D23 Expo Pin Haul/Pin Trades/Disneyland Trip - Sat, Sun, Mon
TornadoTitan
Nick Wilde's Biggest Fan
- Messages
- 254
- Location
- Californian in Florida
The conclusion to my D23 Expo trip continued from here: http://disneypinforum.com/showthread.php?60325-D23-Expo-Thursday-and-Friday-Pin-Haul
Saturday
I dressed up as Figment and woke up at 5am to wait in line for the con. Waited in line for 4 hours for the Mickey's of Glendale store only to learn that both the LE 250 Pegasus Horse series pin and LE 300 Hades Villains Mask pin were sold out the previous day
I ended up buying what I could, a Jafar from the Villains Mask series, a Burrito pin from the Horse series, a Belle from the Royal Windows series, a blind box Pirates of the Caribbean pin, 2 BB8 cast lanyards, and one of the Storybook Collection pin sets.
The line for the MOG store was long so I ran a bit late to the Video Game panel which also ran late so I missed lining up with my group for the Parks panel. I made it to the Parks panel while they were filing in but the staff would not let me join them so I was left out. I ended up being the only one in the group not at the Parks panel, in which all the attendees got free Hong Kong Park pins and special passes to the first showing of the new Fantasmic. Which basically put me in a weird position where everyone else had free passes to Fantasmic and I had none.
We ended up going to the Richard Sherman panel then later to Trader Sam's which was a super long wait, even inside it took half an hour of standing around until there was a clear table, and another hour before we finally got our orders, they fan out of the special mugs so we got served our drinks in plastic cups. So needless to say Saturday was really the worst day of the con.
Also got some more pins in the vendor section:
Sunday
We woke up super early and first thing we did was wait in the line for the Disney Store, another 3 hour wait, I really wanted to get one of the Rescue Rangers tsum tsum sets, since that was my favorite Disney property as a kid before Hercules. I was able to get on hands on one of the tsum tsum sets before they were out so happy about that, I also ended up getting a second set of the Designer Collection pins since they had some left over. I got 2 of the limited pins as well.
I made my way 2 hours early to the Hercules 20th Annivarsary panel where I was 20th in line and ended up selling some of my Titans fantasy pins to other Hercules fans. I got a front row seat in the Gold Member section to the Hercules panel which was amazing, they showed concept art, deleted songs (I loved Shooting Star), and the panel ended with an amazing performance of Won't Say I Am In Love by Susan Egan, the voice actress of Megara. I got to record parts of the panel which I will upload later.
I cosplayed as Nick Wilde again and got a lot of positive comments, stares, and photos taken of my cosplay, so that was nice. And I got some Zootopia themed items from the vendors. We ended the day by attending the Legends of Imagineering panel, which was the perfect end to the best day of the con.
Pin Trades throughout the Weekend at the Pin Trading Area
First time pin trading with other pin collectors in person. I will admit, the pin collectors with their giant binders of limited edition and expensive pins was very intimidating, which turned me off from pin trading back in high school.
Friday I only did one trade, since most of the traders had LEs and other limited pins and weren't interested in what I had, so only traded a Hidden Mickey Pumba for the Hades smile.
Saturday I was able to trade a LE stained glass Bambi pin I got the previous day for a cast exclusive Figment.
Sunday I traded a Pirates of the Caribbean pin for a sliding door Enchanted Tiki Room pin. I got a Zipper pin, my favorite Disney character when I was a kid, by trading my Titans fantasy pin. And I was finally able to get the one pin I came to the con for, the Pegasus pin. It was a bit of back and forth before we agreed on a trade, I guess that is the fun of pin collecting. The person with the Pegasus pin was interested in my Designer Collection pins as she didn't want to buy an entire set for just her favorites, she wanted both the Robin Hood and Blue Fairy pins. I decided to offer both, then she felt like she should throw something else in as the retail cost for my 2 pins was around $46 and she bought Pegasus for $19, so she offered one of her PTD pins to balance out the trade. She recommended I take one of her Aristocats PTDs as they would be good traders, so I picked Berlioz, my favorite of the cats. As we were about to finalize the trade she had second thoughts as my Designer pins were LE 1000 and the Pegasus was LE 250. I finally decide to throw in one of my Titans fantasy pins as her boyfriend or husband was interested in them which sealed the deal. I ended up given them a second Titans pin just to make sure there was no regrets, and that is how I ended up finally getting Pegasus!
Monday - Disneyland and California Adventure
We woke up at 7am to get the early Magic Hour to the parks. My friends were cast members from WDW and big Disney fans but never been to the west coast before so wanted to see everything. We started the day with a hiccup, my cast member friend who had guest passes to the parks, but they were blacked out for Disneyland for Monday even though her app showed them as open. She was forced to use 2 of the tickets she earned and we had to pay for a park ticket for the last member of the group. Once inside we had breakfast at Jolly Holly day, and went on some rides then headed to California Adventure to meet Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps since we were Zootopia fans.
Meeting Nick Wilde specifically (as he is currently my favorite Disney character) was the main thing I wanted to do this entire trip, we wanted to get to California Adventure by 2 to make sure we caught him but we ended up leaving Disneyland by 3 and the cast member we asked said Nick and Judy were long gone. We still headed to the meet and greet area and surprise Nick and Judy were there, we wanted to get in line for a picture but the cast member told us they were done for now and we would have to wait till 4 for the next meet and greet.
What happened next was pure Disney magic, as the cast member was leading Nick and Judy away, Nick Wilde saw me dressed in my Nick outfit and waved at me to join him. Nick gave me a handshake made motions that he loved my outfit and gave me a big hug. My friend caught that moment on video which was amazing and I got some pictures with Nick, I was in shock for hours afterwards of that experience, it was the greatest thing that could have happened.
We waited for Nick and Judy again since my other friends still wanted to meet with them. I took that time to draw a thank you picture for Nick and the cast members. I was able to give the picture to Nick and the cast member who took it for him said they would hang it up in their cast member lounge.
We later had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen we I got to meet Mickey, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Minnie and we ended the day with World of Color, something my WDW cast member friends really wanted to see since it did not exist in the WDW parks.
And that wraps up a perfect end to my D23 Expo/Disneyland vacation... which was greeted Tuesday morning as I checked out with a 5am phone call from a debt collector for something I didn't even know of, my shuttle driver scamming me out of money for my luggage for a service they didn't have, being yelled at and hung up on by an old landlord from a place I moved out of 2 years ago who sent the debt collector, and many long flights back home... but that's for another story, but shows the contrast between the Disney magic and real world XD
Saturday
I dressed up as Figment and woke up at 5am to wait in line for the con. Waited in line for 4 hours for the Mickey's of Glendale store only to learn that both the LE 250 Pegasus Horse series pin and LE 300 Hades Villains Mask pin were sold out the previous day
I ended up buying what I could, a Jafar from the Villains Mask series, a Burrito pin from the Horse series, a Belle from the Royal Windows series, a blind box Pirates of the Caribbean pin, 2 BB8 cast lanyards, and one of the Storybook Collection pin sets.
The line for the MOG store was long so I ran a bit late to the Video Game panel which also ran late so I missed lining up with my group for the Parks panel. I made it to the Parks panel while they were filing in but the staff would not let me join them so I was left out. I ended up being the only one in the group not at the Parks panel, in which all the attendees got free Hong Kong Park pins and special passes to the first showing of the new Fantasmic. Which basically put me in a weird position where everyone else had free passes to Fantasmic and I had none.
We ended up going to the Richard Sherman panel then later to Trader Sam's which was a super long wait, even inside it took half an hour of standing around until there was a clear table, and another hour before we finally got our orders, they fan out of the special mugs so we got served our drinks in plastic cups. So needless to say Saturday was really the worst day of the con.
Also got some more pins in the vendor section:
Sunday
We woke up super early and first thing we did was wait in the line for the Disney Store, another 3 hour wait, I really wanted to get one of the Rescue Rangers tsum tsum sets, since that was my favorite Disney property as a kid before Hercules. I was able to get on hands on one of the tsum tsum sets before they were out so happy about that, I also ended up getting a second set of the Designer Collection pins since they had some left over. I got 2 of the limited pins as well.
I made my way 2 hours early to the Hercules 20th Annivarsary panel where I was 20th in line and ended up selling some of my Titans fantasy pins to other Hercules fans. I got a front row seat in the Gold Member section to the Hercules panel which was amazing, they showed concept art, deleted songs (I loved Shooting Star), and the panel ended with an amazing performance of Won't Say I Am In Love by Susan Egan, the voice actress of Megara. I got to record parts of the panel which I will upload later.
I cosplayed as Nick Wilde again and got a lot of positive comments, stares, and photos taken of my cosplay, so that was nice. And I got some Zootopia themed items from the vendors. We ended the day by attending the Legends of Imagineering panel, which was the perfect end to the best day of the con.
Pin Trades throughout the Weekend at the Pin Trading Area
First time pin trading with other pin collectors in person. I will admit, the pin collectors with their giant binders of limited edition and expensive pins was very intimidating, which turned me off from pin trading back in high school.
Friday I only did one trade, since most of the traders had LEs and other limited pins and weren't interested in what I had, so only traded a Hidden Mickey Pumba for the Hades smile.
Saturday I was able to trade a LE stained glass Bambi pin I got the previous day for a cast exclusive Figment.
Sunday I traded a Pirates of the Caribbean pin for a sliding door Enchanted Tiki Room pin. I got a Zipper pin, my favorite Disney character when I was a kid, by trading my Titans fantasy pin. And I was finally able to get the one pin I came to the con for, the Pegasus pin. It was a bit of back and forth before we agreed on a trade, I guess that is the fun of pin collecting. The person with the Pegasus pin was interested in my Designer Collection pins as she didn't want to buy an entire set for just her favorites, she wanted both the Robin Hood and Blue Fairy pins. I decided to offer both, then she felt like she should throw something else in as the retail cost for my 2 pins was around $46 and she bought Pegasus for $19, so she offered one of her PTD pins to balance out the trade. She recommended I take one of her Aristocats PTDs as they would be good traders, so I picked Berlioz, my favorite of the cats. As we were about to finalize the trade she had second thoughts as my Designer pins were LE 1000 and the Pegasus was LE 250. I finally decide to throw in one of my Titans fantasy pins as her boyfriend or husband was interested in them which sealed the deal. I ended up given them a second Titans pin just to make sure there was no regrets, and that is how I ended up finally getting Pegasus!
Monday - Disneyland and California Adventure
We woke up at 7am to get the early Magic Hour to the parks. My friends were cast members from WDW and big Disney fans but never been to the west coast before so wanted to see everything. We started the day with a hiccup, my cast member friend who had guest passes to the parks, but they were blacked out for Disneyland for Monday even though her app showed them as open. She was forced to use 2 of the tickets she earned and we had to pay for a park ticket for the last member of the group. Once inside we had breakfast at Jolly Holly day, and went on some rides then headed to California Adventure to meet Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps since we were Zootopia fans.
Meeting Nick Wilde specifically (as he is currently my favorite Disney character) was the main thing I wanted to do this entire trip, we wanted to get to California Adventure by 2 to make sure we caught him but we ended up leaving Disneyland by 3 and the cast member we asked said Nick and Judy were long gone. We still headed to the meet and greet area and surprise Nick and Judy were there, we wanted to get in line for a picture but the cast member told us they were done for now and we would have to wait till 4 for the next meet and greet.
What happened next was pure Disney magic, as the cast member was leading Nick and Judy away, Nick Wilde saw me dressed in my Nick outfit and waved at me to join him. Nick gave me a handshake made motions that he loved my outfit and gave me a big hug. My friend caught that moment on video which was amazing and I got some pictures with Nick, I was in shock for hours afterwards of that experience, it was the greatest thing that could have happened.
We waited for Nick and Judy again since my other friends still wanted to meet with them. I took that time to draw a thank you picture for Nick and the cast members. I was able to give the picture to Nick and the cast member who took it for him said they would hang it up in their cast member lounge.
We later had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen we I got to meet Mickey, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Minnie and we ended the day with World of Color, something my WDW cast member friends really wanted to see since it did not exist in the WDW parks.
And that wraps up a perfect end to my D23 Expo/Disneyland vacation... which was greeted Tuesday morning as I checked out with a 5am phone call from a debt collector for something I didn't even know of, my shuttle driver scamming me out of money for my luggage for a service they didn't have, being yelled at and hung up on by an old landlord from a place I moved out of 2 years ago who sent the debt collector, and many long flights back home... but that's for another story, but shows the contrast between the Disney magic and real world XD
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