Why Disney?

So why does Disney have a special place in my life?

I thought I'd start this blog with explaining, or trying to explain, just what it is about Disney that is so special to me.  Now I'd always been aware of Disney growing up; there were the TV specials that were a staple of any holiday scheduling and I definitely remember having a double LP of Disney songs in, dare I say, the late 1970's.  But this kinda got me thinking about when the love began....

....back to 1991 we go, and our first visit to Orlando (in fact my first visit to the US).  It was all very exciting, our first transatlantic holiday!  So being the organised individual that I am, I started to plan and find out exactly what to expect.  This led me to buy my first copy of 'Birnbaum's Walt Disney World', I read every single word, more than a few times, and soaked up all the new information.

And then, on 30th July 1991 I experienced WDW for the first time and something just clicked.

We were staying on International Drive and drove to WDW, with Magic Kingdom our first destination.  We parked up (Simon's convinced it was the Pluto lot), took the tram to the TTC and then opted for the ferry across the Seven Seas Lagoon.  All this built to the suspense and excitement of entering Main Street, USA and seeing Cinderella's Castle for the first time....I was blown away.

July 1991

Park guides 1991

From that moment on, I fell in love with all things Disney.  There is a magical quality about all that Disney does and as a result not a day goes by without a little bit of Disney entering my life.

I know that still doesn't really explain why I have this love for Disney, but whilst I was out running today I was thinking it over (not much else to do whilst running except get out of breath) and I came to the conclusion that it's to do with an all round feeling you get from anything Disney.  It's the attention to detail and all the little touches, the customer service, the story, the 'if your going to do something then let's do it and do it right' attitude, the ability to make everyone feel special, taking the time to care, the quality in everything and of course the magic....am I making any sense?!  Or shall I just quote a certain individual;

“What ever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.” WD

A little footnote to this story;

In doing a little digging around when writing this piece I came across a photo of me wearing mouse ears and noticed that it was dated late 1990 - which was actually before my first WDW trip.  I then realised that the photo was from a weekend trip to London to do some Christmas shopping and that the ears were bought from the then recently opened Disney Store on Regent Street.  As I thought back I remember that the opening of the store in London at that time was quite a big deal and was one of our 'must-do' shops on our visit.....I guess that Disney meant a lot to me before I even realised it!

Me, November 1990!