September 10-13 2009 TR - 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.

[Sherry E]

Zeitzeuge, I am going to move this thread over to the DLR Trip Reports section where it should be. Also, you can add Parts 2, 3 and 4 right onto this same TR, just to keep everything easy to find and in one place. Generally, if we (the mods) see several different threads for one DLR trip, we will merge them together into one anyway.

Great beginning!! Can't wait to read Part 2!

[Kayla's Mom]

Great report and great pics! I looked through some of them (I was looking for your Club 33 shots) and love the one of the water spot in the shape of a Mickey head. How funny! LOVE your Disneydork shirts, I can see why you got a lot of people asking about them. Is that the front side to the one you posted on the other thread?

Looking forward to the next part of your report!

[Docter419]

Thanks for the link to all of your photos! Also can't wait to read the rest. Were you there when Johnny Depp came out?

[zeitzeuge]

Thanks everyone! Should have Day 2 up tomorrow at some point.

Since we decided to not try and juggle the park and the expo the next 3 days, we didn't go back to the Expo. So unfortunately, we missed seeing Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. So bummed....

[zeitzeuge]

Day 2 - DCA and DL

All pics can be seen here.[/url]

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:

[audrey2580]

Great report - looks like you had fun. Can you tell me how crowded the park was Friday night and Saturday day. We're heading down this weekend!

[zeitzeuge]

Originally Posted by audrey2580

Great report - looks like you had fun. Can you tell me how crowded the park was Friday night and Saturday day. We're heading down this weekend!

Overall, then entire trip, the parks weren't bad at all until Friday and Saturday night. We assumed that after the Expo closing at 5pm, most came over to the parks since they got a huge discount. Crowds were a little crazy for the fireworks and Fantasmic!.

The rest of the time, we never waited longer then 15 minutes for ANY attraction. Some we almost walked on during the middle of the day. Even the dark rides in Fantasyland were quick. Just such a smooth trip regarding all of that.

I would think that since the Expo is over and Halloween time at the parks hasn't really started that the parks should be really manageable.

[zeitzeuge]

Day 3 - Club 33

We had good intentions of going to Magic Mornings. We didn't get to bed until midnight the night before, then we forgot to set our alarm, so we woke up at 7am and missed it. So we ended up making it to the park by 8am, had our coffee and cinnamon role and started our morning ritual. The girls decided to sleep in so again, we it was just the two of us for most of the morning.

Again the parks weren't busy, so we rode all the dark rides again, then hit Splash Mountain, POTC, Pooh, Big Thunder Mountain, IASW and Nemo Subs, all before noon. Every day we were reminded how disappointed we are that Casey Jr and Storybook Land were closed. As well as HM and SM. Oh well, next trip.

The girls called us and said they were at DCA. My partners mother's friend's daughter (got that?) arrived and she wanted to ride a few attractions there, so we met them for TOT, California Screaming and some shopping, before heading back to the hotel to relax (our feet and backs were killing us by this 3rd day). We just can't seem to stay out of the parks from 8am to midnight. After getting cleaned up and dressed up, we walked through DTD for dinner at Club 33.

Let me first say that I had been nervous all day. We were given the opportunity by a wonderful person, to experience the club. I was fine until that day, when I suddenly became nervous about it. Not sure why.

We arrived at the front door of Club 33 in NOS and took pictures of course. I was given the the golden opportunity to buzz us in. Within a few minutes, a woman answered the door and asked for our name. We walked into a very small voyer, with a grand staircase and old French elevator, that only holds 3 people at the most. It's so tiny!. The walls were rich red, dark cherry wood, gold and black on the staircase. We were told to make sure we took the elevator, so the five of us went up in stages. LOL

At the top, we were greeted very warmly by the staff. Off to the right is a small dining room, which has the infamous microphoned chandelier and animatronic Vulture in the corner. To the right is a hallway with a curio cabinet full of things to buy, wonderful artwork and places to sit. Then to the right you go into another seating area with ornate couches, then the beautiful bar, small dining area, which leads into the largest dining area with probably 12 tables. The entire place was very ornate, with dark wood, royal blue and cream colors. We took time to take in every detail and look at all of the artwork on the walls.

One odd thing that I didn't realize, is that half of Club 33 is over Blue Bayou, the hall way actually goes over NOS street, then the remaining restaurant is actually over Cafe' Orleans.

First thing we noticed was the beautiful table, with a gift on our plate that was given to us by our benefactor. A Club 33 keychain sitting on our plates. Such a sweet thing to do! We ordered wine and looked over the menu for appetizers and main courses. We opted for this rather then the 5 course meal. Our waitress was very professional, sweet and personable. We loved her!

Soon, she brought out an Amuse Bouche, a one bite appetizer compliments of the chef. SO tasty! It was some sort of asparagus puree (with crab?) on toast with sun dried tomatoes. After our amuse bouche, we got our appetizers (rather then salads). They all had the crab cakes served with a side of fresh crab legs and asparagus and I had a Chicken Confit Ravioli.

For dinner, I ordered the Monk Fish with Caviar and fresh greens and mashed potatoes. Steven and his mom had the same. Other dishes at our table were free range chicken with melon risotto and fingerling sweet potatoes, and another had the Short Ribs with um....something. I forget. The food was amazing and filled us up so much, none of us could finish all of it.

One thing we noticed was the table next to us. Two Disney executives sat down with 3 people from Japan and their interpreter. They talked a lot about the parks, what they had to offer, etc. We tried to hear more, but it was difficult. Yes, we're nosey!

During dinner, we took a couple breaks to walk around and take pictures. They encourage it, so we took advantage of it.

Then a surprise birthday dessert showed up. My birthday isn't until the 21st, but that didn't stop someone at our table from telling the waitress. It was a very nice surprise. After dinner was complete, we ordered Bailey's and coffee. A couple of them in fact. Then headed out to the balcony for pictures and to enjoy NOS from a completely different perspective. We were hoping to watch Fantasmic! from this vantage point, but it didn't start for quite a while, so we opted to go back in to buy a few things for ourselves, soak up any last minute things we could from Club 33, then headed downstairs, taking one last look.

It was an experience none of us will ever forget.

We immediately headed to the Hub to see Magical. The girls hadn't seen it yet. Somehow, we got lucky and found an empty spot close to the castle. I tell you, it was the perfect night. After fireworks, we went ornament shopping for our Disney Christmas tree. We headed back to the hotel around 11pm so we wouldn't miss our last chance at Magical Mornings on Sunday.

Other then night time at Disneyland during Christmas, this was one of the best nights we've experienced there.

Here's a few pics:



Foyer:


Hallway:






First diningroom on your right as you enter




A look outside:


Entering the 2nd seating area and bar:






Large dining area:






Food Porn!














From the Balcony:

[jnjusoioa]

Awesome trip report so far, not sure if you are done or not, didn't really read it all, was looking at the photos!!! Love them!!! I love the D23 ears, I am a huge "EAR" collector, do you know if you are still able to purchase them?? Also could you please explain to me exactly what D23 is??? Thank You. I can't wait to check out all your photos, I loved the ones from your Christmas trip so can't wait to check all these out!!! How were you lucky enough to eat at Club 33??? Thank You!!!

[zeitzeuge]

Originally Posted by jnjusoioa

Awesome trip report so far, not sure if you are done or not, didn't really read it all, was looking at the photos!!! Love them!!! I love the D23 ears, I am a huge "EAR" collector, do you know if you are still able to purchase them?? Also could you please explain to me exactly what D23 is??? Thank You. I can't wait to check out all your photos, I loved the ones from your Christmas trip so can't wait to check all these out!!! How were you lucky enough to eat at Club 33??? Thank You!!!

I'm not sure. They sold them at the Expo, so the best way to get them would probably be on Ebay unfortunately I would guess. Haven't seen them on the D23 site either. D23 is the official Disney Fan Club.

And Club 33 happened due to a gracious member inviting us.

[Kayla's Mom]

So glad you had fun at Club 33! Great report!

[Daisybelle]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! I love your photos. It's ncie to get to see the pics of Club 33. Thank you for taking the time to share your trip with us!

[zeitzeuge]

Thanks! Just one more day to report on, so I should have that either tonight or tomorrow.

[vettegirl]

Love your Club 33 pics