Describe your first time at Disneyland

fireurgunz

My first time at DL was in 1995 when I was three years old. I don't remember a lot of it but I do remember flashbacks and little moments like that. It was the summer in which Indiana Jones opened for the first time. I remember it being packed everywhere and the people were just trying to get to Indiana. I also remember the Peoplemover a little and a lot of the Submarine Voyage. I was pretty small so I wasn't able to go on any of the big attractions like Splash Mountain or the Matterhorn. I loved Fantasyland. I was afraid of the Snow White attraction because... well, let's say it was a certain evil witch who scared me to death. Another ride that scared me at the age of three was... you guessed it Haunted Mansion. Now it's one of my favorite rides but I hated it my first time. I'm sure we all have a story about our first time HM. Anyway, ever since that week at DL I've been going back once every year.
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aprildecember · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:52 pm Post subject:

oh my god i feel so old.

my first trip was in 1977. i was like 18 months old. i remember watching msep with my mother. we attribute my fascination with colored lights and analog synthesizers to this experience.

i remember more from later trips. i broke my friend cindy's sandal on the old space mountain escalator, haha. and i remember the speed rooms on peoplemover and stuff. and atis. omg that eye scared the crud out of me when i was little.

ltldeb · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:26 pm Post subject:

My first time to DL was in June of 2001. DP was in Palm Springs for the week for a geek convention and I flew out for the weekend to celebrate his birthday. We did DL in 10 hours and loved every minute of it.

Unfortunately, we didn't get back there until 2003 when we took our daughters for their first time for a week. That was the trip we promised tE we'd take after he moved out there and it was a very memorable trip for all of us.

Our December trip will mark the 10th time we've been to DL since that August of 2003 trip.
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daveypoo · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:33 pm Post subject:

My first visit to DL was in the early 90's. We walked through the main parking lot (which is now DCA) so I could see the place before we went the next day (we were at a tech convention at a nearby hotel). We spent 1 day and did quite a bit. I remember noit liking HM as much here as in WDW because it was smaller. I also remember that PotC was SO MUCH better than WDW.

That trip was a blur.
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DisneyKat2003 · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:54 am Post subject:

WOW...my first trip to DL! I was 9 years old but since that was sooooo long ago, my memories of my early trips are kind of all mushed together. I know that my first time there was in 1957...yes...that long ago. I remember the Indian village, the mule ride then the rainbow ridge mine train...I can remember ticket booths at all the rides....measuring myself at the entrance of the Fantasyland autopia...the monsanto house of the future and when all the trees were little. Um...seemed so much bigger then Smile

ghost1000 · Airplane Inspector Joined: Nov 09, 2005 Posts: 155

In early December 2001, I was doing some searching on the Internet for Nightmare Before Christmas items for my husband. In my search I learned about the Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland. I told me husband we were going to Disneyland, and I quickly put a trip together. Since it was so soon after 9/11, airfare was cheap and I was able to get a room at Paradise Pier. We went after Christmas and spent New Year's Eve in Disneyland. It was an incredible experience.

I grew up watching Walt Disney on television. As a kid I hoped, but never expected to visit Disneyland. Now I'm an annual passholder.
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Firefly · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:58 am Post subject:

I honestly have no memories of my first trip to DL. I've gone there so much that all my experiences kind of blur together. I know I was really young when I started going, because I've seen pictures of little me with the characters.
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DisneyDave · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:48 am Post subject:

My first trip was in 1977. We stayed in the Disneyland Hotel, I remember riding the skyway, and annoying my parents with my Davey Crocket cork gun! Laughing

Other than that... that is all I remember. Very Happy

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Dave....

blinkereye123 · Airplane Inspector Joined: Aug 10, 2007 Posts: 142

Hi folks. While it wasn't officially my first trip to DL, (or maybe it was, I was REALLY young), my earliest memories were of an actual two-day trip I took with my mother and older sister. I say it was two-day because literally we went one day, came home, went to sleep, got up the next morning and went again! It wasn't a holiday, relatives weren't visiting, and we looking for anything particular, we just went. Mind you, this was at a time when prices were REALLY, REALLY, low and the average person could afford it. Also things seemed to have been alot less hectic than today and we could take our time more. I know I'm dating myself here, so let me just say that both were indeed worth doing; we got to see most of the attractions, (the ones that were open, of course), saw at least one show and one parade and had a couple of good meals; again I was really little and everything did kind of blur after a while. But, all in all, it is one of my fondest memories of spending time ata great place. Until next time, peace.

Cindermomster · Parking Lot Attendant Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 4

I was 5 years old. In a sunsuit, wearing flip flops, and a pair of sun glasses with my hair in a ponytail. Wow what a memory. I remember being scared to death of the Witch in Snow White's Adventures.

I remember rideing the Monorail and thinking I could fly.

I remember rideing King Arthur's Carosel as all of life spun around me, and just being glad my horse went up and down, indeed that all the horses went up and down.

But most of all I remember being happy. My Mom and my Dad and I were oh so happy. I had never been that happy before. I wanted it to last forever.

I cried when it was time to leave.

It was 1962 . . . Disneyland was barely seven years old.

When the steam rises from the grounds
(After the night crews have finished the jobs they do so well.)
On a summer morning
I walk down Main Street USA
And I remember, and always feel the same happy way.

club33az · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:00 pm Post subject:

1970. I was five years old. I took a picture with my mom and Donald Duck at the front gate (I thought he was going to eat my hand - you can tell I'm nervous in the picture) and my mom takes me straight over to POTC. It left me traumatized. I was already nervous about the place already and sending a 5 year old down a dark water fall, just after seeing a talking skeleton head, yeah, I was a basket case after that. I wouldn't even go one It's a Small World because they had the same boats!!

WDWFan · Pilot Joined: Mar 01, 2006 Posts: 10863

CTKnight3 · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:24 am Post subject:

I went last year with my dad ad nephew. My second time was this year with my dad and two nieces. We tried DCA first. Interestingly, last year we saw all we wanted to in 4 hours. I remember thinking, what is around this corne...wait a minute,...we are finished? That is it? This year we spent 8 hours not including lunch.

The first time I entered Disneyland, I was so excited that I think I was more excited than my nephew! (At 16 he had to act cool at most stuff.) There was a definate sense of "seeing the way it was meant to be" in me. My first impressions were that it was so small but so much was packed into it!

I like the bakery at WDW but at DL the bakery and the Ice Cream shoppe just seem so homey.

Of course I compared things with WDW which is not fair since they really ARE to different parks. It was SO exciting to see new rides! I could not talk my nephew into seeing the Story Boats or Casey Jr. (Yeah at 42). I talked my nieces into Story Book. Seems my nephew is an auwfully smart kid after all!

Lots of line cutting this year for day 1. And you get a distinct feeling that for so many guests, it is common and blase. I assume it come from being next door and smack inside the city. In WDW there is a definate, "Building up and getting closer to it!" in the journey there.

Final desicion? One is not better than the other. (Well if you include DCA, there is a big difference). They are each different and hold a seperate spot. Both are great though! Any single women want to go this Autumn, you gots my email..............! (just kidding)

RavenStGermaine · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:16 am Post subject:

I was about 12 when I went to Disneyland for the first time, so that would have been... around the summer of 1990, I guess. I grew up at WDW, so I remember doing a lot of comparisons, especially when it came to how compact DL is, and how much different the exteriors of the Haunted Mansion are from each other. My mom and I were out in California to visit relatives, so we flew into LAX and went to DL before driving three hours north to my grandparents' house. I remember riding Alice in Wonderland, because we didn't have that in WDW, and I remember seeing Captain EO. And I thought Space Mountain was pretty cool with the side-by-side riding configuration. Otherwise, it's pretty much a blur, lLiterally - it was on the drive to my grandparents' that I was trying to help my mom navigate, and she was surprised I couldn't read some of the road signs until they were right in front of us. We got home from that trip and she immediately made an appointment for me at the eye doctor, and I've been wearing glasses ever since!