D23 Expo Japan 2013

[WayneG]

Update 1

The D23 expo starts in 2 days time and all sessions are sold out.
The main presentations will be in the Maihama Ampiheatre at the Tokyo Disney Resort with ticketed seating.
This means no long queues hoping you will get in.
Tickets were by lottery and based on your level of ticket you are able to see various sessions.
Most of the levels enable you to see The Treasures exhibition and the parks historical exhibition.
There will be a number of special stores selling D23 merchandise.

Wayne

[KeithS]

Thanks for the update Wayne. Hope you have a great time over there. We want to know all about the announcements - Tom Staggs has already surprised us with the Ironman Experience ride at Hong Kong, so I wonder what he has up his sleeve for Tokyo!

[WayneG]

Update 2
We will update you with any announcements. We have tickets to some of the sessions including the opening address and Tom Staggs Parks and Resorts presentation.
Yesterday we spend the day at Tokyo Disneyland temp 28 c.. It was warm but not too hot.
We saw the three parades the Halloween parade wonderful and the 30 th anniversary parade we saw the end off. But in the evening is the not to be missed parade Dreamlights. It is an amazing parade of a large number of floats with characters that are fully lit up and interactive with a large number of lights. Words cannot explain. Come to the next meeting to see some photos. See it on you tube. It is worth the entry to the park to see this parade.
You need to get fast pass to some of popular attractions including Haunted Mansion which had the Nightmare overlay,
Star tours, Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, Monsters Inc, Poohs Honey Hunt. Monsters was at 100 minutes standby.

Watne

[KeithS]

Yep - definitely sounds like you need to use those Fastpasses to best of your ability.

I can't get over how Tokyo Disneyland can run so many different large parades in the same day - a Halloween parade, their normal daytime parade, and then Dreamlights.

Can't wait to hear your updates from those presentations Wayne!

[WayneG]

Update 4
This was the first day of the D23 expo in Japan. It was an amazing experience. The first presentation by Bob Iger including a number of firsts. We saw the complete Toy Story tv show due yo premiere later this year. It was amazing and it was fun to see your favourite characters again.

The second presentation by the head of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts had all the news for Disney fans. We saw a clip on Shanghai Disneyland with Bob Weissgiving us a more detailed overview of the Castle.
the highlight was the expended presentation on Avatar for Animal Kingdom. It looks stunning as they showed us many more images and models then were released on the Disney Parks blog. All I can say is look at the Disney Parks Blog to see some of the stubbing images. DISNEY IS renowned for building environments close to the art work. Disney can build amazing lands and environments. We also saw a detailed look inside the Iron Man experience just announced for Hong Kong Disneyana
Land.

More information at our upcoming meeting

Wayne

[KeithS]

Keep those updates coming Wayne!

Those concept artworks they released on the Disney Park Blog for Avatar were amazing - I'll be posting higher resolution versions in the WDW section shortly. I'd loved to have seen the rest of the artwork they showed at the Expo! Can't wait to see more of the Shanghai castle too

[KeithS]

I heard from Wayne and Jennifer - they got back safely despite the typhoon in Japan.

From the sound of it, they have some very interesting stories to share with us at the meeting next week (and maybe some raffle prizes...)

[churros]

Good news