Day 12 - D23 Expo!
This is it - Day 1 of the inaugural D23 Expo. We flick on the TV to Good Morning America...and see the queue of people already forming at the convention centre...it doesn't look too bad - except for the fact there was still about two hours before opening! Anyway, Gerard was watching the same broadcast and immediately the SMS messages began flying between us! We scrambled to get ready - grabbing a quick bite of food while telling Gerard to head straight down to the convention centre - we'd meet him there (we still had his Whatnot - but that could wait until another day to hand it over).
So off we went, walking down Sth Harbor Blvd - and seeing lots of other people doing the same. We turn right onto Katella and see the big convention centre before us. This place is big - much bigger than Darling Harbour - in fact, it is the biggest convention centre on the US west coast - and for the next four days, it was completely occupied by the D23 Expo!
We were snapping photos as we walked up to the entrance - and when we got to the door, we were able to walk right in - the crowd wasn't too bad as the doors had opened for registration at 7am and we were there about 7:30 or so. We handed over our e-tickets and received our silver D23 member wrist bands. There was a different colour band for each day - or silver if you had a four day pass like us. We had to wear it the entire time. We picked up our D23 guides and free goody bags (there were lots of freebies here) then tried to work out were to go next. Della was freaking me out a little bit - you know she goes a little bit crazy (hyper-stimulated?) when there is new Disney stuff around, so I was finding it difficult to direct her towards the main entrance! Then, I saw Dave Smith from the Disney Archives standing beside me - and I'm trying to point him out to Della and she's trying to point stuff out to me and those first few minutes were really crazy! We saw people lining up for something (it was the Dream Store entrance - these were pin collectors after the limited edition stuff) - people were handing us things (guide books, goodie bags, brochures, etc) - there were television cameras everywhere - I saw other Disney people I recognised from DVDs - and Disney fans from the US websites - and we still hadn't even stepped into the convention hall yet!
Our first morning was a bit of a blur...
Anyway - we finally stepped into the main hall (more TV cameras!) - and D23 began in earnest for us. We headed straight towards the D23 Arena because Bob Iger was to provide the opening speech at 11am - we wanted to see how big the queue was. They had set up an enormous snaking queue system but at that time - not many people were in line (although Wayne and Jennifer were!) We decided to keep an eye on it while exploring the show floor.
And wow - how cool was it? Every Disney department had a big section, plus a huge Collector's Forum. The one thing that caught Della's eye was the Pook-a-Looz stand:
We bought two of these in New York - but now we discovered that a whole range of them was coming in 2010. We got a poster from the stand and the guy there said he would be handing out Mickey Pook-a-Looz keyrings later. No sooner had he said that, when another guy came out and began handing them out to everyone - so the freebies had begun (they were great too!)
We then noticed that the Arena line was starting to move, so we headed over to join the snake. Gerard texted us and he joined the queue not far behind us - he had his hands full of Disney bags, so it was obvious that he'd been to the Dream Store. As the queue snaked forward, we'd get close to him and he'd hand over his bags so we could look at his loot - then as the snake continued, we'd hand them back again as we passed by in the other direction - it was quite funny. As we got closer to the Arena, we were told we had to hand in all cameras and mobile phones etc - they weren't going to allow any of this session to be uploaded to YouTube! The security was tighter than an aircraft, including bag searches, metal detectors and random pat-downs! Once through security, we waited for Gerard behind us and then headed into the Arena - it was a great venue and we were on the first elevation. There were three GIANT screens showing lots of Disney photographs etc while people filled the place. They were running way behind time - I think they underestimated the time taken to collect all the electronics. Eventually however, we were all seated and the presentation began with a great Disney retrospective video (wish I could get a copy of these D23 videos - they were brilliant) before Bob Iger came on stage to speak. I'm not going to go through all that - I'm sure it is on the internet somewhere!
The exciting thing though was he said they were going to show us the first 30 minutes of Princess and the Frog. OMG! The lights went out and the next 30 minutes went by very very quick! This movie looks awesome - the version we saw was 90% complete - there were still a few uncoloured scenes which made what we saw even more special. The music, animation and story all look like classic Disney. We then had Anika Noni Rose (the voice of Tiana) come onstage and sing another song from the film. The Expo was going off!
Immediately after Bob's presentation - the Legends ceremony began - this is the first time the ceremony has ever been held outside of the Disney Legends Plaza at the studios. It was hosted by Tom Bergeron and Bob Iger and featured the new Legends including Robin Williams who was hilarious as ever. It was a pretty overwhelming morning! All too soon, it was over and we headed out to pick up the electronics - we then grabbed some lunch and tried to work out what we'd do next! There were lots of panels on - Beauty and the Beast 3D, The Music of the Lion King, Imagineering Legends etc. We wanted to do them all! In the end, we settled on seeing the ABC television presentation that afternoon at 3pm. In the meantime, we did a walk around of all the ground floor stands except the Parks and Resort stand.
At 2pm, we headed to the Arena, got in line and handed over our electronic equipment again. This session was all about new ABC television shows, including Lost, Flash Forward, Modern Family etc. It was another great session and they brought out Ed O'Neill, Kelsey Grammar, Courtney Cox, Donnie Osmond (who danced - he is on the next US version of Dancing with the Stars...) and lots more stuff. We also got a goodie bag which included a Flash Forward cap which is pretty cool. After picking up our cameras again, I snapped off a photo of Dick Cook - Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, who happened to be standing right beside me.
It was now nearly 5pm and I caught up with Wayne to see how his day went while Della was looking at some stands. When she came back, she bought with her Brad - who we'd met in Tokyo 18 months before - she had just ran into him! The Expo floor closed at 5pm, so Brad, Wayne, Della and myself were just standing outside chatting about the Legends Ceremony when Brad said "Speaking of Legends...there's one now" - standing right behind me was Richard Sherman! We planned to see "The Boys" screening that night upstairs in the convention center theater - and there beside me was the subject of the film!
Della and I needed to get something to eat before going to see The Boys - so we stepped outside and headed over to the Hilton Hotel's food court to grab a quick bite. While we were waiting, I noticed Dick Cook again and pointed him out to Della - he was standing there waiting for someone and was also ordering some takeaway burritos (he was going low-cost, maybe he knew then he was about to lose his job!). Anyway, Della stands up and walks right up to him - I can see them having a great conversation and he shakes her hand and she comes back to the table - I'm almost choking on my pizza! She said he was a really nice man, very interested in our story about coming from Australia and took down her name and wanted her to report what she thought of the Expo back to him! He also told her there would be surprises at his presentation the following day!
Anyway - after dinner, it was time to head up to the theatre to see "The Boys" presentation. We had great seats and the session was hosted by Disney Historian and author Tim O'Day. Before the movie, they had two guitarists place a couple of Sherman Brother's tunes in acoustic and it sounded amazing. They then showed the film - which I have to say is probably one of the most amazing documentaries I've ever seen! After the film, the two directors came (they are the sons of Richard and Robert Sherman) to talk about their lives and their dad's and how they got together to make the film. Then Richard Sherman himself came out and played and sang about ten of their famous songs!
What a way to finish day one of the D23 Expo - there was no way that Disney was ever going to top this day - surely they had peaked too early...
...nope - day two was even bigger and better!!!!