I was there!!! July 17th report About This Page:

[infinity&beyond]

Hey all! Just got back from a fantastic week long trip to Disneyland resort, all centered around the July 17th celebration. A quick overview, the park was crowded the entire time, however I thought the slower days were Saturday and Sunday (!!)

I'll just report on the 17th, which really started for me at midnight, when we were still in the park from Saturday! We went to the ice cream shop to end our day, and noticed that our receipts showed we were actually in the park on the 17th, at 12:18am!! There were several guests discussing that they could now avoid the Sunday crowds, since they really were there on the day of the celebration. This wouldn't do for us, though. We finally made our way out of the park around 1:15am, after savoring our ice cream and going to the lockers. As we walked through the esplanade, I noticed people coming IN the baggage check line carrying several cups of coffee, hmmmm... These crazy people were headed towards the line that was already forming for people who wanted to get into Disneyland first thing on Sunday, to be one of the lucky few to get an "I Was There" pin, limited to only 5,000 (one per person). We considered just waiting in that line, but decided that a few hours of sleep would help us enjoy the day a little more, so we walked through Downtown Disney to our room at the Disneyland Hotel, and set the alarm for (eek) 5:00 am.

The alarm went off far too early, and we stumbled out of bed and into our favorite limited edition SHAG Tiki Room hawaiian shirts. By the time we got down to the line, it was about 6:15am, and there were lots of people in line in front of us. Within 45 minutes, the line went from the bag check area, through Downtown Disney back to the Monorail station, then wound back around all the way back to the bag check area and started to head up into the tram area. About 7:20, the line started moving through the bag check area and into the esplanade. We had about 40 people in front of our line, and all the ticket gates had lines in front of them. We watched as thousands (really!) of people who had camped out overnight in DCA were funneled into Disneyland, it took over an hour for everyone to get across the esplanade. Meanwhile, those of us waiting in line were really having a fun time (in line? Yes!) We were doing the wave, speculating on what things would be happening, and generally enjoying the anticipation with thousands of like-minded Disney fans. Finally, the countdown started. We all counted down 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1!! The gates opened and everyone entered the park in a very orderly fashion! Cast members greeted each of us with a special pair of golden ears and a special commemorative map/guide. We headed on to Main Street and marveled at the sea of golden hats that filled the entire area. There were jumbotrons set up at a few locations, showing historic footage of Disneyland construction and replaying the window dedication that had happened just that morning on Main Street. Our first stop was food and lockers. Most of the lockers were already used up when we got there, but we were able to secure what we needed, then we went across to the Main Street Bakery for a little breakfast. The line was about 30 minutes, and I ordered a few things for us to enjoy throughout the day, to avoid waiting in more lines.

We purchased some of the special merchandise that was released that morning: t-shirts, mugs, pins and magnets, and then headed towards the castle to watch the opening ceremony at 10am. A photographer was busy taking pictures from a crane of all the golden hat wearing guests on Main Street. It really was an unforgettable site! The speeches were okay, Art Linkletter's was really good (I couldn't believe he was 93!) Arnold Swarzenegger's speech sounded like a campaign speech, talking about how great Disneyland was for the economy. Diane Disney Miller's speech was also moving.

Anyway...I'll have to continue tomorrow, work calls!