UPDATE 10/14 D23 Expo and Oogie Boogie Bash! It's Halloween-lo-ween everybody! It's Halloween! Give a Scream it's Halloween

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Quick recap of expectations versus reality on Day 2.

Going in this was our loose plan:

Saturday
immediately line up for Star Wars/Marvel 10-12
if not, then 10-11 am Peek behind the curtain
12:20 pm line up for Muppets 1-2 pm
line up 12:30 pm for 1-2 Strange Worlds signing, give badges to Stephanie if we can RESERVATIONS
show floor until leave for OBB around 2:30/3 pm
2 pm Deadpool creator signing Brian
3 pm Deadpool creator signing Rachel

Reality:
-No Lucasfilm/Marvel panel and we also didn't try for our back up panel.
-Did the target and amazon pavilions for giveaways
-saw the Parks pavilion display
-small Marvel panel at their pavilion
-Muppets
-Joe Rhode random meet
-Hulk Avenger Con pic
-Deadpool creator signing

Probably our worst day at the expo. It was a big disappointment not to make it into Lucasfilm/Marvel. We did get to see Muppets, which was amazing. To be fair it was also a short day because of OBB, but we really only missed 4 hours of the con.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Wow! That Ernesto is amazing! Thanks for the great report. Making me very sad I had to cancel my Oct 27-30 trip! One of these days I'll fork out the $$ to do an after hours event!

It really was a lot of fun! We are super excited to go again next year and are already planning it! I hope you get to go as well.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Sunday: Expo Day 3

Fitbit Sleep Timer: 5 hours 25 minute (we had managed to be asleep around 12:30)

Steps: 23,008

Sunday Reservations:

Rachel: Ratatouille Art signing 2:30-3:30 pm
Brian: Tron panel 12-1 pm

Here was the panel schedule for the day:








Here was our somewhat realistic/hopeful schedule:

Sunday
immediately line up for Parks 10:30-12 pm
line up 11:20 am for Tron 12-1 pm RESERVATION
Nina West book signing 1:30 pm
1:30-2:30 Floyd Norman Disney Family Museum signing
line up 2 pm Ratatouille Art Signing 2:30-3:30 pm Rachel RESERVATION
MSEP 2-3 pm Brian
4:15-5:30 pm Disney Princess concert
6-7 pm Disney character voices

Woke up at 6:30 and we were dragging a lot. We had debated waking up early with one of our friends and trying for the Parks panel, but we were seriously wiped out and sleep deprived and didn't want to roll the dice with getting into another Hall D23 panel. I think she ended up in standby for the Parks panel around 5:30, and once again, they cut it off right behind her. Our friend was ended pretty late into the Parks panel, she was the last group in and there was a lot of drama with whether they'd get in or not. So typical of D23 expo.

We didn't even end up getting in the security line until a little before 9. It took a while this morning, I think roughly 40 minutes to make it inside.

We were taking it extremely easy this morning and walked through the Lucasfilm display, which was mostly costumes.







We looked at the Disney+ pavilion, but I guess not well enough. People had been trading Disney+ show collectible cards all weekend and we never even saw where to get any.



They had a little set for a sports show where you could get your picture taken:



We did wait in line at the Disney Movie Insiders booth. They had little trivia questions set up throughout the queue and you could enter the answers as a code in your Movie Insiders account and get points. Once we reached the counter we were handed a little giveaways bundle that had some Thor postcards. We also got a Hercules pin and a code to enter to get the Meg pin mailed to you.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

They also had a photo booth set up, they'd take your picture and then color match it to this Avatar picture and they let you put your picture in the designated spot. Kind of cool.




They we are under the blank spot.



Next up was the Disney Branded TV Pavilion. Which was actually pretty fun but it was shoved in the way back corner of the expo floor. It was also annoying because it was huge and there was only one entrance and it was on the complete opposite side than we were.



Inside they had about 10 or so TV shows where you could take pics or short videos.

First up we stopped at the National Treasure tv show video set. Alligator Loki saw that alligator was on the suspect board so he needed his pic taken.



We filmed a short 5 second slow motion video of us walking through a dark temple hallway. We should have done some cool moves but didn't really think about it and so we just lamely walk down the hallway in slow mo.

Chris Hemsworth's Limitless Nat Geo show had a picture booth. You could pick different backgrounds and pretend like you were climbing a rope.



All of the pictures and videos were sent directly to your email when you scanned your badge.

American Horror Story had a hallway with 3 mirrors that all did creepy video effects to your face. I took a screen shot of one of the videos, but it looks super creepy so I'm not even including it. My favorite was Only Murders in the Building. Not only do I love that show but the video also turned out funny.

Not sure if the link will work, but just in case here it is:

https://public.events.thuzi.com/5cc...3e4a46642ab6ea/video/631e1759260c9bc8a33b42f8

We weren't interested in any of the other shows available, so on our way out we each got a nice pin set of shows that were featured at the pavilion:



We walked around the vendor booth area. I didn't think there were near as many as they had last expo. Some of the vendor booths had really cool displays like the one below. There was a little stand that sold dole whips so we each got one and took a short break while we ate. We also saw that one of the booths was live streaming the Parks panel, so I thought that was a really good way to drive traffic to their booth and they did have a crowd watching. I think it might have been the Mice Chat booth? Don't remember.



At 11 we did another small panel at the Marvel booth with the Moon Knight visual development team. They talked a lot about what went into designing the costumes and it was pretty interesting.





Marvel gets an A+ for the little panels they held at their pavilion.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Immediately after the Marvel talk we got in the reservation line for the Tron panel. We waited about 15 minutes and then were seated. We got pretty decent seats off to the side a bit.

Look how cool their stage backdrop is!



The hosts came out and the production team had a special jacket that was created during production for one of the hosts to wear. I think he does youtube or has an instagram and is straw hat goofy. Apparently he also really likes to dress up so he was very happy to see the jacket that he got to wear:



This panel was a lot of fun. We got to hear from many members of the visual development team, and Bruce Boxleitner (Tron himself) was even in attendance.







We got to hear some stories about the ground breaking visual effects and some on the set stories.



We also saw what they claimed was a never before seen scene that was a somewhat steamy romantic scene between Tron and Lora.

Overall it was a really fun, entertaining panel and I'm glad we were able to attend.



They also handed out a comic book at the end, it's pictured below along with the postcards we got after the SEA panel on Friday.




Immediately after the panel ended around 1:10, we got into standby for the Main Street Electrical Parade panel. We made it into that panel and were seated around 1:50 (it started at 2). They were looking for a party of two so we got to be pulled up to fill seats near the front.



The panel was really interesting, we are both big fans of the parade. They told some really interesting stories how the parade took up until the last minute to finish. They didn't even have a rehearsal until two days before opening night. It was an epic disaster and they spent the next 48 hours straight trying to fix it. They had pulled in volunteers from Disney office buildings so lots of secretaries and other admin personnel were working on it. As the parade stepped off for the first time, people were fixing things and putting things in place as it was leaving the backstage. So people would just do what they could until they hit the on stage marker, at which point they would step aside. So there was a big crowd of volunteers at that last marker who had been working up until the last possible second. They didn't even light the whole thing until it stepped off for the first time. Just really entertaining stories.


Sadly, I had to duck out with about 15 minutes to go to make my signing reservation. Brian stayed through the end and they played a video of the original parade, which looks about nothing like the parade does in it's last showing. Also, here is a terrible pic I took of one of my fav older floats:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Meanwhile I got in line for my Ratatouille signing. I had walked by one of the vendor booths and Leonard Maltin was hanging out taking pictures with people and signing things. The vendor booths can sometimes be a great place to meet Disney legends, and it's not oftentimes widely advertised. You just have to show up and see who is there.

Below is the Ratatouille print I got signed. It was great fun talking with the arts guy (whose name I cannot remember at the moment). He was joking about how a movie about a cooking rat ever even got greenlit but he's glad it did.

Also pictured below is a print from upcoming Disney movie Wish that I was gifted by a friend. You can also see the D23 member print they handed out. Our signed Deadpool picture is there along with our signed Boba Fett mini poster.



The MSEP panel ran long, so Brian met up with me just as I was finishing with my signing. We wanted to see if we could get in standby for the Tron signing, but it was a disorganized mess and we just didn't feel like dealing with it. Even though a crowd was gathering for the signing and they had plenty of empty queues in the talent signing area, they refused to let people line up as they arrived for who knows why.

Since we nope'd out of that mess, we decided to eat for the first time today and found a random Mexican food place in one of the little outdoor corridors. We got our food and met up with our group of friends. We were all dressed as New Asgard Tour Guides that day (as briefly seen in Thor: Love and Thunder), so we had to grab a picture with one of the display goats at the Marvel pavilion.



and got in line for the Disney Archives exhibit.

If I am being fully honest, I was very let down by the Archives exhibit. It was basically an instagram area. The curators had chosen a moment from each decade of the Disney company's history, which in itself was a cool concept. But based on past years I was pretty let down. There were many ten little areas to take your picture in front of. In year's past they had hundreds of costumes, and a giant exhibit on Pirates which even included an enormous pirate ship and artifacts from the attractions (POTC and Peter Pan's Flight) and any and all pirate themed movies and tv shows that Disney had done.

I don't have pictures of each decade's big moment, but some of the themes were the opening of DL, Snow White's movie premiere, Steamboat Willie, Mary Poppins, the original Tron movie with Flynn's arcade, the bar from Dick Tracey, Star Wars, Haunted Mansion and the only room that had an epic wait was a photo op with the big Mickey head/ears that the Disney channel stars would draw with the wand.

The entrance was pretty cool, you walked through a big 100.















It was 5 pm at this point and the expo was winding down. If I had my way we would have stayed for the Disney Character Voices panel, but our friends had Fantasmic dinner reservations and one of our CM friends was very nicely getting us into the park that night, and they needed to leave so we left with them.

I later heard how epic the Character Voices panel was and am very, very sad I didn't stick around to watch. But I did end up having a very fun night at the parks, so I guess it all worked out.

Very fittingly, this was the last picture I took inside the actual expo:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Quick recap of expectations versus reality on Day 3.

Going in this was our loose plan:

Sunday
immediately line up for Parks 10:30-12 pm
line up 11:20 am for Tron 12-1 pm RESERVATION
Nina West book signing 1:30 pm
1:30-2:30 Floyd Norman Disney Family Museum signing
line up 2 pm Ratatouille Art Signing 2:30-3:30 pm Rachel RESERVATION
MSEP 2-3 pm Brian
4:15-5:30 pm Disney Princess concert
6-7 pm Disney character voices

As you can see, Sunday really went off the rails in regards to the plan. We were busy with panels and never made it to the Nina West or Floyd Norman signings. The Parks panel was just something we didn't have the energy to mess with after the Hall D23 Saturday disappointment.

Reality:
-Disney Movie Insiders and Disney Branded TV pavilions
-Moon Knight visual development talk
-Tron Panel
-MSEP Panel
-Ratatouille Art signing
-Disney Archives exhibit

I really wish we'd seen the Character Voices, but c'est la vie.


On our way out we got one last picture together with our tour guide outfits:



Next up we were headed to the parks to try to catch Fantasmic and the Halloween fireworks.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We were in DL around 6. We were super sleep deprived and getting a bit loopy. This night actually turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip.

First order of business: a spin around the park on Disneyland railroad. Really miss the train at WDW. Here is a nice creeper shot of Splash from the railroad:



We did a complete circle of the park and decided we needed coffee to continue on the night. So we waited in a short line at Starbucks for our cold brews and we then listened in for way too long to a party line conversation that was going on.



Listening was so entertaining. I love these small touches.

We slowly walked around Main Street and got pics of the fantastic sunset:



Then we came upon: a double rainbow ending at the Matterhorn!!!





We continued on with the fantastic lighting to get a pink castle pic with a pink sky:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Continuing on with our pretty sky tour while we enjoyed our cold brews:



Hi Hank!





It's a little after 7 and the sky is darkening:



We then made a grave miscalculation and got in line for Pirates. Don't mistake me, we love this ride. It was the woman in front of us in line who caused us to regret every life choice that made us to this point. She struck up a conversation with me, which in and of itself was fine. But then she continued to regale me with the life history of her grandchildren and how they are the most specialest of special snowflakes who ever did exist. Her granddaughter is a Bill Gates level genius, I hope you all know. Because I certainly know. Boy do I know.





After we escaped that situation....we met up with friends under the Halloween tree. I had always wanted to see this tree.









I took way too many pictures so I will take pity on the readers and stop here. Love this tree.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It was roughly 8:30. Our friends headed to Fantasmic and we had an hour til the fireworks. We had originally wanted to see them, but we had an hour to go and we were very run down. So instead of waiting around, we headed out. You can tell how loopy I am by my face in this picture.



However, when we reached the esplanade, we figured it could not possibly hurt to pop into DCA just to see which characters were meeting on Buena Vista Street.





I loved their Halloween windows:



We did manage to find Minnie so mission accomplished!



However, even though we were extremely wiped out, we had made it so far as Buena Vista Street, so why not just pop over to Avengers Campus and see who we could find?

And we found Spiderman with a super short wait!



We had to take some pics with this optical illusion ground:





We also found Captain America patrolling the campus:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We noticed that WEB Slingers didn't have a wait so decided to check that out since we hadn't been able to ride it yet. We liked Peter's 3d printer.





I'm not sure why his lab has a clam machine game, but it has some interesting prizes.



We really only had to wait about 5 minutes to board the attraction. When we did we were paired with two girls who kept freaking out the entire ride. Apparently we were pretty good at it for our first time, and they were veterans who had never got such a high score. Which of course didn't inflate our already over inflated gamer egos one bit. I am pretty sure we had the 197 and 243 scores.



They instructed us to take a pic of the top score board, which we did.



So our egos were way over-inflated and we were pretty pleased with ourselves. A nice CM at the gift shop talked to us for a solid 15 minutes about his upcoming trip to WDW until the park had officially closed.

I loved the little spider bots with their accessories.



It was a pretty fantastic night and Minnie even waved to us on our way out.





We were headed out at 10 and quickly made it back to the room and spent some time packing up since we were checking out in the morning.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I am going to go ahead and finish up this report in a bit of a rush. We have a Disney Halloween cruise on the Wish upcoming in a week, and after that we have a 2 week trip to Europe at the end of November which includes Disneyland Paris. So it's about time to get this wrapped up or else I never will.

This was the last day left in our trip. Along with one of our friends, we needed to be at LAX for our departure flight around 5-6 pm. We both had red eyes back to Orlando.

We managed to make it to DL around 9:30 which wasn't bad at all, especially since we all had to shove way too much expo swag into our already over-laden cosplay filled bags.

Left on our must do list was a visit with candy corn costumed Donald Duck (my number one):



And we also met tree Goofy. Such an odd costume, but it worked!





We saw Captain Hook and had to show him my shoulder Alligator Loki (he was not the biggest fan):



We took a ride on the Storybook Canal Boats (our goal was to do non WDW attractions):



We did super creepy Pinnochio, this ride should scare the worst of kids straight.





Next up was Snow White and her decidedly less scary than they used to be adventures:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We stopped at Red Rose Tavern for some pumpkin cold brews:



We had purchased Genie and we had our first pass:

















Next up was Enchanted Tiki Room:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Then we took a spin with Mr. Toad. Guy seriously needs some driving lessons.



We had a pass for Space Mountain. I so wish WDW had DL's, so much better:



We wanted to have lunch at Pym's Test Kitchen, so we headed to DCA. We saw Cap and Ant Man up on the balcony:



Then had our late lunch:







I really wanted to see the Coco Halloween set up so we headed over there.



Miguel's line was closed but I got this nice creeper shot:



We popped over to DL for one last shopping moment and I found this delightful pumpkin:



And that was it! It was sadly time to head back to the hotel to collect our luggage and head to the airport. The flight back was pretty uneventful, I actually got updated to first class but they only had one empty seat so Brian urged me to take it and leave him behind. Which I did, but I feel like my first experience in first class was sadly lacking as I pretty much passed out when I was in my seat and stayed that way.

Our final day at the parks had actually been somewhat trying. It was incredibly hot and DL does not offer much shade cover. The parks were slammed and we had half hour waits for all the Fantasyland rides (Toad, Pinocchio and Snow White). I definitely would have liked to have got more done and I think we were ready to head back.