Happy 60th Birthday, Disneyland!

“To all who come to this happy place… Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past… and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.

“Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America… with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”
— Walt Disney, July 17, 1955

Disneyland celebrated its 60th birthday on Friday, July 17, 2015. Jason and I, along with thousands of other Disneyland fans, were there to help celebrate.

I will admit that I was quite concerned about what the crowds would be like on Friday, after the disaster that was the 24-hour day back in May. I arrived at the park about 6:40 on Friday morning, and I breezed through security. Guests were already being allowed into both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, so the lines at the turnstiles were very short.

As guests came through Security they received a special edition of the Orange County Register, and at the turnstiles an “I was there” button. There were also special maps at both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.

The Register had a special insert, “Premiere Souvenir Edition Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom.” This was a reprint of a 16-page Register special edition published on Disneyland’s opening weekend in 1955.

It’s very interesting! There’s even an ad for “The Wizard of Bras” on Main Street. 🙂

(These special editions were gone by 8:00, but they are still available from the Orange County Register. See this page for more information.)

The maps for both Disneyland and DCA included the original Disneyland park map in addition to the current park map.

The map also included the list of special events for the day:
July 17 Celebration Ceremony – 10:00 a.m. at the Castle Forecourt
Pre-parade honoring 1955 Cast – 4:15 p.m., Parade Route
1955 Themed Photo Spots – Critter Country, Big Thunder Trail, Mickey’s Toontown, Tomorrowland, Hollywood Land, Grizzly Peak Waterfall
Cupcakes – available in both parks
Anniversary Buttons – available at the entrance to both parks
1955 Dance Clubs – Tomorrowland Terrace, 7-11:30 p.m.; Carthay Circle, 6-10:30 p.m.

Once inside the park I found that Main Street wasn’t packed, since guests were already being allowed into the rest of the park instead of being held at the end of Main Street. (A lesson learned from the 24-hour day?) There were enthusiastic cast members on both sides of the street greeting guests as they walked by.

Here’s the pin that cast members received – very nice!

There were lots of photographers on Main Street (and other areas of the park) with these signs – it was a very popular photo all day.

The Emporium on Main Street was quite busy with guests who were buying t-shirts, and pins and other merchandise that was only available for the day. There were men’s and women’s t-shirts that were package in a string backpack for $29.95.

There was also an annual passholder version (I’ll admit that I purchased this one).

I saw this pin, also.

The shirts were also available at Disney California Adventure. There were plenty of them – good job Disney. There were also two new “Made with Magic” light-up items. Here is the Chernabog beverage sipper available at Disneyland:

And the World of Color sipper available in DCA. Each is “only” $28 – but hey, that includes a beverage!

On Thursday a new “search” opportunity began at the two parks, the “Looking for Mickey Quest”. There were different maps for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, each with clues inside to locations of various hidden Mickeys. For each clue there were three suggested answers about the specific location of the Mickey, with a “scratch-off” next to each to reveal whether or not it was the correct answer. There’s no penalty for wrong answers. And as with other events of this type, you don’t need to actually complete the quest to redeem it for the prize. When I purchased mine it was recommended that I immediately redeem them for the prize, which was the pin.

Each map came with a lanyard – as you can see the lanyard was dated.

The “quest” is available until July 31, or while supplies last. The maps are $19.95 at Disneyland (which has 20 questions) and $12.95 at DCA (10 questions). No annual passholder discounts for this one.

As I mentioned before, there were free Disneyland birthday cupcakes available at multiple locations in both parks. There were plenty of them.

The 1955 themed photo spots were a nice addition to the day. The Skyway spot was in Toontown. These were quite popular, but I stood in line for this one, since Lee used to work at the Skyway when he was a Disneyland Cast Member.

There was an actual stagecoach at the photo spot along Big Thunder Trail.

And the final Diamond Celebration Photo Spot in Disneyland, at the Haunted Mansion was in place.

Disneyland was getting pretty busy, though the crowds were still nothing like they were back on the 24-hour day in May. Disney seems to have learned a lesson from that. They really downplayed the actual birthday celebration, and there were no big premieres or events – even most of the merchandise went on sale the day before. But a lot of people came and stood waiting for the 10:00 Celebration Ceremony at the Castle.

Though they didn’t have to, since there were large viewing displays in multiple areas, including one in Carthay Circle in DCA. I was fortunate to have media viewing, but if I hadn’t, I would’ve watched from one of the satellite locations.

During the ceremony, Disneyland President Michael Colglazier announced the Million Dollar Dazzle program. Every month during the Diamond Celebration Disneyland will donate $60,000 to a local non-profit organization. The Girl Scouts of Orange County were the first recipients, and were in attendance.

Richard Sherman and Ashley Brown performed “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins – one of Walt Disney’s favorite songs.

Then they led all of us as we sang “Happy Birthday” to Disneyland.

While there were a lot of people in the park early, a big difference from the 24-hour day is that many of them left after the ceremony. For the remainder of the day the crowds were those of a typical Friday in the summer time.

July 17 had been the announced date for the “new” Disneyland Band, and they made their first appearance in a not-on-the-schedule performance at 10:30 in front of the train station. I happened to be on my way to DCA, so I saw most of it.

It was a wonderful performance and I really enjoyed it – but they are much more like the Disneyland All-American College Band now. Their attraction medley (video below) has music and choreography similar to that of the medley performed by the College Band. And a number of the new band members were one-time members of the College Band.

I personally think that during the summer was not the right time to introduce the new band, just because it’s similar to the College Band. It’s two different groups doing similar performances. And I think this new band might overshadow the College Band, when it should be their turn to shine during the summer months.

As I mentioned, I was park-hopping when I was distracted by the new band…when I got to Disney California Adventure I found it was much less busy than Disneyland. There were also various photo opportunities available there.

This may be my favorite of the 1955 photo backdrops: The Parking Lot. Because remember, DCA was built on the site of the old Disneyland parking lot! 🙂

The other 1955 backdrop was in Hollywood Land,and featured the old Disneyland entrance sign, which would have stood not far from where the backdrop was located.

One of the reasons Jason and I had gone to DCA was to see the Diamond Celebration Photo Spot in “a bug’s land”, which was supposed to be in place that day – but it wasn’t. We asked a couple of cast members, but they didn’t know anything about it.

We went back over to Disneyland to see the new band perform at 11:30 at the train station – which was the first performance listed on the actual schedule. 🙂 It was the same set that I had seen at 10:30. Their finale was “Hooked on a Feeling” (more well-known recently because of Guardians of the Galaxy).

We continued stalking the band after lunch, when they marched from Main Street to Frontierland, performed a song at the flagpole in Frontierland, and then performed the rest of the set in front of The Golden Horseshoe. This set included things like the theme from Davy Crockett, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, and the theme from “Zorro”.

Because we were at lunch we missed their 12:30 set, which was at the Castle, and then featured the new interactive “Diamond March” down Main Street.

While we were waiting for the band’s final set, also in Frontierland (and with the same musical selections), we saw Tiana aboard the Mark Twain riverboat.

One of the other special events of the day was the afternoon pre-parade honoring the 1955 cast. We weren’t sure what to expect with this, but thought it was nicely done. (This was a joint effort – Jason took the stills and I shot the video with his camera.)

Ron Dominguez and Bob Penfield were in the lead car.