Disney Dreams
Proudly afflicted with TDMA!
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2006
- Messages
- 16,168
It was pretty exciting, in a fun, bring-out-the-child-n-you sort of way.
I was doing some pin trading in Frontierland, at 4pm. I knew there was to be a group singing of Happy Birthday followed by "something special" at 4:15pm. So, I made my way to the Hub, arriving about 4:10pm. I joined the gathered crowd, taking a place about 3 people deep near the Emporium.
When "the voice" came over the speakers with nice words about Disneyland, a man in the FRONT row picked up his not-so-small (7? 8?) year old daughter who had a front row seat on the curb and put her on his shoulders. (I knew some of you would LOVE that!) A few of us politely said something to him. He turned and asked in a very surprised way, "Oh! Is she blocking you?" Uh - yes. He put her back down in the front row and back to the voice in the sky our focus shifted.
Everyone joined in singing "Happy Birthday" to Disneyland. Then, there was this odd silence. - Is that it? Do we go now? Ropes are still blocking us in, though. Hmmm..... - Then, music started up. The side gate / wall by the Mad Hatter shop opened and hundreds of CMs in their outfits came running out and took a spot all along the Hub. Then - Mickey. And Minnie. And Donald. And Daisy. And and and..... And they just kept coming. It was amazing!
Characters everywhere! All sorts of characters! They took various spots around the Hub as well and the characters and CMs all did a choreographed Flash Mob dance. From the viewing perspective it was a mixture of:
"OMG!"
"Wow! Look! It's ________ (rarely seen character)."
"There's so many of them!"
"What are they doing?"
"Ah, it must be SOOOOO hot in there!" (It was somewhere between 95-100 out!)
Then it ended. The ropes were still up. The CMs all disappeared, but the characters, CMs that helped them, and lots of managers were still out. Then, our rope dropped. Ready - set - walk with purpose!!!
People headed towards characters - who were throughout the Hub area.
I went over towards Belle and Beast (my favorite Disney couple).
There were little groups of people everywhere - surrounding different characters. Pictures. Autographs. Everywhere.
Then, after maybe - hhmmm - 15-20 minutes, the started pulling the characters in. (It was SOOOO hot!)
After they were all cleared I asked a manager if she knew how many were there. She said, "55." Ah-ha! I mentioned to her that it seemed like a huge number of characters to get out there. She said, "We dug deep. There were some very really seen ones out here today."
It was really cool. Fun. Exhilarating. And cute.
Incidentally, I have looked through my own photos, watched a few videos and managed to spot 48 of the 55. It really was some creative Disney fun. One might say it felt like a Disney Dream (sorry.... it was too perfect).
Oh, and it was mentioned that the President, George Kalogridis, was there. After the characters, I was heading to the Emporium. I saw him with a large group of guests. He was signing, saying a few words to people, and taking photos.
On my way out (around 5:30pm) I stopped at the turnstiles to get some Dumbo / anniversary maps. They had maps in the holders with Fantasmic! covers. The CM told me they ran out of Dumbo maps.
- Dreams
I was doing some pin trading in Frontierland, at 4pm. I knew there was to be a group singing of Happy Birthday followed by "something special" at 4:15pm. So, I made my way to the Hub, arriving about 4:10pm. I joined the gathered crowd, taking a place about 3 people deep near the Emporium.
When "the voice" came over the speakers with nice words about Disneyland, a man in the FRONT row picked up his not-so-small (7? 8?) year old daughter who had a front row seat on the curb and put her on his shoulders. (I knew some of you would LOVE that!) A few of us politely said something to him. He turned and asked in a very surprised way, "Oh! Is she blocking you?" Uh - yes. He put her back down in the front row and back to the voice in the sky our focus shifted.
Everyone joined in singing "Happy Birthday" to Disneyland. Then, there was this odd silence. - Is that it? Do we go now? Ropes are still blocking us in, though. Hmmm..... - Then, music started up. The side gate / wall by the Mad Hatter shop opened and hundreds of CMs in their outfits came running out and took a spot all along the Hub. Then - Mickey. And Minnie. And Donald. And Daisy. And and and..... And they just kept coming. It was amazing!
Characters everywhere! All sorts of characters! They took various spots around the Hub as well and the characters and CMs all did a choreographed Flash Mob dance. From the viewing perspective it was a mixture of:
"OMG!"
"Wow! Look! It's ________ (rarely seen character)."
"There's so many of them!"
"What are they doing?"
"Ah, it must be SOOOOO hot in there!" (It was somewhere between 95-100 out!)
Then it ended. The ropes were still up. The CMs all disappeared, but the characters, CMs that helped them, and lots of managers were still out. Then, our rope dropped. Ready - set - walk with purpose!!!
People headed towards characters - who were throughout the Hub area.
I went over towards Belle and Beast (my favorite Disney couple).
There were little groups of people everywhere - surrounding different characters. Pictures. Autographs. Everywhere.
Then, after maybe - hhmmm - 15-20 minutes, the started pulling the characters in. (It was SOOOO hot!)
After they were all cleared I asked a manager if she knew how many were there. She said, "55." Ah-ha! I mentioned to her that it seemed like a huge number of characters to get out there. She said, "We dug deep. There were some very really seen ones out here today."
It was really cool. Fun. Exhilarating. And cute.
Incidentally, I have looked through my own photos, watched a few videos and managed to spot 48 of the 55. It really was some creative Disney fun. One might say it felt like a Disney Dream (sorry.... it was too perfect).
Oh, and it was mentioned that the President, George Kalogridis, was there. After the characters, I was heading to the Emporium. I saw him with a large group of guests. He was signing, saying a few words to people, and taking photos.
On my way out (around 5:30pm) I stopped at the turnstiles to get some Dumbo / anniversary maps. They had maps in the holders with Fantasmic! covers. The CM told me they ran out of Dumbo maps.
- Dreams
). After hearing her talk about the dance, and how hilariously badly it went, I think she'll be quite happy to know how much everyone enjoyed it. Trust me, those CMs did some brief, but intensive (and sweaty) rehearsal for that dance. She told me they were even having impromptu rehearsals amongst themselves while waiting backstage for the "moment". From some of the videos out there, you can see that the CMs who came out from the Firehouse gate didn't make it out as quickly as those from the other side (not their fault) and were a bit lost because they had to pick up the dance in the middle, which, for non-dancers with a tenuous grasp on the routine to begin with, created some very funny confusion. She said that after the dance, a number of them returned backstage and all agreed that they would have liked a second shot at it! 
Wish I could have been there!
