Our first trip, 40 years ago today

[pompeyboy]

I've just realised that 40 years ago today Mr and Miss, now Mrs PB made our first trip to Florida to see the Mouse.

We got the 1st train to London then the tube out to Heathrow, flying with National airlines who had been taken over by PanAm but the DC10 we flew on was still in the National colours of white with a touch of orange.

Uneventful flight in the smoking section with just 8 audio channels for entertainment . Got off the plane and it was freezing in the airport, looked out of the window and it was pouring with rain, I wondered why we had bothered.

Went outside and the heat hit us, like walking into an oven, so hot & humid wow. We got a coach to our first hotel on Miami Beach, hired a car Ford Pinto, went to the Seaquarium and drove down to Key West, didn't realise how far it was and missed the sunset, so drove back to Miami.

10 days later we transferred, by coach, to the Quality Inn West in Orlando for 4 nights, Thomson only done 10-4 nights as "there's not much in Orlando, only Disney really"

Only Magic Kingdom back then and you paid to get in and then for each ride seperatly, ranging from 25 cents for a bus along Main Street to a dollar for Space Mountain. Spent 2 days at the Magic Kingdom and remember being so impressed by the cost of food and drinks, so cheap compared to UK theme parks, don't think Disney had caught onto the captive audience back then

There was an issue on the way back and our flight got changed to an indirect via JFK and we got a Pan Am jumbo back across to London, thought we were really something.

It really was quite unusual to travel so far back then, especially for a couple of young factory workers but we loved every minute of the experience and have been back many times since as a couple and with the kids.

Thanks for letting me share this hope it didn't go on too long. One last memory getting $2.43/£ at the airport making a $ 40p

[Loopylooloo]

Love this, thanks for sharing 😊

[ClaireNJ]

Awww, great reading & what lovely memories too 🇺🇸

[2point]

Fantastic memories. Thanks for sharing.

[RM2016]

I love these happy memories, thanks for sharing. Hopefully not too long before you are back making more.

[Jet]

What a lovely read and memories.
Pioneers!🙂

[Twiggy1953]

We’re at 32 years in May. Booked a villa from the travel pages of the Sunday Times. No pool! Soon learnt that lesson. No direct flights to Orlando so had to go via Miami and when we got there the flight up to MCO had been cancelled so we had to do a 4 hour bus ride. By the time we arrived we’d been travelling for 24 hours. It was to be our one and only trip. Guess how that worked out!

[Sandraoh40]

Such great memories. I will have my 40th anniversary next August.
Thanks for sharing.

[Princess Alison]

I love the fact that you had to pay per ride once inside! How things have changed over the years

[gl20]

37 years for me. By '83 it had gone to general admission pricing.

I have a random question for you. Do you remember the rotating full-sized advert boards they used to have around I-Drive etc. They comprised of a series of vertical rotating 3-sided panes. So you might have an advert for SeaWorld, then it would rotate to one for WDW, one for Cyprus Gardens or whatever. I remember thinking this was very cool but I think they were gone by the late 80s.