3 posts tagged “disneyland”
It wasn't the most shells or the largest booms that made my heart flutter, but seeing the familiar shape of three circles lit in the sky for the first time that made this display so memorable. The year was 2000 and the world had just seen display after display of amazing fireworks to ring in the new millennium. I particularly remember the Paris display on the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney display. But spectacle does not always add up to the best. Sometimes it's anticipation.
Rumors of a new Fireworks show at Disneyland had been growing for sometime. The park had been open for 45 years with many of those years capped nightly by the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks display. This new display was rumored to be choreographed to music and to even feature a giant hidden mickey in the sky.
One night I was at the park for a special event with a group and we were asked by management to stick around for fireworks. They ushered us into our own special roped off area on Main Street, dead center right where the fireworks control booth is located. We knew we were in for something special.
The new show was called 'Believe...There's Magic in the Stars" (LP,Wikipedia, YouTube) and it was Steve Davison's Disneyland masterpiece (and he'd had a lot of very successful productions already under his belt). Unfamiliar with fireworks, but with a knowledge of theatre, Davison used some new technologies developed by Imagineering to 'paint' the sky with fireworks and tell a story that tugged at the heart strings and got at the root of what all this Disneyland magic was about. Then when I saw the giant Mickey Mouse shape explode into the sky for the first time I broke into tears.
Expanded from my comments at Mena's Vox:
This weekend was the movie premier at Disneyland. All those in attendence were able to ride the updated attraction there. The few clips I've seen are wonderful and the changes all made in good taste. The ride opens today to average joes like us.
The one disadvantage of living in Orlando is that I'm so far away from Disneyland. I can't just run over there and participate in these events like I would love to be doing. Living in Orlando, does have it's advantages, for sure. We get four theme parks to Anaheim's 1.5, no traffic to speak of, and tons more wonderful dining. But we lose out to Disneyland on nearly every point when it comes to Pirates.
WDW Pirates won't reopen until July 6th (although we might get a sneak peak before that). We also get fewer changes and fewer new props. The ride is shorter too. I'm so bummed.
My wife owns a few Disney Collectibles from the Fantasia era, however, the oldest Disney Collectible I own is a Mickey Mouse wrist watch given to my grandfather by Walt Disney for helping build Disneyland in 1955. Part of what makes this item so special to me is the photo that it is mounted next to. The photo shows my grandfather cradling the infant me in his arms while wearing the watch.
I know I own a few older items, I have some fossils and arrow points somewhere, but that watch is by far the most significant to me. Sadly most of my families mementos and cherishables were lost through second marriages, estate sales, and the like. What I could have given for the option to install some of these items in a 'personal museum' that I could visit or borrow from at any time, but was maintained professionally by trained archivists. Ideally the museum would provide a low cost way of rotating family items among the now plentiful split families on a fair basis. Now, there's a business idea.
