The start of Disney World’s 50th Anniversary celebrations is just a few days away!

We’ve already seen lots of merchandise, decorations, and more in the parks. But, the Most Magical Place on Earth isn’t the only place celebrating a big milestone this year. Now, Disney World and a popular airline have partnered together to celebrate their anniversaries and create one incredible plane you won’t want to miss!

Fifty years ago, Walt Disney World opened. But, do you know what else is celebrating its 50th anniversary? Southwest Airlines! Though Southwest Airlines was originally created as Air Southwest Co. in 1967, it changed its name to Southwest Airlines Co. in 1971 and on June 18th, 1971 the inaugural flight was flown!

To celebrate Southwest and Disney World’s big anniversaries, the companies have partnered and formed a co-branded commemorative plane!

Just unveiled! @SouthwestAir’s newest addition to their fleet. Be on the lookout, this plane could show up anywhere to bring you to your destination! (📍#Southwest50 Media Event) #DisneyWorld pic.twitter.com/5OFNWf8U63

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) September 28, 2021

 

 

 

According to a Press Release from Southwest Airlines, the plane is a Boeing 737-700. The plane features 50th Anniversary logos for both Southwest Airlines and Disney World.

It also features some EARidescent details, keeping with the theme of Disney World’s 50th Anniversary decor.

Mickey and Minnie showing off their EARidescent finest! (📍 #Southwest50 Media Event) #Southwest50 #DisneyWorld50 pic.twitter.com/9Mzb6SwAcZ

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) September 28, 2021

 

 

 

During a special media event today, we got the chance to see the plane in person and all of its incredible details!

The plane itself features the Southwest name (of course), and the phrase “50 years. One Heart.”

The outside of the plane is predominantly blue and features a whole bunch of Disney characters in that EARidescedent color.

There are tons of friends to look for including Abu, Goofy, Mickey (of course)…

…Orange Bird, and more. There are also park icons, like the Tree of Life, and other designs scattered throughout.

We could have sat there all day just looking at the characters and designs featured!

So many fun characters represented in the design! Did you spot YOUR favorite Disney character? (📍#Southwest50 Media Event) #disneyworld50 pic.twitter.com/1zl2tpf58m

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) September 28, 2021

 

 

 

You can see how the character designs go around and over the “Southwest” name on the center part of the plane.

On another part of the plane you’ll find a LARGE 50th Anniversary logo for Disney World with the castle.

And again, you’ll find characters from Disney’s movies, theme parks and more, scattered throughout.

You’ll even find a Skyliner bucket and a familiar smiling face from “it’s a small world.”

On the shades for the plane’s windows you’ll see some more Disney characters!

But, the fun design isn’t just limited to the outside. On the inside of the plane, you’ll get a better view of those shades featuring Disney characters.

A closer look at those window shades! Would you fly “shade down” for the whole flight?! #Southwest50 #DisneyWorld pic.twitter.com/rb5wFDF9fw

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) September 28, 2021

 

 

 

We saw a whole bunch of different characters featured, including Mickey and Minnie…

…Madame Leota…

…Figment, Edna Mode…

…and more!

On the overhead compartments, you’ll also find 50th Anniversary-inspired designs!

The design of the overhead compartment space features the logo for Southwest and Disney World’s 50th anniversaries, and more of those character designs seen on the outside of the plane in the EARidescent color scheme.

Once you’ve stuffed your luggage into these compartments and they’re all closed up, you’ll get to enjoy the fun design throughout the entire flight.

According to Southwest’s press release, the plane is being sent off into service, with its first stop being (appropriately) Orlando International Airport. The plane is set to fly around the Southwest system through March of 2022.

You can track where the aircraft is (tail number N954WN) and share photos by using the hashtags #Southwest50 and #DisneyWorld50.

And to top things off Southwest is offering a Southwest50 Days of Giveaways sweepstakes. If you win, you and 3 guests could get a Southwest and Disney World prize package that includes lodging, theme park tickets, a $200 Disney World gift card, and round trip air on Southwest. You can visit the Southwest.com/50days website to enter for your change to win!

If you’ll be flying Southwest in the near future, you’ll also get some special in-flight entertainment. Starting October 1st, Southwest customers will be able to see an exclusive video about Disney World’s 50th Anniversary on the Inflight Entertainment Portal and Walt Disney World on-demand TV series channel.

@disneyfoodblog

#Disney & #Southwest are celebrating their 50th together with an AIRPLANE✈️COLLAB! #southwest50 #disneyworld50 #travel #disneyparks #disneyworld

♬ original sound – Taylor Swift

We’ll keep an eye out for more updates about Disney World’s 50th Anniversary and let you know what we find. What do you think about this plane? Would you like to fly on it? Tell us in the comments!

Click here to see ALL of the treats coming to Disney World for the 50th Anniversary!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney and Southwest Airlines to attend their media preview of their new 50th Anniversary airplane. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ