Second All in One Disneyland TR Thread - Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout Review 5/30-6/2

[Wonder2008]

Hi Bret,

Sorry we couldn't meet before the expo. From your trip report it actually sounds like we crossed paths on Wednesday and Thursday without knowing it!

I should clarify our "rough start" on Friday morning. As you know D23 members could buy tickets for themselves and 3 people. So, she was my guest and her ticket said so. That's why we were both upset about being told she had to go to the general line. For the other mornings, yes, she entered with me at 9am.

I was actually sort of upset not having a chance to got to Mickey's of Glendale. But, from your description, I'm not sure I missed much. They had a Mickey's of Glendale at the 2014 Destination D event at WDW, so I got what I wanted there.

The only time we got Stagepasses was right away at 9:00 for the 11am presentations in Stage 23. It worked out just fine for us, but the lines were huge the rest of the day. Then, on Saturday, we tried getting a Stagepass around 12:30 for one of the late day presentations but the line was closed. I have no idea why, but it reopened later.

@franandaj - I thought you weren't going to be at the expo. I would have liked to say "hi".

I'm looking forward to hearing more from your trip!

Hi @Wonder2008, it was nice to meet you in person during the D23 Expo. It would have been better if we got to meet before the Expo but I know that you were enjoying your visit at the DLR.

The parks were not that crowded in my opinion where the queues for the rides are long but not like the heavy summer times or Christmas break. You stayed late that Wednesday night and were able to ride the updated Matterhorn. Glad you were able to see the three new nighttime shows and they are amazing.

You got there late that Friday morning at 7am. I heard from my friend that she got there late and it was a disorganized. I didn't see it that morning but from what she has told me, it was crazy with all those snake like lines outside of the ACC. It felt like the old times with all those snake lines outside the ACC. That was a little surprise to hear that your sister was not allowed to be in the D23 Gold/Silver queue that mornign where she had the regular admission ticket. That was good that you went to the Disney Legends Ceremony that morning just like my aunt. Sorry to hear about the bad start of your day and hope it got better.

 

[franandaj]

Bret, it was great to see you that day. I'm sorry things didn't work out for you as you had hoped. It makes a huge difference when you have to wait in all those lines. Those Sorcerer passes are worth every penny. Hopefully in 2017.

@franandaj - I thought you weren't going to be at the expo. I would have liked to say "hi".

Robert, I would have liked to say "hi" as well. It was a total last minute decision on our part to go. We got CM priced tickets less than three days before. We only went the one day.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Treasure Cove and Adventure Isle are the bits of Shanghai that I'm totally keen to check out. I saw some of the early 3D models of Treasure Cove and it looks absolutely amazing. I just wonder how the Chinese are going to behave in the park. It will be interesting to see if the Disney CM keep some degree of control and decorum with the Chinese people.
The CM in Hong Kong struggle with it.

Great pictures from the expo so far.

Seeing the Shanghai Disney Resort exhibit was great and when DAF got to see the exhibit on Sunday, she says that we should forget going to Tokyo, France, or Hong Kong to see Shanghai Disney Resort first. It will be very interesting how Chinese are going to behave in this new resort.

Thank you PiO.

Again, wow Bret! Thanks for taking the time to post all these pictures! I love the Shanghai stuff but thought - they put Tomorrowland on the wrong side of the castle!!

Love the shirts!

I'm sorry it was so crowded and you didn't get to do everything you wanted to do. So many people! Such long lines for everything. Disney can take a lot of planning!

Thank you Denise. I have taken a lot of pictures at the Expo where I didn't use the 2.8 a lot since everything was all wide angle shots. Shanghai Disney Resort will be amazing.

That was to be expected at the D23 Expo. You got to plan out what you want to do since it requires a lot of planning. The Expo was so crowded that it was tough to walk around and do stuff that I wanted to do. But you have to choose what you want to do and some of them didn't work out as well as I thought.

Hi Bret,

Sorry we couldn't meet before the expo. From your trip report it actually sounds like we crossed paths on Wednesday and Thursday without knowing it!

I should clarify our "rough start" on Friday morning. As you know D23 members could buy tickets for themselves and 3 people. So, she was my guest and her ticket said so. That's why we were both upset about being told she had to go to the general line. For the other mornings, yes, she entered with me at 9am.

I was actually sort of upset not having a chance to got to Mickey's of Glendale. But, from your description, I'm not sure I missed much. They had a Mickey's of Glendale at the 2014 Destination D event at WDW, so I got what I wanted there.

The only time we got Stagepasses was right away at 9:00 for the 11am presentations in Stage 23. It worked out just fine for us, but the lines were huge the rest of the day. Then, on Saturday, we tried getting a Stagepass around 12:30 for one of the late day presentations but the line was closed. I have no idea why, but it reopened later.

@franandaj - I thought you weren't going to be at the expo. I would have liked to say "hi".

I'm looking forward to hearing more from your trip!

It was okay. I know that you were enjoying your time at the DLR before the Expo and I didn't want to take that away from you. There were a few times where we could have cross paths on those days.

It must have been a misunderstanding on that Friday. I would be upset as well since my tickets says that I D23 Gold/Silver member and should be in that queue instead of the general queue.

The new things at the MoG was the Shanghai Disney Resort products which was the highlight of the MoG store. All the other products I have seen from previous Expo's and MoG store in Glendale, CA.

Getting StagePass can be very long and crowded especially with the later day ones at 12:30pm. I was disappointed that i didn't get the 5pm Imagineering 60 Years of Disneyland seminar and I heard that some attendees were able to walk-in at the last second to that seminar. Spending time in those queues would take up a lot of my time at the Expo which I wasn't planning on doing. It was hard when I was the only person doing those things so it did came into play especially with getting food inside the ACC where those lines are long just for food.

Bret, it was great to see you that day. I'm sorry things didn't work out for you as you had hoped. It makes a huge difference when you have to wait in all those lines. Those Sorcerer passes are worth every penny. Hopefully in 2017.

It was great to see you and Fran that day as well and glad that you and Fran were able to buy some stuff at the D23 Expo on Friday. Sometimes things don't go as plan since I made too many mistakes at he Expo. It would have been nice if DAF was with me and it would have gone smoother but since she was seeing those seminars on Friday, it was tough to do things without her. Now we both understand that the Sorcerer passes do make a huge difference. I will wonder what the price of each ticket for the Sorcerer passes will be next year. This years was $2,000 and next years will be something like $2,500. We'll have to think about what the price will be next year and we will decide if it is worth it. DAF is thinking of not going to the next D23 Expo since these last three have been the same and this year's was way more crowded from previous years that she has attended. I say that this year's D23 Expo was way more crowded from past years.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 1

Day 2 D23 Expo Disneyland Archives Part 2​

Now it was the second day of the D23 Expo on Saturday the 14th. After a nice shopping day at the D23 Expo along with a bad finish to the Expo, it was another day for shopping where there were specific pins that I wanted at the Dream Store and also hit the Disney Store that morning. Since I wasn’t able to go to the Disney Store on Friday, it made sense to go to the store after the Dream Store.

That day was the Star Wars items that were available at the Dream Store from the Force Awakens shirts and pins. I was determine to go to that store and get the stuff that morning and go shopping at the Disney Store (if it is not that crowded).

We didn’t get up super early like the other days but we did leave around 5:30am from Best Western Stovall’s to the Anaheim Convention Center. This was going to be a nice day where it shouldn’t be that busy for the show floor since I have heard that a lot of people were staking out since Friday night to see the “Worlds, Galaxies, and Universes: Live Action at the Walt Disney Studios” seminar at Hall D23 at 10:30am. This was the seminar that was going to be bigger over the “Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios: The Upcoming Films, Hosted by John Lasseter”. DAF wasn’t that interested to go to the show floor that morning like I am since she wanted to go to that 10:30am seminar. So we parted ways while she went on over to the queue for the Hall D23 while I went to the show floor queue. Interesting that the show floor queue was actually inside the lobby at the ACC on Hall A & B area while the queue for Hall D23 was back at Hall E area again. It was interesting to see that the queue for the show floor was in the lobby like the first three Expo’s while on Friday it was in Hall E with Hall D23 queue. I wonder why they put the queue back in the lobby instead being in Hall E like Friday.

DAF went on over to the Hall E while I was in the queue for show floor.




I was first outside of the ACC where the alley is but a few minutes, I was now inside the ACC. At least I was inside instead of outside that morning.


There must have been at least over 100+ people in front of me that morning but it wasn’t that bad as I have thought.


So once again, I was waiting in the queue to get in the show floor at 9am that morning. Luckily, I had my folding stool and electronics to keep me occupy until the show floor opens at 9am.

Once again, my neighbor niece was also there for all three days like DAF and I. I was keeping in touch with her where she was during the whole time at the Expo and she told me that she got to the ACC late again around 8am which was late and she told me that she was close to the Arena area and I was surprised to hear that she was back that far. When we got there early that morning, we saw the ground was all taped up and I can tell that was for the people that were trying to get in the show floor and boy it was long.

When it got to 9am, the queue started to move and it was like a maze in the lobby where we were all going around from the end of Hall A to the doors at Hall B.

When I got in, the first thing I do was head on over to the Disney Store first to see what the line was like and there were some people in the queue and it would take some time to go through it.




It did look a little busy that morning but later on it was well worth waiting in since the Dream Store was a walk-in that morning. I am still kicking myself for not going in the Disney Store that morning.

After passing by the Disney Store, I head on over towards the Dream Store.


When I got to the Dream Store, it was a walk-in that morning. Completely different from Friday where I had to wait a while and it was well worth it.


In the Dream Store, there were certain merchandise that were not available on Friday like the Star Wars products like the shirts and pins. I planned on getting some shirts and pins that were not available at the Dream Store along with getting more D23 Expo merchandise that I missed on Friday.






After checking out of the Dream Store, I was right by the StagePass and StorePass queue and I took a chance and went on in the StorePass queue to get a StorePass for the Disney Store. This was a huge risk of spending some of my time at the StorePass queue to get it since I might not get one but I wasn’t thinking clearly that morning.


I was in the queue for almost 15 minutes and it was announced that all the StorePass for the Disney Store and MoG were all sold out. There were Dream Store StorePass available but I already went in the store just a while ago. I made a huge mistake that morning by taking a chance and get a StorePass for the Disney Store.

This is where the StorePass was a huge failure during the D23 Expo in my opinion where there are a lot of problems with this years’ Expo compare to past years. The StorePass is a great idea but the problem is that there is a certain window where they are available during the morning. After the first hour, they were all gone. No matter what with the StorePass, attendees will always go in the stores and wait hours just to get the merchandise that they want.

After getting out of the StorePass queue, I head on over to the StagePass queue to get the 11am Disney on Broadway: Originals seminar. It was available when the show floor opened that morning. The big screen shows what times the seminars for Stage 23 & Stage 28.


StagePass Guidelines sign


I got my StagePass for the Disney on Broadway: “The Originals” that morning where it is a collector item. I didn’t go see that seminar since I was doing other things that morning.


After getting the StagePass, I head on over to the Disney Store to see what the wait time was like and for my fear, the queue was already so long that the staff told me that it will be at least an hour or longer to go through. So once again, I made a huge mistake with the Dream Store and StorePass that morning where I could have gone in the Disney Store and get some things that I have heard are at that store.

The show floor started to get a little busy that morning.


When I left the Disney Store, there was something else that I wanted to see so badly at the Expo which was the Disneyland Archives which was close to the Dream Store which was in Hall A. This is like a true Disneyland fan where to see rare artifacts of Disneyland history.


I did have to wait in a queue for a while which was around 10 minutes which wasn’t that long but I wanted to see the Disneyland Archives during the Expo. I originally thought that there would be no picture taking at the archives but the CM’s told the attendees that flash and video recording is not allowed. So this was perfect for me to take pictures inside the Archives.


I was now inside the Disneyland Archives and looking at all the Disneyland artifacts & pictures.

I almost took over 300 pictures inside the Archives alone during that time.

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[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 2

Day 2 D23 Expo Disneyland Archives Part 2
​

Constructing a Dream








A reproduction of Herb Ryman original layout of Disneyland. I was able to see the original Herb Ryman Disneyland pencil drawing during the 2013 D23 Expo. While this was a reproduction of the original one, it is nice to see a one that was close to the real one.




I remember at the D23 Expo in 2013 that there was a dark room which had original artwork and sketches of early versions of Disneyland that we see on the documentary. Even though it wasn’t the original ones like at the 2013 Expo, it was nice to see reproduction of the one’s at the archives.

The queue to get into the archives gotten quite long that day.


The one item that I thought was the best and highlight of the archives was the first admission ticket to Disneyland which was purchased by Roy O. Disney.






There were a lot of pictures of Disneyland opening day in 1955.


More relics and memo from the 1955 opening.






Mouseketeers costumes worn by Annette Funicello and Cubby O’Brien 1955




Mickey Mouse Club Circus






Pirates of the Caribbean head and figures.

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[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 3

Day 2 D23 Expo Disneyland Archives Part 3​

Alice in Wonderland mockup ride vehicle






The caterpillar vehicle like we see today for the AiW ride at Disneyland.


Country Bear Jamboree from the former Bear Country


Oscar figure






There were also Club 33 relics as well before the 2014 renovation to the restaurant. I was lucky to go in Club 33 before the renovation in 2013 and it was neat to see some of the stuff that used to be in there.










Golden Horseshoe Revue that was worn by Betty Taylor






Jungle Cruise Cambodian Temple Ruins model


A model of the Congo Queen


Popcorn Wagon #4 from Main Street, U.S.A’s Central Plaza in 1957




Standard-Harvard Metal Typer used to personalized circular tokens at the Disneyland Penny Arcade




There was also a miniature model of Robert Olszeski work of Main Street on display.

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[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 4

Day 2 D23 Expo Disneyland Archives Part 4​

More Disneyland artifacts from the archives at the D23 Expo.






Character Merchandise












Star Tours sign that was from the original Star Tour


RX-24 nickname Rex figure from the original Star Tour before it was updated.




Fantasyland Autopia attraction vehicle Mark VII car, 1967. There were two types of Autopia one of them was at Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.


Peter Pan Pirate Ship ride vehicle. It wasn’t too long ago when DL updated Peter Pan’s Flight at Disneyland including the original bed scene of Wendy, John and Michael.




There was also the last Matterhorn Bobsled cars which can carry four people in each car and the old Abominable Snowman


Do I miss those old bobsled ride vehicles which are way more comfortable than the new ones at DL today. From 1978-2011.


The Abominable Snowman looks great.


Monsanto House of the Future




Adventure Thru Inner Space


America Sings items

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[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 5

Day 2 D23 Expo Disneyland Archives Part 5​

Mickey Mouse Coat & Vest Worn prior to 1973 and Mickey Mouse Coat & Vest during DL 50th Anniversary


The Osmond Brothers






Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride attraction vehicle




Tribal drummer costume from “the Lion King Celebration”


I know that you would like this part of the Disneyland Archives @Sherry E. These are costumes from the Christmas parades

Snowflake costume 1994


1971 Reindeer costume


A model of the Santa Claus Finale float model. It was designed by Brian Sandahl 2005.


Costume art of the Snowflake from Fantasy on Parade


Disneyland Candlelight Procession and Ceremony cards.


America on Parade






The Tinker Bell float model. Disney Electrical Parade 2009.




Fantasmic! World Premier items




Soldier costume “The Mulan parade, American Parade Ben Franklin costume and Bandleader uniform


Cheshire Cat float from the Main Street Electrical Parade 1983


Pictures of famous celebrities that have visited the DLR.


V.I.P. itinerary of Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev

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[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 6

Day 2 D23 Expo Disneyland Archives Part 6​

Costumes from Fantasmic! Monkeys from 1992




Maleficent costume from 1992


One of the items that I enjoyed the most along with the ticket is the original Maleficent dragon head from Fantasmic!. I remember this had of the old F! before DL added the full body dragon back in 2009 during Summertastic.






Disneyland 50th Anniversary brooches


Special attraction guidebooks


Disneyland Entrance and Attraction Tickets




Cast Member name tags






Cast Member costumes from over the years.


















I must have been there at least over an hour to two inside the Disneyland Archives that morning to the afternoon where there are a lot of cool artifacts of Disneyland history.

That is it for this part and stay tune of what I have done next at the D23 Expo.

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[Sherry E]

That reindeer from 1971 doesn't look too different from the reindeer in the parade in the early '90s!

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's a LOT of pictures from the Expo, Bret. Thanks for taking the time to take them all so that we can enjoy them. I've enjoyed looking at all the memorabilia!

What a shame about not going into the Disney Store in the morning. Sounds like the Stage Passes go the way of paper fast passes! Real quick.

 

[dhorner233]

Love all the Archives pictures Bret! So interesting! Thanks for posting so we can all see everything. Love the dragon's head! And the Alice. So many interesting things!

 

[Wonder2008]

You obviously enjoyed the Archives exhibit! We were there only on Friday, at the very end of the day. I wish we could have spent a little more time in there. Roy Disney's admission ticket was a highlight for me as well. It's amazing that he had the foresight to save it! I really liked seeing Mickey's outfit from the 50th anniversary. That was my first time at Disneyland, and my sister and I have a great picture of us and Mickey wearing that.

That was interesting to get a Stagepass as a souvenir. We actually went to that concert in Stage 23 and it was definitely a highlight of the expo for us.

Thanks for sharing all of this with us!

 

[mvf-m11c]

That reindeer from 1971 doesn't look too different from the reindeer in the parade in the early '90s!

When I looked at the reindeer, I thought it didn't look any different from the early days of A Christmas Fantasy parade. I have to look at my pictures from those times.

That's a LOT of pictures from the Expo, Bret. Thanks for taking the time to take them all so that we can enjoy them. I've enjoyed looking at all the memorabilia!

What a shame about not going into the Disney Store in the morning. Sounds like the Stage Passes go the way of paper fast passes! Real quick.

I took over 2000 pictures from the Expo which doesn't sound a lot but most of them were at the seminars and Disneyland Archives. Glad that you are enjoying all the pictures from the expo.

I should have thought carefully of going to the Disney Store first thing and go to the Dream Store later that morning so I can get all the stuff that i wanted. I just didn't plan my day that well. The StagePass is like the paper FP's at DL and which gets you in that seminar no matter what unless you show up very late. The StorePass which was the worst where they were all gone before 10am.

Love all the Archives pictures Bret! So interesting! Thanks for posting so we can all see everything. Love the dragon's head! And the Alice. So many interesting things!

Thank you Denise. It was neat to see Maleficent Dragon head from the original Fantasmic! when it debut in the early 90s and now it is replaced with the full body dragon. There were so many interesting things to see at the Disneyland Archives where you could spend at least an hour in the Archives of seeing all the treasure items from DL history.

You obviously enjoyed the Archives exhibit! We were there only on Friday, at the very end of the day. I wish we could have spent a little more time in there. Roy Disney's admission ticket was a highlight for me as well. It's amazing that he had the foresight to save it! I really liked seeing Mickey's outfit from the 50th anniversary. That was my first time at Disneyland, and my sister and I have a great picture of us and Mickey wearing that.

That was interesting to get a Stagepass as a souvenir. We actually went to that concert in Stage 23 and it was definitely a highlight of the expo for us.

Thanks for sharing all of this with us!

The Archives was very interesting and glad that I went in since I am a huge DLR fan. That was nice that you were able to go to the Archives on Friday at the end of the day. The Roy Disney admission ticket was by far the highlight of the Archives.

I like to get FP's or StagePass/StorePass as souvenirs which the FP's are about to be extinct when FP+ comes to all the Disney Parks which the DLR still uses it while WDW uses FP+. It will be interesting to try out the FP+ when I go next month to WDW. Glad to hear that the Stage 23 concert was the highlight of the Expo for you two.

Your welcome.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 7

Day 2 D23 Expo Waiting Game and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Seminar Part 1​

After spending some time at the Disneyland Archives, it was close to 11:30am and I was thinking of what to do that afternoon at the Expo. I have been thinking of trying to go and see some of the vendors around the Expo but DAF told me to get a spot for the 3pm Walt Disney Parks and Resorts seminar at Hall D23. DAF was in Hall D23 for the 10:30am Worlds, Galaxies, and Universes: Live Action at the Walt Disney Studios seminar which ended at 12:30pm. It was a 3 hour wait which didn’t seem like it would be worth it but after not getting a StagePass for the 5pm Imagineering 60th Years at Disneyland on Friday, I made sure that I was going to be at that seminar along with DAF which she will join me in the waiting queue.

I head on over to the Hall D23 queue which is Hall E on the bottom level where DAF and I where we were in the queue for Friday and for DAF that morning. It was smart planning on D23 to have Hall E as a queue for Hall D23 which it would take up a lot of show floor in Hall A, B, & C.

There were a lot of interesting vendors to go through that afternoon but that was not my priority.








When I got to the other side of the Convention Center, there were a lot of different signs to tell the guests where to line up for the Hall D23 seminars. This is a big improvement from previous years where there were no signs to tell us where to go.


When I made it to the area to the queue for Hall D23, the D23 staff told all the people that the queue for Hall D23 was outside. I was surprised that it was outside and wonder how long it would be. But it was just an extended queue until we were led inside Hall E queue. Good thing that this wasn’t the queue for that seminar. Especially it was hot that afternoon.


I spent some time outside until I was inside Hall E.


When I got in Hall E, I had three choices of where to see the seminar. At first, I was considering B which is the best one but there were at least four lines in the B seating area and two in the A seating area. SO I decided to choose C seating area since it was just in the first line. So we were able to get some good seats for that seminar.


As you can tell from the queue which wasn’t that bad but I could have got B or C but the first row looks good.


So for the next three hours, I waited in Hall E queue until it was time for the 3pm seminar. I was kept occupied with my electronics that afternoon which helped kill the time.

Around after 1pm, DAF got out of Hall D23 from the Worlds, Galaxies, and Universes: Live Action at the Walt Disney Studios seminar. She was excited that she was able to go to that seminar that morning where it was full that morning.

We got there early Saturday morning where she went straight to that queue and was able to get a seat that morning. She told me that there were a lot of people that didn’t get in which was a big seminar and the most popular.

She told me a lot of things that were announced during that seminar from the movies and the first news of Star Wars Land at DHS and DL. It was a shame that she told me that but it was big news to hear that Star Wars Land will be coming to DL and DHS in the near future. She also got a Star Wars VII The Force Awakens poster for attending that seminar. She was excited to get a poster for waiting those long hours. She was not happy where she didn’t get anything on the first day for the WD/Pixar seminar and to be able to get a poster that day helped her day out.

Just about an hour until the seminar started, the queue started to get quite busy but not that super busy like those other seminars.


About half an hour until we were about to go inside Hall D23, @Wonder2008 was able to find me in the queue. It was nice to be able to meet him in person and we had a nice chat and talked about the days at the Expo.

After waiting for almost 3 hours, the queue started to move and we were moved to Hall D23. When we got in, I was not that happy with the layout of Hall D23 where it was all wide and you will not be able to see the people on stage which is hard. But it does make sense to have this much space over the D23 Arena which was used for the first three Expo’s.


I was not happy with the location of where we were seating but what can you do and you can’t ask the D23 staff to move to a nice spot so I can take pictures during the seminar. Good thing that I had the 2.8 with me for taking pictures.


Before the seminar started, there were all sorts of questions until the seminar started.


Now it was time for the 3pm Walt Disney Parks and Resorts seminar and the host Bob Chapek Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.




For the first part, he was talking about Disneyland 60th Diamond Celebration with all the new additions of Paint the Night parade, Disneyland Forever fireworks and World of Color – Celebrate. Especially Paint the Night parade which was inspired by the Main Street Electrical Parade.

It was announced during the Worlds, Galaxies, and Universes: Live Action at the Walt Disney Studios seminar that morning that Bob Iger announced that Star Wars Land was coming to the Disney Parks and Bob Chapek confirmed that Star Wars Land will be coming to Disneyland and Disney Hollywood Studios. There is no timetable when it will debut or when construction will begin. But from we have heard that DL will start sometime early next year.

Art work of star War Land when Bob was talking about it.










He announced that you are able to fly a mission on the Millenium Falcon

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[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 8

Day 2 D23 Expo Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Seminar 2​

Scott Trowbridge Portfolio Creative Executive was talking about his love of Star Wars and talking about Star Wars Land at DL and DHS.


Scott announced for Star Tours – The Adventures Continue will get a new update later this year when the new movie The Force Awakens debut this December. The Jedi Training Academy will also get new updates as well.

Later this year, Star Wars Launch Bay will be at DL at the former Innoventions building which has been closed for some time this year. A new location which is all about Star Wars.


In early 2016, Disney will be launching a limited seasonal event at DL and WDW which will be called Star Wars Season of the Force in Anaheim off the popular Star Wars Weekend at WDW. This event is to beef up the Star Wars experience like at WDW Star Wars Weekend. With character experience, limited time food, drinks and merchandise. And some great new experiences at DL.




Bob announced that during Star Wars Season of the Force, there will be a new version of Space Mountain called “Hyper Space Mountain”. This was very neat to hear that this will be a third version of Space Mountain after the original one and Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy during the Halloween season at DL. There will be new projections and enhanced soundtrack for the ride which will make the experience like no other.


DHS will have a new nighttime firework show for Star Wars Season of the Force


These next few months, Star Wars will be making headlines at the Disney Parks later this year and next year with Star Wars Season of the Force. Can’t wait till Launch Bay is open at DL and Season of the Force next year.

Bob Chapek made his way back to the stage and talked about WDW next with some new addition like the world of Arendelle to the Norway pavilion at Epcot and talked about the new Star Wars Land at DHS, he also announced that DHS will have a new land called Toy Story Land.


Kathy Mangum Portfolio Creative Executive made an appearance and talked about all the new additions to WDW.


She talked about the new land at DHS in the near future at DHS. She talked about the story of Toy Story which made Toy Story Land a reality at DHS. There will be two new attractions at Toy Story Land that will be exclusive at DHS. One will be a little Green Alien flying saucer spinning ride and the other one is a family coaster of Slinky Dog.


She showed us a video of what the roller coaster will be like.


Also she announced for Toy Story Midway Mania will be adding another track which will help reduce the wait time for TSMM.

She now talked about Epcot which a new attraction will be added called “Frozen Ever After” in the Norway pavilion which will replace Maelstrom.






Sven


The Norway is getting an expansion which will be called “The Royal Summerhouse”




Bob came back and now talked about Animal Kingdom. He talked the new Pandora – The World of Avatar. There was a stand that talked about Pandora – The World of Avatar at AK and showed a model of it which I haven’t seen it during those two days but I was able to see it on the last day which you will see later on during the trip report.


Joe Rohde the lead creator of Animal Kingdom talked about the newest land for AK. He also talked about AK going to have extended hours towards the nighttime which AK closes before the sunsets at AK so it was neat that the park will be going during nighttime.


He also announced that Kilimanjaro Safari will get an extended version to experience. That includes adding two new animals like the African Wild Dogs and Hyenas.

He also talked about the new nighttime show “Rivers of Light” that will take place on Discovery River. This will be like a new version of World of Color at Disney California Adventure and talked about the creation of this show.


They talked about Pandora – The World of Avatar. They talked about the movie on how the land was made a reality.


Made a special appearance that talks about Pandora – The World of Avatar are the producer of the movie Avatar are James Cameron and Jon Landau.


They talked about the new land Pandora - The World of Avatar and some new attractions. One of them is called the “Flight of Passage” which guests will soar on a Banshee over the alien World. The other ride is a water based ride through the spectacles of Pandora.

It was very interesting to hear from James and Jon about Pandora – The World of Avatar.

Continue to the Next Post​

 

[mvf-m11c]

Last Installment on the Trip Report

Day 4 – August 14th, 2015 – Part 9

Day 2 D23 Expo Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Seminar 3​

Bob Chapek came back out and talked about that Tokyo Disney Resort a 10 year 500 billion yen expansion plan. Tokyo Disneyland Park will get a redevelop Fantasyland which will double the size of the themed land which will have the stories of Beauty and the Beast and Alice in Wonderland. For Tokyo DisneySea Park, the new eighth themed port will be developed in the expansion site located south of Lost River Delta which will be a Scandinavia with a portion of the area themed from the movie “Frozen”.

He also talked about Disneyland Paris which will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2017.


Than he talked about Hong Kong Disneyland which will celebrate its 10th Anniversary this month. Bob talked about the newest hotel at HKDL which is called Disney Explorers Lodge.


He then talked about the Iron Man Experience which is the first ever attraction at a Disney Park.


Ted Robledo was the one that talked about the new Iron Man Experience and showed a never seen video of the ride experience of Iron Man Experience. Stark Expo is going to open in 2016 at HKDL which will be in Tomorrowland.

Stark Expo








The “Iron Wing” which is like a new version of the Starspeeder 1000 of Star Tours will be the ride vehicle for Iron Man Experience ride.






Ted showed all the attendees a first look at the action of Iron Man Experience


Later on, made an appearance was the creator of Marvel Stan Lee was there. I have seen Stan Lee at all these different Comic Con events and it was neat that he was here at the D23 Expo talking about some of his work.


D23 also showed some video of the Marvel movies that he was in which was neat to see all the different movies that he was in.

Then made a special appearance was Iron Man himself.


Bob now talked about Shanghai Disney Resort which will open next year in 2016. There was a big show floor of Shanghai Disney Resort which told us everything about it. When I was at the exhibit, there were new lands that I wrote on my previous posts from the Shanghai Disney Resort exhibit

Bob Weiss the leading WDI for the Shanghai Disney Resort project made an appearance.


He talked about the new park from all the new lands, rides, and experience different from the other Disney Parks.




There was a special video of Pirates of the Caribbean program for the ride.


Bob Weiss talked about the new TRON theme roller coaster which will be one of the fastest rides at any Disney Parks which will be based on the TRON Theme bikes. Adventure Isle is a new land that will be a counterpart to Adventureland. The land is focused around the lost world of Roaring Mountain which will be a ride called roaring Rapids. The new castle which will be the tallest out of all the Disney Parks will be called “Enchanted Storybook Castle that will feature an underground boat ride.

Bob Chapek came back out and made an announcement that Soarin Over the World will make its debut at DCA and Epcot next year. Even though it was exciting news to hear that Soarin Over the World is coming to Soarin but it doesn’t make sense to put it at DCA where Over the World does not fit the DCA theme which it will fit at Epcot. Even after the renovation to Soarin at DCA this year, it didn’t make any sense. But what do I know.

To finish the seminar, CM’s perform a special “Kiss Goodnight” song which is the one of Disneyland 60th Diamond Celebration songs which is at the end of Disneyland Forever fireworks. The CM’s were singing all different sort of Disney nighttime show songs from Wishes, Fantasmic, WoC, WoC – Celebrate, Disney Dreams! from DLP, Once Upon a time from Tokyo Disneyland, Illuminations, Disneyland Forever, Paint the Night parade.






There were a lot of great news to hear from the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts seminar that afternoon from Star Wars Land, new lands at the Disney Parks, Shanghai Disney Resort, etc. A lot of news is what I have heard and read before the Expo while the Star Wars Land was a new one. I knew that Star Wars Land was coming but didn’t know where it will be located. DAF had a fun time seeing that seminar but she loved the earlier seminar over this one.

We waited until it was easy to walk on out.


We walked on out and we were heading on over to Hall C area on the backside where the D23 Expo Emporium area was located.


We decided to go back to the room since we didn’t have lunch/dinner that afternoon since we have been in those lines for the shopping or seminars. This shows how difficult it was when the two of us are separated and the lines for those food stands were so busy that it wasn’t worth spending part of the day at the Expo in. It would have been easier if we were together but I didn’t want to take away DAF time at the D23 Expo.


We got out of the Convention Center around 5pm which there was two hours to go and we looked at doing other things like the Disneyland Archives while walking on out of the show floor but the lines were so long that DAF didn’t want to wait that long. So we just decided to walk out and call it for the Expo.

Once again, I didn’t plan really well for that day at the D23 Expo for the shopping but I was glad that I was able to go in the Disneyland Archives and see the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts seminar at 3pm with DAF. DAF was glad that she went to the 10:30am seminar which talked about the upcoming Lucas/Marvel films.

When we got back to our hotel, we were tired and wanted to have dinner that night. So for dinner, we went to Coco’s which is right next door to BW Stovall’s so it was a quick restaurant place to eat.

After dinner, we were considering calling it and just rest at the hotel, but I had other plans that night. So stay tune on the next update of what we have done that night.

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[Wonder2008]

I knew you'd have a great Parks/Resorts recap! Thanks for mentioning me, and it was nice to (quickly) see you.

My thoughts: Toy Story Land will be a great addition to Hollywood Studios. I'm looking forward to that. Frozen at Norway, not so sure yet. Animal Kingdom's new nighttime show will be great - I know it will be! I've never seen Avatar, nor am I interested in it, but I'm interested in the new land. I was probably the only person in that room who thought all the Marvel stuff was completely unnecessary. I have to agree with you about Soarin' - it makes perfect sense at Epcot, but not California Adventure. I thought the finale performance was spectacular! You probably already know this, but Richard Sherman and Ashley Brown came out during the Disney Legends ceremony on Friday and she sang "A Kiss Goodnight" - another fantastic performance!

I had the chance to see Joe Rohde years ago, but I've never been to a presentation of his. He speaks with such enthusiasm about his projects. And, I couldn't help but notice that his microphone picked up the sound of his earring jingling!

Thanks again for putting all this together.

 

[dhorner233]

Great update as always Bret! Loved seeing the art work of all the coming attractions! That Joe Rhode is SO passionate! and his earrings are SO big

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great recap and pictures.

I think all the expansion plans are amazing. Without a doubt, it'll be an exciting couple of years ahead for Disney.