Monday, June 10, 2013

Monday Memories - Lynette


We have started a weekly post called "Monday Memories". Each week a Gal will share their favorite Disney memories, whether they happened at one of the parks, hotels or possibly not at Disney, but could still be a "Disney" memory.  We hope you enjoy our "Monday Memories" and invite you to share yours with us.


  

Memories. It is what I live for. Both of my parents have passed on, yet it is their memories that first introduced me to Walt Disney World.

In 1993 my parents, along with another couple they had known since their school days in the 1940’s, decided to visit the ‘other’ coast. Watching the four of them leave for the airport, it was difficult to hold back the giggles. You should understand, the Oregon coast is nearly always windy and uncomfortably cool. They were unsure whether to believe the historic weather reports of sunshine during the spring months, so…. the wife of my dad’s best friend packed two extremely large suitcases and two garment bags; one for cold weather and one for warm. Guess which one was never even opened.

After returning from their excursion, I was enthralled by the photos and stories they laid out before me. Growing up near Disneyland the idea of the ‘Magic Kingdom’ didn’t excite me much. But, this place called EPCOT seemed like a fairytale land for wannabe travelers. I HAD to go. After two years of saving, my best friend and I headed to The Most Magical Place on Earth. We had booked a 5-night package thinking that after losing two days to travel, three days should be just about right to see everything. Remember, we were Disneyland veterans! For those of you who just laughed, I will not be handing out reprimands – I am laughing right along with you today. You see, we called our travel agent and booked another week on day three of our vacation! One thing my parents weren’t able to tell me about, because they never made it there, was MGM Studios. We watched Beauty and the Beast three times during that trip. I still love it today, but can survive with just one viewing per visit now. Being in our 20’s back then, we had to visit Pleasure Island several times. Lucky for us, we made friends with several employees one day early on while in Epcot, so we had personal tour guides for most of our stay. One of them was from Morocco and used his employee discount to help me save on a purchase from his ‘land’. I still have it, along with his picture, hanging in my home today.


A few years later I convinced my wonderful, yet skeptical husband to make the journey across the continent. We invited another couple, which we have since traveled with often, to join us. They also thought three or four days would be more than enough. I am happy to report that after much whining, griping and arm-twisting I was able to convince them to book an entire week. It seems they love it as much as my husband does and go with us every time my husband can make it. I, however, need a few more fixes in between times and grab random friends to accompany me as often as possible!

Not wanting our daughter to suffer the WDW neglect that I was forced to endure, we introduced her to my favorite place when she was eight years old. Her first Disney cruise was last year at age 15 and now she is hard pressed to choose between the fun on land or on sea. What a dilemma for a child, don’t you think?


I was able to share my thanks and express my Disney affection (which was their fault), for both coasts, with my parents before they died. I just wish I could’ve experienced that Magical Place with them, too. Don’t put off your dreams, my friends; turn them into your life’s memories.

2 comments:

  1. Lynette, what a great memory to share, we used to love taking the boys when they were little, but we love going with them now too that they are older, it's a different type of trip, but still a lot of fun. We still have not gotten them on the cruise yet, we are working on that.

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  2. Great post. I love the understanding about the other coast! We started in WDW but now live closer to DLR but still go HOME to wdw.

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