Trip Report 2018-2019 A Year in the Land (Disneyland)...a multi-trip report

Hello and welcome to my trip report for my year as an annual passholder to Disneyland. Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad) have been passholders of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World but this year we decided to be exclusive to just the Land. It was a little painful to give up going to WDW this year, we consider it our home park but we also enjoy Disneyland too. I think I have a little more fondness to it than Brad, but anyway.... So why are we passholders for DL exclusively this year instead of WDW or both parks. Well financially it didn't necessarily make sense. Brad is a big Star Wars fan and I'm a big Disney nerd so with Galaxy's Edge opening in the Land earlier than WDW that was a draw. And the D23 Expo is in Anaheim again this year so it checked boxes for both of us.

So I'm going to begin this report a little in the past, 2018, that's right so long ago! :) We traveled to Disneyland over Thanksgiving 2018 and bought our annual passes so that is where we will start the trip report.

Upcoming trips:
A. late March 2019
B. possibly (most likely) a solo trip for me over Easter 2019 (Why solo?...well Brad is a pastor and the congregation kind of expects him to be there over Easter. I'm a teacher and have a nice little break over Easter and the hubs is too busy over Holy week and Easter so he won't really notice I'm gone.)
C. Late June 2019 to celebrate our anniversary and birthdays all in June and in the same week. This trip will include Los Angeles, Sequoia National Park, Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park & Palm Springs as well as Disneyland (and perhaps if rumors are true our first entrance into Galaxy's Edge)
D. our last trip late August for Disneyland and D23 Expo

By the way...if any of you are in Disneyland when our paths cross it would be cool to have any meet ups or say hi. I've met a few awesome WDWMagic members in Walt Disney World and it has been so cool. Don't be afraid to say hi if you see us walking around too!:):cool:

So let's start the first leg of the trip report: November 20-25 2018

Tuesday November 20
Brad and I both had a full day at work. My day should have been full of students but since it is Deer Hunting week (or at least the big gun hunting week) in Wisconsin and Thanksgiving week, our district gives the kids the week off and teachers report for two days of inservice. So it wasn't a hectic day for me. However there was a little kerfuffle in the plan for today. It involved our beloved and spoiled minature schnauzer Kapono.
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My boss said that we could leave at 3pm instead of 3:30pm so hubby picked me up on the way to drop off Kapono at the kennel. Kapono has only spent 2 days ever in this kennel (good experience) usually she stays with my sister but she was unable to care for her this time. So it was the first time Kapono was going to be spending an extended time in a kennel. So we arrived at the kennel and no one is there, even though it is check-in time and the main building for the kennel is unlocked. So we go inside and wait thinking that maybe the owner is just busy at the house and will be out soon. After 5 minutes no one came even though dogs were barking in her house and in the kennel. So hubs gives her a call. And in the mean time I'm concerned that she left the kennel unlocked! Anyway, the lady was surprised we were calling and had lost track of time and was an hour away from the kennel. But more importantly she was surprised that we were there because she hadn't written down our reservation!!!! Hubs had the email confirmation though. Luckily she had one run left. She said it was luckily for us, but really it was lucky for her!!!! I don't know what we would have done if that run wouldn't have been available though. Although hubs said one of our church members would have pitched in for us. So I took Kapono out into the fenced in yard area and when I let her in she happily ran into the open caged run. I was glad she seemed happy to be there but a little concerned now at the professionalism of the kennel owner. Fast forward to the end of our trip when we picked her up...Kapono had been a good girl there and was safe (and clean). So it all worked out and this over-protective dog mom was happy, and the kennel owner apologized a few times.


So anyway, after we dropped Kapono off we drove up to Minneapolis to the airport for our flight. We ended up being pretty early for our flight but we'd rather wait safely at the airport than be stressed out in traffic. Check in and security took less than 15 minutes so we had a decent meal and drinks at the Minnesota Wild (our favorite hockey team) teamed restaurant). We hadn't planned on eating here but I guess it was fate since we were wearing our Disney Minnesota Wild themed shirts.

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The seats we were in used to be 1st class but now the company is going more the Spirit route and these seats were $45 more to the base ticket price. So for that we thought it was a deal to have slightly bigger seats and more foot space for the flight.
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Adios Minnesota!
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We flew into LAX and took an Uber to Anaheim. The traffic was a little heavy in the arrival/departure area so it took our Uber driver a little while about 10-15 minutes to get to us, but it didn't seem too bad. We made it to Anaheim in about 40 minutes (our driver was a speed demon) but that was okay with us. We checked into our hotel the Best Western Park Place Inn, literally across the street from the entrance as seen below. We went to the ticket booth and purchased/cashed in 4 day park hoppers for our annual passes with Max pass and gleefully entered Disneyland with about 40 minutes until park close!

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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 25, 2019

We didn't get up quite as early today but we were through security at the Convention Center and in the basement area by about 5am. We saw a few people in chairs today but there were less of them. Supposedly they were allowed for people with medical conditions like back and knee issues. While I would have been more comfortable in the chair I'd brought, we aren't the type of people to lie about things like that to get an advantage or game the system. We had our towels and blankets so the floor worked out okay for us.

Our goal this morning was to see some of the show floor stuff that we hadn't seen before our first panel. Everyone was wondering how the entry would be handled this morning. Would there be chaos? Fights? A running of the Disnerds? About an hour before opening we were moved upstairs by the show floor doors. Brad took this cool shot when he went to use the facilities.
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Waiting.....and reading a 25 cent book from the library sale.
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Then we were told to stand up shortly before the doors opened. I guess I was excited. We were also told...."NO RUNNING! Be civilized, no pushing shoving. (and my favorite being a middle school teacher....) KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF AND OFF OF OTHERS! and again NO RUNNING!
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And the doors were open and 5...4...3...2...1 GO! Of course there were some idiots that ran. But we followed the rules and walked. We also kept our hands to ourselves. Even though there were some runners, there weren't as many and it wasn't a stampede like the previous day.
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Our first stop was the Disney Broadway exhibit for the virtual reality experience. That was really cool, it really was like we were on stage with the performers.
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Then we wandered around and checked out the little art displays for Mickey's 90th and some other areas. All the crowds were going to one of the three main stores on the show floor so we weren't among many people for quite awhile. It was almost leisurely!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

A little bit more of the Honda Autopia exhibit. Then we saw that the line for the Dream store was fairly short, the cast member said it was about a 20 minute wait. We hadn't planned to go to the Dream store but we figured the wait wasn't too bad and got in line. Soon after we got in line the line suddenly got mobbed with people, so we had great timing!

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The line moved a lot so it wasn't as bad as it looked.
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Some of the merch
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Outside the Dream store was an art booth and it was selling Brett Iwan's special Mickey painting for D23 Expo. I wish I had bought a print of it, but at least I have this picture.
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Next up: our first panel of the day.....barely
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

So we head over to the D23 Arena to get in the line for the Haunted Mansion panel. And so did every one else. It was a mess. There was a huge mash of people at the D23 gold line and the workers were saying that was full but people were still trying to push their way into the line. We decided to go standby. So Brad and I got in the standby line. So about 10 minutes before the panel was supposed to start the gold line was partially cleared and about another 5 minutes later the people with the stage pass were starting to be taken into the arena. We also noticed a lot of people skipping past the stage pass check point and going in with that line. Argh. We decided to play by the rules and stayed in stand by. It was looking like we would not be allowed in. But 15 minutes AFTER the panel started we were let in and were seated in the upper level and notice many, many empty seats and rows not only upstairs but in the lower area too. We (and other people we talked to) couldn't figure out why they started to seat people so late and so slowly. It was irritating. But it looks like we didn't miss much we saw the tail end of the first part of the show which was a guy showing some of the "tricks" of the Haunted Mansion. That didn't interest us too much.
The rest of the panel was good and had interesting information. They showed a clip of Jungle Cruise skippers tour of the Haunted Mansion, which was later released online, and it was hilarious! If you haven't seen it check it out on youtube.
Here's a link

And some pictures from the panel
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Sorry for the blurr, we were upstairs and far away from the stage. These two ladies were painting Haunted Mansion stuff to sell and I think money went to a charity but I can't remember which. Maybe it was for CalArts scholarships.
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Then the panel ended with a dramatic reading of X. Atencio's granddaughter (in the middle), the parasol laddy, and Deadly (?) from the Muppets of X's original script.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

It was around lunch time and both of us wanted some real food so we decided to check out the food truck area outside the convention center. There were a lot of trucks to pick from we picked a hot dog/bratwurst truck because it sounded good and it was one of the short lines. The food was good, we thought we were getting a special ketchup with the tots but it turns out we didn't order it. We thought it came with the tots because it was listed together but it was a separate charge. Oh well, they were still good with plain ketchup.

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Inside touring the show floor again
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Princess Party!
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Soon we were going to the Immersive Worlds panel, but we had some time to kill so upstairs there was a room with Avatar stuff. It was interesting to see the display but the room was dim, there were benches, and peaceful instrumental music. It was a nice relaxing place to hang out.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

A few more pictures of the Avatar/Pandora area.
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Next panel....Immersive Worlds. It was Imagineers talking about designing stuff at the parks. It was hosted by Joe Rhode. I beleive this was jeffrey Epstein introducing the panel
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Go, go, go Joe!


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The panel overall was interesting and I'm glad I went but it seemed like the imagineers kept repeating the same thing so (shocker) I got a little bored. It is like when I hear a sermon in church that is not my husbands' (he actually keeps his sermons short about 5-7 minutes and includes humor) the topic is interesting but if they start droning on and repeating themselves I get bored.
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
What a great trip so far. Glad you got some photos of Joe Rhode as well. Is this the first time you've seen him (I can't recall from previous D23 trips you went on). I would love to see him in person, and listen to what he had to say.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
What a great trip so far. Glad you got some photos of Joe Rhode as well. Is this the first time you've seen him (I can't recall from previous D23 trips you went on). I would love to see him in person, and listen to what he had to say.

I was the first time I'd heard Joe Rhode in person. He was interesting and I think hearing him do a lecture on his own would be more interesting than I found this panel. I think he reigned himself in because he was the moderator so he had to make sure everyone had their say. Rhode spent a lot of time talking about Pandora and Aulani and I would have like to hear more about Animal Kingdom in general. Scott Trowbridge, the main Imganineer on Galaxy's Edge was there too, and it was interesting hearing a little more about that too.
 
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

After the Immersive Worlds panel we wandered the show floor again for awhile and went back to the Park exhibit.
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Then we headed to our last panel of the day, again at the D23 Arena. It was more civilized than the Haunted Mansion panel. We had show passes but there was room in the D23 Gold member line, since they got in first we got in the Gold member line.
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The panel was about the music of Aladdin and we didn't really know what to expect. But we both like Aladdin and the music so we were looking forward to it. It turned out to be our favorite panel of the whole Expo! It was fabulous!
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Blurry, but there was a sign language interpreter. Sometimes they are fun to watch, especially when they get into the program they are interpreting. I think it would be a fun job, but kind of hard too.
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At the start a storyteller came out...
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

More from the AWESOME Aladdin panel! Then Scott Weinger, the voice of the original animated Aladdin and Steve from Full House, came out. I think I squeeed a little because I remember Brad looking at me and laughing. I immediately sent a picture to my friend who is a super Full House fan and she was super jealous.
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Then the panel started with the Prince Ali song and it was spectacular a lot of dancers on stage and in the crowd.
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(sorry for the blurry pictures, but it gives the idea of what went on)
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And Scott came back out as "Prince Ali"!
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There may have even been a joke at some point by him about dressing this way on the WDW Full House episode.
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Again a blurry picture, but it was Scott and Brad Kane, he was the singing voice for Aladdin. The blurry pictures may have been part me (excitement of the show), camera, and the fact that we really weren't supposed to be taking pictures and one of the ushers kept coming around when he saw people picture taking so I was trying not to be yelled at (and I wasn't).
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019
More of the AWESOME Aladdin panel
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Then Linda Larkin, the voice of the animated Jasmine came out.
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The voice of the singing Jasmine wasn't there, but this lady (sorry I can't remember her name) was the singer for one of the Muses at the start of Hercules. She sang a song, I think it was one from the Broadway version, it was a song Jasmine would have sung.
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Then the original Broadway Aladdin came on stage, so really 3 Aladdins on one stage!
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He sang as well.
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Linda Larkin intrroducing the lady who played Jasmine in the DCA production of Aladdin.
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DCA's original Jasmine
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Then the new Aladdin, from the Live action movie came out. So 4 Aladdin's and 2 Jasmines on stage!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

As I said the Aladdin panel was fantastic and we were enjoying it immensely and besides taking pictures (even though they didn't really turn out great) neither one of us really looked at the time, after all the panel was scheduled to be an hour from 5:30 to 6:30....

After the choreographer from the Live Action movie came out and they did Friend Like Me, there was some more discussion and I started thinking, "wow they haven't even done A Whole New World yet" and "hmmm, it must be getting close to 6:30pm."
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So I checked my phone and was floored to see it was almost 6:50pm! Oh no!!!! What's the problem? Well Disney Movie Rewards was having a special party at DCA and we had snagged tickets to the event and the rules said that we had to check in by 7:30pm or we would not be admitted! And being rule followers this made me panic a little. We were at the convention center and we had to pick up our stuff at bag check, stop at our room at the Candy Cane and still make the walk to Disneyland, go through security and check into the event!

So I tapped Brad and told him the time and said we probably had to leave early in order to make the event. He too was shocked at the time and both of us sadly left the Aladdin panel early as they were introducing the Whole New World story and song. Luckily we were sitting on the end (we try to sit on an end because I hate being "trapped" in the middle of a row), so we didn't have to disturb anyone.

Well we walked as quick as we could and luckily caught the shuttle from the Candy Cane to Disneyland so that saved us a little time. By the time we got through security and got to the check in point for the event it was about 7:20-7:25. Brad and I got to the check point and saw plenty of people still in line. There were two lines and one line had about 20 people in it and the other had two. I wondered why but I was in rush mode and I didn't realize why until they asked our names and I saw the small sign that the lines were divided alphabetically and we were in the A-M line and we should have stood in the N-Z line. Well the sign was small and people were blocking it so I was going to check in anyway, and I apologized for not seeing the sign and they checked us in anyway.

For the Disney Movie Reward party we were given admission to DCA, and the party had a buffet of food and beverages including alcohol! What was the cost? 150 movie reward points, and what would that be in $$. Well we had just bought and redeemed the points from Avengers Endgame on blueray with digital copy and we got 150 points for that. So really the cost of the bluray. NICE!

So we entered the park and made our way to the Disney Jr theater where the party was going to be. There was a line of people waiting to get in so we decided to relax on a bench while we waited.
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Then we went into the party. It was nice. There were two buffets with food, the bar, music pumping, and Mickey Mouse for meet and greets. My only complaint is there weren't enough tables or chairs so we ended up leaning against the stage and holding our plates. We wouldn't have minded sharing a table with anyone but the tables were small and already filled up. In the end we did have a nice discussion with two ladies who also had to stand.
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Most people hit the food and the drinks first so we joined the short line for Mickey.
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I'm glad I look okay in my solo picture with Mickey because I look drugged here, and I swear I hadn't had even a drink yet!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday August 24, 2019

Some more of the party. The food was good and besides the buffet servers brought around other snacks that weren't on the buffet.
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Embarrassing picture, but I was just goofing around and dancing like a weirdo. Honest, I hadn't even finished a full beer yet. I'm just a dork.
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Some of the food, we did use the stage as a table for a little bit.
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View of the room from the bar.
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Pasta. There was a table of cupcakes too for dessert which were pretty good.
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Eventually the announcement was made that we were really at the "launch" party for Movie Insiders. Movie Rewards was changing its name to Movie Insiders and a "new" system would launch in September.
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After the announcement we kept talking to some people for awhile. But our early morning was quickly catching up to us, well really Brad. As part of the party we would also have a special viewing area of Fantasmic in Disneyland. But Brad was getting tired and a little cranky and he wanted to leave. I had drunk quite a few beers by then and I was ready to party and have fun so I reluctantly left with him. I had also wanted to watch the Swing band and dancers in Disneyland on our last Saturday of our Disneyland year but it slipped my mind at the time and I remembered once we were back at the hotel. :(

Anyway, we were glad we went to the Movie event. Oh we were also given a bag with some swag that included a DVD. We already had the DVD and some of the swag wasn't stuff we really wanted to it will appear in our church's silent auction in about a month.

So once back at the Candy Cane I got over my disappointment about the swing dancers and we packed up our suitcases and got our Expo backpacks ready for Sunday.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday August 25, 2019

Last D23 Expo day and last day of vacation.... :(
Since Brad and I had done all the main things we wanted to do on the show floor that would have lines and we had a Stage Pass for the first panel we wanted to attend we slept in a little bit. We had to check our bags with the front desk since we would be flying out later in the day and we were actually at the hotel for the start of breakfast this morning!

That meant when we got to the Convention Center we were not put in the basement with the overnighters but in the new area. It had carpet on the floor! Deluxe!
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The tape lines were a little wider too in this area so there was more room to stretch out.
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Eventually they brought us up out of there and we spent about 30 minutes outside. Again we were given the warning of no running and no pushing.
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Looking at the overnighters by the show floor doors.
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Ready for the last day.
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We had a stage pass for the Little Mermaid panel, it was one of the first panels of the day. But we knew that the D23 Gold member line got in first so we decided to head there right away and get in line. People were still crazy today and there were runners (we did not run). As we got closer to the Arena to get in line, the people started to get CRAZY! And as we got closer to the Gold member area this guy started shoving at me! Really dude! There is plenty of space in the line. After the the second shove he gave, it was near the point were there were workers looking at people's gold member cards to let them in line. Anyway,Brad was in front of me, and this guy shoved at me and others nearby again trying to get past me and the others(he was not with other people or I would have let him by), I turned to him and in my loud reprimanding teacher voice and death glare I told him to get his hands off of me and not to shove at me. He just looked at me and backed down and stayed behind me. The best part was when we got to the final worker checking gold cards he did not have a D23 gold card so he wasn't allowed into that line! HAHAH!

So we got seated and had good seats for the show.
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Jodi Benson started the show with some "little mermaids" singing Part of Your World.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday August 25, 2019

More from the Little Mermaid panel. One thing we learned from the last Expo and this one is the best panels seem to involve music. This, the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, and the Aladdin panel were our favorites.
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Jodi and Ron Clements, the director for the film
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animator Mike Peraza
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Mark Henn, animator who help with animating Ariel.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday August

I forgot to include these pictures of the show floor as we waited for the Little Mermaid panel. This is the Emporium area which we hadn't spent much time in.
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A few final pictures from the Mermaid panel
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After the Little Mermaid panel we explored the Emporium area that had a lot of authors and vintage and other Disney sellers. I saw a lot of stuff I wanted at the vintage Disneyana sellers, but I had no more room in the suitcase. Next Expo I'll do more shopping in this area.

I bought Bob Gurr's book and he autographed it for me!
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Old sky way buck on display
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Ah Heimlich, I miss your chew chew train
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