My first recollection of Disney is watching “The Wonderful World of Disney” on a Sunday night around 6.30pm. My younger brother and I loved the shows that transported to us another place and another time.
We dreamed of going to this magical place called Disneyland. We listened to Walt Disney as he spoke to us through the television, not knowing that he had been dead for at least 10 years.
His words seemed comforting, like that of an Uncle, he invited you to believe in the magic. And we did, I did. Deeply.
My connection to Disney started as a child, it stayed connected through the Winnie the Pooh movies and those that came out during the 70’s.
I remember watching the Bambi movie, at our small town coastal cinema, with my Mum. The tears streaming down my face as his mother was shot.
Finally our dream came true when we visited Disneyland in 1977. (Got to love the brown flairs and the red jacket, yes that’s me.)
You can see the Gondola Ride that used to go through the Matterhorn mountain, long gone now, in the background of the Dumbo ride.
I went back in 1989 with a friend on a tour of the United States and England.
Then I met my Mickey Mouse loving wife and in 1999 we visited the United States and added 4 days in Walt Disney World for our honeymoon, yes my wife is crazy about Mickey.
(We flew in as Hurricane Jean flew out, we were very lucky and had only 1 bad day of weather. More on Disney World later)
We used to shop at the Disney Store in Sydney on such regular basis that we were given a VIP card. We loved that so much it increased our spending, which was a clever thing to do on the Disney Store’s behalf. Unfortunately the Disney Store closed down in Australia and we were very sad.
We first visited Disneyland with our three children, aged 5, 10 and 12 years old in 2013. We had such a fun trip we decided to surprise the girls with a trip in 2015 to celebrate the Diamond or 60th anniversary of Disneyland.
Disneyland 60th Christmas Wreath on Sleeping Beauty Castle, 2015
We loved Disneyland so much the dream was to visit all Disneylands across the world so off we went to Hong Kong and Japan and then Japan again in 2019.