![]() The finale featured enough confetti for a ticker-tape parade. Suffice to say that it was big, it was colorful, it was a lot of fun, and it left the parade route an absolute mess. While no one could resist the magic and the mystic beauty of the Party Gras (to quote a lyric that remains stubbornly affixed to my cerebral cortex), I will save a full description of this epic street entertainment for later this year. It’s the stuff of hallucinatory fantasies.Īnd, of course, the obligatory confetti-drenched finale… The Jungle Book… returning soon to a theater near you!Īnd what is that sound in the distance? It’s an incessant whistling and pounding of drums, followed by a fanfare, and then a chorus wailing the words that seemed to be constantly in the air: Welcome to the celebration, it’s a jubilation, it’s a Party Gras! Here comes the Party Gras! But first… Winnie the Pooh? (The Jungle Book, for example, was first issued on home video in 1991.) King Louie greets fans from his special float. Pre-home video, Disney put all its more popular features on a regular schedule of return engagements. The animated classic was due for its fourth theatrical release. It was a catchy earworm and it is possibly lingering in certain corners of the park to this day.Įarly in the year a promotional float for The Jungle Book preceded the parade. Once inside it seemed as if the Party Gras Parade theme was always playing. The location of 1985’s “Gift Giver Extraordinaire” was now occupied by a gaudy decoration composed of gears, scrolls, steam whistles, pipe organ pipes and… another logo. The main entry gates were adorned with ribbons, banners and more logos. Guests were constantly reminded of the 35 Years of Magic promotion, starting out in the parking lot with logos attached to a series of canopies that extended southward from the ticket booths. By March the park had fallen into familiar rhythms. If you don’t remember any of these, it’s because… none of them happened.Īll that said, let’s take a look around Disneyland on an ordinary day in 1990. Who can forget the wonders that the nineties promised for the Happiest Place on Earth? Here they are, in all their chronological splendor: 1991, The Young Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Here Come the Muppets live on stage 1993, the Little Mermaid attraction 1994, George Lucas’ Alien Encounter 1996, Dick Tracy’s Crime Stoppers 1999, Baby Herman’s Runaway Buggy and a whole new section for the park, Hollywoodland. The Disney Decade encompassed every sector of the Walt Disney Company, although what was in store for Disneyland over the next ten years was of highest interest to me. The Disney Decade was officially announced the day after Disneyland’s 35 th Birthday kick-off, in a splashy media event at the Disneyland Hotel. This is that actual laminated card that was a Disneyland Seasonal Passport in 1990. So I settled for a Seasonal Pass for two years before finally becoming a full-fledged Annual Passholder in 1992. The Seasonal Pass, on the other hand, was an affordable $90. A Disneyland Annual Pass for every day in the year cost a whopping $165. Again, why? Most likely because of the price. This restricted Saturdays through much of the peak season, as well as the holidays. The first pass I purchased was the Disneyland Seasonal Pass. ![]() Most likely I had leftover ticket media for visits in January and February. Why I waited over two months is a bit of a mystery. My first Disneyland Annual Pass was issued on March 11, 1990. ![]() And the Many, many years are the ones I spent as a Disneyland Annual Passholder. The decade is The Disney Decade, a name that Michael Eisner and the marketing wizards at the Walt Disney Company drummed mercilessly into the hearts and minds of Disney fans. We’ll take a look at what a typical day was like. In fact it will cover a month, a decade, and many, many years. After spending two months to cover a single day thirty years ago at Disneyland, this month’s entry will cover a lot more ground.
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