Trip Report, Episode V: The Expo Strikes Back (a.k.a. "A Disneyland Trip to Hold Me Over")
What's this? A trip report INSIDE OF another trip report? That's right, we have to go deeper (
cue "Inception" sound). Actually, this isn't going to be a full trip report on my recent Disneyland trip -- otherwise I'd be breaking it out into its own thread -- but I did want to share some of my experiences this past weekend at Disneyland and the D23 Expo.
Thursday
I had an 8 a.m. flight out of Boston on Arrival Day, so I landed at LAX around 11:30 a.m. PT. Unlike WDW, DL doesn't offer free transportation from the airport to the resorts, so I hopped in a Lyft and was at Paradise Pier Hotel around 1 p.m. I dropped off my bags and then walked over to Downtown Disney (it's still called that out in Anaheim), where I caught the monorail over to Disneyland. Unlike the WDW monorail, the DL monorail only has two stops -- Downtown Disney and Tomorrowland inside Disneyland -- but if you're going to DL rather than DCA, it can save you some walking. After grabbing a FastPass (paper tickets! How quaint!) for Star Tours, my first two stops were character meets with Tinkerbell and Moana to get my custom artwork signed.
Then I headed over to Fantasyland to do the cluster of dark ride-through rides. Of the four that are right next to each other behind the castle, only Peter Pan is available at WDW, so it was fun to do Pinocchio, Snow White and Mr. Toad. Sure, they're not the most exciting rides, but they're classics, so it was fun. After knocking each of those out, I went back to Tomorrowland for Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, then went across the street to California Adventure for the rest of the evening. I had dinner at Ariel's Grotto (with the World of Color dining package), rode the Golden Zephyr twice and Ariel's Undersea Adventure twice (both had no waits at all), then got in position to watch World of Color, one of the great DL nighttime shows that isn't available at WDW.
The last time I was at DL, World of Color was running the special 60th anniversary version, so it was nice to see the traditional show again. After the show, I considered trying to head over to Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout (the re-skinned Tower of Terror), but I also wanted to get to my room, unpack and try and get to sleep early so I could wake up for the main event: D23!
Friday
I'm an experienced convention goer (I've probably been to 50+ comic conventions over the past 10 years), but this was my first time going to D23, and I wasn't nearly prepared for the chaos that ensued. I walked over from the hotel to the convention center at about 9:30, thinking that if I went after they'd opened the show floor that there wouldn't be too much of a line. I was very wrong. The line to get in stretched the full length of the convention center -- twice. I had to walk all the way to the entrance to get to the back of the line, then all the way to the back of the convention center, where the line looped back toward the entrance. I ended up making it inside around 11:30, and rather than attempt anything else, I headed straight down to the queue hall to get in line for the 2:30pm Animation panel. Now, as you might have heard, about 1,000 people who were in line for the panel didn't make it inside once they started letting people in. Thankfully, I was not in that group, and had a pretty good seat for one of the best panels of the entire weekend. The highlight for me was seeing the scene from "Wreck-It Ralph 2" where Vanellope meets all the Disney Princesses, then having the voice actors for all the Princesses come out on stage. I could have died right then and I would've died happy.
Thankfully, though, I didn't die, and got to enjoy the rest of the panel, which was incredible (pun fully intended, as they showed us a scene from Incredibles 2). I'd show you pictures and video, but they made us put our phones in security bags, so I have none to share. After the panel was over, I decided to hit the show floor for some shopping. Even with the absurdly long lines for the
Disney Store (3+ hours), Disney Dream Store (2+ hours) and the Pin Store (4+ hours, really), I still managed to find a way to spend more money than I'd anticipated. I dropped a bunch of money at the Music Emporium, where they had some exclusive vinyl soundtracks, then spent even more at the Disney Fine Arts booth, where I bought a bunch of cool art that I have no idea where I'm going to hang in my Disney room.
Rather than go over to the parks after the Expo, I crashed in my hotel room for a super-early Saturday wake-up call.
Saturday
Hey, did you know there's a 5
A.M.? Well, it's true, and that's the time I woke up to get in line for the Expo -- which, to be clear, wouldn't be opening its doors until 9. I ended up in the outside line, but was inside the convention center by 9:30 a.m. and headed straight upstairs to get in line for the Power of the Princess panel. As you'll notice at this point, a large portion of this convention was waiting in one line for the privilege of waiting in another line -- and as someone who generally won't get in line for a ride if it has a wait time of over 30 minutes, I was a little sick of lines by this point. But those feelings all went away once I got into the panel room, where we got to hear Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara, Anika Noni Rose and Auli'i Cravalho share stories about recording their iconic roles. And they even sang for us! It was so amazing (though, again, phones were in security bags, so no pictures or video).
Once that panel was over I spent an extensive amount of time exploring every corner of the show floor, pouring over the incredible detail in every booth and ... just kidding. I, of course, got into another line, this one for the Parks & Resorts panel -- the one I'm sure everyone on this board was anticipating and has already heard about in full. Being in the room as all those new additions to the parks were announced was incredibly cool, even if most of it was just confirming rumors we'd all heard from various sources. It was also worth my time to be there because they gave us passes to see one of the previews of Fantasmic, which returned to DL on Monday, but ran previews on Saturday and Sunday. So after that panel, I got in line (again!) to pick up my wristband for Fantasmic. I ended up picking one of the Sunday showings, because I had dinner reservations on Saturday night.
I had dinner at the PCH Grill at Paradise Pier hotel. It was a typical Disney buffet dinner, though having actual fried chicken on the buffet (not just chicken tenders) was pretty cool. After dinner, I headed up to the pool deck to watch the fireworks show. Obviously we couldn't see the projections on the castle or the Matterhorn from that distance, but it was a really good view of the fireworks themselves, and they piped in the music for us to hear as well.
Sunday
There were two panels I wanted to see Sunday morning, but I also wanted to spend time enjoying the comfort of my bed, so I decided to sleep in and keep tabs on the line situation on Twitter before making my way over to the Expo. At about Noon, I saw a report that the outside line (which had been anywhere from 2-4 hours long earlier in the morning) had dissipated, so I headed over and walked right into the convention center, then right downstairs to get in line for the first of the two performances of Alan Menken's one-man show. As it turns out, I got into the queue hall just in time to head back upstairs and get a seat, so one of my last lines of the show wasn't really a line at all.
The show itself was incredible, as Menken ran through his entire career -- it wasn't just Disney stuff, but obviously the bulk of it was. I don't know if anyone put the full show on YouTube or not, but if you get a chance to check it out, or even just see some of the clips, I'd highly recommend it.
With it being the last day of the show, I finally forced myself to wait in line for one of the stores, so I could get some exclusive D23 Expo swag. I picked the Disney Dream Store, because they also had some pins I wanted -- though not as many as they had earlier in the weekend. I still managed to spend a bunch more money there, then walked the show floor some more, checking out as many booths as I could (some of them still had long lines to get in) before calling it a night and bringing an end to my convention time.
After dropping off my bags at my hotel, I headed over to Disneyland to get in position for Fantasmic. I had a pretty good view of the show, which was as good as I remembered it. Then I stuck around to watch the fireworks and the Main Street Electric Parade, which allowed me to cancel my dining package reservations for Monday night -- a very good thing since a couple of those reservations were literally just to secure the good viewing area. I didn't really have plans to eat four meals.
Monday
I was going to wake up early and rope drop DCA to ride Guardians (finally), but once again my desire to sleep won out. I did still make it to the park by 8:30 and quickly grabbed a FastPass for Guardians, then went over to Ariel's Grotto for breakfast with the princesses. Again, the food was really just fine, but this was all about the experience, which is always incredible. Also, one note for those of you who, like me, might be considering one of these meals as a solo diner: the fruit and pastry plate they provide for the table is the same size whether you're a solo diner or a party of four. So you actually get more food for your money if you're eating alone.
After breakfast, I hopped on Ariel's Undersea Adventure one more time, because I love it and I had a few more minutes to kill before my FP window opened for Guardians. Given how hot it was, I was happy to not wait in the line for Guardians, but as it turned out, the ride was well worth any wait. I loved the old Tower of Terror (though I definitely think the one at WDW was better than the one at DL), but this experience was outstanding. I was very impressed that they'd gotten the original cast to reprise their roles for the pre-show video (complete with Stan Lee cameo!), and the ride itself seemed to be an improvement over the original Tower of Terror -- though I could honestly just be imagining that. In fact, it was so much fun that after I finished my FP ride, I got back in the standby line to ride again. And I got a different song and set of scenes each time, so that was cool.
Speaking of cool, once I'd finished riding Guardians a second time, I headed down the street to check out the Frozen stage show. I'd heard that there were specific seats in the theater where the armrest flipped up, giving people like me a bit more space in the seat, so I asked about that. Not only were they helpful enough to direct me to one of those seats, but they also gave me a bench pass to sit on one of the benches by the door instead of having to stand in line. It's funny, I always tell people that if you need extra accommodation at WDW or DL to just ask, but I so rarely do that myself. I was glad I did in this case, and I think I'm going to force myself to take my own advice a little more often on future trips. The Frozen show itself was probably the best stage show I've ever seen at a Disney park, and I'd highly recommend anyone planning a DL trip any time in the future make some time for it.
By the time I got out of Frozen, Radiator Springs Racers was down (again, as it had been multiple times over the weekend), so I crossed the way to take in some of Disneyland on its 62nd birthday. The two rides that I really wanted to do on my last day were Indiana Jones (which isn't at WDW) and Pirates of the Caribbean (which is much better at DL than at WDW). The former was down (again - as were a lot of rides on Monday, I'm guessing in part due to the heat and humidity), so I went to Pirates. The line was a little bit longer than I'd normally wait in for a ride, especially one I've done before, but I'm glad I waited because I really enjoyed it -- and I don't know if I'll get back again before they change out the auction scene.
I didn't do too much more in the parks on Monday afternoon, in part because it was really hot and in part because a couple of the things I really wanted to do were down, plus I did have to get back to my hotel room and pack. I was happy I'd done all the nighttime stuff on Sunday, because I was able to cancel those Monday reservations and focus on packing and relaxing before heading home bright and early on Tuesday morning.
Lessons Learned for December
Spending the time I did at Disneyland taught me a few lessons -- or in some cases reminded me of them -- to keep in mind for when I return to WDW in December:
- First, above all, I badly need to lose some weight. There were a couple rides that I just flat-out ignored because I was almost certain I wouldn't fit on them (or at least wouldn't fit comfortably), and because of the added standing in line time at the Expo, my legs were just jello by the end of the day on Monday.
- Second, and related to the first, I need to be more proactive about asking for help when I need it, whether its a wider seat, a seatbelt extender, etc. I keep trying to do things the way I've always done them, and that just isn't going to work, regardless of how much weight I lose. I'm older than I was when I started going to the parks, with years of wear and tear on my knees and back. I tend to tell myself to take things slow, then once I get into the park, the Disney magic gets to me and I'm like "I WANT TO DO ALL THE THINGS NOW", then at the end of the day, I'm like "WHY DID I DO THAT?"
- Be flexible with dining plans. I'm actually pretty good about this, not forcing myself to keep every reservation I made, but given the number of reservations I have for Dec./Jan., it's going to be even more important for me to stay on top of them and make sure I really want to keep them the day before.
- Prioritize my "must-dos". For Dec./Jan., this is absolutely the fireworks shows and, assuming I can drop some weight to fit on it, Flight of Passage. I'm the kind of person that if I get to do my "must-dos", like I did at the Expo, then the other stuff isn't a big deal to me if I can't do it.
- Stop buying pins and artwork. I have no more room for this stuff in my house, and yet I keep buying more of it. I bought a handful of pins at the hotel gift shop on Saturday night, then more at the Expo on Sunday, then more at DCA on Monday morning, at which point I said "okay, I'm done now." Then I bought more pins at Pin Traders in Downtown Disney on the way back to my hotel. Then I bought another pin Tuesday morning before my Lyft arrived. I have a problem. (Note: the chances of me actually "learning" this lesson by December are like zero. I might as well just buy another pin trading bag and accept my defeat.)