D23 Flowers & Fireworks Celebration at Epcot – Event Report and Photos
While I was in Florida last week, I had the unexpected opportunity to attend one of the first events from the official Disney fan club D23! This was billed as “Flowers & Fireworks Celebration” at Epcot (event lanyard with logo below, left) and I am glad I changed to my travel plans to attend. After checking in at guest relations, we were given an envelope containing the event information, credential and a nifty surprise, a Soarin fastpass (below, right)!
The event consisted of reserved seating at the Tony Orlando Flower Power concert and an Illuminations dessert party at the United Kingdom. This was the last day of the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, and Tony Orlando was terrific. He made numerous shout-outs to the D-23 crowd (below, left) and even donned Mickey Mouse hands while singing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song (below, right).
Tony Orlando’s band has been together for 12 years, which is much longer than he was with Dawn. Ron, a Disney photographer, gets called onto stage (below, right).
The dessert party was wonderful and included a variety of Walt Disney’s favorites – pies, cake, bread pudding, Coke floats, as well as tea, coffee, and bottled water to wash it down with (below left and right).
Illuminations is still my favorite fireworks show at Walt Disney World, and I am glad to take any opportunity I can get for special viewing (even if I spent most of the time taking photos!) Desserts were left out for everyone to enjoy during the show (below, right).
Jeffrey Epstein from D23 helped Walt Disney World cast members hand out special D23 buttons to everyone who attended (below, left). You can see the set of buttons (below, right), they are buttons you can also see when visiting One Mans Dream at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the D23 exhibit.
Many thanks to D23 for hosting the party. I’d jumped into D23 the first day it was offered, and it’s great to have so much value in my membership.
- Jeff Lange