How many of you had your first Disney park experience as an adult?

[WorldOfPooh]

Did y'all feel like you had to ride everyride (even the kiddie rides)? We're you kind of like Tom Hanks in Big, Kid in a candy store?

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I was 28 years old my first trip to WDW.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I was 20 and we (XH and myself) took our 3 year old son. Been hooked ever since. It was my first time (and my sons first trip) but he went every year as a kid. When XH went as a kid they did timeshares and bought discount tickets to make it affordable and that’s what we did the first two visits (they were 5 years apart). Shortly before our second trip I found the Dis and planned an on-site trip for the following year. That’s when I was truly truly hooked!

 

[disneyseniors]

I know that a lot of people grew up taking Disney vacations, but how many people didn't enter a park until they were adults? I'm wondering if I'm an oddball! LOL

No OP, you are not an oddball!
We never had the money to go to disneyland when I was a child (there was only disneyland then). I would watch Wonderful World of Color (or Disney can't remember) Sunday night and wish I could be there.
Fast forward to when we had our children. We waited until they were a little older to take them to DisneyWorld. They were 5 and 7 y/o and we were in our twenties. It was just as amazing and wonderful to us as it was to the kids. I don't feel like I missed out on anything by not visiting until we had our own kids. We go once a year now and still find the magic.

 

[georgina]

Did y'all feel like you had to ride everyride (even the kiddie rides)? We're you kind of like Tom Hanks in Big, Kid in a candy store?

Well we had 3 kids with us so we did ride them, and I mostly go solo now and still ride most of them, except Little Mermaid and Nemo.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Did y'all feel like you had to ride everyride (even the kiddie rides)? We're you kind of like Tom Hanks in Big, Kid in a candy store?

Yup! Our first ride was dumbo. Even though my son was 3 I wanted to really ride dumbo first. And I booked CRT for our second trip. That was for me too! I didn’t know about CRT on our first trip.

 

[Paul 55555]

I was 22 and on my honeymoon,first time for my wife as well.My family was poor so we never had the money to go.So at 65years old i took my mother for her first trip.

 

[Erica Ladd]

I was 46!!!!

 

[Kitty 34]

I was 43, DH 44 and our sons were 17, 11, and 9. We went many times after that.

 

[NC State]

Growing up it was one of those "yes, we will go to Disney World one day". Well my parents never took me but we did take my daughter when she was 7 and my husband and I were 29 and 31. It's truly magical because it became our "magical place". I did take my parents to WDW when they were 62 and 64 years old. They loved it. I'm not sure if they "get it". They just remembered how clean it was and the good food. After 15 WDW trips we started Disney Cruise Line which we enjoy more now. We are about to go on our 16th WDW trip in October.

 

[weluvdisneyx4]

Me!! I always wanted to go as a kid but my parents had no desire to go. We went out west when I was going into 6th grade, saw the Grand Canyon, all the natural monuments in Utah and so many other things. It was nice, but as a 12 year old, I complained "why didn't we go to Disney?" LOL! When I was in college and went to Daytona for Spring Break I had a chance to go as a day trip, but decided I wanted my first trip to be special, not just a hurried day on a set tour. So glad I waited...A day or so after DH proposed to me, he asked where I wanted to go on a honeymoon and I had no idea. We had even talked about a wedding date, but I hadn't thought much further. DH suggested Disney World and I was sooooo happy and excited!!! We didn't stay on sight, but very close by and we had a blast! It certainly wasn't your typical, super romantic honeymoon. More nights than not, we would get back in the room and I would crash from the busy days and DH would go to the bar and watch the World Series! LOL! (It was October) However, if we both had the chance, we wouldn't do it any differently. We ended up getting sucked into buying a timeshare! (At Westgate, no less ) There was an airfare war the next year, so we went again with DH's parents and brother. We then went 5 more times over the next 10 years and it has been way too long since we last went. My parents ended up going by themselves for a few days, but said they didn't particularly care for it. They just don't know what a good time is!!

 

[Praying Colonel]

My first WDW trip was when I was 40.

We were Disney fans but my parents couldn't afford to go on vacation very often and when we did, it was something much more affordable than a Disney trip.

When I was 28 I was processing out of the Navy, and at that time the out-processing center was in...Orlando. So I had a whole week there with literally nothing to do and WDW open and ready (and it was early December, traditionally a slow time). Smart guy here decided he wanted to experience it for the first time with his family (married with 2 small ones back then), so decided not to go.

Dumb, dumb, dumb--got myself into a job where I rarely got time off, DW and the kids ended up going to WDW a few years later with my FIL and MIL. My first WDW trip was my kids' second.

 

[TimC40]

I was 32 when I went the first time.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

I was 21 my first trip. My parents couldn’t afford it when I was a child and felt I was too old when they were in a position to afford it . Instead I took my mother and my 2 year old once I had enough money to do so. Until this year I had pretty much gone back every 12-18 months.

 

[TCRAIG]

17 - but in all fairness it was a year or so after WDW opened and being East Coast, the thought of going to California for a vacation was unheard of!

 

[Meriweather]

Did y'all feel like you had to ride everyride (even the kiddie rides)? We're you kind of like Tom Hanks in Big, Kid in a candy store?

Well, I was with kids, so I did. Didn't feel like I had to though, since I grew up with Disneyland and the kids had been several times

 

[WorldOfPooh]

My first WDW trip was when I was 40.

We were Disney fans but my parents couldn't afford to go on vacation very often and when we did, it was something much more affordable than a Disney trip.

When I was 28 I was processing out of the Navy, and at that time the out-processing center was in...Orlando. So I had a whole week there with literally nothing to do and WDW open and ready (and it was early December, traditionally a slow time). Smart guy here decided he wanted to experience it for the first time with his family (married with 2 small ones back then), so decided not to go.

Dumb, dumb, dumb--got myself into a job where I rarely got time off, DW and the kids ended up going to WDW a few years later with my FIL and MIL. My first WDW trip was my kids' second.

Orlando seems like an odd place to have a Navy out-processing center.

 

[mom2rtk]

Visited Epcot one day when I was 29, and the MK one day when I was 36, another Epcot day at 39. Didn't do a multiple day visit until I was 41.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Orlando seems like an odd place to have a Navy out-processing center.

Yes, it was a quirk of the times. This was back in the Cold War days when there was a Navy Training Center (boot camp, etc.) in Orlando.

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Naval_Training_Center_Orlando
That closed as part of the first wave of Base Realignment and Closure in the 90s.

Depending on where you were outprocessing, you might get lucky and get to outprocess through Orlando. I'd been stationed in the Caribbean, so that was the closest for me.

 

[kyton]

Disneyland when I went on my first overseas holiday aged 21. Our last trip was in 2017 when I was 47 and I still cried as I walked through the gates