20th Anniversary (1st April 2012 - March 2013)

[Josh]

Guests were being let through the arcades if they didn't want to watch.

[Simba 27]

And now here's the full evening Dedication Ceremony, filmed as if you were there.


YouTube link

As soon as we walked in the park, we spotted the illuminated puppets from the World of Color pre-show, brought over specially for this occasion. As we waited on Town Square, a playlist of great old music played out across the park, including the Main Street Electrical Parade and music from the original Space Mountain area loop. Two videos then followed to build the anticipation, one we've seen before, but I included them just for the sake of completeness.

The actual ceremony begins at 10 minutes in, followed by the most incredible walk down Main Street ever, at 15:50. Cast Members from all the lands and attractions came out to wave guests down to Central Plaza... It was really quite emotional, and such a blur. Glad I filmed it so you can see it too!

Very nice video Anthony, like always! So nice to hear again the musics of the Main Street Electrical Parade and the original Space Mountain. The instrumental "Zee-bee-doo-daah" (sorry for the lyrics) can be always heard during the opening of the park in the morning?
The walk down Main Street was at 15:50 ?
And by the way, you did it on purpose? The video is 20 minutes and 20 seconds long, like Disney Dreams!

[DopeyDad]

YouTube link



Has this been posted here yet? Apologies if it's already here.
I've heard it mentioned but just found this video of the cast member flash mob.
I wish I could have taken my family down main street like those guests at the end, what a fantastic experience that must have been.

[ed-uk]

Thanks for posting. All the togetherness and harmony from the CMs, they look happy to work for Disney and great to see them taking part. Puts last weeks strikers to shame.

[davewasbaloo]

The flashmob was great. They kept high fiving my kids as we walked down the purple carpet. It was very emotional (there were some cast members on strike too).

In addition to the dedication and flash mobs, there were some cool "happenings" in each of the lands with live music, dancing and characters. They kept having fountain shows in the moat, and there were huge character cavalcades into the hub (unmarked). The crowds at dreams were a nightmare and the parade is very poor.

Tony Baxter's talk was excellent, and having the ambassadors of DLP, DL, WDW, TDL, and HKDL was awesome. The tribute and memories video was very touching (and for me upsetting - going through a divorce right now and many of the clips had personal memories).

We were there for 13 hours and are exhausted. So today we are taking it easy and going to the 20th anniversary concert at Billy Bob's tonight. The Moody Family (used to be brothers, but Carlton's son is now old enough to join In - Carlton also played in frontierland yesterday!)are playing.

[ed-uk]

Sounds like everything is going very well.

[davewasbaloo]

The park celebrations have been great. Dreams is awesome. There are lots of broken AA's however and half the counter service restaurants are shut leading to very long lines

But the party yesterday was awesome.

[ed-uk]

What's Disney with out long lines. Can't wait to see Dreams, would you recommend a Disney Dreams Dinner?

[15MagicalYears]

It's great to see you posting again, Davewasbaloo. Hope everything is okay with you and your family. I'm glad to hear everything went smoothly yesterday without too much impact from the strikers.

[davewasbaloo]

Thanks 15 magic years. Sadly I found out my wife was with other guys when I was away on business and a thief, so I have had to prioritise other things.

[davewasbaloo]

The lines were unacceptable. Yesterday had huge crowds, and yet the Lucky Nugget, Last Chance Cafe, Col Hathi, and toad hall were all closed. This led to lines out the door to try to get food and people sat on the pavement eating. Does that sound acceptable to you? (That was not just peak time when we first checked, but also at 3:30). We went to the village to Annettes (Where they halved the options again this year), for some respite.

Dreams dinner packages are ok, but if you are willing to wait 30 mins before the show, it is not as necessary as say the Fantasmic packages in the states). But not a bad menu, very cute design.

Dreams is excellent. The first night we were in the hub. Great view. Last night we were at the discoveryland rocks (not recommended. We may try near coke corner tomorrow night.

[DopeyDad]

good to hear from you again Dave. The restaurant closures on such an obviously busy day sounds very strange. They must have lost a lot of custom that day.

[ulak]

Can we see the little celebrations for lands in next days in the year? Or it was only for 12th April?

[ford prefect]

good to see you on the forum again Dave. Hope you managed to take lots of pictures! I can imagine how cool the flashmob must have been!

[gingajen]

The flash mob looked awesome. I get choked up everytime I watch it. I can't believe so many eateries were closed on such an important day! What reasoning can they possibly give?
Great to hear from you again Dave, by the way. Have a great trip! I'll look forward to the trip report when you have time

[999ghosts]

For those that would like to read what Tony Baxter had to say during his Masterclass.

Tony Baxter Masterclass

It was an awesome event.

[lynny]

@ davewasbaloo sorry for your probs hope being @ Dlrp helped ,been there got the t-shirt

the flashmob looked fab i only wish i could have een there.....makes me so emotional seeing all the pics and vids from yesterday

Davewasbaloo i would not have been happy with the food situation yesterday either....what were they thinkin??

i cant wait to go in july it's only going to be me and my 10yr old and have never been in nthe summer before,my oldest is 19 now and has lost interest.....so looking forward to it though

[Columbiad]

Probably my favourite visual from the 20th AnniversaryL

[forza_united]

The lines were unacceptable. Yesterday had huge crowds, and yet the Lucky Nugget, Last Chance Cafe, Col Hathi, and toad hall were all closed. This led to lines out the door to try to get food and people sat on the pavement eating. Does that sound acceptable to you? (That was not just peak time when we first checked, but also at 3:30). We went to the village to Annettes (Where they halved the options again this year), for some respite.

Dreams dinner packages are ok, but if you are willing to wait 30 mins before the show, it is not as necessary as say the Fantasmic packages in the states). But not a bad menu, very cute design.

Dreams is excellent. The first night we were in the hub. Great view. Last night we were at the discoveryland rocks (not recommended. We may try near coke corner tomorrow night.

First of all - very, very good to hear from you again. Sounds like it has been a rough time and I really hope you continue strongly through it

This sounds crazy indeed with the restaurants and one would have thought that every single line, in every single restaurant would have been open yesterday. So for 4 restaurants to be all closed is really flabbergasting me! Could it be because of the strikes still going on?

That being said I am happy to hear that the party yesterday was awesome - what I wouldn't have done to have been there

[captain rocket]

Just to add to the restaurant closures on 12th Fuento del oro and Agrabah, despite a sign outside Lucky Nugget telling you to go there! I had a bag of crisps and a coke for lunch and finally ate at the Chalet de marionette at 6ish and to my surprise,it was really quiet! I can only believe it must have been something to do with the strikers, it must have cost Disney Thousands in lost revenue, but what a great day to be there. Disney as you expect it to be!