Flash back Friday: Disney 20 years ago

Disney World 2000



When I was not working and I started this blog, I would often do what I called Flash back Friday. This would be trips I had taken before I had a blog or even before the internet was a thing. I also had started to realized that I cannot take all of those scrapbooks I created all those years ago with me as I travel forward in my life, so this will be a way to re-experience my previous trips while I also have a keepsake of my scrapbook layouts. Please join me in a little time travel......

FALL BACK....to the year 2000. It really doesn't seem that long ago...but 20 years is a long time. I was still pretty young. 30 years to be exact....We, my oldest son and my daughter, lived in the city of Syracuse in the "outer Comstock" area. I was a single mom, working full time and attending Grad school. Funds were pretty tight. My annual salary was somewhere between 14,000-17,000 a year. Account for daycare, living expenses, etc. and yep we were pretty broke. Trips during those days, (which we did take) included living room camp outs, lots of free parks and free activities in the community. Sleep overs at the besties house (Kelly's) watching scary movies while the kids played, tent camping at Sunset park and finding things to do around the house. A trip to Disney World wasn't even a consideration. My mother however gave us the best Christmas Present EVER....a trip to Walt Disney World....

My mother had gotten the four of us a week long adventure at Disney World. We were booked at the Disney All Star Movies Hotel, we had 6 days of pass hoppers at the four theme parks and it was Nick and Alexis's first plane ride.... This was the best school break EVER.....


My father dropped us off at the airport where we were still in our winter wear.....We arrived later that day in sunny Florida and made our way to our resort........


The kids were in love with all of the themed areas surrounding the hotel. Toy Story was one of Nicks favorites...we checked in and did a little resort touring. This is the biggest Buzz Lightyear we have ever seen.....



Woody and Rex were pretty LARGE too.



We had so much fun just in the resort. My mom had gotten us the meal package, so we did some Mickey Style eating and the resort had the best pool, so we did get to enjoy that too.

My mother had also purchased a themed meal......Lunch with some of my all time favorite characters...Winnie the pooh, Tigger, and Eyore,

My memory of the things we did are pretty much left to these pictures that the then me, did not take, my mom was also the photographer, but the whole experience for me and my family was pretty new. Nick and I had been to Magic Kingdom when he was about three years old but none of us had ever been to all the other parks and we pretty much made every second of time at all of them count. One day we headed off to Epcot where we did a tour of the many worlds. It does seem like there was not nearly as many people visiting when we went back then. In my mind Epcot was the adult park, but we sure made it fun for all ages.

I do remember that we did several hands on activities that the kids liked. We watched some shows; Wonder of China, the American Adventure and O'Canada, and we did a boat ride in Norway. It was called Magalstrom back then, now I think it houses the Frozen ride. (I could be wrong.).

We also enjoyed the several other areas of the park; journey into Imagination, Honey I Shrunk the Kids show, Spaceship Earth, The living Seas and Land as well as Ellen's Energy Adventure.  I want to say we also went on Body Wars.....but I'm not positive. We had the hopper pass, so I do recall we went back to Epcot one evening and watched the Tapestry of Nations parade as well as the Illuminations show out on the lagoon.



I think Nick would say his favorite had to be Animal Kingdom. That kid spend quite a bit of time digging in the Boneyard at Dinoland fossil dig.

I'm pretty sure we skipped Dinosaur (Countdown to Extinction) back then. I rode it when these kids were in there teens and I was a mess....it scared me so much, but then I was scared by Jurassic Park. Something about dinosaurs always gets me.

We did however enjoy the more friendly non moving dinosaurs...

We enjoyed It's a Bugs Life and couldn't stop talking about the stink bugs smell...
.  We also did conservation station. This was fun too.

I believe we watched a show (The Lion King) in Animal Kingdom, but I can't remember if this was at Animal Kingdom. We also walked several trails looking at Animals. Back in 2000 Animal Kingdom was the newest park (1998) and if I recall there was not nearly as many themed rides as there is now. There was no Everest ride, or Pandora the hours at the park was even later to open and early to close. The park has changed quite a bit since then.

We also got to meet Mickey and Minnie mouse. I also think we saw the Tarzan stage show while in Animal Kingdom. I remember we had seats up pretty close.

One afternoon we went to Downtown Disney. (now called Disney Springs) This area too has changed significantly since 2000. Although the Lego Store still has this sea monster coming up through the bay.

When we went to Magic Kingdom we saw so many characters. Back then, we never stood in a line to see our favorites. When the family went in 2008 one of the longest lines I waited in was to see Captain Hook...it was very different on this trip. There were no lines, the characters were pretty much walking the streets. The last time I went to Disney, the characters were set up in their own kiosk, and there were definitely LONG LONG Lines to see them. 

We pretty much did all of the iconic Magic Kingdom rides. Splash mountain, Its a small world, Peter Pan, Snow Whites Scary Adventure (now gone), the Haunted Mansion, the Country Bear Jamboree, Jungle Cruise, the Pirates of the Caribbean (no Jack Sparrow). 

We also watched the Electric Light Parade.


Oddly enough, I remember MGM ( now called Hollywood Studios) the most.

The kids loved the Honey I shrunk the kids playground. I'm not even sure if it still exists today. We had to have spent at least a hour or more pretending we were shrunk down and lost somewhere in the backyard. 

We also watched the performance of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

We spent some time in the Disney Animation section. I'm not sure if this is still there either. Nick was fascinated at all the steps it takes to become an annimateer. I was pretty convinced when we left he would make his career working at Disney. 

We watched The Muppets and the Star wars ride, as well as taking the Back Lot Tours (this is no longer there).

What fun to go back in time to yesterdays....We all certainly had one of the best times at Disney World back in the year 2000. My kids still love Disney and we are planning a family trip to Disney World in 2021... (I had hoped 2020, but with the way the world is right now, I think we are going look at a year ahead of this.)

TTFN.