My Trip to the D23 Expo - TR Complete!

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

I am so behind on posting my PTR... next on my list of things to catch up on!

I can't wait your last trip and your F&W trip is coming very soon!

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

Alison, I am so jealous you got a scrollie....

I know I can't believe it! I remembered exactly when I made the comment about the pants (reminising back to when *tight* dittos were in style), but it took me over an hour searching all my posts, to figure out where the scrollie came from! I'm fairly pleased with it!

[dgbg100106]

Originally Posted by franandaj

I can't wait your last trip and your F&W trip is coming very soon!



I know I can't believe it! I remembered exactly when I made the comment about the pants (reminising back to when *tight* dittos were in style), but it took me over an hour searching all my posts, to figure out where the scrollie came from! I'm fairly pleased with it!

I am so Happy for you.

[bangzoom6877]

Originally Posted by franandaj

You can do it Bonnie! It's not that bad. I'm sure it's a little worse for you being so close and all, but millions of people have been doing it safely. Pretty soon we won't even have to take our shoes off any more!

OK, I know I technically can do it...and I know that rationally, it is extremely safe. It's just one of those things for me I guess. When we were engaged, DH had to really convince me to book our honeymoon in the Bahamas, because I didn't want to fly. Ultimately, he didn't mind if I would have decided I didn't want to fly, but we did book it and I came to terms with it...especially since it wasn't a long flight. Then September 11th happened, a little over 2 months before our wedding. And I panicked and was very scared. I told DH that I didn't want to be nervous all day at our wedding just because I knew I had to fly the next day, and I also didn't want to be nervous on the honeymoon knowing I had to fly home. (Yes, I am that neurotic!) He completely understood given the circumstances especially, and we cancelled. It was early enough to get our deposit back too, and we re-booked at a couples' resort in the Poconos (it was owned by Caesars at the time). We had a fantastic honeymoon, and we met a lot of other honeymoon couples that did the same thing...had a honeymoon planned that involved flying but then changed plans. And it was a good thing we did change...a week before our wedding, a plane crashed a few miles from where we live, near the beach. I would have been a complete basket case if I had to fly the week after that one.

I did manage to fly to Europe with my sister in 1996, and I never thought I would be able to bring myself to do that long a flight. When my sister asked me about going to Europe, I couldn't pass up that opportunity. I was picturing her coming back from Europe and telling me all about it, and totally regretting it if I didn't go. That was key in my decision, and I was always so glad I went! Besides that, the only flights I have been on were from NYC to Florida (several times) and once from NYC to San Juan, PR for a cruise. At least on a trans-continental flight, you're over land the whole time...for some reason that makes me feel a *bit* safer.

[PrincessInOz]

Boy! Carsland better live up to all this hype. I'm practically salivating to go!

[dgbg100106]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Boy! Carsland better live up to all this hype. I'm practically salivating to go!

I agree, but I think I will take the advice and wait awhile before I go.

[Leshaface]

Your presentation of Carsland made me even MORE excited to go now!!! I can't imagine how crazy busy it's going to be. Will you be trying to go for the opening?!

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by bangzoom6877

OK, I know I technically can do it...and I know that rationally, it is extremely safe. It's just one of those things for me I guess.

I know you can get over it! You want to come out here and see everything, or just make sure the boys are old enough and drug yourself!

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Boy! Carsland better live up to all this hype. I'm practically salivating to go!

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

I agree, but I think I will take the advice and wait awhile before I go.

I know, I think it's going to be really cool. John Lasseter and his team have put a lot of thought into this one. I mean look how popular TSMM is! But yeah you won't find me in DCA next summer!

Originally Posted by Leshaface

Your presentation of Carsland made me even MORE excited to go now!!! I can't imagine how crazy busy it's going to be. Will you be trying to go for the opening?!

I will only go to soft opening stuff and AP Preview kind of things. I have no desire to get stuck in huge lines and crowds. We were at DL on Labor Day and Star Tours was out of FPs by noon, so that tells you how nuts these Southern Californians are!

[franandaj]

The Radiator Springs Reality panel got out around 2:30ish and for a little I hung out in the hall next to an outlet charging my phone. I was thinking it might be nice to go back to the lounge, or something relaxing. After about 10 minutes, Fran joined up with me and said, “So shall we see if there is a line for the Disneyland Retrospective in Film?” Yippie another 3 hours in line in that refrigerator room. Woohoo! Just what I was looking forward to!

So we trekked off to find the end of the line. The Making of Star Tours started at 3:30, and they had not yet begun loading that room (we decided not even to try for that one, but I heard others were able to get in after Carsland), so the line for Vintage Disneyland was wrapped all around the hallways. I was sure we weren’t going to get in, and after about 20 minutes in the foyer, they finally started to load us into the rooms. I asked if we had any chance in getting in and the CM told me that they were not yet “into standby” so we decided to wait it out.

Once we were placed in our location, our scooters were pretty much “locked into place” we were smack in the middle of a row and turning around would have been difficult at best, and then we would have needed to mow down all the people sitting on the ground. Fran decided just to wait there and read her book. I still had to go pick up the artwork she had purchased earlier so I had to hoof it. I can’t believe how much walking that involved! Down three huge floors on the escalators through the show floor…well I’ll spare you the details. I took the package back to the lounge (they had a bag check service and we had a reception after the show closed), and had a drink. Then I headed back to the refrigerator to wait. With the battery on my phone running incredibly low, it was boring, but I managed to keep myself from falling asleep. Around 5:15 they started to load us into the room. This time we didn’t worry about how close we were sitting. We have sat through at least 3 other showings of Vintage Disney footage and really didn’t expect much new. Luckily I was wrong.

When we arrived in the room they were showing random clips on the screen. I will apologize in advance for the blurriness of some of these photos, but all of these were snipped from live action footage, none of these were stills and the film was almost continually rolling, so snapped the pics as often as I could. I didn’t take any notes here, because it didn’t lend itself to that kind of reporting.

So as I mentioned scenes were playing on the screen when we entered the room, so I just started snapping away. I’m not sure where this is, but my guess it that might be the Autopia being built in the background. This could be the lagoon for the 20,000 leagues under the sea.



I love these pictures with Walt, he was always in the park and loved children





Now I know this one is blurry, but notice how the women are all dressed in their Sunday finest, the woman in the auto has a feathered hat and parasol. I’m guessing she is not a character.



This is a famous actress who I’m too young to recognize



I can’t resist a picture of a band and this is the only one where the trombone slides are not completely blurry!



Now the reason I said a few pictures back that the woman couldn’t be a character is that back then they looked like this!







Mr. Toad’s Ride has certainly come a long way!



And who could forget the Mouseketeers



So once they finally got everyone seated and settled down, Tony Baxter came out on the stage.



To present



For the next hour Tony and another gentleman who spent all night gathering the film footage for us entertained us with all sorts of tidbits. The first thing that we watched was a 15 minute “documentary” on the building of Disneyland which was aired in movie houses as a promotional tool prior to the opening of the park. It has one of those stale 1950s narrators telling us all about what we were seeing. I believe these were monkeys for the Jungle Cruise.



And a lion



I’m not sure if you can make this out, but for the natives, they actually made a plaster of paris mold of a man. Only his head was sticking out, this was pretty insane!





These were the train cars being built, and I believe they said that they were actually built by a company who made actual trains somewhere in LA.



And of course the engine



I had thought that they bought the horses from defunct Merry go Rounds, but maybe this is how they were polishing them up.





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[franandaj]

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The Autopia cars





The boats for the Jungle Cruise, all these vehicles were built at different Southern California manufacturing locations.



This would have been amusing to see on the Freeways in 1955. I don’t remember what was inside these crates, but I’m sure it looked funny! For anyone local that is the 101 and that's City Hall in Downtown. The other building in front of it is still there too.



Here is opening Day at Disneyland….for those who were there, kinda reminds you of the lines at the Expo, eh?



Walt preparing to board the train



Can you imagine crowds like this today?





And Frontierland looks so …..Frontierlike!



My how things have changed!





Now Walt was a great businessman. He decided having an Indian Village would be a great idea. So he made them build it!



Here is the Columbia being assembled.



Evidently this guy just loved to climb up into the rigging of the ships, his family business did all the building and maintenance for Disneyland. He had other contracts, but his favorite was when he got to climb around like this. OSHA would have had a field day!



Christening of the Columbia



I think that this is Admiral Joe Fowler who built much of DL and MK, or I could be mistaken. I think he is the one in the foreground, not sure who the military man in the left of the picture is.



And this is the (what do you call this ride? Jeez how quick the memory goes) it used to go through the Matterhorn and started over near Autopia. Both DL and WDW lost their versions of the ride. But evidently it was kept running while the construction was going on. Tony Baxter thought this was hilarious, notice no fences! Disney construction without fences!



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[DisneyFirefly]

That's the Skyway, dear.

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Sketch on how it passes through the Matterhorn



The Matterhorn was built right at the same time they were constructing 20,000 Leagues. In this picture you can see the lagoon for the 20,000 Leaagues with the Matterhorn looming in the background.



The top goes on first



So here they are hoisting one of the cars up onto the track



This guy is going on a test run, but evidently there are no safety ladders to climb up or down if the car gets stuck mid ride! Tony Baxter couldn’t believe this one! Evidently those are some of the first things that they build nowadays!



It’s getting closer to completion



Blurry but the point of this one is that the ride is going right through the construction zone. Unheard of today not only for cosmetic purposes, but safety as well!



Can you believe this one? These guys are just pushing this heavy equipment along the monorail track! Look mom! No net!



And then this guy, “don’t worry I’ll be right over! No worries about this giant lake down here!”



And here they are cutting the ribbon on the Monorail, I’m surprised that they haven’t thrown those scissors away! They never worked right!



Bob Gurr has a really funny story about he kidnapped then Vice President Nixon on a Monorail trip! Thank God the thing didn’t break down on him!



Now this is the construction for the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride.





More of the 20,000 Leagues construction



In this picture you can see the pylons for the Monorail, construction for all three of these attractions was going on concurrently.



These are some of the underwater sculptures



And the track the submarines ride on



Here’s one of the test voyages



And a look at the ???? I have no idea what these are



Here it is triumphantly emerging from the end of the ride.



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[franandaj]

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How many of you are old enough to remember these lovely ladies?





Evidently the day that auditions were held for the Mermaids, EVERY manager felt he needed to be present.









So evidently the flying saucers were a huge hit, but there was something mechanical that didn’t work so good on these so they were removed. We’ll see them again in Carsland as Luigi’s flying tires!



Another favorite ride of yesteryear



Now this is from a tour that Walt was giving of The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, he was evidently so comfortable that he just laid down in the bed and continued the tour!



Here we are outside the Treehouse. This is nostalgic for Californians as it is now Tarzan’s Treehouse





This was a really funny clip because Walt kept going around and around this turnstile like a little kid.



The Tiki room was a huge innovation for the time and even seeing it last week, it still is timeless and delightful (and perfect on super hot day!)



For the opening he had Polynesian dancers come in



Moving on to the World’s Fair, here are some shots of from there.









Evidently this original animatronic Mr Lincoln broke down when Walt was trying to demonstrate him to the sponsors. It took a couple hours, but they got him up and running in time for the opening of the fair. However a day or two into the fair they had to do some quick fixes because his hands wore through his pants since they rubbed against them every time he stood up and down. Imagine how many times he stands up and down in a day worth of shows!



I believe this is an aerial view of the offices at Disneyland and the building which would eventually hold the Primeval World. (one of my favorites at DL) Notice the Monorail in the parking lot.



A teaser for the Dinosaurs, you see they were part of the Ford exhibit at the World’s Fair. People were transported in Ford Mustangs through the USA and then back in time to see the Dinosaurs. They considered bringing the ride to CA, but they would need to buy new Ford Mustangs every year which could get pricey, so instead they just brought the Dinosaurs.



Can you imagine seeing this in the 1960s driving down the Freeway, someone might wonder what they had been smokin’?





So that’s my update for today, but don’t worry! I have plenty more to come, plus for anyone following my Destination D40 trip, I have a fun surprise coming probably in the next update!

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by DisneyFirefly

That's the Skyway, dear.

That's it!

Senior moment!

[DisneyFirefly]

Originally Posted by franandaj

That's it!

Senior moment!

[mvf-m11c]

Very nice photos from the Wonderful World of Vintage of DL. It would have been neat if we got to see and hear about WDW, but it was neat to see the videos of DL.