missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
Such pretty pictures!
I visited the farmers market on my trip to LA and loved it there, it's so cute!
I visited the farmers market on my trip to LA and loved it there, it's so cute!
“That’s just a weird thing to be happy about”: A Backstage Magic ABD TR! UPDATED 11/24 X3 & COMPLETE
- Thread starter dolewhipdreams
- Start date
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
It's so cool and I love that it's right in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. Just a reminder of how the earth has changed!
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
Thanks friend!
I definitely wish we had more time at the farmer's market or had gone back on multiple days because there was sooo much food I wanted to try!
SimplyGoofy
"You are not Mickey Mouse... you are a rat!"
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2011
When you spend the majority of your time on your "Watched" list... you manage to miss the start of someone's TR and end up joining on page five! 
I'm thrilled I spotted your report as I loved your last one! I'm excited to read about your ABD adventure!
It sounds like you were off to a great start in L.A.! The studio tour looked like great fun (I especially appreciated the Harry Potter items). Your tour guides look very fun and enthusiastic so hopefully that will translate into a fun time with the group. I'm excited to hear more!
I'm thrilled I spotted your report as I loved your last one! I'm excited to read about your ABD adventure!It sounds like you were off to a great start in L.A.! The studio tour looked like great fun (I especially appreciated the Harry Potter items). Your tour guides look very fun and enthusiastic so hopefully that will translate into a fun time with the group. I'm excited to hear more!
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
Yay welcome back!! I'm so glad fate allowed us to connect once again.
We had such a good time in LA. There's so much to do (and EAT) and the weather was beautiful. And yes our guides definitely had a fun time with the group (spoiler alert
). You'll just have to stay tuned to find out how!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Your ABD guides looks so friendly and welcoming!
The tar pits look really cool!
The tar pits look really cool!
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
The guides were definitely friendly and welcoming, it wasn't just looks! We had a great time with them.
The tar pits were neat, especially since so much of it was free.
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
Guys, I saw Beyonce.
Hey guys! So remember that I will be spoiling many surprises about the Backstage Magic ABD in this TR. I’m going to do my best to change the text to alert you that something is considered spoiler-y (meaning it’s not information that’s readily shared by ABD or just generally known). So if you see the text change to THIS COLOR, that’s a SPOILER. If you want to avoid spoilers, skip over until it goes back to the main color. But just a warning that I may forget to mark something or might consider some information not a spoiler that actually might be, so read with caution if you are trying to avoid spoilers.
After collecting our bags and dropping them in our new room (with a significantly less inspiring view of the roof) we went out to the pool. But before we left I remembered to snap some photos of the room since I neglected to do that in our other room.
[I much preferred the Hollywood Sign, haze and all]
The pool is in a really neat location but it's not very big and all the chairs were taken. We didn’t plan on laying out so we just stashed our stuff next to a plant and got in, only to be shocked by how hot the water was. Not pleasantly warm, but actually hot. Like just add bubbles and it's a jacuzzi hot. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a pool of that temperature. We stayed in for a few minutes but it wasn’t really refreshing at all so we went back up to the room.
Pretty soon it was time for dinner so we went downstairs to meet the group in the predetermined meeting place, which was an open area on the floor where the restaurants are. There was that awkward period when a group of strangers realize that they’re about to spend the week together and should probably break the silence but no one really wants to until that one brave soul asks one of those common questions like, “So when did you get into town?”
Jon is excellent in those situations and is usually the one who asks the ice breaker. I, on the other hand, use every opportunity to perfect my camouflaging capabilities and see how well I can blend in with the blandly patterned wallpaper.
After a few minutes of this we had the whole group gathered and Shannon & Trevor told us we were heading to the very top floor for our private banquet room. We walked in and the first thing we saw was a photo booth. I knew right then that the whole trip was going to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
We were seated with one of the bigger families in the group. They had 6 in their party and they were from Long Island. They were nice and we had some really good conversation. We found out both the sons (who are roughly our age) are animators so they were really excited to visit Disney Studios and see more about that side of things.
[Not a bad view! Plus you can see the Magic Castle if you look closely]
We started right off with a competition among the tables to see who would eat first. The challenge was to go through the alphabet and name Disney characters that started with that letter. Now I’m not a competitive person by nature but if the competition involves Disney knowledge then I’ve been known to roll my sleeves up. Our table tied for first place so it went to sudden death rock paper scissors, which unfortunately we lost.
[Yes that is my absolutely wretched handwriting. I was kicked out of the cute handwriting gene pool for sure]
Dinner was fine but nothing incredible, but the dessert was delightful and wine was included in this meal (holla) so overall it was a good meal.
[All I managed to get decent pictures of at this meal were the desserts, sorry for the TR fail]
Throughout dinner Shannon & Trevor would get up and start some kind of activity, starting with going around the room and doing intros. They also gave out celebration pins to people who were celebrating things like anniversaries (hey that’s us!)
They also gave out the first of the pin of the day! I actually didn’t know that they did a pin every day so that made me super excited.
[I forgot who this guy was(someone from the hotel) but he was rocking that Mickey hat]
[It says "It all started with a mouse" because it was the start of our adventure!]
At one point in the dinner conversation Jon turned the topic to sports since that’s usually something that people can connect on. Jon is a really big sports fan so unless it’s a really obscure sport like collegiate handball, he can pull up some kind of stat or story to discuss. Which made the fact that he said at one point in the conversation, “Yeah, the Chiefs are winning the World Series this year” absolutely hilarious.
Now if you don’t follow sports at all, the Chiefs are the Kansas City NFL team. And the World Series is for baseball. So after he said that I gave him a ~look~ and he realized that he had just thrown away his athletic credibility in a single sentence. He hung his head in shame and spent the whole week avoiding everybody. Any time he glimpsed any sort of athletic event taking place, even the simple tossing of a Frisbee, I saw tears form in his eye as he remembered all he had thrown away by uttering such an absurd and utterly incorrect statement.
Just kidding, but I did laugh at him a little.
Trevor & Shannon made a few announcements and gave some (very vague) tips about what was to come on the rest of our adventure and then we were free to go!
As we were leaving I asked one of the waiters if I could grab a can of Coke to go. He told me unfortunately that I would have to drink the Coke there and couldn’t take it with me. I understood and thanked him but I really only wanted it for later so I left it.
We went to ask the guides a couple of questions and a couple minutes later he came back and gave me a Coke! Such a simple thing but it was a really sweet gesture and another reminder that we were in for a week of absolute pampering.
It wasn’t very late yet so Jon and I went on a hunt for Disney-related stars on the Walk of Fame. I specifically wanted to find Walt’s but we found a lot of others on the way.
In the midst of the hunt we came across Madame Tussauds. Every time we are near a Madame Tussauds Jon wants to go in but we haven’t been able to yet on any of our travels. We had the time so we thought “why not?” and went in!
I know it’s kind of a kitschy tourist thing to do but it was honestly really cool. A lot of the figures were incredibly realistic. I was mesmerized by Lorde for several moments.
Jon also got to see Conan O’Brien’s figure. He’s a huge fan of Conan’s so I made him get a photo.
[Look @OhioStateBuckeye I saw Ryan Reynolds too! A slightly disturbed-looking Ryan Reynolds but still]
If you all remember from my PTR, all I wanted in life was to meet Beyonce and I thought I would get a chance on this trip since I saw that the Lion King premiere was supposed to be while we were in LA. I later found out that the date was wrong and we would miss it by a week. My hopes of meeting Queen Bey were crushed to oblivion.
That is until we went to Madame Tussauds and my wishes were as realized as they will probably ever be when I saw this beauty:
Sorry to play that cruel joke on you with the title. Did anyone out there think I actually saw Beyonce?
They had a 90s room going which was absolutely everything.
And the final collection was Marvel themed and Jon & I got our photos with each of our favorite Avengers.
Our tickets included a showing of a 4D Marvel movie which ended up being like It’s Tough to Be a Bug but with superheroes, complete with splashing, smells, and being poked in the back.
It was a pretty quick walkthrough but not at all busy and I’m definitely glad that we had a chance to finally visit a Madame Tussauds.
We still hadn’t found Walt’s star so I broke down and googled it to see where it was. Did you know he actually has two stars? And dang it if we couldn’t find either of them for the longest time! But we eventually uncovered it, got photographic evidence, and went back to the hotel.
Here's a collection of the Disney-related stars that we found to tide you over until the next update, which features everyone's favorite puppets, a delicious meal in a special place, and a dash of crushing disappointment:
Hey guys! So remember that I will be spoiling many surprises about the Backstage Magic ABD in this TR. I’m going to do my best to change the text to alert you that something is considered spoiler-y (meaning it’s not information that’s readily shared by ABD or just generally known). So if you see the text change to THIS COLOR, that’s a SPOILER. If you want to avoid spoilers, skip over until it goes back to the main color. But just a warning that I may forget to mark something or might consider some information not a spoiler that actually might be, so read with caution if you are trying to avoid spoilers.
After collecting our bags and dropping them in our new room (with a significantly less inspiring view of the roof) we went out to the pool. But before we left I remembered to snap some photos of the room since I neglected to do that in our other room.
[I much preferred the Hollywood Sign, haze and all]
The pool is in a really neat location but it's not very big and all the chairs were taken. We didn’t plan on laying out so we just stashed our stuff next to a plant and got in, only to be shocked by how hot the water was. Not pleasantly warm, but actually hot. Like just add bubbles and it's a jacuzzi hot. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a pool of that temperature. We stayed in for a few minutes but it wasn’t really refreshing at all so we went back up to the room.
Pretty soon it was time for dinner so we went downstairs to meet the group in the predetermined meeting place, which was an open area on the floor where the restaurants are. There was that awkward period when a group of strangers realize that they’re about to spend the week together and should probably break the silence but no one really wants to until that one brave soul asks one of those common questions like, “So when did you get into town?”
Jon is excellent in those situations and is usually the one who asks the ice breaker. I, on the other hand, use every opportunity to perfect my camouflaging capabilities and see how well I can blend in with the blandly patterned wallpaper.
After a few minutes of this we had the whole group gathered and Shannon & Trevor told us we were heading to the very top floor for our private banquet room. We walked in and the first thing we saw was a photo booth. I knew right then that the whole trip was going to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
We were seated with one of the bigger families in the group. They had 6 in their party and they were from Long Island. They were nice and we had some really good conversation. We found out both the sons (who are roughly our age) are animators so they were really excited to visit Disney Studios and see more about that side of things.
[Not a bad view! Plus you can see the Magic Castle if you look closely]
We started right off with a competition among the tables to see who would eat first. The challenge was to go through the alphabet and name Disney characters that started with that letter. Now I’m not a competitive person by nature but if the competition involves Disney knowledge then I’ve been known to roll my sleeves up. Our table tied for first place so it went to sudden death rock paper scissors, which unfortunately we lost.
[Yes that is my absolutely wretched handwriting. I was kicked out of the cute handwriting gene pool for sure]
Dinner was fine but nothing incredible, but the dessert was delightful and wine was included in this meal (holla) so overall it was a good meal.
[All I managed to get decent pictures of at this meal were the desserts, sorry for the TR fail]
Throughout dinner Shannon & Trevor would get up and start some kind of activity, starting with going around the room and doing intros. They also gave out celebration pins to people who were celebrating things like anniversaries (hey that’s us!)
They also gave out the first of the pin of the day! I actually didn’t know that they did a pin every day so that made me super excited.
[I forgot who this guy was(someone from the hotel) but he was rocking that Mickey hat]
[It says "It all started with a mouse" because it was the start of our adventure!]
At one point in the dinner conversation Jon turned the topic to sports since that’s usually something that people can connect on. Jon is a really big sports fan so unless it’s a really obscure sport like collegiate handball, he can pull up some kind of stat or story to discuss. Which made the fact that he said at one point in the conversation, “Yeah, the Chiefs are winning the World Series this year” absolutely hilarious.
Now if you don’t follow sports at all, the Chiefs are the Kansas City NFL team. And the World Series is for baseball. So after he said that I gave him a ~look~ and he realized that he had just thrown away his athletic credibility in a single sentence. He hung his head in shame and spent the whole week avoiding everybody. Any time he glimpsed any sort of athletic event taking place, even the simple tossing of a Frisbee, I saw tears form in his eye as he remembered all he had thrown away by uttering such an absurd and utterly incorrect statement.
Just kidding, but I did laugh at him a little.
Trevor & Shannon made a few announcements and gave some (very vague) tips about what was to come on the rest of our adventure and then we were free to go!
As we were leaving I asked one of the waiters if I could grab a can of Coke to go. He told me unfortunately that I would have to drink the Coke there and couldn’t take it with me. I understood and thanked him but I really only wanted it for later so I left it.
We went to ask the guides a couple of questions and a couple minutes later he came back and gave me a Coke! Such a simple thing but it was a really sweet gesture and another reminder that we were in for a week of absolute pampering.
It wasn’t very late yet so Jon and I went on a hunt for Disney-related stars on the Walk of Fame. I specifically wanted to find Walt’s but we found a lot of others on the way.
In the midst of the hunt we came across Madame Tussauds. Every time we are near a Madame Tussauds Jon wants to go in but we haven’t been able to yet on any of our travels. We had the time so we thought “why not?” and went in!
I know it’s kind of a kitschy tourist thing to do but it was honestly really cool. A lot of the figures were incredibly realistic. I was mesmerized by Lorde for several moments.
Jon also got to see Conan O’Brien’s figure. He’s a huge fan of Conan’s so I made him get a photo.
[Look @OhioStateBuckeye I saw Ryan Reynolds too! A slightly disturbed-looking Ryan Reynolds but still]
If you all remember from my PTR, all I wanted in life was to meet Beyonce and I thought I would get a chance on this trip since I saw that the Lion King premiere was supposed to be while we were in LA. I later found out that the date was wrong and we would miss it by a week. My hopes of meeting Queen Bey were crushed to oblivion.
That is until we went to Madame Tussauds and my wishes were as realized as they will probably ever be when I saw this beauty:
Sorry to play that cruel joke on you with the title. Did anyone out there think I actually saw Beyonce?
They had a 90s room going which was absolutely everything.
And the final collection was Marvel themed and Jon & I got our photos with each of our favorite Avengers.
Our tickets included a showing of a 4D Marvel movie which ended up being like It’s Tough to Be a Bug but with superheroes, complete with splashing, smells, and being poked in the back.
It was a pretty quick walkthrough but not at all busy and I’m definitely glad that we had a chance to finally visit a Madame Tussauds.
We still hadn’t found Walt’s star so I broke down and googled it to see where it was. Did you know he actually has two stars? And dang it if we couldn’t find either of them for the longest time! But we eventually uncovered it, got photographic evidence, and went back to the hotel.
Here's a collection of the Disney-related stars that we found to tide you over until the next update, which features everyone's favorite puppets, a delicious meal in a special place, and a dash of crushing disappointment:
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
Sounds like a great first dinner with the crew! Love the pins you got!
You found so many Disney stars! And hey, while in LA I feel like you have to do at LEAST one stereotypical tourist thing and Madame Tussauds looked fun! Wow, Lorde really does look super real!
You found so many Disney stars! And hey, while in LA I feel like you have to do at LEAST one stereotypical tourist thing and Madame Tussauds looked fun! Wow, Lorde really does look super real!
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
I just stared at Lorde. She was mesmerizing. And also pretty tall. I can't even imagine how pretty she is in real life.
HomeSweetDisney
You are my new dream.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2004
What a great start to your trip! The La Brea Tar Pits seem like one of those things that I'd not be interested in prior to going but then once I was there I'd think it was interesting. I am trying to work on my bad habit of pre-judging things before I try them 
I have always wanted to do that studio tour too! That'll definitely be on my list when we make it to SoCal.
Madame Tussaud's is cheesy but REALLY fun - we have done the one in Vegas and I thought it was going to be super lame (there I go pre-judging something again!) and I ended up having so much fun!
I have a feeling they are all pretty similar though plus or minus a few celebrity wax figures so I don't know that I'd go out of my way to do the one in LA.
Although, that Lorde one IS crazy realistic!
Can't wait to read all about your first official day on ABD!!
I have always wanted to do that studio tour too! That'll definitely be on my list when we make it to SoCal.
Madame Tussaud's is cheesy but REALLY fun - we have done the one in Vegas and I thought it was going to be super lame (there I go pre-judging something again!) and I ended up having so much fun!
I have a feeling they are all pretty similar though plus or minus a few celebrity wax figures so I don't know that I'd go out of my way to do the one in LA.
Although, that Lorde one IS crazy realistic!
Can't wait to read all about your first official day on ABD!!
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
The awesome thing is they're free and pretty close to other stuff so if you get there and turns out you don't like it just leave! No time or money wasted. I thought it was neat but I love science and science-y things so it was right up my alley.
Yeah I would probably agree. If you do go, make sure to buy tickets online. It's literally twice the cost to buy them at the door. We got to the door and realized that, stepped out of line (there was no line but we got out of the way), bought them on our phones, then got back in line. Saved us like $40.
I seriously thought it was going to move at some point because it looked so real.
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
SimplyGoofy
"You are not Mickey Mouse... you are a rat!"
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2011
What a great opening dinner! The celebration acknowledgement and the pins sound so nice. It was nice you got the can of Coke, too. 
I've never had the desire to visit a Madame Tussaud's museum but you sure make it look fun!
I've never had the desire to visit a Madame Tussaud's museum but you sure make it look fun!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Your description of waiting for your opening dinner is literally my life lol. I hate ice breaker questions and am painfully awkward at meeting people 
.
The dinner sounds great though and a nice way to kick off the trip!
Pretty sure that 90s room could've been my childhood bedroom! My best friend's daughter told me the other day that she has a Lisa Frank folder this year and my 90s heart was very happy about it.
.The dinner sounds great though and a nice way to kick off the trip!
Pretty sure that 90s room could've been my childhood bedroom! My best friend's daughter told me the other day that she has a Lisa Frank folder this year and my 90s heart was very happy about it.
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
Let's be honest that was the best part of the dinnerIt was nice you got the can of Coke, too.
It's definitely what you make of it! And it's not for everyone but we had a nice time
Right?? I actually just saw a Buzzfeed article talking about how no one can get Beyonce's wax figure right hahaha
Awkward people unite! (But from across the room while we quietly scroll through our phones)Your description of waiting for your opening dinner is literally my life lol. I hate ice breaker questions and am painfully awkward at meeting people
Haha yes Lisa Frank!! The absolute queen of school supplies.
jrmint427
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2013
So cool they give out special pins!
I was so surprised to read that they wouldn’t let you take a Coke given the cost of ABD. Glad to hear they changed their minds!
YES! It’s LA after all. You got me
dolewhipdreams
Counting days until my next Dole Whip
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
Yeah I was pumped for that! And Jon doesn't care about pins so I got double
Right??? The funny thing is I don't know if I ever drank it....
ScoreYES! It’s LA after all. You got me
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