Doug Twilleager's Weblog The Wonderful World of 3D

Disneyland's 50th Birthday Adventure

Here's a fun one. This is proof positive that I am a Disneyland
geek. If you have been anywhere near a media outlet lately, you know
that Disneyland is celebrating it's 50^th anniversary this
year (and next). Disneyland's birthday is actually July 17^th
1955. So, the actual birthday is now past. Well, the family was
driving somewhere on July 16^th and I was explaining that
the next day was DL's birthday and that I definitely wanted to be
there for the 100^th. My oldest asked why I wasn't going
to the 50^th, and my wife also asked why not. “What?”
I said. Don't tease me, I have my Treo 650 here and I could book the trip right
now. She said go ahead and so I did.

Now being the true Disney geek that I am, I knew that there was
rumors flying around about the potential crowds at the park the next
day. It was such a big deal that they were going to use California
Adventure as a holding pen for all the guests the night before. So,
the plan was set.

I flew down that evening and checked into my hotel. Then I went
to the resort. I got in line around 1:00 am, and there were already
approximately 3000 people ahead of me. Around 2:00 am, they started
moving folks into California Adventure. I made it into CA around
3:30 am and made my way to the end of the line. By 5:00 am I was
looking for breakfast and coffee. We started to move right after
7:00 am. They had scanned our tickets going into CA, so getting into
DL was a snap. They had set up a corridor for us to walk straight
from one park into the other.

There was a few events happening that day to commemorate the day,
so it was obvious this was not a normal day. The first special thing
was how they had Main Street set up. There was a red carpet all the
way down the street and all of the cast members were lining the
walkway, high fiving guests, and shouting “Welcome Home”.
It was a really nice touch.

The official ceremony was pretty boring, except for short talks by
Art Linkletter – who hosted the original opening, and Diane
Disney Miller – Walt's daughter. I spent most of the day
riding some of my favorites and checking out all of the people safe
in the knowledge that I was not nearly as geeky as them (hmmmm).

The highlight of the day was at 4:45 pm when they broadcasted the
actual opening day dedication done by Walt – apparently at that
exact time. I got to see some legendary Imagineers (Tony Baxter,
Bruce Gordon) waiting for the broadcast. Now, I don't know if I
believe in spirits or not, and it may have been the lack of sleep,
but if Walt were ever in in the park, it was during that broadcast.
It truly was a completely different spirit than I have ever
experienced at Disneyland.

I ended up sticking around the park until just after 8:00 pm
before I went back to the hotel and crashed. I have my gold
commemorative mickey ears and my limited edition “I was there”
pin, but it was the experience that I will remember.

Posted at 10:56AM Sep 02, 2005 by dtwilleager in General  |  Comments[1]