Theme Park Core Memories

[HHN Maddux]

What the title says! This will be just a cozy thread for talking about our core memories from the parks, whether it be Universal, Disney or anywhere!

For me, still to this day the #1 core memory that comes to mind is meeting Judy and Nick at the Very Merry Christmas Party in 2018. Judy and Nick are my favorite Disney characters and frankly, my top two favorite fictional characters period, both of them are incredible, inspiring and relatable characters with a beautiful relationship, and until recently, you could only see them in either the now defunct Move It Shake It (where even then you couldn't do photos or properly meet them), or the Christmas Party, the only time they'd have an actual proper meet-n-greet. My mom took me just to meet them, and I brought my merch and made drawings for them!

I met them multiple times throughout the night and of course they recognized me each time, and to this day, still by and far the best character encounters I've ever had in any theme park. Don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of magical moments at Disney and a few at Universal, but this was seriously on a whole other level. I'm talking moving fully away from the photo op spot so the three of us could watch a few minutes of the fireworks show as it was going. Not only that, but Judy and Nick couldn't do autographs, instead handing out "pre-signed" trinkets, but after one of the encounters during the night, a CM pulled me off to the side and asked if I'd like my drawings of them to be signed, to which I happily said yes. Judy and Nick went backstage with the CM, and when they came back out for their next set, personally handed the drawings back to me now signed. And finally at the end of the night, an attendant asked if I wanted to be the last guest to see them for a prolonged interaction and goodbye, to which I very excitedly agreed. Many many hugs were shared including a long group hug that lasted a good 2-3 minutes, and after final photos, they took my hands and let me walk with them to the gate that took them backstage before saying goodbye.

I still have those signed drawings up on my wall, and to this day it is by far the most magical moment and memory I have in all my years of going to the parks. Thank you again Judy and Nick.

Let's hear yours!

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I don't really have any MAJOR moments, just random things that really stick in my mind more than others. Although a big one this past December was meeting For The Love of Theme Parks (Ryan) after the Holiday Parade - talked to him for a good bit and he was a great guy!

Others would include:
- Spending way too much time in Vamp 85 at HHN 2018
- Eating Bumblebee Man Tacos and sitting at Duff Gardens (MANY instances of this!)
- First time at Discovery Cove in 2024
- Spending way too much time in Vamp 69 at HHN 2023 (there's a theme here..)
- First day at Epic Universe (because we had Express and nothing broke down!)

I'm sure more will pop off the top of my head but those are major ones I can think of now!

 

[Jerroddragon]

I'll start with Universal Studios Hollywood

1) Getting Picked for the Nickelodeon Game and winning and getting slimed on (it was a theater where Shrek 4D/Dreamworks is now)
2) My first time doing House of Horrors, this was my first real house and what got me into HHN. I was so scared going in but by the end loved it so much went and did it again with friend's telling them I was down for HHN
3) First HHN - It had Saw and the lower lot had the house but also some Pigs in Masks. We rushed to the lower lot at the rope drop for the event (this was before early entry). My friend (who was the most scared to be there) shoe came off and most people kept walking but the Pig Mask actors helped him and lifted his shoe with a chainsaw and he took it from them, was hilarious ours to me at the time.
4) First Bumping the Gillman/Creature wrestler they had a few years ago in the Paris street scarezone. I always where my creature tank top and he was cool enough to fist bump me one night at the event
5) Walking on Transformers on a random weekday when it was testing. Back in the day there was no twitter and basically I heard from a forums that Transformers the Ride was testing in the park, so my friend and I went on a day we didn't have school and it was empty and walked on Transformers many times because no one knew it would be open for testing
6) SNW Testing, this one we did have Twitter but still felt like a risk because some days they would close the land randomly but getting into SNW the like 2-3 weeks before it opened was soooo cool. Low lines and since I was inbetween jobs at the time I could go as much as i wanted. I think I went like at least 10 days of the previews...I was excited for Nintendo finally having a theme park land