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DizHub Attends the 50th Preview

Report by: Macabri - Pictures by: Tach and Macabri

Disneyland, May 4th, 2005. Signs everywhere read 'Disneyland Closed', and even the Cast Members on the trams from the Timon parking lot informed us of the same. However, I was still going to Disneyland.

I was one of the fortunate few who managed access to Disneyland on the 4th, and it was a day I'll never forget and I doubt anyone else there will forget it either.

Arriving at the check-in booth (after the chilly tram ride to the parks) I gave my name to the Cast Members in charge of distributing credentials to the media and invited guests. Hands shaking I received a lanyard badge reading 'Guest', an itinerary, a May 4th only ticket into Disneyland, a one-day park hopper pass (good till the 10th), and a voucher for a commemerative bag to be recieved upon leaving the park.

Still nervous with excitement I threw on my lanyard and entered the park. The first sight to greet me was a large Mickey head with 50 in it made out of flowers accompanied by a statue (for lack of a better word) of Mickey, also looking quite flowery. All around guests were snapping photos and you could feel the excited energy coming from everywhere.

Walking down Main Street you could hardly look anywhere without seeing a 50th Mickey head gracing a building or lamp. In the windows of the Emporium there were pieces from original set displays moving, interacting, and sometimes twinkling. Each window represented a different decade of Disney movies that had once had their own full displays over the years.

Soon we were ushered along to find a seat for the new parade: Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams. We walked by Tomorrowland and caught a glimpse of the set up for the official opening of Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. We finally found a seat and were warned multiple times to keep ourselves seated as far away from the street as possible, and there was a good reason why. The parade was HUGE!

This by far has to be one of the best parades Disneyland has ever had, and for me personally it's only second to Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade.

The parade started with a whole new song piece that told us 'Welcome to our family!' and 'It's a festival and best of all, we're here to share it all'. The first float to roll around the bend was a large golden train being driven by Peter Pan with Tinkbell perched ontop. In front of the train was the classic Mickey head made of flowers, and around it danced the Blue Fairy, the Fairy Godmother, Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather.

The next float in the line-up was Beauty and the Beast accompanied by dancing silverware and animatronic singing figures of Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and Cogsworth. Everything on the float and the floats to follow moved and lit-up.

After that several performers dressed as toys along with Pinnocchio led the next giant float along. This one had Gepphetto holding the strings to two 'real' dancing dolls. At the back of it several performers bounced and twirled from their own stretchy strings.

Little Mermaid made it's appearance next and actually consisted of two floats. The first had Ariel and Sebastian and the second the gigantic looming figure of Ursula. Ursula was a mechanical parade marvel; she could blink, she could sing, she could move her arms, and she was larger than life. Two dancers infront of her portrayed her eel henchmen Flotsam and Jetsam.

Close behind came the mad tea party and the whole gang was there for a very merry un-birthday. Tweedle-Dee and Dum lead zoomed around in a couple of teacups. Behind Alice and the Mad Hatter bounded about with shouts of 'Move down!' and the like, and towering above them was the caterpillar, almost as large as Ursula had been. Swaying near him were the flowers, and behind the float towering performers on stilts made for more flowers, jumping and dancing along.

It was time to get even wilder than the tea party as a large rhino bobbed and danced his way down the street followed by a Lion King float. Mighty Simba danced ontop of Pride Rock and sang along accompanied by Nala sitting by a working waterfall. No, not ribbons that looked like water, real water. Under Pride Rock Rafiki was 'monkeying' around and further back Zazu and Pumbaa were hanging out, well, atleast Pumbaa was.

Now what parade would be complete without some royalty? Led by dwarfs and Goofy came the princesses (and their princes) on a large castle float. The float was covered in twisting metal work and fairy tale type sayings. At the castle's balcony Mickey and Minnie waved to the crowd, finishing out the parade.

Now of course, the parade was only the beginning of the day. We, like many of the guests, dispersed to explore Disneyland before the next event. Along the way we found more 50th Mickeys on many of the attractions, and also something new. We noticed that all of the rides that were original from Disneyland's opening day had all recieved metal plaques that had a large 'D' on them and a scroll reading 'Class of 1955'.

As many people know most of the opening day attractions still at Disneyland are located in Fantasyland and they were all to recieve gold vehicles. Peter Pan's was right out in front. Not only was there a golden pirate ship with burgundy seating, but there was a Neverland map rolling it's way around next to it making for a fantastic photo opportunity.

While Peter Pan may have already been unveiled the next event was the official unveiling of one ride vehicle to represent the kick-off for the rest. The ride picked was Dumbo. So clutching our Guest passes we wandered over to watch the event and take pictures. Not only were there press cameras getting ready everywhere, and other media and guests settling in, but we also spotted Matt Ouimet getting ready to for the unveiling.

The unveiling began with a brief introduction of what was going on, after that several costumed characters led by Mickey Mouse showed up, each with a child in tow. Mickey's new friend Caroline Sunshine was the first to reveal the new Golden Dumbo to the crowd and then it was time to see the elephants fly. Each character accompanied by a child hopped in and took a few spins around on Dumbo.

Now, while you either knew or now know about the golden attraction vehicles you may not have known that there is pretty much two of everything (or in the case of the Autopia four). So don't worry if you don't get that photo riding in a gold Dumbo, teacup, or whichever you prefer, you can just wander over to the photo spot and take a picture in one of the stationary gold vehicles put on display.

Now, picking up where I left off. After wrenching ourselves free from the crowd we headed for the newly reopened Jungle Cruise, and there are certainly a few new surprises in store. If you don't want to know I suggest skipping this section of the report.

While most of the Jungle Cruise remains the same there are a few additions and changes that people may or may not like. However, I don't think anyone could be unhappy with the beautification the whole ride has undergone. Everything is very vivid and operating smoothly.

Towards the beginning you'll notice that the monkey idol has been moved to the left side of the river and that there are more cobras swaying around (they've been taken from the upstairs queue of the ride). Towards the end of the ancient Cambodian shrine (made by ancient Cambodian shriners) there are some jumping spiders hanging out on some dew-dropped webs. Don't worry, they're more spiders than jumping (read: they don't move).

Everything is about the same in the elephant bathing pool, but when you round to the camp there are a few new surprises. Infront of the boat the water explodes upwards, it appears the gorillas aren't so happy you're there and one of them is attempting (and failing) at firing at you with a gun. Cheering them on are the baboons that used to sit on the rocks near the African Veldt. Just past the camp there's another gorilla that's usually fighting a crocodile, he's now reaching for banannas on a floating crate. This, however, makes one of my favorite jokes pretty unusable. (Here you'll see a gorilla fighting a crocodile. Bet you don't see that everyday; but I do. Every five minutes.)

Passing the now empty rocks and the veldt everything is again about the same until the natives with spears. The foliage that mostly hid them from sight has been cut back and they're now in plain view and for the most part the skippers pretend they don't see them before continuing their usual routine.

Next comes the really new part. Passing an unusual looking warning shrine decorated with bones and angry looking wooden fish and also paintings on the rock of more angry fish, you get an idea of what's ahead: pirana. Suddenly the water around the boat starts to bubble and splash and soon after tiny orange and silver fish spring up moving through the tubulent waters trying to get your boat. This is why the Jungle Cruise now displays signs that read: You May Get Wet. While the pirana attack is very well done it makes it nearly impossible to comment on the boa constrictor in the tree just beyond it; so you pretty much go straight to Trader Sam and what I think might be a point of controversy for many Disney fans.

Trader Sam is usually known by his large native mask, however he's been unmasked revealing a thin jungle native. At his side is a tiny elephant blowing mist out of its trunk at you. This elephant is in fact Little Red who was brought from Animal Kingdom to the water at Tarzan's Tree House and who now lives in the Jungle Cruise.

Thus ends the Jungle Cruise where you're asked to 'Get out'. Upon getting out though I noticed a couple of stone slabs one with Mara on it and one with snakes that reads at the bottom 'Gates of Doom'; this gives Indiana Jones and Jungle Cruise a nice little tie-in.

Since we had a little time before the next event we wandered over to Tomorrowland. It was a welcome sight to see the Space Mountain sign all lit-up and the barely perceptable word 'Rockit' in it. We also looked into one of the Star Trader windows and saw a collage of classic Tomorrowland attraction pieces and photos.

The next thing on our itinerary was the opening of The First 50 Magical Years in the Main Street opera house building. This event brought out a lot of Disney legends including Rolly Crump and Richard Sherman. Managing our way in to get a good view of the event (after dealing with some very cranky media people) we saw Donald and Disneyland's ambassador introduce Michael Eisner. Eisner came out to say a few words dressed in his Mickey t-shirt and introduced Steve Martin. Steve Martin was fantastic; he gave a brief speech then he and Donald exchanged several quips before he graciously offered to let Donald unveil the new opera house sign. Donald pulled on the cord revealing a joke-sign reading 'Great Moments with Steve Martin'. After several rounds of laughter the two revealed the actual sign followed by several firings of confetti into the air. Arm in arm the two entered the theater and invited everyone in. However, we had to get to the next event so we watched the show a little later in the day.

I will say that the show was really well done. It was not only entertaining and funny, but it also gained a lot of audience reactions when they played some amazing footage that was very nostalgic to a lot of people.

The waiting area for the show was also very nice and paid tribute to Disney attractions as well as Cast Members from the past. They had Cast Member nametags from over the years, Disneyland entry tickets from the past, models and photos of attractions, and in the space the Capitol Building model normally occupies there was a scale model of Disneyland park on it's opening day with a current map near it to show how much it's changed in 50 years. It was the stuff of memories and Disney magic and the source of a lot of jaw-dropping and sounds of awe.

The next event also brought a lot of awe and a lot of laughs. While Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters has been open to people for weeks it had never been officially opened. Again the event started with a brief introduction and another appearance by Eisner, only this time Tim Allen was introduced. Allen said a brief bit followed by unveiling one of the Astro Blaster vehicles from which popped several little green aliens. The crowd watched as Buzz came out to talk about the need to defeat Zurg and was assisted in his quest by a few green army men and Tim Allen. Now the ride is officially open, so what are you waiting for? Grab your blasters, or if you prefer you could wait at home until June when you can join in the fun from your computer. This new interactive feature will be a first for Disney and is sure to be welcomed by the internet-savvy.

As I said before we had a full initerary, but I didn't mention that it was one than was for the whole day and into the night; but first I should explain the levels of admittance into the park that day. At the top of you had the attending staff and hosts for the media, then you had the actual media, then invited guests (this was where I was), and then guests that had recieved general tickets. So, at five o'clock on the 4th the park closed for the general guests that were not given credentials. During the time they were ushering people out, Main Street was getting lined with a gold carpet for the big name guests who would appear later that evening. Those of us with invited guests status were told we needed to exit the park and re-enter at 6:30. So we wandered out, grabbing our complimentary goodie bags on the way to wait for 6:30. (The bags consisted of a specially embroidered 50th bag sposored by Honda, special 50th Coca-Cola, a bag of tortillas, some photo stuff, a Disney catalogue, and a special 50th pin.)

Soon it was time to go back in and when we spotted Kelsey Grammer we knew this would be no ordinary event. Upon walking through the arches back into Main Street we were given our own pairs of golden mouse ears and we were ushered onto the gold carpet. Media cameras on our left and cheering Cast Members shouting 'Welcome Home' on our right we strolled down the gold carpet and into Adventureland.

I have been to a lot of special Disney events, but this blew everything out of the water. Being greeted with champange and appetizer skewers is a great way to kick off any party, and it only got better from there. I won't go into extreme details as there was a lot of them, but I'll give you a few.

Imagine all of New Orleans Square from the Golden Horseshoe to the Haunted Mansion practically covered with small tables adorned with fresh flower arrangements. Everywhere around there are food tables serving salad, pasta, beef, rolls, and so forth and beyond that are several full bars with everything from water to mixed drinks. Near the water there is a giant ice sculpture and to cool your martinis they pour them through the ice into your cup complete with a flashing icecube. Wandering about you could run into most anyone from Pierce Brosnan to Tyra Banks to Leonard Maltin. Wandering further are special photograhy stations with characters in rarely seen get-ups waiting to take a photograph with you. Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion are open to you. What's more is later you get to listen to the Goo Goo Dolls performing from Tom Sawyer island. Sound pretty cool? Trust me, it was.

After our heads started to un-swell from the ego trip being at such a big party gave us we headed out to again watch the Parade of Dreams followed by the new fireworks show 'Dreams Can Come True'.

After munching on a few chocolate goodies and watching the parade go by we shuffled into the street for the fireworks. (The best place to be is in the middle of Main Street inbetween Coke Corner and the photo shop.) The fireworks are hosted by Julie Andrews and it utilizes some pieces from the Florida fireworks show 'Wishes', but it is much more than that. It was the best fireworks show I have ever seen in my life, and never before have I seen fireworks make so many people dance around, interact, gasp, applaud, and cry. Again, I won't reveal any big details because this is something no one should spoil for you. Just make sure you have a clear view of the castle, but don't try to be right up by it. As I said stick to Main Street, the fireworks are shot off from more than one location and you need to be there to get the full effect. Also you will get a clear view of Tinkerbell who does a lot more than just slide down a cable from the Matterhorn, and you can now see her better than ever in her new light-reactive costume. Tinkerbell doesn't just glitter, she shines.

The show is a true celebration of Disneyland. While Walt Disney is important and even though he is the father of Disneyland it's still Disneyland's birthday and it's time to celebrate just that.

I almost find it amazing that anyone had the energy to party again after the fireworks, but they did and we did. Ushered to Town Square we were greeted by tables of deserts and more full bars and even more tables with different flower arrangements on them. (They really went all out with flowers, I even saw some in the ladies restroom earlier that evening.)

In the center of the square there was another ice sculpture, but this one was of the castle (oddly enough it looked more like Cinderella's castle from Florida).

There was more live music to be had, but this time provided by Stevie Wonder. An area for those who wanted to dance was set up by the stage but I was more than content to just sit and watch for a while and enjoy my desert.

Finally the party was over, but not without one more surprise. As everyone left they were given a golden bag with a gift inside. We each recieved a beautiful photo album with the 50th castle logo engraved into the front. Inside was a photo of Walt Disney walking through the gates of Sleeping Beauty castle and on the other side a nice note from Matt Ouimet. Truly something to keep photos from the day in.

So there you have it for those who didn't get the opportunity to be there on the fourth. It was an amazing day and I know Walt would have been proud.

To think it all started with a little theme park that opened in 1955, and even though everything seemed to go wrong that day, it was still the realization of a dream. It was one mans dream, but it took the help of many to build it. That one man died far too soon, but those who originally helped him build his dream carried on and eventually new people carried on and continue to carry on. Disneyland will be 50 years old on July 17 of 2005. It has seen a lot of change and outlived many things and it's still there waiting for the future. For many it is the happiest place on earth and it will be for many more people. It's become much more than a theme park, for many it's become a second home.

Welcome home.

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