Disneyland 70th Anniversary Thread - Wishlist, Rumors, Speculation, Announcements

[CaptinEO]

I know Disneyland is THE ORIGINAL, but WHY doesn't the other Disney parks, domestic and international, EVER get this kind of love!? The parks segment is what keeps the company afloat , so why not celebrate each park milestone like this!
Or does Disneyland just get more love because its the original park? WDW is the original 4-park resort, so....

What did Disneyland actually get for the 70th? The parade for the 60th returning and a plastic key you can pay 50 dollars for? I guess the Walt show can count? New fireworks and World of Color I guess? But they always make new shows for these every year or two anyways,

The 70th was lame, the 60th was done so much better and the 50th was legendary.

I visited in early May (pre 70th) and again last week and only difference is some purple banners on main street. It hardly feels like a major event.

 

[truecoat]

What did Disneyland actually get for the 70th? The parade for the 60th returning and a plastic key you can pay 50 dollars for? I guess the Walt show can count? New fireworks and World of Color I guess? But they always make new shows for these every year or two anyways,

The 70th was lame, the 60th was done so much better and the 50th was legendary.

I visited in early May (pre 70th) and again last week and only difference is some purple banners on main street. It hardly feels like a major event.

They put the number 70 in TSMM. That had to take a programmer a day or two.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I know Disneyland is THE ORIGINAL, but WHY doesn't the other Disney parks, domestic and international, EVER get this kind of love!? The parks segment is what keeps the company afloat , so why not celebrate each park milestone like this!
Or does Disneyland just get more love because its the original park? WDW is the original 4-park resort, so....

Tokyo literally gets this sort of thing every five years or so. The Chinese parks also periodically put out new stuff for their anniversaries. Hong Kong is literally right now celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new day parade, enhanced Momentous show, etc. Disneyland Paris got that cool drone show for its 30th among other stuff.

Other parks DO get this love, most people on sites like this just don't pay attention to the non-American parks. Really, the only park that straight up does not do this sort of thing much is WDW.

What did Disneyland actually get for the 70th? The parade for the 60th returning and a plastic key you can pay 50 dollars for? I guess the Walt show can count? New fireworks and World of Color I guess? But they always make new shows for these every year or two anyways,

The 70th was lame, the 60th was done so much better and the 50th was legendary.

I visited in early May (pre 70th) and again last week and only difference is some purple banners on main street. It hardly feels like a major event.

In fairness, if you were just visiting it now, you're probably seeing some parts of the park in transition from full 70th mode to 70th/Halloween mode.

Not pretending it was ever extra special, but I will absolutely take the park with Paint the Night and Wondrous Journeys over a park without those things. And I honestly think they've nailed the little things: the little MagicBand stations, the Main Street Cinema, the new/redone Small World verse and the show playing on the facade in the evening, even things like, yes, the key, which is precisely the sort of thing that Tokyo would do. The Calvacade is cute. They finally add some minor gameplay changes in to TSMM in a way that's fun and minor. The only thing I'm straight up unhappy with is their refusal to run Magic Happens, but maybe that's just me, sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who gives a rat about that parade anyway.

It could have been better, sure, but I'll take the 70th stuff over what the park was offering on May 1st, absolutely.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

I have to admit really liking the little MagicBand activations with those tickets as they make nice little souvenirs - now that the Tomorrowland one is finally working, too.

Otherwise the only "magic" to the band is generally just waking up Big Al or Mickey at DCA. Though I was happy to wave to activate the Headless Horseman for the first time this season this past weekend. That's always a fun one.

 

[CaptinEO]

Tokyo literally gets this sort of thing every five years or so. The Chinese parks also periodically put out new stuff for their anniversaries. Hong Kong is literally right now celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new day parade, enhanced Momentous show, etc. Disneyland Paris got that cool drone show for its 30th among other stuff.

Other parks DO get this love, most people on sites like this just don't pay attention to the non-American parks. Really, the only park that straight up does not do this sort of thing much is WDW.

In fairness, if you were just visiting it now, you're probably seeing some parts of the park in transition from full 70th mode to 70th/Halloween mode.

Not pretending it was ever extra special, but I will absolutely take the park with Paint the Night and Wondrous Journeys over a park without those things. And I honestly think they've nailed the little things: the little MagicBand stations, the Main Street Cinema, the new/redone Small World verse and the show playing on the facade in the evening, even things like, yes, the key, which is precisely the sort of thing that Tokyo would do. The Calvacade is cute. They finally add some minor gameplay changes in to TSMM in a way that's fun and minor. The only thing I'm straight up unhappy with is their refusal to run Magic Happens, but maybe that's just me, sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who gives a rat about that parade anyway.

It could have been better, sure, but I'll take the 70th stuff over what the park was offering on May 1st, absolutely.

You do have some good points and there are things done well of course, and youre correct there are things that would make it an improvement over May 1st.

but I remember for the 60th they redid Peter Pan, Matterhorn, and Alice in Wonderland and had a brand new parade. 50th really just felt like a huge all out effort with gold ride vehicles, Remember Dreams Come True, the amazing merchandise, return of the tommorowland paint scheme, and had a brand new Space Mountain. To me the 70th feels no different to me than Pixar Fest or any of the miscellaneous promotions they usually run.

 

[IMDREW]

Is it possible to use your wdw magic band at disneyland?

 

[Disney Irish]

Is it possible to use your wdw magic band at disneyland?

Short answer, yes as long as its the newer MagicBand+. If its an older generation WDW MB then no as Disneyland doesn't use the older system.

But I assume at this point that most of the older generation MBs have been switched out by now by most WDW regulars.

 

[chadwpalm]

Is it possible to use your wdw magic band at disneyland?

To add to what Irish said, you'll need to download the Disneyland app (it's a separate system than WDW) and sign into your Disney account there and add the MagicBand(s) to your account there. I don't believe the bands will cross-over from MyDisneyExperience on the WDW side of things. Once you add the bands you'll then need to assign them to your tickets through the app.

Once they are assigned to your tickets they can be used for gate entry and Lightning Lane Multi Passes that are also tied to the same tickets.

 

[PiratesMansion]

You do have some good points and there are things done well of course, and youre correct there are things that would make it an improvement over May 1st.

but I remember for the 60th they redid Peter Pan, Matterhorn, and Alice in Wonderland and had a brand new parade. 50th really just felt like a huge all out effort with gold ride vehicles, Remember Dreams Come True, the amazing merchandise, return of the tommorowland paint scheme, and had a brand new Space Mountain. To me the 70th feels no different to me than Pixar Fest or any of the miscellaneous promotions they usually run.

While I wasn't around for the latest incarnation of Pixar Fest, they are definitely doing more for the 70th than they did during the reheated leftovers of last year. I want to say for that particular event, they introduced the DCA day parade (positive), barely reworked their worst fireworks show, put up decor and some food items, and called it a day.

But I don't think the 70th was ever going to be huge. It does annoy me that a lot of the stuff for the 70th is stuff they should be doing anyway, but I think most would agree that 75th is a bigger deal, and so this is something of a tideover. At the very least, we should probably have some new attractions by then.

While I wasn't there, I don't get the impression that anything is going to ever top the 50th for those who experienced it. It seemed to have brought about a true catharsis, it was a re-affirming of foundational principles that people had assumed were lost. Whether or not those principles have been maintained is up for debate, but I don't think we're ever going to be at such a place of fandom consensus as seemed to exist then; the internet and social media have just blown up too much for that to be the case, and for that reason, it is my belief there will never quite be another 50th, even if there's a future anniversary where they do work harder to pull out all the stops.

 

[mickEblu]

While I wasn't around for the latest incarnation of Pixar Fest, they are definitely doing more for the 70th than they did during the reheated leftovers of last year. I want to say for that particular event, they introduced the DCA day parade (positive), barely reworked their worst fireworks show, put up decor and some food items, and called it a day.

But I don't think the 70th was ever going to be huge. It does annoy me that a lot of the stuff for the 70th is stuff they should be doing anyway, but I think most would agree that 75th is a bigger deal, and so this is something of a tideover until then. At the very least, we should probably have some new attractions by then.

While I wasn't there, I don't get the impression that anything is going to ever top the 50th for those who experienced it. It seemed to have brought about a true catharsis, it was a re-affirming of foundational principles that people had assumed were lost. Whether or not those principles have been maintained is up for debate, but I don't think we're ever going to be at such a place of fandom consensus as seemed to exist then; the internet and social media have just blown up too much for that to be the case, and for that reason, it is my belief there will never quite be another 50th, even if there's a future anniversary where they do work harder to pull out all the stops.

I'm ok with no new fireworks show for the 70th as Wondrous Journeys is fairly new and the odds of a new show topping it are slim. I have it up there with RDTC. As you touched on, one of the bigger draws of anniversary years for me is the energy, (which definitely fades as the months go by), the merch and the fact that they go the extra mile to have the attractions in tip top shape. I also didn't expect too much considering the 75th is 5 years away.

Hard to believe there was a time in my life where I was at Disneyland’s 50th anniversary and didn’t know it was Disneylands 50th anniversary. I was there Summer 2005 to go with my friend and his family from out of town who invited me and I had no idea. lol. I’m guessing I must have seen some 50th signs plastered all over the place. Interesting that the importance of that number didn’t really register with me. Also interesting that I must have seen Tower of Terror looming in the distance and thought absolutely nothing of it. I’ve been a huge Disneyland/ Disney fan for most of my life but the mid to late 2000s I had some other stuff going on and it just wasn’t as important. Still need to find a picture of me as a kid at Disneyland in 1985 so I can say Ive been to every 5 year anniversary since 1985. I'm sure my parents have one somewhere. Some of those old pictures have the year printed on them.

 

[Disney Analyst]

While I wasn't around for the latest incarnation of Pixar Fest, they are definitely doing more for the 70th than they did during the reheated leftovers of last year. I want to say for that particular event, they introduced the DCA day parade (positive), barely reworked their worst fireworks show, put up decor and some food items, and called it a day.

But I don't think the 70th was ever going to be huge. It does annoy me that a lot of the stuff for the 70th is stuff they should be doing anyway, but I think most would agree that 75th is a bigger deal, and so this is something of a tideover. At the very least, we should probably have some new attractions by then.

While I wasn't there, I don't get the impression that anything is going to ever top the 50th for those who experienced it. It seemed to have brought about a true catharsis, it was a re-affirming of foundational principles that people had assumed were lost. Whether or not those principles have been maintained is up for debate, but I don't think we're ever going to be at such a place of fandom consensus as seemed to exist then; the internet and social media have just blown up too much for that to be the case, and for that reason, it is my belief there will never quite be another 50th, even if there's a future anniversary where they do work harder to pull out all the stops.

For me, I always assumed the next big celebration after the 50th was always going to be the 75th. The kind where they would celebrate on a scale much like the 50th.

60th was good, but still less than the 50th. 70th is another decent celebration, for what I see as a "between" celebrations event.

But I see the 75th as the one they go all out for. Full castle overlay. Hopefully a new day time parade ala Parade of Dreams, new nighttime spectaculars, and hopefully fun decor/photo ops like they put all over the park during the 50th.

 

[brb1006]

I'm ok with no new fireworks show for the 70th as Wondrous Journeys is fairly new and the odds of a new show topping it are slim. I have it up there with RDTC. As you touched on, one of the bigger draws of anniversary years for me is the energy, (which definitely fades as the months go by), the merch and the fact that they go the extra mile to have the attractions in tip top shape. I also didn't expect too much considering the 75th is 5 years away.

Hard to believe there was a time in my life where I was at Disneyland’s 50th anniversary and didn’t know it was Disneylands 50th anniversary. I was there Summer 2005 to go with my friend and his family from out of town who invited me and I had no idea. lol. I’m guessing I must have seen some 50th signs plastered all over the place. Interesting that the importance of that number didn’t really register with me. Also interesting that I must have seen Tower of Terror looming in the distance and thought absolutely nothing of it. I’ve been a huge Disneyland/ Disney fan for most of my life but the mid to late 2000s I had some other stuff going on and it just wasn’t as important. Still need to find a picture of me as a kid at Disneyland in 1985 so I can say Ive been to every 5 year anniversary since 1985. I'm sure my parents have one somewhere. Some of those old pictures have the year printed on them.

I remember Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams was very prominent during advertisement and marketing leading up to Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. I remember seeing print ads presenting some of the parade's floats in magazines and commercials here in the East Coat back in 2005 and 2006.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I remember Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams was very prominent during advertisement and marketing leading up to Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. I remember seeing print ads presenting some of the parade's floats in magazine and commercials here in the East Coat back in 2005 and 2006.

An amazing parade.




Some of the parade floats would transform during the show stop. Great float designs. Finale float is still seen today, in Frightfully fun parade.

 

[brb1006]

An amazing parade.




Some of the parade floats would transform during the show stop. Great float designs. Finale float is still seen today, in Frightfully fun parade.

I remember during Youtube's infancy (2005-2008), I would watch tons of uploads of the nighttime version of Parade of Dreams. At the time, seeing an evening variation of a daytime parade that wasn't holiday related was unheard.



Prior to Disneyland's 50th Anniversary, the last time Disney decided to give heavy promotion to a daytime parade that was anniversary related was the Share A Dream Come True Parade (The parade with Disney Characters inside snowglobes) during the 100 Years of Magic Celebration (celebrating Walt Disney's 100th Birthday). Since WDW's MK was the centerpiece for the anniversary, Share A Dream Come True Parade was also very prominent between 2001-2003 (alongside Tapestry of Dreams at Epcot and Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade at MK). Those ads were played on tons of Disney VHS Tapes and television stations.

 

[chadwpalm]

My issue with the 70th isn't so much how large the celebration is, but more about how many danged ride closures and refurbs there have been.

 

[yensid1967]

Other than WDWs lackluster 50th have any of the other Resort's birthdays really been seen as not showing love?

I mean I know the birthday cake Castle makeover wasn't seen as a ideal thing, but it sure showed they at least tried.

Also haven't the international parks, especially TDL done pretty big celebrations?

Even Disney's 100th was LACK LUSTER at The Magic Kingdom...way smaller than at Disneyland! Which should have been 100% across ALL PARKS...it was celebrating the Disney company! I just think that every park should get the same quality of decor for milestones for the company or the park!

 

[Disney Irish]

Even Disney's 100th was LACK LUSTER at The Magic Kingdom...way smaller than at Disneyland! Which should have been 100% across ALL PARKS...it was celebrating the Disney company! I just think that every park should get the same quality of decor for milestones for the company or the park!

So that sounds more like a TDO issue specific to only the swamps than an overall "Disney doesn't show love to any other Park but DL", which as has been stated isn't true especially at the International Parks.

So the question is why doesn't TDO want to spend on celebrations for WDW.

 

[mlayton144]

So the question is why doesn't TDO want to spend on celebrations for WDW.

Maybe DLR has to cater more to local crowds who attend over and over and over give them some new celebration decorations , merch, food etc to change things up? I don’t think anyone is flying to Florida just for that, rather they will do their 1-2 trips per year for the DVC or diehards vacationer types or the more seldom 1 week vacationer every few years. These folks I would think won’t be planning entire trips for anniversary celebrations unless it aligns with new attraction openings

 

[PiratesMansion]

Maybe DLR has to cater more to local crowds who attend over and over and over give them some new celebration decorations , merch, food etc to change things up? I don’t think anyone is flying to Florida just for that, rather they will do their 1-2 trips per year for the DVC or diehards vacationer types or the more seldom 1 week vacationer every few years. These folks I would think won’t be planning entire trips for anniversary celebrations unless it aligns with new attraction openings

So you're saying longtime WDW fans wouldn't fly out for anything new other than new attractions, and wouldn't respond well to a truly well-done resort wide celebration?

 

[Disney Irish]

Maybe DLR has to cater more to local crowds who attend over and over and over give them some new celebration decorations , merch, food etc to change things up? I don’t think anyone is flying to Florida just for that, rather they will do their 1-2 trips per year for the DVC or diehards vacationer types or the more seldom 1 week vacationer every few years. These folks I would think won’t be planning entire trips for anniversary celebrations unless it aligns with new attraction openings

I have no idea, but its not really my question. I'm just giving a response to someone who claimed "Disney doesn't care about celebrations for any Park but DL", which is false.