goofy4mickey
07-28-2008, 06:27 PM
Hi – this is my very, very first trip report ever – and long overdue. I thought I’d share our trip to CA, Disney Studios and DL – my very first trip to CA ever! It was NOT well researched or planned but we had a great time. It was just me & dd, 10 for this trip.
The trip to DL was very, very last minute – a vendor told me about a trade show in Vegas and I wanted to go – so I literally started booking the trip a little over a week before we left. We were leaving for a 3 week trip to WDW the following week, so I had to do it cheap, using our miles from AA & Marriott points.
A little background - usually dh & I go to trade shows and my mom & dad watch our kiddos, except for the 18mo, who is too much for grandma & papa – so he has travelled with us his entire life but at 18 mo, he is miserable at trade shows (go figure!) So now, I go alone often. Takes a lot of fun out of travelling but it’s only short term, right? Vegas is one of those places I don’t have as much fun in alone, so when I figured out that there are HOURLY flights between Vegas & LA, I figured I’d visit my friend in LA and hop over to Vegas for the day for the trade show. Seriously winged this trip from the get go.
The only days I could get “point” flights ended up adding 2 days to the trip – so I started thinking what any person thinks on their first trip to CA - hmmm, I could fit in Disneyland! At this point, I thought it’d be even more fun with our 10yo dd – she is my true Disney kid – loves it as much as I do. So that’s how it evolved – we’d leave Friday, spend 3 nights at my friend’s house in LA, a night at the Venetian in Vegas, then back to LA and drive to Anaheim for DL, just DD and me – we left the boys at home!
On Friday morning, we were really excited, got up early, still late leaving, nothing new – I spend my life running late. But we got to the Richmond airport, hopped on our flight to Dallas, caught the connection to Burbank and were there! I have to say, LA is much more lush than I expected – really green and pretty! When we got to LA, my friend was waiting at the airport to pick us up – and took us directly to the Disney Studios for lunch at the commissary. When we pulled up to the security gates, they took everyone’s ID, checked it against a list and gave us badges to wear – a smidge more secure than the park security. We parked in the Zorro parking garage – which had a multi story stained glass window with Mickey & the gang on it I was busy taking pictures of everything (street signs, etc) until I noticed that I was kind of embarrassing my non-Disney fanatic friend. I tried to tone it down.
Lunch at the commissary – very fun, we had lunch with her dh, who is a programmer guy at the studios, and a friend of theirs, who works in the Animation Building. Very fun seeing the Hyperion Bungalow, the corner of Dopey Drive and Mickey Avenue sign and the Team Disney building with the giant dwarfs – we also saw the original multi-plane camera! And Dave Smiths office! Well, the door to his office anyways - (not Dave sadly – maybe next visit??) We saw the Hyperion bungalow (I think that’s it??),learned that Medford College used the buildings there, including the commissary as their campus. After a quick tour of the buildings, he took us to his workplace – the Animation Building.
The Animation building was very, very cool – they actually have “pods” set up for each feature film they are working on – and a big ole’ sign that says “no one past this point without director’s permission” – and we got to go past the signs! The pods are completely decorated like the movie setting - for instance the Princess & the Frog was an entire New Orleans setting – building facades & all. Like an immersion program. Just amazingly detailed. We saw early Bolt animation clips – this movie looks much better than I originally thought! Just fun stuff. Also John Lasseter’s office. LOL He was up at Pixar when we were there – he goes back & forth.
After this, we set off to the ARL, or the Animation Research Library, where they keep the animation archives – over 65 million pieces of animation art – in a secret location! How cool is that?? You can’t really get in without knowing someone apparently – and they don’t advertise where it is or even that it exists. They’re in the process of digitizing the art, which should take years. We went into several vaults – all completely climate controlled, humidity, light, everything designed to preserve the art – in one, the guy showing us around put on gloves, and pulled out original Steamboat Willie and Oswald Rabbit drawings! One room had the original maquettes from movies – just really fun stuff to see. In another vault, they pulled out original painted glasses from Snow White from the multi plane camera – a few other movies, too – but not many exist anymore because the animaters hosed them off and reused the glass. We saw how they are restoring stuff, how poorly some of the stuff was kept before the curators & the ARL came into being and what odd places original artwork has been found. We heard fun stories about the animators, including stories about how Ollie Johnston, who had passed away days before our visit, used to come and try to “redo” his drawings – in an effort to improve them (ever the perfectionist apparently!)
My friend did this all for us - and really she doesn’t even realize how great it was for us even though we’ve tried to tell her. Totally doesn’t get my Disney geekness.
This was the very first day and definitely highlight of our trip – even 10 dd loved it and totally “got “ what a special treat it was for us – we spent 3 more days in LA, then a day in Vegas - then back to LA & to DL!
I'll work on the DL part tonight. :)
The trip to DL was very, very last minute – a vendor told me about a trade show in Vegas and I wanted to go – so I literally started booking the trip a little over a week before we left. We were leaving for a 3 week trip to WDW the following week, so I had to do it cheap, using our miles from AA & Marriott points.
A little background - usually dh & I go to trade shows and my mom & dad watch our kiddos, except for the 18mo, who is too much for grandma & papa – so he has travelled with us his entire life but at 18 mo, he is miserable at trade shows (go figure!) So now, I go alone often. Takes a lot of fun out of travelling but it’s only short term, right? Vegas is one of those places I don’t have as much fun in alone, so when I figured out that there are HOURLY flights between Vegas & LA, I figured I’d visit my friend in LA and hop over to Vegas for the day for the trade show. Seriously winged this trip from the get go.
The only days I could get “point” flights ended up adding 2 days to the trip – so I started thinking what any person thinks on their first trip to CA - hmmm, I could fit in Disneyland! At this point, I thought it’d be even more fun with our 10yo dd – she is my true Disney kid – loves it as much as I do. So that’s how it evolved – we’d leave Friday, spend 3 nights at my friend’s house in LA, a night at the Venetian in Vegas, then back to LA and drive to Anaheim for DL, just DD and me – we left the boys at home!
On Friday morning, we were really excited, got up early, still late leaving, nothing new – I spend my life running late. But we got to the Richmond airport, hopped on our flight to Dallas, caught the connection to Burbank and were there! I have to say, LA is much more lush than I expected – really green and pretty! When we got to LA, my friend was waiting at the airport to pick us up – and took us directly to the Disney Studios for lunch at the commissary. When we pulled up to the security gates, they took everyone’s ID, checked it against a list and gave us badges to wear – a smidge more secure than the park security. We parked in the Zorro parking garage – which had a multi story stained glass window with Mickey & the gang on it I was busy taking pictures of everything (street signs, etc) until I noticed that I was kind of embarrassing my non-Disney fanatic friend. I tried to tone it down.
Lunch at the commissary – very fun, we had lunch with her dh, who is a programmer guy at the studios, and a friend of theirs, who works in the Animation Building. Very fun seeing the Hyperion Bungalow, the corner of Dopey Drive and Mickey Avenue sign and the Team Disney building with the giant dwarfs – we also saw the original multi-plane camera! And Dave Smiths office! Well, the door to his office anyways - (not Dave sadly – maybe next visit??) We saw the Hyperion bungalow (I think that’s it??),learned that Medford College used the buildings there, including the commissary as their campus. After a quick tour of the buildings, he took us to his workplace – the Animation Building.
The Animation building was very, very cool – they actually have “pods” set up for each feature film they are working on – and a big ole’ sign that says “no one past this point without director’s permission” – and we got to go past the signs! The pods are completely decorated like the movie setting - for instance the Princess & the Frog was an entire New Orleans setting – building facades & all. Like an immersion program. Just amazingly detailed. We saw early Bolt animation clips – this movie looks much better than I originally thought! Just fun stuff. Also John Lasseter’s office. LOL He was up at Pixar when we were there – he goes back & forth.
After this, we set off to the ARL, or the Animation Research Library, where they keep the animation archives – over 65 million pieces of animation art – in a secret location! How cool is that?? You can’t really get in without knowing someone apparently – and they don’t advertise where it is or even that it exists. They’re in the process of digitizing the art, which should take years. We went into several vaults – all completely climate controlled, humidity, light, everything designed to preserve the art – in one, the guy showing us around put on gloves, and pulled out original Steamboat Willie and Oswald Rabbit drawings! One room had the original maquettes from movies – just really fun stuff to see. In another vault, they pulled out original painted glasses from Snow White from the multi plane camera – a few other movies, too – but not many exist anymore because the animaters hosed them off and reused the glass. We saw how they are restoring stuff, how poorly some of the stuff was kept before the curators & the ARL came into being and what odd places original artwork has been found. We heard fun stories about the animators, including stories about how Ollie Johnston, who had passed away days before our visit, used to come and try to “redo” his drawings – in an effort to improve them (ever the perfectionist apparently!)
My friend did this all for us - and really she doesn’t even realize how great it was for us even though we’ve tried to tell her. Totally doesn’t get my Disney geekness.
This was the very first day and definitely highlight of our trip – even 10 dd loved it and totally “got “ what a special treat it was for us – we spent 3 more days in LA, then a day in Vegas - then back to LA & to DL!
I'll work on the DL part tonight. :)