First trip report dlr & d23 expo 9/9 - 9/13

[mvf-m11c]

This is my first trip report and it was a truly great experience to be there that week at the Disneyland Resort.

Part 1:

It starts on Wednesday morning, leaving from Sacramento to Anaheim. I left my house with my best friend who is a big disney fan around 5am in the morning. It took about 7 hours to get to the Dlr and arrived around noon.

We check-in at HOJO in the NQQ2 room in building 2. The room was on the first floor and it was a nice room with a nice balcony.

Pictures of the NQQ2 Room

After we put all of our stuff in the room, we went to the dlp around 1pm. We spent around 5 hours in the park, and most of the lines on all the rides that were running that day were shorter than normal busy days that i go to. But, it was a short day to be in the park.

Pictures from Disneyland Park & Disney's California Adventure 9-9-09

Engine #3 Fred Gurley with Holliday 5 cars set pulling into NOS

Asian Rice Bowl with Chicken and Spicy Korean Sauce from Lucky Fortune Cookery

World of Color is still under construction

At the viewing area of the World of Color, every worker is gathered around in this area, when i talked to a cm, a construction worker broke his ankle while working.

I got to ride in the Lilly Belle

The FNSV loading dock and got to see Mark VII Orange Monorail

Columbia at dock on Wednesday Night

The next day was the d23 expo. My bf and i left HOJO around 5am in the morning and head over to the anaheim convention center for the d23 expo. When we got there around 530am there were about over 200 people in line to get in (luckily i am a d23 charter member). Around 7am, they started to let the d23 members into the convention center.

D23 Expo Entrance at the Anaheim Convention Center

The first thing we did when we entered was to get to the wrist bands and went to the disney dream store line and get the vouchers for the pins.

Thursday Pins

Luckily, my bf and i got the le disney legends pin and the other vouchers they gave us. They opened the expo around 8am and there was a line to get into the dream store. We bought all our products that interest us and they did not offer alot of products as i thought.

The Dream Store Sign

After the shopping, we went to the d23 arena for the bob iger and legends ceremony. But, we had to wait in a long line right next to the entrance to the arena. We waited around 1 hour in the line. When they start moving the line, they told everyone who is attending the opening and the ceremony, that they have to take out all electronics (cell phones, ipod, etc.) and gave us a ticket for us to get back our electronics.

The Bob Iger opening was so great, but the best part was the 30 min preview of the upcoming movie The Princess and the Frog. After the opening, we took a 10 min break and the start of the legends ceremony. It was great to see the inductee for the disney legends.

When we left the arena, we head over to the walt disney parks and resort pavillion. The first part of the entrance had all the different posters of each ride & show from all the parks around the world. When we went into the pavillion, the entrance had a nice opening that talks about the future of the resorts and parks. When we entered the next room, we got to see 3 different models for the e-ticket ride for Cars Land Radiator Springs Racer. Next, we saw the actual aa of mr lincoln and the suit of obama for the hall of president at the mk in orlando. We got to see a cm working on the programming of the aa of mr lincoln. We also got to see lucky the dinosaur and wall-e. It also showed the gch dvc rooms, a new hawaii resort, and the disney cruise line. They also showed the new three theme land expansions for hong kong disneyland.

We got to see the electrical parade turtle float at the disney technology magic pavillion. They had alot of different booths around the 1st floor of the convention center.

We got to see the wonderful world vintage of disneyland with tony baxter and ed hobelman in the storytellers theater, the line was so long, we were in the middle of the line and just got in.

We almost spent around 7 hours since we got to the d23 expo and went back and forth that day.

When we did everything, we head back to dlp for a few hours. When we were in the park for a few hours, we saw a few people who were attending the expo, just came over for a few hours just like us. Most of the lines were short and did a few rides.

Part 2 soon

 

[mvf-m11c]

Part 2 of the sept 9-13 trip report

On Friday morning, it was another day to get to the d23 expo for the limited series pins and this time it was the theme parks, dvc, dcl, and adventures pins.

During the day at the expo, we attended the disney movie magic: inside the disney studio presentation at the d23 arena and to see the show of making of the world of color in the storytellers theater.

We spend around 6 hours during the day at the convention and seen mostly all the pavillions and booths.

But the best part was seeing the Making of the World of Color by imagineer Steven Davison.

Later during the day, we head back to the hotel and rest up and was heading back to the park during that night. It was around 4pm and we headed over to disneyland.

When we got there, it was the usual busy day after 5pm on a friday. With about 1/5 of the rides are in refurbishment or getting the overlay for halloween, some of the favorite attractions were so long as 30+ mins. INDY was around 55+ in the standard splash mountain at night was around 30+, FNSV was around 30+, Matterhorn was around 35+ in tomorrowland side, Peter pan was around 35+, and autopia was around 30+.

We did IASW and we waited around 20 min, POTC around 10 min, and BTMRR was around 20 min.

We set up our blanket for the 9pm show for f! at the roa around 6:30pm. I mostly never sit by the railings by the roa because i like to video record the show when i attend f!. We were close to the ropes right next to the walkway just behind the f! premium seating right by tower c. For dinner we were hoping to get steak gumbo at royal street veranda, but it was close and we decided to get clam chowder at the harbour galley.

Before the show started, one of the cm waiters from the f! premium seating area tried to get the people sitting in the walkway by the roa to do the wave. It was kind of interesting to see a cm trying to get the people to start one instead of the guests who tries to start one. It was not much of a success, but it is always fun to do the wave while we were waiting for the show. When the first show was starting, when the light towers on the island raised up and flashing, when mickey usually makes his entrance from the island, the timing was way off around 3 sec. and the whole show stopped. Everyone was all confused and we waited around 4 minutes until the show started up again. That was my first time to see a glitch from f!. We watch magical fireworks from our view and we decided to stay and watch the 10:30 f! to see the murphy again.

During the second show of f!, following an appearance by tinkerbell, the water fountains were still going on and showed the flowers from the jungle scene. When the mark twain passed by, the water fountains were still going on with the jungle scene. And when the mark twain left the area, it all went back to normal.

It was kind of weird to see two glitches in the same day for f!.

After the f!, we headed back to our hotel and was ready for another day at the d23 expo.

Part 3 coming soon

 

[LVdisneyChick]

sounds exciting

 

[mvf-m11c]

Part 3 of the sept 9-13 trip report

On Saturday morning, it was another day of getting up early in the morning and headed over to the d23 expo to get in line for the limited series pins. That day pins were 4 the disney artist choice - disney first pins and 7 different from the Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store.

The Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store pins from the D23 Expo

The Disney Artist Choice - Disney Firsts

My bf and i waited around a half an hour until we got in the d23 expo. We went to the Dream Store line to get the limited series pins.

When we got the pins, we headed over to the d23 arena line for the Jay Rasulo presentation. We waited around over an hour for the presentation and luckily we had brought our electronics into the arena. Jay Rasulo announced the expansion for the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, expansions for Hong Kong Disneyland and Star Tours 2.

The D23 Arena Line

The D23 Arena Stage

Storm Troopers storm the Arena and Darth Vader on the Monitor in the D23 Arena

When it was over, everyone attended the d23 arena got a limited edition poster of Star Wars 2 and my bf and i got c3p0 poster while others got darth vader posters.

After the d23 arena, we headed over to the walt disney parks and resorts pavillion to see lucky the dinosaur and wall-e again.

Wall-E

For the last part of the day at the expo we waited around one hour in line at the storytellers theater line for the making of the US presidents when people lined up for the remaking it's a small world for the 21st century. It was great to see Tony baxter and the other imagineers talk about the the updating of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Hall of Presidents.

After the storytellers theater, we headed back over to the hotel. When we got back we threw all our stuff from the expo, we headed over to dlp for the rest of the night. It was around 6pm when we got in, and it was as always busy on a saturday night. Most of the poplular rides were still 30 minutes plus to ride.

We set up camp around 7pm for the 9:00pm f! show and we were right in my favorite spot, right next to the walkway rope right in front of the premium seating by tower c. The show went well and nothing has happened like the other night and Magical fireworks spectacular was always great to watch.

After magical, we headed over to fantasyland and went to ride iasw, my bf wanted to see the new updates of iasw. I believe it was around 15 min for us to get on the ride. After iasw, we headed over to astro blaster and just waited around 15 min.

Then we headed back over to hotel to get ready for another night at the expo.