Dinner with the Dwarves

It was December of 1973, the speed limits around the country were being lowered from 70 mph to 55 mph, gas prices were climbing and here was my family driving from Maine to Florida. WDW was our main objective (although there would be other stops around the state), and pulling into the MK toll plaza, it appeared that we were the only ones there. Kind of like the scene from National Lampoon's Vacation when the Griswold family pulled into Wally World. Since the signs at the plaza read the "overnight accomodations" available, we went straight to the Contemporary Resort and checked in for just $49 per night! Could it get any better? After checking in, we found that the MK would be open for another 3 hours (til 7pm) so we hopped aboard the monorail and headed over. My grandparents had been to WDW the prior year and my grandmothers favorite attraction had been "it's a small world", so that was our introduction to WDW. Due to the light crowds we were able to visit every attraction in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, plus a few in Adventureland before we left for the evening. It was amazing how uncrowded it was. It could not prepare us for what we were about to experience the next day.

Our first "full" day at the MK started early. We got to the park before the official opening and by the time 9 am arrived, there were just a few hundred guests waiting to get in. We spent the day literally by ourselves. Every attraction was a walk on, no waits at all. This was when we started to notice the characters wandering around. There was no one waiting to interact with them, and they were actually approaching guests for interaction. We didn't notice many other children in the park, so the characters naturally gravitated to me and my younger sister. Before we knew it, we had all seven dwarves, three little pigs and the big bad wolf hanging out with us. It wasn't just a quick hello either...they actually all followed us into the Tomorrowland Terrace and stayed with us for a good 15 minutes while we ate lunch. Armed with our "new" Polaroid camera (the one where you shake the picture and watch them develope) my dad took a few dozen pics with the characters. They finally left and headed off as a group (it was probably break time), but to have that many characters to ourselves left quite an impression. As I watch today's character interaction, I'm amazed that back "in the day", the characters roamed at will and without security. It was just spontanious fun.

We stayed at WDW for three days and saw everything the MK had to offer at least twice...some attractions three times. That December visit was the first of many (30+ yearly visits). Of course that first visit spoiled us for life, as we've never felt like we were the only guests in the park. We've never again had a character encounter nearly as magical as our lunch with the dwarves, but we've recorded thousands more incredible memories. Most of the Polaroids have been destroyed with age, but I still have one cracked photo of my sister and the Big Bad Wolf at the TT. Ahh...the memories....