Disney's Diamond Birthday Bash

Last Friday, the 17th, the Disneyland Resort celebrated Disneyland's 60th birthday with a one-day even ranging across both parks.  There were cupcakes, pre-parades (well, one), and photo ops.  Nothing overly spectacular, but just a fun event.  I arrived in the afternoon, after the 10am special ceremony in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle, so here are some shots of my time at the park.

All around both parks, large screens were set up to display photo feeds of guests who tagged their photos with the #Disneyland60 hashtag.  I even spotted some people I knew on the screen!

The parks were offering free cupcakes for the 60th birthday.  These weren't the special and ginormous 60th anniversary cupcakes found at the Jolly Holiday Bakery, but they were still delicious!

Over in Big Thunder Ranch--one of several free cupcake locations, there was a team of cast members lined up with an army of cupcakes.

CUPCAKES!!!!

They were seriously pretty good, complete with dyed white chocolate diamond D.

I actually had two, the second over by Tower of Terror.

At 4:15, before the Soundsational parade, they had a special pre-parade featuring cast members from Disneyland's opening day.

Each vehicle was accompanied by Disney characters joining the celebration.

Bob Gurr and Marty Sklar, two Disney legends.

Bob is such a riot!

Some of the cast members were park employees; others were with WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering).

Jack and Dick, two other very prominent members of Disney lore.

And an Omnibus full of current cast members too!

There were also six one-day-only photo ops where guests were encouraged to take snapshots as though they were in 1955.

These featured many classic scenes from Disneyland history.

May favorite was original Fantasyland.  Times have certainly changed since then!

It was also a "Dapper Day" of sorts, with guests encouraged to dress like it was 1955.  But really, just dress up a little more formally than theme park goers currently do.  And many guests went along!

All in all, it was a fun day, busy but not terribly crowded.  It was nice to celebrate Disneyland's birthday.  The 60th Anniversary celebrations continue through the summer and will surely last into and possibly through next year as well, but there are tons of great things to enjoy, so go visit as soon as you can!