Share Your Best Memory in the Park!

[Experiment403]

My best memory in the park is my last trip there (Oct 16 - 21 2006). It was so much fun and the park made it so memorable. My now fiancee and I usually make it to the park once a year (we live up in Canada) and this year I finally decided to propose. Before the trip I had given my girlfriend a homemade cryptex (like the one in the davinci code) and a scavenger hunt book. The scavenger hunt had 6 clues each pertaining to something in either Disneyland or California Adventure. The clues were quite easy like timing how long the dumbo ride lasted or counting how many fingers I was holding up in the Splash Mountain Picture. Anyways, once she solved the scavenger hunt she then had the combination for the cryptex. Inside the cryptex was a final clue which was a penny with a note saying she would know what to do with it when the time was right. Well on our last day at the park (also our 7 year anniversary) I asked my gf if we could get pictures in front of the castle and while we were doing that, I discretely asked the CM taking our picture if she could follow us to the wishing well as I wanted to propose to my gf. Once we got our picture in front of the castle, I took my gf by the hand and walked over to the wishing well. She looked at the well and then pulled out the penny and after she threw the penny in the well, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes!! and now Disneyland means that much more to me.

To top off our day, I had also got balcony tickets for Fantasmic that night and we got to enjoy our last night before going home with a great view!

[zeppelindude]

best memory was probably going on space mtn seven times in a row when we got to go in the park early for staying at the hotel. i also got to go on it to more times that day. eight times on a saturday (never waiting over five minutes) is great.

[Barbaraann]

I've had a lot of good memories, and I haven't really spent as much time at Disneyland as some MiceChatters.

One of my best memories would have to be the time that I spent with my grandson, Sean on our recent trip in August. There was one day that we just hung out together, and I let him choose what we would do together. Surprisingly, he didn't try and get me on any scary rides. We rode some Fantasyland rides, checked out Toontown, saw the Snow White Show, and ran into the Mad Hatter, ALice and the Queen of Hearts. That was a funny character encounter. We also saw Peter and Wendy. After a trip back to the hotel, where I watched him swim, and eat pizza, we watched Block Party Bash. The evening ended with watching the fireworks on the train, and eating popcorn while watching Fantasmic. It was our last night at Disneyland, and I packed while Sean ate Room Service. It was just some great one on one time with my 13 year old grandson.

[The International]

Going to the park for the 50th and seeing "Remember" for the first time. I was expecting quite a bit from the new fireworks spectacular but it still blew me completely away. It's probably my favorite "attraction" at Disneyland to this day.

[aimster]

August 8, 1989... my 15th birthday.

Nuff said.

[TotoMarvs]

I'd have to say any day that i watched Fantasmic! was my best memory. I just love that show, gives me chills every time I watch it.

[steamboatpete]

Oh, so many to choose from. Picking one at random from my long term memory, (and omitting one that would get me banned from Disneyland forever if I admitted to it) I'll go with the time I got to do a cast member sneak preview of Splash Mountain, and they let us sit in the logs backwards. That double drop in the middle is awesome in reverse!

[pveticket]

I've had a lot of good memories, and I haven't really spent as much time at Disneyland as some MiceChatters.

One of my best memories would have to be the time that I spent with my grandson, Sean on our recent trip in August. There was one day that we just hung out together, and I let him choose what we would do together. Surprisingly, he didn't try and get me on any scary rides. We rode some Fantasyland rides, checked out Toontown, saw the Snow White Show, and ran into the Mad Hatter, ALice and the Queen of Hearts. That was a funny character encounter. We also saw Peter and Wendy. After a trip back to the hotel, where I watched him swim, and eat pizza, we watched Block Party Bash. The evening ended with watching the fireworks on the train, and eating popcorn while watching Fantasmic. It was our last night at Disneyland, and I packed while Sean ate Room Service. It was just some great one on one time with my 13 year old grandson.

Aww, your such a great grandma
lol

[zeppelindude]

lucky pete! u got to go in them backwards? wt i would give to do that...

[SplashMoun10]

Oh, so many to choose from. Picking one at random from my long term memory, (and omitting one that would get me banned from Disneyland forever if I admitted to it) I'll go with the time I got to do a cast member sneak preview of Splash Mountain, and they let us sit in the logs backwards. That double drop in the middle is awesome in reverse!

Wow that had to of been extremely fun (and somewhat frightening!)

[aaronpaulcustoms]

My first dole whip in June. The day of the Star Wars Micechatters meet...i missed the group photo (THANKS, DiSnEyFrEak21!!! for getting off shcedule!) But yea...it was a great moment. My first sip and scoop of the float was AMAZING!!! and i just havent felt the same about DL ever since! YEAH!!! YOU KNOW IT!!!!

[krystledm]

sorry to get all depressed, but

the best would be the last time i went with both my parents, they just got a divorce, so it will probably be the best unless something truly amazing happens....that trip we took my cousins, thier first timereally in the parks, my first time riding tower of terror and of corse the last time i went with both parents...

any way sorry about that, but it was the best trip i can think of

[Opus1guy]

My favorite memories have to do with back in the days when Disneyland was really more of a "Park." There were no guardrails protecting the lawns. You could find yourself a nice cool spot under a shady tree and enjoy your chicken dinner al fresco...picnic like. Back then Disneyland seemed a really enchanting place in a much simpler way, especially at night with the twinkling lights in the trees. The Park itself was an E attraction! The rides were nice but almost just diversions. Lots of folks paid just a couple of bucks for a General Admission Ticket, and you could enjoy all the shows, parades, bands, fireworks, etc...and not go on a single ride!

You really felt like you were visiting "Walt's Place" rather than some big corporate money machine.

The homey simplicity of the Park back then was more reminiscent of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. A fairyland of lights and beautiful settings. Heck, back then...the Grand Canyon Diorama was the big deal!

Almost every Saturday night my folks, grandparents, aunts, uncles and various and sundry teenyboppers and tykes would pile into our station wagons and head to Disneyland and Big Band Night at Carnation Plaza Gardens. They had really big names back then. Satchmo, Al Hurt, Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, Les Brown. You'd often see Walt and Lillian, arms around each other, listening to the music on their special little footbridge (still there). Folks would occasionally holler "Hi Walt!" and he would smile and nod. And local television station KTLA (or it might have been KHJ...don't recall) broadcast the bands and the dancers almost every week for awhile LIVE to the Southland in glorious Black & White! Bet some of you never knew that Carnation Plaza Gardens was once part of a weekly local television series! We'd often return home to neighbors saying, "Hey! We saw you on the T.V. again!" Television was so new...we felt like celebrities! Just seemed like a normal weekly Southland ritual to us. A walk in the park. Literally.

Great memories. Every time I visit The Gardens and see that Red & White canopy and the old mirror ball spinning, I think back to those days and many family and friends now long gone. And in my own golden years I find myself thinking of them often and fondly, and of our many family outings to Disneyland. Even today when dining at Club 33 on a Saturday night, I always request an 8:30pm dinner reservation just so I can have time beforehand to listen and watch the band and the familiar regular faces dancing the night away. It's like time has almost frozen in that little piece of the Park (though I miss the Carnation food and ice cream windows). I just love it. And to this day, no other Magic Kingdom has anything like it. It's a classic example of a special something that is "Strictly Disneyland."

My uncle just loved Teddy Buckner and his group, and the two of us would often break away from the rest of the gang to go watch them in the Old New Orleans area of Frontierland, and in later years at New Orleans Square's French Market bandstand.

Occasionally still, on some wonderful Summer nights when the dry Santa Ana winds are gently blowing just right, and the Big Band music is drifting in the air, and if I don't look in the direction of Tomorrowland, I can almost imagine myself back in those days. So very little has changed in The Hub area, really. It's Magic.

Those family memories are my favorites. But another favorite that I still think about when I'm approaching the Disneyland Resort today, is about how I remember back when the "big deal" for Southern Californians was to be the first to spot the TWA Moonliner from the freeway! Back then it was just about the highest point in the Magic Kingdom. And there weren't any high-rise visual obstructions back then, so you could spot it from pretty far away, too! Of course, in 1959 that all changed when Disneyland acquired it's then-new Swiss/Italian "landmark" and the contest changed to being the first to spot the Matterhorn. But my fondest memories are of being the first one to spot that gleaming red and white Rocket Ship of the future, and shouting it out to become the winner of something that didn't even have a prize.

Thanks for the great question. And Thanks for reading.