Part 8: Jolly Holiday
Day 5
Adventures by Disney: Lights, Camera, Magic
I was
really looking forward to this day. It was our Adventures by Disney tour day, and all three of us were really excited. I will preface the report of our
ABD experience with these two notes:
1.) This particular ABD tour is being discontinued as of January 18. It was first introduced in late 2011 and I suppose Disney has decided it's not worth the effort. We initially had to reschedule our tour date because Disney called and said we were the only party signed up for the day, so my guess is that not enough people know about the Lights, Camera, Magic experience.
2.) That is a real shame, because it exceeded our expectations tremendously.
Excellent service (one of the best showings of the Disney Difference I have ever seen), a full day (around 11 hours), unprecedented access, entertaining, insightful, and jam-packed. At $200 per person, it's also a bargain for what you get (especially considering transportation, lunch, and snacks are included). And there is absolutely no hassle involved, which we certainly appreciated after getting lost en route to the Reagan Library.
For the Disneyland Guest who also wants to include Hollywood in their vacation itinerary, this tour is perfect. If more people knew about it, I'm sure it would be sold out every day it was offered. In fact, we were originally planning on coming back to Hollywood for another day on our own, but decided we had seen so much on this tour that we scrapped the extra HW day and added another Disney day to our Park Hoppers.
Anyway.... this trip report will include all spoilers and surprises for this ABD tour, so if you happen to be taking it between now and January 18, don't read any further! It is also said to be a condensed, one-day version of the multi-day Backstage Magic ABD tour (which is
not discontinuing), so same if you're taking that adventure. Know that you will have a wonderful time, but don't spoil all the fun for yourself.
The day started with check-in at the Grand Californian at 8 a.m. We met our Adventure Guide, Robin, and she told us that things would officially get underway at 8:30, but in the meantime we could enjoy complimentary goodies in a nearby lounge. SCORE. One thing you will realize very quickly about this tour (and I would assume all Adventures by Disney excursions) is that they spoil you, so take advantage of what they offer! It's all-inclusive! I think I got hot chocolate or something, and after that we strolled around the GC for a bit.
8:30 arrived and it was time to get things started. Robin introduced us to our Assistant Adventure Guide, Natalia, and our bus (excuse me, motor coach) driver, Don. All three of them were wonderful. The ride to Hollywood was pure Disney. Games and trivia with everyone onboard, Hollywood videos on the TVs, and Disney background music playing (!) when nothing else was going on. We ended up at the back of the pack and thus at the back of the bus, which was still fine, but I felt a bit distanced from everything during the trivia and such. I'd suggest being intentional about where you position yourself for an ABD experience.
On the way into town, my nerddom was about through the roof as we started to pass landmarks and altogether just very exciting "things."
Excitement was through the roof for everyone as we officially arrived in Hollywood and found out our first stop would be viewing the Hollywood sign!
The bus dropped us off right near the Dolby Theater (formerly the Kodak Theater), where the Oscars are held each year. It was no more than a few steps from the parking deck where we arrived for our Hollywood sign photo-ops. I was expecting a bit closer, but the opportunity was awesome regardless. It's
the Hollywood sign!
The only bad part was that our camera is really good at focusing... which ordinarily is great, but in this case, we later saw that in all the pictures with us in front of the Hollywood sign (rather than just the sign itself)... you can't even tell that the sign is there. Oh, well.
We headed out into the thick of Hollywood next. As I said, we were near the Dolby Theater. Also very close by in this area is the El Capitan Theater and Grauman's Chinese Theater, with the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars all around on the ground.
Next up, the trip's first Disney surprise. There is a station on Hollywood Blvd. that offers families the chance to pose with a blank "star" (as in, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame), and when the picture is printed out, your family's name appears on the star. Robin announced that we would all be getting these complimentary. Very cool!
For the next 10 minutes or so after the picture, we were able to roam the area as we pleased. That wasn't too much time considering there is so much going on in the area. I tried to take pictures of as many neat things as I could find!
I know this opinion isn't across-the-board, but I was a little surprised to see that the Harry Potter handprints were right next to Twilight... as limited space as there is in front of the Chinese Theater, I didn't expect to see Twilight included in the first place to be honest. I know it has been a really popular series, but... has it really made the same impact that Harry Potter has? I just don't think it has left its mark on Hollywood enough to (pun alert!) cement its actors forever in front of
the Chinese Theater with the likes of Shirley Temple and Edgar Bergen. That was just a bit puzzling to me. Also sort of weird to put it right next to Harry Potter.
Anyway. A quick 10 minutes later, we met back up with Robin and headed into a private tour of the Dolby Theater!
Robin turned it over to an employee at the theater (I can't remember his name), who was extremely knowledgeable and shared loads of great info about the theater itself, as well as all the preparations that go on to prepare for the Academy Awards. No pictures were allowed inside the theater itself, but we did get to go inside! It is a
lot more vertical that the cameras make it out to be. The guide shared a ton of fun stories about his years working the Oscars. One of the ones I found funny---commercial breaks are a mad rush of people running around and everything has to be just in place by the time the break is over. No seat is left empty, either. If someone in the audience has to leave (like to present, perform, or use the restroom), there are people whose sole job for the night is to be a "seat filler" and take up the seats for people who temporarily get up!
We probably spent a good 45 minutes inside Dolby listening to the guide's info. Afterward, Robin explained that usually there is more time to roam around Hollywood Blvd, but we had gone a little over inside Dolby so we needed to get on the motor coach without another set of free time. We crossed the street and made our way to behind the El Capitan Theater to board the motor coach. I hope that the extra roaming time is allotted for this side of the street, because there is a lot that was missed, and some pretty fascinating info that the Adventure Guides did not talk about. I think Robin briefly said that the El Capitan is owned by Disney, but didn't mention that almost every Disney film has its premiere here, or that the finale of
The Muppets was filmed on the very ground we were walking and that the El Capitan's exterior (but not interior) stood in for the Muppet Theater in that movie. I would think that that stuff is relevant for a Disney-run tour, but it wasn't even mentioned.
Also since the El Capitan is Disney-owned there are a
ton (and by a ton, I mean... a ton) of Disney-themed stars on the Walk of Fame just in front of the theater, but not a one of them was pointed out by the Adventure Guides. I about had a freak out every time I spotted a new one, and tried to snap quick pictures of each one while also keeping up with the brisk pace of the group. It was like "Aaskdjflajdf Tim Allen's star!" then "IOuoirag Alan Menken," followed by the excitement of "IGuroajgjoifsjfkl John Lasseter," "Tildjioajrga Tinker Bell," "Igjaofigjrfj Donald Duck," "Piaorghituahgs Winnie the Pooh," "IHrioahgorigijs Disneyland," "AKjvhioahgireh Annette Funicello," and finally "AWGOIRAJGIORJSIOAEJG THE MUPPETS!" Muppets was the only one I managed to get a decent picture of (some of the other pics are either blurry or have feet in them lol).
The lack of sharing that info didn't take away anything from people who didn't know about them, but I would think Disney fans taking this Disney-themed tour would be interested in learning about the El Capitan and seeing the Disney stars on the Walk of Fame, so I'm surprised nothing was mentioned.
We drove through the heart of Hollywood to get to the world-famous Farmer's Market. I'm not sure what makes it so renowned, but apparently it is. It was on this ride that we really got to see that Hollywood is not really all glitz and glamour, and most of it is actually quite run down and touristy. There are well-kept places for sure (particularly those of historical significance), and the studios and filmmaking facilities are of course state-of-the-art of top-notch, but as for the city itself, it's sort of
I was glad we were with a group and had an itinerary and not just roaming by ourselves without a clue of what we were doing.
And speaking of that, it was at the Farmer's Market that my grandparents and I came to the conclusion that, even if we did come back to Hollywood on our own a few days later, there really wouldn't be that much more to see. I wanted to take a picture outside of Jim Henson Studios and it would be nice to go back and thoroughly explore the Walk of Fame, but we didn't think that justified a whole extra Hollywood day. This tour had exceeded our expectations so much that we really didn't need the extra day like we thought we would (which again makes me puzzled as to why it's closing).
Everyone was given a $15 gift certificate good for anything in the whole Farmer's Market (and there was definitely plenty to choose from). I think I ended up getting Mexican. If the balance of the meal did not meet $15, I was surprised to find out we would be given the change in cash that we could keep. Fine by me! To be honest, the Farmer's Market was a bit congested and didn't exactly scream "Hollywood!" to me, but lots of choices and historic (I guess?) location.
After lunch, we continued to cruise en route to Burbank, and along the way, our driver, Don, shared excellent information about everything we passed along the way. For instance, on one street we were on, he said the left side's homes have a Hollywood address while the right side's homes have a Beverly Hills address. Even if homes on both sides were the exact same building, the Beverly Hills home would be twice as much money simply because it has Beverly Hills in its address!
We passed by several noteworthy places, including the Hollywood Bowl.
Warner Bros., where
The Middle is filmed. My family loves that show. ("Whoop!")
And NBC!
The second half of the day would be spent exploring the thing we were all waiting for, practically bouncing out of our seats in anticipation for, quite arguably the reason every single one of us had booked the tour in the first place: The Walt Disney Studios.
with a dash of 
as we pulled into the Walt Disney Studios. To know that there is so much history here... it was a bit difficult to fathom that we were actually there.
She had arranged for a Walt Disney Studios employee to guide us into a nearby soundstage, which apparently doesn't happen on every tour, but schedules worked out for it to happen today. The employee (whose name I forget, but she was excellent) told us one of her favorite memories from her time here was seeing Johnny Depp in full Captain Jack regalia take a smoke break amongst regularly-dressed employees. 
We had 15 minutes to browse around. It was basically a glorified Disney Store, but of course with quite a few exclusive items only available here. I got a Mickey Avenue pin and a Walt Disney Studios long-sleeve t-shirt. My grandparents surprised me later with a Director Mickey Vinylmation that's only at the Studio that they had bought right under my nose. 
It was a magical day that I will never forget. On the ride back to Disneyland, we had the choice of watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua or Cars 2. Thank goodness the vote was for Cars 2! It was really neat watching it after just having been to Cars Land. My grandparents hadn't seen the sequel before and loved how Mater-centric it was; he is their favorite character. Heading back in the middle of traffic, the ride took the entire duration of the movie and a little more after it was over. Overall a wonderful, wonderful day at an excellent value. Thank you, Adventures by Disney, for a supercalifragilistic day, and I sure do hope you reconsider your choice to discontinue this tour because it's a real winner and I know lots of other Disney fans would thoroughly enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ4FRiFiQfw
