A Day at the Walt Disney Studios and Archives and Disneyland - 5/3/13 to 5/5/13 #2854

[mvf-m11c]

Here are pics of Disneyland SB Castle during Wintertime Enchantment Holiday Lighting for the 1st show and the 2nd show.

First Show of WEHL












2nd Show of WEHL














I will have both videos of WEHL in the next few days or even tomorrow. Hope u like the pics during the WEHL show.

[mvf-m11c]

Originally Posted by skiingfast

I'm wondering about the walk from Stovalls. How long did it take? I imagine you were walking fast maybe your equipment slowed you down. Did you use the GHC cut through?

I believe it was 12-15 min for me to walk from Stovalls over to DL and DCA main entrance. I used the GCH shortcut all of my time I go to the parks and going back to the hotel. I was really walking fast all day both back and forward but it was a bad idea to rush back to the hotel since I had a sore back on Friday night. I was just walking fast all day during my visit as Michelle (IndayMichelle) saw me at Mission Tortilla Factory on Friday morning.

On Friday when I used my tripod for the two parades at DL & WoC, I got a locker inside DL and it just barely fit inside the locker. I got the large locker and I took my tripod first thing in the morning and left it in the locker until I used it for the 2:30 parade. I put it back in the locker and went back to Stovalls to rest up. Than when I got back to DL at night I got it out and used it for the 2nd parade and WoC that night.

[mvf-m11c]

Time to post some of the Holiday Treats at the DLR.

[mvf-m11c]

From where I left off, I just watch both shows of SB Winter Castle shows. Than it was time to see the 7:30 "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks. As always it is so amazing to watch Believe fireworks from the Hub. I had stayed at that spot for less than two hours to see the fireworks and it was worth it in my opinion. Some people would say that you are crazy of staying in that spot for less than two hours.

















After the fireworks, it was around 7:40 and I called it for the night since I am tired of driving 5 hours from Livingston to Anaheim. I than went down MS and took some pics of the Holiday decorations while I was walking toward the exit. Also DL announced that the MS USA store will be immediately closed at 8pm just as the same time as DL was closing. So there was little time to shop after the fireworks. But I decided not to shop that night after the fireworks.

I remember reading from a thread on Tuesday that DL is having a private party for the radio stations of the different cities. When I was at the exit on the DTD side, there was a stand for people to check-in and there were other people waiting to get into DL that night. It would have been nice to go into a private party at DL one day.

Than I walked straight back to Stovalls to call it for the night and than I posted my pics and did my TR that night.

This was a little blurry

[mvf-m11c]

Time to post more pics for the Tree and Wreath Quest

Tree from Pooh's Corner at Critter Country


Tree from Pooh's Corner at Critter Country


Tree by Santas Reindeer Round-Up


Wreaths from Toon Town




Minnie's Christmas Tree in Toon Town


Mickey's Christmas Tree in Toon Town


Donald's Wreath in Toon Town


Goofy's Wreath on his house in Toon Town

[Markie Mouse]

Loved the TR. I was wondering how you took your pics? I just got my Sony alpha a55 and was wondering from looking at your beautiful pics what settings you used for outside pics and firework pictures. I use some of the auto settings but have recently discovered the beauty of the manual modes. I especially like your tree pics as the colors and the details of the ornaments really pop.

[tksbaskets]

Originally Posted by mvf-m11c

Just got back 2 hours ago and I am back home in Sacramento safely. I want to thank all the readers who are keeping track of my TR. I will now write the rest of my TR from Thursday night.

It was around 4:45pm and I left BW Stovalls and carried all my camera and video camera equipment with me to videotape the parade and the fireworks. I got out of the hotel later than I expected since I was posting and writing my TR that night.



After the parade was over, I was just waiting by myself for the fireworks and I talked to some other families of their experience at DL during the Holiday season. They were so amazed of how DL is during the Holiday season. When one of them needed to go to the restroom, I told them that I can watch their stroller and blanket. They were so happy to hear that and they went out and asked me if I would like a drink. I said that I was fine and that was really nice of that family to get me a drink while I was waiting. While we were waiting I took some pics of the castle. Before the fireworks, we got to see two shows of Sleeping Beauty Winter castle light up. I remember that last year when it light up before the fireworks. After the two shows of SB Winter castle light up, the icicles light up after the show.



It also snowed during both of the Wintertime Castle light up.

I will post both of the pics of both the two different show of Wintertime Castle light up. These two shows are different than the other.

Hi Bret,
I am enjoying the heck out of your trip report. SO nice that your kindness to the parade waiting family was rewarded. What goes around truely does come around.

Your parade photos were great but your castle pictures at night are STUNNING!

Your hotel room looks quite nice and comfortable. On my last trip I stayed at the Park Vue which was very convienient, clean, but not as warm looking as your room. Where was your hotel located? I don't know what the BW stands for (I'm new to the hotels that aren't on property).

Glad you are home safe and sound! How many days to your WDW trip? My counter is at 33 days now!

[mvf-m11c]

Originally Posted by Markie Mouse

Loved the TR. I was wondering how you took your pics? I just got my Sony alpha a55 and was wondering from looking at your beautiful pics what settings you used for outside pics and firework pictures. I use some of the auto settings but have recently discovered the beauty of the manual modes. I especially like your tree pics as the colors and the details of the ornaments really pop.

I used a Nikon D60 DSLR camera and I also took pictures with my Sony HDR-XR520V camcorder. On the first night, I used my video camera for the nighttime pictures. As you can see from my SB Winter Castle pics on the top, I actually recorded the show and than took each pic frame and made it into a picture. I used mostly the non-auto flash during the daytime with my Nikon D60. The video camera was used as a regular camera for taking pics.

Thx for liking my pics.

[mvf-m11c]

Originally Posted by tksbaskets

Hi Bret,
I am enjoying the heck out of your trip report. SO nice that your kindness to the parade waiting family was rewarded. What goes around truely does come around.

Your parade photos were great but your castle pictures at night are STUNNING!

Your hotel room looks quite nice and comfortable. On my last trip I stayed at the Park Vue which was very convienient, clean, but not as warm looking as your room. Where was your hotel located? I don't know what the BW stands for (I'm new to the hotels that aren't on property).

Glad you are home safe and sound! How many days to your WDW trip? My counter is at 33 days now!

Actually it was the fireworks on Thursday night that I have told that family that I would save their spot. It was a mother and a young daughter. They said that if I want a drink and I said that I didn't want a drink, I was just fine and had my own. I'm just that kind of person who would watch someones spot when they need to go to the bathroom or get food.

I'm glad that u like my photos of the parade and fireworks. I will post them on this thread later during the week. But right now I am uploading the SB Winter castle light up and "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks on youtube.

The hotel that I have stayed was BW Stovalls (Best Western Stovall's Inn). It is located south of DLR on the corner of Disneyland Dr. & W Katella Ave. It is right by Coco restaurant. It is about a 15 min walk from the hotel to the park that includes going through the GCH. I have stayed at BW Stovalls back in Aug. 09 and it was just like the same from last year. It was very comfortable.

Here is the hotel pic & map from the website.


Thank you for your concern. I'm only just 18 days away till my WDW Holiday Trip . I'm getting excited to hear your TR next month.

[mvf-m11c]

Here are my pictures from "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks on 11/18/10. These were actually videotaped from my Sony HDR-XR520V camcorder and than I took each frame from my video and made it into a pic. Hope u like it and this is part 1 of Believe.

[mvf-m11c]

I just uploaded SB Winter Castle on my youtube. I have both the first show and 2nd show uploaded. Here are the links for the two shows.

SB Winter Castle 1st Show

SB Winter Castle 2nd Show

Enjoy the show.

[mvf-m11c]

I just finished uploading "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks on my youtube. I have both parts of the show uploaded. Here are the links for the fireworks.

Believe...In Holiday Magic Part 1

Believe...In Holiday Magic Part 2

[mvf-m11c]

Okay now is the time to post my TR on Saturday.

I also forgot to mention when I went to the parks on Thursday, I was hoping that my new Premier AP would work. When I got to the main entrance and gave my AP to the CM, when she scanned it, it showed my picture on the screen. I was relieved that my Premier finally worked especially having so much trouble with it last month. Than when I had dinner at RSV, it had giving me the 15% discount for the food. I'm glad that it worked during my trip and now I am hoping it will be fine when I go to WDW next month. I would assume that it should be fine, but I was planning on going to the park when I get there on Friday Dec. 10 on the day my DA and I arrive in Orlando. I hope u read my live TR from WDW in less than three weeks.

Back in my hotel at BW Stovalls, I got up 7:00am in the morning. I knew that I couldn't go in the park during MM since I am not staying on-property just like my October trip and don't have a PH ticket with a MM on it. I also brought my tripod with me so I can videotape the 2:30pm "A Christmas Fantasy" parade. I didn't want to go back to the hotel and pick it up so I decided to bring it with me and put it in the lockers at the DLR. I left my room at 7:30 and head over to have the continental breakfast at the hotel. I just had orange juice and a bagel in the morning. Than it was off to DL to get there when it opens at 8am in the morning.

I got in DL when it opened at 8am and there were only a few people outside the gate but most of the people were waiting inside MS USA. I also took pics of the CALIFORNIA letters for the last Holiday season and I have took better ones on Saturday, I will post those later.







The first thing I did when I got inside the park was to head on over to the lockers right by the Cone Shop. I got the large locker and my tripod just barely fit inside the locker. I had use the large locker outside the main entrance of DL right by the GR. It was np fitting inside the locker and like what the reports said that DL has upgraded all the lockers with a keypad at each one instead of going to one of the main screens and punching in the numbers.

After I put my tripod in the locker, I was heading straight over to Tomorrowland until I see the radio broadcasting booths right by the Hub. I remember that DL had a private party for the radio broadcasting but there were a lot of them from different cities on the West Coast. I have seen radio companies from Utah, Arizona, and of course California. I had also see that they are videotaping right in front of SB castle.













After seeing the event going right by the Hub, I went over to the Tomorrowland and the first thing I did was get a FP for SM. I knew that I could have just got on SM since it was a 10 min wait, but I had to get the pictures of the ride vehicles at the other lands.

After getting the FP for SM, I head straight over to Adventureland and got on Indy. As always in the morning Indy was not that crowded and I got on the ride in just less than 5 minutes. I also took the picture of the ride vehicle of Indy with my Sony camcorder with the night shot.


After Indy, I was about to go on HMH, but it was too early in the morning and I know that I could walk-on the ride later during the day. (But that was a mistake for me later during the day. I will talked about that later on this thread.) I decided to go on the DLRR and ride it towards ToonTown depot and head over to IASWH. Here are some pics of the NOS stations as well as a wreath for the quest and I got to ride on the C.K. Holliday with Holiday 5 car set with the Lilly Belle parlor car.





After I got off the DLRR from ToonTown Station, I went straight over to IASWH. There was no one there and I just got on the ride immediately. When I was on IASWH, it took longer to get off the ride since the CM are adding more boats to the ride. From the time I got on and got off it was around 19 minutes until it was finished.

Than it was time to head on over to Tomorrowland and get on SM and use my FP. I walked over to FL and than I remember to take a ride vehicle photo of Matterhorn Mountain Bobsled.


After the picture of the Matterhorn Bobsled I also took a picture of FNSV submarines.


I head on over to SM and it said that it was still a 10 min wait and I showed my FP to the CM and I walked thru the FP line and when I got to the line that connect the standby line there was no CM and I just walked in. I believe it was a 7 min wait to get on the ride. I also got to be in front on the ride. Here is the SM ride vehicle with the night shot.




Here is my picture after the ride on SM. As you can see that I was in the front with my video camera as I was videotaping the ride in night shot.


After SM, I went over to BLAB and got on in just 5 min. It was around 9:10am when I got on the ride and as always I had to get a pic of the ride vehicle.


After BLAB, I got a FP for BLAB as a souvenir. Than it was around 9:25am and I decided it was time to head on over to DCA and do the other activities at DCA.

I will write more of my TR later tonight.

Thx for reading another part of my incomplete TR.

[Tink91]

Great pictures!!!!

[skiingfast]

Nice indoor dark shots, very inventive. It's wierd that the radio booths lined the middle of the hub. I noticed for Halloween they set them up on the town square.

I'm sure you premier will work fine at WDW. From when it came out it seemed lots of people had problems at DLR, which have quickly decreased, and very few people ever had problems at DLR. We'll see when you try to scan your finger at the turnsyles.

Are you going to post those onride videos on youtube? I'll keep an eye out.