Disneyland/D23 Trip Report – D23 for the twenty-third trip (Update 10/10 - 1901 Lounge & Spectromagic!!)

[skier_pete]

You guys definitely got a lot done in those first three hours or less!

I was wondering why you didn't necessarily want to ride TSMM. Yay for a nice long break in the middle of the day!

Yeah - even though we love TSMM - it's available to us on the other coast - where Incredicoaster, Gaurdians, RSR, and Soarin' over California are not - so it just wasn't real high on the priority list!

 

[skier_pete]

Day 2 continued:

Our return to the parks was around 1:30 PM, and we headed to the Pacific Wharf area. This is where @franandaj met us, while we ate lunch. DD got some pot stickers, while DW and I ate Mexican and I forgot to take pictures. @franandaj and I both will ride the Incredicoaster and since DW and DD will not, we decided to go over and ride since the line wasn’t so long. DO we look like we are having fun?



We had gotten a FP for RSR and headed there next – FINALLY! I didn’t take any pictures, but @franandaj got us the photopass picture!



Our friend who is the Club 33 member was nice enough to meet up with us for a drink and get us into the 1901 Lounge today, but beforehand – they also handed us off some Fastpasses! So we all headed over to The Tower of Terror Guardians : Mission Breakout!

They were doing the little show with StarLord and Gamora, but it was hot out and we didn’t stick around to watch
.




Instead we rode the ride. DW and DD didn’t really want to ride, but I convinced them that it wasn’t as bad as ToT. The pre-show was a lot of fun!







DW and DD hated, and I mean hated the ride. DD was gripping me so tight, and DW was screaming like crazy. Do they look like they are having fun?



With the extra FPs, @franandaj and I rode a second time. The first time we got “Hit me with your best shot” and second time was “We got the Funk”. The different versions are a lot of fun – I really like what they did to this ride – and the fact they kept the one in Florida in tact which was the better version – I am all for this ride! Two thumbs up!



We headed over to the lounge at this point – the 1901 lounge is beautiful – very much the feel of an old-timey cigar lounge that Walt would’ve gone out to on a Saturday night in the 30s and 40s. I’m just going to throw up a whole bunch of pictures, since most people will never get to see the inside of this place! Have to be very careful not to photo any members, but there weren’t a lot of people in there at the time.
















The top picture below of Ub Iwerks was actually a motion photo which showed Mickey being drawn. I caught






We enjoyed a drink at a table and an appetizer of artichoke dip. One of the drinks was a martini with a perfectly clear, perfectly round sphere of ice. They make the ice cube from a cylinder tableside with a press – it’s really, really cool. Here’s the ice left in the glass.



To Be continued next post...

 

[skier_pete]

It was actually around 6 PM by the time we all left 1901, so we wanted to hit a couple of rides before we went to watch the parade. WE started over to Soarin’ first – even though our second ride of the day – seeing Soarin’ over California is the best!



We then headed over to Disneyland and rode both Buzz Lightyear and Star Tours – we got a different route than yesterday.





After that, we needed to get our spots for the parade. Another perk of being a Club 33 member is that you can reserve a seat for the parade and fireworks for your party. So we were all able to get seats right in the front row for the parade. Way better than sitting on the sidewalk. We grabbed some corn dogs for dinner and sat and waited for the parade to come. We were pretty much face on for the parade coming down from Fantasyland by the Matterhorn:














With a little turn of our seats, we had a pretty good view of the fireworks as well.






With that we called it a night. The park was open for a while longer, but our friends had to drive home, and we had Early Entry at 7 AM (HORROR) the next day! So even though it was 9:30 PM, we headed back to the hotel and quickly fell asleep.

Ride total: 12 (9 with FP) + Parade and Fireworks!
Next up - Day 3 and it's even earlier entry!!!

 

[soniam]

1901 Lounge looks beautiful! GOTG is what got me to ride TOT. I usually hate drops, but something about these two are different than most drop rides. I love GOTG, but I do grip the handle bar like my life depends on it. Looks like a great day and a great view of MSEP.

 

[YodasMom]

I love 1901 Lounge! We visited it on the 2 ABDs I did a few years ago. My favorite were the special effects (projections) that were just awesome and the portrait of Walt the side wall next to the bar! They demonstrated the ice ball device for us, too, which was very cool!

 

[NJlauren]

Wow I fell behind!

Such a cool trip! So jel you got to see the electrical parade one of my favs I miss the nighttime parades!!

the lounge looks really cool and a great place to hang out!

did a bunch of good stuff on this day! If the on east coast time it was more like midnight!

 

[skier_pete]

1901 Lounge looks beautiful! GOTG is what got me to ride TOT. I usually hate drops, but something about these two are different than most drop rides. I love GOTG, but I do grip the handle bar like my life depends on it. Looks like a great day and a great view of MSEP.

This was my first time in 1901 Lounge and I definitely liked the vibe there. Our Club 33 friend said a lot of the members didn't like it when it first opened because they thought it was too stodgy or "men's club" like, but I liked that old classic Hollywood feel that sets it apart from Club 33 which definitely has a more European Salon type feel.

I love 1901 Lounge! We visited it on the 2 ABDs I did a few years ago. My favorite were the special effects (projections) that were just awesome and the portrait of Walt the side wall next to the bar! They demonstrated the ice ball device for us, too, which was very cool!

Yes, I really enjoyed it. They also had a player piano playing Haunted Mansion music.

Wow I fell behind!

Such a cool trip! So jel you got to see the electrical parade one of my favs I miss the nighttime parades!!

the lounge looks really cool and a great place to hang out!

did a bunch of good stuff on this day! If the on east coast time it was more like midnight!

It was definitely a great day. We really had 4 really great days at DLR and we got to do everything we wanted so it was really the first time we really feel like we had a trip with enough time to do all the things we wanted.

 

[franandaj]

We definitely had a fun day! It was great hanging out with you all!

 

[skier_pete]

We definitely had a fun day! It was great hanging out with you all!

I love Disney with just family - but hanging out with friends is the BEST way to do Disney!