Day 460: Treasures

You may be wondering what I was doing in Chicago this weekend, aside from visiting my Godfather. Well the answer is pretty simple: Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives.

Back in 2011 when I went to the D23 Expo, we did see the Treasures exhibit, but when we heard that it was coming to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, we instantly started talking about going to see it there. Or at least I did. After a long while we finally picked a weekend and were able to go.

Now, the exhibit is absolutely beautiful. If you follow me on Instagram you probably got spammed with my pictures of everything they had there, but I was just so excited. It's not every day you get to be surrounded by Disney when you're so far away from home, right? If you don't follow me on Instagram, here's a recap:

We had an interesting conversation after we left the museum, about if we could take one artifact from the exhibit what would it be. Like, any one thing that you could own. Answers varied in my family, but I finally came up with debating between The Original Cast Member Badge created for Walt Disney (seen below) or the Bird Cage Walt bought in New Orleans that went on to inspire the Tiki Room and Audio Animatronics in General. I also thought of the Mary Poppins props and stuff from The Haunted Mansion, but it's just so hard to pick one thing!

The Exhibit still runs through early May, so if you haven't seen it already and are in the area, GO SEE IT! It was absolutely wonderful and I am very thankful I got to travel to Chicago to visit and see it. I can't wait for D23 next year where I'll hopefully be able to see more, because really, I'm never going to see enough. 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on April 8 due to travel).

Day 220: D23

You know what's this weekend? You had BETTER know what's this weekend! D23! THAT'S WHAT!

Now, I'd absolutely love to be at D23 this weekend, but of course, I'm not. Instead I'm just here and I'll have to deal with that. But why not relive some of my memories from the last D23 Expo. You know? The one I was at!

You see, two years ago I went to Disneyland with my family, and we happened to be there at the same time as the D23 Expo, so we became D23 members and went, and it was amazing! In fact the entire trip was amazing! When we first got there our room ended up not being ready, so we waited, and then they called saying it was ready, but when we got there it obviously wasn't. So we went back and they ended up giving us an upgrade to a park view room, which gave me the amazing opportunity to watch World of Color EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. It was awesome!

Anyway, back to D23. There's lots of cool things going on at this year's Expo, but here are a few of the amazing things I got to experience back in 2011!

Well let's see. I think one of the greatest things for me was honestly just being there. Like I had never been surrounded by so many Disney loving people. I really wish I could have gone this year for the same reason, and because I have this blog and it's like "here's this perfect time to promote my blog" and I can't! Oh well! IT was still an amazing experience. 

And one of those amazing things was the different panels we got to sit in on. I mean, there was stuff on the Disney Parks as a whole, with the announcements from Disney Shanghai and Carsland and New Fantasyland. Yeah, I got to see the stuff from New Fantasyland way back in 2011! That's crazy! Although I guess they had already started construction and we knew, but it was still awesome! We even got to sit in on a panel with the people working on Carsland. And then some stuff happened and we learned about how John Lasseter was trying to find a picture of him as a Jungle Cruise Skipper. You know, I don't know if he ever did find one, but I hope he did. I want to be a Jungle Cruise Skipper someday too, so that was just really awesome. 

Oh yeah...and after that panel we stopped at the restroom and my dad and brother were in the bathroom with John Lasseter. Like I was standing outside and watched him walk in and I just stood there for a couple of minutes with my mouth hanging open. 

And then there was the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives, which will be back this year, just with a few different things. And I'm really excited because it's actually coming to Chicago this fall and winter, so I'll be able to go and see it. But it was there in 2011, and I got to see a whole ton of awesome stuff, all the way from the original Tron to stuff from Toontown at WDW and the future Buena Vista Street at California Adventure. It's such an amazing group of artifacts, it really, really is!

But by far one of the highlights of the entire expo was the very first screening of The Lion King in 3D. It's not every day you can say that you were in the very first screening of something! And while it was for a movie that has been out since like 1994, it still counts! It was awesome to be able to say to my friends that I had already seen it when they asked if I was going one of the first days it was out. They all just got confused. 

Along with all of that, I got to buy some really awesome pins, meet some really awesome people, eat some really awesome cupcakes and do many other really awesome things. UGH, I SOOOOO want to go to the D23 Expo because it was soooo much fun in 2011! But I guess I'll just have to wait until 2015. But don't worry, I will do my best to be there that year! I promise! 

Here's today's Disney History: 2000: Walt Disney World begins offering new sounds around the Magic Kingdom. The four new musical acts official debuting on this day in The Main Street Philharmonic (a 12-piece brass and percussion ensemble replacing the Main Street Marching Band), the Tomorrowland Blast (a 12-piece band specializing in rock 'n' roll), the Fantasyland Woodwinds Society (a quartet playing Disney favorites) and Notorious Bano Brothers and Bob (a comical traveling trio in Frontierland). 

Have a magical day!