This post is long overdue! This post will be about our third day at the Expo, and to wrap up the event as a whole and post pretty pictures for everyone to see.
Let's break it down, shall we?
Cost:
I waited for an entire year for the D23 expo tickets to go on sale, and then waited another full year to actually attend the damn thing.
The price we paid for a 3-day pass the DAY they went on sale was: $106/person
Considering the contents of the expo, this price was steep. And I got the early-bird price. The ticket cost ramped up to the day of the event.
We met a few Disney cast members in the lineups and they admitted that they had got their tickets for free or for a small cost. This made paying $106 for my 3-day pass just a bit more sour. There were no hard feelings towards the cast members, merely another annoying way the D23 organization handled things.
Venue:
The Anaheim convention centre was an amazing and perfect place for the event. I will give this section an A+. I loved how clean and neat the property was. Each day I never saw a speck of trash, and all the restrooms were clean and well maintained. Being a girl, I probably saw each one - so take my word for it. I never saw any staff attending to these things, so I assume they were ninjas. So, gold star for the convention ninjas.
The space was enormous, perfect for everything in it. Although I did feel it's emptiness sometimes. Near the D23 store was a curtain sectioning off the border of the convention center. It wasn't fully opaque and I could barely make out the silhouettes of staff members bustling about in the giant concrete emptiness behind it. It was a strange veil and I'm getting the willies talking about it.
Despite the vast emptiness behind a thin piece of fabric, the exhibitor section was cramped and busy. You'd think by the way they set it up, they started setting up the official booths at the front with adequate walking space between each display, but by the time they got to the exhibitor section, the felt-pen started running out and there wasn't enough room on the poster so they scribbled as fast and small as possible until they had the cubicle-esque section. I got lost and walked in circles a few times. I'm still not sure I got to see every booth.
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| Lightning McQueen made of Lego |
Food:
The only thing I recall eating at the D23 expo was on the first day, we got hungry and immediately wandered over to a shortish line and bought some wraps and drinks. Half my wallet later, we sat against a window and chewed on the bland tube they assured me was food. I enjoy food a lot, and usually will eat all that is presented to me, but I put this one down. The highlight of our little lunch break was seeing the dwarf-sized David Arquette walking right past us.
Oh, right! We did eat something else. At a certain time every day, a booth in the corner gave away free cupcakes! Kiwi and I managed to get there just in time and were directed to the end of a moving line. This Houdini line kept meandering around the booth, then behind it, then down the hall, then it curved around and went back the other way. The line was moving so quickly that random people were jumping into the middle of it if someone slacked off or walked too slowly. Kiwi and I eventually made it to the front and were handed a very pretty white cupcake each with a plastic Mickey ring tucked neatly into the icing. By this time we were longing for some Disney magic, ate our cupcakes outside and went back to the park.
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| Free cupcakes, just waiting for someone to smash their fat fingers into |
Events:
Well I'm sure you all know how I felt about the events. If you missed my ranting, please visit
Day 1 and
Day 2 reviews.
The Disney Legends was the highlight of the trip and also the best event I think I got to see. I honestly can't speak for the other events because we barely got into any, but from the... two we got to see, they were really cool to see. Seeing the Pixar directors was fantastic! We had to wait a really long time, but it was amazing to be close and listen to them all speak and listen to the Q&A segment. The only way you'd be able to see more than 2 events a day (because of the 8 hours you'd have to wait for each) would be to team up and go to different events while the others were waiting in line - then take turns.
I'm not sure D23 anticipated the volume of guests they would have - that was evident on the first day we arrived to the tangled spaghetti queues - so the big, interesting events were few and far between. There were a lot of events each day, but only a few appealed to us. I think a lot of the guests who shared our demographic had the same idea, resulting in the enormous queues and wait times.
Exhibitors:
I didn't even notice them, honestly.
The only exhibit I cared about was the free cupcakes because they were free. Other than that, Kiwi and I spent barely or none time in each. A waste of space and time for what they were. And what they were, were giant advertisements.
One exhibit that I thought had potential was the "Treasures of the Disney Archives" exhibit. We waited in line for a good 25 minutes in costume to go see it, and there wasn't much to see, but it was still interesting.
There were a few convention rooms linked into a guarded area where props from various Disney movies and television shows were placed about to view and photograph. There were the original Mouseketeer costumes, the book from the opening of Sleeping Beauty, with some hand-painted pages on the side, wardrobe from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and props from Tron and Pirates of the Carribean. While I thought the wardrobe and props they provided for the exhibit were exciting to see, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment. Maybe it was just left over from the day before, but something seemed off about the "Tresures" archive. Granted, I suppose they were only allowed a certain amount of space to occupy, but there just wasn't enough content to be spectacular. You know when you walk into the Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood, and there's all that great memorabilia crammed into the restaurant (which is clearly replicas but you feel excited anyway)? That's how I should have felt. Instead of a dark room with glass boxes illuminated which made me feel like I was at a comic convention after close, it should have been brightly lit, with more props and exciting things to look at. Some of the most interesting things (like Walt's original Mickey plush that rode with him on his first train ride) were right at the front behind some burly security guard in a poorly lit entrance way. I needed more glitz and glam - and Disney is damn well known for it! Neat, but not up to it's full potential.
(My brother who does set-dec will probably scold me for not properly adressing each Treasure as it is; set-dec, wardrobe, prop etc)
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| Captain Jack |
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| Some Obscure Pirate Rings |
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| Roger Rabbit Wardrobe (Eddie and Dolores) |
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| Roger Rabbit Set Dec |
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| A Replica of Frank Thomas' desk (one of the 9 old men) |
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| The Zorro Wardrobe for the Original TV Series |
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| An Original Promo Poster for Sleeping Beauty |
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| The Sleeping Beauty Hand-Painted Book Pages |
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| Jessica Rabbit Mock-Up Figure |
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| Roger and Herman Mock-Up Figures |
Guests:
The most fun!
While in costume 2 out of 3 days, we had a slew of people compliment us, take photos with us, yell out to us, it was incredible. On the third day we felt like celebrities. The expo was a lot thinner than the day before, but there were still some great fans around. People also seemed to notice us more! Kiwi and I were stopped numerous times for photos. One instance we were even stopped for 20 minutes so that a cemi-circle of people could take our photo. Some people came up to be in the photo with us, but mostly they just took photos of us together. It was the most fun we had all weekend, being so loved. Waving and smiling at people who called out to us, posing for photos, being complimented on our costumes... I am so happy we decided to go in costume, it was something we'll never forget.
I wont do a sum-up, because that involves being one of those sitcom narrators and I wont be a part of it. Instead, check out these photos!
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| The Convention Center |
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| Other cosplayers |
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| On the last day we lucked out and walked by Eric Goldberg |
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| Awesome Ariel and Eric cosplayers |
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| Some kinda mermaid box |
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| Jack's compass |
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| Some crap. Probably not the hero props... |
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| Photo of us with the great cosplayers from the Haunted Mansion! |
-Strawberry
