Disney really was for my mental health.
Going there so often over 10+ years has resulted in some significant events in our lives occurring while we were at the parks. In 2014 we celebrated Q’s first birthday there. Our birth parents came for it and it was just a magical weekend spending time together. In 2016 I had my bachelorette party there. We ran the Princess 5k and drank around the world at Epcot. That same year my sister and I celebrated finishing our Coast to Coast (completing a half marathon at Walt Disney World and a half marathon at Disneyland) at California Adventure in Disneyland. We then finished our first marathon together at Disney World in 2019. I got to photograph my nephews getting their first haircuts at Magic Kingdom and in 2017 we celebrated our 40th birthday with our oldest friend who loved Disney just as much as we did growing up (she was one of the ones we were always at the mall with😂). Some events happened that we didn’t plan. In 2012 in one trip we had a roller coaster of news - while sitting waiting on the parade at a Halloween Party, we got a call that our mom had gone back into the hospital and a couple weeks after that, she passed away. After that low we had a big high the next day. My sister got a notification that her husband’s visa was approved and he could finally move to the states. Then, in 2016 after having breakfast at Be our Guest my husband and I came out to a voicemail from our vet - our beloved Ernesto had unexpectedly passed away overnight. However, some of the surprises were good - like unexpectedly seeing friends from Ohio on a couple visits. I watched my first castle projection show with a friend from high school who happened to be there while her husband was doing a RunDisney race and at the biggest park on property, we ran into another friend randomly in the Pinocchio Village Haus Restaurant. When I think back on all these events and these people, Disney ends up being in the memory too. It’s just intertwined into our lives.
After we moved from Florida I somehow became even more obsessed with Disney. Maybe it’s because I knew I couldn’t just hop in the car and be there in two hours. Before I moved I had more than one person ask me “What about Disney?” 😂 I think in a way to connect to it more I started following a very large amount of Disney bloggers on Instagram after I moved. And I have obviously started my own blog that is heavy on the Disney info. I am apparently so desperate for a Disney connection here that I accost people in parking lots with Disney passholder magnets on their cars. 😳 Luckily, she didn’t mind. 😂 I think it just helps me to know that I have people nearby in NC that love the parks as much as me because it was so common in Florida. But I realized after I put all the phoots below together, that the love for Disney is truly worldwide. The people I am with below represent two countries and six states! And while I don’t mind going to Disney alone, it’s obviously better with some fellow Mouseketeers by my side.
