September 10-13 2009 Trip Report - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (club33), Day 4 (last day)

[zeitzeuge]

Day 1 - Expo and DL
Day 2 - DCA and DL
Day 3 - DCA/DL and Club 33
Day 4 - DL

Link to all 900 pics


We arrived around 7:30 and made it to the Disneyland Hotel around 8:30 for check in. We stayed about ten minutes in our room before heading out to meet up with Steven's Mother and her best friend. They weren't in the mood to do anything, so Steven and I headed out on the DLH grounds to look around, then walked to Downtown Disney to grab a bite to eat and shop a little. Most things were closing early, so luckily we didn't spend much money. We saved that for the remaining four days and boy, did we ever shop.

It was fun updating Facebook every hour or so throughout the day. Not sure if it was very interesting, but a quick photo and caption seemed to be enjoyed by a handful.

Thursday morning, we were up at 6am and to the shuttle for the D23 Expo by 6:30am. By 7am, we were at the front of the convention center. It was already as OrlandoMike puts it, Organized Chaos. For the most part, the CM's knew what to do, where to send people and what was going on. It was all the attendee's who didn't and seemed to wander aimlessly.

We saw two lines immediately upon entering, after receiving our official wrist band for the week. Found out one was for Iger's opening speech and the other.......was for a pin release. They had been there since 4am standing in line. All vouchers for limited pins were gone, so that nixed that idea. Sad thing is they let them in at 8am to stand in a 2nd line. Which they stood there for another hour before being let in to the Arena and the Dream Store to shop.

We decided to look around some to let the lines die down. There was a wonderful Disney Park's and Resorts Future preview area. Very Disney, with an elaborate preshow and grand entrance into the viewing area. Here, we saw the new Abe Lincoln, how animatronics were made/programmed, DVC preview and talk about the new DVC property in Hawaii, preview of the new Disney Cruise Ship and preview of the Hong Kong Disneyland expansion. The best part was seeing Lucky the Dragon and Wall-e. TWo of the most entertaining and elaborate robots I've ever seen. Amazing shows on both of them.

After this, we spent the remaining time getting our pics taken with tons of characters, including a float from the Electric Light Parade. We toured the Disney Dream Home which was nice, but could have been put together better to make it look like an actual home. There were booths and kiosks for every type of Disney product, TV show, music group and whatever else Disney offers, such as DVC, Disney Credit Cards, etc. We signed up for every single raffle, but didn't win anything.

Over all the Expo was ok. Not very "Disney like". Very little "magic" other then the Parks preview center. The rest seemed very sterile and convention like. The crowds were good for a first day, weekday. I heard the weekend was SO crowded. The few presentations we went to were spot on. One of the best things they did at the event. Everything else, seemed to need more work on presenatation. The archives tour had only a few items worth seeing. Sleeping Beauty book which opens the animated feature, Captain EO's outfit, Nautilus ship, etc. The rest were gowns worn in various movies, most of them newer and not that old.

We realized quickly that you can't see the Expo and do the parks at the same time. You need to concentrate 100% on the Expo for a few days, then when it's done, concentrate on the parks. It would take about 6 hours out of your day including going back and forth, waiting for shuttles and standing in long lines, to see what you wanted. Not worth missing out on the parks, so we did the Expo for one full day, then the parks the rest. We learned our lesson and will do it differently next year. Despite the Expo just being OK, I know they will improve and make it better. Comic Con was horrible the first couple years too. These things have to grow and expand. After a couple years at DL, it will be perfect by the time it moves to WDW in about 3-4 years.

But, I wouldn't tell anyone not to go. It's a wonderful experience that any Disneydork should see. Just don't combine it with trying to go to the parks. Pick one or the other for each day.

I got to meet SFBayDon (such a sweetie, wish we could have seen hung out more!) and a handful of other people, including one of my clients employees that I work with on a daily basis was at the Expo too.

The one thing that was a HUGE hit, more then we ever expected, was our Disneydork tshirts. I think we were stopped by every other person (no joke) asking us where we got them. Once we said we made them, people were begging us to make one for them somehow. If we could make a tshirt for every person at the Expo only who wanted one, we could pay for at least two more trips to Disneyland. Seriously! Don't even get me started on the number of people who stopped us when we were at Disneyland.

After 5pm when the Expo was finished for the day, we headed directly to DL and spent the next few hours before closing. We rode the POTC is all and spent the rest of the time shopping. We met our match when it comes to shopping with Steven's mother. We all walked out with bags and bags. The parked closed at 8pm, so it was a short night for us. We did end up eating at Cafe' Orleans for Gumbo and Pomme Frittes. Yummy!

After 8pm, we wandered DTD, which is a minute walk from the gates of DL. Takes about 15 minutes to walk through DTD to our hotel which is nice. We shopped some more, bought some kettle corn then crashed for an early evening.

Day two I'll post tomorrow. Here are a few pics:

Disneyland Hotel. Not bad for a hotel built ni 1955








CarsLand model


The workings of the new Abe Lincoln:


Replica of Disneyland created in minature by Bob Ozlewski, which you of course can by each individual piece:


Bob himself!


Official D23 painting which you can buy prints and glecee's of:


Mickey in his band costume!


Couple more photopass pics we had taken. LOVED the one with the turtle float from ELP:



Thought it would be funny to get one at the wedding area:


We had to buy D23 ears:


Seeing Lucky and Dinosaur and Wall-e was one of the highlights for us. Two of the most amazing interactive animatronics:




For those wanting to have a Disney Wedding:




Ended the night with a great dinner at Cafe' Orleans with a beautiful sunset in the background. Perfect way to end the night.

[rpmdfw]

Hooray! The trip report has started!

Count me among the people who loved your DB updates!

I really loved staying at the Disneyland Hotel when we went a few years ago. We're planning on staying there again next year.

Loved your pix! (as always)

You two should have kissed in the weddings area!

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report!

[rosiep]

Great start! You actually made me MISS Disneyland!!! I loved the POTC ride there, and the New Orleans section...clam chowder in a bread bowl.....yum.

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

YAY!!! I like trip reports.
Even trip reports that don't contain still or video footage of Tim Burton. Sigh.

[Gypsybear]

YAY!! Great start to your TR....I also loved the FB posts....

Love the pics...

Can't wait to read about day 2...

[wallyb]

You saw Wall-E !!!!

[jenn&nelsonrego]

I your FB updates!

Thank you so much for taking the time to take us all on vacation with you!

Loving the TR so far...

[maleficent's goon]

Originally Posted by rpmdfw

You two should have kissed in the weddings area!

and thrown on that gown

[dustyraye]

YAY! Great start to your trip report. Count me among those who loved your FB updates!!

[soulmates]

Yeah!!! LOVE the pics, can't get over the changes in the DL Hotel, but then, it's been 20 years!! And I agree w/ Rosie, you made me miss it too!!! Did you journal at night or is this from memory? Very detailed, I love it! As for updating from your phone, I STLL haven't figured out how to do that!

Can't wait for the rest!!!

[zeitzeuge]

Originally Posted by soulmates

Yeah!!! LOVE the pics, can't get over the changes in the DL Hotel, but then, it's been 20 years!! And I agree w/ Rosie, you made me miss it too!!! Did you journal at night or is this from memory? Very detailed, I love it! As for updating from your phone, I STLL haven't figured out how to do that!

Can't wait for the rest!!!

And the Hotel is actually getting refurbished at the moment. They just started one of the 3 towers. Should be beautiful when it's all redone by 2012. I actually wrote the journal from memory although I had to ask Steven a few details. My memory is fading. lol

[soulmates]

Originally Posted by zeitzeuge

And the Hotel is actually getting refurbished at the moment. They just started one of the 3 towers. Should be beautiful when it's all redone by 2012. I actually wrote the journal from memory although I had to ask Steven a few details. My memory is fading. lol

I really need to put DL on my list of places to go. I'd sorta written it off, since I'm much closer to DW. From MEMORY?? Your memory is MUCH better than mine!! You go boy!!

[zeitzeuge]

Day 2 - DCA and DL


All pics can be seen here.


We love DCA, but it's always been a one day park. It opens at 10, closes at 6 on off season. Plenty of time to ride everything. It's a park that's also in a massive billion dollar construction phase that will be completed in 2012, so the park is a sea of walls. Might not look very pretty at the moment, but the retheming to make it more Disneyland in appearance and the 1920's Victorian era Californian theme is going to be beautiful when it's done. In the mean time, we just hang out there to ride our favorite attractions, do a bit of shopping, then it's back to Disneyland.

Steven and I got up early and hung out at Disneyland for a couple hours until DCA opened at 10am. We wandered Mainstreet, having our coffee and cinnamon roll, then headed for Nemo Subs to get it out of the way. It eventually has an hour and a half wait, so we made it on in ten minutes. Then we headed to Buzz Light Year. Steven's mom was so excited. She has three grand kids now, so she's scoping everything out for when she can have us all go as a family, including grandkids.

We made the mistake of taking his mom and friend to Little Green Men pin store. Got them totally hooked and they had full lanyards by the end of day two.

We then wandered over to Adventureland and rode POTC and Jungle Cruise. By that time, we headed to DCA. We spent a lot of time shopping and meeting tons of characters. We got some GREAT pics. They were all out in force that day. We purchased tshirts, new artwork for our Disney bedroom at the new home and a Mickey Self Portrait sculpture. We went to TOT, Turtle Talk, Monsters, Inc, Muppet 3D Vision, California Screamin', Toy Story Mania and Soarin'. All of this was done before 2pm. Seriously, lines were so short. We never waited longer then 15 minutes for anything and the parks even seemed crowded. We shopped some more (got so tired of shopping), then parked our butts for the Pixar Parade. So mad that the Electric Light Parade shut down a week ago.

Once the parade was over (we got so wet from the floats), we headed back to DL while the women stayed at DCA. We went straight for Cafe' Orleans for Gumbo again. The sunset was beautiful pink color. Sitting there watching, listening and absorbing all things about the park was an amazing moment. It kind of just hit us at the same time. We then took a ride around the Rivers of America on the Mark Twain.

The girls showed up for a while, so we hit the dark rides in Fantasyland, Pinnochio, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which has now become one of our favorites. Flying over the city at night in a ship is pretty cool. We rode the Matterhorn and IASW, so we could have the song stuck in our heads for hours. We spent the rest of the night wandering, taking tons of pictures, meeting characters and shopping. The women headed back to the hotel early, so we had some alone time. We planted our butts at the HUB and watched Magical Fireworks. Yes, when Dumbo flies across the sky while the singer sings Baby Mine, we cried. You can't help it! We then battled the horrible traffic and made our way to NOS for Fantasmic! We made it with a few minutes to spare for the 10:30 showing. It was great to see the new 50ft fully animatronic fire breathing dragon. She's pretty stunning in person. I hope you all get one in WDW. It's a must see!

We had an hour or so, so we rode POTC to end the evening, then wandered Mainstreet before walking back to our hotel.

Exhausted.

Here are some favorite pics:

Love the new Mark VII monorails. They're so sleek and beautiful. Monorails at DL are more of an attraction. After circling fantasyland and tomorrowland, they take you on the edge of the park, over through DCA, then to the Hotel to drop off guests, then it goes back to the park on the other side, circling fantasyland and tomorrowland again before docking at the Tomorrowland station. There's Monorail Orange, Red and Blue:


This is normally Paradise Pier lake, filled with water. This is the underwater stage for World of Color with over 2000 water, fire and fan fountains:


Behind it is the new tiered victorian seating area to hold 10K for the show


Random shots from DCA:















Few shots from DL and Fantasmic Dragon:







Our favorite picture:

[rosiep]

I firmly believe that anyone who loves Disney should visit both DL and WDW. It's funny how it can be both familiar and yet so unique.

How similiar/dissimiliar is TSM?

Oh....and Chris.....if you visit DL...Portland is only a hop, skip and a jump away......

[wallyb]

Murphy is sooooo cool!