"That's not supposed to be HERE!" A WDW Native's First Trek West! ~ New 8/13!

[Shannon84]

Congrats on your engagement!! I actually just started reading your report and completely caught up with it today

We are WDW natives going to DL for our first time next February and can't wait! Your trip report is getting me really excited to go now!!

 

[glennbo123]

Congratulations on your engagement Jenn and Kevin!

I'm still reading along on your TR....learning so much about Disneyland, thanks!

 

[elphie101]

Those french toast sticks looking great and I can't wait to hear about your tour!

We're back from our trip and of course had a great time It's interesting seeing your updates now that I've been there. I agree that the Fairfield Inn was a good place to stay. I'm thinking about starting a trip report as well, but just haven't had time yet. Getting acclimated back at work after vacation always sucks

What did you think?! Glad you liked the FFI - we definitely think we would return there (although Kevin's hankering to stay on property during our next stay). Definitely post a link/something in your signature if you do your own TR!

Congrats on your engagement!! I actually just started reading your report and completely caught up with it today

We are WDW natives going to DL for our first time next February and can't wait! Your trip report is getting me really excited to go now!!

Thanks and welcome!! I know when we were still planning I was inhaling every DL trip report I could find, so I'm just hoping to return the favor!!

Congratulations on your engagement Jenn and Kevin!

I'm still reading along on your TR....learning so much about Disneyland, thanks!

Thank you! Glad to see you're still sticking around!!


New update should come shortly folks......I've been in a community theater production for the past week and work (where I've been posting most of these updates) has been getting busier, plus my computer is down for the count at home at the moment - blegh. But I won't leave you hanging! Thank you as always for reading!

 

[cpanagiotakos]

Found this TR through your wedding report. I want to echo the congrats I posted there. I also wanted to say how eager I am to hear about the tour.

I have family in LA so I have always consider DLR my home resort. Though I obviously love both and visit them frequently. It's very interesting to hear your thoughts on the differences.

DBF and I have done a few tours in WDW as though tend to be primarily disney vacations while we usually only spend a night in DLR ( a day in each of the parks) but I would love live LOVE to go backstage at Walts park. Very interested to know what you thought.

 

[elphie101]

Well.......happy 2014 everyone! I never dreamed my TR would stretch out this long (and probably longer still, we're not even halfway there). Wedding planning + busy work life + no actual computer at home + lots of theater rehearsals = very very little time to TR update. I'm determined to finish this though, if only to read back on it someday, so let's continue.

When I last left you, we were arriving at Disneyland right around the 9:00am opening, about half an hour before we were due to check in for our Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour. Since we were checking in at Guest Relations, we decided to kill our 30 minutes by browsing Main Street so we wouldn't have far to go.


California 2013 362 by elphie101, on Flickr


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See you in a few hours Walt's apartment!


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So nice and pristine, not yet mucked up by tiny grubby child (and adult) hands


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We found this adorable old Pinocchio puppet thing - it fit perfectly with the classic, vintage-y feeling of DL's Main St that I loved so much


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Good morning castle! Not a very picture-esque sky, as you can see


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What Main St looks like when you're the only people right at park opening NOT hurrying somewhere else


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We found the party line in DL, which was one of Kevin's favorite discoveries in WDW (and a rare thing at WDW that was still new to him in his 20's), but he said it was really difficult to hear - boo


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One last photo of Market House, a day or two before it's Starbucks transformation

At this point it was almost 9:30, so we headed to the tour check-in booth. The CM had to work a little bit of magic in order for us to get my CM discount - he ended up having to cancel our full-price tour and rebook us at the discount rate, since they needed to have visual proof of my CM ID which I couldn't do over the phone (or at least so he said) - which was a bit stressful as I didn't want to be charged twice. It ended up working out in the end, though the refund took a few business days to process after we got home, which didn't help. It was here though that we discovered Walt used to wear a claddagh ring like Kevin and I do (being Irish, Kevin gave me one to match his for our first Christmas and I've never taken it off since) and that it was actually on the Partners statue - we couldn't believe it! (I'm just realizing now I forgot to check for it at WDW's on our engagement trip - till next time then!) We also placed our lunch orders from Jolly Holiday Bakery (from a pre selected menu) and waited for our tour group to assemble.


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This was our tour guide for the day, Victoria. Bless her, but we had very mixed reactions about her. She mentioned early on that she had only just started doing the WiWDF tour......and it showed. You could tell when she was delivering lines from a script (and would occasionally forget and repeat or stumble over lines), and it came off a little wooden. However when she was having off-script discussions with us, she was so personable and passionate about the parks and Walt and full of little facts we didn't know that it was hard not to love her, despite her wooden tour delivery. It was clear she was still new to this particular tour and she was letting her nerves get the best of her, though I'm sure if any of you have a tour with her now you'll have a great experience (since it's been 9 1/2 months!)

We set off by the train station as Victoria began with the history of the parks. I'm a little shaky on the exact play by play of the tour narration (oops - that's what happens when you don't take notes and delay this much!) but I do have photos of our journey from the train station, down Main Street, and into Fantasyland as we learned about the inspiration of Disneyland (including the windows on main Street of course!)


California 2013 378 by elphie101, on Flickr


California 2013 379 by elphie101, on Flickr
When we found Walt's claddagh ring - we got a picture of it another day


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California 2013 382 by elphie101, on Flickr
You can see the ear pieces we were given for the tour - easy to wear on either ear

And now to the important stuff - the rides! As you probably know, part of the tour includes being led onto a selection of rides without waiting in line. I knew of a few possibilities from researching, but knew that it was a toss-up on what we would actually get to experience. Our first ride would be.............

Well would you look at that, lunch break is over! Sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger - I promise I'll be back soon to continue our tour (and no, not in another 3 months - sheesh)

 

[glennbo123]

And now to the important stuff - the rides! As you probably know, part of the tour includes being led onto a selection of rides without waiting in line. I knew of a few possibilities from researching, but knew that it was a toss-up on what we would actually get to experience. Our first ride would be.............

Well would you look at that, lunch break is over! Sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger - I promise I'll be back soon to continue our tour (and no, not in another 3 months - sheesh)

Sorry that it took me so long to find your cliffhanger, but now that I have maybe it won't take too long to find out the answer?

 

[librarygeek]

Hey, I'm here!

So you liked the Fairfield? It looks nice, and when we go we'd like something within walking distance. How long did it take you to walk to the parks?

Indiana Jones looks like a fun ride - good choice to start with. I can't wait to try it!
And Wow, the building that the Haunted Mansion is in looks so different than Florida, but so beautiful! You really got a lot done that first day!

I'm surprised places in DTD don't open for breakfast earlier than 8am - you'd think there would be a good number of people wanting to get breakfast in plenty of time before the park opens.

I think you look really cute in your ears!

Wow, that is high praise for a counter service lunch! It definitely makes me want to check it out. I love pasta so now I'm dying to try what you had.

We love thrill rides too, but I think I would do a non-swinging gondola. It just sounds so scary!

Yayyyy, engagement! I know it's old haha but I love seeing the pic!

I hope you come back and update again soon, because I'd love to hear more about the Walt's Footsteps tour!

 

[elphie101]

Hey, I'm here!

So you liked the Fairfield? It looks nice, and when we go we'd like something within walking distance. How long did it take you to walk to the parks?

Indiana Jones looks like a fun ride - good choice to start with. I can't wait to try it!
And Wow, the building that the Haunted Mansion is in looks so different than Florida, but so beautiful! You really got a lot done that first day!

I'm surprised places in DTD don't open for breakfast earlier than 8am - you'd think there would be a good number of people wanting to get breakfast in plenty of time before the park opens.

I think you look really cute in your ears!

Wow, that is high praise for a counter service lunch! It definitely makes me want to check it out. I love pasta so now I'm dying to try what you had.

We love thrill rides too, but I think I would do a non-swinging gondola. It just sounds so scary!

Yayyyy, engagement! I know it's old haha but I love seeing the pic!

I hope you come back and update again soon, because I'd love to hear more about the Walt's Footsteps tour!

I don't know if you'll think to come back here, but we did love Fairfield. I would say it was about a 10 minute walk from our rooms to the park entrances (a little longer to go back since we had to go through the lobby to return). My memory is a little fuzzy on the time, but Google Maps is telling me it's a 0.4 mile walk so that sounds about accurate.

Have you formally started planning a trip yet?

 

[elphie101]

Welp, I could make excuses about how time flies when you're wedding planning, and how bad TR abandonment is - but no one really wants to hear those do they? Let's just continue along and maybe, someday, this beast will be finished!

We were about to hop on our first ride of the tour, which I'm sure you have been able to figure out by now -

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Peter Pan! I was so thrilled, since this ride does not have FP in Disneyland and while waits aren't quite as long as it's FL counterpart, they're long enough to be discouraging. I simply adored the ride.

After our group went through Peter Pan (it took a moment for everyone to cycle through) we made our way to Frontierland.

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As close as we got to Big Thunder - this was in the middle of it's bearly year-long refurb

Victoria didn't go into the details, but I believe these next two pictures were remnants of an old ride. She said something along the lines of they were left behind as reminders of what they had been, and to remind them that the park was ever-changing and always progressing.

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(Oooooof, so long ago!)

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Walt's petrified tree - it was here that she told the story of how Walt bought the tree and eventually how it was brought into Disneyland. The woman in the pink was someone Kevin and I were fascinated by - she was slightly overdressed for the parks and CONSTANTLY snacking. Every time Victoria stopped to tell us a story or elaborate on something her husband/boyfriend/male traveling companion would run off to a cart and get her chips/a churro/apples/popcorn. Maybe she just has blood sugar issues?

Yes, I can remember what our tour group was snacking on, but not the finer points of the tour script

From here on, we continued through to New Orleans Square, where Victoria talked about the Dream Suite and it's original purpose, to be a place for Walt & his family to spend time while they were in the parks.

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California 2013 396 by elphie101, on Flickr

I bet you can guess what's coming up next - one of the two real highlights of the tour.....

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California 2013 399 by elphie101, on Flickr

Club 33!! Here Victoria talked about the history of the club and Walt's reasons for wanting an exclusive place in Disneyland, but everyone was so anxious and excited to get inside I'm not sure anyone was listening. Finally, she led us in.

Everyone immediately began snapping photos and Victoria talked a bit about what happens in the club. We weren't allowed onto the staircase. but we were able to get a picture by the elevator. I'd say we spent a little more then 5 minutes in the atrium, but it was still incredibly exciting. I wonder what it'll look like once it reopens?

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Stained glass over the door to the outside

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The closest we'll get to upstairs!

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I know there was something important about this picture - but I can't remember it now!!

After we each got an elevator picture, we were ushered out of the club and back into New Orleans Square.

 

[Cats2]

Victoria didn't go into the details, but I believe these next two pictures were remnants of an old ride. She said something along the lines of they were left behind as reminders of what they had been, and to remind them that the park was ever-changing and always progressing. https://flic.kr/p/fpTnKyCalifornia 2013 389 by elphie101, on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/fpTnuhCalifornia 2013 390 by elphie101, on Flickr

Take a trip to Yesterland, if you want more details about retired rides/attractions in Disneyland.
http://www.yesterland.com/minetrain.html. It was the Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland. They reused Rainbow Ridge for BTMRR.

 

[Cats2]

Victoria didn't go into the details, but I believe these next two pictures were remnants of an old ride. She said something along the lines of they were left behind as reminders of what they had been, and to remind them that the park was ever-changing and always progressing. https://flic.kr/p/fpTnKyCalifornia 2013 389 by elphie101, on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/fpTnuhCalifornia 2013 390 by elphie101, on Flickr

Take a trip to Yesterland if you ever want to know about retired rides/attractions at Disneyland.

It was the Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland. They reused Rainbow Ridge to BTMRR.
http://www.yesterland.com/minetrain.html

 

[zozmd]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! You're an excellent writer. I'm just in the beginning stages of planning my first trip to DLR in Oct. I was so happy to read about your engagement! Eagerly awaiting next installment...

What shoes do you wear for touring the parks?

 

[elphie101]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! You're an excellent writer. I'm just in the beginning stages of planning my first trip to DLR in Oct. I was so happy to read about your engagement! Eagerly awaiting next installment...

What shoes do you wear for touring the parks?

Nice to see this thing still has readers!

I'm one of those people that goes to the parks in flip flops or Converse usually, at least in WDW. Since this trip was so different, I went with my running sneakers (which were fairly new at that point) as I didn't want to get stuck in a position where my feet were uncomfortable. You can see them in our Club 33 elevator picture!

 

[elphie101]

After leaving the Club, we walked through New Orleans Square and headed over to the train platform. I spied the Mint Julep bar and made the mental note to return later for some Mickey beignets!

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California 2013 412 by elphie101, on Flickr

Here Victoria talked about Walt's love for trains and how important it was for him to involve them in his park, and also the Lilly Belle! When the next train pulled up we boarded and made our way around the park, stopping briefly at Toontown before continuing on to Tomorrowland.

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Splash Mountain!

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Leaving Toontown station

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We stopped for a brief restroom/hydration break, and then continued strolling through Tomorrowland as Victoria talked about Walt's time in the 1964 World's Fair, as we were near the former site of the Carousel of Progress (whoop whoop)

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Never too many Matterhorn pictures

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Little did we know the ride was actually closed at the time - we heard from a CM elsewhere later in the trip there had been a fire involved somewhere in the ride!

And of course, while on the subject of the World's Fair, we headed to the only attraction currently operating during our trip that had been featured at the fair.....

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Another new one for us! And yet another instance where DL trumps WDW's version hands down. The stunning outdoor clock facade, the Disney characters inside (which we loved - sorry!), everything about it was just 10x more magical than the version we were used to.

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California 2013 435 by elphie101, on Flickr
Words and dedicated from the Disneys just seemed so much more meaningful knowing we were in Walt's park

We had to wait a bit for the wheelchair accessible boat to come around, but then we were off onto the Happiest Cruise The Ever Sailed! I snapped about 10,000 pictures (ok, realistically 40), mostly of all the Disney characters inside, but I think we all know what this ride looks like, so I'll spare you the details. We headed off the ride and made our way to the Partners statue, and even 16 months later I still remember how Victoria started her next section of the script.

"Now is the part of our story where things get a bit sad."

She talked about the beginning stages of the Florida Project, and then as we all know, about Walt's decline in health and passing. It was incredibly moving to be standing there in Disneyland, in this particular spot that so captured the perfect snapshot of Walt's dreams and achievements, and to be hearing about and remembering how it all was cut short. Maybe I'm a sap, but it was hard to not get a little teary in that moment.

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California 2013 498 by elphie101, on Flickr

With that, we were led back to Guest Relations, where we met up with another CM. She and Victoria explained that they could only take a handful of people at a time to our final destination, Walt's apartment, so they would be splitting our group in half and while one half was visiting the apartment, the other would be eating lunch. We were split with the lunch-first group, so we went back to the GR courtyard where our orders from the Jolly Holiday Bakery were waiting.

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My turkey sandwich with chips, and Matterhorn macaroon inside the paper bag. The sandwich was so fresh and delicious! I also had all of Kevin's chips, as he doesn't like kettle cooked ones, and so I tucked my macaroon into my bag for later. We ended up sitting at a table with Victoria, and I asked her about her previous roles in the park - her first role had been a submarine driver over at Nemo! She also asked us tons of questions about WDW and being a CM over there, as she hadn't made it down to Florida yet.

When the first group returned, we had finished our lunches and off we went to visit the one, the only, Walt's apartment.

As I'm sure you know if you've read other reviews of the tour, the apartment is tiny. Teeny tiny. We had to surrender our cameras and (I'm 99% sure) phones as we entered - one photo of your group is allowed in the apartment, and it must be taken by the CM accompanying you.

The CM (who's name of course I can't remember for the life of me) showed us around the tiny bathroom, the tiny living room with the tiny tea set, and explained about what a day in the life of Walt and Lillian was like when they chose to visit the parks. Even more so than Club 33, this was like visiting a house of worship for us Disney fans.

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Our apartment photo - all pictures are taken from this angle. The table holds the lamp that is always kept lit.

After everyone had their photos taken, we were whisked out of the apartment, returned our electronics, and met up back at Guest Relations, where there was quite the commotion. Victoria explained we were witnessing something special - a GR CM (the one in the blue shirt in the first picture) was earning his D pin - the large D worn by CMs signifying they had passed all their assessments and could now officially become a tour guide! It was exciting to see how happy all the CMs were, and we humble guests cheered along with them congratulating the new tour guide.

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California 2013 503 by elphie101, on Flickr

And with that, we were officially released from the tour and back into the real (Disney) world. Now if you ask me, this tour is worth it for the chance to get into Walt's apartment and Club 33 alone. It was fascinating to hear the whole perspective of his Disneyland life and I would happily revisit it again. I'm not sure how the tour may operate now, given all the Club 33 changes, but I'm happy we were able to take advantage of it.

Being that it only around 2:00, we decided to head off to Adventureland to hit up some rides, but not before getting a Fast Pass of course!

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What else but another Indy!

To kill time for our Indy Fast Pass, we decided to hop on our second cruise of the day, Jungle Cruise, as it doesn't have a FP in DL and we hadn't hit it yet.

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A-freaking-dorkable, if I do say so myself. As you can see, the sun came out again! It was still a little on the cooler side if I remember correctly.

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Sadly, our skipper left lots to be desired - she just seemed bored.

Now, I can't remember if we actually rode Indy next - nasty side affect of no trip notes or photos and working on a TR over a year later! I'm going to hazard a guess that we did make it on the ride, as I know for a fact that Indy was 100% the only ride we hit 3 times during our trip. Regardless, this is the next photo I have -

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The Iron Man exhibit was opening tomorrow! It made me glad that I had caught the Carousel of Progress banners a few days before. If memory serves correctly, we grabbed a Space Mountain Fast Pass, then decided to hit the hay for our mid-day Eastern Time Zone nap.

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Buh bye for now Walt! (or shall we say, see ya real soon!)

 

[glennbo123]

[/url]California 2013 507 by elphie101, on Flickr
A-freaking-dorkable, if I do say so myself.

Go on and kiss de girl.


Thanks for the pictures of Club 33 and Walt's apartment. (What you were allowed to get.) I'm thinking that I may have to do this tour if and when I ever get out there.

 

[scholastica]

Hi! Just joining in but I LOVE it so far.

The tour sounds amazing! I really need to get a Disneyland trip planned asap.

Congratulations on your engagement!

 

[elphie101]

Go on and kiss de girl.

Thanks for the pictures of Club 33 and Walt's apartment. (What you were allowed to get.) I'm thinking that I may have to do this tour if and when I ever get out there.

I still standby the fact that it's worth it for getting into the apartment alone (I'm fairly certain it's the only way to for us common folk to get in there). Something we can cross off our bucket list for sure!

Hi! Just joining in but I LOVE it so far.

The tour sounds amazing! I really need to get a Disneyland trip planned asap.

Congratulations on your engagement!

Thanks for joining in! It's encouraging for me to see people are still reading.

 

[librarygeek]

I don't know if you'll think to come back here, but we did love Fairfield. I would say it was about a 10 minute walk from our rooms to the park entrances (a little longer to go back since we had to go through the lobby to return). My memory is a little fuzzy on the time, but Google Maps is telling me it's a 0.4 mile walk so that sounds about accurate.

Have you formally started planning a trip yet?

We've said we're definitely going in 2015, and we've picked out a potential week in September. That's about as far as we've gotten but it's still over a year away I'm not sure when the good neighbor hotels will open booking for fall 2015, but I guess a hotel will be our next step!

 

[librarygeek]

It definitely sounds like that tour is worth it just to visit Walt's apartment and Club 33!

 

[dina7]

Do you know what the Regular Price of that tour is?