Holiday Hypermarket turns 20 this month! Planning our birthday celebrations has got us feeling nostalgic, and brought us to wonder… what else is turning 20 this year?
Join us as we journey back to 2003 and remind ourselves of some timeless movies, classic songs and huge goings-on from around the world!
Beyoncé – Crazy In Love
If summer of 03’ reminds us of one thing – it’s this chart-topping track.
Beyoncé released her debut solo single in May 2003 and it quickly blew up to be the biggest and baddest song of the summer. With an iconic music video to match, we know we’re not the only ones who practiced those dance moves (albeit without the wind machines).
Let’s face it, it still has the power to make us feel like a queen whenever this song strikes on the dancefloor today. We bet the ‘o-oh, o-oh, o-oh’’s are already in your head…
School Of Rock
This one-of-a-kind movie made us want to ‘stick it to the man’ and join a rock band!
With funny man Jack Black playing the legendary Ned Shneebley (well actually, Dewey Finn), this fun family comedy generated a cult appreciation for all things rock n’ roll.
It grossed 131 million dollars on a budget of 35 million dollars, so it’s safe to say it was a smash success – and with those catchy songs, it’s no wonder!
The success of the movie meant it even spawned the creation of its very own Broadway musical years later, too. A sure sign of our thirst for rock!
Yep, we’ve got ‘rock has no reason, rock has no rhyme! You better get me to school on time’ stuck in our heads now too…
Love Actually
OK, NOW we feel old. Love Actually can’t, actually, be that old, can it?!
Unbelievably, the iconic Christmas feel-good rom-com will also turn 20 later this year in November.
With its star-studded cast of British actors, from the late and legendary Alan Rickman to charismatic Keira Knightly, this holiday favourite captured everyone’s hearts with its unique take on storytelling.
From the cute Christmas carolers scene to the iconic chase through the airport, this movie hits the sweet spot just as good as it did back in 2003.
And let’s be honest – we’ve all wished Hugh Grant was actually Prime Minister.
Finding Nemo
The film that changed any regular clown fish to ‘Nemo’ forever!
The story of a father searching for his son across the vast sea made this movie so much more than just a kids’ movie, with stunning animation from Pixar and a beautiful score to match.
The film that taught us to ‘just keep swimming’ through the hard times even secured a long-awaited sequel with Finding Dory in 2016.
If Finding Nemo is still one of your faves, or you’re a Disney super fan in general, it’s no secret that holidays to Disney World Florida were made for you.
You can visit The Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot, featuring a fun ride and an enormous aquarium where you can spot the real life version of your favourite fishies. And you can even catch a theatre production of Finding Nemo over at Animal Kingdom, too!
So whether you watched Finding Nemo as a kid or you watched it with the kids back in 2003, you can still be a big kid at heart today!
Elf
Son of a nutcracker! This can’t be true – arguably one of the best Christmas movies of all time, this movie about an adopted Elf down on earth really is two decades old.
If you’re like us and watch Christmas movies religiously every December, this cracking comedy starring Will Ferrell will have no doubt been a staple every Christmas time for the last 20 years.
This iconic movie taught us that there’s room for everyone on the nice list, and of course that ‘the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!’
Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix book release
Muggling nora! It only seems like two minutes ago since we were reading this for the first time and being submerged in magic by the 5th installment of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.
The biggest book in the series at the time, things were really starting to heat up in the wizarding world with this latest addition.
And with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets having been released into cinemas the year before (that’s 3 books behind!), the novels were the only way to get the most-up-to-date Potter fix.
Was there anything more exciting than a new Potter release? Ahh, what a time to be alive!
Today though, you can still feel the magic on holidays to Florida, where you can visit Hogwarts for yourself at Universal Studios Orlando.
Prepare for a stroll through hogsmeade as you sip on butter beer in the sunshine. You won’t even need to say Wingardium Leviosa – you’ll already be on a high yourself!
The top phone was a Nokia 1100
OK, so this is where we really get a sense of just how times have changed!
The fact that the top selling phone of 2003 was the Nokia 1100 actually makes us question whether this wasn’t more like 50 years ago!
In comparison to the shiny screens we have today, the Nokia 1100 looks about as retro as it gets – remember those handy little brick-shaped phones that you loved to play snake on? That’s the one!
With a snazzy monotone ringtone and buttons you had to tap a hundred times just to piece together a text – we’re thankful technology has evolved a fair bit over the last 20 years.
Although – there were no smashed screens back then thanks to their indestructible nature, and on top of that they had a battery life that seemed to last forever!
‘Friends’ was confirmed to be coming to an end
If this wasn’t a defining moment of pop culture, we don’t know what is. A moment of silence please for the year that the legendary sitcom Friends was confirmed as coming to an end.
Rumours had been circulating the previous year that the end was on the horizon for our six favourite friends, when then-NBC president Jeff Zucker sucker-punched us with the news that they were indeed true in 2003.
Early the following year we were graced with the iconic final episodes, where all we needed to know was ‘did she get off the plane?!’
But who would ever be ready to say goodbye to this gang, really? Thankfully, they’re still our go-to for easy watching and a good laugh 20 years on! (Thank you, Netflix.)
Apple launched the Itunes store
This move saw the start of a revolution with the music-recording industry. Prior to this, music had been something you bought physically – yes, we’re talking about actual CDs, tapes and vinyls.
This massive conversion in how we consume music was causing difficulties for music producers – with the rise of many illegal downloading platforms and peer-to-peer sharing, from Napster to Limewire (remember Limewire?)
In April of 2003 however, Steve Jobs launched his vision of allowing people to purchase music in a totally new way. And at the same time, Apple also launched their third-generation ipod with its state of the art touch wheel.
Nowadays, buying or streaming your music digitally is the norm! Back then though, we felt like musical wizards, updating our iPods with the latest tunes and strolling about with our wired headphones in. None of the wireless gear we have today!
Concorde’s last flight
Being in the travel industry, this one makes us feel old! Remember all the hype about the Concorde?
A true achievement in aviation technology, these sleek delta-winged planes became a symbol of speed and luxury, being able to make the usually long trip from New York to London in just three and a half hours.
However it seemed that this amazing advancement in aviation was not to last, primarily as it was extremely expensive to operate.
The supersonic Concorde jet made its last commercial passenger flight in October 2003, travelling at twice the speed of sound. The British Airways jet transported a number of celebrities as well as a couple who reportedly paid $60,000 on eBay for two tickets. Yikes!
Feeling old yet?!
We love a stroll down memory lane! We’d love to hear about any other throwbacks from 2003 that you think deserve a mention. We can’t quite believe Holiday Hypermarket is 20 this year – that time taking you on holidays has quite literally ‘flown’ over!
If you need a holiday just to get over the shock of some of these throwbacks, take a look at some of our best deals!
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