[post=51387788]Last Installment on the Trip Report[/post]
Day 2 –April 26th, 2014 – Part 1
Shopping Day at the WDI Store in Glendale
Now it was the next day which is the most important day for both of us since it was our shopping and dining day in SoCal. I have been looking forward to this trip ever since we decided to eat at this particular restaurant at the
Disneyland Resort. I have not done everything at the DLR and we wanted to try different restaurants since we haven’t eat at all the restaurants onsite. There must be over 10 different sit down restaurants on-site that we have ate at the resort and we have been trying all different sorts of places where we haven’t eaten before. This will be a very great trip and we will also be having dinner that night with someone else that night. You will have to find out later during the posts (unless you know already) to see where we ate at. Now let’s get back to the trip report where we have the morning.
It was early Saturday morning and we needed to get up early that morning so we can head on over to Glendale which is up north of SoCal. We are going to Glendale that morning in order to go to the Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters. WDI is the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks around the world. There was a special event going on that day at the WDI headquarters where the WDI store is open to the public that day for the D23 Gold and Silver members. It was our first time going to the WDI headquarters in Glendale to go shopping at the WDI store. There were events in the past that the D23 members were able to shop at the WDI store but we have never done that. There were times we were able to shop for WDI products during the D23 Expo event. I was excited to be able to purchase some more WDI products that I missed out during the D23 Expo last year. DAF wasn’t able to shop at the Mickey’s of Glendale store at the D23 Expo last year and she was excited to be able to purchase that day.
We left the Best Western Anaheim Inn around 7am which was really late for us since I wanted to sleep in a little longer and it backfired on us. I should have known better to get up early and don’t show up when the event starts at 8am. We should have left the hotel around 6am or earlier so we don’t have to wait longer to get in the store or some specific items will be purchased before we get to them.
It took about an hour to get from Anaheim to Glendale which traffic was kind of bad that morning in SoCal. Even on a Saturday morning, there is always going to be traffic no matter what. We got to Glendale around 8am and we had to find a parking spot around the WDI headquarters. We had to walk about two blocks away from the entrance to the WDI headquarters since most of the members were there in advance.
Since it was a private site, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. If WDI had no problem with that, I would have gone crazy with the picture taken. They were very strict with photography on site even they told all the people that entered the plaza area outside of the WDI store not to take any pictures. It was a shame but that is the rule. When we were in the plaza area, there were a lot of D23 members waiting to get in the store. We were given wristbands that day and they had numbers on them so when they called out the numbers, we were able to enter the store.
We had to wait a while since we got to the store later that morning and we just sit outside that day. It was a nice day where it wasn’t that cold. We have chatted with other Disney fanatics that day. There was one family that they are locals and have attended Disney events in SoCal and around the U.S. It was nice to be able to talk to other people that day while we were waiting to get in the store.
I did spent some time walking around the plaza until it was time to go shopping and the plaza is very nice and well decorated. I could go on and on about the plaza if I had the opportunity to take pictures that day but I wasn’t. The neatest part of the day while waiting at the plaza was there was an old PeopleMover car and Skyway bucket from the last days of service at Disneyland. It was nice to see a PeopleMover car and Skyway bucket at the Plaza that morning. I actually had to get a picture of this on my iPhone even though we were warned to not take any pictures. But this is one that I had to get that day. There was also a Starbucks Café onsite. Since we don’t drink coffee or any of the other drinks, it was unfortunate that we didn’t get something that day.
We waited until 11am where it was our time to shop at the WDI store. We had to wait three hours that day at the plaza which went really by quickly since I was on the iPad writing up part of the day during the trip and DAF had a book to read.
While we were waiting outside to enter the store since the D23 staff was trying have a few people in there where it won’t be that busy, we saw a familiar face that day. One of the D23 staff members that was outside by the entrance to let the members in to shop is that we have seen her before. When we looked at her name, we can tell that it was guide during the Walt Disney Studios tour back from the May 2013 trip. You can click on this link: [post=48341792]A Day at the Walt Disney Studios and Archives and Disneyland[/post] Here name was Kelly and she was at the front entrance letting the people in the store. We had a nice chat with her and told her that we were in the group during the WDS tour in May 2013. What a small world where we get to see our tour guide from the May 2013 trip. We didn’t speak too long since we were heading in the store.
When we entered the store, it was a little small but not as smaller as the Mickey’s of Glendale store during the D23 Expo event. When we looked at all the different merchandise, most of the merchandise are the same when I shopped during the D23 Expo. I was a little disappointed that most of the merchandise were the same during the D23 Expo. But there were some items that I had the opportunity to buy where I wasn’t able to do that. They had some stuff that I was glad to get where they were out during the D23 Expo. DAF went shopping crazy that day where she found a lot of interesting items to buy that day. She must have spent over $200 that day which doesn’t sound like a lot when shopping that day but I have never seen her spent that much at a
Disney store from the Expo, World of Disney store, etc. She spent more money than me during the shopping at the WDI store. I was a little surprise that she spent more than me that day but since most of the merchandise was the same during the D23 Expo event, I didn’t have to spend that much money. I must have spent about $80 that day from shirts & pins. She bought a jacket that was worth $100, shirts, cups & pins. This was the first time that she spent way more money than me on shopping at a Disney store.
After we finished our shopping at the WDI store, it was around 12:30pm when we left the store. For those 3 hours which we waited to get in that morning, we were in the store for only one and a half hours which doesn’t seem that long for the shopping but most of the items that we have bought at the Expo.
So we head straight on back to Anaheim that afternoon to relax until it was time to go to the parks. We got back to Anaheim around 2pm from Glendale. Since DAF was blocked out that day since she has a DAP, she decided to stay in the room until it was time for dinner that night. I decided to head on over to the parks that day before it was time.
This will be it for this post and stay tune what happened later that day in the parks before dinner.
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