The hardcore speculation started about a month and a half ago when this t-shirt appeared in the Film Vault store. Ok, this obviously means Universal is aware of it.
Right?
We're not just getting a t-shirt are we?
I can't find their exact tweet, but I think Universal even teased something might happen in the park a couple weeks out. Add that to all the other hype surrounding "Back To The Future Day", (a "new" Jaws trailer, and a Hoverboard commercial) I found myself parking at Citywalk around 7:30am on the morning of October 21 to be at the entrance of the park when it opened at 8am.
Just a couple concerns as I walked in...
- What if they weren't going to do anything at all...
- What if I was going to be the only one there in hopes for something to happen...
- What if I missed whatever they were going to do because I was waiting in the wrong place...
- What if what they were going to do wasn't going to happen until later in the day...
I was able to knock at least one of those concerns off the list when I looked up to see I was walking in with Marty and Jennifer themselves! I suddenly felt slightly under dressed. I was wearing a shirt that said "We are the future", and that's about as themed as I got. But I thought if anything, in the least creeptastic way possible, I'd get a photo of these two in front of the DeLorean. And as we approached the entrance archways of Universal Studios Florida, the Back to the Future theme started to play. It was fate. This was going to be a great day!
To my surprise, they were allowing guests into the park and it was only about 7:45am. Naturally when I made it through the gate, I bee lined it for the DeLorean. Turns out that the park wasn't actually "opened" yet and they were holding guests by Mel's. There was maybe 8 people including myself and the previously pictured couple. When they finally let us through, we all kind of meandered our way to the vehicles. At least the three of us were there for the same reason! In the most awkward way possible, I asked them if I could grab their photo in front of the car. They were more than happy to oblige! Their photo wound up being retweeted and faved several times! That was quite exciting! And then I just sat off to the side... and waited for something to happen.Over the next hour or so, I was lucky enough to witness at least 4 more people dressed like Marty McFly come and get their photo near the car. Many guests were wearing the previously pictured commemorative t-shirt. It was obvious that people knew what day it was and they were seeking out this special photo opportunity specifically. But there had to be more, right? I mean, I haven't even seen Doc Brown yet and it's almost 9am. I started to panic that I wasted my trip. But then, I overheard something. A guest thought they just saw an actual DeLorean driving past Minion Mayhem. So I booked it to the front of the park.
I didn't see anything out of the usual when I made it back to the front of the park. Woody Woodpecker and Curious George were greeting guests as they entered the park near the turnstiles. Betty Boop and one of her bodyguards were more inside the park closer to the entrance of the Studios Store. And that's when something unusual happened. A second Woody Woodpecker emerged from the Studios Store to greet guests! I started to say something to Betty Boop but she had already realized what was about to happen. She ran over to Woody's handler and urged him to take Woody number 2 back to the dressing room. I took this as an opportunity to take advantage of kinda helping the situation and asked Betty's bodyguard if he had seen a DeLorean driving around this morning. He was a little confused at first that I even had that much info, but then I guess he figured I deserved to know what was about to go down.
"You see that gate over there? The one next to Terminator. Right where the sun is shinin'. That's where you want to be. You'll see him there."
I felt like I had just pulled the sword from the stone or something. I was just given the ultimate cheat code of the day! I had about 20 minutes to wait at this point, so I found a shady area across the street from Terminator. While standing there, one half of the owners of the @OrlandoBrothas Instagram account, Trevor, was walking down the street. I called him over and asked if he was there in hopes to capture anything special for Back To The Future Day. When he thought that he should be heading for the DeLorean, I told him it might be best to hang with me. I started seeing little packs of plain clothed Team Members gather. That pretty much sealed the deal for me that something was definitely going to happen!
Here is the episode we did for our Attractions show highlighting everything from that morning. I know it's not on the level of Star Wars or Harry Potter, but I think there is a good amount of people out there with a lot of love for this franchise. The big deal about this day is because it was the actual day from the film. Would that be a good day to have an annual BTTF celebration on? Or maybe November 5th, the day Doc Brown invented the Flux Capacitor which of course is what makes time travel possible. And I'm not looking for a huge celebration. Just something recognized by the park where it's ok for people to dress up. Maybe some merch. Special meet and greet. Basically, what they did in the video below would be good but just a little bit more.
