Summary
Some spoilers in here, so don’t read if you don’t want to know…
Fun, crowded, everyone booed Eisner haha, was great, met cool new friends while waiting 5 hours for the fireworks (we got the best seat in front of the castle).
The new fireworks show, Remember! is amazing, lasers, lights, tinker flies all around, they shoot cannon fire off matterhorn in a pirates scene, there is a haunted mansion scene, indiana jones with fire coming off the castle, images on the castle, it changes 1000s of colors, fireworks shoot around the entire Plaza, totally awesome.
The Parade of Dreams is one of the best I have seen. The floats are fantastic and the animatronics on Ursula are hard to believe. Much crowd cheering to be had.
Details So we got at the park at 6:15 but Mickey and Friends didn’t open till 7. So we ended up in the Plaza outside of the park at 7:15. There were already 1000s ahead of us in over 27 lines (I think) Rumors are that the park was closed at 9:30 for having 75,000 guests inside already. Some people had been there since 3am. Some people waited in line for 5 hours after the park opened to get pins. Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
When the gates opened at 8:30, we moved into a very packed main street. Then we moved around the Plaza (hub) to the left at 9am which was also a zoo. Disney had given the media the entire central hub with scaffolds and cameras and booms and light towers so nobody could use that space to see the 10am kickoff event.
We went left, which apparently was a good idea. It rained a little off an on while we waited the hour, which brought out the umbrellas, meaning you could see zero, but the rain stopped before the event began. Then the ropes were moved again and the crowd rushed forward. I really didn’t have any choice in the matter and ended up a couple of people ahead of Matt. Remember, we had not sat once since 7am.
So the event starts around 10:15 or so and well it was alright I guess. Leann Rhymes sung remember, Christina Aguillera whored up “When you wish upon a star” and Art Linkletter hosted the event. There were video screens which none of us could see – Nice touch I thought.
Bob Iger (sp?) did a speech somewhere in the mix (I have it all on video, I’m too tired to recall exactly atm) and when Linkletter announced Eisner, everyone booed. It was glorious. Good riddance to ya, Mike. Other people recounted saying “hi!” to Eisner at the gates and having him give a “so what” kind of wave, and I guess he gave another speech at Main Street station for the 10,000+ people who could not get past main street and they booed him too!
It was really sad that Roy was not there.
So anyway Julie Andrews finished off the event and started the party. She was the real gem and with the characters helping they dropped the curtain on the castle and revealed the new 50th banner.
The castle is really beautiful. Spires are now crowned and the crowns are full of jewels, which light up at night. It is wonderful tribute to Walt.
After messing around in the park, including taking photos of the murals made up of 1000s of photos, hidden 50th mickeys and an hour in the hot dog line we went by the front of the castle and people were already sitting so, yes at 4:30pm we sat down, smack dab in center of the castle view on the inside ring of the hub and had perfect seats. The Remember! show was awesome.
Not did we just have perfect viewing, but later we started talking to others who had sat around us and I had an awesome time meeting Doug, Christi and shoot I forgot everyone else’s names, haha. I suck. They have a hub club and it was really great getting to know them. On top of being Disney geeks they are also Mac geeks! Talk about my happiest place on Earth! Meeting them really made the day special.
While we were waiting we had perfect seats for the Dreams parade which is much, much better at night. You really want to see this parade, it is beautiful. I didn’t get any shots, sorry. 🙁
I look forward to seeing my new friends online and despite the hiccups had a wonderful, wonderful day in Walt’s place.
Oh how could I forget! I met Maynard, the ever popular cast member and even had my pic taken with him! He is a totally great person!
P.S. Doug is lucky he got to go home with his jacket. heh
P.P.S. I forgot to add a “I’m not worthy” bow to Christi for thinking Simba was animatronic when she correctly insisted it was puppeteered.