In May of 2005, Disneyland started its celebration for their 50th anniversary. To start the event, Disneyland had a press day where Disneyland was closed to the public. Fortunately for me, Disney decided to let a few select annual passholders attend and my Dad won tickets!
My Dad and I arrived to Disneyland early in the morning and Main St. was lined with gold carpet. Press and media were lined up and down Main St. getting ready for the day of festivities, which would soon include big time movie stars!
Once we made our way off of Main St., Disneyland was basically to ourselves. Since it was a press and media day, no one was riding rides, but they were still open. The first ride my Dad and I decided to go to was the Jungle Cruise. Since we were alone and had our own boat, the Jungle Cruise skipper let me “skip”! Boy was that thrilling!
Walking around the park was so exciting not only for the fact that we were alone, but because there were many new things to see to celebrate the anniversary. Throughout the park, rides and attractions had 50th anniversary logos on their facades. There were 50 of them in total and many of them were displayed in extremely creative ways.
Another unique thing Disney did to celebrate was to mark which attractions were there from the beginning. Each attraction which opened in July of 1955 had a bit of gold painted somewhere on it. Here is an example of the golden entrance to “Snow White’s Scary Adventures”.
After riding a few rides, my Dad and I headed back to Main St. and we saw Tim Allen preparing for the dedication of Disneyland’s newest attraction, “Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters”!
Disneyland closed that day around 5:00pm to get ready for its celebrity infested golden anniversary kick off. My Dad and I left having spent an incredible and magical day at Disneyland. The whole experience was very special to me and it is something I will never forget.
