Trip Report - D23 Expo

[MmeLeota]

I know it's been a week and there's been a whole lot of stuff posted already, but in case anyone is interested...this is my take on the expo. Here we go:
Day 1 - Thursday
Due to circumstances out of our hands, we didn't arrive in Anaheim until 2:00pm. Once we got checked in and received our wristbands, we headed over to the arena to check out the ABCs of Disney. They handed out tote bags with a hat and other promotional items for the shows they previewed. The presentation was hosted by Tom Bergeron and they previewed new ABC shows. There was a panel (Kelsey Grammar, Ed O'Neill, Courtney Cox & Patricia Heaton) talking about their respective shows. There was also a Dancing with the Stars segment with Cheryl Burke and Derek Hough. They are amazing!!!!! Then Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson came out and performed a dance choreographed especially for the expo....I must say, I think he's gonna be a contender! (no, I'm not biased since he has a show here in Vegas... ) There was a preview of the new holiday special based on a John Lasseter short called "Prep and Landing". Looks really funny! Since the presentation waas running long and we wanted to go to the Imagineering Legends panel, we left when they started talking about the final season of Lost (since we don't watch it)...so we don't know how it ended.

Once we headed upstairs and found our way to the theatre where the Imagineering panel was taking place, we were told that both the main and standby lines were full. Major Bummer!!!! So, we went to the Archives exhibit instead. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more items on display, but all in all, it was still awesome to see some of these items.
Costumes from POTC, Princess Diaries, The Rocketeer, Tron, Mary Poppins, HSM, Princess Protection Program and the stage production of Beauty and the Beast.
There was a model of the Nautilus and a mock up of items that were on Walt's desk at one time or another. There were also various crowns from Princess Diaries, Chronicles of Narnia and Enchanted. (Herbie and the Babes in Toyland displays were outside of the exhibit) http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab41 ... 009005.jpg
Anyway, while standing there looking at the Mary Poppins costume, none other than Richard Sherman walked up and stood right next to me! He was there with his family and there was going to be some sort of filming going on, but before they started, we shook hands with him and I thanked him for my favorite song (Feed the Birds). He smiled and was very gracious. At that point, they were going to film and he began telling everyone within hearing distance about secrets of the costume and and stories about production of the movie. Since they were doing the filming, we bowed out and went outside to pinch ourselves...did that actually happen?????? Yes! And that right there was good enough to make the trip worthwhile for us.

At another point, I walked right past Mary Costa! She was on a mission to get somewhere, but we did exchange smiles...(so funny, since my fave villain is Maleficent)

We headed upstairs to the third floor and were surprised to find some really cool exhibits about movies coming out in the near future (Sorcerer's Apprentice, Tron: Legacy, Alice in Wonderland and Christmas Carol). http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab41 ... 009010.jpg

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We decided to get in line for the screening of the documentary about the Sherman brothers. Turned out to be a very interesting movie! We did not have a clue about their personal lives...wow! I hope ths makes it's way to DVD soon...it's called "The Boys" and it was done by their sons to try and bring the brothers together again.

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We then stayed for a screening of Darby O'Gill and the Little People. We met both Dave Smith and Tony Baxter! So amazing!

At this point it had been a really long day, so we went back to the room and crashed!!!!!

(Sorry if I bored anyone, but I thought I'd share some details of our experience...)


to be continued.....

[Mousekedude]

We wanna hear more!! We just joined D23, so we're interested in all that stuff.

[Jacca5660]

Great writing! It sounds like you're having a pretty good time. Please tell us more!

[MmeLeota]

We wanna hear more!! We just joined D23, so we're interested in all that stuff.

Awesome! We're looking forward to the next issue of the magazine...and whatever else they have up their sleeves. (and not to advertise another fan forum or anything, but MiceChat has a bunch of D23 members.)

One thing I forgot to add to the first day (and it's a minute detail, but it was still cool)...we didn't get to go to the Lion King presentation, but we did get to meet the guy who plays Mufasa in the production here in Vegas. They flew him out for the day...I have seen the show and I am speechless about it, so getting to meet a cast member that I had seen perform was awesome!

Sorry it took so long to get the next installment up and running...

Day 2 - Friday (9/11/09)

We got up early and took advantage of the extra hour for D23 members. Since we didn't have time to wander about the exhibit floor on thursday, we planned to tackle what we could in that first hour so when the doors opened to the public, we could clear the floor and head for the lines of the presentations we wanted to see. To our surprise (and a bit to our dismay), we saw just about everything on the floor within that first hour. We went to the scrapblog booth and they printed up a souvenir pic for us (way cool)! (sorry, commercial break...I love using scrapblog...it beats having to lug out all of our scrapbooking gear...yes, DH scrapbooks too, he got me staarted with it) We were excited to see them there. We then headed over to the Disney Interactive Media Group booth to try and play TSM for Wii. There were several stations set up, but all were full. So they ushered us over to a table to make some cute little vinylmation type paper doll figures of Mickey and Minnie and we picked up a couple of paper crowns for our nieces.
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We then headed over to the Disney Technology Magic booth to get our pic taken with one of the turtles from the MSEP (it will always be MSEP to me). That was pretty awesome!
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We then went over to by far the best pavilion of all...Parks and Resorts. There was no line and the preshow was about to start so we snuck in just in time to see this giant TV showing scenes from like the old "Disneyland" show but with updated scenes from the parks today. The next thing I know, all of a sudden the TV screen splits, opens up and BAM! there's the rest of the pavilion!

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We walked through the giant screen and into the model area for Carsland. There was a Lightning McQueen (for lack of a better word) figure there showing off the new technology that will be used. I have not seen the Mr. Potato Head animatronic in person, but this looks to be the coolest thing ever! I didn't see any movement other than the eyes and mouth, but they looked just like the movie animation. I am not a technical person...I know it's some sort of projection method, but I don't quite understand it.
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After staring in awe at the miniature model of Carsland, we moved onto the larger scale model of the Radiator Springs Racers...where Kevin Rafferty was there explaining the attraction to anyone willing to listen. All I can say is WOW! That attraction is going to be amazing! The model looked like it was taken right out of the movie! I hope it comes across that way in real life.

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From there, we went to the next room and there was a display explaining how animatronics work...even Mr. Lincoln from the original attraction was there. Next door, was the meeting area for Lucky the dinosaur and Wall-E. They alternated every half hour...I only got to see Lucky, but DH was able to see Wall-E at a different time. That was pretty amazing!

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The next area was about Destinations by Disney, the new DVC in Hawaii and the new cruise ship.

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Plus there was a really neat thing called the Storytelling Sandbox. There were half a dozen or so sandboxes set up each with their own attendant, and the storyteller was at the front. People gathered around the boxes and through projections on the sand, you are transported into another location (Alaska, Bahamas or Hawaii) and you become part of the interactive story by building volcanoes or digging holes for turtle eggs. I did Hawaii and DH did Bahamas. I did it first and was so excited, I had to go grab hubby and make him go play in the sand. Talk about bringing back memories. Simple technology, but it wowed me...I'm easily entertained.
The last section was dedicated to the new areas that are coming to HKDL. (on a side note, I would like to visit it someday, but now I want to wait until these are done) One was Toy Story land, one was Grizzly Trail and the third was Mystic Point. Grizzly trail had what looked to be a roller coaster similar to BTMRR but with Country Bears in it. It looked quite cool. Mystic Point looked like it could rival Phantom Manor (again, I cannot truly make that comparison, but I am going on what I have seen online and heard on the soundtracks). Toy Story Land looked pretty cool too. I didn't get too many details because the area was quite crowded and the Imagineer was explaining the rides...I wish we had made an attempt to stay and listen, but I was starting to get a bit claustrophobic and needed to leave that small space.

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I know this is a long post, and only the first hour and a half of the day, but it was the most eventful. It's late and I have to be up early, so until next time...ttfn

[timekeeper]

Wow, sounds like a great time! Thanks for sharing and I cannot wait to read the rest.

[disneydreamer58]

I'm a D23 member but have yet to get to one of their functions, I hope to though. Thanks for sharing, great report, sounds like you all had a really great time!

[mindflipper]

Thanks for the update, MmeLeota. For those of you who may be interested in the Mystic Point/Mystic Manor that MmeLeota mentioned in her trip report, I had posted some photos I got from a friend about the attraction in a different thread here in the forum:

viewtopic.php?t=5262&start=15

[MmeLeota]

Awesome! Thanks for posting that mindflipper!

[MmeLeota]

I promise I will continue the report...unfortunately, time has not allowed me to sit down and type more than a few sentences at a time. Thanks for hanging with me though!

[MmeLeota]

Friday Sept. 11 part 2....

By this time it was about 9:30 or so and the lines were building for the WD Studios presentation with Dick Cook. We decided it was time to go jump in line...but not before checking out the "dream store". Now I don't know whose "dreams" they polled to decide what merchandise would be place in the "dream store", but I can say it wasn't mine for sure. DH and I walked around the store only to find that most of the items were things that could be bought in the park. There were a few D23 Expo items (keychains, shirts, magnet..etc) and some Jim Shore figures (for those who wanted to get them autographed while at the expo). There was a corner of the store dedicated to art that was way too rich for my blood and there were several displays of costumes, park shirts, vinylmation figures, pins and so forth. I ended up buying a Jim Shore figure of Sleeping Beauty's castle (I didn't get it autographed though...Mr. Shore was there Thursday and we missed him ), a Precious Moments figure, a D23 Expo magnet and a pin. When I turned the corner to see the line, I couldn't believe it! I told DH to go ahead and get in line for the Dick Cook presentation and I would meet him in there. It took about half an hour to get through the line. On my way to the arena, I saw a blue and green "PUSH" wandering around with his "master" close behind. I thought that was interesting...I have never seen a blue and green one before. By the time I got over to the arena, they were already letting people in. I handed over my camera and phone, got my claim ticket and proceeded into the arena to begin the search for my DH. Talk about trying to find a needle in a haystack....but fortunately, I spotted him after about 2 minutes. When the presentation started we were so excited...not knowing exactly what to expect. Believe me, we were in for a huge shock. On our way into the arena, we were all given a pair of real-D glasses, so we figured we must be getting to see some 3-D stuff. We got a nice preview of "A Christmas Carol" (looks to be amazing!). There were also previews of "Old Dogs", "Prince of Persia", "Alice in Wonderland", and "Sorcerer's Apprentice". We knew going into it that Tim Burton and Nicholas Cage were going to make an appearance. That was huge for both of us. But we didn't expect to see Jerry Bruckheimer, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, Miley Cyrus (she sang "The Climb"...for us it was "eh", but when our niece found out, well she was mad at us for a while) and the Muppets (they showed up on a scaled down version of the Mark Twain..AWESOME!!!!!). After Miley did her song, Mr. Cook was wrapping up the presentation saying he kept thinking he was forgetting something...next thing we know, the curtains opened and there was a pirate ship's mast on the stage. As the mast turns around, the POTC movie music begins playing and there is a shadow on the mast...could it be? No, it's not really him...wait, yes it is!!!! It's the one and only Johnny Depp in full Captain Jack character!!! At this point the entire place erupted...I'm surprised I had a voice the rest of the day ! He came out asking "did you see the talking frog?" "no, really, where is the talking frog?" (referring to Kermit) So funny! Awesome to see him in character...in person! Of course all of this was to announce the 4th POTC movie. After everyone settled down, the presentation came to a close and everyone filed out...off to the rest of the day.

[Mousekedude]

WOW!! Awesome! Quite a lineup! I would have been thrilled to see Nicholas Cage and Johnny Depp!
Tell us more!

[mindflipper]

MmeLeota: Were you allowed to take photos at D23? If you were, did you take any? We would love to see'em

[MmeLeota]

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures during the presentations, but I will see what I can do about posting some of the other pics.

[MmeLeota]

We didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but I did update the trip report so far with a few pics...enjoy! (and thanks for your patience)

[Amy]

Cool trip report MmeLeota ~ I have been surfing around some of the older threads since I have too much time on my hands and there is no way I am going out in the 90 degree heat this evening That is neat that you got to see that many celebrities in one spot...I would have had the same reaction to Miley as you and your husband ~ and the same mad niece once I got back home