Journal: Our California Adventure - Part 2

Thankfully, we had already planned for this eventuality by making sure we had an early slot on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. Our ABD welcome dinner wasn't until the evening so we had most of the day to continue getting into the La La Land swing of things. We had plenty of time to get ready and have coffee, sitting outside as the morning sunshine beat down on us. It was a beautiful morning. 

Pete joined us shortly after, coffee in hand and we were chatting about the DisUnplugged shows and how we came across them a number of years ago. The feeling that we knew Pete so well but we were strangers to him was disappearing. Could I be so bold to think that a great friendship could come out of this trip? Marc and I both thought so.

Unlike on previous U.S. trips, this time we didn't need a car just yet so Marc got his first experience of the taxi service, Uber. I was hardly a pro at it either but we got there and our first Uber was booked. We can certainly see why it has become a success.

The Warner Bros. Studios were an interesting experience. As with many studio tours, we boarded a tram bus thing and they took us around the back lot. For a lot of the tour we were looking at totally undressed sets, as there was no filming taking place. There were glimpses of buildings that had featured in movies we had seen but it was quite hard to picture. Also, a lot of what had been filmed more recently were U.S. sitcoms that I had never watched or never even heard of. Still, one set did still remain as seen on screen which made me very happy as I had only watched the movie a couple of days before on the flight out. Eagle eyed readers will recognise this as the cafe in La La Land.

Our next stop was one of the highlights for me which was the Costume department, on display downstairs were many of the costumes from the recent Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad movies and the Harry Potter movies upstairs. Seeing just how detailed costumes are these days was impressive. Obviously, HD film techniques necessitate the costumes to be of the highest standard in order to look as realistic as possible on screen. I was in awe of the size of the costumes, displayed on mannequins of the same scale as the actor, giving them a real sense of perspective. I would seriously need to bulk up in order to fill one of them. One small experience did bring a massive smile to my face and that was actually being sorted by the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter. My house; GRYFFINDOR of course!

We then got to walk through a hot set. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the sound stage for that reason but it was fantastic to see the set of The Big Bang Theory. One thing that really struck me is how small and confined the sets look compared to what the audience sees on screen. That, and the abundance of IKEA furniture used in the set. There is an IKEA in Burbank just 3 miles away from the studio and given the characters of the show, of course, it made sense that they have IKEA furniture. It was just fun to see.

Another major highlight was The Picture Car Vault. When we visited there was a major focus on the vehicles from the Batman movies so I went full on bat-geek getting pictures with every single one of them. My absolute favourite was the Tumbler from Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy.

Again, the scale of these machines, most of which actually fully work for the purposes of filming, was very impressive to me.

Our final stop was in Stage 48, where they demonstrate the process from script to screen. However, the real attraction here was the Central Perk set from Friends. To actually sit on that sofa and pretend to drink coffee was brilliant. Friends was a massive part of my teen TV viewing and even after all these years, I can still watch the show with so much fondness and laughter.

Also within Stage 48, was a special effects area where I had the opportunity to ride a Batpod against a green screen and I even have the video to show for it. Of course, it looks very little like the film because it hasn't had all the clever editing but that video is a fantastic keepsake for me pretending to be Batman, just for a little while. That pretty much concluded our studio tour so we made our way back to our hotel area via the wonder of Uber. On reflection, the tour was fun but it was not necessarily a tour we would repeat in the future.

After a wander around the nearby shops we were making our way back to the hotel we passed the Los Angeles branch of Madame Tussauds. We figured that as we were passing and it was reasonably priced it would be a good way to use a couple of hours before our big welcome dinner. I previously worked for the Madame Tussuads in London so I can say that the attraction was very similar indeed with the main differences being the much, much shorter queue to get in and so the attraction itself was far less crowded. This meant I could pose away to my heart’s content with all the waxworks I wanted to… 

It was now definitely time to go and get ready for the Welcome Dinner. I was adamant that I wanted to make an effort for dinner and wear trousers and a shirt. This would have potentially been a disaster given how hot it was but thankfully we were eating at the hotel and with the comfort of air conditioning. This was going to be the first time we would be meeting all the other people who would be on the trip.

We were the first couple to arrive at the meet-up point where we properly met our Disney Adventure Guides, Michael and Summer-Rose who were both insistent that we had to have a picture taken, with Disney props of course, symbolising the start of our adventure.

Once everyone was assembled we made our way to dinner. I was a little confused when we got to the venue for dinner because there was two people already there that had definitely not been at the meet-up point. I didn't think too much on it and just assumed that they had arranged to meet the group in the room. Straight away we got chatting to a wonderful couple called Danika and Leah. We were initially nervous about being the only Brits on the trip in case people mistook our sense of humour and the like. Thankfully, they made us feel completely at ease and were telling us about their first ABD trip. It turned out that for a large proportion of the room, this was not their first adventure. Some of the group were on their 2nd or 3rd trip and there was even one, Jason, who was now on his 10th ABD trip! This spoke volumes about the quality of the adventure we were embarking on.

Just as we finished up dinner our guest speaker was brought to the front of the room (one of the two who were in the room when we arrived). This evening we would getting a talk from Don Ballard. Don is a historian and a writer who has a great love of the Disneyland Hotel. His first book was published in 2005 titled 'Disneyland Hotel the Early Years: 1954-1988. Off the back of this book Don started getting contacts from numerous sources with letters, pictures, brochures and information about the hotel. It is amazing to think that even a single Disney hotel has such a rich history.

He began his talk by giving an overview of how the Disneyland Hotel came to be. Initially it was not actually operated by Disney at all, but a guy called Jack Wrather had been brought in to build and operate the hotel. However, the room fell pin-drop silent when Don revealed that he had been given a rare and virtually unseen piece of footage. Most Disney fans, and many others, will have seen the original footage of Walt Disney making his dedication speech at the opening of Disneyland back in 1955. It is often shown in any documentary about Walt. What was unique about this rare piece of footage was that it featured the very same speech but was in colour and was filmed on home video from a completely different angle but without sound. It had been discovered amongst a private collection and could have easily been lost forever! Don proceeded to show us the footage with the original audio dubbed over the top and at that moment there was almost a gasp from the room. I am not expecting everyone to understand why this moment was so gripping, but I can say, from a massive Disney fan, who has seen and heard that dedication speech countless times throughout the years, that to see a new angle, in full colour and knowing this footage had remained hidden for all these years was a very special moment. To share that incredible moment with other passionate Disney fans was something to behold. Don finished up by giving each of us a copy of his book 'Disneyland Hotel 1954-1959: The Little Motel in the Middle of the Orange Grove', signing the book and then posing for photographs. I haven't really had the chance to get into reading it, but I will be posting a review when I do.

After that wonderful talk a number of the attendees then went off to the El Capitan theatre for a screening of Cars 3. We opted not to attend this part as Marc is not a particular fan of the Cars series and we were both feeling that sitting in a cinema when we were both beginning to feel very tired possibly wasn't the best idea. Instead we stayed in the hotel bar, again enjoying a few drinks and chatting with Pete who promised that this evening’s moments were just the beginning!