Hi, and welcome to Part 2 of my Photo Tour of the D23 Expo! If you missed Part 1, check it out HERE.
When last we left, we were taking in some of the Star Wars sights and sounds from the D23 Expo, so I think we’ll just pick up where we left off.
Some young Jedi were able to fight off Darth Vader and save the Expo from the Dark Side during the Jedi Training Academy presentation.
And if you wanted to turn yourself into a Stormtrooper, Iron Man, or a Mickey Mouse Club member, you could do that on the floor at the Disney 3D Print Studio!
One of the best parts about being at the Expo this year was seeing all of the amazing things that Disney Imagineering has in store for it’s theme parks. Here’s the scale model for the new Pandora (Avatar) Land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Another ground level look at the model and yours truly with one of the Na’vi. I remember these guys being huge in the movie, but in person this guy was only like 5’8″!
A huge display for Disney’s newest theme park, Shanghai Disneyland, was also a highlight. This is probably as close as I’ll ever be able to get to the park!
There were also some really cool things from the newest Marvel movies on display. Here are Ant Man’s costume and the Hulkbuster Arm from The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
This picture was about as close as I could get to Disney Legend and Imagineer Tony Baxter. He designed and worked on many Disney Parks attractions, including Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Disneyland Paris, and more.
Being at the Expo also gave me a lot of opportunities for some celebrity sightings. Here are a few of the famous people that I was able to spot:
On the left is Genevieve, from Disney Junior’s Choo Choo Soul. On the right is Ariel Winter (Modern Family & the voice of Disney Junior’s Sofia the First), who read a story to some lucky kids.
Here is everyone’s favorite Goonie, Sean Astin, on the left, and the cast of the show Baby Daddy on the right.
These two aren’t easy to see, but on the left hand side of the left image are Sofia Carson & Dove Cameron, two of the stars of the Disney Junior Movie, The Descendants. On the right, Sofia Carson blows a kiss to the dozens of young girls waiting to catch a glimpse of her. (My 4 1/2 year old daughter and significantly older wife are obsessed with The Descendants. It’s on several times a day in our house lately!)
This one is also a little hard to see, but the man with the white hair in the middle of the picture is Dick Van Dyke! Burt from Mary Poppins was standing right there in front of me. That was a really fun Disney nerd moment for me!
What truly made the 2015 D23 Expo a fantastic experience, in my opinion, was being there among my fellow Disney enthusiasts and crazies! People really, really get into it, and so many people express their Disney love by dressing up in some pretty amazing and elaborate costumes. Here are a few that I caught with my camera:
Here’s Sergeant Calhoun, from Wreck-It Ralph
Another Wreck-It Ralph character, Vanellope Von Schweetz and her awesome car
Two Belles. Who wore it better?
There was a really good Ariel and Prince Eric
And this Ariel’s costume was ridiculous! Her legs were hidden under that rock! She had celebrities with security guards coming up to her and asking her to take pictures with them!
Finally, my favorite costume from the entire weekend, it’s Chewbacca Beast and Princess Leia Belle! She was even holding a C-3P0/Lumiere! They actually had a line of people getting pictures with them for quite a while!
Unfortunately, here is where my Photo Tour of the Expo ends, folks. I was able to get into a few panels, but I was sitting so far from the stage that the photos and videos I took didn’t do the presentations justice. Thank you for reading along and traveling through the Expo with me. I hope my little tour gave you a bit of an idea of what the Expo was like! D23 Expo 2017 is less than two years away. I’m going to start booking clients’ trips pretty soon!
Thanks again for reading!
