Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse

 

We all want to know Mickey Mouse's secret to looking so youthful after 96 years!  He was born on November 18 with the debut of Steamboat Willie.  I can't believe he has been making people of all ages feel like a child again for nearly a century!

Mickey Mouse is probably my first love.  I've been a fan as long as I can remember . . . and I still am.  Back in the day, my first husband JR and I would plan a mini vacation to Disney World  every month.  We both worked many hours a week at our long time jobs and had over a months' worth of vacation, so we planned long weekends once a month.

It felt like such a luxury to be annual passholders.  As passholder members, we got awesome prices at Disney hotels.  Our favorite destination was Fort Wilderness where we would pitch a tent and camp when the weather was cool.

We spent so any hours through the years waiting in line for a meet and greet with Mickey.  And it was well worth the wait! 

Wishing I could be at the Magic Kingdom to celebrate Mickey's birthday, but I am there in spirit!

The Magic of Walt Disney World

There is no other place in the world that I love more than Walt Disney World in Orlando.  It is truly magical.

The photo is from the early days of Walt Disney World.  Notice I am wearing bell bottom pants . . . what does that tell you about how long ago that was?  I was there the first week the park opened and continued to visit at least a couple of times a year.  My husband and I were annual passholders and visited at least once a month, sometimes a couple times a month.  We were there for the opening day of Epcot Center.  

So many memories lie in the magic of Walt Disney World.

Since I became a widow almost 9 years ago, I have not returned.  That will soon change as I have moved on with my life and I know that new memories of Walt Disney World with The Captain will be equally as awesome and magical.  I can't wait to show him all my favorite places at the various parks and resorts.

What I've decided to do is feature Vintage Walt Disney World in future blog posts.  I have numerous photo albums going back through time and VHS video that I would love to convert to CD so I can share rides that don't exist anymore and construction of new rides and resorts as they were going up.  The parks and resorts are constantly evolving, but I'd love to feature the many changes and take a trip back in time to earlier days through my memories, photos and video.

The backdrop of this photo are the gardens at the Polynesian Hotel, one of the original monorail resorts that also features boat rides across the lagoon to the Magic Kingdom.  The lushly tropical lobby whose atmosphere is complete with waterfalls, awesome tropical landscaping and parrots remained one of the most beautiful places to hang out on the Disney property . . . in my opinion.  This is the only photo I have scanned into my computer at the moment, but I will definitely be featuring the Polynesian Hotel in a future post with much better photos and video.

The gardens at the Canadian pavillion at Epcot Center . . . one of my favorite spots to get away from the crowds to chill out and get a little rest.  Gorgeous!

Keep checking back for new posts as I dust off my photo albums, convert my videos and dig up some magical memories of Walt Disney World.