D23 Expo 2015: Walt Disney Parks and Resorts "60 Years of Innovation" Pavilion

Date of Visit: August 13, 2015

The Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Pavilion is always one of our favorites. This time it was slightly disappointing in that the "60 Years of Innovation" theme made it seem like it would have some relation to Disneyland's Diamond Celebration. However, it was disappointing in a good way because instead it was all about Shanghai Disneyland and that park sure has some awesome stuff in the works.

Also, a plus is the pavilion was a good open design, so easy to maneuver around. Of course, everyone was mostly focused on shopping today and there were very few fellow Sorcerers going through it while we were so hard to really tell how well it is. Based on past experience, though, this is one area that has never seemed crowded at least in comparison to how the stores get, which really wasn't any better as a Sorcerer other than we got that out of the way today and can really enjoy the other stuff the Expo offers the rest of the weekend.

Disneyland Shanghai - Gardens of Imagination

 

  

Disneyland Shanghai - Tomorrowland

 

Disneyland Shanghai -  Fantasyland

Disneyland Shanghai - Treasure Cove

 

Disneyland Shanghai -  Adventureland

 Disneyland Shanghai - Mickey Avenue

Destination:
D23 Expo
Anaheim Convention Center
800 West Katella Ave
Anaheim, CA

Museum of the Shenandoah Valley: Glen Burnie House & Gardens

Date of Visit: May 14, 2015

The Glen Burnie House and Gardens are part of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. The gardens are mostly accessible, especially in front of the house. The first floor of the house is also accessible.

The gardens are partly under restoration, but there's still several areas to explore. One of the most interesting areas we went through was the Pink Pavilion. At first it seemed inaccessible because there are steps, but we found we were able to get there from a path off to the side of the Pink Pavilion and there's just a small step to get inside, which was worth doing because it was fun to see the decor, especially since Mik's sweatshirt hood matched the floor.

The Glen Burnie House is wheelchair accessible from the front. Inside Mik particularly enjoyed the miniature of the house.

There is a lift to get down to the drawing room. This room currently has a special exhibit called "Beauty and Botany" with botanical art. There is then an exit to a patio with a ramp exit back into the gardens.

  
Destination Info:
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
901 Amherst Street
Winchester, VA, 22601

Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

Date of Visit: May 14, 2015

The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley was something we ended up adding to our Skyline Drive trip because I noticed it had a miniature exhibit. Mik enjoyed that exhibit, but the temporary exhibit ended up being an even more interesting to him.

The temporary exhibit was called "Mort Künstler: The Art of Adventure." The artwork and video was interesting to see. Mik particularly enjoyed it because he was already somewhat familiar with the artist's work.

Of course, the R. Lee Taylor Miniatures Collection was another highlight in Mik's opinion, although it was the smallest exhibit and thus not as impressive as the larger collection displayed in the temporary exhibit that happened to also match his interests.

The museum also features exhibits about the history of the Shenandoah Valley and 18th and 19th century items collected by the last owner of the Glen Burnie House, which the museum is associated with.

Destination Info:
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
901 Amherst Street
Winchester, VA, 22601 

Shenandoah National Park: Limberlost Trail

Date of Visit: May 13, 2015

Limberlost Trail is the one accessible trail in Shenandoah National Park. It technically is not entirely accessible, but mainly because it is too steep to meet the current ADA standards. However, we've certainly been on less accessible trails. Even the trail we did a few days before this at the Natural Bridge was tougher than this one.

There is a nicely detailed explanation of the trail on the sign by the trailhead. It explains how part of the trail is up to current ADA standards. Thus, if you start that way, you can do a there and back instead of the whole loop if the rest of the trail seems too difficult. However, it actually is kind of easier to do it the other way as a loop because this makes the most steep parts downhill.

The path is mostly crushed greenstone. Normally probably wouldn't use the freewheel for this type of trail, but with the caster being so messed up at that time even the it was helpful for even the smoothest of surfaces.

There is also some boardwalk as part of the trail.

The bridge is where it is no longer recommended for wheelchairs.

It's really not that steep, though, with the main thing being that going this way it ends up being 9 to 12% uphill near the end.

Overall it's a decent trail in that it is very accessible. However, Mik thought it was not any more interesting than what he could see on the rest of Skyline Drive. Having done other trails the previous day with Dad and actually getting some better views and seeing waterfalls, I'd have to agree that this particular trail is kind of boring. Apparently, it has a lot of mountain laurel, though, so it might be more interesting when they're in bloom.

Destination Info:
Limberlost Trail
Milepost 43 Skyline Drive
Shenandoah National Park, VA

Hyatt Place Anaheim Resort/Convention Center

Date of Visit: May 16-24, 2015

When we lived in AZ we used to always use Mom's Hyatt points and stay at the Hyatt Regency Orange Country. Now that we have to fly we've tried out the Hilton and a Best Western since those are close enough to walk to the parks from. Last D23 Expo the Hilton worked awesome, but we wiped out Mom's points there and they seem to take longer to earn enough for stays compared to Hyatt, which is why she focuses on earning Hyatt points. Thus, we were very excited to see that Hyatt now had one at the convention center when looking at options for the D23 Expo this summer. Being able to use Hyatt points for the hotel also made it feasible to add a May trip this year and make even more use of our Premier annual passes.

I messed up on dates when booking the hotel, so I ended up with three separate reservations including two different ADA room types and one night that didn't let me choose an ADA room. Totally my fault in that I accidentally booked the dates I was originally planning the trip, but had actually ended up with an extra day on both ends in order to use mom's airline miles for the trip (yes, I even had finished booking that before the hotel). Thus, I was totally okay with our first night being in a non-ADA room as long as we were then moved to what I reserved the rest of the trip. However, the guy at check in talked with his manager and found an ADA room that we could use the whole stay if we just waited a few hours for it to be ready.

We ended up with a tub instead of roll-in shower as I mainly booked, but it had a shower seat and it was better than having to change rooms. Really just the extra space for wheelchair and grab bar is why we need the ADA rooms, although when possible the roll-in showers are convenient.

We ended up in what they called a King specialty room. I have no idea what that means, but we're assuming that is about it having bunk beds in the area with the corner sofa bed. Not having to pull out the sofa and still have two beds (well, actually three, but we only used two) was very convenient.

We have long loved Hyatt Places for not only the cheaper point cost, but it being like two rooms with the sitting area and the bed/beds area. This one worked out even better than the others we've stayed at because it really is two rooms with sliding doors that close between the two areas. This might also be a specialty room feature.

Another nice feature is that the blinds are controlled with a remote, which is something I've always wanted for home and now Mik understands why I think it'd be awesome. Of course, he also enjoyed that we each had a TV and it was DirecTV so he knew the channel numbers for his sports and other favs, which was a real treat for him now that we can't have DirecTV and we axed the not as good more expensive Comcast.

Overall we really enjoyed our stay at the Hyatt Place Anaheim Resort/Convention Center. The staff was always very friendly, attentive, and welcoming. And we actually did have to interact with them several times because our keycard kept getting demagnetized the first two days and we also mistakenly were charged for parking. The breakfast was as expected, although with food being one of Mik's favorite parts of Disney we mostly skipped it.

As much as we love this place, it's borderline far to walk to parks. Totally will be great for D23 Expo and would stay for other future trips, but the Hyatt House under construction even closer to Disneyland is an extremely appealing option once it opens this December. It'll probably be more points, but weighing that with being closer and having a kitchen may make it our pick for Disneyland when we can't use DVC for Grand Californian. Until then, though, the Hyatt Place is enjoyable and makes it possible we may be able to do Disneyland not just every other year for the Expo again, especially if we can snag mileage award tickets to/from Orange County with mom's miles, which doesn't seem to be easy without planning way in advance (6-9 months) and/or being extremely flexible (ex. flying up to Seattle to get to D.C. and 3 hour layovers). 

Hint/Shoutout to Mom: Keep traveling for work and racking up the American miles and Hyatt points, please. We love them almost as much as you!

Destination Info:
Hyatt Place Anaheim Resort/Convention Center

2035 S. Harbor Blvd.

Anaheim, CA 92802

Disneyland Diamond Celebration 24-Hour Event

Date of Visit: May 22, 2015

We didn’t actually last 24-hours, but we never planned to and actually Mik ended up lasting much longer than I expected. We left the hotel around 4:30am and Mik enjoyed his Diamond Mickey Rice Krispy treat that I had brought back for him a previous day.

 We were in line for security by 5am. It was much like the Expo, although the park was already opened so it actually was moving pretty smoothly by the time we got there. Once through security it was no line to get into Disneyland. We briefly stopped in the entrance plaza to get a photo of the diamond as the day before too many people were taking pictures when we tried and this time mostly people were rushing to get on to Main Street. Even stopping for some pictures we were on Main Street by 5:30am.

Main Street was a little crazy with it being wall to wall people back to the Emporium. Mostly people were not pushy, though, and the only real issue was that we got mixed in with the Emporium line. Once we figure out how to get out of that and then trying to get enough space to go at the right angle across the tracks it we ended up in a decent spot to wait for the park to open.

While we were around the corner from being able to see the fireworks go off over the Castle, we still got to enjoy the fireworks go off behind the train station and the shops on Main Street. Then it was the normal surge of crowd at park opening other than it was much farther backed up on Main Street. Still we got through and walk on to Buzz Lightyear within 10 minutes.

We just missed the wheelchair vehicle when we got to the front, so we actually had to wait to ride, but that’s pretty normal and actually had a nice conversation with the Cast Member since the ride was still empty and they didn’t have to direct people unloading much. As usual we went around twice. The second time we got stopped in the photo tunnel and I racked up one of my best scores.

After Buzz Lightyear, we wandered over to the Castle to get some photos with the 60th logo, which had been unveiled after we left the park the day before.

We then walked over to the Toontown Station and rode the Disneyland Railroad around the park once. I thought it was funny when we went by Autopia and Mik asked what that ride was. I guess it’s been awhile since we last took him on it.

After the train, it was not even 7:30am and Mik was already asking to go back to the hotel. We stopped for some breakfast in Fantasyland including a 24-hour event souvenir mug and then got a 60th bucket in Frontierland before he decided that we should brave the pin store line before leaving.

The line for the Little Green Men Store Command ended up reminding us of the D23 Expo. It certainly does seem crazy to stand in line for what ended up being five hours just to spend money. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t do it if Mik wasn’t interested in it. It’s just ends up being good quality time and certainly preferable than ending up back at the hotel after only a few hours in the park, which is what happens most days with Mik. About two hours into the wait they announced that they were out of the Being Up All Night Makes me Dopey pin, which is the pin Mik really wanted. We didn’t want to bail, though, because we had already waited so long and we knew there was still a decent amount of other pins to choose from even though we didn’t know exactly what they were.

In the end, though, when we got to the front they had the Dopey pins (restocked at some point?). This gave Mik enough motivation to stay in the parks for lunch before heading back to the hotel. At first we went to the nearby Tomorrowland Terrace, but after 15 minutes of the line going nowhere I bailed that idea and decided to find somewhere else with a line actually moving. We ended up at the healthy snack spot in Tomorrowland, which had no line and was actually a much better option all around for lunch for both of us. Also, picked up some Mickey pretzels at a nearby cart with very short line to carry back to hotel for a snack later.

After refueling and resting a little from standing in line for hours, we headed out of the park leaving around 1:45pm. The park was crowded at this point and apparently it closed for capacity not longer after that, but actually it was not as crazy as we thought (Buzz line was still only 20 minutes when we left and we’ve seen worse on spring break and summer trips) and it was the longest park day with Mik in years. Definitely glad we did it even if we did miss out on most of the special event stuff.

Destination Info:
Disneyland
1313 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802