Thinking Back

Since today is the 49th Anniversary of Walt Disney World, I’ve been thinking back over the years. I’m a fairly new Walt Disney World fan compared to many. My family and I visited Disneyland when I was a child and that was the beginning of my Disney Parks obsession. I didn’t make it to its Florida counterpart until I was an adult with a daughter in high school. It wasn’t for lack of trying, things just never seemed to fall into place until that trip.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was on the phone with my parents, and out of the blue they suggested a short trip to Florida. They had gone with all of their other grandchildren, and they wanted to do something special for my husband, daughter, and me.

My parents decided to drive to where we were living, stay the night, and then we got into their van and drove together. I was so excited. I had wanted to visit Walt Disney World so much that it hurt. Disney wasn’t our only stop on our vacation, but it was the main focus. We arrived in Orlando on my birthday, which was one of the best birthday presents ever.

The tickets that we bought were just for two days, and we didn’t get Park Hopper. We decided to visit the Magic Kingdom the first day and Disney MGM Studios the second. I had wanted to ride Star Tours since I first heard about the ride years earlier, so that was on the top of my list of must-dos. On our Studios day we ended up riding it six times. I love the current version, but the original was classic.

Those two days were enough to get us hooked. My family and I started joking about moving to Florida, and then the joke turned into a plan. The job that my husband had at the time had a lot of flexibility on where he could work from, and we started to talk seriously about making the move. Our daughter, who is a musician, was offered an internship at a musical management company in the Orlando area, and that was it! We found a house for rent near Walt Disney World, packed everything up, and didn’t look back.

We did move away once for a short period of time. My husband had changed jobs, and he was transferred. We were gone from Florida for ten months, and during that time we made eight trips back. When he was offered the chance to move back we didn’t have to think twice about it.

The Orlando area became home so quickly. We eventually bought a house that is just a few miles from the one we rented when we originally moved. We’ve made some great friends, and we both love what we do for a living. It hasn’t been perfect (nothing is), but it was the right move for us.

That brings me back to the opening of Walt Disney World 49 years ago. There are thousands of stories that are similar to mine, people who realized that living near Walt Disney World would be a pretty cool thing to do. There are millions more who visit for the magical vacation of a lifetime. To me, Walt Disney World is more than just a place, it’s a place that changed my life. If it wasn’t for Walt Disney the man, I have no idea what my life would be like right now. Thank you, Walt and Mickey, for changing the world in ways that I’m sure you never dreamed possible.