I was there!

My name is Dean Scungio, I'm 28 and from Johnston, Rhode Island.  I am an avid Disney fan and collector.  In July, I attended both the NFFC (National Fantasy Fan Club) National Convention and Disneyland on its actual 50th Anniversary date.  What made this trip special for me is the fact that this was my very first trip to California, the NFFC convention, and the Disneyland Resort.

I bumped into Chuck (o-meon.com editor C. W. Oberleitner) several times during the convention.  He had asked me if I could do a video interview for his website, but, unfortunately, we never had a chance to arrange it.  I would like to share with you some of my thoughts and experiences about this wonderful adventure.

I have been a Disney fan for about fifteen years.  From the start, my interests have been on Disney history, behind-the-scenes, production, and trivia.  I tend to collect books, CDs, DVDs, posters and artwork, snow globes, plush dolls, and I'm a sucker for anything that's labeled as an anniversary item or collectible.  Over time, I've seen many films and read many books and websites that chronicle the history of the studio and the theme parks.  This knowledge would play a big part of my trip, as I'll mention later on.

I've been to Walt Disney World in Florida only three times: in the summers of 1985, 1990, and 2002.  The 1985 trip was fun, and I can still remember some things from it, but I didn't think much of it at the time.  After all, I was only eight years old at the time.  The 1990 trip was just after I started learning about Disney, so it helped to "seal the deal," as it were, in terms of my becoming an avid Disney fan.  The 2002 trip, after twelve years of high school, college, and employment, was my first real "grownup" visit to a Disney theme park.  I felt that it was perhaps my best vacation ever, especially since it had been twelve years since my last visit.  However, I still had never been to California to see the original Disneyland park.

How I got there…

Three years ago, just a few weeks before my 2002 trip, I discovered that a local chapter of the NFFC was forming.  I got in contact with some people, and we all met at the first meeting.  We established monthly meetings after that, and we've been together ever since.  Our friendly group gatherings are now the main outlets for my Disney obsession.

At the time I didn't realize it, but everything was in place for my July trip.  I can remember thinking five years ago that I wanted to be at Disneyland for its 50th Anniversary, but I didn't know how that was going to happen.  When July 2004 came around, I realized that I had the opportunity because the NFFC's national convention was taking place at the same time, and I was already a member, so why not go to both events?

In 2004, Disney's marketing machine began touting all the new events that would take place for the 50th celebration.  I kept track of the announcements over the course of the year, and I wasn't interested in going to Walt Disney World because this was Disneyland's anniversary.  The marketing efforts at the end of the year with the annual telecast of the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade, Disney's presence at the Rose Bowl Parade, and the anticipated "Coming Home" commercial were the clinchers for me.  For some reason, Kelsey Grammer's line in the ad resonated with me: "It's our biggest celebration in fifty years, and everybody's going to be there.  The only one missing...is you."

A week or so later, it finally clicked for me.  I was a member of an organization of Disney collectors that was holding a national convention just one week before one of the biggest events in pop culture history.  I just couldn't pass up this truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I didn't care about the cost.  In March, I finally booked the airline tickets, the hotel room, and the convention registration.  Unfortunately, no one from my family was able to come along with me.  On the other hand, several members from my local NFFC chapter were also making the long trip to California.

May 4th and 5th came with the official start of the celebration, and then the worries began.  The large crowds that appeared on those days caused concern for everyone, and not just me.  Would July 17th see even larger crowds?  Would the park reach capacity on that day and not let anyone in?  People in online forums were already threatening to line up overnight, and Disney still did not announce their plans for that day.

As July came around, I was both excited and nervous.  I was excited because I was actually going, but I was also nervous because I did not know what was going to happen.  I had never traveled alone before, and my schedule in California was not defined.  Would I get a chance to go to the park while the convention was running?  Would I be able to tour Los Angeles or Hollywood or Universal Studios?  Would I be one of the crazy people who would wait overnight to get in on the 17th?  I didn't want to.  I wanted to sleep.

Now that I'm here…

The NFFC convention itself was wonderful and fun.  The organization bills itself as having members with a love for all things Disney, and that was exhibited during the week since not every event was focused on Disneyland's anniversary.  Everyone I met was very friendly, especially towards first-timers like myself.  It was fun to bump into the same people at the park several times during the week.  The highlights for me were the Disneyana Show and Sale, the Luncheon with a Legend, the Celebration Dinner, the special guest speakers, and the events that the Walt Disney Company organized just for us: a preview screening of Disney Pictures upcoming release, The Greatest Game Every Played, at the Downtown Disney AMC theatre and a private reception in Tomorrowland that included a ride on Space Mountain and reserved seating for the fireworks.

I was thrilled to meet some notable Disney celebrities, including archivist Dave Smith, Mouseketeers Cheryl Holdridge, Doreen Tracey, and Nancy Abbate, Studio chief Dick Cook, former Disneyland president Jack Lindquist, legendary artist Bill Justice, former Imagineer Bob Gurr, Disneyland's current ambassador Becky Phelps, and voiceover artists Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor.

As I mentioned before, I have been to Walt Disney World three times, but never to Disneyland.  Visiting the park for the first time, especially during its 50th Anniversary, was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.  There were moments during my trip when it dawned on me that I had finally made it, and I was actually there.  Of course, the rides were fun and all the Cast Members and characters were friendly.  Because of my schedule, I had plenty of time to take in all the attractions in a relaxed pace.  While the NFFC Convention was running, I spent my late afternoons and nights at the park, going on the rides with almost no lines to wait in and catching the new Remember... fireworks show several times.  When I finally did have full days to myself, I would still hit some rides, but since I was not being rushed, I would simply walk all around the park taking in the atmosphere.

Since I had read and seen so much about Disneyland for years, my thoughts kept going back to the history of the park.  I would remember that this event happened here, and that these things used to be there, and, perhaps more importantly, that these were the original park attractions: Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise, and Small World.  I also noted that some parts of the park have not changed in fifty years, and they still look the same today: Main Street, the Railroad, the Castle, the Mark Twain, and the Golden Horseshoe.  And because this was the only park that Walt walked in, I kept seeing little touches of Walt's presence: the petrified tree that he gave as a present to his wife Lillian, the rooms of Disney Gallery that were to be a private family apartment, his balcony seat over the stage in the Golden Horseshoe, those locations seen in the famous publicity photos......and the Fire Station!  That was Walt's apartment.  I don't know how many times on my trip that I stopped by the Fire Station or the "Partners" statue and simply thanked Walt for all his work.

After the convention, I spent more time in the park.  I was in Tomorrowland on the 15th to witness the "relaunch" of Space Mountain.  Unfortunately, the media event was not only closed to park guests, it wasn't even visible either.  It took place on the upper level of the ride queue, and Disney did not broadcast it on the various Jumbotron monitors set up around the park or play the event over the park's public address system.  The ceremony came and went in about fifteen minutes and the thousands of people waiting in line for the first "official" rides on the new Space Mountain saw nothing.  That was extremely disappointing.  On the other hand, I did bump into Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor again as they were doing radio interviews that day.

The events leading up to the anniversary date of the 17th added to the anticipation, and it kept building up throughout the week.  The big questions were still about Disney's plans for crowd control on the night of the 16th.  They had made some announcements, but they were rather vague and contradictory.  They told us that the Esplanade and the parking lot across the street would be open, but we couldn't camp out there.  So, could we go there or not?  I did not want to camp out (I preferred to sleep), but I resigned myself to do it because I figured that if I stayed at my hotel, then more than 15,000 people would be ahead of me in line.  I prepared to not return to my room that night.

On July 16, I spent the day at Disney's California Adventure (DCA).  That night, I went into Disneyland to catch the fireworks.  A small stage was already set up in front of the castle, and I talked with one of the suits about the plans for the ceremonies tomorrow.  Later in Town Square, I bumped into several people from the convention who were outside City Hall trying to get any information they could from the Cast Members about the following day's events.  As we stood in Town Square at around 11 p.m., someone commented that the line was already forming in the bus and tram area.  A Cast Member eventually came out and mentioned to us that the line would be let in to DCA at around 3 a.m., and then sent into Disneyland at around 7 a.m.  It was after midnight when I tagged along with someone to see if I could join his group in line.  Unfortunately, I couldn't, so I went to the back of the line.  This was going to be the geekiest thing I had ever done in my life.

The line snaked up and down the tram area, and eventually backed up onto Harbor Boulevard.  It was reorganized and kept moving throughout the night.  I had wanted to sit down and sleep several times, but with the constant moving and the drop in temperature, there was no way to do that.  Groups of about one hundred or so were let through the bag check area and then into DCA.  This was slow at first but soon went by very quickly, and I finally got into DCA at 4 a.m.  The line now went from the park's entrance, up and down the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, and then through the park all the way back to Paradise Pier.  My spot was at the entrance to the Backlot on the right side near Playhouse Disney.  The hard asphalt, the constant noise from the crowd (why weren't these people sleeping?!), and the drop in temperature led to a cold, miserable night for me. When 6 a.m. came around, the line was reorganized once again.  Since every group of one thousand people was given a different colored wristband, I figured that there were about 1,200 to 1,300 people in front of me.  (Just so you know, a group of one thousand people looks bigger than it really is.)

As 7 a.m. approached, the adrenaline kicked in.  The line moved quickly, and at 7, I walked with about a dozen other people in a roped-off walkway straight through the Esplanade.  We could see the people near Downtown Disney who were waiting for all 10,000 of us to get in first.  Some Cast Members stood by the ropes to wish us a good morning and "Welcome home!"  One of us commented that it felt like we were walking down the red carpet.  We jogged through the exit gates, through the tunnel under the railroad, and into Town Square, and once we turned onto Main Street...there were all the Cast Members lined up along the street waving and cheering, "Good morning!," "Thanks for coming!," "Happy birthday!," and "Welcome home!"  It was a wonderful, memorable moment that not only brought our energy up, but also set the tone for the rest of the day.

I spotted Disneyland President Matt Ouimet in the crowd and personally thanked him for all his work and for the Cast Members' great job during my very first trip to Disneyland.  I chose to head for the ceremony in front of the castle instead of the merchandise event in Frontierland.  When I arrived, there were several people already there, but it was not crowded, and I eventually got a spot right behind the rope next to the entrance to the Plaza Gardens.  I then waited about three hours for the ceremony to start, and during that time, I had another moment of realization.  Here I was, in Disneyland on July 17, 2005, as I had hoped for years, standing in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle ready to witness the rededication of the park.  "I did it.  I made it.  I'm here!"

The sun broke through the overcast clouds just before the ceremony started (Walt Weather?), and I had a great spot to see everything.  At the end, when all the Cast Members and characters came out, I was so caught up in the moment that I could barely sing "Happy Birthday."  I stuck around after the show to take photos and meet Dave Smith and Becky Phelps again.  Later on, I saw Art Linkletter doing a TV interview, and the crowd that had gathered nearby sang an impromptu "Happy Birthday" to him.

Later that afternoon, I was in Town Square when they replayed Walt's dedication speech over the Jumbotrons.  It was exciting and moving to be right there, exactly fifty years after it had all happened.  They played the video of Walt, released some doves, and then played the music video for "Remember When."  Mickey had worked his way into the crowd, and I was able to catch him as he left, shake his hand, and offer him my "Congratulations, Mickey."

I didn't want to go on any rides that day, fearing the long wait times.  I spent most of the day wandering around the park, taking in the atmosphere, and then I had yet another moment of realization.  During the ceremonies that took place that morning, it was stated that both the Guests and Cast Members make up the Disneyland experience.  As I walked through the Small World mall that afternoon, looking at the faces of the golden-eared crowd heading past me, I realized that all these people of all ages, from all walks of life, possibly from places around the world, came here today to forget about the outside world for a while and to enjoy themselves, to have fun together...which is what Walt wanted.  Art Linkletter said it best at the 50th ceremony when he remarked, "And incidentally, yesterday, a man walked up to me in the park and said, 'Isn't it a shame that Walt Disney didn't live to see this?' and I said, 'He did see this, and that's why it's here.'"

During the July 17, 1955 telecast of the grand opening of Disneyland, Bob Cummings speculated that the people in attendance would probably be making the same remark as those who attended the opening of the Eiffel Tower: "I was there."  While I wasn't alive fifty years ago for "Black Sunday," I was around to experience what I still call "Golden Sunday."

I was there.

Guest columnist Dean Scungio with Disneyland Resort President Matt Ouimet.
Image courtesy of Dean Scungio.

Dean Scungio is a graduate of Rhode Island College. He is currently studying for a career in secondary education.