Friday morning at the recent 50 Teachers Celebration brought all kinds of special events, beginning with entry into the Magic Kingdom through a side gate through the backstage area of the park (no photos allowed). Teachers continued to meet and mingle as a couple of Disney executives greeted us on the Tomorrowland Terrace before offering us breakfast, which included a little bit of anything one would want. At the end of the buffet line were the famous Mickey waffles. I would have thought this would be a regular waffle shaped like a cartoon mouse, but it ended up being the best waffle I've ever eaten. I wish I'd nabbed another one (or five).
We were divided into groups and found ourselves with a task to perform: design a theme park. We did so with the help of a dry erase board and markers.
Soon enough, we were whisked away with Imagination Campus guides for personalized tours of the Magic Kingdom. Our tour traveled up and down Main Street USA, discussing the design of the attraction, complete with forced perspective, talk about the names on the buildings, and of course, the little castle at the end of the street. We ended at Liberty Square, where we had a short presentation about the design of safety aspects of the park - complete with talk about the Utilidors (tunnels that span the width and length of the park). Did we see the Utilidors? Absolutely we did NOT, but not for lack of trying. The same map that we saw of the Utilidors is available all over the Interweb, but overlaying it with a map of the Magic Kingdom it quite revealing.
Returning to Tomorrowland, our group used 3D-printed block shapes to combine two theme parks into one using the Blue Sky philosophy of not raining on anyone's ideas (I'm still not sure how dissension might fit into the Blue Sky system.). I'm pretty sure Disney Imagineers get more than 10 minutes to design park features, but we did our best. The picture of our combined group design, below, was taken by my new friend Ryan, a fellow celebrant from Mississippi.
Soon enough, we were whisked away with Imagination Campus guides for personalized tours of the Magic Kingdom. Our tour traveled up and down Main Street USA, discussing the design of the attraction, complete with forced perspective, talk about the names on the buildings, and of course, the little castle at the end of the street. We ended at Liberty Square, where we had a short presentation about the design of safety aspects of the park - complete with talk about the Utilidors (tunnels that span the width and length of the park). Did we see the Utilidors? Absolutely we did NOT, but not for lack of trying. The same map that we saw of the Utilidors is available all over the Interweb, but overlaying it with a map of the Magic Kingdom it quite revealing.
Returning to Tomorrowland, our group used 3D-printed block shapes to combine two theme parks into one using the Blue Sky philosophy of not raining on anyone's ideas (I'm still not sure how dissension might fit into the Blue Sky system.). I'm pretty sure Disney Imagineers get more than 10 minutes to design park features, but we did our best. The picture of our combined group design, below, was taken by my new friend Ryan, a fellow celebrant from Mississippi.
 | The rest of our morning was rounded out with parades - first a parade from Liberty Square, past Cinderella's Castle, and up Main Street USA. It was interesting to see people lined up along both sides of the pavement, standing behind the rope lines, cheering for teachers. It will forever be the time when I realized I represented more than myself at this event. During the teacher parade, as grand marshalls for the regular fantasy parade to follow, I would be reminded that I represented all teachers as people would respectfully cheer, "We love teachers!" from the sidelines. The next morning, our group was featured on Good Morning, America. See if you can spot Yours Truly at that link, and then watch the five videos I swiped from other people who had families on the sidelines. I promise, you won't get tired of the Peter Pan music (I Can Fly) that plays throughout.  Screenshot from Good Morning, America |
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| | | Some of my fellow celebrants misted up a bit at points throughout the morning hours. Afterall, it's not everyone who can say they've walked down Main Street USA while Magic Kingdom is closed, and not everyone can say they've been a grand marshall in a Disney parade. |
Once at the end of our own parade, we herded into a reserved corral where we could watch the regular parade. I got to be on the front row, with the best view of the parade as it came directly toward us. And yes, Ariel TOTALLY blew a kiss at me (top right video below)!
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Back on the bus, we were headed for a special lunch back at the resort. The primo food was themed to Magic Kingdom venues. hen came more special programming by Disney's Imagination Campus. We were given special bags in which to seal our phones during the presentations delivered by Disney executives (vice presidents) and Imagineers.
Name Dropping
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Before we knew it, a choreographer led us into a large room in the resort's convention center where we did some theater warm-up visualization exercises to help us get into character for our next workshop, which entailed learning a song from Frozen the Musical and then learning the choreography to the scene. Not a single one of the 50 teachers sat out, and we had a lot of non-threatening fun
| Returning to our lunch venue, we had one more speaker - a keynote speech delivered by Broadway's Alton Fitzgerald White, who played Mufasa in Lion King on Broadway and on tour for more than 4,000 performances. White gave an inspiring, personal speech to honor teachers - plus he sang to us. In a surprising statement, he told us that he was watching our performance from Frozen. I guess it's only fair: we performed for him, and he performed for us. | |
For more reports about this special Disney event, find my 50 Teachers Celebration page.
