Loving Disney World – One Generation at a Time

I visited Walt Disney World twice during my teens, once at fifteen and once at seventeen. As life would have it, I would not visit again until I was an adult and had a child of my own. The memories from those early trips are still vivid but I have only managed to hold onto 6 photos from those special visits. The years have flown by and I have been blessed to be able to share this wonderful place and all the magic of Disney with my husband and three children throughout these many years.

I had a melancholy moment (actually one of many) during our family trip to WDW a couple of weeks ago. I realized that my baby is the age I was during my last childhood visit. I thought it would be a neat nostalgic idea to have him pose in the exact place I posed at his age in one of my treasured six photos. This was in the guillotine in Liberty Square.

This is me at 17

This is Josh, 17

I started to think back to my teenage visits. Unlike my children, we didn’t visit Walt Disney World because my mom was a Disney fanatic, although she did come to her senses by the end of the trip. The park was only eleven years old back then and it was a really fun and beautiful place to vacation; that is why I was there. I had taken a friend with me so we spent very little time with my mom and stepdad, meeting up at meal times and eating together and then going to and from the resort together. I was never asked to wear matching shirts with my family and I don’t remember riding rides with anyone other than my sister during my first trip and my friend during my second.

I thought about how my son must see things so differently as a seventeen-year-old veteran of Walt Disney World. I expect that this will not be his last visit as a teen, however, unless something dreadful happens, as we should be back next year if all goes according to plan. I thought about how my family of 5 has worn matching shirts every year, at least one day, so that we could get our Christmas card picture taken. I thought about how I was laughing in my guillotine picture and he was making a sad face. When I asked him why he didn’t smile, he said very frankly, “well they are getting ready to cut off my head so I didn’t think there was much to smile about.” Always the actor, this one! I thought of how I was able to just stand straight up at the guillotine and lean over while Josh at 6’3″ had to basically lay forward to take his pic (haha).

Then I realized that Josh is the last in the third generation of Walt Disney World lovers in my family. It seems like I was just his age and now a whole new generation has been raised Disney in what seems like the blink of an eye. In the next few years, there might be a new generation of Disney Lovers in my family, especially if I have anything to do with it.

I look at families just starting out on this journey while I am at the parks. Having grown children now, part of me envies them and another part of me looks forward to the future of nurturing a love for Disney in a fourth generation. What will the future bring? I don’t know…but I hope it will bring many more family gatherings at Walt Disney World.

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