D23 Expo Headed to Japan

D23, the official Disney fan club, just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Tickets are already on sale for the much-anticipated D23 Expo in August, and the club just announced another huge convention for 2013, this one abroad.  The D23 Expo is hitting the road, and will come to Japan on October 12-14, 2013. The D23 Expo Japan will not just be a carbon copy of the one held in Anaheim months prior.  Although there will be a lot of overlap, in merchandise and in smaller events, the Japan expo will be unique.  It’ll be held mostly in Japanese, with events … Continue reading

Benefits Cut for Disney World Premium Annual Passes

The lobby of the Grand Floridian, one of Disney World’s most exclusive hotels Walt Disney World continues to aggravate its most loyal fans, as it announced in December that discounts for premium annual pass members will be cut.  The Orlando Sentinel has all the details. Since 2010 Disney World’s been pulling back a lot on the discounts it offers various pass holders.  This time, the target is premium annual passes, which already cost around $750 (Florida residents get a discount at around $600).  Now the shopping discounts premium annual pass holders receive have been cut in half. Let’s take a … Continue reading

A Year in Disney Fandom: D23 Events for 2013

Any D23 members wondering what will be on the official Disney Fan Club’s schedule for 2013 don’t need to wait any longer.  The official D23 website and the official Disney Parks blog have both posted announcements of the fan club’s 2013 events. The most exciting news to come out of D23 for 2013 is the announcement of a second year of Fanniversary.  The event, which is open to the public (but D23 members get first registration), is a must-attend celebration for any Disney fans.  It’s hours spent reveling in the best of Disney movies, history, park attractions, and more.  Special … Continue reading

Exploring the New Official Disney Website

I promised a preview of the new official Disney site, and today I’m delivering. The new Disney site isn’t that different from the old one, it’s just got a sleek new redesign. The front page is less cluttered than before, and is on a bright white background rather than the previous black. I’m actually a little surprised at how plain the front page is; there are plenty of thumbnail pictures and links, but there’s nothing going on around the edges. The official Disney site is a good place to go if you’re a general Disney fan, but aren’t really sure … Continue reading

Disney Animation Convention

This summer Disney fan convention D23 is put on hold for another year. Ever since its debut it has alternated years with another sort of Disney convention: Destination D. While D23 is the House of Mouse’s answer to Comic Con, with its main focus being panels on upcoming Disney films, Destination D is a quieter conference for the Disney history buffs. The first Destination D, held in 2010, centered on the theme of Disneyland. Walt’s first park debuted 55 years ago (well, 57 now), and that year’s Destination D was all about celebrating the groundbreaking Disneyland. Can you tell I … Continue reading

Disney at E3 and Other Video Games Update

A Kinect demo booth at this year’s E3 The E3 Video Game exhibition might be over now, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop talking about all we learned about upcoming video games. Put E3 up there for me with other conventions, like Comic Con and the D23 Expo, that I’d love to attend one day. Disney didn’t dominate E3, as the company isn’t really known for putting out much more than thrown-together movie tie-in games. Titles like “Epic Mickey” and “Kingdom Hearts” are the exceptions to the rule, though the latter doesn’t quite count because it was a … Continue reading

D23 Screenings and Expo

A photo snapped during a tour of the Walt Disney Archives Way back in January I looked at the D23 events planned for the first six months of the year. I promised that once the official Disney fan club posted details on what they had going on for the second half of the year, I’d share. Well, now June has rolled around and I’m trying to make good on my promise. The thing is there really isn’t that much more going on for D23, at least not that’s been announced yet. June 18 sees an already-sold-out screening of the original … Continue reading

D23 in 2011

Recently I wrote of an upcoming D23-sponsered event that didn’t seem to include any special tickets or opportunities for its club members. So now I will highlight what’s on D23’s agenda for 2011. For those not in the know, D23 is the official Disney fan club. I have a post on all the details about it here. After taking a year off to celebrate Disney history with the debut of Destination D, this year’s biggest affair is definitely the return of the D23 expo. Despite its name, the expo is actually open to the public, not just club members. Being … Continue reading

Why Disney World?

I have talked for years about my eventual Disney park trip. I never got to go as a child, so it’s something I assume I definitely want to do in my adulthood. I figure that I’m an avid Disney fan, so of course I will want to go to a Disney park. When I mention this to my husband, his first question is “yeah, but what would you do there?” As an adult I might want very different things out of a Disney park trip, and my youthful enthusiasm is also tempered by a rational need for practicality and frugality. … Continue reading

Disney’s Comic-Con 2010 Schedule

If there’s one place I maybe want to visit more than Disney, it’s Comic-Con. The crowds at Comic-Con turn me off a bit, but they are part of the experience as much as queuing in line at a Disney park. Since its inception in the late 1970s, Comic-Con has morphed from a smallish gathering for fans of comic books, to the mother of mega-conventions including not only “genre” entertainment like science fiction and fantasy films, but hosting panels on popular movies, television shows, and other media. Of course Disney has a presence at Comic-Con, especially because many years Disney fare … Continue reading