jedimaster1227 Posted October 2, 2007 Posted October 2, 2007 This past weekend was Epcot's 25th anniversary and my previously mentioned fan event, Celebration 25 was there to celebrate this momentous occasion. With over 1200 attendees and several surprises provided for our group by Jim Macphee and the rest of the management at Epcot, we all had a great time! The video of Jim Macphee joining us for the first time is at the bottom of this first post and can be downloaded in ZIP format. I will do a full write up on the event once all of the photos have been uploaded... So, let the story begin... (To Erik, I told you I would put those photos up! Barry, I've got bad news about your favorite Epcot film... And to Chrissie, I hope you enjoy the photos of Wonders of Life in its new state!) I just found that the Orlando Sentinel featured our group (and myself) in one of their video segments for their 25th coverage here. Mr. Ridgway tells us a story about his earlier days at Epcot! Our entire team got to the sign in tables early to help set up. The original three staff members of Celebration (from left to right) are myself, Jason and Jenn. The old map has been replaced to show the different areas of the festival center, including a preview center for the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas. At least this is still here... The old Wonders of Life sign has been covered by a simple sign declaring this pavilion as the festival center. I ran over to the Festival Center at the Wonders of Life pavilion before our first "History Walk" began. Before the festivities began, Stephanie, my parents and I went to Seasons to grab a quick breakfast. Spaceship Earth is getting a new color scheme and a new, curvy design for its supports. While the rest of the park was adourned in 25th anniversary decor, the entrance planter was themed for the Food and Wine Festival with Ratatouille. During our final History Walk, Jim Macphee decided to visit us, and take me up on the Fountain of Nations stage to take a few photos! Jenn, John (our History Walk leader), Matt (our videographer) and I take a photo after the first session of our History Walk ends. The weather was perfect for us on Sunday! Our History Walk group was quite large! Celebration 25 Jim Macphee Appearance.zip Jim Macphee interrupts our History Walk to pay our group a visit! Charlie Ridgway was a VIP guest of ours at Celebration25, and we were honored to have him join us for the History Walk. The exit to Body Wars has had all signs removed, making the hallway even more bare. Not much has changed here since last December, considering the only difference is that the wall covering the former Frontiers exhibit is now red, rather than white. Cranium Command's "look-in" entrance has been covered with curtains... Cranium Command's main marquee is still intact, but all notations of the theater's former occupants are gone. I remember having a hot dog from this former location... It was almost worse than my elementary school's food... Much of the former Wonders of Life pavilion has been kept intact. There was still a small number of people brought into the pavilion for the Food and Wine Festival... Just like last time, it was dead. Since they planned on opening the Epcot Gallery in Innoventions West's small basement/cellar, they put the new wine racks in the Festival Center at the Wonders of Life Pavilion. Notice that the old MET sign in the front of the queue is gone, along with all of the peeling art that was there last December... The Body Wars queue has been abandoned... The old mural is now gone, but the Body Wars sign remains, oddly enough. It looks so out of place as of right now. Sorry Barry, but the Making of Me has been replaced with a movie on the making of wine. I guess this film still indirectly has to do with "The Making of Me..." Coach's Corner is covered by trees and more red velvet curtains... The old MetLife computers are still there, covered over with new plastic plates.
mmousefan Posted October 3, 2007 Posted October 3, 2007 Hey Adam, this pictures are very good, it was great to meet you yesterday at Epcot. As I told you it was quite impressive what you did with all these people. Very nice job. Cant wait to see the rest of the pics of that awesome day that was Epcots 25th aniversary. (Specially the rainy pics lol) Best Wishes Joel PS: Told you I was going to be the first to post
jedimaster1227 Posted October 3, 2007 Author Posted October 3, 2007 ^I trusted that you would be the first to post here, so I'm going to skip ahead just for you to our rainy experience, then we will be back to our regularly schedule photos... Another memorable TPR Member meet! Since I felt partly responsible for Joel being so wet (no, not an acceptable amount of wetness), I took one our dessert party group's complimentary ponchos and gave it to Joel, so he wouldn't have to walk in the rain over to Mexico. We actually filmed a little message for Theme Park Review, but I don't know when my friend will send me that footage... Joel and I walked all the way from the American Adventure to Odyssey (towards Canada, then towards Odyssey- a longer walk) in the rain... This is what happens to TPR members that walk, talk and meet in the rain.
mmousefan Posted October 3, 2007 Posted October 3, 2007 LOL thanks!!!! That was such a great way to meet. Oh and I didnt got sick so nothing to be worried about, the poncho saved my life!!! And thanks to it I could stand in the rain to watch Illuminations between the two towers in the VIP section. Again thanks for everything. Joel
jedimaster1227 Posted October 3, 2007 Author Posted October 3, 2007 ^I've got another photo for you in this next update, but again, it was my pleasure to have you join us, and make more memories at Epcot! So, onto our next update... Oh, and the Orlando Sentinel featured our group in their 25th Anniversary update... I'm the one talking to the camera. National Treasures is a truly interesting exhibit, though a little smaller than I expected. I grabbed a funny photo at the Pear Festival at the American Adventure pavilion... Jim Macphee and I up on the Fountain of Nations stage... I was in so much shock at the time! OOH! Lamb chops from Australia! Yum! Cast Members were wearing buttons congradulating WDW on its 36th anniversary... My how time flies! I had to take a few funny photos during the day too... Tradition, I guess. Our was listening attentively as we moved on... The cool LED strip at the entrance of Mission:Space wasn't working properly today. The Disney events official (not pictured above) that was assigned to supervise our History Walks was quite impressed with John's (pictured above) wealth of information. Our History Walk group over at Test Track... The old Wonders of Life sign has been removed, and the fountain base has had a new Festival Center sign crudely welded to its top. Notice that the fountain isn't even on. The DNA structure was removed last month in preparation for the Festival Center's opening. As I said before... Still empty. The mobile is still here. The Anacomical Theatre has been tree'd off... Dave Smith (Disney Legend and author of the Disney Encyclopedia A-Z) actually remembered me from our last encounter and congradulated me on the event! After the ceremony, I ran into Joel, which was a great surprise! Marty Sklar is escorted by Minnie as he prepares to make his speech. By the time of the ceremony, most of our group members had picked up their limited edition Figment plushes... If you couldn't tell, I was excited- even more than I was for Blue Man Group! (Yes, that was a joke...) We waited patiently for the rededication ceremony to take place... Spaceship Earth's refurbishment walls have been given new decor to celebrate the park's anniversary. Ricky Brigante holds up his limited edition 25th anniversary shirt. I bought for before they sold out, along with three figment plushes (a fourth was a gift from Jim Macphee, number 1 of 1200). Earlier that morning, we got to see more people at the sign in tables. Marcus had his opening day ticket and his new Marty Sklar session ticket. Jim Macphee and two of the Disney Ambassadors took part in our photo as honorary guests! On Monday, after the rededication ceremony, our entire group took some photos... Notice Abraham Lincoln's famous top hat in the center of this display case. I caught up with Jim Hill (of Jim Hill Media) after the ceremony as well, and took a quick photo before I had to move on... Dave Smith and Martin Smith (producer of some excellent online Disney documentaries) took a nice photo with me after the ceremony.
mcjaco Posted October 4, 2007 Posted October 4, 2007 Everything is "retro" except the Figment doll. That's version 2.0. Ugh, Jim Hill. At least SSE looks awesome.
America Sings Freak Posted October 4, 2007 Posted October 4, 2007 This is so awesome! Good job on the event!
GymLeaderPhil Posted October 4, 2007 Posted October 4, 2007 Ugh... I kept running into Jim Hill on Monday. He was talking loudly in the Epcot 25th Gallery with a friend I assume (or a hostage - I could not tell.) Then I escaped off to World Showcase for lunch, they sit me outside, and then he shows up outside the Rose and Crown continuing to talk (AT LENGTH) on and on with a large group of disciples. I was tempted to start throwing crumbs from my bread at him And I apologize that this has to be my first TPR post. I love this site SO much, but I'm just a casual lurker.
mcjaco Posted October 4, 2007 Posted October 4, 2007 ^ You aren't the only one that feels the same way about Jim Hill around these parts, and many others. Oh yes, WELCOME!
jedimaster1227 Posted October 4, 2007 Author Posted October 4, 2007 ^^^ Glad you all have enjoyed the updates so far! I've still got a number of photos left to upload, with more being sent in to me from our members, so expect some more updates to come. Lets continue... After our dessert party was moved indoors due to a count of rain, we moved out to the Italy Isola for our viewing of the special version of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth! I had the pleasure of meeting Alex Wright (the author of the Imagineering Guide to ____ [Park] books)! One of the couples attending our event had had their wedding earlier that day, and rather than go directly on their honeymoon, they decided to join our Dessert Party! Afterwards, I caught up with him one last time to thank him for seeing me the day before and for all of his hard work! I had met the Disney Legend the day before at my Epcot Gallery preview, but it was a pleasure to hear from him again! Time for "A Conversation with Marty Sklar!" It really was a beautiful lounge! One window even provides a view of the Maelstrom's waterfall! The windows overlook the pavilion's main path. George Bush even came to this lounge some time ago! They have a beautiful grand piano and a lovely tiled fireplace in the lounge as well! The walls of the main room were adorned with display cases with items of interest to Norway's past. I thought this carving was pretty cool and it matched the rest of the lounge's theme. We had several different members of the media attend the event. We did an open question format and afterwards, we had time to take in the atmosphere of this VIP lounge. Directly after our gallery visit, it was time for our Celebration 25 Media Event taking place in the beautiful Norway Loft (complements of Disney). They even had a video montage of all that made up EPCOT Center. Each of the [former] pavilions had a panel like this with some great concept art, construction pictures and information. Remember these? I believe they are the jumpsuits worn by the dancers at the grand opening of Epcot... Werner Weiss even stopped by to say hello! Simon and Susan Veness (authors of the Brit's Guide to Orlando and WDW) were two of our event's VIPs. The Spaceship Earth model from One Man's Dream turned up here, at the entrance to the Epcot Gallery! The old EPCOT Center logo has gotten some recognition again. Everyone in the group enjoyed the gallery as it had alot of recognizable memorabilia and some items that we hadn't seen before! After the group photo, most of our group went on to check out the new Epcot Gallery... Though I had gotten a preview with Marty Sklar and Jim Macphee the day earlier...
mmousefan Posted October 5, 2007 Posted October 5, 2007 Great report so far!!! Now I want to hear your toughts about the special 25th fireworks.
BeemerBoy Posted October 5, 2007 Posted October 5, 2007 1. Jim Hill's an idiot. 2. I gotta give credit where credit is due... Sorry Barry, but the Making of Me has been replaced with a movie on the making of wine. I guess this film still indirectly has to do with "The Making of Me..." Well crafted. EDIT: Joel, I looked for ya last week, but you were off that day. I couldn't get a postcard to you, or even find you at EPCOT....batting a thousand, huh?
BarryH Posted October 5, 2007 Posted October 5, 2007 Great photos! What shade of lipstick do you use, Mr. Master? I'm said to see my favorite film go. *sniff sniff* Personally, I think Body Wars could have been made into a wine film simulator.
jedimaster1227 Posted October 7, 2007 Author Posted October 7, 2007 ^^^ I thought the fireworks show was really great! Illuminations: Reflections of Earth is by far my favorite fireworks show and seeing that extra tag on the end was really special. The sound created by the finale of the tag was near that of a fighter jet fly-over! I've watched my video countless times since I ripped the footage off of my tape. ^I did think of you when I passed the Making of Me's theater... In fact, it was something like "Barry is going to flip when he finds out that they replaced it with a lame film about wine..." This is my last photo update before I do my full write up on the weekend. Our group photo to end on. Our group readying for our photo... John readys his camera for the Illuminations tag. The parking lot now features these new symbols- a nice new touch for the park. imaginationc25groupphoto.bmp Everyone during our Journey into Imagination with Figment meet! Just a small note: we actually created a small wait time for the attraction... Jeff Pepper and his family enjoyed our [wet] Illuminations Dessert Party! Our group during our Soarin' Last Ride of the Night meet. DebandI.bmp Deb Wills and I posed for a photo. Matthew Paul and I on Soarin' Sunday night.
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