March 90s Nite and Skywalker Ranch! UPDATE 7/14 TR COMPLETE

[dolewhipdreams]

I really don't sleep on vacations and I'm going to provide proof.

You don't sleep because you don't give yourself time to sleep or you can't sleep because it's vacation?

You're allowed to take them of the grounds, but you have to be in the picture

That's a weird rule...

Isn't it crazy how Skywalker Ranch is some epic place for fans, yet people just casually work there and are excited about new lunch items.

Kind of like Disney parks, I suppose. Like comparing once-in-a-lifetime-ers to well...us.

we decided to do what most Americans do when confronted with a crushing sadness: eat

Pizza Hut and Cici's are solidly at the bottom, if anyone was wondering

I approve. Cici's is garbage.

Brian argued with me that I'd never wear it. I'm still a bit sad about that.

Ugh Jon is good at doing that, too.

 

[soniam]

That hotel is so cute. Crepes rule! Skywalker Ranch!!!!!

I hope Paul is ok, hahaha.

Why did you almost punch a girl? What in the world happened??

I kindly asked if she wouldn’t mind not reclining her seat so much, since ours couldn’t. She proceeded to recline it all the way and then convinced the seats next to her to do the same thing for the entire flight. She then taunted me about it during the flight and even on the parking lot shuttle. The last straw was when she put her hand on my leg and called me honey It took all I had to not punch her. I’m not bitter about it though

 

[Jaina]

That hotel is so cute. Crepes rule! Skywalker Ranch!!!!!

I kindly asked if she wouldn’t mind not reclining her seat so much, since ours couldn’t. She proceeded to recline it all the way and then convinced the seats next to her to do the same thing for the entire flight. She then taunted me about it during the flight and even on the parking lot shuttle. The last straw was when she put her hand on my leg and called me honey It took all I had to not punch her. I’m not bitter about it though

Oh my heck, are you KIDDING me??? Who is like that? That makes me super angry for you....

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

You don't sleep because you don't give yourself time to sleep or you can't sleep because it's vacation?


That's a weird rule...


Kind of like Disney parks, I suppose. Like comparing once-in-a-lifetime-ers to well...us.





I approve. Cici's is garbage.


Ugh Jon is good at doing that, too.

More like I only give myself 5 hours to sleep and then can't sleep anyway.

That hotel is so cute. Crepes rule! Skywalker Ranch!!!!!



I kindly asked if she wouldn’t mind not reclining her seat so much, since ours couldn’t. She proceeded to recline it all the way and then convinced the seats next to her to do the same thing for the entire flight. She then taunted me about it during the flight and even on the parking lot shuttle. The last straw was when she put her hand on my leg and called me honey It took all I had to not punch her. I’m not bitter about it though

Wow, what an awful human being. All I have to say about that.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

So awesome! And that episode is hilarious! How fun that you got to go in! It would have been sooo hard not to surreptitiously sneak a few pics on your phone, oh man! I'm excited for you that you got to go though. And the little hotel/cafe were super cute!

I really did want to take some pictures, but no way could I get my friend in trouble.

I just kept thinking of...

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

...And there it was. The Main House.



There really wasn't that much Star Wars about it. It was so incredibly classy. Tastefully decorated, there is a dining room and and a room dedicated to the Steinway piano inside. A very pretty glassed in patio.

We were not to set foot on the staircase, there were guest rooms up there and George's own room (he wasn't there).

The best room by far was the beautiful research library. This picture was taken from google images, I did not take it.



There were some laptops and books sitting out on a table and we had strict instructions not to look at them, since they were people's actual film research they were conducting at the time.

By film research, I mean research for the design of a movie. So there were many books on fashion through the ages, there were architectural books, historical books, books on animals, anything you might need to spark your creativity or draw inspiration.

One of the best things was a little mobile book shelf that they had placed books on that were used for Return of the Jedi. So there were lots of books about Sequoias and Redwood trees and aviation disasters.

We lingered in the library a long time until we finally needed to make our way out. Our friend had to get back to work and we'd already spent a long time there.

It was sad to leave but I'm glad that I got to go. There really wasn't a strong Star Wars influence, but it was a very beautiful, natural place.

Once we dropped everyone off at the park and ride, we didn't really have any other plans. So we stopped at an REI to look around (the California ones always have the best stuff). Then we decided to take a quick ride up to Muir Woods.

It was a bit crazy, there were lots of houses and then they just abruptly ended and the small protected area began.

It was a bit rainy so everything had a surreal foggy look.

There was a lot of water runoff so there were many little waterfalls next to the road.



We were rewarded with the best view at the very top. All the fog makes San Francisco look like a fairy city.









We were starting to get tired from our lack of sleep, so we wrapped up the drive and drove the hour back to our hotel. Part of the drive was right by the water.



When we finally got back it was still raining and kind of late. I was looking forward to going to bed early but first we decided to drive around and look for a place to eat. We found a small local Mexican place which was actually very good. I didn't take any pictures of my food because I still wasn't quite into Disney vacation mode.

We went straight back to the room and got settled for bed. We had a 6 am flight to LAX the following morning. All 5 of us were on the same flight.

Just as I was ready to set the phone aside I got an alert that our morning flight was cancelled. We never really figured out what happened, but it might have been something about consolidating flights due to high winds and the fact that they were short planes because flights into San Francisco were being canceled because of the winds.

After some heavy swearing and panicking and contacting our other friends, we realized that it was super easy to change flights on Southwest if yours is cancelled. We were sent an email with a link to follow. It had all the available flights listed for the following morning and they didn't even have prices attached, we just picked whichever one we liked and were booked onto it.

We ended up getting booked on the earliest non-stop, which was 8:14 with an arrival time of 9:36. This was actually probably a good thing, since that was a very, very early flight that had been canceled. After all that excitement, we were therefore able to get the best sleep of our trip.


Next up: we arrive in Disneyland and experience a mythical rainy day at Disneyland.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

And our souvenirs from Skywalker Ranch:

Will never throw away this bag. It's now sitting with my Lucasfilm bag. I also like how it's called the General Store.




My new hoodie that I wear way too much.




Brian's t-shirt. Though I'm now worried because I know I bought a t-shirt too but I can't find it. Hmm.



I also had to buy some wine, since they are a working winery, after all. I believe you can also buy some of their wine at Launch Bay at DHS. This is a gift for my little sister. They threw in the wine holder for free since we'd already spent a lot.



These are also gifts. The hat is for my dad, and the firefighter's patch is for my brother in law who is a firefighter. He doesn't usually collect patches...but come on! It has the Falcon and says Skywalker Ranch EMS. Seriously. So cool.





Brian has been wishing that he bought a license plate frame, so I think our friend is going to get one for us when she goes back.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

This pictures of the foggy city are stunning!!

Glad your flight situation got sorted without too much trouble.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Wed March 6 First Disneyland Day!!

I've spent the entire day so far watching old Disney Easter parades on youtube. I used to love watching those on TV. In your Easter bonnet...
Now that I'm thoroughly in the Disney spirit...let's continue!!



We actually got good sleep this past night!

Yay! According to my fitbit I slept for 9 hours and 13 minutes. Amazing.

We were still up early for our flight. We got Soccer, the van, loaded up and drove the hour to the airport without incident.

After saying our goodbyes to Soccer, we found Nate and Carolyn waiting for the sky train thing, which was actually WORKING this morning, which was great. It was a quick ride to the terminal, where we checked our bags.

Emily asked me if I'd packed an empty suitcase in my other bags. The question was kind of out of nowhere but I was like yeah...of course, we fly southwest, who doesn't bring a spare empty on vacation just in case?! Everyone had to laugh at that, as all three of our groups had ended up packing an empty. Great minds think alike.

We had enough time to grab a quick breakfast. We'd received a text that our flight had been delayed 45 minutes, but it's a good thing we went to the gate to check because it turns out it wasn't delayed after all. We had just enough time to eat, then we got to board at the head of B group.

The flight ended up being pretty empty and we had our choice of seats. The flight only lasted an hour. Brian worked on homework while I attempted to nap (didn't work).



Our flight landed, we grabbed our luggage and were soon on the rental car bus. We'd been upgraded to a hybrid, so we got a Ford Fusion. Brian liked it a lot. I was a little more lukewarm on it, but he was comfortable driving and I was packed in the backseat with the other two girls. It's all about your point of view, heh, or point of seat. I think we only had to put half a tank in it at the end of the trip, and we did end up driving a lot.

We listened to our 90s Nite playlist the entire rainy, dreary car ride. We were all super excited for the party the next night.

Our first stop was Nate and Carolyn's hotel. Which turned out to be a huge dump. It was being renovated at the moment. The lobby was fully of dust and construction workers. They checked in and were informed that their room was not ready and they had no place to store the luggage. Luckily, we had the car to keep it in. Next we headed over to our hotel, the La Quinta at Buena Park.

It was a decent La Quinta, not one of the better ones I've stayed at but it was clean and quiet and it worked. The parking was free and there was a nice continental breakfast with waffles, fruit, cereal, the usual.

Now yeah, you might be asking...why are you staying at these hotels?!

Well, turns out the Natural Foods expo was going on at this time. Never heard of it? Neither had I, but I think everyone else in the world has. Hotels were sold out months in advance. The only ones that weren't were crazy expensive. This was the first time we wouldn't be able to walk to the parks. I didn't really like that, but what are you gonna do.

We got checked into our hotel, dumped the luggage, and headed to the parks!

Since our three friends were all cast members, we got free parking at the Mickey and Friends garage. It wasn't necessary, but they all wanted to show their CM badges. We quickly found a spot and were on our way to the parks!



Uh yeah, our first Disneyland picture is of our parking section. I feel like I've failed.

Anyway...

Luckily we all had umbrellas, because there was a steady rain and the temperature was hovering in the low 50s. Not a great day?! Actually, it was the best day ever!!!

It was one of those mythical rainy days at Disneyland! The locals stayed home and the parks were so empty!! Even the year we came before Carsland opened it wasn't this empty.

We didn't even end up buying MaxPass because most attractions were walk on.

We were all hungry and decided to make our first stop the new (to us) Tropical Hideaway!!

I was so excited to see this. Adventureland is my favorite land and I love everything about it.



Very empty.

We got two of the bao buns to try. We had the beef and vegetarian and they were both delicious.



Not the most delicious looking picture, but you can see what it looks like on the inside.

After listening to Rosita crack some jokes (I think maybe she shouldn't have quit her day job), we decided to go next door to Jungle Cruise.

We walked right on.



Our skipper was good, but not the best we've had.

After our trip to see the backside of water, we went right next door and walked onto Indiana Jones.

Indy has my favorite pre-ride video. Sallah is featured, and it's all done in the news reel from the early 1900s style with plenty of Mid Atlantic accents.



Next up we wanted to find the home of the little man of Disneyland. I'm lazy, so I copied and pasted this explanation from the Disney parks blog:

The story of the Little Man of Disneyland, Patrick Begorra, was first told in one of the Disney Little Golden Books. Published in 1955 – the same year Disneyland opened – “The Little Man of Disneyland” introduced the leprechaun, who lives in a tiny house at the roots of a Disneyland tree.
​

And here's his house!!
Continued in next post...

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Pretty cool, right? It's over somewhat near the entrance to the Tarzan Treehouse (spoiler alert, we did not go up in the treehouse this trip. womp womp).

Next up is my beloved Pirates of the Caribbean. This ride can get such a long wait in Disneyland so it was great to just walk right in!



I was so proud of that picture of the skeleton pirate on the ship. Never got a decent picture of that before.

If I could pick one place in Disney to live, I think it would be in the Blue Bayou/POTC area. Whenever I'm having a rough day at work, that is one of the places I like to picture myself in. I love all the Disney areas that are indoors and make it look like you are outside at night. So here, over at WDW in Mexico and even the new Frozen ride in Epcot.

But yeah, just love the strumming banjo and the flickering fireflies with the distant sound of silverware clanking at the Blue Bayou.

Ugh...why are the DISboards saying that I only have a ten picture limit per post? I don't think they are that big....well...gotta start a new post.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We decided that a relaxing train ride around the parks was in order.

We needed to snack up, so we stopped to get a mint julep and some beignets (that is pronounced beignets, if you want to be uncultured like us).



We were able to get on the next train. Beignets are just such a mess. I'm a messy eater to begin with, and beignets just make it so much worse. I'm not getting out of there without white powder covering my face and lap/legs.



We were very unhappy to see that the dinosaurs were behind walls I'd somehow missed this during my pre-planning. I love to see the dinosaurs so it was a bit sad.

We stayed on the train all the way back to New Orleans Square because we couldn't skip Haunted Mansion!



Haunted Mansion at DL always reminds me of my Grandmother's house.

Since there were 5 of us, and the cast member was saying 'three bodies to a doom buggy', three of us sat in the same one. Not a great idea. That was a tightly packed horror.

The Haunted Mansion and POTC are just such quintessential Disney, I love them both so much. They just transport you so fully to a different world. They don't make attractions like that anymore.

After we declined becoming the house's next haunt, we headed towards Winnie the Pooh. I love this snooty bear at Hungry Bear:



We had a great time on Pooh. I love these little guys:



We decided to skip Splash because it was cold and rainy enough to begin with. The last trip when we went on Splash right before lunch at the Blue Bayou we got absolutely soaked. It makes me a bit sad, I love Splash but I don't like how wet you can get on it at DL now. It's not just a splash, it's more like an absolute full body drenching.

So, time to walk onto Big Thunder.



We definitely spent the entire ride looking for glimpses of Galaxy's Edge and then shouting at each other when we saw it.

We took the path to Fantasyland. Mr. Toad was down, so we went on Pinocchio and Snow White.



Peter Pan actually had a wait (I know, right?!) so we skipped that one for now and headed to Toon Town.

I have no idea what happened, but we got in line for Roger Rabbit and actually ended up waiting 20 minutes! I had no idea what happened. The whole park is super empty, we didn't even wait more than 5 minutes for Big Thunder but the wait was that long for Roger Rabbit? Ok....

Our car on Roger Rabbit didn't end up spinning that much. Did they tone down the spinning, or did we maybe get a car that really wasn't all about the spinning?

Now that we were out of the twilight zone of ride waits...we walked through Mickey's house and met him with no wait.



He was so excited that three of us had a birthday at the same time.

I don't think any of our other group was too excited about meeting characters, but I wanted to meet Goofy because there were only two people in line. He ended up leaving for a 5 minute break when we were next so we passed the time by giving this pumpkin a backstory:



His name is Walt. He is an accountant and he spends his free time at night making miniatures (he may have been inspired by The Walt Disney).

He was just so odd, he was sitting there in all his glory and all the other pumpkins around him were just regular, everyday pumpkins. I got pretty attached to him.

 

[soniam]

We decided to skip Splash because it was cold and rainy enough to begin with. The last trip when we went on Splash right before lunch at the Blue Bayou we got absolutely soaked. It makes me a bit sad, I love Splash but I don't like how wet you can get on it at DL now. It's not just a splash, it's more like an absolute full body drenching.

After our visit last summer, I am way too gun shy to ride any water rides now. I got so soaked that every bit of my undergarments were sopping wet. It didn't help that it was starting to get dark too. I am now the proud owner of a DL Splash Mountain towel I had to have something to keep me warm. I haven't gotten that wet at WDW before. People behind us on the log, who were regulars, were complaining about never getting that wet before either. I think it didn't help that Alex and I were sitting in the front, and he decided to duck. Leaving me to take the brunt of the water

The trip sounds fun so far, other than that

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

After our visit last summer, I am way too gun shy to ride any water rides now. I got so soaked that every bit of my undergarments were sopping wet. It didn't help that it was starting to get dark too. I am now the proud owner of a DL Splash Mountain towel I had to have something to keep me warm. I haven't gotten that wet at WDW before. People behind us on the log, who were regulars, were complaining about never getting that wet before either. I think it didn't help that Alex and I were sitting in the front, and he decided to duck. Leaving me to take the brunt of the water

The trip sounds fun so far, other than that

I think there is actually a big thread about this on the DL forum. They did something, whether it was up the water level or whatever. People are definitely getting wetter than before. And it's the type of splash that sloshes into the boat, so you can't even avoid getting your feet wet.

While Splash is a water ride, it was never a 'get completely drenched' ride. Still makes me sad, we didn't ride it at all that trip because the weather wasn't too warm and we didn't want to be drenched and cold.

Besides that though...I'll always hope that I get lucky and visit DL when it's raining. It was sooo empty and nice.

 

[Jaina]

So much fun! I'd love to do Disneyland in the rain someday! (Just not with a bunch of whiny kids in tow, haha. )

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Yay! According to my fitbit I slept for 9 hours and 13 minutes. Amazing

On a Disney trip??? That's absurd!

Brian worked on homework while I attempted to nap (didn't work).

Well yeah because you got 9 hours of sleep!

Uh yeah, our first Disneyland picture is of our parking section. I feel like I've failed.

No you're just...thorough

We got two of the bao buns to try. We had the beef and vegetarian and they were both delicious.

Oh those look amazing. I can't wait to try the tropical hideaway in July.

I was so proud of that picture of the skeleton pirate on the ship. Never got a decent picture of that before.

Wow that is really good! Well done

I'm a messy eater to begin with, and beignets just make it so much worse.

There is no graceful way to eat a beignet.

Haunted Mansion at DL always reminds me of my Grandmother's house.

.....full of dancing ghosts?

It's not just a splash, it's more like an absolute full body drenching.

Ugh I need to remember that. I'm not fond of full body drenchings.

he spends his free time at night making miniatures

Okay but here's the real questions- are the miniatures full of miniature humans or miniature pumpkin people?

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Goofy soon returned.

After we shared some goofs, it was time for the Matterhorn. There was actually a wait, so we pulled a fastpass for ten minutes from that point. A few minutes later, we were in line and on the ride.



We filled up an entire car. Unfortunately, we were on the left side, which I think is a lot bumpier than the right. Should have asked to wait for the right side, as it feels a lot smoother.

I enjoy this ride a lot, but it always reminds me of a bobsled ride at the theme park my family vacationed at every summer, Cedar Point. It was called Avalanche Run. I remember that as being an actual bobseld ride, not like Matterhorn where the cars are on a track. If my little kid memories serve me right, the Cedar Point one had no track.

It was getting close to dinner time, but first we wanted to take a ride on the happiest cruise that ever sailed. I always enjoy this attraction a lot and I like the Disney characters they put in. It's always fun to search for them.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We had a dinner reservation at Carnation Cafe on Main Street. I made this ADR in the hopes that we would be able to sit outside and eat as the parade went past.

Since it was pretty cold and dreary/rainy this day, we were hesitant to sit outside until the hostess let us know that there were heat lamps.

The front gazebo table was open, but that was the only table with a heat lamp overhead. Wanting to be warm won out, and we sat three tables back from the street but we had a wonderfully warm heat lamp.

We got the fried pickles for the table. These things are huge. The picture does not do them justice. It's a great app to share because one was enough for most people.




A couple pictures to show how close we were to Main Street:






I got the sourdough bacon cheese melt. Which tasted about as good as you'd want it to. Nice comfort food on a dreary day.



Brian got the chicken fried chicken with green beans. He enjoyed it a lot too.



One of our friends got the pot roast dinner. I believe this shows up on the online menu but not on the paper menu, so you have to ask about it. She said it was a ton of food but she did end up finishing (hey, first meal of vacation).




After we were finished eating, out waitress had noticed that three of us were wearing birthday buttons. She ended up just bringing cupcakes for the entire table. They were the generic Mickey chocolate cupcakes, but who doesn't love a free birthday cupcake? And that was so thoughtful to just bring the entire table one since only two out of 5 people would have been left out.




I can't recommend Carnation Cafe enough. It's actually a very affordable restaurant for a table service. Main Street provides a great atmosphere, and the menu even includes some of 'Walt's favorites'. I've never had a bad meal there.

The parade was about to start in 5 minutes. We were done with our meal and there were plenty of front row spots left on Main Street (remember the rain). So we ended up just walking out and getting spots on the sidewalk. It started to rain toward the end of the parade, but we all had our umbrellas.





After the parade, part of our group wanted to see WOC so we headed over to DCA. DCA, for whatever reason, ended up being very crowded. WOC still had an hour until it started. It was raining, cold, and we had all had a long day. Our friends opted to skip WOC and we all headed out.

At this point, I really missed staying at a hotel nearby. Instead of taking a 10-15 minute walk to the hotel, we had to walk to the tram, wait for one, ride to the parking garage, walk to the car, make our way to the highway and then take a 10 minute drive back to the hotel. I was not a big fan.

But we got everyone safely to their hotels with their luggage, then we quickly got into bed.

We had a big day tomorrow.

In the morning we were sleeping in a bit, then heading to the Walt Disney Studios. After that, we got to go shopping at Mickey's of Glendale and then it was finally 90s Nite!!!!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Thursday March 7 Walt Disney Studios, Mickey's of Glendale at Imagineering, and 90s Nite

Looks like I got my sleep mixed up, this was the night where we got 9 hours and 13 minutes. The night before, with the early flight, we had 6 hours and 35 minutes.

We were originally going to the parks this day, but our friends were all CMs, and CMs can get themselves and guests access to the Walt Disney Studios. So they invited us and we made a day of it.

We got breakfast at the La Quinta, picked everyone up, made a quick Starbucks' stop and it was about an hour's drive to the Studio.

The security guard was a bit jerkish, but we got in ok. We parked in the big employee parking garage and made our first stop at the store. I like Mickey's of Glendale better. For the most part, this store is just a big Disney store and has the same stuff you can get at regular Disney stores. There is one little side room that has Studios exclusive merch. Here it is in the picture. That wall just has drinks and candy and stuff for people working at the studios. I like that wall though because it has the Dalmatians. There were a couple racks of studio exclusive items. There was a Donald sweatshirt that I really liked but it was $70 and i knew I was going to want to spend money at MOG so I skipped it.



We decided not to eat at the studio cafe so we headed to the Legends Plaza. I've copied and pasted this info about the Legends Plaza from Wikipedia:

Disney Legends Plaza, located between the Team Disney: The Michael D. Eisner building and the Frank G. Wells building, is the central hub for the Disney Legendsaward and pays homage to its recipients. Dedicated on October 18, 1998, the plaza features the Partners statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, designed by Imagineer Blaine Gibson, along with a replica statue of Roy O. Disney and Minnie Mouse which can also be found at the Magic Kingdom park.

Located on the pillars in the plaza are bronze plaques featuring receivers of the Disney Legends award. The plaques feature the recipient's name, reason for gaining the award, and the person's hand prints and signature if they were alive at the time they received the award. Most famously, Legendary Animator and Imagineer, Ward Kimball's plaque features an extra finger, a reminder of Kimball's sense of humor. If, however, the award was presented posthumously, an image of the Disney Legendsstatue is engraved instead of the traditional hand prints and signature.

The plaza formerly featured a small fountain to honor the Legends, but that was since removed due to water leakage.





The Golden Girls' prints!



Re-enacting the statue.







Disney Princess wall:



Star Wars:









And just FYI, the only reason I wasn't super freaking out about any of this is because we got to have a very in depth tour of the studio on our backstage magic ABD. It was still really nice seeing some of these things a second time.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We hung out at the Legends Plaza for a long time. It's so weird seeing people just going about their usual work day there. I know for a lot of us, working there would be a dream. But I'm sure for most of them it's just a job and just another day at work.

After we had our fill of the Legends Plaza, we went inside the Frank G. Wells building. Once again, I'm going to copy and paste the Wikipedia entry, which explains what the building is for and what is inside:

This building is dedicated to the former President of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 1994, Frank G. Wells. The building opened in 1998 and was dedicated by Wells' widow Luanne Wells, and company CEO Michael Eisner.

The five-story building has a usable area of 240,518 square feet (22,344.9 m2) with three underground parking levels, accommodating 600 parking spaces. The construction was completed in two phases: phase I in August 1997 and phase II in July 1998. The Frank G. Wells building was specifically designed for Walt Disney Television Animation, and the division formerly had offices located on the third floor. The division has since moved to the Grand Central Creative Campus in nearby Glendale, California.

It is distinctly recognizable through its giant movie reel and film strip on the building's exterior. The building is currently home to the Walt Disney Archives, studio mail center, Marvel Studios, the Disney Music Group, a screening room, various multipurpose rooms, and one of the three extant multiplane cameras (which is on display in the lobby). It was formerly home to Walt Disney Television, various management offices, and the human resources department.

The Archives are located on the ground floor and are open to all cast members; they also have additional storage and restricted areas on other floors. The Studio's Starbucks Coffee shop is also located on the ground floor.


We checked out the multiplane camera and I tried to take a clever, artistic shot of us looking up at it:











We peeked inside the little lobby of the archives but no one was in there. So we went back outside and continued our walking tour. I believe this is part of the Animation Building. They still have the old inking and painting sign up.



Next up we peeked down the street and saw the famous water tower. Not only that, but we saw a gathered group of studio employees who were (big geek moment) gathered at a Pokemon Go gym and all staring at their phones. We went speed walking down and arrived in time to join their Pokemon Go group and were able to get a legendary pokemon. Apparently the studio has a group that will play Pokemon Go on their breaks. So it was really cool getting to capture a Pokemon from the Walt Disney Studios Water Tower gym.



I loved this Mickey head fence.







Our time was running a bit low and we still had to get to lunch and go to MOG. So we sadly left the Studios and headed the few short minutes to lunch at a hibachi place that we'd heard was really good. The recommendation didn't disappoint, this place was delicious! We all really enjoyed our food.







During lunch, we discovered that the character list for the 90s Nite party had finally leaked!!

We were so excited and we had a good time mapping out favorites and trying to get a strategy in place.

• • Chip and Dale
  • Launchpad McQuack and Scrooge McDuck
• New Orleans Square:
  • Fantasmic! Monkeys
• Adventureland:
  • Indiana Jones
  • Baloo and Louie
• Critter Country:
  • Mulan and Mushu
• Fantasyland:
  • Disney Afternoon Avenue
  • Hercules, Megara, and Hades
  • Belle and Gaston
  • Darkwing Duck and Don Karnage
• Frontierland:
  • Pocahontas and Meeko
  • Clopin, Esmeralda, and Phoebus
  • Timon and Rafiki
• Tomorrowland:
  • Goofy and Max

We were really hopeful that the characters would be dressed in their 90s cartoon outfits and they definitely were!!

Goofy was in his dad sweater from the movie, and Max was in his Powerline costume.

Mulan was in her Ping (man) disguise.

Baloo and Louie were in their TaleSpin garb.

Chip and Dale were in their Rescue Ranger outfits.

We all thought the character list for 90s Nite was so much better than the Sweetheart's night they had for Valentine's Day the previous month.

We decided Don Karnage was our number one character.

After we were done plotting and having lunch, we left Nate and Carolyn who were going to meet an old College Program friend. The other three of us were off to MOG for shopping!!

I don't have any pictures of this part, guests and CMs are both strictly prohibited from taking pictures here. We parked in the parking garage and while we were walking down the stairs, we saw a guy dressed in full Galaxy's Edge wear. This was pretty exciting at the time, the costumes had just been revealed on the internet a few days before. He was a pretty good looking guy, so we thought maybe he was there for a modeling shoot of the costumes.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

After that excitement, we walked through the pretty fountain courtyard. Mickey's of Glendale is the employee gift shop for the people who work at Imagineering. All the Imagineering buildings are right next door, but even CMs aren't allowed near any of those. They only have access to the store. I don't think they can even use the cafe.

I found a few pictures on the internet, but I think their no picture policy is pretty well enforced because I couldn't find that many.



Yep, that's right. There is an old sky bucket just sitting outside Mickey of Glendale's unfortunately named cafe.

We tried to make our shopping quick because we were short for time. We ended up getting a couple small things for gifts to other friends.

Then I made a super excited discovery:

A wall with a couple Gelatonis!!! He is Duffy's friend who is a cat and he is an artist. He paints with his tail. I'm not a huge Duffy person, but for whatever reason I fell in love with this cat. We were planning on going to Tokyo Disney and Hong Kong Disney a few years ago but the trips got pushed off. I had been very excited to get a Gelatoni in Tokyo, so I had to get one now. These ones were from Aulani and were in a section of the store specifically tailored to CMs. That meant our friend had to buy him for us with her photo CM ID.

Besides Gelatoni, we each got a tshirt, I got a new sweatshirt and some super cute pens shaped like paintbrushes. I didn't feel like finding Brian's tshirt for this picture, but at least it gives you an idea. That was my second choice sweatshirt, my first was a WDI sweatshirt in the style of the Adventurer's Club, but they were out of my size. Isn't Gelatoni just adorable? Look at his little paintbrush tail.



We had to leave pretty quickly after we made our purchases, the day was getting late and we were allowed to enter the party at 6.

Once back to the car, we picked up our other friends at their ice cream shop and headed back to DL. Which kind of sucked. The other trip turned into about two and a half hours due to traffic. We were listening to our 90s playlist and giving Gelatoni a backstory to pass the time.

The whole drive just kind of sucked. Three of us were squished in the backseat and two of us had to go to the bathroom pretty bad. We were holding it for the sake of the party. But still, uncomfortable all around.

We finally made it back, we let Nate and Carolyn run up to their hotel room to grab some stuff, then we went to ours where we all quickly changed into our special 90s Nite outfits.

Within 10 minutes we were pulling into the parking garage. We actually ended up making it to the gates about 10 minutes until 6, which was great. Right on time.

Next update will be all 90s Nite!!!