We begin this day with a meet in the lobby then head out for Disneyland Park for our Character breakfast at the Plaza Inn located at the end of Main Street.  Some of the best memories I have our since we are the first group on this trip, Quinn or Diana hold up an Adventures by Disney sign as we walk around and we get the best stares as we head into the park before anyone else or just walk around. I love that. We head into Disneyland and no one else is there and we are a group of 36 walking down Main Street And no one else is there! Have a said that! Wow, it is so cool! We go to Plaza Inn and have an elaborate breakfast with lots of goodies and are inundated with many, many characters. Again, our group is off in the Bird cage room along until just before we leave. We get pictures with Chip/ Dale, Fairy Godmother, etc etc. Jim from ABD Operations has been with us on this whole trip now too and has a funny encounter with the Fairy Godmother. He really is wonderful and has been a great extra added member.

From breakfast we head to our first backstage experience at Indiana Jones. We actually are given the chance to see how the Jeeps really are moved around on the chassis which has hydraulics and moves much more than I thought. Matt, the 15yr old young man in our group is given the chance to use the joystick which moves the jeep around. We then are taken up and around and put on the ride to experience what we have just seen. I tell Nate, the youngest in our group at age 8, that I want to ride with him and Dani his sister who is 10. What a wonderful family! The kids have brought along their parents Emy and Gary and grandma Ginny who is the matriarch of the group but does all the rides and keeps up with everyone. Go Ginny!

From Indy we head to the Big Thunder Ranch area and are greeted by Cortney who tells us the history of Walt’s love of horses and how at one time they had horses and animals throughout the park itself, even Indians riding on horses on Tom Sawyer Island etc. This building also displays the many ribbons awarded to the horses all over California. So not only do they work here, they are also shown at County fairs etc for competition. We are given the opportunity to go in and feed the goats there are here in the petting area. They also have donkeys and a cow here. We get to walk through the park and then enter backstage to see where the Steam engines and Monorails are kept and Ed and Vern our hosts tell us more about the history of Walt and his love of trains and how these engines came to be in Disneyland. We walk through from here over to the Circle D ranch area to see the small house in site which was once the real home of the Dolly and Owen Pope. The Pope’s are the only people who ever lived at Disneyland and actually took care of the ranch which at one time had 220 horses etc. Cortney tells us how now the horses only work 2 hours / day and have 1 week off per month. They are allowed to work 5 years in total and then are sold. We get to see where all the other animals from the park live. The day is very hot and we are given time to rest here and get water too. Then we head back on stage for our lunch.

We head to New Orleans Square and Café Orleans and get to try Gumbo, Monte Cristo Sandwiches, salads and have Beignet’s for dessert. All of us are given Mardi Gras beads as we enter (yes, no one else has them) and have the pleasure of having TK the Pirate as entertainment for our lunch. He tries to recruit Nate in to becoming a pirate but Nate holds out. Nice lunch in a great location. After eating we are taken into the exit of Pirates of the Caribbean ride. All of fit into two boats and you can hear the group all singing away. Again, the bonding, the fun…

Our next two events are magical on their own since again they are never done except for rare times or VIPs. We break into 3 groups now for Mickey, Minnie and Goofy (sorry Jim). The Mickey group is escorted by a Tour Guide into Walt’s Apartment. The amazing thing here is she gives us a little history and tells us no one really ever gets to see this. The décor is Victorian with heavy pink, white and dark burgundy’s. The original grilled cheese maker is here along with glass baby bottles the Disney’s used for their grandkids. The bathroom is retro pink tile with a 4 headed shower stall. The carpet look brand new and there is an old Victorian phone with an actual working number and yes I wrote it down. Then there is the lamp that has been lit since Walt died and this sits in the window overlooking Main Street. There are only about 4 people who are allowed to change the 120v bulb when it burns out and our Tour Guide is one of them. We then get another Magical moment surprise which again brings several to tears and are allowed to take a group photo in the Apartment. It’s amazing to know Walt actually sat here at times and looked out of this window onto his park.

Just when you think you cannot take any more surprises we are given real train ticket that the conductor punches *spoiler alert* and get to ride in the Lilly Belle! This coach car has been refurbished to the original state and is decorated in Victorian again, much like the apartment with antiques and inlayed wood, brass roof ornaments and special low lighting. A conductor always rides with the coach when there are guests inside. Our conductor also relays the history of the train more and the things you see on the train like the Grand Canyon scenes etc. We all get to sign the guest book too which is so neat and not very full until we get here.   We end back on Main Street just before its time for the Parade of Dreams. Most of our group takes the VIP tickets the ABD group is given for viewing of the parade up on top of the Train station in rows of bench seats. Fabulous location. Beci and I opt not to do this and spend the afternoon on our own.

We meet up with the group later for a special viewing of Fantasmic. We are given a roped off area right in the front of Orleans café, dead center. This is a great location and a great show. Much better here than in Florida in my opinion. And we also get to see the fireworks from here. After both shows our small group (now adding Brad, Scott and Tracey to our Power Group) decide to head off for more rides. We are given 5 fast passes for any rides for the night. We head to Jungle Cruise (not boat!) and get a very funny host then from there walk over to Space Mountain. We decided to do a good deed and each give one fast pass away to guests in the standby line…Gave us a warm fuzzy before heading into Space Mountain. In the ride I must have been oxygen deprived because I could not stop laughing and it starts to catch and I think we just begin to get giddy from lack of sleep and over stimulation. ("what do you mean I can’t use a fast pass in the water line, I thought these were good for any line?") and (Fast passes from heaven, ahhh….you had to be there). We end the night by riding Buzz Lightyear
fore heading home for the night. Really the best time and with great friends.

We begin this day with a meet in the lobby then head out for Disneyland Park for our Character breakfast at the Plaza Inn located at the end of Main Street.  Some of the best memories I have our since we are the first group on this trip, Quinn or Diana hold up an Adventures by Disney sign as we walk around and we get the best stares as we head into the park before anyone else or just walk around. I love that. We head into Disneyland and no one else is there and we are a group of 36 walking down Main Street And no one else is there! Have a said that! Wow, it is so cool! We go to Plaza Inn and have an elaborate breakfast with lots of goodies and are inundated with many, many characters. Again, our group is off in the Bird cage room along until just before we leave. We get pictures with Chip/ Dale, Fairy Godmother, etc etc. Jim from ABD Operations has been with us on this whole trip now too and has a funny encounter with the Fairy Godmother. He really is wonderful and has been a great extra added member.

From breakfast we head to our first backstage experience at Indiana Jones. We actually are given the chance to see how the Jeeps really are moved around on the chassis which has hydraulics and moves much more than I thought. Matt, the 15yr old young man in our group is given the chance to use the joystick which moves the jeep around. < more... >

Meeting at 7am proved not to be an issue today due to the fact that we all knew we would be going to the Disney Studios and Imagineering. When you have a group of avid Disney fans who really understand how no one gets to see these two places, being on time is not an issue!! Breakfast this morning is in the hotel at Twist, the hotel restaurant. The buffet included eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, omelets, breads etc. We sat with Brent, Brock and some new friends Alex and his mom Haydee. Had they known then what they know now about us crazy people, they may have moved to a new table!!! LOL. We have a little delay in getting the bus but boarded it and headed out for the Imagineers. Everyone is like kids giggling and just anticipating and singing the songs playing on the CD in the bus. We were met by Dave who will be our guide. He walked us down a hallway filled with sketches and drawings and pictures. No pictures in here as you can imagine so its all visual memory. Not knowing we would gaze and gawk it took our group a lot longer to get to the room they had set up for us… He gave us a great overview of what Imagineers do and how Walt wanted his team of people to work. Showed us a slide/video presentation and walk us through a few new things they are working on…then we got an awesome Magical Moment surprise that brought several people to tears. We split into groups and got to meet Valerie, a Sculptor, who took us into the Sculpting studio so we could see marquette’s (pre-molds) they make to then scale up or down depending on the project they are doing. In this room were Heads of Presidents, many Disney Characters and the miniature Walt and Mickey statue with Mickey holding the ice cream cone. Snow white and the seven dwarfs too surrounded us. Amazing! From Sculpting we went to sound and Steve played us a video of how they make sound really feel real just but them taking a dummy head to places and video taping on location sounds then remixing it. Very cool demonstration. We all then got to walk through where they were building mini models of things to come in CA Adventure and even though we could not see much you knew this are where it all begins. Dave then gave us a demonstration of animatronics and showed us "Joe Cocker" a bare bones person so we could visually see how the insides work. We walked through another hallway of painting and murals then out into a courtyard where we were allowed 30 minutes to shop at Mickey’s of Glendale. No one but the imaginers are allowed to go here really so for our group 30 minutes seemed so short but Beci and I broke the bank by throwing as much of and as many things we could into bags. I would say we easily as a group spent over $15000 in 30 minutes. Beci of course had the most but all for good causes!!!

We gathered back onto the bus and headed to Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. As a working studio again they do not really offer tours here and there are not cast members here but studio people. We were walked through the hallway of the art building housing some archives, paintings, sketches, drawings etc. The building we walked thru, I believe it was the Animation building has 6 - 8 wings all with outside windows and leveler shades so artists can control their own lighting. This building as a tunnel underneath connecting it to the Ink/Paint buildings next door. The tunnel is still used in movies today. We headed out and took photos in the courtyard of legends then were given 45 minutes to shop and eat lunch in the Commissary here. Marty Sklar was here also eating lunch with all of us mortals! Nick, a 13 yr old on the trip with his parents Helen and Steve, is a Disney enthusiast and very knowledgeable about Walt’s history and Imagineering. He was thrilled to see Marty.

Back on the bus now for the drive to Disneyland Resort. As you drive in the bus they play music that is selected specifically for the Adventure. I remember this too from the Southwest Splendors trip I saw. On our trip we are listening to older music from the Hollywood days, 70s tunes, Monorail music and then current Disney tunes. Then you suddenly here the whole bus starts singing as we are driving…so amazing. We have all really bonded, love Disney and just are acting like kids. As Tracy puts it she loves seeing us "all become children again" in our love of Walt and all things Disney. I hope this carries through in every group on Backstage Magic.

Arriving at the hotel we have about 2 hours of down time to check into the rooms here and relax before meeting for the welcome reception and dinner. Beci and I have a nice room overlooking the courtyard area and I just love the bedding, new flat screen TVs, bathrooms and the shampoo amenities are really nice. At 5pm we meet in the lobby and are greeted by David the 2008 Disneyland Resort Ambassador and Fred who works in ABD Operations. David the Ambassador also gives Beci and I Repeat Adventure guest pins too. I was really looking forward to this pin. We head over to Disneyland Resort Hotel and got to the Wine Cellar for a little cocktail hour. They have a guitar player hired to play music, have a selection of several wines to try and wonderful Bruschetta, veggies, dips to enhance this. Our host is Carlos who manages the Cellar and Hooks Pointe restaurant.. We head up stairs at 6pm for our dinner. One thing not mentioned before is we are always given tables away from all other guests in areas by ourselves with menus catered for our Group. It adds a nice touch and helps facilitate the bond of the group. The Guides all travel from table to table during the Adventure so you get to meet with them and know them more. We are fortunate enough to have our now core group Brent, Brock, Alex, Haydee to eat with. Quinn tells us stories of how he tried out to be a 2007 Ambassador and was a finalist.

After dinner we walk over to Disneyland Park and all the 1^st time guests take a picture before entering. We actually have a lot of guests who have never been here which is so cool. We are walked over to our first Fun Experience in the Park, the Haunted Mansion. The coolest part of this tour is not waiting for rides. We are guided into a back entrance and get right on to the ride. The host has several people lay flat on the floor while we are in the elevator which is so cool and they said it really makes for a fun experience. This is Nick’s favorite ride here and he is thrilled. We get off the ride and are have about 90 minutes so Brent, Brock, Alex, Haydee and I follow Beci across the park making the most of this time. We manage to get on Indy, Space Mountain, and Finding Nemo submarine. I loved being back on the submarines here since its one of my fondest childhood memories but the ride itself was not spectacular. Running out of time we decide to all it a night and head back to the hotel

Meeting at 7am proved not to be an issue today due to the fact that we all knew we would be going to the Disney Studios and Imagineering. When you have a group of avid Disney fans who really understand how no one gets to see these two places, being on time is not an issue!! Breakfast this morning is in the hotel at Twist, the hotel restaurant. < more... >