D23 2019 UPDATE 3/9 This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end.

[dolewhipdreams]

Okay you're making me want to go to D23 SO BAD. Can I be one of your aforementioned friends?? I will buy things for you and wait in line just take me with you!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

After our photo shoot I decided to get in the standby line for the Broadway signing. I was about 50 or so people back. Stephanie was in another standby line for Jim Shore and we were talking and making each other more nervous about making it to the meet and greet. Stephanie was talking to people in her line and we were sharing info on whether we thought we'd make it or not. At this point, Sonia was out of Mickey's of Glendale and was scoping out the line for Disney+. At this point it filled almost the entire outer hallway of the convention center leading to the basement. We all freaked and I ditched the Broadway line. This was probably a very good choice, Stephanie later told us that no one from the Broadway standby line got to go. Stupid talent passes. Even after all this time I want to rant about that situation. The stated rules on the passes said to arrive 5 minutes before or else you wouldn't be able to enter the line. However, in this situation they kept letting people enter way past that 5 minute before window. So no wonder none of the standby got to go.

So we were line for Disney+ at about 10:45. We had 5 of us in total, Brian, me, Sonia, our friend from above Emily and our other friend Lori.

One funny thing that happened while we were waiting: we saw the food truck parade! They must have had them all lined up somewhere and then had them all drive slowly in together in one long line.





They held us upstairs for a really long time and then they finally let us down the escalator in groups. We were nervous the whole time and thought the line was huge, but once we got downstairs we ended up in the front row for gold pass A section.



A section was the extreme right looking at the stage, B section was center, and C was extreme left.

Gold D23 members and their guests had the first 6 taped off rows in line.

Stage pass had the next 12 taped off rows.

And the standby had the final 6 taped off rows.

I believe those percentages are correct, unless my memory lets me down. I do know that the pass had the majority of the queues by twice as many as the others.

We were all very relieved when the volunteers came by and let us know that as long as we had our wristbands on, we could come and go from the basement.

Brian and I had actually managed to get a stage pass for the Music and Sounds of Galaxy's Edge, but we didn't think it was fair to go watch that while our friends waited and didn't get to go. That was 12:30-1:30. So we missed that to wait for Disney+. We also missed Vader Immortal from 2-3. And we didn't meet Anthony Gonzalez, I passed off my badge to Stephanie and she got autographs for both of us.

So, you might be asking yourself, why is she waiting in line since 10:45 for a panel that is at 3:30? And missing so many fun other things?

Well, this was the first year they'd done these stupid stage passes this way. Even though we were promised there would be standby, we didn't know if we could trust D23. You see how well standby worked with the Broadway meet and greet. Disney+ was our absolute number one must see panel because of The Mandalorian. If things had worked the same way as 2017, I would have had a better idea of when we needed to line up. We also knew that everyone else online who hadn't got a pass was freaking out, so we wanted to be safe rather than sorry. Which is why we spent almost our entire day one in line for one panel.

We did take turns going outside to the food trucks for lunch. It was so nice this year, the food trucks were within the security line. In 2017 you had to reenter through security if you wanted to go to a food truck.

Brian and I went up together and got a quick picture in front of the sign in front of the convention center:





All the trucks were lined up.



They also had a guy painting a mural of the D23 logo all 3 days of the convention, so you could follow his progress.



Brian waited in line for our food while I went to the Amazon prize truck. Today was Star Wars day and I spun the wheel and got a Star Wars pin.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Food in hand, we re-entered and headed back to the basement.





We got our food from an Indian food truck which was delicious. Much better than the food they served in the indoor convention food stands. The price was very reasonable too.





This was our entrance to the Hall D23, so we stared at this for the next several hours as we waited.




The wait wasn't really that bad. We had good friends with us and chatted and ran around the basement looking for other people we knew as well.

I just really wish we hadn't felt the need to spend so much of the day waiting to ensure our spots.

They finally started loading us in around 2:45. Being in the front row, we were loaded very quickly and ended up about three rows back off to one side. The seats were actually pretty good. We had a very excitable young boy behind us who chatted with us about what we were all excited about before it started.



We got to keep out our phones for this panel.



Here's a shot that might show the size of the arena a bit:



Still doesn't do it justice, that place is huge. But still, people line up early so it doesn't seat as many people as would like to see it.

Finally...it was time to begin!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Okay you're making me want to go to D23 SO BAD. Can I be one of your aforementioned friends?? I will buy things for you and wait in line just take me with you!

Brian has sworn off future d23 expos because of all the unfair crap they pulled with the passes. Really, I have too, but I'm pretty excitable and could be convinced.

Could always leave the boys behind and do a girls trip. I think @soniam would probably go again. My other friend Emily would as well. And most likely Lori is going again too.

 

[soniam]

Brian has sworn off future d23 expos because of all the unfair crap they pulled with the passes. Really, I have too, but I'm pretty excitable and could be convinced.

Could always leave the boys behind and do a girls trip. I think @soniam would probably go again. My other friend Emily would as well. And most likely Lori is going again too.

I'm a sucker and will most likely go again. Not having been before, the waiting didn't bother me so much. I actually had a good time. Also, I am not big into the signings or any of the stores, except Mickey's of Glendale. I also wasn't too upset to not get into the Studios panel, because I hate previews and spoilers. Plus, it forces me to get out to Disneyland.

I wish I had gone to the gold member lounge after MOG. There was no line then. The line the rest of the weekend was 1-3 hours. I really wanted that darn pressed penny. I could care less about any of the other stuff in the lounge. I don't remember what I ate, but I remember everything I got from the food trucks was good.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Brian has sworn off future d23 expos because of all the unfair crap they pulled with the passes.

Was this the first year they did that? Do you think there's enough backlash that maybe they won't do it again?

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I'm a sucker and will most likely go again. Not having been before, the waiting didn't bother me so much. I actually had a good time. Also, I am not big into the signings or any of the stores, except Mickey's of Glendale. I also wasn't too upset to not get into the Studios panel, because I hate previews and spoilers. Plus, it forces me to get out to Disneyland.

I wish I had gone to the gold member lounge after MOG. There was no line then. The line the rest of the weekend was 1-3 hours. I really wanted that darn pressed penny. I could care less about any of the other stuff in the lounge. I don't remember what I ate, but I remember everything I got from the food trucks was good.

We all have our white whales hahahaha.

Having the food trucks so accessible was a massive improvement over 2017's food.

Was this the first year they did that? Do you think there's enough backlash that maybe they won't do it again?

This was the first time they did it. I have no idea if they'll do it again or not. I did write a scathing email to the President of D23, which he rudely never acknowledged.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It was the time we'd been waiting for!

The panel opened with a live performance from the new High School Musical cast signing 'We're All in this Together'. There was confetti and dancers and everything. I think they kind of missed the mark with their audience, though. Not that many were very enthused. The performance was good though.

Yvette Nicole Brown was the host and she was fantastic! She kept the energy very high and had a good rapport with all the guests.

I'm not going to go thru everything that was said at the panel, but I'll list my highlights.

I really liked the Marvel portion where we heard about some of the new TV shows coming to Disney+.

The whole crowd went crazy when Agent Carter (Haley Atwell) came out. I can't wait for her new show, it's animated but it's basically a what if Agent Carter got Cap's powers instead.



WandaVision looked like a super interesting story. The trailer was a Leave it to Beaver type with flashes of a bad future in between all the happy couple time.



I was just not in a good spot for pictures with the lighting. But they brought the main Lady and the Tramp dogs out. Yvette told us all the dogs in the movie were rescues and she'd taken one of Lady's doubles home after filming.



Star Wars!



Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk were really funny together when they talked about the Rogue One TV prequel show.



Mandalorian time! You can see Dave Filoni here in his trademark hat (just like Brian's). Surprisingly, he wasn't wearing his usual wolf or Pittsburgh Penguins t-shirt.



And the entire cast:



My new hero:





The absolute best part was when they brought out Ewan Macgregor at the end to announce the Obi Wan tv show. They must not have planned it out very well though, they didn't have him say 'hello there'.



I'm glad they decided to end with Star Wars and the Obi Wan announcement. It was a real high note.

I do think they focused a bit too much on the shows aimed at younger viewers. The audience mostly skewed older adults, so we didn't care too much about the shows for younger people. An exception with the Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made movie, that looks amazingly hilarious.

We got to see so many stars though, Anna Kendrick, Jeff Goldblum and Kristen Bell were there too to promote their movie/tv show.

The panel did end up running until around 5:45, so there was no chance to see the Swiss Family Treehouse panel.

I'm glad that we saw that, but I'm still salty that we had to skip almost the entire expo day to save our spots.

The people who had passes got to casually walk up an hour to two hours before and had great seats.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Our parting gifts for the panel were an I Heart You 3,000 pin from the Marvel promotion, and a Disney+ hat.

The expo was open for another 45 minutes and we didn't have another panel to see so Brian and I walked the floor and looked at some of the pavilions.

The Disney Animation pavilion just had a couple photo ops. Unless you had a pass for a signing or a giveaway (yes, even all the giveaways were taken up with passes, we saw people leaving that had huge clear plastic bags that had every single giveaway from the day like signed posters, signed lithographs, pixar balls, pins, things like that. There was no limit on the number of giveaway tickets you could get, so the first people into the system took one of each).





Next up was the Parks pavilion. Their displays were centered on the new Avengers Campus for DL and Epcot.















And my favorite display: giant food promoting the Pim Micro Brewery.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I love models:



I think this is the model that made it into the Epcot show display that's going on now in the park.



I really wish they sold these fantastic posters. So beautiful. My favorite is the black Epcot one with Spaceship Earth.









The model of the Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway ride vehicle.



The Tron cast member costumes and ride vehicle.



We saw Ryno from Dis Unplugged in here and chatted with him for a while.

The expo was about to close so we headed out and stopped by in the Nat Geo pavilion before we left. They were handing out magazines at the entrance and they had a big room that had screens with ocean scenes all around you. It was kind of underwhelming.



And here is a picture of our swag from the Disney+ panel:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We had originally planned to go back to the hotel after the con closed. However, our CM friend had gate passes and said we should all go in for a few hours. No one is going to say not to that, so off we went!

We split up to grab food from different counter services and met up at the Tropical Hideaway. Brian and I had corn dogs that we mobile ordered from Stage Door.





After we ate we decided to head over to Galaxy's Edge and see how the single rider for Smugglers' Run was going.



The main line wasn't that bad so we decided to do that so we could all ride together. I think it ended up being around 35 minutes.



Brian and I got to be pilots. Here is a terrible selfie attempt where the only person paying attention was the engineer (who I don't know).



Pull the lever!




We ended up getting two out of three lights. I think we did really well.



We walked out through Fantasyland and I get some pretty pictures.





Soon we were back at the hotel and quick to bed. The next morning would come quick.

 

[soniam]

I loved that Epcot poster too. I ended up getting a t-shirt with the design. I have gotten a lot of compliments on it from people that don't even go or know what Epcot is.

This was the first time they did it. I have no idea if they'll do it again or not. I did write a scathing email to the President of D23, which he rudely never acknowledged.

I guess they did it sort of in response to people complaining about waiting for hours and overnight. Little did they realize that their implementation would cause some to not wait at all and others to wait massively longer. I don't mind the idea; I just think they need to ration out all of the passes to prevent the first few from getting all of the spoils.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I loved that Epcot poster too. I ended up getting a t-shirt with the design. I have gotten a lot of compliments on it from people that don't even go or know what Epcot is.



I guess they did it sort of in response to people complaining about waiting for hours and overnight. Little did they realize that their implementation would cause some to not wait at all and others to wait massively longer. I don't mind the idea; I just think they need to ration out all of the passes to prevent the first few from getting all of the spoils.

That Epcot design is gorgeous, no wonder people comment. I still like the Phoenician shirt you got me though, glad I have that.

I would be ok if they had the passes again and just rationed them. They barely had limits in place at all, and they were only for the panels. No limits for the giveaways or signings. The people who got in first literally had the best time ever.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I did write a scathing email to the President of D23, which he rudely never acknowledged.

Wow, so rude.

The whole crowd went crazy when Agent Carter (Haley Atwell) came out. I can't wait for her new show, it's animated but it's basically a what if Agent Carter got Cap's powers instead.

Oh my goodness how did I not know about this?? I'm so pumped now!! I just finished watching Agent Carter and I was so bummed that it ended so abruptly. But I read somewhere that it was actually a super expensive show to film because it was a period piece and they had to shoot in LA. That makes a lot of sense, even if I am still bitter.

Yvette told us all the dogs in the movie were rescues and she'd taken one of Lady's doubles home after filming.

Okay that's adorable.

My new hero:

FOR REAL!

The Tron cast member costumes and ride vehicle.

Two things:
1. I would actually wear that jacket
2. Why is the female mannequin making such a weird pose?

Okay so the panel/pass situation totally sucked but the stuff on the floor looks sooo cool to be able to see firsthand!

 

[skier_pete]

Whew - bringing back memories - I'm terribly behind on my TR too! I was down in that basement for quite a while myself!

I did enjoy the Expo, but it feels somewhat like a "one and done" for me. You would get the occasional seconds of super-awesomeness (Ewan McGregor coming on stage) but I am not sure it was worth all the time we devoted. Can definitely say we will NOT be back in 2021.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Wow, so rude.


Oh my goodness how did I not know about this?? I'm so pumped now!! I just finished watching Agent Carter and I was so bummed that it ended so abruptly. But I read somewhere that it was actually a super expensive show to film because it was a period piece and they had to shoot in LA. That makes a lot of sense, even if I am still bitter.


Okay that's adorable.


FOR REAL!
Two things:
1. I would actually wear that jacket
2. Why is the female mannequin making such a weird pose?

Okay so the panel/pass situation totally sucked but the stuff on the floor looks sooo cool to be able to see firsthand!

I did notice the female mannequin too. Shoulders are way back with chest pushed forward. Odd pose.

I feel like Disney could make so much off glowing Tron clothes if they actually sell them. I would buy a jacket with a glowing blue stripe.

Whew - bringing back memories - I'm terribly behind on my TR too! I was down in that basement for quite a while myself!

I did enjoy the Expo, but it feels somewhat like a "one and done" for me. You would get the occasional seconds of super-awesomeness (Ewan McGregor coming on stage) but I am not sure it was worth all the time we devoted. Can definitely say we will NOT be back in 2021.

Oh you don't need to talk to me about being behind...I mean...it's mid January and I am writing about something that happened in August hahahaha.

Yeah it's definitely a very rought weekend, the D23 expo. Very little sleep, lots of nervous anticipation and will I make it into the panel type thoughts. It's the big moments that make you want to come back again.

I don't know if we'll be back either. Like I've said multiple times in this report, I am easily excited and could probably be easily convinced to go back. Brian, not so much. He is still pissed about the passes.

And it is an expensive trip, and there's lot of other places to see. But this is really the place to be for people who live Disney.

So I guess we'll see about us going back or not.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Wrap Up Day 1 D23 Expo

Wanted to do:

Panels
Music and Sounds of Galaxy's Edge
Vader Immortal
Disney+
Swiss Family Treehouse

Autographs
Anthony Gonzalez
Disney Broadway
Ashley Eckstein

Got to do:

Panels
Disney+

Autographs
Anthony Gonzalez but didn't get to meet him (which is more than half the reason we like to get the autos)

Pavilions
Nat Geo: kind of underwhelming
Disney Parks: pretty cool with the Avengers Campus and New Epcot displays
Marvel: we just saw the stage part, we did not look at the costume display
Lucasfilm: pretty good costume display but kind of lacking in anything else to do
Disney Animation/Pixar: basically some photo ops was all to do
Disney+: just walked through the outer edges and looked at costumes

Swag:
Marvel booth baby Groot funko, water bottle
Nat Geo booth magazine
Amazon Prize Truck SW pin
Disney+ gifts hat and We Heart You 3000 pin

Purchases
MOG Epcot Phoenicians shirt
Coco record with autograph
Tiki Room record


Friday was probably our worst day. The panel we did see was amazing, so at least that was something.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

D23 Expo Day 2 Saturday

Sleep: 6 hours 58 minutes Excellent night of sleep, didn't have to wake up until 7 am today.











Want to do:

Panels
The Simpsons
Haunted Mansion 50th
Immersive Worlds: Bringing Films to Life in Disney Parks
Disney on Broadway in Concert: A 25th Anniversay

Autographs
Ashley Eckstein

For Saturday, a majority of our group had managed to get stage passes for the Simpsons panel (it wasn't very popular among the stage pass people, everyone had grabbed one for the Live Action/Animation movie panel happening at the same time).

We were a bit discouraged from the day before and none of us wanted to spend the night camped out for the Movie panel, so we just said f it and decided to sleep in and use our Simpsons panel passes. Which is why we slept in until 7. We slowly made our way over to the expo center around 8 am.

Once again, we didn't bring any of our chairs because we didn't want to lose them. There was no line at security which was so much better than 2017. What they did in 2019 was push the security barrier way out. This way they could line more people up in different areas inside and the lines for security never really built that much.

We were led to a new carpeted waiting hall. We got in the Simpsons stage pass line and settled in for a short hour or so wait. Then we were led orderly all around the convention center to another line that was outside the doors.



I really don't understand the line system and how they kept everything straight.

A little bit before 10 we were led inside.

Little background, we were doing our group cosplay on Saturday. Brian, myself and Emily were doing a Captain Marvel/Top Gun mashup. We all three had Air Force jump suits on. Emily was Carol Danvers, Brian was Maverick and I was Goose. I also had some orange cat ears on so I could be Top Gun's Goose and the Goose cat in Captain Marvel.

I really hope it wasn't a mixup with our military flight suits, but a woman came running up to our group, asked us how many, and escorted the 4 of us to the second row. Anyway, that worked out extremely well. Best seats I ever had at a D23 expo. No one ended up sitting in front of us.

We were all handed a Bart mask with Mickey ears as we walked in. We took a selfie with ours.



And this is what happens when I try to take a crowd show behind us:



Sorry understandably weirded out woman behind us. I like to think I'm very good at taking landscape pictures, but I am just terrible with selfies or any type of shot with people in it.

The panel began, this is how close we were:



Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa, was the panel host. The attendees were: Matt Groening (series creator), Al Jean, Matt Selman, Mike B Anderson and Nancy Cartwright (Bart's and many others voices).

This panel was actually pretty amazing. Not only were we super close up, but the material and the panelists were really funny. They had a touching moment where they talked about Russi Taylor who had just passed away (voice of Minnie Mouse and surprisingly did voices for the Simpsons as well including Martin Prince).

They played a montage of a lot of clips where the Simpsons parodied/made jokes about Disney. They also showed clips from the upcoming Treehouse of Horror episode. We got to hear lots of cool stories and funny jokes.

They also took audience questions. People were a bit slow to line up and I really wish I'd lined up, because everyone who asked a question got a giant sketch of a Simpsons character from Matt Groening that he signed. If the sketch was of a character who someone at the panel did a voice for, they also signed it.



So far the morning was going pretty well. The panel ended at 11 and we wanted to get in line for HM 50th that was starting at 12:30. That panel was in the same room as the Simpsons, but they had already shut the gold member line and there was just a mob of people surrounding the entrance to the arena. Looked a bit unsafe so we decided to let that mob figure itself out and we'd come back.

We went to grab a quick bite from the food trucks, which I disappointingly did not take a photo of. Then it was back to the mess of a line for HM 50th.

 

[soniam]

I hadn't even thought that the woman at the Simpson's panel thought you guys were military Hopefully, she knew it was cosplay and thought it looked cool. I had a great time at the Simpson's panel. The next one was a bit of a cluster on my part. Live and learn.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I hadn't even thought that the woman at the Simpson's panel thought you guys were military Hopefully, she knew it was cosplay and thought it looked cool. I had a great time at the Simpson's panel. The next one was a bit of a cluster on my part. Live and learn.

Those costumes have caused a bit of trouble. We were also wearing them for a MNSSHP and were on Main Street and the flag retreat started to happen, so we had to run into a gift shop and hide because we felt bad/weird.

Yeah, the Simpsons panel was a very pleasant surprise. You'll usually have one or two of those each con.