D23's Flowers and Fireworks Celebration at Epcot (May 31) - Tickets now available!

[Dustysage]

Great news everyone. D23 has posted ticket information for the Flowers and Fireworks event at Epcot, scheduled for May 31, 2009

D23 | The Official Community for Disney Fans

Start the evening at the American Gardens Theatre with reserved seating for the Flower Power Concert Series Finale, starring the legendary Tony Orlando, to close the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Next, head to a VIP location to mix and mingle with your fellow D23 Members over desserts and coffee, and then enjoy the spectacular nighttime extravaganza IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth from a private viewing area.

Date: Sunday, May 31, 2009
Location: Epcot, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida
Time: 7:15 p.m.
Tickets Available Now! D23 | The Official Community for Disney Fans
Cost: FREE! (Theme park admission separate and required.)

We'd like to remind everyone that 1) You need to be a D23 member or register for D23 to attend this event and 2) Get your ticket NOW if you are interested, because all of these D23 events are likely to be very popular.

Have fun everyone! I wish I could join you at this one, but I'll be arriving at WDW a few days too late to make this event.

-Dusty

[MasterGracey]

I'll be there with peoplemover1, just registered. It'll be my first time seeing Illuminations, so I'm pretty excited -- what better way to see it than from VIP viewing with free desserts? Awesome!

By the way, the online registration was painless. Easy as can be. Hopefully it remains so for other events like the bound-to-be ridiculously popular Studios & Archives tours and the Disneyland USA screening.

[VonBaroketch]

Surprise, surprise, it sold out quickly! Is there anyone who got a ticket planning to go solo and would not mind this disappointed D23-er tagging along as your guest? I was really hoping to participate in this event (even scheduled my work around it).

[MasterGracey]

I just wanted to pop in and give big kudos to D23 for a GREAT event.

If D23 events are all handled like this, then the membership fee was well worth it.


First off, we checked in at Epcot Guest Relations about 20 minutes before the time we needed to be at the America Gardens Theater in World Showcase. The process was seamless, completely painless. We got an event packet that came with Flower and Garden Festival Guidebooks, welcome letter and event description, and a couple nice surprises: slick event VIP passes on lanyards (which we were required to wear - these worked as our D23 identification, so that we wouldn't have to show ID later on at the event check-in points). And a really nice touch - a Soarin' FASTPASS that was valid through mid-June.

The Welcome letter made note that we would be treated to VIP viewing of the finale Flower Power concert as part of the 2009 International Flower and Garden Festival featuring Tony Orlando. Tony isn't my cup of tea -- he's more of my mom's style, but the set was short and sweet, and it was kind of fun to hear old songs that I used to hear in the car with my mom when I was growing up.

After the concert our group of about 200 was escorted over to our VIP IllumiNations viewing area, located on a two-level terrace between France and International Gateway. This was where the event got really good. We were treated to what D23 said was Walt Disney's favorite desserts: Chocolate ice cream Coca-Cola floats, cheesecake, chocolate and butterscotch haystack cookies, chocolate cream pie, and another dessert that looked like bread pudding to me, but I'm not sure cause I passed on it. D23 also provided free bottled water and coffee.

The viewing terrace had candle-lit tables scattered throughout, some with chairs, some tall tables with chairs... Dessert buffets were located on both the top and bottom levels of the viewing area. The view of IllumiNations was perfect. Great show.

And to top it all off, as we left the event, we were given a nice little parting gift -- a complete set of the D23 promotional character pins/buttons that were given away randomly at the theme parks back when D23 was first launched.

All-in-all a GREAT event, and even better because it was all free.

Here are a couple shots of the Tony Orlando concert...





Tony pulled his daughter and her friends up on stage at one point to sing along...

[NatdRat]

Thank you for the review! It certainly sounds like it was an exciting event. Good to hear first hand reports so those of us who could not go can experience what it was like second hand.

[Figaro]

Great update! Thank you for posting.

[Roger55]

Thanks for the re-cap of the event. Sounds like it was fun!
Wish I could have attended.