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| Me as a baby, already rocking the Mickey ears! |
My family have always been big fans of the mouse and by the time I'd reached high school I'd been to Walt Disney World more times than I could count. There were always the visits that stood out like when we stayed at the Polynesian or when my family actually won a trip thanks to McDonald's and their chicken selects contest.
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| Me at the Hawaiian Luau at the Polynesian, my first trip (Age 4 - 1995) |
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| My family and I at Epcot the year we won a free trip from McDonald's (Age 15 - 2006) |
But a lot of people always wonder why so many grown-up men and women choose to spend their time and money in a park "meant for children."
I'm here to tell you there is something for every age at Disney World and it's not necessarily the literal experience, but the emotions that come from it.
As a child, it was a sense of wonder. Your favorite character in real life, fun rides and just being surrounded by the Disney magic.
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| MGM Studios with my cousins (Age 9 - 2000) |
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| My cousin and I with our favorite, Stitch! (Age 14 - 2005) |
But as I got older, I started to notice that there was more than that to the Disney experience.
In high school, I got to go with my little cousin who was only 2 at the time. Seeing the parks through her eyes is an experience that I will never forget and still makes me well up to this day, almost 15 years later. Seeing her in her Cinderella dress meeting her favorite princess, wishing on a star in her castle, is a memory I will cherish.
As I grew up and went to college, I didn't get to go as often, but always kept Disney in my life in other ways. When I graduated, I went for a couple of days and had SO much fun with my cousins, laughing and enjoying the park.
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| Me and my little cousin at the Tomorrowland Dance Party! (Age 22 - 2013) |
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| Me and my cousins being eaten by Bruce! (Age 23 - 2014) |
As an adult, my first time back was with just my mom. In the past, I'd always gone with a big group, so this time was totally different. We were able to just do what we felt like and had so much fun just allowing ourselves to be little kids again — chasing the monorail, buying stuffed animals and taking our time to see things that in all the times we'd been to the park that we'd never actually gotten to experience.
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| My mom and I at the Polynesian (Age 25 - 2016) |
At the age of 25, I had been to the parks dozens of times and my mom even more. Our experience was completely different than any other time we'd been.
A few years later, I got to take my now husband to the parks for the first time since he was 7. Again, another completely different experience. I was so excited to show him EVERYTHING and make sure he got the full-blown Disney experience.
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| My now-husband and I modeling these awesome Finding Nemo shirts! (Age 27 - 2018) |
We stayed on property, ate at Cinderella's Castle, collected pins, donned ears and took TONS of photos. This wound up being a celebration of our engagement, of which he surprised me the night we left to go there. We made so many memories and yet again, I found things in the parks that I never had before.
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| Our VERY sneaky, unofficial engagement announcement at Magic Kingdom |
Today, I'm almost 30, married, work a full-time job and recently moved to Florida. My first move — become a Disney Annual Passholder.
In the almost year we've lived here, we've gone to the park five times and have loved every second. It would have been more if we didn't have to deal with the pandemic.
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| My husband and I (with my dad photobombing!) watching the Christmas parade (Age 28 -2019) |
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| My husband and I after we were captured by The Resistance. (Age 28 - 2020) |
But let me get to my point here. Why as a grown woman do I still absolutely adore Disney World? Well, it's my happy place.
I'm a very busy, very stressed out person. I'm always stressed out about something whether it's spending money or the house being messy, I'm always feeling guilty about spending time going out when there's probably something more important I should be doing. Disney World takes that all away.
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| Hanging out with my favorite (Age 25 - 2016) |
When I'm at Disney, all of my worries just slip away. It's like you walk through those gates and Mickey comes up to you, takes all of your burdens and says, "It's okay. Let me hold onto that for now." It's the one place where I can truly just let go and allow myself to release my inner child (which is never too far by the way lol) and enjoy myself. I can focus on spending time with my husband or whoever we happen to be lucky enough to be there with.
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| Me, my hubby and my parents after we all surprised my mom with a trip! (Age 28 - 2019) |
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| Goofing off with our friends at the Festival of the Arts (Age 28 - 2020) |
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| More time with family riding the train in Animal Kingdom (Age 28 - 2020) |
My only responsibility is making sure I'm fed and that I don't spend TOO much money at Mouse Gear. My biggest concern is making sure my Minnie ears match my outfit and the only thing I'm worried about planning is where we're getting dinner and what time our FastPass is for.
There's no bills to pay, laundry to do, bathrooms to clean. It's just me and Mickey Mouse.
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| Our first day as Annual Passholders! (Age 28 - 2019) |
Plus Disney is a totally different kind of fun as an adult. There's plenty of things to do that are geared toward adults and "kids at heart." Festivals are a blast, shopping is always a good time and there are plenty of rides like Tower of Terror and Rise of the Resistance that are fun for all. I'll leave my list of favorite adult activities for another blog post, but you get the point.
So as you can probably imagine, I'm ITCHING to get back into the parks right now. Even though I know it's not the safest quite yet, maybe soon I'll get to go home...and I'm sure when I do, there will be lots of happy tears.
XO, Briana
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