20th Anniversary

The 20th anniversary celebration began on October 1, 1991. The theme for this anniversary was Surprise Celebration. Once again, most of the events were held at the Magic Kingdom. Supposedly, Roger Rabbit would randomly show up and surprise a guest with a prize, which was occasionally a new car. I never did see this happen, though, so I guess I just wasn't at the right place at the right time. The new parade was the Surprise Celebration Parade, which had been brought over after its run at Disneyland as the Party Gras Parade the year before; this parade featured large character balloons.

The Mickey balloon from the Surprise Celebration Parade

Also, a new nighttime parade, SpectroMagic, debuted at the Magic Kingdom; this new parade replaced the popular Main Street Electrical Parade. Although it had the same concept of a nighttime parade made up of lights, SpectroMagic used many new lighting technologies, including fiber optics, which weren't available when the Main Street Electrical Parade was created. At first, SpectroMagic took some time to grow on me, especially the music, but now I am glad to see that it has returned for a second run at the Magic Kingdom after taking some time off to be refurbished.

Mickey at the beginning of SpectroMagic

Over at EPCOT Center, the Surprise in the Skies show was performed over the World Showcase Lagoon. Much like the Skyleidoscope show from the 15th anniversary, Surprise in the Skies used boats and daytime fireworks, but it also used hang gliders and ultralight aircraft. At the climax of the show, large balloons of the different characters were inflated at the different countries of World Showcase.

Some of the different character balloons at the finale of Surprise in the Skies

25th Anniversary

The 25th anniversary celebration has been the largest in scale so far. The theme for this celebration was Remember the Magic. Probably the most notable thing for this celebration was the transformation of Cinderella Castle into a large, pink cake, including inflatable decorations. This transformation had previously been made to Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Paris for that park's first anniversary in 1993; however, I believe that they only added inflatable decorations and didn't repaint the entire castle. It took a few months to paint Cinderella Castle pink (they hadn't started when we were there in June of 1996, and it was finished before October 1), and even longer to return it to its original condition. Guests who had visited WDW before were considered Guests of Honor, and they could get badges proclaiming the year of their first visit.

Cinderella Castle as a cake for the 25th Anniversary

The Remember the Magic Parade, which was renamed the Magical Moments Parade after the celebration ended, featured songs from several Disney films. This was the first WDW parade to stop for performances along the parade route, a concept that had previously been used at the Lion King Celebration parade at Disneyland. For the 25th anniversary celebration, both the Remember the Magic Parade and SpectroMagic were run every day. Usually in the off-season, SpectroMagic only runs on the weekend; all these extra performances probably contributed to the need to refurbish the parade floats while the Main Street Electrical Parade returned to the Magic Kingdom. Also, in the Magic Kingdom's Walt Disney Story theater was a preview film of some of the things coming in the years ahead, most notably Animal Kingdom.

Epcot, as it was now known, had a revised version of Illuminations, the popular nighttime show at the World Showcase Lagoon. This new version, called Illuminations 25, used more new-age sounding music, instead of the original classical pieces. The new Ellen's Energy Adventure version of the Universe of Energy opened for the celebration. Test Track was originally scheduled to open during the 25th anniversary, but technical problems put it way behind schedule.

As WDW continues to announce details about the 100 Years of Magic, you can rest assured that, based on past celebrations, this one won't be anything small!

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- Story and Photos by Steve Burns
Posted

Steve is a three-time Disney Store National Trivia finalist and webmaster of BurnsLand, home of Steve's Disney Railroad Adventures.

E-mail Steve at steve@startedbyamouse.com, discuss this article in the StartedByAMouse.com Disney Discussion Forums or use the Talkback feature below.

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