What Got You Hooked?
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I grew up on Disney movies and cartoons (many of which were made before my time). My first trip to WDW was back in 1992. I was 6 and was so excited to go. I still remember parts of that trip with much fondness (particularly experiencing certain attractions that have been retired since). My second trip was 1996 and I was 10 and got to enjoy some rides I wasn’t tall enough for on my previous trip (or weren’t around). My third trip was 2007 and for the first time I experienced WDW as an Adult and had lots of fun and thought, it would be nice to go back again someday.
But it was 2009 when my parents bought into the DVC and asked if I wanted to get on the contract with them. At first I thought it was a little extreme to buy into basically going on Disney trips for the next 50 years. I was skeptical. :| Our first day of our first trip on points was a 2 Bedroom at Saratoga Springs. I remember loving how nice the room was and the view of Downtown Disney, but still was skeptical. :| That night, we went to Magic Kingdom. My mom and I got there first and Dad was going to meet us there. He had the confirmation number for our will-call tickets. So mom and I lingered outside the park at night in January gazing at the train station and listening to the music while we waited for Dad. Then the music switched to playing “When You Wish Upon a Star” and it was like a switch was flicked
and I was fully immersed and was eager for more – to enter and see the Castle and Main Street at night (even though I had just seen it 2 years ago). We called Dad and got the Will Call number and picked up our tickets and went inside. Dad got there a few minutes later and we walked up Main Street and deeper into the magic. 
I went to WDW 3 times that year and have been looking forward to every next trip ever since!What’s your story? What got you hooked on visiting Walt Disney World?
I was born hooked!!
My first trip was when my mom was still pregnant with me! We didn’t have much money growing up, but my parents managed to save enough to take us to Disney about once a year. Granted, we would stay at the Motel 6 ten to twenty miles away, packed the cooler full of sandwich fixings and snacks and rarely got to buy anything in the parks. But it was always magical! I lived in northern Illinois until I was almost 7. We could load up the station wagon to go to WDW. We then moved to Phoenix and Disneyland became the more affordable choice and only 6 hours away! I think I truly became hooked though when my hubby and I went to WDW together in 2009. We had been married for 7 years and had never taken a honeymoon! We moved to Iowa not long after we got married so my hubby could attend Chiropractic school. Once he graduated, we opened our practice in back in New Mexico in 2007. Well, the economy tanked and we lived on a very limited budget while our practice slowly grew. A few months before our 7th anniversary, Southwest Airlines ran a crazy sale where friends fly, stay and play for free to WDW!!! So we really only paid for one of us! We stayed at POP and went on a super limited budget. My hubby, Ryan, had only been to EPCOT back in the early 90’s, no other parks. I hadn’t been to WDW in about 12 years. So it was essentially his first trip ever and a long time out for me. I nearly cried when I saw the castle again. We had such an amazing time and made so many memories and we got to be there on our actual anniversary (December 14th). The Christmas decorations really helped make it more magical! As soon as we got home, Ryan started asking when we could go back! We were so hooked!!! We were able to go for our 8th anniversary the next year too! We now have annual passes!!!
My first ever trip to Disney World was way back when I was a little girl.
Backstory:
My dad’s first ever trip to WDW was when he was ten. So when I was born, for years both of my parents told me that I wasn’t able to go to WDW because it was for 10 year olds and older. Pssh I didn’t know, I was just a kid, everything my parents told me was the honest truth. So, life went on.
Are We Going There???:
My parents and I just happened to take a trip to Ft. Walton Beach to see my grandfather. My parents wanted to make sure to not get my hopes of going to see Mickey Mouse since there’s a gazillion WDW billboards in Florida. After a week of being with my grandfather, my parents and I made the trip to Orlando to “stay the night before flying home”. Well “our plane wasn’t going to arrive until late afternoon” the next day. At the condo we stayed at we received some Disney Dollars (yes old), so Mom and Dad said “Hey lets go find a Disney Store, I heard they had a really big one here in Orlando.” I was very upset with this news because I apparently wasn’t smart enough to put the puzzle together a realize what was really going to happen. You see i wanted to go swimming in the pool, but Mom and Dad said “How about this, when we come back from ‘the Biggest Disney Store in the World’ why don’t we go swimming”. Still upset, I agreed. So we hop in the car. Driving, driving, driving, finally I happen to notice a really big sign across the highway. It was purple and impossible to miss. It was the infamous Walt Disney World Sign. I, a 7 (and a half) year old at the time, with all the hope in the world ask the most important question in my entire life. It was almost as soft as a whisper, “Are we going there?”. Both of my parents are up in the front seat, crying, say “Yes babywho (my nickname, another story) We are going there.” I’m pretty sure it was unsafe for us to be on the road because of the happy tears we all were shedding.
I will never forget laying my eyes on that castle for the first time, and will pass down the same tradition to my children (when I eventually grow up myself). I’ve always been hooked to Disney (my name is Ariel for crying out loud) but ever since that trip I knew I had some serious Disney addiction. So much that I even worked for the Mouse on my Disney College Program. Never will ever forget the amazing memories Disney brings into my life.ps So Sorry this is ridiculously long. Here’s a
for lasting through it. 
My first trip to WDW was at about 22 years old. My boyfriend at the time worked for the Disney Store and we got a discount and some free tickets. I felt like a kid!! I got so excited when I saw Mickey that I screamed. I was already hooked. We continued to go every two years until he left
I then started going with my mom and dad every couple years and after my dad died my mom and I decided we would go every year as long as we could. I am truly addicted, as is my mom. Next month instead of doing the parks we are doing a Disney cruise. I am so excited but will miss the parks. I’m already planning for 2018. It truly is the happiest place on earth. 
My first trip to WDW was when it was just MK and I wasn’t even 10 yet. We visited frequently. Over the years, I would say the “hook” has changed. Now, taking my children there, it’s about seeing the magic in their eyes… wait, hold on. No, it’s not! It’s about me and feeling like a kid again!
I went a couple times growing up, we would always stay offsite and do a day or two and then some other stuff in Florida. When I was older, I took a couple of trips, but it was more of the same, a day or two in Disney with it being more of a Florida vacation than a Disney vacation. I always loved Disney movies and everything Disney, but I didn’t get truly hooked until I took my daughter for the first time. A year before I started planning our trip, we were watching a Disney movie together (that’s all we did during the winter, watch Disney movies over and over again since it was too cold and snowy to do much else), and when the castle comes up before the movie I made the offhanded remark to my daughter “You know that you can go visit the castle, right?” and I swear that I’ve never seen her eyes get so big. From that moment on, I worked as hard as I could to plan the best once in a lifetime (or at least until she was older, the plan was to not go for another 4-5 years or so) trip that I could. I learned all about renting points, so we ended up spending one night in a Bay Lake Tower theme park view room, and the rest of the trip in a savanna view room at Animal Kingdom Villas.
That trip was everything you would want from a first trip, it was in the first week of December, so the decorations were up, crowds were pretty low, the weather was mild, but still warm enough for swimming. We all had an absolutely amazing time and fell in love. Now 3 years later, we’ve had annual passes for 2 years, bought into DVC, and been so many times I would have to really sit down to figure out how many trips there have been since then!
If there was a moment that got me hooked though, it would be this one, the moment where everything that is wonderful about Disney comes together in one perfect moment:
Similar to another D-Cotter, I guess you could say I was always hooked. My first trip was when my mom was pregnant with me. My next trip after that I was 9 months old and my parents bought into DVC when I was 3.
I grew up with the movies, sing along songs on VHS and cassette tape, I had a WDW poster above my crib, and I took annual trips to the World
I don’t remember a time in my life without Disney. I’m hooked because of all the happiness it brings. I’m always happy at Disney and that was a place growing up where my family could go to all have fun together. It’s not easy for a family of 5 to all enjoy doing the same things together, but our Disney trips were special, undivided family time. The way all your baggage and stress gets left at the door is why I keep going back. Also, I love being a kid in a socially acceptable way
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