Holy crap, I am SO tired. But this was so amazing, I had to post it.

So as basically soon as I arrived at DL, I lined up to get into the Pumbaa lot. Soon, enough cars were lined up and waiting that the right lane of Disney Way became a parking lot, and they let us in to get us out of the way. We made it into line around 12:15 am or so, and began the long wait. At about 1:30am, they started sending people through security. It took until 3:30 am for us to get into the holding area in DCA - and we were only a few hundred people back in line! The gave us our wristbands (to identify the approximate time we entered the line) as well as our guidemap (since it was a special 50th anniversary map, we were limited to one!) and our free mouse ears!! The back of the ears have "July 17, 2005" embroidered on them. The line snaked back from the entrance into Hollywood Pictures Backlot, and we joined up next to Cruella DeVil's trailer. We busted out the Disney Scene-It... unfortunately, the DVD player was a no-go, so we just did the trivia questions. By sunrise, we managed to get through the whole deck. As they started to lead us out to DL park, we found out that the line behind us ran all the way back out of the Backlot, down the street past A Bug's Land, through Paradise Pier, past Grizzy River Run, and through Condor Flats. For those who don't know the layout of DCA: basically, the line ran the length of all the major pathways in the park. By the time they stopped bringing people into line at 6am, there were 14,000 people waiting. We were easily in the first 750.

As they led us over to DL, we were treated as celebrities. Cast Members lined the esplanade, waving and greeting us, and saying "Welcome home!" It was sappy, but SO sweet. When we got to Main Street, the CMs there also lined the street and greeted us with more cries of "Welcome home."

Ran and grabbed a spot for the ceremony, and was not disappointed! I felt my eyes start to water when Diane Disney Miller started reading off Walt's opening day speech. The usual suspects were there: Iger, Eisner, etc. Art Linkletter was the emcee, and Gov. Schwartzenegger was also on-hand. They finished off by having everyone in attendance sing happy birthday to Disneyland.

Afterwards, we went over to Space Mountain. Man, I missed that ride! It's so much smoother than it was before, and I really love how the new music works with the ride. Great effects, too! Lines there were huge all day - in excess of 2 hours.

Surprisingly, lines elsewhere were fairly normal for a busy day. As it turns out, I hear that they stopped letting people in when they reached just 45,000. Capacity on a major holiday is closer to 60-70k. They left us plenty of room!

At 4:45, the exact time at which Walt read his famous speech 50 years ago, they played a video of the speech. I started to tear up again, but managed to hold it back. That was short-lived, however. They then went into a nostalgic music video set to "Remember When"... and I totally lost it. I had tears streaming down my face. Such a touching video. I'm dying to find a copy of it.

Of course, with the huge crowds we had to grab a spot early for Remember. We got great seats! I also noticed a couple of changes in shells just since I saw it a couple of weeks ago. Then to the 10:30 Fantasmic!

I headed out shortly after that, but not before I stopped in a shop to look for dated merchandise. They had been selling it at the Festival Arena, but the lines there were miles long all day. I felt so lucky: I found ONE dated shirt left, in all of Main St... and it was in my size! Score! I also found out that they're selling the sheet music to "Remember When," so I picked up a copy.

As I walked down Main St on my way out, they were replaying Diane's speech on the Jumbotron outside the Emporium. The words were being broadcast all over Main Street, and it felt so right to be walking out of the park after that, hearing her describe Walt's vision being described over the PA system by his own daughter. As I left, I stopped to look up at Walt's apartment. I had to just sit there for a few minutes in awe of it. I realized that it really hadn't sunk in what I'd just experienced. A once-in-a-lifetime date, celebrating a HUGE milestone in the most well-known theme park in the world. And I was there to see it turn 50. I had the whole walk back to Pumbaa to think about that, and I'm still in awe.

One thing that still amazes me was the people in the park today. Despite getting up in the early hours (or for some of us, never going to bed at all!), almost no one came across as cranky to me! People were polite and friendly. When we were looking fo a spot from which to watch the fireworks, one family actually offered to scoot around so that we'd have enough space.

Of course, my camera was with me constantly... and I took plenty of pics! Once again, I want to marry my new camera... ESPECIALLY after I saw how my Fantasmic photos came out. After months of the opening Mickey photo battle, I won it on the first try with this camera and my zoom lens! Hooray for heavy zoom and 1600 ISO!! http://xfkirsten.smugmug.com

Maybe I'll have more tomorrow... I've been up for 44+ hours straight now - and it's time for bed!