Saturday (Day 1) was fabulous at Destination D but Sunday was going to be THE day. The day’s scheduled was packed with Disney Legends and the event that was in the evening was… well, you’ll see. 🙂

The morning began with the Walt Disney Ambassador Team saying hello.

They helped Steven Clark host a trivia tournament. The prize of the tournament was a place in The Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament at the D23 Expo in Anaheim in August.

The first panel of the day, Walt Disney World in Detail was hosted by Imagineers Jason Surrell, Alex Wright and Jason Grandt. They spoke of the details (or D-Tails) that can be found in the parks and how they painstakingly make sure that you are immersed in an experience at all times. They were so funny and it was a great way to kick off the day.

They showed Madam Letoa’s spell book. They based it on the Book of the Dead. The spell in the middle of the page is from “Blackbeard’s Ghost” and it was used to raise Blackbeard. Jason Surrell actually called Dave Smith and asked if he had a copy of the script so that the spelling would be correct on the page.

Jason Grandt was spoke about the details in the new Mickey Mouse meet-and-greet (for pictures of the new meet-and-greet, click here). There is a picture of Mickey and Oswald drawn by a child in the meet-and-greet area. It was drawn by Jason when he was six years old. When he told his mom about it, she wondered where it had gone.

“Imagineering Walt Disney World: From Yesteryear to Tomorrow” was hosted by Eric Jacobson, a Disney Imagineer. The panelists began the presentation speaking about Star Tours. I was very excited! They shared some concept art for the ride.

They also spoke about the Art of Animation Resort. It will have standard rooms as well as suites that sleep 6 instead of 5.

Then they moved to the Fantasyland expansion. They showed an aerial photo of the site.

He was interrupted by a bird singing and he told the control guys just to keep going with his presentation. He said that Fantasyland as it is now doesn’t have a lot of trees in the area because it is directly over the utilidoor system. The expansion will largely be off the utilidoors so they can add trees and landscaping.

At the end of the presentation, Jose interrupted. Eric said that even though it wasn’t Fantasyland, he had an announcement to make. The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management) was being transformed into a version similar to the original Tropical Serenade. The new version will be called the Enchanted Tiki Room. The audience loved this news!

The first presentation of the afternoon was hosted by Marty Sklar and was called “Creating a Whole New ‘Disney World’.” The panel featured 1971 Disney World Ambassador Debby Dane Browne, Disney Legend Orlando Ferrante, Disney Legal Counsel Bob Foster, Disney Legend Bob Gurr and Disney Legend Ron Logan.

Bob Foster is the man who helped Walt Disney buy up the land in central Florida for Disney World. He was fascinating. He talked about going back and forth and the speculation as to who/what company was buying up all this land. They all said that they felt that Walt would be proud of what Disney World has become.

The next panel was full of Disney Legends, too. It was called “Making the Magic Happen” and was hosted by Tim O’Day. This panel featured Disney Legends Jack Lindquist, Bob Matheison, Charlie Ridgway and Bill Sullivan. They spoke of how they purposely almost underplayed Disney World’s opening so they didn’t have some of the problems they had on opening day at Disneyland. One newspaper speculated they would have 200,000 people on opening day – the number was closer to 10,000. The first traffic jam didn’t happen until after Thanksgiving that year. They also spoke of having to walk people into the Magic Kingdom when the original trams couldn’t make it up the hill that’s near the Contemporary.

For Donald Duck’s 50th birthday, they wanted to have 50 ducks with him on Main Street. They talked to their wildlife experts and they told the team that Donald would have to bond with the ducks from hatching. So, Donald went over and spent time with the ducks and this picture was taken with Donald and the ducks on his 50th birthday.

At the end of the panel, the guests of Marty Sklar’s panel came out to join everyone on stage and posed for photos.

After dinner, there was a concert called “Magic Journeys.” That is such an appropriate title for everything they had in store for that event.

This gentleman was the original performer on the Empress Lilly. He was very funny and talented.

The Kids of the Kingdom were on hand to sing for us.

The original Magic Kingdom Philarmonic band performed next. I can’t even begin to describe to you how amazing this was. They started at the back of the ballroom and marched to the front. The crowd LOVED this.

Tim O’Day was the host for the portion of the evening with Disney Legend Richard M. Sherman. This promised to be an unforgettable experience… and it is truly unforgettable. I will be telling my kids and grandkids (and anyone else who might listen) about this evening for YEARS to come. It was a very emotional evening. I really can’t put it into words but it was one of the most incredible events I’ve ever been a part of.

“Tuppence” was one of Walt Disney’s favorite songs that the Sherman Brothers wrote. At the dedication of the Partners statue at Disneyland on Walt’s 100th birthday, Richard Sherman performed this song. In the middle of the song, a single black bird flew over and sat on the piano. The bird flew off when he finished the last note of the song. He, and a lot of the other Legends, have felt that this was Walt coming by to say hello and thanks.

The Enchanted Tiki Room’s song was brought up. Richard said that he and his brother, Robert, were asked to go see this tiki room that Walt had created. They asked Walt, “What is this?!” Walt told them he wanted them to write him a song that explained what it all was… and they did. A similar thing happened with “it’s a small world.”

The Dreamfinder came out to say hello. The audience went wild! He requested that Richard Sherman sing “One Spark” and helped lead the audience in a sing-along.

Next, “Golden Dreams” was sung. The two who sang it started out in the the Kids of the Kingdom. They both, along with the pianist, have had wonderful careers.

Next, the Cast choir (Encore!) and Cast band performed. They were wonderful.

At the end, everyone came back out on stage.

This was such an unforgettable, amazing and every other ‘amazing’ adjective you can think of weekend. I just really can’t put into words how much I enjoyed the whole Destination D event and what it means to me to be able to have heard these wonderful, talented people speak.

I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to the D23 team for hosting this event. Many, many thanks to the Cast Members at the Contemporary who took such great care of us all weekend.

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