Trip Report Disneyland and D23 Expo 2017 Completed

Hello! Okay, I guess I didn't think of the most creative title but it does the job. :)

My husband (Brad) and I (Amy) decided last year in July while riding Mickey's Fun Wheel at California Adventure to attend the D23 Expo in 2017. Why? We were looking over at the Convention Center from the top of the wheel and I told him that's where the Expo would be held and how it might be fun to go. He agreed.

When we returned from California I book our hotel rooms and in December 2016 on Christmas Eve I purchased our 3 day tickets (with early bird pricing) to the Expo. Somewhere on some unimportant date I also bought airfare! Ha! We had renewed our premier pass in September, so admission was covered for Disneyland.

Fast forward not to July 2017 and our travel dates were July 12 to July 18, 2017. Hey look at that, we would be there on Disneyland's birthday too! We were hoping that the train and boats would be back in operation (spoiler alert...) they weren't, but Fantasmic did open while we were there.

So here we go!

I'm tagging a few people that have followed my past reports. If I missed you, sorry, but please follow anyway. If you are new, welcome. And if I tagged you and you don't want to read, no problem! :)

@figmentfan423 @MinnieM123 @Cesar R M @donaldtoo @MySmallWorldof4 @MOXOMUMD @JenniferS @PacNWTigger @Tuvalu @Gabe1 @betty rose @Songbird76 @sheriffwoody @bee @blgauger @BuddyThomas @fractal @93boomer @MouseDreaming @ @Wrangler-Rick @PUSH @Mr Ferret 88 @amjt660 @Minnesota disney fan
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Once we got to DCA and went in search of food. We didn't want to go to Flo's because we had just eaten there. We thought about the Carthay Lounge but there was a line to get in and we were hungry bears. So Brad suggested going over to Smoke Jumpers Grill by Soarin, and I wasn't too thrilled about it but it was close and I was hungry. Did I mention we were hungry? There are mostly burgers on the menu, so I told Brad what I wanted and I went in search of the reference to the Parent Trap (the original with Haley Mills) that I'd heard was put in during the refurb. Parent Trap is one of my favorite movies, I drove my poor mother crazy one summer because I watched it at least once a day every day.

Found it!
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We went outside with our food. The weather was perfect and there was a nice view from the table. We could also hear a little of the Five and Dime performance from the Carthay Circle area.
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We both got bacon cheeseburgers and I don't know if we were just hungry or what but these were actually really good. Everything was freshly cooked and the burger had good flavor.
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Then we did some stuff in Carsland.
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And got a treat at the Cozy Cone. The ice cream line took forever, there was only one cast member in the booth and it was just really inefficient given the amount of people that lined up for ice cream.
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Finally we got our chocolate dipped twist cone and found a bench to enjoy it.
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We were going to do Guardians and the line was 60 minutes but we were starting to feel really wiped out and we had another exciting day planned for tomorrow. So just a couple of pictures and then we headed out for the night.
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Coming up soon: July 17th is Disneyland's birthday and what will Amy & Brad do with no Expo!?!
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
So much to comment about here in yesterday's update, but I'm a bit pressed for time as I'm getting ready for work here this morning. Ugh! Anyway, a few below--

Here's where we were sent to wait.
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Perhaps the photo says it all, but it doesn't exactly appear as though they went out of their way to make their D23 guests comfortable, while waiting. :rolleyes: :banghead:

Wayne Jackson came out towards the end of the panel. I really don't know much about him and I am planning on learning more, it sounds like he has an interesting story.
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My gosh, what a photo of superstars! You were so lucky to have experienced this panel. You never know if this group will ever get together again.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
So much to comment about here in yesterday's update, but I'm a bit pressed for time as I'm getting ready for work here this morning. Ugh! Anyway, a few below--



Perhaps the photo says it all, but it doesn't exactly appear as though they went out of their way to make their D23 guests comfortable, while waiting. :rolleyes: :banghead:



My gosh, what a photo of superstars! You were so lucky to have experienced this panel. You never know if this group will ever get together again.

No that hall e area isn't known for comfort. The day we waited on the second floor felt like luxury compared the that basement area.

And if you have more comments please share. Did you see the Minnie dresses?

I won't be able to update again for a couple days but I will be able to check for any other comments.
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
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Then we decided that we would attempt to get a Stage Pass again for the Kiss Goodnight presentation with Floyd Norman and Richard Sherman. We both agreed that since it was in that little arena we would probably be okay without it and if the Stage Pass line was too long we wouldn't stand in line.

On the way we to the Stage Pass distribution area we got distracted by a droid.
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Some Cinderella art work. Cindy is my favorite classic princess and I have a fairly large Cinderella collection at home. Sadly this painting did not come home with me but at least I have pictures (much cheaper!)
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Brad thought about some new grilling equipment and plates.
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Then we passed by some photo ops that were fun.
I am satisfied with this photo, Baymax.
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There was a line for this photo but only about 4 groups deep. When it was our turn a Dad that been over to the side and NOT in line rushed (ran actually) his kid in front of us to get into the photo op. Man, that made me mad. He had been watching for awhile and there was clearly a line. So I said some sort of remark to him about the line and cutting in front of others. He looked surprised that I said anything and actually so was Brad because I usually don't. I kept saying comments to him as he took his picture too. Since he had a child with him I kept my remarks G rated. But this guy made me mad because he clearly was looking to cut in on someone because I saw him watching from the side.

Anyway when we were able to actually take our turn we got a couple nice photos. The people behind us in line took some good photos. And because they were so concerned about taking good photos we took theirs and I stayed inside the photo op until they came in so no one would jump in front of them.
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OMG the detail on that Cinderella picture!!! Wow. That is gorgeous!!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Another Pirates photo op picture
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We made it over to the Stage Pass area and even though we didn't think we would need one the line was super short, only about 20 people. So Brad too my lanyard with ticket and went into the line to get the Stage Pass and I went in the D23 Gold member line to get my free gift because that line was short now too. All I needed for the free gift was my gold card.

It's important to note that the windows of the Stage Pass distribution were adjacent to the line for the Gold member gift. They however were not connected and just because you were in the line for the gold member gift did not mean you were also in line for a Stage Pass.

The people in front of me in the Gold member line were weird and discussing something very heatedly. Then finally the older lady (the mom?) broke away grabbed the other peoples lanyards and broke over to the Stage Pass distribution. She completely skipped everyone that was standing in line for Stage Pass including Brad and walked up to a window, cutting off someone that was headed to it! OMG! What is with people and skipping people waiting in line!?! I think I muttered to myself about the lady cutting in front of everyone in line and the people that had been with her turned and looked at me and I just stared back at them.

Here you can see the line and how the windows were set up. I will say that it was easy for the lady to cut the line especially since the attendant running the front of the Stage Pass line was really slow about sending people to the Stage Pass windows. There was a nice board above the area letting people know if passes were still available or not.
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After we got the Stage Pass we were at loss at what to do we weren't hungry we had already eaten our lunch. We had seen a lot of the show floor and stuff we thought about doing again had long lines. So I looked at the schedule, in the arena steps away there was a panel about the show Once Upon a Time. We watch the show and like it so I asked hubby if he wanted to go to that. Another panel that might have been interesting was at the Archives stage but we wouldn't have time to make it to that one as it was starting in a couple minutes. And Parks and Resorts was starting but we definitely weren't getting into that.

So hubs agreed to go to this panel. As I said I thought it would be interesting since we watch the show, but I also thought it would be a good place to sit and rest. Since it wasn't a must do for us, I also thought if we wanted to nap it would be a nice dark place for that. The panel turned out to be very interesting and we both stayed awake. The guy who plays Hook was there and he is cute and kind of funny. he also sang his song from the musical episode and that was enjoyable. The producers on the panel were cryptic about information on the new season but whatever. We were both surprised at the amount of people that were super fans of the show in there. We didn't realize the large fan base it had. There was a lot of whooohoos in there.
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When we got out of the panel we found a spot to sit and catch up on the announcements from Parks and Resorts which was finishing up. I'm sure everyone reading this has already seen the announcements so no need to rehash. Some were quite exciting. We ended up being near the exit area of the Parks panel when it got over and were a little disappointed when we saw what had been given to attendants, a pass for the seating area at the soft open of Fantastic for either that night or Sunday night. Booo! But we consoled ourselves that we had a dining package already lined up for it on official opening night on July 17 (Monday). All the attendants also got a green Mickey balloon.

We did walk around the show floor again and talked to some people that were selling books and a couple of podcasters I listen to.
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I found a cool new dining room table. Although the chairs, even though expensive, were really plasticy and seemed of cheap quality.
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I love that table!
So, in the picture with you with the Belle doll thing...on the left, there's a group of people standing there, and a guy in a red shirt...is he wearing mickey ears, or are those just really coincidentally placed eyes from the robot thing on the wall in back of them?
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Once we got to DCA and went in search of food. We didn't want to go to Flo's because we had just eaten there. We thought about the Carthay Lounge but there was a line to get in and we were hungry bears. So Brad suggested going over to Smoke Jumpers Grill by Soarin, and I wasn't too thrilled about it but it was close and I was hungry. Did I mention we were hungry? There are mostly burgers on the menu, so I told Brad what I wanted and I went in search of the reference to the Parent Trap (the original with Haley Mills) that I'd heard was put in during the refurb. Parent Trap is one of my favorite movies, I drove my poor mother crazy one summer because I watched it at least once a day every day.

Found it!
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We went outside with our food. The weather was perfect and there was a nice view from the table. We could also hear a little of the Five and Dime performance from the Carthay Circle area.
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We both got bacon cheeseburgers and I don't know if we were just hungry or what but these were actually really good. Everything was freshly cooked and the burger had good flavor.
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Then we did some stuff in Carsland.
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And got a treat at the Cozy Cone. The ice cream line took forever, there was only one cast member in the booth and it was just really inefficient given the amount of people that lined up for ice cream.
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Finally we got our chocolate dipped twist cone and found a bench to enjoy it.
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We were going to do Guardians and the line was 60 minutes but we were starting to feel really wiped out and we had another exciting day planned for tomorrow. So just a couple of pictures and then we headed out for the night.
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Coming up soon: July 17th is Disneyland's birthday and what will Amy & Brad do with no Expo!?!
I LOVE the original Parent Trap. DD and I actually JUST watched it on Sunday while we were making our Minnie ears! She had started watching the newer one with LL:hungover: and I told her I loved the older one. She went to Netflix and they had it, but I think it's temporary. She said it was only there until like Sept. 12th or so. No idea if it's on the American Netflix, but if you have Netflix and want to get your fix, you can check. Sadly, they did NOT have the original Freaky Friday.
 

PacNWTigger

Well-Known Member
Wow!! You guys were super busy with D23 stuff! So jealous you got to see Baxter, Sklar and Sherman! I don't think Steve would be able to handle all of the waiting at something like that. I would be stuck waiting in line while he was meandering around...LOL! I'm glad you guys had such a great time. It looks like we will be going to DLR in a couple of weeks for a last minute trip before Kricket has her puppies. :D I'm totally excited about the trip...and the puppies. :joyfull:
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
No that hall e area isn't known for comfort. The day we waited on the second floor felt like luxury compared the that basement area.

And if you have more comments please share. Did you see the Minnie dresses?

I won't be able to update again for a couple days but I will be able to check for any other comments.

Oh, there is so much more to comment on!! Here's a few:

Like I mentioned the panel was about Marc Davis and the men presenting the panel had been able to meet Marc Davis quite a bit before he passed and obviously worked for Disney. They have been working on a book about Marc Davis and his time at WED and that was the focus of the panel. The panel was fantastic. I enjoy Marc Davis' artwork, work, and humor so I was pretty pumped about this information. The book sounds fabulous, but the downer was they said it probably wouldn't be released until 2019!!

I took a few pictures during the panel.
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What a wonderful experience to see that presentation, knowing that the presenter knew Marc Davis, before Marc passed away. I love this particular slide with the wording and pictures--simple, nostagic. It really made me pause and appreciate . . .

So the next exhibit we went to was a display of Minnie Mouse fashions and the Minnie van made by Honda. The fashions had been used by Ms. Mouse in various parks and other events.
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Well, it goes without saying that I'd LOVE the Minnie costumes!!! :joyfull: Those were so fun and cute!!

Cruella DeVille
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Now, my favorite costume here in the grouping with Cinderella, etc., was the red, Cruella DeVille gown. This si creatively designed and has the "wow" factor--perfectly in sync with the villan's character. I really like over-the-top styling for movies, etc. It's just fun, and a great escape from daily reality, you know?! :happy:
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I love that table!
So, in the picture with you with the Belle doll thing...on the left, there's a group of people standing there, and a guy in a red shirt...is he wearing mickey ears, or are those just really coincidentally placed eyes from the robot thing on the wall in back of them?

I LOVE the original Parent Trap. DD and I actually JUST watched it on Sunday while we were making our Minnie ears! She had started watching the newer one with LL:hungover: and I told her I loved the older one. She went to Netflix and they had it, but I think it's temporary. She said it was only there until like Sept. 12th or so. No idea if it's on the American Netflix, but if you have Netflix and want to get your fix, you can check. Sadly, they did NOT have the original Freaky Friday.

Good eye on the picture. It looks like he was not wearing Mickey Ears, just a lucky coincidence with the stuff that was on the wall.

The original Parent Trap is on Netflix here. I own a DVD copy of the original (and it also came with the Parent Trap II as well). I have no interest in owning the LL version of Parent Trap but occasionally when it is on tv here I get sucked into it.

As for Freaky Friday it is going to be on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) here in a week or so as part of the Disney Vault they do 4 times a year. Swiss Family Robinsion will also be shown. But I'm betting you don't get TCM over there.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Wow!! You guys were super busy with D23 stuff! So jealous you got to see Baxter, Sklar and Sherman! I don't think Steve would be able to handle all of the waiting at something like that. I would be stuck waiting in line while he was meandering around...LOL! I'm glad you guys had such a great time. It looks like we will be going to DLR in a couple of weeks for a last minute trip before Kricket has her puppies. :D I'm totally excited about the trip...and the puppies. :joyfull:

So awesome you will be able to get a quick Disneyland trip in and in the fall. I'd like to see the Halloween stuff out there. Weren't you thinking of doing a solo trip sometime too? Or am I making stuff up? So cool that Kricket will be having pups. Share some pictures of them when they come!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Oh, there is so much more to comment on!! Here's a few:




What a wonderful experience to see that presentation, knowing that the presenter knew Marc Davis, before Marc passed away. I love this particular slide with the wording and pictures--simple, nostagic. It really made me pause and appreciate . . .




Well, it goes without saying that I'd LOVE the Minnie costumes!!! :joyfull: Those were so fun and cute!!



Now, my favorite costume here in the grouping with Cinderella, etc., was the red, Cruella DeVille gown. This si creatively designed and has the "wow" factor--perfectly in sync with the villan's character. I really like over-the-top styling for movies, etc. It's just fun, and a great escape from daily reality, you know?! :happy:

Great insight, as usual. I agree the Cruella dress is really WOW.
 

PacNWTigger

Well-Known Member
So awesome you will be able to get a quick Disneyland trip in and in the fall. I'd like to see the Halloween stuff out there. Weren't you thinking of doing a solo trip sometime too? Or am I making stuff up? So cool that Kricket will be having pups. Share some pictures of them when they come!
I'll be sure to share some holiday pics with you guys. I think we're only doing two days at the park, and I think we're going to rent a car and just drive for a day since Steve grew up down there.

I will be sure to send some puppy pics to you as well. Kricket is pretty cranky right now, but she's handling everything like a champ.
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Good eye on the picture. It looks like he was not wearing Mickey Ears, just a lucky coincidence with the stuff that was on the wall.

The original Parent Trap is on Netflix here. I own a DVD copy of the original (and it also came with the Parent Trap II as well). I have no interest in owning the LL version of Parent Trap but occasionally when it is on tv here I get sucked into it.

As for Freaky Friday it is going to be on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) here in a week or so as part of the Disney Vault they do 4 times a year. Swiss Family Robinsion will also be shown. But I'm betting you don't get TCM over there.
Nope, no TCM, and our Netflix has different stuff, too. When I was in the US in April/May, I could watch Longmire and DD could watch Girl Meets World. When we got back, those were gone, as they had been before we went to the US. I loved Parent Trap II as well..I watched it so many times my mom and brother got tired of it. My brother started hiding movies he didn't want to watch, like The Boy Who Could Fly and Flight of the Navigator. I wonder if Netflix has those....probably not.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I'll be sure to share some holiday pics with you guys. I think we're only doing two days at the park, and I think we're going to rent a car and just drive for a day since Steve grew up down there.

I will be sure to send some puppy pics to you as well. Kricket is pretty cranky right now, but she's handling everything like a champ.

Sounds good, I'll be looking forward to pictures!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
You had me at John Stamos.

I know, isn't he dreamy? Here's a story for you...in college one of my housemates had a Full House poster and of course it had a very handsome John Stamos featured right in the middle. So the poster took its place of honor in our living room and we would often pose in front of the poster after a few glasses of "juice" and before we went out for more "juice". We have have a lot of incriminating photos of us and Uncle Jesse, and not I'm not sharing those!:)
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Monday July 17: Happy Birthday Disneyland!!

No waking up at 4 am for us this morning, although we did get up at 6 am to get ready for another big day. Today we were taking part in a Disneyland Scavenger Hunt sponsored by a podcast that I listen to. We were meeting around 7:30am for breakfast at the ESPN Zone and a briefing of the rules of the contest. Breakfast was pretty good and on of our table mates from the Double Dip Cruise we took this past June was a part of of the scavenger hunt as well. It was nice to see her again, she had gone to D23 too but we hadn't been able to meet up before this. She had done the Sorcerer package for the D23 Expo (about $2000 for the ticket with perks like guaranteed seats, a special entrance with no lines, early shopping and other stuff), so it was interesting to hear about her experience.

Ready to Scavenge!
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The scavenger hunt had 250 questions covering all the lands of Disneyland. I think we ended up completing about 240 of them, some we had to take a guess on because we never made it into Critter Country or Tomorrowland by the time we had to return our packets at 3pm back at the ESPN. The 1st place prize was a 3 night trip to the winners choice of either WDW or Disneyland. We are a little compettitive so Brad kept reminding me it was for fun too. And we did have fun.

A lot of the questions were asked about Main Street so we spent a little time right away on MS but there were a lot of Toontown questions too. So after about 15minutes on Main Street we headed to Toontown before it got busy because we had to go into Mickey and Minnie's house.

So I didn't end up taking many pictures during the hunt but here are a few.
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As we got going, I kind of realized that we probably weren't going to come in first and by talking to some teams at breakfast we realized how many were locals. We have been to Disneyland a lot in the last few years but I realized we wouldn't have their depth of knowledge. Even our table mate was a local and had worked at Disneyland at the Emporium. So around noon there was going to be a special presentation for a few minutes to wish Disneyland Happy Birthday. We didn't camp out be we attended while still searching for answers. I don't regret it at all, it was really special to hear Walt Disney's opening speech being played in Town Square as I stood below his Firehouse apartment. I could close my eyes and imagine he was there. After that characters came out and we continued our hunt.

Here was the birthday celebration
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We didn't really take any breaks and by the time we turned in our packet at 2:55pm (5 minutes to spare) we were ready to sit and get some food while we waited for results.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
We were famished and I suppose we could have eaten at ESPN but I had wanted to eat at the Jazz Kitchen for awhile and that was nearby so we walked over there. There were some open tables at the bar so we sat in that area. Once we sat down we realized the time and that we had a Fantasmic dining package at the Blue Bayou in a couple hours. So even though we were hungry we just went for an appetizer and a couple drinks. We had also found out that the winners of the scavenger hunt were going to be announced while we were supposed to be eating our Blue Bayou dinner. So we weren't going to be present for the crowning of the winners. Luckily our friend from the cruise said that she would text us our results.

While we enjoyed our drinks we talked about the scavenger hunt and even though we knew we wouldn't win we still had a lot of fun doing the hunt. It gave us a unique day at Disneyland.

At the Jazz Kitchen. By the way, Brad teased me for wearing a WDW 45th Anniversary shirt on Disneyland's birthday.
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We got the Boudin balls, which was basically pork and fried rice balls. They were delicious and very flavorful. This little taste of what the restaurant had to offer left me wanting more. The people next to us had some really good looking meals!
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We went back over to Disneyland to enjoy the rest of the night and see the new version of Fantasmic! But first HAPPY BIRTHDAY DISNEYLAND!!!:D
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