This past week the Disneyland Resort announced some of the plans they have to celebrate their 60th anniversary this summer. As expected, three major aspects of the resort’s nighttime entertainment will be updated including a new parade, fireworks show, and version of World of Color. At the event itself invited guests not only got to ask questions of the creative team and executives but also experience a sneak peek of the projection mapping that will be integrated into the “Disneyland Forever” fireworks show. And where was I for all this? 1,600 miles away.
While news of all of these exciting things were filling up my Twitter timeline, I was walking through a Target in Springfield, Missouri picking out a shower curtain for my new apartment. It’s not like I didn’t realize that this was going to happen — the announcement that is; I did forget I needed a shower curtain — but I didn’t anticipate how strange it would be to not be in Anaheim for such an event. Moreover it’s going to be infinitely stranger to not be there on May 22nd when these entertainment offerings and presumably more debut.
When the still poorly named Carsland opened in 2012 along with Buena Vista Street my friends and I actually got to attend the “media day” event while the park was closed to regular guests. None of us were actually media but my friend Chris had won some sort of content that allowed us to crash the party. Had this not happened I would have braved the early morning line that formed and the claustrophobia inducing crowds that followed just to be amongst the first to see how my little red-headed stepchild park looked all grown up.
I guess Disneyland’s 60th anniversary kickoff isn’t quite the same thing. For one, the park itself isn’t going to be radically changed as was the case with DCA that summer. Secondly, you Disneyland historians will surely know that May 22nd isn’t actually Disneyland’s birthday, so while getting to see the new shows first might be exciting, the emotional significance isn’t nearly as strong.
Truth be told there’s probably still a decent chance I make it out to Disneyland on May 22nd or July 17th for the Diamond celebration, but it still won’t be the same. Now when I head to Anaheim it will be an all day and multi-day affair and not the three hour pop-in I was so accustomed to.
There were definitely pros and cons to moving across the country and this is one of the cons. However, it was the many pros that brought me here in the first place and those reasons remain solid, responsible, and exciting. Still, in spite of that, watching Anaheim from afar this week made just a little bit homesick already.