Hey DPF!! I am so happy to be back in Canada & finally be caught up with all social media about the D23 Expo & been reading so much I missed here on the forums. Be prepared for a very long report of how my first D23 Expo was! It also include lots of photos. Thought this would be the perfect place cause everything I wanted at the expo was all Aladdin merch & others. Right off the back, this has been a surviving yet amazing experience I've had in California. Being a major MAJOR fan of Aladdin, I've had to go this year's expo so badly. Even though I really I've saved up so much, I've got the one thing I wanted the most & I got it plus even more. I didn't which topic I was going to discuss my experience but since Aladdin is one of my all time favorite movies, I've had to choose this particular topic to discuss. Also, if haven't been following me on Instagram or Facebook; then you're in for a very special treat for a full report with lots of photos!!
So my D23 Experience started off right away when I was at DTD in Disneyland & seeing what's the updates for merchandise was like & seeing the hashtag (#D23Expo) on Thursday Aug. 13/15. The minute I was in Starbucks & checking the updates, I saw someone posted a photo of the "unofficial line-up" already at the convention for the merchandise & panels. This was around 2:30pm I saw this update & immediately I wanted to check it out & just wanted to start lining up right away. I was probably maybe 50-60 in line & I was also saving a spot for the one friend who also wanted to get one thing from the Disney Store. I'm the type of person who doesn't mind waiting in line if I actually get to talk & get aquatints with the people around me. It was actually really awesome! Especially with the people behind who were MAJOR doll collectors! Since they had every single doll that was released in the Disney Store back with Snow White 17". It was awesome discussing our love for Disney & why we loved Disney Store dolls.
Around 10pm, they started letting us in & into their "basement" of the convention & making sure we got to camp indoors. From then on, they made sure we were in the same spot in the line outside but inside. They also put two wristbands on. One of them was a silver band & they numbered it as well too. It wasn't too bad since they provided classic Disney movies while we still awake & sleeping at the same time xD lol.
Then around 4am, they started taking around like 150 of us in the beginning of the line-up to outside. At this point I thought they were letting us go early to get set up the actual line-up to get in the convention. Instead, they were just "using" us as part of background people for the news channel who were outside. That right there already killed 2-3 hrs of doing nothing but cheering & standing there looking pretty. Luckily for me & my friend got interviewed & we both had positive energy still going through us!
Plus Mickey Mouse, Woody, & John Lasseter were there to help kick off the first day D23 Expo which I already thought that was amazing.
When 8am came around, they made us go back into the convention & we started lining right at the entrance of the actual expo itself. Then they started taking sorcerers in first (since they're the crazy people who those tickets) & they were only taking small groups of people & not all at the same time. This was around 9:30am that this started. The minute they let us gold/silver D23 members in, it was just mad chaos! Everybody just started booking it & running straight to the expo. Like there was no cast members or staff to guide us where the expo was. People were pushing, running, & yelling. The cast members who were at the queue of the Disney store didn't even acknowledge or honor the people who had the wristbands. & let me tell you, the people who were in the middle & back of the line & ran straight to the front, didn't even care what the other people like myself were yelling about. Cause all they cared about was buying in bulks & reselling for eBay. It was pretty horrible, though I wasn't surprise that it wasn't handled properly. What's even worse was they didn't even tell us what they exactly were selling cause me & friend only wanted the red slave Jasmine doll & that's it. Unfortunately they weren't selling any of Jasmine's merchandise until Saturday. So me & my friend ended up only buying the designer pin set & Elsa's Swarovski pin. Unfortunately I sold each individual pin separately cause I needed more money for the merchandise that was gonna to be released the next day. But both me & my friend were determined to wait out later that day to get our Red Slave Jasmine doll. So we pretty much after we were finished purchasing our pins at the Disney Store, we just walked around the expo & explore the whole area. Since it was our first time, we didn't had major expectations & checked out all the booths, vendors, & displays that was around us. Of course being us fanatic of Disney Pins, that was probably our favorite thing to do that day & checked out all the pins vendors. When we heard the news that people were already lining up for the next day, we told each other we will keep walking around & head back to our places & be prepared to bring blankets & pillows for the next day. Since I was staying at a motel, I just only had to take a shower real quick, bring blankets & pillows, & be prepared again to stay the night at the convention.
I will try to make this next part much shorter cause it was pretty much the same process & setup that we did for Thursday afternoon. Except when 10pm came around, instead of putting us in the basement, they took the people who were just only wanting to go to the Disney Store to upstairs where some of the panels were on the second floor. From there on, we did the same thing & slept overnight. It was awesome though we had the same people with us the Thursday night we got to hangout with.
Can I just say how amazingly the difference with the organization from Friday to Saturday was!? For Saturday me & my friend was dressed up as Aladdin & Jasmine & told each other that we will get our dolls cause I had a positive feeling we will get it. The way they took us in should've been the way how it should been on Friday. So when took they us group by group again, this is time they actually had to have a "pathway" made out of cast members & making sure they were going single file & nobody was cutting or pushing us. Then they made sure when we got to the Disney store queue that we were in order & forming a good line-up. So Saturday went by pretty smoothly & we got the one thing we wanted ... Which was the 17" LE Red Slave Jasmine doll from the Disney Store! Me & friend were literally jumping for joy & doing our happy dance when we purchased them! I was also excited as well cause I able to purchase the vinylmations & pin set from the Art of Jasmine collection! We told ourselves that day was unofficially gonna be Aladdin day! Everyone was so happy for us that afterwards we were able to get the artists to sign the creation of all the products, including the LE red slave Jasmine doll XD Plus we were able to attend the Making of Aladdin panel later that day & boy was it a great one!
To wrap it all off, we got to spend our last D23 Expo just in normal clothes & actually got the chance to look around more. But the highlight of my last D23 Expo day was getting to meet the original singing voice for Aladdin, Brad Kane! Like you guys have no idea how excited I was when I shook hands with him & got the chance to even say Hi & tell him my name! LOL.
Then off I got the chance to spend a day at Disneyland the next day but I'll get into that story another time. But I seriously made so much more new experiences & the best part was spending those awesome experience with brand new friends & sharing that love for Disney. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this & I'll leave you guys a photo of all the stuff I've got plus close up pics of the 17" LE Red Slave Jasmine Doll of 500!