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—Walt Disney

t starts when I get off the tram, and step onto the pavement, stepping past the huge cement traffic cones.The air tingles a little bit. My heart stops for just half a beat.

efore you see it, you can hear Disneyland. The rush of Monorail Blue as it passes you going the other direction encourages you to pick your feet up a little faster. In the distance, getting louder, you can hear the announcement of the arrival of the Disneyland Railroad, leaving on a grand circle tour of Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom and you know you are almost there.

hen I clear the turnstile, I find that I like to linger just a bit. I glance back at the mundane world behind me, and then peer up at the railroad station. then make my way a little more slowly under the arch and the view of Main Street unfolds before my eyes. The cars, the buildings, the sounds and the smells all open their arms and I know that I have arrived!

he way you start your visit to Disneyland is where some of your oldest and most dear traditions lie. Here are our favorites:

have been going to Disneyland ever since the first summer it opened in 1955. Even when I was very young, I noticed that plaque above the entrance tunnel where the trains cross over as one enters Main Street.

s I got little older, I began stopping for a moment and reading that sign, the line between the everyday world and the unique magic thrill that was Disneyland. Once I’d read the sign…I was in the Magic Kingdom. When I passed back through the tunnel at night, I knew I had returned to normal life.

s I brought my wife to Disneyland, in the busy days as our children grew up, we would stand there together and read it before we entered; a separation from the adult world and a step back into childhood. Our children heard us read it to them many times, as we became some of the first who experimented with the Annual Pass, in the days when there was a ‘special turnstyle’ one had to pass though.

nd now, as we live in Hawaii, it is mostly our children, some married and bringing their own spouses along, who visit Disneyland from their homes on the mainland, and stop at the plaque before beginning their own magic and read…

“Here you leave today, and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”

—P.C.

ince my daughter was four years old, (she is now thirteen), she hasn’t missed a summer at Disneyland. There is a gold spike located just behind the castle entrance which marks the center point of the original Disneyland Park. Whenever my daughter and I visit Disneyland, on our first day we would always go to the spike and stand directly over it. We would first face North and then turn to the other three major directions, (East, South, and West), to start off our fun and exciting days in the park. Also, when we pass the famous Partners statue in the Hub, my daughter and I would quietly say thanks to Walt Disney and Mickey.

—The G. Family

first went to Disneyland with my parents and older sister in 1959 when I was three. I have a pretty good memory of that trip despite my age (then and now). The first ride we went on was the Santa Fe – Disneyland Railroad. Of course, I was exited as a three year old could be to finally be at the place that I had been seeing for months on Sunday nights on our tiny black and white T.V. That journey around the park was pure magic! I remember starting out looking at the huge Christmas tree in Town Square, smelling popcorn and many other treats coming up from Main Street; seeing the Mark Twain, the Fantasyland Railroad Station and the TWA Rocket Ship.

very time I went with my family as a child, we rode the Railroad first.When I brought my own children, I would always take them on the Railroad first.

ow we usually visit with a five-day pass, and the first ride on the first day is the Disneyland Railroad.

eave it for the other four days to get trampled in the rush to the Matterhorn, or later, Space Mountain, still later, Star Tours then Splash Mountain, and now the rush is to Indiana Jones or Peter Pan. That first slow ride on the Train sets a good relaxed pace for the rest of the trip, keeping the few frantic moments to a minimum .

I would love to hear your family's Disney traditions, please drop me a line at either:

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— Allison