June 5, 2008
Day 3 Part 2

Now its time to shop at Mickey’s of Glendale…..this is a Disney fan’s paradise. From clothing to pins, to collectables and artwork it is all there.
The 40 % off coupon on one item makes it even more delightful.
It is a large store and we only had 30 minutes. For those of us old enough to remember , I felt like I was on supermarket sweep and had very little time to fill up my shopping cart. We left with many treasured items including pin sets and they have some beautiful ones, a few statues and assorted other
merchandise.

Next we loaded our coach again, for a short trip to the Disney Studios.
We had lunch at the commissary , which is large and has numerous food stations, both hot and cold and had about 20 minutes to shop in their store. This was also an employee store, but after Mickey’s of Glendale
there was really nothing of interest to most of us.
We began our walking tour of the studios. The sites included the famous, dopey drive sign , pluto’s corner at the fire hydrant and the hand prints across from the animation building. We toured the animation hall which had numerous cell and prints of classic Disney animation. Next stop was the Disney Legends Plaza which is home to the partners statue, the statue of Roy and Minnie and all the legends hand prints. This was a great photo op with the seven dwarfs in the backdrop holding up the roof of the administration building. From there we went into the back lot area , which was exactly that…a working backlot of a movie studio. We stoped briefly in another building which has Walt’s multiplane camera on display and for those not on a bathroom break we got to peek into the Disney archives.
We boarded our coach for our trip to Disneyland our home for the next 3 days.

We arrive at the Grand Californian Hotel and one of the front desk managers boarded the bus to tell us about checking in and the resort.
Check in was simple , we followed the manager to a separate area, He called out our names and handed us a folder with room keys, park tickets, maps and other resort information and then we were off to our rooms., after Quinn had given us our time and location to meet later that evening. Our luggage arrived in less then 20 minutes.
There was only about an hour or so between the time we checked in and
our next event, so most of us , just unpacked and changed for dinner.

The group assembled in the lobby of the hotel at 5pm and were greeted by the Hotel ambassador, who gave us our pin for the day.
Now we were off to the Wine Cellar at Hooke’s Point for a private wine tasting before dinner.
Carlos the host of the wine cellar, gave us a little history on the wine cellar.
Originally used by Walt for entertaining his guest. It was a lovely start to a great evening. The group snacked on appetizers and wine while the sounds of a guitar played in the background.
Next we went upstairs to Hooke’s Point for dinner, where we had a choice of Chicken or Salmon. , both were reported to be very good. Key Lime pie was served for dessert and ice cream for the kids and kids at heart.

Now it was time for our first trip to Disneyland Park…..we entered the park following the famous Paddle and went directly to the Haunted Mansion, where we met with our butler who took us into a side door , for our private
experience in the stretching room and then on to our doombuggies. This was great….no lines, no waiting. After the Haunted Mansion Quinn walked us into New Orleans square, gave us some Disney history and pointed out
some of the designs in the buildings. The next stop was well all I can say
was one of a millions dreams. Quinn had arranged for a special treat for the group, but made us promise not to blog or write about it…and we agreed.
This was Grad night and the park was closing at 9pm, since it would over run from 11pm till 6am with noisy highschool grads.
It had been a day of thrills and memories, but it was time to call it a night.
The group followed the paddle through downtown Disney back to the hotel
for a goodnight sleep.