The Epcot 25 Anniversary, Food and Wine Festival, and MNSSHP Trip

While it has only been 3 weeks since my last trip for that Pin Celebration event, it still has felt like it has been quite a long time.

As you can guess, this trip will be choke-full of special events. Top on the list of course is the upcoming Epcot's 25 Anniversary on Oct. 1st. I will be with the Celebration 25 gang, and will also be attending the Desert Reception. I'm guessing that there'll be many people doing their trip report on this. I will also be contributing to the Anniversary virtual album in another thread that has been set up. But since I will be there for more than just the anniversary, I thought I would do my own separate trip report on the whole thing.

The other two special events that we will be attending are the Food and Wine Festival and the Mickey Not So Scary Halloween Party on the evening of Oct. 4. I've never attended either one before, so I'm very much looking forward to it.

We fly off to Orlando very early tomorrow morning (6:20 am flight), so we'll get in by 11:00 am and head straight to OKW and see if we can check in early. Then we plan on going to AK, which we didn't get to go during our Pin Celebration trip. It probably will be an early evening sign off for us since we would have been up since 3 am, and we want to be at Epcot early to pick up our Celebration 25 stuff the next morning.

Anyway, I'll try to post as much stuff and picture on here during the trip.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Epcot 25th Anniversary Eve - Sept. 30th. (cont.)

[....cont]

The last of the history walk that day was at the Fountain of Nations.

John was doing so well until he was "rudely interrupted" by some guy named Jim McPhee!

Honestly, this was the highlight of the day for me. Mr. McPhee made a very gracious surprise appearance welcoming the group and, frankly, made us all feel special that day. It is amazing how something as simple as a welcome from a Disney management member can have such a huge meaning to Disney fans like us.

Of course, Adam got even a more special moment with Mr. McPhee. I'm guessing there's at least a dozen photos of this snapped.

When Mr. McPhee left, John thought he could continue with his history lesson, but nooooooo. Jim McPhee came back and gave us a sneak preview of the park map that they will be giving out the next day.

Of course, when he opened up the map to show the old retro program, we all burst into a spontaneous applause and oohs and aahs. You can see that Jen just couldn't keep her eyes off it.

We didn't join the group for the Soarin' ride that evening. We had a lovely dinner at Marrakesh and then headed back to our resort to turn in early since we knew that the next day, Oct. 1st, was going to be a long day.

Zz.

 

[dandaman]

"...So I held the fish like this, but he wasn't too keen on that... Oh, right, 25th anniversary stuff. Anyway..."

:lol:

Great TR; I especially like the Linguini/Remy costume idea.

 

[ZapperZ]

Epcot 25th Anniversary Day - Oct. 1st

This was THE day that we've been anticipating for months. It was a gorgeous morning. Everything that one expected from a wonderful day like this almost came true (the almost part is due to the rainy weather that night). While many of us feel that Epcot should have had more celebration on that day, considering that Disney started late in its plan for the fans' observation, it was still quite good. Walking in, you see the celebration poster on the wall erected in front of the on-rehab Spaceship Earth.

I got to Epcot at around 8:15 am. Picked up my Marty Sklar tickets from Jason. Even though we thought we were early, there were already fans right up to the rope-drop area in front of the fountain. There are already lines for the merchandise and the pins. The line for the pins went back all the way to Spaceship Earth.

As soon as the rope dropped, many of us (at least those who were not in line for the pins or merchandise) made it the other side of the Fountain of Nations and staked our place for the re-dedication ceremony.

The re-dedication ceremony was short and sweet (thank god because it was boiling hot that day). The cast members representing the various attractions in Future World came on stage.

Jim McPhee gave a short speech, and then Marty Sklar was introduced, escorted by Mickey and Minnie.

After Marty Sklar's speech, cast members representing the countries of World Showcase came on stage. They also brought with them water from their countries and reenacted the pouring of the water into the fountain, something that was done during the opening of Epcot in 1982. That resulted in huge fountain display and fireworks fanfare that concluded the re-dedication ceremony (see the video I made - it should give you some idea of it).

There was a picture taken, probably of the Epcot management.

Of course, what happened next was the Celebration 25 group photo. Both the Cast Member ambassadors and Jim McPhee joined in for our photo. I lost count how many photographers we had. It seems that I couldn't even figure out where to look because they were all snapping our pictures. Still, I noticed that the PhotoPass photographer who was in a wheelchair was taking a series of snap shots that scanned across the whole group. That was who I went to after we broke off and got him to scan my photopass card. The result is this group photo that I've shown earlier and reproduce here again.

I managed to shake Jim McPhee's hand after the photo ceremony and thank him for all of his efforts to organize an observance of Epcot's anniversary.

We then rushed to The Land because we had tickets for the 11:30 am Marty Sklar's conversation. It's too bad that they don't let us take pictures or videos, but here's a snap shot of the screen before it started.

Our next group activity that day was a ride-together at Journey into Imagination with Figment. This ride that typically barely register 5 minute wait time, suddenly ballooned to 20 minutes wait time by the time all of our group started to enter the line. We did warn the cast member in charged and he directed us to a roped queue line.

[cont...]

 

[ZapperZ]

Epcot 25th Anniversary Day - Oct. 1st (cont)

[...cont]

As the early evening approached, the rain started to fall. We had a "sit through" group activity at the American Experience at the US pavilion. Some of our group members came in drenched due to the rain.

The rain continued into the evening, and our planned desert reception at the front of the Italy pavilion had to be moved in to the Odyssey. It didn't matter. We still had a great time chatting with other members of the group. Again, it was fun to put faces to the various people that we had chatted online at WDWMagic. Towards the end of the reception, the members of Celebration 25 organizers deservedly got a good round of applause from all who were there.

10 minutes to 9 pm and we were escorted back to our reserved area by Italy to view Illuminations. Just as we're about to get there, the heavens opened up and rain poured as if someone opened a faucet. We scrambled to wear our ponchos and continued to make it to our designated area. Due to the rain, we didn't take any pictures or videos, which was something we definitely regretted because the anniversary tag that was added to the end of Illuminations was OUTSTANDING! They mostly used the music from Tapestry of Nations to accompany the fireworks, and by the end of it, the hairs on the back on my neck and on my arms were standing up. I'm hoping our official videographer for our Group took videos of it.

After the fireworks, we were given prior permission to stay behind as the park was emptied out to view the burn-off of the inferno barge. We again had another pleasant surprise. First we were sent a box of ice cream (Mickey Premium!!!!!!). And then Jim McPhee showed up to check up on us.

By then, I could swear that he had us eating out of his hands. The fact that he showed that much care for our group truly made it a spectacular event for us. I know that for me, he was a very big part of why this was such a memorable and magical event/trip. Epcot is in very good hands with him at the helm.

We waited and waited and waited for the burn-off. Due to the rain, Illuminations was about half-hour late, and it was 11:30 pm when the burn-off began. It was more of an appearance of someone having the bad case of the gas. Still, we had a terrific time while we waited. No one was complaining even though most of us were wet and the rain continued to fall on and off. In my case, there was no where else that I'd rather be than right there.

What happened next will stay with me for the rest of my life, and from reading other accounts of those who were there, also became one of the biggest highlights of the whole event. After the burn-off, we were escorted back to the main gate by a cast member, since Epcot was officially closed. As we walk from the Italy pavilion to the front gate, someone started to sing Disney theme park tunes. First it was tunes from the various Epcot attractions, and then it went on to other WDW attractions. Almost everyone was signing in unison. It was MAGICAL! Never before have I felt the comradarie with other Disney fans as strongly as I've felt that night walking out to the gate. I felt privileged to be a part of the group and sharing that moment.

That was the end of the Celebration 25 event and Epcot's anniversary. It was only fitting that as we walked through the turnstile, the time was 12:05 am Oct. 2nd. Epcot has been my most favorite Disney theme park. The events of Oct 1st, 2007 has done nothing but strengthened my affection towards it for daring to be different than any other theme parks.

Now let's see if I can make it to its 50th....

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Donald Rubber Duckies.

In one of my earlier trip report, I mentioned about hunting and finding a set of 6 Donald rubber duckies. On our subsequent trip to WDW, we couldn't find anymore of them.

Well, on this trip, we found all of them again! They are still well-hidden, but there are more places to find them now than before. The american Donald rubber ducky, for example, can be found at the store in Liberty Square and also at the store in the American pavilion at Epcot. The others we found at exactly the same location as mentioned in the post that I linked to. Just remember that Madame Leota's cart has now moved to a different location than before.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

More videos taken during this trip. This is the amazing Chinese acrobats performing at the China pavilion at Epcot. The performers all looked very young that they could easily still be in high school!

This was videotaped on Oct. 1st, on Epcot's 25th Anniversary Day.

Zz.