Day 3 - Making Magic!

7:00am morning, and it was breakfast at Twist (the restaurant inside our hotel). Unfortunately my stomach was still feeling the sugary dinner from the night before so I couldn’t enjoy the food too much. But I enjoyed the conversation with some fellow East Coasters. Janeen also studied business so we chatted about that which I'm sure bored her kids. After breakfast we met back in the hotel lobby to say out final farewells to the Hollywood Renaissance hotel. We boarded the bus and headed to our first stop - Imagineering, basically where all the magic for the parks happens.

We walked down the hall, tuned a couple corners until we reached a room where we were given a brief history on the company and Imagineering. We also got free journals! We were surprised at the end of the presentation when Lucky the Dinosaur was revealed behind a black curtain. We all got to pet him and take pictures etc. It was pretty cool since I had seen stuff about him on the travel channel, he was famous (and I kissed him too, apparently I have a thing for non-humans).

The first stop for our group was to the sound room where, again a man who you could tell absolutely loved his job, told us about how it all works and how its evolved over time. We then got a sample of what sounds can do – how it can make you really feel immersed in the scene and sometimes you can actually feel what’s going on. After the sound room, we went into the sculpture room, where we saw tons of Disney characters made out of clay that never dries, so the room was pretty cold. Also inside the room were the original pieces of Snow White’s grotto. Snow White is actually the same size as the Dwarfs. There’s a story that has been told for years about how they came about, but we heard the real, less magical one haha. So I won’t post it here :-)

We walked through where some Imagineers were working on attractions for the new Cars Land which will be included when they redo California Adventure. We saw some animatronics up close and personal. There was one full body one, the main act – Joe Cocker, and three heads that were his backup. We saw how many wires it takes to make him move, and how hard it is to keep it hidden.

After our tour, we were set loose in Mickey’s of Glendale which is where cast members can shop. We were each give a coupon for 40% one regularly priced item. I browsed, and let it all sink in. We went to lunch at the Disney Café there and then returned back to the store to make our purchases. I spent less than $60, I'm so proud!

We boarded the bus to go to the Walt Disney Studios. As soon as we pulled up we saw a bunch of trailers, so I was immediately on celebrity watch. The studios also had a college campus type feel, although I wish my campus was as cool as these studios. We saw a bunch of sound stages, the Animation building and the icons: the Legends courtyard, and the building dedicated to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (I think it’s a generic office building, I’m not sure, we didn’t go in). We couldn’t go into too many buildings, but we saw the stages where Mary Poppins was filmed, along with the business strip used in a lot of TV shows and movies – like “Felicity”!!

We got back on the bus and had a nice relaxing ride, watching part of “Dr. Dolittle 4”, to the Disneyland Resort. It didn’t seem that long of a ride, before I knew it we were at the Grand California – which would be hour home for the next three nights. We got our hotel keys and headed up there to relax until we all met up for dinner. We had a view of the center of the hotel, which included the monorail line. Katie called Adam and I as well caught up with the East Coast while examining the hundreds of pictures I had taken so far. After out chill break, we met the group back downstairs in the lobby. We also met one of the Disney ambassadors – she told us how important we were and welcomed us to the resort. We even recorded a video saying “we’re adventures by Disney!” I felt pretty awesome, not gonna lie.

We took a short walk to the Disneyland Hotel. Let me comment on this now - everything was in walking distance. Disneyland, California Adventure, the hotels, Downtown Disney - it was fantastic. I didn’t have to worry about making the bus like in Disney World. So anyways, we walked to the Disneyland Hotel and went down the stairs into the Wine Cellar where they had wine tastings (grape juice for us youngins) and snackies. There was also a guy playing guitar in the corner - he played very well, and it was nice relaxing music. A couple drinks later (I had two glasses of my white grape juice, woo, you should have seen me) we went upstairs for dinner at Hooke's Pointe. Everyone at our table got the chicken, except Quinn - he just haaaaaaaad to be different. It was a very good meal, with a nice view of the Peter Pan themed pool. After dinner, were taken for a surprise. There were many guesses, but I knew it couldn’t be anything extreme - we just ate!

We walked through Downtown Disney and then to the gates of Disneyland. Since we were very, very important people (which we were told by the Disney ambassador) we entered through the exit of the park. Following the sign, we were led through Main Street, and of course catching a glimpse of the gorgeous Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I had been wanting to see that castle for years, and it is breathtaking - even if there’s a ton of people in front of it. I couldn’t stop long for the sign was moving - we were led to the Haunted Mansion! I was so excited, I guess because it was our first attraction in the park. We went through the Fastpass line - you could tell the people in the stand by line were not amused that a group of 39 just went ahead of them. It was thrilling - even the Haunted Mansion can make you cheery - I guess it’s the song, grim grimmy ghosts come out to socialiiiize.

After making it out of the mansion a-ok, we were escorted to our VIP seats for Fantasmic. For those of you who don't know, Fantasmic is a show Disneyland puts on every night on the water. It's a combination of fireworks, pyrotechnics, stage performers, water, lights and film. It focuses on Mickey's dreams and nightmares. It's a pretty big deal - they have specific jackets for cast members to wear while directing traffic before, during and after the show. The show was amazing, I was in awe for most of it. Five minutes after Fantasmic, the fireworks started. We didn’t get the whole effect since the front of the show takes place at the castle, which was behind some trees. But we heard the music and saw the fireworks and again I was in awe. I had never seen happy face fireworks before - I felt like a little kid poking Katie while screaming "LOOK!"

Another surprise after the fireworks - we were each given a Fastpass good at any ride that night. We thought long and hard and decided to go on Splash Mountain - we thought it would be a nice view at night. Unfortunately Splash Mountain had broken down, so we went to my favorite mountain - Big Thunder. As going through the line a very nice gentleman named Brain or Danny - I really am bad with names, looked at our Fastpass and said "Oh, it's one of those special ones, go ahead and use it again" while handing me back my Fastpass. It warmed my heart - everyone at Disney is just so kind. Big Thunder Mountain was amazing at night - the twists and turns, the view. I loved it. We still had that Fastpass so we ventured over to Tomorrowland. On the way was basked the beauty of the castle. It really sunk in that we were finally in Disneyland. After many pictures were taken, we rode Space Mountain. Another fantastic ride. It’s amazing what they can do with lights. Being the space dork I am, I really enjoyed it haha. I was startled at the end by the strobes flashing directly into my eyes. Apparently one was a picture flash, so the photo caught me in mid exclamation of "My eyes!"

It was pretty late by then, so we decided to head back to the hotel to catch some Z's for we had another early, long day ahead of us. When we walked into our room we were surprised by Katie's bed, for it had been unmade! Turn down service! My bed had too much junk on it haha. I unloaded my pictures, changed my desktop to a fabulous picture of the castle and then drifted off to sleep.