Down Under Disneyana Australian Disney Forum

We're alive!

Yes - it was hot, but I think we all had a lot of fun anyway and it was great catching up with everyone after the Christmas break!  I didn't think it was as hot as the Feb 2011 meeting - now that was a scorcher...I'm not diminishing how hot last Saturday was, but at least there was a little bit of a breeze around.

The meeting was fun - we started with a lot of Disney news presented by Wayne.  Lots of stuff has happened since the last meeting, so he summarised it all nicely (no need to do that here, we already have Greg updating us with all the news).
Then we had true/false trivia.  I think it is only the third time in 17 years that I've won it! Yay!
Ian gave us a rundown on his family trip to WDW and his cruise on the Disney Dream - sounds like they had a magical time from the moment they were met by the Disney cast at Orlando airport!
Elissa gave us a rundown on her 'business' trip to the US which just happened to go via Disneyland   There were some great selfies in that presentation!
Wayne showed us some video clips from youtube regarding Disney animation and Pandora at Animal Kingdom.
We had a group trivia.
We showed upcoming movie trailers - Cars3, Pirates, Beauty and the Beast.
Then we had a quick overview of what we are planning for the club's 25th Anniversary next year - yep, you guessed it, we are doing a cruise in late September.

A fun night all around - please jump in if I missed anything.  We did have two merchandise stands as well - thanks to Julie and Barry, and Nicole and Matt!

Next meeting is on 8 April where you'll hear all about my trip to Shanghai and Tokyo!

It was hot but not as bad as I was anticipating. The breeze definitely helped!

I'm keeping the 8th April weekend free and hoping to come down to Sydney - really want to hear about your trip first hand Keith.  Last time I stayed at Bankstown Sports so hope you can meet there for dinner.

Super keen to do a club trip as I think it would be amazing to travel with Disney people to a theme park so you can really show me how it's done.  I find I get more enjoyment out of a place and see things differently based on who I'm with.  Will see about the cruise as I'm not sure how I'd go if there's any rough seas but may decide to tough it out just for a club trip!!

Karen, I did the Club Hong Kong trip and it was the only time I've actually met the club members. I would really recommend it if you could manage it, I did a lot of things that i probably wouldn't have done if I was on my own. Some things just because the was a group and other special and unique things because a member (Barry) had great contacts.

Greg

Karen - it would be awesome if you could make it - even if you just did Disneyland with us!  We'll try and organise some special stuff for Los Angeles and will probably host a club meeting on the actual cruise - it'll be great fun

As Greg said, the Hong Kong trip was a blast and some of the things we did like the private cocktail party on the Main Street railway station at night with the boss of HKDL and other executives was a great highlight - just some experiences that money can't buy.

Sounds fantastic Keith, I'll definitely plan to join you in LA.  It will depend what cruise to the risk of sea sickness.  Looking forward to the meeting on the 8th April to hear about your trip and any early suggestions for the trip.

So who is coming to dinner on Saturday night?

5:30 at the Bankstown Sports Club? Same place as normal, the train carriage in the bistro?

I'm staying at the hotel there, so I'll definitely be at dinner.  Looking forward to hearing all about the parks as well as anywhere else you went in Japan.

Also I'll be in the city most of the day, does anyone know any shops where I can look for Disney items or Jim Shore, etc?  I know about the chain stores like Zing, but hoping Sydney has some independent or local stores which have items of some sort.

I'm planning on being at the meeting, but can't make dinner because I play netball late.  I have an ooba busy weekend this weekend so I'm hoping I have the energy for Disney at Saturday night.  I really want to hear about your trip Keith

I'll be at the meeting, but unsure on dinner yet. I just had a tooth extracted, so I'll need to see how that is and if I'd be able to eat anything lol.
Can't wait to hear more about your trip and to meet all of Della's new friends!

Mum and I will be there for dinner Keith. Can't wait to hear all your news.

I'll see you for dinner too

Awesome. See you all there!

So did we all have fun last night?  I'm guessing by the fact that we didn't leave until well after 11pm that we did!

So what happened last night?  Chime in if I've missed anything:

• Wayne opened with the latest Disney news, including the upcoming opening of Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout in DCA; and Pandora in DAK.
• He showed updated imagery of the Star Wars land construction in Disneyland.
• He showed some images of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Beauty and the Beast expansion in Tokyo Disneyland.  He also showed some imagery of the Tokyo Disneysea construction of the Dory ride and the new Soarin' construction there.
• Manuel and Brad mentioned an upcoming Woolworths promotion with Marvel Studios - be sure to look out for that in the coming week or two.
• We had our true-false trivia which Manuel won in a sudden death round against Penny.
• He showed some video of walkthroughs of Pandora from The View with Whoopi Goldberg and James Cameron.
• Della and I did a presentation on our trip to Shanghai and Tokyo.  Della concluded with her display of new fluffies.
• Caroline and Michelle gave us a photo tour of their stay in the Mickey Mouse suite at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.  They also gave us some highlights of their night in DCA where they did a Beauty and the Beast Q&A session with some of the creative talent for that movie including Producer Don Hahn, Animator Andrea Deja, and Actor Paige O'Hara - looked like a great night!
• We did our group trivia - congratulations to the winners.
• We saw a preview clip of the new Pixar movie coming out this year called Coco - based on the Mexican festival of Day of the Dead.
• We ended the meeting with the date for the next one - 24th June 2017.

Thanks again to everyone who attended - special mention again to Karen who came all the way from Brisbane for the meeting!! Great to see you again Karen!

Thanks Keith, I wish I could make more meetings. Loved seeing everyone again and putting faces to names of people I talk with on the blogs. I'm excited about crashing my sister's trip to Japan in Nov after your talk and also need to add Easter to the growing list of festivals I want to experience in the parks!

A huge thanks to you and Lauren for the lifts to & from, I really appreciate it.