Each year for the last several years, Disneyland has put on a special cavalcade for its anniversary, and that tradition continued for its 70th birthday.
Disneyland 70th Anniversary Cavalcade
While the overall Disneyland 70th Celebration began in May, the official birthday of the park is July 17. In addition to the already-scheduled anniversary activities and the debut of the new “it’s a small world” final verse, Disneyland hosted a special 70th Birthday Cavalcade to help mark the occasion.
The cavalcade began with Duffy and Shellie May on their tricycle vehicles, wearing their new 70th anniversary costumes. This part of the cavalcade was the same as the usual Celebrate Happy cavalcade that debuted with the start of the anniversary in May.
One new aspect of the cavalcade specifically for the 70th birthday was the addition of a large, three-tiered cake. The cake was preceded with two performers carrying a banner that says “Happy Birthday Disneyland” in the usual anniversary colors of blue, purple, yellow, and pink.
The cake itself was yellow with white decorations meant to resemble frosting. The cake was dotted with red Mickey icons and multicolored sprinkles. It sat on top of a blue and teal base with more of the stained-glass pattern to match the floats in the rest of the cavalcade. In the center of the tallest tier was a large “70” logo that resembled a numeric birthday candle.
The princess float was changed slightly from its usual Celebrate Happy appearance for this birthday cavalcade. Instead of having Merida and Pocahontas on the lower level, they were both standing up on the higher level alongside Snow White, Aurora, and Moana. Standing in their places on the lower level were the current Disneyland Resort Ambassadors, Jada Young and Raul Aquino Rojas.
One other new addition for this birthday cavalcade was two Main Street Vehicles. While the vehicles were already decorated with colorful bunting and flowers for the anniversary, they were not previously included in the usual Celebrate Happy cavalcade. The two vehicles included the yellow jitney and the fire engine.
The fire engine had a banner on either side saying “Disneyland Resort Welcomes 1955 Original Cast Members Tom Nabbe and Bob Penfield.” Pluto was also sitting in the vehicle alongside the Cast Members.
Following the first vehicle were all four of The Dapper Dans, wearing their classic outfits in yellow, purple, red, and blue.
The group was followed by the Disneyland Band. The band was wearing their usual blue and white costumes, and their drum heads are the same “70” designs first seen during their march with Mickey in May.
The jitney, meanwhile, also had a new banner saying “Madison, Disney’s 170,000th Wish!” The bottom of this banner included the wordmarks for both Disney and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
As is the case with the usual Celebrate Happy cavalcade, the last float has Mickey alongside Minnie, Donald, Chip, and Dale. All of them were wearing their 70th anniversary outfits. The group of characters that followed the float on foot also appeared the same as Celebrate Happy, including Alice, the Mad Hatter, Pinocchio, Captain Hook, and more.
The cavalcade concluded as two Cast Members walked by holding a gold rope. The Cast Members had a bundle of multicolored balloons attached to their backs, with some standard round balloons as well as some curved balloons in unusual shapes.
Watch the Disneyland 70th Birthday Cavalcade in our video below:
See the other Disneyland 70th cavalcade, Celebrate Happy, in our previous article and video. You can also see some of the new Disneyland 70th anniversary merchandise items released for the official birthday, which included a new Walt Disney talking figure.
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