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Every Must Do Thing at Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary Celebration

Guy Selga Jr. 0 Comments
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Disneyland is celebrating its 70th anniversary, and with it comes the return of a beloved nighttime parade, new festive decorations around Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, tons of themed food and merchandise options, interactive displays and more. In this post we’ll go over every must do thing at Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration.

The Return of Paint the Night Parade

It’s been 7 years since Paint the Night last ran at Disney California Adventure and 8 years since appearing at Disneyland. The fan-favorite parade looks as good as ever in its return for Disneyland’s 70th birthday. The parade is mostly unchanged, but the Frozen float has returned to the lineup, and the Incredibles float has been removed.

Tinker Bell and her fairy friends still lead off Paint the Night, and the parade still has its ear worm soundtrack.

Mack Truck from Cars towers over the parade route with his impressive light display.

The final parade unit featuring Mickey Mouse plays the new Disneyland 70th anniversary theme song, which you can hear in this video we took during the parade’s premiere:

New MagicBand+ Interactions

Disneyland has finally added multiple new reasons to dust off those MagicBand+ wearables. Almost every land in Disneyland now has special interactive MagicBand+ tap points. Tilly, the famous ticket taker at Main Street Cinema on Main Street, U.S.A. has a tap point which prints a card promoting the new verse being added to “it’s a small world” later this year.

The best MagicBand+ interaction for Disneyland 70 is the display added to Sleeping Beauty Castle (near Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique). There are 5 tap points that trigger moving dioramas based on classic Disney animated films.

We don’t want to spoil the surprise for all of them but we’ll share a few. Here’s the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves display.
The Sword in the Stone and King Arthur Carrousel.

Here’s video of the Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride display:

Disneyland 70 MagicBand+ interactions in Frontierland have three tap points which produce sounds based on Mark Twin Riverboar, Golden Horseshoe Revue, and the Disneyland Railroad.

Each tap point has the Disneyland 70 logo.

The little station in Frontierland has some nice props to check out.

Here are the three different cards that are printed at this station. Below we have video of some of the sound effects that play when you tap:

 

Another MagicBand+ interaction is available in Adventureland near Jungle Cruise.

The Celebrate Happy Cavalcade

New for Disneyland’s 70th anniversary is The Celebrate Happy Cavalcade. If you’re not familiar with the way Disney names things, a “cavalcade” is what they call something that is not quite a parade, but takes place on the parade route.

Dozens of Disney characters and dancers are a part of the cavalcade. It’s nothing spectacular, but if you’re a fan of characters then you wont want to miss it.

The Celebrate Happy Cavalcade marks the return of international superstar Duffy and his partner Shellie May.

Wondrous Journeys and Tapestry of Happiness

Disneyland’s nightly fireworks spectacular has returned. Wondrous Journeys originally premiered for Disney’s 100th anniversary. The show features bits from all Disney animated movies along with some original music. On certain nights Wondrous Journeys will be performed with just projections and no fireworks.

New for Disneyland 70 is Tapestry of Happiness, which is a projection show played on the facade of “it’s a small world.” The show is a celebration of past and present Disneyland attractions and features an art style inspired by Mary Blair. Tapestry of Happiness is the hidden gem of Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration and definitely worth seeing. There’s even an appearance by the short-lived Rocket Rods ride from Tomorrowland’s 1998 redo!

Coco’s Miguel and Dante in “it’s a small world”

Miguel and Dante from Coco have been added to “it’s a small world.”

They fit in with the rest of the characters in the ride.

World of Color Happiness

Another new World of Color show has premiered as part of Disneyland 70. World of Color Happiness features scenes from films such as Turning Red, The Incredibles, Tangled, Encanto and even A Goofy Movie. The best part is that there’s a new Muppets pre-show to start things off.

Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration! Parade

Disney California Adventure’s Pixar themed Better Together parade has returned to the park. 

Red Panda Mei joins the band 4*Town on this float dedicated to Turning Red.

All of Mei Lee’s friends make an appearance on the float.

Russel and Kevin from Up.

Joe Gardner from Soul gets his own float. We’ve covered the entire parade on this post if you want to see the rest.

Disneyland 70 Decorations

Rather than celebrating with one single color like Disneyland did with its 50th (gold) and 60th (diamond) birthdays, they went for a multi-color look with purple, pink, yellow, and teal.

Disneyland 70 icon in Disneyland’s town square available for a photo op on both sides.

The 70th logo adorns Main Street, U.S.A. train station along with a purple floral Mickey Mouse.

Banners decorate each light pole on Main Street.

This gigantic prop is displayed out in the esplanade between Disneyland and DCA.

Disneyland 70 decorations can also be found on Buena Vista Street in Disney California Adventure. 

Carthay Circle gets in on the fun with a large Disneyland 70 banner and projections when the sun goes down.

Disneyland 70 Merch Overload

It’s impossible to go over every merch item that Disney released for the 70th celebration in this blog post. Just know the 70th logo has been plastered on anything you can imagine from shirts, jackets, hats, water bottles, pens, Crocs, and much much much more.

Keep an eye out for the Disney Vault Collection where you can find fun retro-inspired designs on a variety of merchandise.

Disneyland 70 Food

Almost every restaurant in both parks have fun new food items which are themed to the celebration. We are working on a blog post for next week with our Disneyland 70 food item recommendations, so be on the look out for that!

A new Disneyland 70 popcorn bucket is available for purchase.

This insulated cooler bag which stores both popcorn and a bottled beverage can be purchased for $29.50 at most popcorn stands. It includes a regular popcorn and a bottle of a Coca-Cola product.

It’s hard to believe Disneyland is already 70 years old. It feels like just yesterday I was writing about Disneyland 60th birthday on this same blog. There’s so much to see for the 70th anniversary celebration and I think Disney did a great job at making the park feel like there’s something special going on. Paint the Night was gone for so long that I had doubts it would ever come back, but now here it is again. Also, Disney has finally found a way to breath life back into the MagicBands with special new interactions. Overall almost everything for Disneyland 70 is worth seeing. No end date for the celebration has been announced yet, so you will have at least 1 year to see it all.

You don’t want to miss Disneyland’s 70th birthday. Be sure to check out our Disneyland Crowd Calendar, which rates every day of the year on a scale of 1 to 10 so you can see how busy Disneyland and DCA will be during your visit. Also check out our Disneyland Touring Plans. These itineraries can show you how to beat the crowds and spend less time in line at your favorite rides. Our Touring Plans can also be personalized!

What do you think of Disneyland 70? What’s your favorite experience from the event? Let us know in the comments. 

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Guy Selga Jr.

Disneyland writer for TouringPlans.com and co-author of the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland. Also a Disneyland local and appreciator of Disney theme park history. Twitter and Instagram: @guyselga

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