The 1000th Disneyland Thread

[Nephythys]

Had to do it- I saw the opportunity and ran with it.

The purpose of the thread?

What is your oldest memory of DL?

Best memory?

Worst memory?

What do you ride first when you go to the parks? Last? Do you have a tradition?

[Nephythys]

I'll answer my own questions-

Oldest memory? My grandfather holding me while I slept waiting in line for Spce Mtn, and I think I recall a Toy Soldier in a parade coming up to me when I was little and sitting on someone's shoulders.

Best? Taking my kids for the first time- and seeing the look of total awe on their faces.

Worst? Enduring the horrid Tiki Room Under New Management at WDW. UGH That and the numerous rude people who ruined visits and pictures with characters for me and my kids.

I always try to ride the Haunted Mansion first. I do so at DL, did so at MK as well. As for last? I just try to ride a favorite before I leave- HM if I can get away with it!

[MegarooFifi]

Oldest Memory - Going down the drop on Pirates (the one with the talking skull and crossbones) and screaming/crying for the rest of the ride (my parents should have warned me)

Best Memory - Running around DL after getting engaged at the Blue Bayou... it started lightly raining and it was dusk... all the lights came on and it was absolutely beautiful.

Worst Memory - My first time on Space - I closed my eyes and put my head down, so I got super sick

Traditions - No matter who I'm with, I ride Pirates first. No matter what! As for the last ride, it doesn't really matter, but it usually ends up being Space (well not lately ) Other than that, I always take the last half an hour I'm there just to walk slowly down Main St. to take everything in. It's usually late at night and I just love looking at the lights - and the one last look at the castle.

[NWRREngineer]

Oldest Memory -- going through Sleeping Beauty Castle and coming out the other side, and wondering why we never actually got IN the castle.

Best Memory -- coming down the ramp of the monorail station in Tomorrowland with my kids, and my oldest daughter excitedly shouting "We're finally here! This is the best day of my life!"

Worst Memory -- on a trip in 1983 with friends, and feeling queasy the entire day after riding on the teacups with two people who knew just how to spin the things really, really fast.

Traditions -- have to stop along Big Thunder Trail and gaze into the water where bear creek once stood and pay homage to the late, great Nature's Wonderland.

[Disneyphile]

1. What is your oldest memory of DL?
   • Seeing another kid with a small stuffed Mickey when I was 3, while sitting at the Carnation Plaza. I pointed and asked my parents for one. They took me to the Character Shop (now Star Trader) and let me pick one out. He's been with me ever since - currently sitting on my headboard, and I can't sleep without him there. He's my most prized possession to this day. He even travels with me.
2. Best memory?
   
   • Screaming my butt off through the whole queue when Space Mountain first opened, fearing for my life (I was 4). My father dragged me on anyway. When we pulled back into the loading area at the conclusion of the ride, I said, "Dad!! Let's go again!"
3. Worst memory?
   
   • Being left alone under the left entrance tunnel, shivering cold in the rain, while my "boyfriend" of the time was actually on the phone with his wife of whom I didn't know about at the time. (On Valentine's Day too!)
4. What do you ride first when you go to the parks? Last? Do you have a tradition?
   
   • Space Mountain - for both. However, I've been "lost" on tradition for the last 2 years.

[Tom Chaney]

Oldest Memory: Posing in 1956 for the picture that is now my avatar. I don't remember much else about that trip. Other early memories are being totally fascinated by The Frito Kid and wanting to ride in the stagecoach.

Best Memory: Two Christmases ago when we first saw snow fall on Main Street while White Christmas played. (Gotta admit, I got a little choked-up.) Hearing the little kids realize it wasn't confetti (and not knowing it was soap suds) then exclaiming, "It's real! It's real!" Magic!

Worst Memory: The first time I saw Tomorrowland 1998.

What do I ride first?: Whatever has the shortest wait! :lol:

Traditions: Being at Disneyland over the Christmas holiday and buying APs so we can go anytime we want to!

[Dirton]

What is your oldest memory of DL? Not sure how old I was but around 5, walking to the park and walking through the big empty parking lot.

Best memory? Getting engaged at DL

Worst memory? The first time I ever rode The Matterhorn my brothers told me that there was no monster on the ride. Well when we went on it there sure as hell was one. After that I was so scared I would go on space mountain for a year!

What do you ride first when you go to the parks? Last? Do you have a tradition? Matterhorn. After that terrible mishap it became a tradition for my brothers and I to run to matterhorn and ride it as many times as possible in an hour.

[stinkerbell]

Oldest Memory: Probably when I was three.....I remember seeing Pooh in a parade with a honey pot on his head? I also remember the pirate ship....either the Jolly Roger or the restaurant.

Best Memory: Our last trip in December was amazing.....every single second of it. A single wonderful memory would be meeting all the princesses and Mary Poppins with my oldest daughter (she was six at the time) at the Plaza Inn after a parade. We happened to be walking by, and they were all just standing in the doorway of Plaza Inn with no one around them. We have some really cool pics from that night.

Worst: When I lost my middle daughter walking from the Pooh ride to Haunted Mansion in the dark with a large group. She had just turned five the day before and is a little spacey anyway. She had to go backstage with a few CMs. I think they gave her some stickers and she was completely un-fazed. I was frantic and felt so horrible.

What do I ride first?: Almost always Indy, and repeatedly. Other times, Peter Pan and again, repeatedly.

Traditions: Pictures in front of the Mickey head at the entrance, walking through the right-side tunnel, hugging Mickey or Minnie on Main St. outside the hat shop, pictures in front of the castle, making wishes in Snow White's Well, lunch at the Blue Bayou, resting at the hub while eating candy from the candy store in Frontierland, and often going four or five days straight with only breaks to eat and sleep....morning to night.

[Eric Dean]

What is your oldest memory of DL?
Watching the MSEP, thoroughly transfixed, then falling asleep on the bus back to the hotel. I can't have been older than six or so.

Best memory?
Impossible to answer, so I'll tell you about my most unique memory. I was 16 years old and visiting DL alone for the first time; I'd flown down from Seattle and the aunt with whom I was staying dropped me off at the park in the morning. As I waited for the gates to open, I felt a tug on my sleeve, and turned to find a very small Korean woman in a very large fur coat trying to get my attention. She spoke almost no English at all, but managed to communicate that she'd decided I was going to show her around Disneyland that day. She also announced that I would teach her "very good English." Then she rummaged around in her huge handbag and produced a can of grape drink, which she insisted I try. I didn't know at the time that certain varieties of foreign grape drink contain actual grapes. When the first one touched my tongue I came close to freaking right out. Then my new friend handed me a set of headphones and had me listen to Korean pop music for a while. I was completely out of my element, wondering if this woman actually meant me to accompany her around the park.

She did, in fact. From nine to five or so, she left my side only once. We had gone on Big Thunder or something, and she had signalled afterwards through hand gestures that she was most emphatically not a fan of thrill rides. Problem was, I had to ride Space Mountain. I feel terrible about this in retrospect, but I used the same hand gestures to indicate to her the nature of Space Mountain, and she communicated her understanding by sitting down on a bench...where I found the poor thing 45 minutes later. She waited for me! I never abandoned her again.

Despite the fact that it wasn't what I'd planned for the day, I had a lot of fun. I remember the dear little woman sitting down at a Tomorrowland Terrace table around noon and conjuring out of her voluminous handbag a startlingly large Tupperware container in which was some kind of Korean lunch, which she shared with me. She bought me a churro, too! At around five o' clock she made for the exit, where apparently she was to catch a bus to the airport. She asked a CM to take our picture together, and asked me to write my address for her so she could send me a copy of the photograph. That was in November of 1993; I never heard from her again.

Worst memory?
That's a toss-up. On the very same day I just wrote about at such length, I developed a nasty ear infection. I thought before I left the house in the morning that I could feel something coming on, so I packed a bottle of ibuprofen. Sure enough, over the course of the day I was proved right. While having fun with my new Korean friend I was ingesting massive quantities of the drug to stay active; by the time my aunt picked me up that night I was in agony. We went straight to the emergency room, and I ended up having to postpone my flight back to Washington for three weeks till my ear healed up.

The other serious contender for worst memory is proposing marriage to a girl at Snow White's Wishing Well. Very exciting at the time, of course; she accepted. I should have been happy, but I couldn't escape the feeling that I'd done something horribly wrong. Sure enough, the relationship ended very messily some months later, which retroactively made the proposal a very bitter memory indeed.

What do you ride first when you go to the parks? Last? Do you have a tradition?
Working at DL for three years and consequently getting extremely familiar with the park has made my visits more casual; I don't have rituals anymore. But when I was young, it was Space Mountain first and Space Mountain last--sometimes several times in a row right before closing, when the queue was empty. And then into the out-bound crush of humanity, onto the parking lot tram, and back into a world so much less colorful than the one bordered by the tracks of the Disneyland railroad.

[robotpirates]

What is your oldest memory of DL? My oldest memory of DL is being about 3 years old and getting the crap scared out of me by that snail in the Electrical Parade that would bob and weave its way down the street toward guests. I cried. It had big eyes! And flashing lights! *weeps*

Best memory? My all time favorite memory was during last year's Grad Nite. It was around 5:30 AM (almost closing time), and there were about 12 of us (including a couple of our favorite teachers) on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We were coming around the bend at the end and we just started chanting "ONE MORE TIME! ONE MORE TIME!" over and over. The CM member who was running the controls started to laugh and so did the other CMs that were in charge of entrance/exits. There was no one left in the queue, so contoller CM gave us a smile and said "All right! But don't tell anyone!" We all cheered and I yelled, "What's your name?" She replied, "Jennifer!" We cheered and started chanting her name.

As we entered the dark tunnel that starts the ride, you could still hear us going, "JENNIFER! JENNIFER! JENNIFER!" That was TERRIFIC. Jennifer, if you're out there, thanks.

Worst memory? Waiting an hour and a half for Rocket Rods. *cries*

What do you ride first when you go to the parks? Last? Do you have a tradition? Our tradition is to usually go in a circle, hitting Adventureland first and Tomorrowland last, before going back into Adventureland for any re-rides. We start the day by going to The River Belle Terrace for breakfast (mmmm Mickey Mouse pancakes!) Before JC closed down for refurb, we would go on that first, but now we mostly go on Pirates of the Caribbean first. Then Indy (yeah we double back). The last ride we usually go on is... the tram! Or PotC....

[robotpirates]

And then into the out-bound crush of humanity, onto the parking lot tram, and back into a world so much less colorful than the one bordered by the tracks of the Disneyland railroad.

Well said. That seriously almost brought me to tears.

[Uno]

Oldest Memory
Staring at the old tommorowland through Tommmorwland way when I was 3
Best Memory
Getting a AP for the first time while staying at the Grand Californian
Worst Memory
Waiting 2 hours for food at Tommorowland Terrance, then riding HISTA at Tommorowland 98 in 98
First/Last
Pirates of the Carribbean it sets the tone for the day!
Great Moments w/Lincoln a patriotic ending!

[arsonwinter]

The purpose of the thread?
Eh....

What is your oldest memory of DL?
Seeing the Rocket Jets, wanting to ride them, but not having enough time to do it. I was 5 at the time.

Best memory?
Splash Mountian, for the first time. No clue what it was about.
Also, I enjoyed the time I ate at the Blue Bayou.

Worst memory?
Never having enough time to do all the things I wanted to do.

What do you ride first when you go to the parks? Last? Do you have a tradition?
First stop has and will always be Small World, because my grandmother and mother saw it at the 1964-65 World's Fair. Last ride is usually one of the Fantasyland dark rides before hitting Fantasmic.

Traditions... well I live in Pennsylvania, after all, and don't get to Disneyland as much as I like... most of the time, my family out-votes me, and we spend the day without setting foot in Tomorrowland (despite my love of all-things Star Wars). Because of this, even though there's been ample opportunity, I've never been on the Submarine Voyage or Peoplemover at DL. I guess that's like a tradition.

[LeeLi]

First memory
Well, I didn't visit DLR until I was 16, so my first memory of DL is riding the monorail into DL, getting off in TL, and going on the first "ride" we(my sister and I)saw, Innoventions. *shudders* That was back when I was young and naive.
My first memory of any disney resort is being at WDW on POTC and thinking the cannons were real. I was so scared I hid in my mom's lap. Funny, because when I was about the same age, my favorite song was "it's a pirates life for me"
Best Memory
Eating at blue bayou for the first time. I was just awestruck by how magical it was...

Worst Memory
Well, besides the innoventions one above, was one day at DLR in the fall. I went to DL to cheer myself because I was stewing about my now ex gf. She had gotten me upset about something and I thought DLR would help me feel better. I was wrong, I was miserable the whole time I was there. In retrospect the memory bothers me because I wasted precious time at DLR mooning over my crazy ex. But now, the crazy :devil: is gone, and I still have DLR to enjoy,

Traditions
Always riding POTC and having a churro. Sitting on ROA reading a good book while I wait for Fantasmic to start.

[CinderellaPrincess]

First memory:
I must have been about 3-4 cuz it's pretty hazy so I'm sure a bunch of trips are wrapped up into one long memory, but I remember being very bored at Blue Bayou while my whole family was enjoying their very leisurely lunch. I remember thinking that there was soo much to do and why were we just sitting here????

Best memory:
Has to be the time my best friend Jen and I were picked to be in the Parade of Stars on our special birthday trip and I got to dance w/ Eeyore and Jen got to dance w/ Piglet thru the WHOLE parade. My bf (at the time) got tons of pics and we are smilin and sweatin the whole way thru. We looked ridiculous w/ our princess tiaras and the capes they give you..lol It really was the best day!!!

Worst memory:
Probably Grad Night 96'. Not really because of DL itself but because of all the drama between all my friends and their boyfriends and my boyfriend. TOO MUCH DRAMA!! SUCH WHINY TEENAGERS!! Also, as all of you know that have been, they require you to dress not like you are spending 8 hours in an amusement park, but like you are meeting your grandparents for their 50th anniversary dinner. I attempted to wear the most comfortable sandals I owned but by the end of the night, I had soo many blisters that I could barely walk. I was sooo ready to go home!

What do you ride first when you go to the parks? Last? Do you have a tradition?
First is Peter Pan just because the line progressively gets worse through out the day. Last is either HM or Tiki Room (something that requires you to sit for longer than 3 minutes). Tradition always includes churros (at least one) no matter who i'm with and have to at least go thru Mad Hatter and try on hats if I don't buy a new one.