Image copyright Disney, all rights reserved. The new “Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade” debuted recently at Magic Kingdom with the 2009 Walt Disney World Ambassadors leading the way as the parade’s Grand Marshals.
The parade is part of Disney Parks’ new “What Will You Celebrate?” initiative, which invites guests to celebrate special milestones. The “Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade” features new songs, Disney characters, floats and a troop of dancers who encourage guests to celebrate with them.
Celebrating their own new roles, Walt Disney World Ambassadors Vanessa Rosas and Clay Shoemaker along with their families, led the parade in a specially designed open-roadster vehicle as the parade proceeded down Main Street. Over the years, Walt Disney World Ambassadors have assumed many different roles, but this is the first time an Ambassador Team has served as parade Grand Marshals.
“For our families to have been with us to experience the Disney Magic that our Cast Members create each day is very rewarding,” said Rosas. “This was absolutely a dream come true for me.”
“To be in the parade as Grand Marshal was an amazing experience." said Shoemaker. "This is a day I will never forget.”
While celebrating one of many magical moments they will share together over the next 12 months, Rosas and Shoemaker recalled their earliest memories of Walt Disney World.
At age 12, Rosas was captivated by Disney magic during her first visit. “As I watched the parade with my family, amazed by all the floats and dancers, Pinocchio came down the street, straight up to me, kissed my hand and stole my heart,” said Rosas.
Shoemaker also remembers the first time he fell for a Disney character. At age six, he fell in love with Cinderella. “My grandmother took me to Cinderella Castle where I met her. She bent down, spoke to me and then kissed me on the cheek,” he said. I guess you could say that my first kiss was from Cinderella.”
But first things first. I wanted to hit a few attractions before trekking to the Yacht Club Convention area for the Mega meet. We got into Epcot just after rope drop, so we were able to catch another run on Test Track without needing a Fastpass. My daughter who said she wouldn't go on Test Track again after her first ride, was eager to go again. One more trip on Spaceship Earth and it was time for me to head over to the Mega Mouse Meet.
This was my first ever Mega Mouse Meet. At yesterday's Podfest, I had talked with Beci Mehnkin from MEI/MouseFan Travel about how amazed I was with how many people were at Mousefest (this being my first one). She said "Wait until you see the crowd at the Mega Mouse Meet." Now that I was at the Mega Mouse Meet (MMM for short), I can see she was right. There were a ton of people there. I quickly gained a new perspective for just how many serious Disney fans are out there. The line just to meet Steve Barrett and Lou Mongello were huge! I also meet Ricky Brigante from the Inside The Magic podcast as well as the folks from WDWToday, AllEars.net and so many more. I had a chance to speak with Fred Block from the
I hustled back through the International Gateway and made my way across the bridge. I knew my family was planning to see Pierre Noel's talk at the France pavilion and, sure enough, as I crossed the bridge, I saw my wife and kids right up front. I quickly whipped out my camera and started shooting, glad I made it in time.
This was my first visit to the Tusker House, and I really didn't know what to expect. When we entered the main buffet area (shown above), I was totally blown away with the intricate detail put into the theming. The food offered was very similar to many other character breakfasts, but the theming of this place put it at number one for character breakfasts in my book (even above Cinderella's Royal Table). Donald, Daisy, Mickey, Minnie and Goofy are here decked out in Safari outfits. We especially had a great server, Neal, who played along with our kids and even took a few pictures for us. He was an experienced photographer and helped me get some lighting settings fixed on my camera. That was a plus!
We managed to find a fairly short standby line for Toy Story Mania (about 30-40 minutes), which gave us a chance to see the Mr. Potato Head animatronic. This is a very good and very realistic character that actually interacts with guests using Don Rickle's voice. This also leads to my one major criticism of Toy Story Mania. If you happen to get FastPasses, you don't even get to SEE Mr. Potato Head. The FastPass line doesn't go anywhere near this outstanding character.
This was an awesome experience!! I had lunch with Alex Caruthers (he's on the right in the photo above), the art director for the Magic Kingdom. We sat in a special side room of the Brown Derby reserved for visiting dignitaries and celebrities. There were seven guests and Mr. Caruthers - and that was it. The eight of us slowly made our way through a four-course meal (including the infamous Cobb salad!) while we talked about all things Disney. 
My wife caught up with us outside Philharmagic and we made a second dash to the Haunted Mansion. I happened to have a chance to get a very good look at Madam Leota's tombstone. It's pretty cool the way it subtly moves.
After the meet, I met up with the family back at the Grand Floridian. By this time the rain had blown over, so we decided to head to Epcot. We managed to snag a couple of late day Fastpasses for Soarin'. In the meantime, we rode Spaceship Earth, enjoyed a bit of Innoventions and did a little Living withe Land. I don't know what it is about Living with the Land, but I find this attraction very relaxing. I also love the intro music.
After Soarin, we again split up (boys and girls). I took their boys on their first ever trip on Mission: Space. My oldest was very apprehensive about this. We went on the green team and afterward my oldest absolutely loved it!! He really got into the attraction abot half way through.
An Orlando Sentinel report
After the speedway, we caught up with the girls in line to enter Pixie Hollow. This, also, was something I wanted to see. The new Tinker Bell meet and greet had just opened up a few months prior. Even with the extra magic hours, the line was about 45 minutes long -- but it was worth every second. The Imagineers did a wonderful job of converting a princess meet and greet into a different world entirely. As you enter the "pre-show" corridor, you are taken by a cast member who acts as a tour guide helping your make the transition to Pixie Hollow. The Imagineers carefully designed the corridor so that the vegetation appears to get larger as you get smaller. Then, once your're pixie sized, you enter another room that is themed top-to-bottom like Pixie Hollow. Inside are three faries, two of which change, but Tink is always there. Oh, and we were the only family in the room -- so we had all three fairies to ourselves.
From there, we split up again (boys and girls). The boys and I grabbed a FastPass for Big Thunder and waited in a fairly short standby line for Splash Mountain. My middle son isn't a huge fan of water rides, but he was a trooper. After Splash Mountain, my wife called me on the cell and asked us to meet her at Pirates of the Caribbean. I knew the girls were planning on riding Pirates, as my daughter had never been on POTC before. When we met up with the girls, they were just coming off Pirates and were heading right back in (it was a walk-on). As you guessed, my daughter loved it!
Anyway, after Big Thunder, we skipped back over to Adventureland. The girls were just coming off Alladin's Magic Carpets when I saw Mac from the Pirate Tutorial setting up. I called my wife and she hustled over to Pirates just in time for the show to start. The cast member playing Jack was bang-on. He had every mannerism down cold. While I wish one of my kids was selected to join Jack's crew, we enjoyed the show all the same.
A little later, we went over to the Exposition Hall in Town Square for the AAA Story Time. This is a perk for guests who use AAA to book their Disney vacations. It's nice because there is a very small audience (like under 30) and the kids get some exclusive time with the character. In March, Alladin came to read a story, while this day, we got to see Peter Pan, which was really great - the kids hadn't met Peter Pan before. "Peter" did a wonderful job handling questions from the kids. I recall one child asked, "why doesn't Tinker Bell fly all over the park?" Peter replied, "Well, Walt Disney World is a no-fly zone for fairies, except for the Wishes fireworks show, that's why."
