My favorite Disney memory..... I have LOTS and it is hard to narrow it down! I'm going to give you TWO because I can't decide. My first trip to Disney was a family trip to Florida with my parents, brother, and maternal grandparents in 1974 when I was 10 years old. It was a trip of MANY firsts for me.... first airplane ride, first hotel stay, first time out of the New England states. We were heading to several Florida locations (Busch Gardens, Sea World, visiting family friends), but as a kiddo brought up on the Sunday night "Wonderful World of Disney" on television, it was that portion that I was MOST excited about. The most prevalent memory of that particular trip was not being able to sleep the night before the trip. I had a Mickey/Disney alarm clock and I remember looking at it many, many times throughout that night! I was just like that Disney commercial "I'm too excited to sleep!" !! I could share LOTS of neat memories from that trip.... but sometimes it is hard to tell what is a TRUE memory and what I "remember" from looking at the pictures and movies.... YES, I am lucky enough to have MOVIES from that first trip! My Mom had them transferred to VHS in the early 1980's and I get a crazy thrill from watching it!
Second memory..... we were in
DISNEYLAND as a family (DH, DD, DS and myself) in 2005. We had traveled to NM for a family wedding and I pushed HARD to make the trip an opportunity to visit more things out west.... so in our limited time and on our limited budget we saw the Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, a bit of Las Vegas (as much as you can see in one night), and then on to DISNEYLAND! We had just 3 days there, but we were determined to make the most of it.
On day #1 we were sitting on a curb in the hub area waiting for the afternoon Parade of Dreams to start. I was truly just grateful to the entire UNIVERSE that I was able to live a DREAM of mine and visit Disneyland (and during the week of the 50th anniversary to boot!)... and being there with my KIDS just made it beyond a dream!! While we were waiting the "Welcome" song from Brother Bear played ("Happy-to-be time") and cast members came out into the street and started playing games with the kids who were waiting..... and my kids got right up and started dancing in the street. I was absolutely OVERCOME and OVERWHELMED with happiness.... I couldn't believe I was SO LUCKY to be there in the sunshine of California, in Walt's ORIGINAL park, with that beautiful song.... oh my gosh, I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I actually cried sitting there on that curb that day. BEST. MEMORY. EVER.