The Happiest Celebration on Earth!

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

On Wednesday, May 4, the day before the official kick-off of the 18 month long Happiest Celebration on Earth, Disneyland Park was closed to the public and a media event for specially invited guests was held. Among those guests were 5000 annual pass holders and guests who won tickets by registering on the Disneyland.com website earlier in the year. Jason and I registered but unfortunately were not selected to attend. In a way it was a relief since airfare and hotel would have been outrageously expensive.

Just because we weren’t able to attend in person, didn’t mean that we didn’t get to enjoy the festivities. Throughout the day my favorite Disneyland Fan Website, Mouseplanet.com, posted frequent updates and photos of the days events. Just about every time I was able to visit the site, new information had been posted.

One of the fun things that Disney did to celebrate the 50th anniversary was to replace one of the vehicles from each of the remaining original attractions with a golden vehicle. On May 4, the official unveiling of each golden vehicle took place. Some of the attractions that now have golden vehicles are: King Arthur’s Carousel, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Mad Tea Party, Autopia, and the Jungle Cruise. There may be more, but I can’t recall them right now.

Thursday, May 5, 2005

Today, May 5, is the official kick-off of the celebration and people were lined up very early in the morning to get in. There were rumors that the park would reach capacity and stop letting people in, so no one wanted to risk missing out on this special day.

A ceremony was held in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, which had been decorated overnight with five gold crowns representing each of the five decades that Park had been open. Art Linkletter, who was present at the original opening day was the MC. Michael Eisner spoke and received a few boos from the audience. Julie Andrews is the official Ambassador of the celebration and was there to officially announce the start of the 18 month long celebration. Even though I wasn’t able to be there, I was able to download the entire opening presentation and watch it on my computer. I probably get a better view than some of the people who were actually there. The area right in front of the castle was filled by tons of media folks, making it difficult for “Average Joes” to see much of anything.

I can’t wait until our next trip so I can see all the special details that Disney has put in place for the big celebration. It’s time to begin planning our next trip!