Your Traditions at Disney World?

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Mon, 06/03/2013 - 21:56

Eddie G.'s picture

Eddie G.

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Your Traditions at Disney World?

I was talking to a couple over the weekend about our upcoming trip to Disney World and they had actually just returned back from a trip in mid-April. It got me thinking as they told me what they always did first and last on every trip. I look back and I have traditions I have done over the years of going to the parks. Curious if anyone else did something first, last, etc.

First Ride - Pirates of the Caribbean. This was the first ride I ever went on, during my first visit to Disney World. It's stayed that way ever since.

Last Ride - I always like to hit Space Mountain one last time for no known reason. I do like to leave the Magic Kingdom on each visit though. It just ends every trip when I hear the words, "If this concludes your trip to the Walt Disney Resort, we hope you return home safely and will come back soon." For whatever reason...That's the way I like to end our visits. On the other hand. I hate to know we are leaving so it's bitter sweet.

Tradition - I visit a place at Hollywood Studios that my dad would sit at for hours while I rode Star Tours, over, and over, and over again when I was younger and it first opened. He left a note tucked into a hole in a handrail that is still there to this day. Every visit I take it out and write, Thanks Dad, and date it, and return it to the spot. No one, no employee or anyone else has ever seen it. Or if they have, they have never moved it from that location. It's not in a an easy spot to get at either. You have to know where it is and how to get into it, to get to the note. It's our little secret stashed inside Disney World.

My wife and I have now started our own tradition in a spot at EPCOT. Except it is a picture of the two of us on Main Street USA, her first trip ever to Disney World. The last two times, it was still there. We just think it's kind of cool. Others may find it corny, but we enjoy it. We always get excited to see if will still be there.

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Mon, 06/03/2013 - 22:07

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Eddie G. wrote:

Tradition - I visit a place at Hollywood Studios that my dad would sit at for hours while I rode Star Tours, over, and over, and over again when I was younger and it first opened. He left a note tucked into a hole in a handrail that is still there to this day. Every visit I take it out and write, Thanks Dad, and date it, and return it to the spot. No one, no employee or anyone else has ever seen it. Or if they have, they have never moved it from that location. It's not in a an easy spot to get at either. You have to know where it is and how to get into it, to get to the note. It's our little secret stashed inside Disney World.

My wife and I have now started our own tradition in a spot at EPCOT. Except it is a picture of the two of us on Main Street USA, her first trip ever to Disney World. The last two times, it was still there. We just think it's kind of cool. Others may find it corny, but we enjoy it. We always get excited to see if will still be there.

This is adorable! Love it!

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Mon, 06/03/2013 - 22:32

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What a great thing your dad did leaving that note! I love it!

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Mon, 06/03/2013 - 22:39

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I think that it is awesome that your Dad, and you, have been able to find a place that no one has disturbed! Much better than ours.

You have me hunting my memory for secret hiding places for us now!! That's such a great and personal thing!

Our traditions are not that personal and really not that meaningful. We eat at Ohana and Biergarten every trip. We always do a Downtown Disney day, we are always done by early afternoon. But, we alternate each trip. One trip, lunch at Rainforest, the next trip is lunch at T-Rex.

Other than that, each trip, we get magnets or pins from the resorts where we stay (sometimes a t-shirt), buying magnets and photo albums with the year on them, always have to find a mug or 2 and a t-shirt or 2 or more.

I just thought of something! On our last day, we do an ADR lunch and leave the park (no particular park, whichever one is forecasted to be light that day) fairly early so we can get back and pack everything possible. We drive, so it is not all that important, but we still do it. We buy some hot chocolate and pop corn from the park and we rent movies from Community Hall to keep our young daughters occupied while we pack. We then just eat Quick Service at the resort for dinner and maybe wander a little bit before bed.

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Mon, 06/03/2013 - 23:01

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We have loads of little things,

first stop in MK is the railroad, and gotta go the whole way round.

Gotta watch wishes from the poly with a dole whip.

Great movie ride is always first at HS

Ooh I can't think of anymore right now but I know there are loads! It's midnight here though so I'm blaming my forgetfulness on being tired

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Tue, 06/04/2013 - 03:56

JeffC

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Eddie, I think that note deal is the most amazing tradition I've ever heard. Fantastic!!!!!! And super special.

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 04:10

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Eddie your note tradition is amazing!
When I read it, it brought tears to my eyes
I'm so happy that it is still there and safe.

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 05:50

M

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I concur. Your note story is fantastic. One of the coolest things I've ever read.

We have many WDW traditions, but nothing really set for the first thing to do because we always tried to go to the park that was anticipated to be the least crowded for the day. Our last evening, though, is an endurance sprint (a contradiction, but accurate) across the parks assuming everything is open late. We see Illuminations while consuming Norwegian schoolbread, dash over to Fantasmic, hightail it to MK for the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes, and time/energy permitting blastoff to Space Mountain. We did this routine even when we had annual passes and spent more than a month at the parks; those WDW nighttime extravanganzas are worth the effort. We can never get enough!

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 13:09

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It is cool that no one has ever messed with it. Or if they have, they have always put it back. He didn't tell me about it until years later. It's probably been there a good 15 years by now. It is hard to find if you don't know where it is. Hoping it stays there for another 15 years.

I'm sure others have their traditions or ways about going through the parks, rides, etc. I've seen people taking the same picture they have taken every year since [insert date here] and have all of them with them. Really cool to look at the picture with the same people at the same place each year.

We talk to people in the queues a lot of times. Never know they may know someone you do or have been to the same places you have been. Met some pretty nice people in lines at Disney before. Plus, it makes the wait go by a little faster if you are in a good conversation with someone. To me anyway.

Any who, I thought I would throw this out there to see what everyone did or does the same maybe on each of your trips.

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Tue, 06/04/2013 - 14:55

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Eddie G. wrote:

Tradition - I visit a place at Hollywood Studios that my dad would sit at for hours while I rode Star Tours, over, and over, and over again when I was younger and it first opened. He left a note tucked into a hole in a handrail that is still there to this day. Every visit I take it out and write, Thanks Dad, and date it, and return it to the spot. No one, no employee or anyone else has ever seen it. Or if they have, they have never moved it from that location. It's not in a an easy spot to get at either. You have to know where it is and how to get into it, to get to the note. It's our little secret stashed inside Disney World.

That's amazing!

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 18:52

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I love the story about the note. I hope it's there long after both you and your dad are gone, and your kids and grandkids keep adding to it, and then someday in the very distant future somebody else finally finds it and it goes into a museum or something.

I can't say we have traditions, but we do have habits. Somehow the crowd calendar usually has us at Epcot on day 1, which means first stop is getting a FastPass for Test Track. By design our trips are usually during the Food and Wine Festival, which means lots of noshing around the World Showcase. DHS means arriving before rope drop and racewalking to Toy Story Mania for a FastPass AND a ride in the standby line before it gets too long. MK, first stop is always Buzz Lightyear either for standby if the line isn't long or a FastPass if it is.

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 22:18

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Eddie G. you have succeded in bringing a smile to numerous faces with that fantastic tradition, and both the wife and I hope that it goes on for a long long time.

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Tue, 06/04/2013 - 22:46

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That is an amazing story Eddie. You should put some sort of contact info on it so if it is found by a CM, they don't just toss it.

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 23:19

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Very cool traditions!!!

We always visit DTD on our arrival evening. Afterwards, we take a monorail tour of all the MK resorts. We just look and shop. It's kinda always been my family's thing.

We also try to save MK for last.

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Wed, 06/05/2013 - 01:20

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I call my BFF right before we go under the Welcome sign so we can go through together, our first ride in the MK is always POTC, we turn our noses up at the Green Team training on Mission Space, it's always a good time for a Dole Whip and my strapping 6' 2" son is still kinda scared whenever I can drag him into the Haunted Mansion.

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 14:06

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Thanks for the kind words on our traditions everyone. I love hearing what everyone else does on each trip to WDW. It's things like those traditions or repetitive normalcies on each trip that make Disney the place we all love.

MrHub - My wife's picture has each date on each visit but it also has our contact info on the back as well, just in case a CM were to find it. I don't believe they would throw it out. I'm hoping their Disney spirit comes through and leaves it as is. I would always like to believe they would.

Eeyore - We do the monorail resort (drinking) tour each trip as well. There is a website that even makes 'Passports' with each resort and a drink to have on them. It's a lot of fun and all the resorts and bartenders seem to know about it and make sure it's a always a good time.

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Wed, 06/05/2013 - 14:31

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Becks534 wrote:

I call my BFF right before we go under the Welcome sign so we can go through together

You just made me cry... Love you so much Becks.
Tomorrow!! I'll get one of those calls tomorrow!

You'll get yours on Saturday.

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 14:53

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Kristen K. wrote:

Becks534 wrote:
I call my BFF right before we go under the Welcome sign so we can go through together

You just made me cry... Love you so much Becks.
Tomorrow!! I'll get one of those calls tomorrow!

You'll get yours on Saturday.

Making either of us cry is low hanging fruit right now, pretty easy! But those calls mean a lot!

I forgot one of our traditions but it's kind of a new one: my very soon-to-be husband (I just teared up. See what I mean?!) and I take a picture together in the spot where he proposed in the Magic Kingdom.

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 17:33

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Becks534 wrote:

Kristen K. wrote:
Becks534 wrote:
I call my BFF right before we go under the Welcome sign so we can go through together

You just made me cry... Love you so much Becks.
Tomorrow!! I'll get one of those calls tomorrow!

You'll get yours on Saturday.

Making either of us cry is low hanging fruit right now, pretty easy! But those calls mean a lot!

I forgot one of our traditions but it's kind of a new one: my very soon-to-be husband (I just teared up. See what I mean?!) and I take a picture together in the spot where he proposed in the Magic Kingdom.

Awesome!!!!

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Thu, 06/06/2013 - 00:00

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Love the story about the note too.

I guess my traditions are riding Finding Nemo my first day at Epcot and It's a Small World my first day at MK.

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Fri, 06/07/2013 - 10:57

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Note finding is super cool. Who knew that in a place that attracts so many people in one day (not to mention fifteen years) you can have something that is so personal. That is super cool and amazing.
When I am feeling nostalgic, I go with the pirates first followed by the Tiki Room, but this is only because once year when I was young, my Dad's junior high band when perform at Disney and I would get out of school to go with. The backstage entrance was right by both those attractions. I was actually a lot older before I realized the magic of walking in down Main Street.

Fri, 06/07/2013 - 14:51

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J wrote:

Note finding is super cool. Who knew that in a place that attracts so many people in one day (not to mention fifteen years) you can have something that is so personal. That is super cool and amazing.
When I am feeling nostalgic, I go with the pirates first followed by the Tiki Room, but this is only because once year when I was young, my Dad's junior high band when perform at Disney and I would get out of school to go with. The backstage entrance was right by both those attractions. I was actually a lot older before I realized the magic of walking in down Main Street.

That's funny and cool. Backstage to Main Street. Totally different entrance experience.

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~Eddie G.
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Mon, 06/10/2013 - 16:27

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Hmmm....in MK, I have to either ride or at least get a fast pass for Peter Pan. I LOVE it.

In Epcot, it begins with a cruise around World Showcase.

HS - Muppets!

AK - Safari, and a walk around to take it all in.

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