D23 Expo 2015 Day 3 Summary
Log for the day:
This morning I had to check out of my hotel and then move my car since they said I could not leave it there all day. I opted to head for the Mickey and Friends Garage in case I had energy after to got to the parks. I was unlucky and was parked on the roof. No traffic though so that was good. After parking I hiked to the convention center. It was about a mile according to my pedometer from my car to the door of the convention center. Spent the morning roaming around the show floor visiting with friends. Ate lunch in the convention center and then hung out with some more friends until the 3:00pm Experience the World with Disney presentation. After that presentation it was back to the floor for one last pass then start the journey back to my car to head for home. It was pushing 5pm and I had a half hour walk to the car in the 90+ weather then the long drive home.
Thoughts & Observations:
- The hike from the Mickey and Friends garage was a good way to start the day. It was already getting warm out. The walk back in the afternoon heat was not that much fun. But on the good side got my exercise in for the day
- Today I decided to take a more relaxing approach. I still arrived at opening but opted to skip the morning panels and only went to the Experience the World of Disney one in the afternoon. This allowed for plenty of time to see the floor and visit with friends.
- I spent a lot of time talking and not taking pictures today which was very odd for me, but made for a difference experience. The Expos have become reunions of sort where you run into friends from previous Expos or park visits. Always great to hang out with them plus new ones.
- Saw an alert about another Trading Card release and I happened to be really close by so I walked by and got a card. They were prepared for the masses this time and had plenty of cast members to form the line and keep it moving. It grew extremely long and went what appeared be several hundred people long if not more. It seems the trading cards were a big hit with a segment of guests. I thought they were a great idea and a fun interaction. I ended up with 24 of the 30 cards which I thought was good considering I did not actively trade or seek them out. Each time I walked by a distribution area I looked to see if it was a different one and if so picked one up. Only thing I would have liked to have seen is the cards to be more D23 or Expo centric vs a mix of characters. But most people are not disneygeeks and characters probably play a lot better with the masses.
- Attended the Experience the World With Disney presentation in the afternoon. This included some info on Adventures by Disney, Aulani, Disney Cruise Line and Disney Vacation Club. The panel included three Imagineers and focused on previously announced changes or the property in general. I was really hoping for some news or some tidbit to be thrown our way. They did come up with the best give away. The first several hundred guests all received a magnet set.
- After that presentation I did one more pass of the show floor with friends and then decided to call it an Expo and head for the car. I wanted to try for one of the later sessions but the thought of getting home even later won out of the desire to see another presentation unfortunately.
Some pictures/highlights from the day (these are cell phone pictures, full picture sets with the SLR will be up next week check the summary page for more information). I apologize in advance for the poor quality… the SLR shots next week will be better.