Welcome, Foolish Mortals, to Day 1 of our Disneyland and D23 trip!
There's no turning back now..
The weekend of July 14th, 15th, and 16th marked an auspicious occasion in the lives of Disney fans worldwide: it was the biennial celebration (last was 2015) known as D23 Expo. D23 is the official Disney fan club, and the D23 Expo is the biggest con no one has heard of. Seriously, everyone gives me blank faces when I told them I was going to it or went to it, but there were an estimated 60k+ people at the event that weekend, along with the entire lineup of actors from the Marvel cinematic universe (no seriously, like ALL of them) along with Stan Lee, Mark Hamill, Oprah, Mandy Moore and Zach Levi, and many more! It's a big event. Bigger than we were ever even prepared for, but I'll get to that.
As seems to be our lot in life, we had to wake up at 3am to get to the airport at 4:30am for our 6:30am flight to Anaheim, California. D23 takes place at the Anaheim Convention Center that's literally about 10 minutes walk away from the front gates of Disneyland.
Here's our requisite early morning bleary-eyed selfie at the Columbus airport.
Before we knew it (ok, actually hours and hours later involving bratty kids kicking Tom's chair, a Vegas layover, and trying to sleep unsuccessfully in cramped plane seats) we were in California, and thanks to the time difference, we got to our hotel at only 10:30 in the morning.
Our hotel, the Candy Cane Inn, was really very wonderful, and highly recommended. I'd done a fair bit of research ahead of time on all of the "Good Neighbor" hotels. Unlike Disney World, which has a couple dozen official resorts at varying budget levels, Disneyland only has three official hotels, and they are all astronomically priced. But they have a list of local hotels on the street right across from Disneyland that they recommend. Candy Cane is one of them: a boutique hotel, cozy and small, with a view of the backside of Radiator Springs Racers, it's so close to Disney. We loved our stay there, especially the continental breakfasts. But unfortunately on that first day, our hotel was booked solid, and was quite strict on their 3:00pm check-in time for guests.
Thankfully they let us stow our bags, but that left us with four hours to kill. We decided to explore the area and get our bearings. We first walked over to where I thought the main entrance was for the convention center. I was wrong, and we wound up walking through construction beside the building to get to the real main entrance, but that did mean we got a chance to walk down this gorgeous walkway of palm trees. We're not in Ohio anymore, Toto!
We finally snaked our way around to the front entrance of the convention center, where we were greeted by the ginormous banners welcoming us to D23. We were also greeted by a line of about 200 people camped out on the sidewalk in front of the convention center, some with tents. Mind you, this was at 11:30am the morning before the first day of the expo. I had heard that people camped out overnight sometimes for the event, but hundreds waiting in front for 24 hours before the event even began? Oh dear. I really don't think we're in Ohio anymore, Toto.
One strange thing for us about going to Disneyland was the complete and utter lack of "the bubble." You know what I'm talking about if you've ever been on a Disney World trip and stayed at an official resort: they take care of you from the moment you arrive at the Orlando airport to the moment you depart on your plane back to wherever you call home when you're not there. ;)
Unlike this bubble of happy smiling faces who bend over backwards for whatever you might want or need, Disneyland was built in the middle of an already thriving city. Which means that instead of being ushered around on buses and seeing only swampland or Disneyana, you arrive and you see things like, in our case, a liquor store right across from your hotel, and a quicky-mart right next door.
It takes a little getting used to, but that quicky-mart, actually called A-Mart, had some fun merchandise, including this t-shirt we picked up for my Minnie Mouse-loving Grandma.
After checking out the A-Mart, the room still wasn't ready, so we decided to go see how long the walk was to the main attraction, the front gates of Disneyland.. The answer to that question was, about seven minutes. It took about seven minutes to walk from the door of our hotel room to the front gates of Disneyland. That's about the equivalent of walking from the front gates of Disney World back to Gaston's tavern in New Fantasyland. Impressive. Most impressive.
Tom had to pose with the Spider-man banner in the hub area of Disneyland.
From this central hub area, you can get to Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, or Downtown Disney, the shopping district. We decided to check out the third, since we had no park tickets for the day and it's a free area.
The World of Disney store at Disneyland is smaller than the one in Disney Springs/Disney World, but I think we actually liked it better for that reason. It was still massive, but not quite as daunting.
As soon as we walked in, I started photographing items I was tempted to purchase, so that I could ponder and get them later if I wanted. This shirt was awesome, and I came very close to getting it.
Loved both the Haunted Mansion and Monorail socks. I likely would have grabbed them, except the Haunted Mansion socks were scratchy.
This shirt is adorable, comfortable, and I really love the sentiment on it, but I thought it was odd how the neck looked darker than the rest. I don't want to start my day looking like I've already sweated a dark stain onto the neck of my shirt, thanks.
Very sweet and classic. Also somewhat sheer. This was eventually a no for me as well.
I was very excited about getting to see the Hatbox Ghost at the Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom has yet to have acquired a Hatbox Ghost: at least not one that is visible to the corruptible mortal-eye. So I wanted to get a souvenir to celebrate. This key was tempting, but I think it was $35? Eep. I declined..
This I wound up not being able to resist, and you'll see it in my Disney haul video. I have very medieval-gothic-fairy tale taste in my home decor and its velvetty jewel tone color scheme, and this pillow is the first I've ever seen from Disney parks that would fit. I spent way more on this pillow than I ever have on a throw pillow before, but...you know. I really love it.
While we were in Downtown Disney, I noticed a group of people crowded around the window of the candy shop. Apparently these young ladies star in Descendants, the Disney Channel show? (shrug)
I swear one of these trips I'll remember to pick up one of these $10 bottle stoppers themed around the Haunted Mansion bat I love so much. I forgot to go back and get one this time too.
I already have the tank top to match this new skirt. I think wearing both would be overkill, but isn't it cute?
This was our first time seeing a display of these awesome figurines. They are from the Vinylmation toy line, most of which I don't care for since they all cram Disney characters into the same awkward toy shape, but this is their first line of legit figures, a whole blind box series of Mickey Mouses (Mice?) based on the new Mickey Mouse short cartoons that my husband and I love. His different outfits are recognizably from the different short cartoons. Yeah, we wound up grabbing two of the blind boxes on another day, despite the fact that they weren't as cheap as blind box toys usually are.
After this, we were finally able to go back to the hotel and get our room (yaaaay!) which wound up being up on the second floor on the front right corner of the building, like, three seconds walk from the lobby and from the walkway to Disney (yaaaay!). We unpacked, changed clothes (we were drenched with sweat after being homeless for four hours), and went back to Downtown Disney for a supper of.....Earl of Sandwich's Holiday Sandwich!!
Ok it may not look appetizing in the photo, but it's the best sandwich ever: cranberry, stuffing, turkey, gravy....oh my goodness sooooo good. We were actually full enough that we each only ate half and saved the other half, which is how we discovered that a Holiday Sandwich is even MORE delicious eaten cold, sort of like Thanksgiving leftovers.
We walked by the entrance to the Grand Californian, one of Disneyland's three official hotels and Arts & Crafts decor themed, and I had to get a photo of the beautiful entry gate. We wanted to go in and peek, but Tom was carrying our backpack, they had security screening, and we were too tired by this point to want to deal with that again (bear in mind we'd been up since 3:00am our time).
After passing out in bed...or Tom was able to, and I stayed up for an hour or two unable to sleep...we woke up the next morning from a wakeup call at 5am, so we could get breakfast in the lobby as soon as it started at 6:30, and be on our way to the expo by 7:00 or so.
The continental breakfast was oustanding!!! Fresh pastries, bagels, cream cheese, muffins, fruit, greek yogurt....
Cereal, coffee, oatmeal, three types of juices...
Definitely very nice.
So we got to the expo and had braced ourselves. But we thought at least the end of the line, wherever it might be, would be marked. No such luck. They had people going up to the front entrance of the expo hall only to try to find the end of the line that doubled back on itself back to about 100 yards away from the front of the expo hall. It was completely confusing, and I'm still not sure we didn't accidentally jump the line, since there were gaps in groups of people walking where they wanted us to go. We got inside within twenty minutes or so, went through security, and then were directed upstairs for the "general line." The general line was mostly people sitting in the hallways, like literally at least 10-12 groups of about 100 people all sitting down in taped up lines on the floor. We kept walking past them because they were full already, and then were directed into a room that was nothing but taped up lines on the floor.
We were in there for about an hour and a half or two hours or so, and honestly I was starting to wonder if we'd ever even see the show floor or leave the room. It was my first morning of the first day, and I'd never been to a con that was anything like this...not even the badge lines at Dragon*Con...so I was starting to despair.
At about 9:30 or so we were finally released from our holding cell, and directed downstairs to the show floor/exhibition hall. Yaaaay, we made it! Tom and I made a beeline for the Hallmark booth so we could get our exclusive IttyBittys plush, but along the way I was snapping quick pictures left and right.
This was my "oh my gosh we're in!" shot as we entered the room.
This is "oh my gosh it's screen worn movie costumes but I have to run by them and I'm totally coming back here later" shot. That's why it's at a slightly drunk angle.
This was the set-up for the Star Wars Land pavilion. Really it was beautifully done.
After we got our IttyBittys, the question was...by golly, where do we start? I wanted to check out the Pixar and Disney Animation Pavilion/Booth. They had a couple of walls filled with Luxo Balls. It made a fun photo backdrop.
They also had Lightning McQueen
Cruz Ramirez
and Jackson Storm, the "bad guy" in the new film.
From there, Tom wanted to go over to the Sphero booth to check out the new Sphero Spidey in person. Sphero are the people who made the BB-8 mini robot that everyone had to have when Force Awakens came out. They have a new interactive Spider-man robot they just debuted a couple weeks ago.
And their booth featured a giant version of Sphero Spidey, complete with his blinking eyes and everything. Tom took a picture with him.
As we left the Sphero booth, Tom saw a green screen. We were in the back of the exhibition hall, sort of away from any big booths. We looked at the demo screen, and when I saw what it was, I had to do it.
My resulting video:
We swung by the Duck Tales booth with Scrooge's Money Vault, but the line was already 2 1/2 hours long or so. So we walked around to the Oh My Disney booth area, which wound up being one of the best areas of the event. They were friendly, well-organized, offered lots of fun things and a few surprises. Well done, Oh My Disney!
Their booth had Spidey Legos....
Really nice latte art.
I walked over to the Disney Store entry, where you can peer inside past the walls and see a bit of a glimpse of what's in there. But at this point the line was about 3 hours long to get in there, so this was the closest I got to the new John Lasseter shirts everyone wanted. I was hoping to pick one up for a friend.
We walked back over to the Pixar area to see if there were any giveaways going on, and I bumped into Brian Hull. You've probably watched one of his videos without knowing his name...he does impressions of Disney characters and has sung songs in a string of different voices as the different characters.
When we first walked down from our holding cell upstairs, we were in a hurry to get into the exhibition hall, but I almost stopped for a photo when I saw Stinky Pete sitting by himself in a sheltered corner, just being very Stinky Pete-ish. When I saw him again later, I had to get a photo with him.
Then I wanted to stop back by those movie costumes I'd had to run past earlier in the day. Here's Giselle's wedding gown from Enchanted!
Oh, that reminds me of a side note....I actually had two complete strangers come up to me this day and tell me I should totally cosplay Giselle. I actually have cosplayed her before years ago, in her pink animated gown, but now I'm seriously considering doing her teal curtains gown.
Emma Watson's Belle gown.
Another solo shot of Giselle's gown
Maleficent's robes and headpiece from the movie of the same name.
A gown from the live action 101 Dalmatians, which I didn't even know existed.
We were a bit worn from running around the big exhibition showcases, so we decided to check out the "other" side of the hall, where smaller booths featuring salespeople and independent Disney followers were. I loved this booth's Gravity Falls sign:
Then back over to the other side, to pose at the Funko booth with the enormous Belle Mystery Mini (I have the regular size one at home!)
Turned around, and saw Assistant Mayor Bellwether from Zootopia.
We went close to the Sphero booth again, and noticed that as people were posing with Spidey now, they were getting some interaction with him! And there was a Sphero staff person to take the photos this time! So we posed with Spidey, and he complimented my dress, asking if it came in an extra extra extra extra extra extra extra extra extra extra large so he could wear it. I laughed pretty hard at that.
Back to the Pixar booth to get our photo with Ralph and Vanellope. The line had been too long earlier.
And Maui's fish hook. Wonder if I can slow down the sun?
We saw this really great Ahsoka cosplayer. Ahsoka Tano is one of Tom's favorite Star Wars characters.
We then got in line to see the Star Wars Land model. We were in line about 40 minutes. I got a photo of this Dreamfinder with his son as Figment.
And this Finnick the Fennec Fox from Zootopia.
Finally it was our turn to check out the exhibit. A cool character who will be in the new land:
Cantina instruments
And the model! This is a great shot Tom got of it.
The crowd was like this all weekend to see the model.
Of course our friends at MouseSteps Weekly filmed a great video of the model, so I'll share it here:
Walking back over to the smaller exhibitor side to get some food, we saw this awesome cosplay of Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls. At first he didn't hear us when we asked for a photo, so it seemed like he was ignoring us. Which is pretty much perfect for a Grunkle Stan. He then tried to charge us money for the photo. Nicely played, sir.
Waiting in line for food, we also saw this excellent Li Shang cosplay from Mulan.
And this cosplay from the Disney short, Paperman.
And this great Vanellope. The purse is an awesome touch.
Also Jane from Tarzan. Her costume was very well done. The hoop skirt is a great touch.
I had to get a photo of these costumers dressed as Disney Parks food....since...well, you'll just have to see what my cosplay was the next day.
Love the wrapper "cloak" on the ice cream bar! I wish I had thought to ask how she made this.
Next, Ashley Eckstein, voice actress for Ahsoka and founder of the clothing line "Her Universe" was doing a panel at the Oh My Disney stage. We went over and watched, then got in line for her autograph.
Somehow we missed seeing this Lego BB-8 at the Oh My Disney booth. So cute!
Then it was time for the mini-parade down the main "street" of the exhibition hall/dealer room, "Mickey Avenue." We got to wave to Mark Hamill...
...and Stan Lee!
Around this time we walked around near the Oh My Disney booth again, and saw that some artists were set up doing sketches. I asked what was going on, and the booth employee said that if you got in line, you could have one of the six or eight Disney artists do a sketch of your choice for you, for free. Each artist had a laminated page you could look through while in line, showing what characters you could choose from.
We waited in line for an hour, but it went fast, since it was right on Mickey Avenue, and all the cosplayers walk up and down that aisle for people to see their awesome costumes.
Like this great Cruella. She was going method, and yelled with outrage when a peon walked in front of my camera.
This Rapunzel is actually my choice for favorite costume of the entire weekend. Her gown was just such a beautiful and intricate take on the Rapunzel gown. And her hair flowers were so delicate, and also SHE was stunning. My favorite.
Also had to photograph these Once Upon a Time costumers.
And this lovely Jasmine. I really do love the recent trend among Disney princess and prince costumers of using fancier fabrics and laces and patterns and brocades in their interpretations of the costumes, instead of just plain solid fabrics. Designer Daddy is perhaps the best and best known example...he may have even arguably started this trend I think. But I adore it.
This Hades cosplay was a show stopper. Everyone wanted his picture. And no wonder. Wow.
A good action shot of our view in line. Hades posing, Emperor Zurg walking by...
Finally it was our turn, and we got our sketches from the Disney artists. I got a Beast sketch done, and did a time-lapse video of the artist.
If you want to see who Tom chose to get a drawing of, you'll have to watch our haul video!
Love this brilliant and easy cosplay from what is arguably my favorite Pixar short, Luna.
Next, more photo-ops. I decided to set sail on Moana's boat.
...while Spider-man chilled out on a trash can nearby.
We walked by Hades again, no longer in line, and this time I got to get my picture with him.
The Marvel booth had screen worn costumes from the upcoming film, Black Panther (which looks sooooo good, doesn't it?).
Awesome Princess and the Frog cosplays of Charlotte and Tiana.
And more Princess and the Frog cosplay of Tiana, Charlotte, Naveen and Mama Odie in their casual outfits. The tray of beignets is a great touch.
The day was coming to a close, and the line for the Disney store was down to around an hour, so we decided to hop on in. The line ended up being about 40 minutes.
This is the only thing I wanted in the Disney booth all weekend. Unfortunately, you had to preorder an entire set of like...six doll pairs. You couldn't just order this. That's ok...eventually it will show up in my Disney doll collector groups on Facebook. :)
Tom had me pose in front of this stack of books. It was a promotional for A Wrinkle in Time. But perfect for a librarian photo op.
One more trip around the show floor to some of our favorite booths. I stopped to ask these Haunted Mansion costumers for a photo. I especially love the tiger girl from the tiger portrait, mid-transformation.
Finally, at the very end of the evening, we walked by the Disney Dream Store, and the normally two hour line was a walk-on...they were just cramming everyone into the store who wanted to go in. For a while it was mayhem, then those who knew what they wanted got their stuff and left, and we were able to walk around a quiet store.
This original painting of the Evil Queen from Snow White was $6,000 I believe. I bought the postcard print instead.
We love this commemorative artwork from Epcot. There was a whole line of merchandise with this art on it.
The artists who did several of the artworks featured on clothing and merchandise lines were there in the back, sitting and not busy. We talked to them for a while, bought a postcard they created together, and they told us all about creating it. It was a great experience!!
Leaving the first day of the Expo, I felt like Cinderella, enchanted by the day, but worn out in my glass slippers, and ready to run away back to my hotel room for the night. Another day would dawn bright and early, and we would be ready!
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