**CELEBRATION 25 Complete and Total Coverage Thread!**

[diddy_mouse]

I just wanted to say thanks again to all of those who organized this celebration! Also, thank you for sharing your stories of the day...you guys ROCK:sohappy: and I am so envious

 

[mousermerf]

So.. who got the sparkley stuff/confetti on them during the ceremony?

My other half pretty much got beaned with a wad of it. So, i have a unique souvenier. Suppose it's worth anything on eBay?

 

[TheBeatles]

So.. who got the sparkley stuff/confetti on them during the ceremony?

My other half pretty much got beaned with a wad of it. So, i have a unique souvenier. Suppose it's worth anything on eBay?

I didn't even know of or see confetti. I did however see a stack of guide maps when I left :animwink:

 

[BSikor]

I didn't even know of or see confetti. I did however see a stack of guide maps when I left :animwink:

...which I saw him nab, which caused me to do the same.

TheBeatles, glad to see you made it back home. Hope your flight was uneventful and you've gotten some rest.

It was great meeting you, don't forget to drop me a line next time you're in the world.

 

[mousermerf]

Any word on a final count for attendance?

 

[Disney_Freak429]

I didn't even know of or see confetti. I did however see a stack of guide maps when I left

You did grab those right because I only have one & its not in very good shape. So I need to get hooked up with a few.:animwink:

I am back at home & TIRED but I read every post in here to make sure nobody missed letting you know about things that happened.

Of coarse nothing was missed & I am thrilled I was able to meet everyone.

Adam thanks for having the store open still because when I get paid I will be stocking up on some of the Celebration 25 stuff. Also again it was great meeting you & thank you for all your hard work at the event.:sohappy:

John like I told you last night your history walks were wonderful I learned a lot. Also sorry about calling you Jason in the last post it has been a long 4 days lol. I look forward to more history walks from you at Celebration 50 or maybe sooner. :animwink:

Jenn you started the topic & that in itself kicked us into high gear to get us where we are today. If it wasn't for all the hard work of you, Adam, and everyone else starting in Feb. there would have been no celebration, no LE merchandise, no re-dedication, no anything THANK YOU with all my heart.:sohappy: Also your hotel room window was wonderful I hope some of the pics turned out so everyone else can see it.

Jason thank you for all your hard work on the dessert party even with the rain (& being SOAKED) it went off great & I loved every second.

Everyone else from (to protect your secret identity lol) thebeatles,wannabebelle,str8fan,masteryoda (& your daughters) Martin, ect. I was honored to meet all of you. I look forward to staying in contact with everyone it was truly a blast!!!

I will write the major blog about this than post the link to it. I only took a few pics but will put them up soon.

To everyone who didn't make it thank you for sticking with us here on this topic & wishing us the best time we could have. I hope to see those who couldn't make it this time in another 25 years at Celebration 50.

I am going to bed BUT as with I did with the other topic I will be refreshing this topic for weeks to come MANY times a day.

As a closing note it was scary seeing myself in the Jim video which means I may hurt myself (or die) watching the DVD when it comes out. Those at the burnoff know why.:lookaroun:lol: Adam please make that an Easter Egg so nobody can find it. :lol::animwink: (or a sing-along like we were talking about)

Almost forgot Merf I missed seeing you. It was true EVERYONE was looking for you it was an all out Merf Hunt.

 

[DisneyMarg]

Great day, everyone!

Additional notes I don't think I've seen posted:
- I had brought my flag but there was also no flag waving going on in AA. I was just too moved to sing or even wave the flag. They've added new images at the end which are wonderful.
- I also enjoyed the F&W Festival, which I had never attended. In between events I pigged out on some yummy food from around the world.
- I saw a crowd in Club Cool. Looked like they were waiting for the Beverly contest to start. I waited for a few minutes, but decided not to hang around since I didn't know when it would take place.
- We saw The Ladder in one of Marty Sklar's photos. It was around before Epcot was built!
- The anniversary tag on Illuminations included the loudest and brightest fireworks I have ever seen!! I'm sure you can see that on video, but I had to just say it as well. The ground shook and my ears rang. It was AMAZING.
- We passed the two hours waiting for the burnoff by recalling the great events of the day, sharing nostalgic Epcot stories, and by some very punchy singing of old Epcot songs.
- After Illuminations ended and before the burnoff, they played the old Epcot songs and showed laser images on Spaceship Earth from the pavilions.

I missed the ice cream, too. I saw some folks eating ice cream and thought, "I'm surprised they went to buy ice cream after we just had that great dessert!!" :lol:

I would have missed the ponchos, except I overheard Figment's Friend saying he was going to get a couple. And boy did I need a poncho. My socks are still wet.

The best part of the day for me was meeting all of the great board members and Epcot fans. Thanks everyone!

 

[sillyspook13]

Yes after poor Eugene (our assigned events staff member) had to explain to us that it was delayed for a 5th time, the burnoff did happen about 11:30pm. But it was a hillarious and amazing walk out of the park with everyone singing and it was only us still left inside! Ironically they had declared the park "all-clear" and they arranged a special bus for our party to take any resort guest back over to the Magic Kingdom to use the specific resort busses.

All in All, they really did take care of the celebration 25 folks!

More recap to follow when I come out of the post-celebration fog here at work lol.

~Marcus

Hey! You made it to the forum!:wave:

*hugs*

Me, Marcus and Marsha were singing but the actual song is quite loud so unless we were all singing at the top of our lungs it probably wouldn't have been heard. I waved my flag too!

Yes, the flooding around Mexico and Norway was ridiculous, I would have been fine with the rain if not for that.

I didn't see the frozen ice cream bars until nearly 11PM which I quickly pointed out and we all quickly realized how melted they were!

Awesome time, terrible singing walking through World Showcase after the burnoff, it was perfect! Wish I could have walked all the way to the front with everyone but I was parked at CM parking. That was absolutely priceless! You didn't miss too much at the end though. We stopped at the restrooms and lockers and the crazy singing ended there.

September 30 and October 1 were by far the best two days of my life.

 

[Matpez]

Any word on a final count for attendance?

I know this, and only this, while I was escorted backstage at AA (I saw nothing but lockers and staircases, so don't ask ) I had mentioned to Heather, who was our CM escort for the day about how so many people were planning to come for Illuminations she said to me, "last I checked we were about 22,000". This was around 6:00, and I don't really know when was "the last time she checked".

 

[TheBeatles]

...which I saw him nab, which caused me to do the same.

TheBeatles, glad to see you made it back home. Hope your flight was uneventful and you've gotten some rest.

It was great meeting you, don't forget to drop me a line next time you're in the world.

The only event on the plane worth noting was when my face hit the window due to turbulence. I slept the entire 2 hour plane ride.

 

[ChrisFL]

Hey! You made it to the forum!:wave:

*hugs*



September 30 and October 1 were by far the best two days of my life.

Heh, and I realize now that you're Marcia, not Marsha.

 

[Hoop Raeb]

I know this, and only this, while I was escorted backstage at AA (I saw nothing but lockers and staircases, so don't ask ) I had mentioned to Heather, who was our CM escort for the day about how so many people were planning to come for Illuminations she said to me, "last I checked we were about 22,000". This was around 6:00, and I don't really know when was "the last time she checked".

Not sure if this was the intention of the OP but I'm interested in how many of the 1200 people who said they were coming actually checked in with Celebration25?

 

[Thelazer]

From the looks of the backstage parking lot and the amount of people leaving, just about all of the walt disney world cast came to Epcot to see the fireworks that night. It was nuts backstage, never seen so many people leave at once. The whole CM parking lot was pretty much full.

I think it's safe to say QUITE alot MORE people came out than expected that day.

Just goes to show, THERE IS A market for the "old epcot!"

 

[JWG]

I almost want to create a poll about this to see, but it seems to me a good number of the people involved with and who attended Celebration 25 are not yet (or barely) 25 themselves.

I'm intrigued by this in that the park is moving away from it's roots and to more of a thrill ride theming because "that's what the new generation of theme park attendees want."


EPCOT Center was last in its original form in about 1994 before the changes started to happen (you could argue 1993 as Epcot '94 was the new name in '94). That's 13-14 years ago and a good number of the supporters seem barely old enough to remember those days.

I am not trying to be disrespectul in anyway, as an EPCOT fan I'm really very interested in the concept that a large portion of people who may have never experienced EPCOT in its original form or did so at a young age are so attached to what it is and was (World of Motion specifically because of its early exit for Test Track).

I think it's cool...

 

[TheBeatles]

Was anybody else from Michigan at Celebration 25?

 

[Matpez]

Hey, TheBeatles, it was great to meet and chat with you...
if you ever plan another solo trip down, be sure to let us know, we would gladly go park hopping with you if we can.

And really, that goes out to all my new Celebration 25 friends... it was great!

Thank you all!

:wave:

 

[TheBeatles]

It was nice to meet you too!

Thats very kind of you to park hop with me in the future, but I don't think I'll be down anytime soon.

 

[dajatje]

I enjoyed Celebration 25 very much and all the meets with you guys and girls. Thanks to all the staff involved making this event happen, especially Jenn, Adam and Jason.

I would specially like to thank the two CMs (I forgot the names ) that took the time and wait with us for the Burn-off, which happened much later than normal.

I taped a lot of the event in HD and when I get home next week I will check out how it all turned out.

See you all at Celebration 50 :ROFLOL:

Dajatje

 

[Master Yoda]

I enjoyed Celebration 25 very much and all the meets with you guys and girls. Thanks to all the staff involved making this event happen, especially Jenn, Adam and Jason.

I would specially like to thank the two CMs (I forgot the names ) that took the time and wait with us for the Burn-off, which happened much later than normal.

I taped a lot of the event in HD and when I get home next week I will check out how it all turned out.

See you all at Celebration 50 :ROFLOL:

Dajatje

Those were the 2 best CM's on the planet. I was able to talk to the one gentleman and found out that he heard about our event and requested to work it because he thought that we would be a fun crowd. I wonder if he was thinking that when we all broke into WDW karaoke on the walk to the front of the park at midnight?:lol:

 

[jeffb]

Wow, can not believe Celebration 25 is over. It was fantastic, from the history walks (John - excellent job on these!), group rides, re-dedication ceremony, the Marty Sklar presentation, the EPCOT Center Memorabelia Exhibit, hearing all those EPCOT center songs again at EPCOT, to the ROE fire works / desert party, etc... It really was amazing. Additionally, it was great being together with so many EPCOT Center fans and meeting so may people like JVrablel X2, Matpez X2, The Beatles, Martin, Figment's Friend, Jekyll Baker, BSikor, Jedimaster, Brgknews, John Corigliano, Lou M, and everyone else who I got to say hello to. I should be getting my pictures up on the web within the next couple of days (both on my flickr page and to the Celebration photo thread.

I wanted to say thanks one more time to Adam, Jenn, Jason (and everyone else involved) in putting this all together and making it happen! Also thanks to BSikor for the car ride over to EPCOT on Monday!