And, it’s over.  Our farewell dinner was in the rotunda of the American pavilion at Epcot.  Lots of hugs and tears. And then we watched the fireworks. 

I hope to blog some more details later. 

Deb

 We made it to Orlando and are having breakfast at Be Our Guest in the Beasts castle. 

   

We have boarded our jet in Paris to fly back to Florida. Minnie and Mickey came to say goodbye after dinner last night. 

    Catastrophe canyon lives!  It currently resides at Disney Studios Paris.  It was part of a back stage tour at Hollywood Studios years ago.

Deb

 Lobby of the Disneyland Hotel Paris. Off to the park for our picture in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. 

Deb

We

View from our hotel in Giza, Egypt.  We landed yesterday afternoon, saw the museum and the pyramids.

We slept and are now on our way to the airport to fly to Paris. 

The internet continues eb be a challenge. 

D

I was surprised to have internet in China but several sites I visit were blocked including the site I use to create posts. We are in India now. 

This is the view from our balcony. 

Time for dinner, hopefully more later.

Deb

 View from our hotel  room in Japan.

We’re on the bus to the airport to head to Shanghai. I probably won’t be able to ost from there. 

Some pictures. 

I wrote this last week. Posting what I can. 

Wow. Just wow.  The last 4 days have been amazing.  A quick recap of what we are doing.  We are on an around the world Disney trip which officially started on Sunday, July 28, in Disneyland, Anaheim, California.  We flew out the previous Thursday and Leigh and Wes came down from San Jose to join us for a few days before they took off for Europe.  

Sunday evening we met with our tour group (around 50 people).  We had dinner in California Adventure and watched the fireworks in Disneyland.  Monday morning they had us up early for breakfast and the ride to Disney Studios which are in Burbank.  Disney Studios, Marvel Studios, some parts of Lucas Films, the Disney archives and the Ink and Paint Studio are here.

Our first stop was the Disney Studio Store.  There was a lot of unique merchandise here.  I bought a sweatshirt jacket with Disney Company discretely embroidered on it while Steve bought a Lucas Film jacket.  My excuse was that I hadn’t brought a lightweight jacket; I don’t know what Steve’s excuse was. 

We moved on to a stage where they do sound dubbing and mixing.  We both got a chance to dub a line in one of the Pirates movies.  I’ll try to get that uploaded.

The next stop was Walt’s office.  It was much like I remember from the television series, but the series never showed the kitchen hidden by pocket doors.  Hanging outside the office was an Olympic torch.  And I can’t remember what year it was from.

Marvel Studios was up next.   Walking through the lobby/coffee shop we saw a sign designating it as Bunsen and Beaker’s LAB, a reference to 2 Muppets characters.  Hidden references are everywhere.  We stopped in front of three manikins displaying costumes from the latest Deadpool movie.  They had two “super hero” costumes and a wonderful leather top coat that was exquisitely tailored. The boots were gorgeous, too.  On the opposite wall were some Iron Man costumes.   The Marvel comic library was next and they even had some comics out that we could take.

More women’s costumes were next; they were all very exquisitely detailed. Since I’ve only seen one or two Marvel movies, I can’t tell you what movies they are from.   In the hallway was this amazing bench.   Being Marvel, they have a game room for when one needs a break from creating. (I’m typing this on the plane to Japan and the just came by with hot moist towels to refresh with before lunch.). 

Then it was off to the archives.  As Disney buys up studios they acquire their archives, so one of the items they had out for us was the heart shaped sapphire necklace from the Titanic.  Rae’s helmet from one of the Star Wars movies (complete with battle scars) and some claws from ****** were also laid out for us along with one of the many Disney Oscar’s. 

We were allowed to hold an Oscar and I’m going to have to ask someone which one it was.  The biggest item on display was a chair from the haunted mansion with a hidden Donald on the back.  One of Walt’s technological innovation, the multi plane camera, was also on display. 

Next we went to see The Infinity, which I am going to have trouble explaining.  It can create a background for a scene that looks real and actors can act in.  And that doesn’t come close to explaining how magical it is.  I’ll see if Steve can explain it better. 

Then it was back to the Grand California Hotel for dinner.  This was outside on one of the many plazas at the hotel landscaped to resemble the mountains in California with fir trees and water features.  Food is served buffet style and they always accommodate my food allergies.  After dinner, we could head for California Adventure to watch The Wonderful World of Color evening extravaganza.  They display Disney art on sprays of water while playing music.  We had seen it last year so I skipped it for more sleep time.  Steve went and thoroughly enjoyed it.

That was Monday, the first full day.  They had us up early again the next morning so we could enter Disneyland before park opening.  We took a group picture in front of the castle and then headed for Galaxy’s Edge (otherwise known as Star Wars land).  We rode Rise of the Resistance and Smugglers Run before having breakfast in a back stage area. Chewbacca was there to greet us and pose for photos. 

Next up was the Haunted Mansion. This was the first day it was open after a long closure for refurbishment.  They also installed the Nightmare before Christmas overlay.  The attraction in California is different from Florida starting with the outside.  Where Florida is a replica of a New England mansion, California is a southern mansion, currently decorated for Halloween.  The inside is different, too. A lot of scenes are similar, but I think there were more scenes.  And everything had some reference to A Nightmare before Christmas.  If we ever come back to Disneyland in the fall, I’ll have to watch the movie first. 

Jungle Cruise was next and the jokes were just as punny as ever.   I don’t think our doctor on the trip had ever been on the jungle cruise and was cracking up at every joke.  Although the ride is very similar to Florida, there are minor differences.

We rode It’s a Small World next.  I think the biggest difference between the California and the Florida versions is that California has some Disney characters inserted in appropriate scenes. Here’s Woody from Toy Story.

By this time I was tired and hot so decided to head back to the hotel for lunch and a nap. Since we had spent three days in the parks recently I didn’t feel I was missing too much. I had a nice peaceful meal in air conditioning and went back to the room for a nap.  I returned to the park in time for our tour of Walt’s apartment above the firehouse. It’s small and efficient and used to have a fire pole down to the firehouse until a kid managed to shimmy up it and surprise Walt.  The only pictures allowed were taken by the cast member. 

We finished the day with dinner at the Blue Bayou next to the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.  It was designed so that boats from Pirates floated by.  Unfortunately Pirates closed for refurbishment and there were no boats to add to the atmosphere.

We then headed back to the hotel to pack up our belongings for the trip to San Francisco in the morning. It will be our first look at the plane that will carry us around the world.

And what a plane it is. Special holders for our iPads, which we will be using to catch lectures by the staff.  We were given iPads and noise canceling headphones for the trip. They are paired with blue tooth technology which is good as this is a noisy plane.

Just went on Nemo and Friends Sea Rider. So cool. They used the technology of star tours to take an undersea ride with Nemo. 

 

I’m going to stop trying to do an edited blog and go on the fly. 

We are in Tokyo Disney Seas which is a unique park.  The park icon is a volcano which reportedly occasionally erupts. 

It’s a miracle!  I’m up, dressed, fed, and on a bus at 7 am.  It’s our first full day of the tour and we’re off to Disney Studios - the world headquarters of the Disney Company. 

Sunday was spent in Disneyland with Leigh and Wes until they needed to head for the airport for their flight to Europe. Then we had time for a short nap before meeting the rest of the tour for introductions.  We are staying in the Grand Californian Hotel which is designed in the craftsman style and gorgeous.  It will be our home until Wednesday when we head for San Francisco. 

The tour group is diverse. There are a number of retired people as well as some families.  The youngest person is probably about 14.   The first time this tour was offered was last year (2023) and several people (including us) had tired to take it last year but missed the cut. 

Mickey was there to greet us and pose for pictures. It was interesting to see that the cast members were also getting in line to get their pictures taken with Mickey. 

     

We moved to the California Adventure park for dinner at the Animation attraction. While it’s not a restaurant, it has

a large open area where they set up elegant tables for the catered meal.  It was beautiful and delicious. 

In the past Disney was not known for great food but these days the food is usually very good. They also take good care of people with food allergies which is helpful with my 7 food allergies. 

After dinner we headed over to Disneyland for the fireworks. (I have no idea why dinner was in California Adventure and then we changed parks.).  There’s something called Pixar Fest going on so the fireworks were Pixar themed.  The Disneyland castle is much smaller than the WDW castle and we couldn’t really see the projections from our viewing spot but the fireworks were great.

In getting ready for this trip we watched a number of things.  Based on a blog of last year’s trip we watched several Marvel movies and shows that we will see things that are related to them. (I drew the line at Antman and the Wasp.). But what we enjoyed most were the Disney series on Imagineering and Behind the Attractions.

I think that what I will enjoy the most is how things are different from park to park.  For example, there are Indiana Jones attractions in several parks, each completely different.  The only attractions that are in every park are dumbo and the carrousel.  And in California, both Disneyland and California Adventure both have carrousels and they are different.

Disneyland’s is a regular merry go round, but one of the horses is Jingle, Mary Poppins’ horse.  We were lucky enough to catch Mary herself taking a ride.  

The carrousel in California Adventure featured Pixar characters. 

We spent all day Monday at the Disney Studios, but that’s for another post. It’s time for bed and we have to be up early again tomorrow. 

Deb

Saturday, July 27, 2024

We made it to California on Thursday, but it was a long day.  Luckily our friends Leigh and Wes had already arrived and had made plans for dinner.  They came down from San Jose to spend a few days with us before we started our tour. They have plans of their own - they are headed to Switzerland.

On Friday Anna joined us. Both Leigh and Anna lived with us while working on their PhDs at Purdue. We spent the day at Disneyland and had a blast.

I’m still figuring out the transfer of photos from the Disneyland app to my phone. It is of course different than how it works at Disney World.  So the only picture I have is of the treats Disney had ready for us when we checked in.

Having a great time,

Deb & Steve

It’s been 5 years since I posted.  Like most for people, it’s been a strange time for us. We muddled through the pandemic with some health issues, moving (which meant emptying our home of 30 years), selling the house and trying to figure out our new normal.

We’ve done some traveling, mostly to visit family and friends.  But tomorrow we start a brand new adventure - a trip around the world!

It’s an Adventures by Disney trip that will hit all of the Disney parks around the world. I’ll be trying to post along the way but there will be a number of challenges.  WiFi is not guaranteed.  We’ll have iPhones and iPads but no computers.  Blogging by iPad is new for me and jet lag will be serious. But I’ll try.

Hope you enjoy following our journey.

Deb & Steve