1955 Gazette

On March 14, 2020 Disneyland's gates were closed indefinitely due to the corona virus Covid-19.  It started in China in December (as much as they could trace it) and made it's way through Europe, eventually finding it's way to the US via Washington State.  The US was slow to react but Disneyland shut it's gates prior to the California Governor issuing the stay-at-home order for the entire state.  Around mid-June Disney announced that it planned to reopen Disneyland on July 17th.  However, about a week (or less) later they announced that they were backing out on those plans and waiting until they get approval from the County/State.  (Phase 4 in reopening plan is for large venues/gatherings.) At the end of June/first of July there has been a large surge in new cases/people being infected in Arizona, Texas, Florida and California.  The Governor has ordered indoor seating at restaurants to be closed (again) in an effort to go back to where we were.  (As a State, Californi

My husband had a business trip to go on in February (2020) and of course it was on a weekend where I had an event planned (Stitches West aka Yarn-Con).  His boss spoke of a team-building activity but nobody was making up their minds so J went to Disneyland for a day.  (I had changed jobs last year and didn't have a ton of time off waiting for me like I used to.)  And I went to Yarn-Con alone.  All day we texted each other pictures of where we were and what we were doing.  It worked out the best it could.

In 2018 we were lucky enough to get tickets for the D23 Light Up the Season (fan club Christmas Party) at the Disney Studios in Burbank.  (Must be a paid D23 member to be able to get tickets.)  We had so much fun we wanted to go again.  I was so happy when I was able to get tickets! This time the weather had been a bit different and we were wondering if it would happen because it's an outdoor event and it had been raining.  (Last time it was dry and 75 degrees!)  They actually cancelled the employee's party the night before due to rain (even though it didn't rain like it was predicted) and just had everybody go on Sunday. (Last time we dressed in our Dickens garb.  This year we wore our "ugly" Disney sweaters.) We arrived at the designated time (when the gates were opened), and were routed to a different parking lot than the first time. We followed everyone else to a warehouse type building where they had the D23 members wait (thankfully inside because it wa

Since we now have the annual passes, we decided to go to Disneyland for our wedding anniversary (7 years).  Little did we know that it was the first day of the Holiday Season!  Now we'd been hearing about how the attendance was down at Disneyland because of Galaxy's Edge opening.  At first you had to make an appointment just to get in and you were only allowed a 4 hour window to be in there in order for everyone to be able to see it in a day.  That was for maybe the first two weeks or so but then they dropped the 4 hour window.  When we went after D23 Expo it didn't seem all that crowded so we figured that people were still waiting for summer to be over.  It was much the same for our secret trip. That certainly changed for the Holiday Season.  I don't think I'd ever seen it THAT crowded.  At night, just about an hour before the fireworks were scheduled to start, the line for Jolly Holiday was out of the arch that borders the seating area outside and out into the w

My husband and I went down for a weekend when we didn't tell anybody where we were going.  This was when he picked up our annual passes. The weather was pretty nice.  Cool in the morning, (I think it even rained overnight once) warm during the day then cool-chilly at night.

Part 2 - Disneyland and California Adventure\ I will start off by saying I will come back and edit these posts because it's been so long that I can't remember exactly what we wore/did each day of the trip.  I really need to get better about blogging so I don't do this to myself anymore. However, I do remember at least the first day at Disneyland because this was the day we got our lightsabers!  I made sure I saved money for this as I figured this is my first and best shot at getting one.  (And I probably wouldn't get another because of how expensive they are.)  For weeks I poured over the "kits" and thought about which one I would get and what color kyber crystal I would get.  I looked at websites that explained what the blade color means and I watched videos of people who video blogged theirs. We decided to separate our appointments so I could video J making his and vice versa.  He went first before lunch.  It was an amazing experience and I was just ma

We talked about it and decided to try the D23 Expo again, (first try 2015) hoping that they might have gotten some of the bugs taken care of since then. We left home on Thursday and spent Thursday night in Downtown Disney.  This time we bought the full 3-day tickets for the Expo (Fri, Sat, Sun) and spent one day in each park, leaving to go back home on Wednesday. About a week before we were to leave for the Expo we found out that Jim Shore was going to be there Thursday and Friday.  (Thursday was a media/VIP kind of day and tickets were not available to us non-VIP's.)  So fitting that into the schedule of where we wanted to go what we wanted to see and any panels we wanted to get into was interesting.  My husband wanted to get into the Legends award ceremony so we decided to split up. An hour before the doors were to be opened we arrived at the convention center.  (I told my husband that that was the earliest I was willing to get up in the morning with also having to shower,

California Adventure! Finally, our first day in the Parks!  Today we are wearing our cosplay Zootopia outfits and we are determined to go meet Nick and Judy as Nick and Judy.  We have also scheduled my birthday dinner at the Carthay Circle restaurant for tonight so we are taking extra clothes to change into for that. I must apologize.  I started this some time ago and didn't finish it.  Now, I can't remember off the top of my head what we wore on what day, or how many days we stayed.  I will see if I can look it up in all my Disney stuff.  I do remember this day however, now that it's started.  We did get to see Nick and Judy from Zootopia in California Adventure park.  Nick did a double take when he got a look at my husband.  And Judy was not really paying attention to the people in line.  (Not very observant for a police officer!)  But when her handler pointed her in my direction she headed toward me at a run!  I got the biggest hug and I thought she wasn't going