When I think of my first Disney walking tour, I remember the hot chocolate and cookies before I remember anything else. I sipped them from a souvenir mug (included in the tour package) down a hoarse throat, raw from screaming on rides all day. I could feel the tears well and stream down my face, fogging up my glasses in the cold December air as the trumpets blew down Main Street.

I remember standing in the reserved viewing area for the walking tour guests at Disneyland Park in 2018 as “A Christmas Fantasy Parade” rolled by a rush of glowing lights, music and color. My whole family stood together watching the parade, surrounded by the smell of holiday treats drifting through the air. 

The experience was all part of Disneyland’s seasonal winter walking tour offerings, which combined small-group tours led by Disney cast members with front-of-line access to special rides that had holiday overlays. As the guides moved us through different sections of the parks on foot, they spoke through microphones connected to individual headsets, where background music themed to each area we strode by played between stops. Along the way, the cast members shared park history, storytelling and behind-the-scenes details tied to the park. 

“Disneyland Resort offers a variety of guided tours throughout the year, which vary in duration, up to two hours long,” says Abby Gonzalez, a Disneyland Resort tour guide. “The tours provide guests with storytelling and background on the legacy and history of Disneyland Resort.” 

At the time, I was a high school student struggling with a deep depression that had slowly begun consuming nearly every part of my life. Even moments that were supposed to feel joyful often didn’t.

But something about that night felt different.

Back then, I wasn’t thinking about the structured details of a walking tour or what it cost. I was thinking about how badly I needed a moment where I could just exist without feeling overwhelmed.

Somehow, Disney gave me that.

My dad, Jim Tabor, has always viewed experiences differently than most people. Growing up, he treated exciting experiences not as splurges, but investments into the future, opportunities to create connections and curiosity for my three younger siblings and myself.

“Even as a baby, I would take you to the [Oregon Coast] Aquarium,” my dad says. “Out of all the kids, you were the one who spent the most time in front of each tank. Even when others wanted to move on, I would make sure I stayed with you in your stroller longer at each tank so you could absorb the moment.” 

He adds, “I wanted to create that sense of wonder — that was the biggest thing. It did that for me when I was a kid. There was this little crick where I could sit and watch the fish and crawdads for hours. That feeling of awe and curiosity is what I wanted you to have, too.”

Looking back now, I think he was right.

That Disneyland tour became tied to my future in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time. I remember pulling out my old Motorola phone, looking up the Disney College Program while standing in a ride line. The idea of working for Disney felt completely unrealistic.

I didn’t see myself as someone who got opportunities like that.

Years later, after getting into college and rebuilding my confidence piece by piece, I opened my acceptance email for the Disney College Program.

And immediately, I thought about that trip and those same hot tears flooded my eyes.

Disney created an environment where I could breathe again, even if only for a little while. As a high schooler, I was carrying emotions I didn’t yet know how to process, and my dad was trying his best to reach me. 

That 2018 trip to Disney reawakened the kid inside me — the one who remembered running with her dad to catch a glimpse of Dumbo soaring through the sky above Fantasyland as fireworks exploded overhead. He flew over one of the most unlikely spots in the park, right near the bathrooms, and somehow nobody else seemed to notice. It felt like a moment that existed just for us.“You can do it, Dumbo! You can fly!” we heard Timothy Q. Mouse say as Dumbo soared overhead.

“It gave me goosebumps then and it gives me goosebumps now,” Jim Tabor says. “It wasn’t the most glamorous area to see something so magical, but that’s life.” 

The tours themselves are built around that kind of emotional connection and storytelling. Gonzalez says Disneyland’s guided experiences focus on the park’s history and legacy, blending behind-the-scenes stories with themed experiences offered throughout the year. Guests can also learn more about Gonzalez’s contribution to the “Women Who Make the Magic” guided tour through a feature published by Disney Experiences.

Now I’m preparing to move to Orlando in August of this year for the Disney College Program, and the entire thing feels unbelievably full circle.

Sometimes, there’s a breakthrough in the most mundane and normal routines of life when you least expect it. The high schooler standing in Disneyland with a galaxy-print phone searching “Disney College Program” somehow became the person who got in.

And honestly, that feels a little magical. Maybe more than just a little magic.

Kat Tabor will join The Walt Disney Company later this year through the Disney College Program, where she will spend five months working at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. More information about Disney tours — separate costs from park admission — visit DisneyLand.Disney.go.com/Events-Tours.