Sign outside our hotel
Wakeup call about 5:45 – had to be ready for our luggage pickup at 7. We opted to keep the laptop with us, as the coach would be secured during our excursions. We had a lovely breakfast buffet at the Twist restaurant – sat with Scott and Michael and I think Barb & Tony again. While the hotel was very nice, it’s probably not somewhere I’d come back to – too pricey, even for the location.
Sign outside our hotel
Our transportation was a bit delayed, so instead of leaving for Walt Disney Imagineering in at 8:15 – it was closer to quarter til 9, I think. Took about 40 min or so to get to Glendale – Michael did an awesome job of getting us thru traffic that morning! By 9:20, we were meeting with Dave, one of the Imagineers at WDI. We were asked to leave all cameras and cellphones on the bus, which would be locked until our return – the Guides also passed out credentials good for that day at both WDI and the Studios.
We spent about one and a half hours on the tour overall – we started with about a 15 min presentation on the history of Imagineering – video clips & photos intermingled with comments from Dave. He wrapped the talk up by mentioning the Living Character Initiative being their most recent focus and showed clips of Lucky the Dinosaur and the Muppet Mobile Labs.
We split into two groups again – the Minnie group went to the sound studio area for a binaural audio experience - we each put on headphones and listened to a short skit – the same one from the audiobooth at the end of Sounds Dangerous at the Disney Hollywood Studios. Our next stop was a room where many of the maquettes and head models are stored. We saw the Captain Jack Sparrow head model taken from a life mask of Johnny Depp, as well as the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarves marble sculptures from Italy, which was a nice photo op. Laura even got a photo with Jack's noggin, as she’s a big Captain Sparrow fan!
We got to walk by one of the large work bays – saw a bunch of DCA-related models, but were a fair distance away & didn’t get as good a look as we might have wanted. We wrapped up this portion of the tour with a demonstration of an AA100 model – no skin or clothes, just the armature and underlying plastic Dave introduced it as “Joe Cocker” and had it perform “Feelin’ Alright” – with 3 additional AA heads singing backup! Dave told us that while Mr. Cocker himself hasn’t seen the audio-animatronic, his manager has… and said the AA moves a bit more smoothly than the singer himself! On our way out of the building, we passed the John Hench Graffiti Hallway, where Imagineers share their creative impulses – there were some marvelous works that I would have loved to get photos of!
It was about 10 till 11 when we were set loose in Mickey’s of Glendale – the merchandise store for the Walt Disney Imagineering - for 30 minutes… I knew going in that this would be where we dropped most of our souvenir budget and I was right. We each found several shirts, a couple of pins and other special merch. Beci and Michelle were also shopping for the Magic Meets charity auction and found some really great stuff – unfortunately, we were stuck behind them in the checkout line!
This is one part of the tour that might need to be reworked a bit – most of us took the entire 30 min to shop; but the schedule didn’t take into consideration the time needed to get us thru the cashier’s line. Other groups may not be as big of spenders/shoppers here as we were, but there still needs to be a bit of a tweak to the schedule. As we were waiting for the last few people to get checked out, Scott ducked into the commissary to get a soda. Between the delayed start and the extra time we took getting all our goodies paid for, we were nearly an hour late getting back on the coach to head over to Walt Disney Studios. The Guides did pass out snacks & drinks on the bus to tide us over.
Thankfully, the Studios aren’t too far away (over in Burbank), so we arrived about 12:15 – which only left about 45 min for a tour of the area before we had lunch. We had photo privileges here and made the most of them, despite the tight schedule. We split into 2 groups again & still managed to hit the highlights – a quick walk-thru of the Animation building – their equivalent of the Grumman’s courtyard with handprints of animators, voice actors and other people important to the history of the Studios. Diana & Quinn also pointed out Pluto’s Corner where Mickey Avenue and Dopey Drive meet – there’s a fire hydrant and 3 paw-prints in the concrete… I’ll leave it to your imagination why there aren’t 4 prints! We also spent time in the Legends Courtyard, where plaques are hung for every person who has been awarded Legend status. Many of the plaques have handprints, and I got a bit choked up as I compared my hands with Thurl, the Sherman Brothers, Harriet Burns, and so many more. We also got photos with a large version of the Legends Award and the Partners statue – this one you can actually get right up next to! Roy and Minnie’s Friends statue is there as well.
 Pluto's Corner (notice only three paw prints!) |
 Whimsical Street Sign |
 The Legends Award |
 The Partners Statue |
We had to make sure to leave for Disneyland no later than 2:00 to avoid traffic – so about 1:15, the guides set us loose to get something to eat at the commissary – we were given vouchers for an entrée, a side, a dessert & a drink – and if we had time, a quick look thru the Studios Store as well. Scott and I headed to the commissary first, as we were pretty hungry! It seems to have been “Take Your Child to Work” day at the Studios as well – so they were much busier than normal, I guess. They had several food stations, so we got separated. I had a really good chicken ceasar salad wrap and a chocolate chip cookie – I saved my side fruit salad for later, as I wanted to check out the store before we had to go. Scott had his normal burger & fries. The cashiers were a bit puzzled by our vouchers at first, but after a call to the manager, we were taken care of. I found out from another tour member that they had spotted Marty Sklar having lunch - oh man, I wish I'd seen that!
The Studio store was a bit of a letdown after WDI – there wasn’t much merchandise that was unique to the location – a couple of different shirt styles and a collection of pins. We left the Studios area about 2 and hopped on the freeway on our way to Anaheim. The Guides had a nice selection of Disney music for us to listen to (and sing along with) during the trip. We sat near Michael and Scott (our new best buds), as well as Beci and Brent and spent some time getting to know them. Our driver made excellent time and we were on Disneyland Drive less than an hour later.
The coach let us out in front of the Grand Californian Hotel – Quinn and Diana had our room keys ready to go. We were in room 3170 – about a tenth of a mile from the lobby, according to my pedometer! We were in a corner that kind of overlooked Downtown Disney and the World of Disney. We hung out in the room a bit & checked our Internet access while we waited for our luggage to arrive, which only took about 10-15 minutes. We had a special delivery as well – copies of a couple of the photos from earlier in the trip, including the Jim Henson Studios. We were to meet back with the group for another reception at 5, so we decided to look around DTD for a bit, leaving the room about 3:30 and returning at 4:15 to freshen up & change clothes.
 Our room at the Grad Californian Hotel (3170) |
 View from our room |
We met the tour group in the lobby around ten til 4 – a couple of cast members were there to greet us as well, including David, the 2008 Disney Resort Ambassador! He passed out our Pin of the Day and said a few words before we headed over to the Wine Cellar at Hook’s Pointe. This is a “hidden treasure” of the resort – a wonderful place to get away from the hustle & bustle of the parks! Carlos welcomed us and we enjoyed some appetizers and had a wine tasting. Quinn and Diana also recognized the couples that were celebrating their anniversaries during the trip with a set of bride and groom ears – that was a pleasant surprise! We had several photos taken by various tourmates, including a couple where Scott and I switched ears!
We were taken up to Hook’s Pointe around 6 and seated at one long table and a couple of smaller round tables in a semi-separate section of the restaurant. Once again, our seatmates were Scott and Michael. The two of us ordered the chicken, which was very good. We definitely enjoyed a lot more nice meals than we usually do during a Disney trip. For dessert, we had a key lime pie that was wonderful! Earlier during the day, the guides gave Nate and Danyelle mini video cameras and asked them to interview fellow tour members, so during dinner, Nate came around and asked us what we liked best about the day.
We finished the group activities for the day by entering the park together – making sure that those who had never been to Disneyland got to go in first - it was really something to see the expressions on their faces (especially the adults!) as they started taking it all in. Diana & Quinn led us over to the Haunted Mansion, where we entered via a side entrance and had a stretching room all to ourselves! The butler asked for 5 volunteers to lay on the floor – Brock said later it was quite an experience, especially when the lights came back on at the end and the butler was looming over him! Dianna & Quinn passed out 3 FastPasses to use for the rest of the evening.
Anniversary Couples in the group
The park was open til 10 and we had the rest of the evening to ourselves; we decided to hang out with Michael and Scott for awhile, as it was that Scott’s first visit to Disneyland & we wanted to see what he thought of some of the other attractions. Since Pirates of the Caribbean was next door and pretty much a walk-on, we headed there next – he was pretty impressed with how much longer this version is! Around 9, we went over to Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, expecting to use a FastPass – but the standby itself was only about 15-20 minutes.
Next stop was Jungle Cruise as a walk on – Skipper Brandon was our guide this time around. The guys decided to finish out the evening with Space Mountain, so we hiked over to Tomorrowland for a 10-min FastPass wait – they really liked this version of the attraction! We were leaving Main Street about 10 after 10, getting back to our room through the DTD entrance about 15 min later – I had forgotten they did a turndown service… we bring a couple of plush animals along with us on our trips & they were posed on the bed as well – how sweet!
Mileage: 15,693 steps = 6.18 miles. Ramping up for the next couple of days…
Attraction count: 4 within about 2 hours – not too bad!
See more of our pictures from Backstage Magic Day 3: Lights, Camera, Adventure!