10/1 40th Anniversary Plans?

Fievel

Fievel

RunDisney Addict
I'll be on property, but as my wife and I are both running the half marathon that night, our time in the park is going to be severely limited.

Also, our daughter runs the wine and dine kids race at 10 am that morning, so no morning ceremony for me:shrug:
 
J

Jeffxz

Well-Known Member
This was posted as a response to a comment today by Nate Rasmussen on the Disney Parks Blog:


Hi Lauren. I’m told from my sources over at Magic Kingdom Park that there are fun surprises planned, but that they will stay a surprise until October 1.



Any guesses as to what these suprises will be?
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Jeffxz said:
This was posted as a response to a comment today by Nate Rasmussen on the Disney Parks Blog:


Hi Lauren. I’m told from my sources over at Magic Kingdom Park that there are fun surprises planned, but that they will stay a surprise until October 1.



Any guesses as to what these suprises will be?
Click to expand...

Maybe they won't close the park at 10 as it's currently scheduled?
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
Hmmm....surprises....

I'd guess a ceremony if some sort.
Perhaps a free button or something.

Maybe they'll ask me to give a speech....
Nah...I doubt it...
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Lee said:
Hmmm....surprises....
Click to expand...

Please take this info on the 40th plans from a Florida manager with a big grain of salt, but...

I wanted to post this yesterday, but just didn't have the time. I was at Trader Sam's at the Disneyland Hotel two nights ago with a very sociable lady friend. After sitting on the lanai and listening to the music for awhile we went inside because my lady friend was getting chilly (ah, SoCal summer nights!), and we ended up sitting at the bar next to a Disney manager visiting from Florida. After another round of drinks, and a bonding experience over the magical sinking barstools the bartender activated on myself and the visiting Floridian, plus a couple of volcanic eruptions and one terrifying shipwreck sequence, we got to talking about what this person does.

To protect the identity, I'll just call them he/she. It turns out he/she is a manager in "Entertainment" at WDW, and was out here with a group of coworkers in Disneyland checking out the new Disneyland parade and in he/she's words "the great stuff happening daily in California Adventure to keep it lively during construction without a parade". He/she literally glowed with praise for the counterparts in Anaheim and was sent out to "benchmark" how Anaheim runs their entertainment business. He/she also mentioned how their Vice President actually works in TDA and lives here in SoCal, but now has people as "direct reports" to him out in WDW.

We then got on the topic of WDW's 40th, and I asked what the plans were as I am contemplating a trip out there for it. The reply from he/she was "not much".

According to he/she, currently the plan is to only mention the 40th at Magic Kingdom on October 1st. There will be what he/she called a "character flood" that afternoon where they send out pretty much every new and old Character costume they can get a body for and swarm the park with costumed characters. And then there will be a speech given, but right now it's doubtful if Iger or Staggs will fly out for it so it could be the WDW Ambassador that does it, and perhaps a TDO executive. CM's will be given a birthday button to wear, and there's a tentative plan to offer free cupcakes to the park guests that day in the afternoon after the "Character Flood" and speech. And that's about it. He/she said the Entertainment team was tasked with handling the entire 40th events, and that's what they were approved to do. And if you want to celebrate, you have to be in the Magic Kingdom, and the Magic Kingdom only.

He/she said the current plans for the 40th wouldn't be worth it to fly out for, and we then got to talking about how I would really be there for the Food & Wine kickoff anyway, yada-yada-yada, gosh this Uh-Oa is strong, and is the bar growing or is my barstool sinking again? :lol:

So, there you go. Take that for what it's worth. He/she could be totally clueless about some big corporate announcement of major WDW expansion happening on October 1st for the 40th, or he/she could have been a rabid Disneyland AP with a personality defect who pretends to be middle management from Florida in bars as a weird pickup line. But it seemed fairly legit to me.

And when you've been barstool-sunk at Trader Sam's with someone, you really do have a special bond, so my inclination is that he/she is legit and the info he/she gave is pretty accurate. :wave:
 
TropicalFig8

TropicalFig8

Active Member
Jeffxz said:
This was posted as a response to a comment today by Nate Rasmussen on the Disney Parks Blog:


Hi Lauren. I’m told from my sources over at Magic Kingdom Park that there are fun surprises planned, but that they will stay a surprise until October 1.



Any guesses as to what these suprises will be?
Click to expand...

Hmmm...maybe a free t-shirt.

Nah,I bet it's a button and no dedication to EPCOT. Just MK.
 
Bigart

Bigart

Active Member
I posted a thread on this very topic earlier this month. Not much is planned for the 40th. CM's are either oblivious to any plans or have been told to keep mum. I was told there may be a small ceremony and all the characters will be in attendance. 40 just isn't 25 or 50. There will be no pink castle cake. (whew)

There is a limited line of retro merchandise with the old globe logo, and a set of paintings and brick brack with designs by the artist (see his website)

There is a rumor that all original rides running on opening day 1971 will have CMs in original costume. This is most likely false, as someone I spoke with has said there have been many cost cutting measures going on. But who knows. Everyone is so tight lipped. It would be cool to see the old lime green and blue monorail pilot suits with the baseball helmets.

Anyway anyone going have fun. The crowd calendar shows light crowds that day. It's hard to fathom it has been 40 years.
 
JiminyandTink

JiminyandTink

Well-Known Member
I'm so confused whether or not to go that day, I would really have to change my sched and screw up some ADRs but I keep finding myself going back and forth on this
 

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