A Three Day Diary of the Disney's California Adventure Press Event, as written by One Tired Chick at Midnight.

ONE | TWO

The next event was the Red Carpet Arrival of dozens of celebrities, many from ABC shows and Disney movies. This was the toughest event to cover, as there were about four times a many camera crews as there was space along the velvet ropes. I learned why they call us "Press", because that’s what we did for over an hour – pressed against one another, jockeying for a better camera angle. After some time, many people just gave up and started combining efforts. Two photographers standing near me actually work for competing media outlets. They decided to share photos, so one left and the other took his spot. I’m sure their editors will LOVE to see that they end up running the same photos.

See an MPEG video of Sharon Stone (500k)

See an MPEG video of Buddy Ebsen (500k)

See an MPEG video of Whoopi Goldberg (500k)

(You'll need an MPEG player to view the above files, such as Windows Media Player or Apple QuickTime. Clicking on the links will start the file loading into the player, or you can right- click and select "Save Target As..." to first download the file to your machine then play it.)

With all of the ceremonies completed, I headed over to the parking structure to check up on the people queued up for the DCA opening. The crowds were lighter than I expected, and I think the weather is a factor. It’s COLD here – I can see that people would be turned off. The first person in line arrived at 5:00 a.m. on WEDNESDAY morning – many people were in line well before the announced 5:00 start time. Steven Ng and Karl Buiter are in the park, and will be posting more updates as the night progresses.

After checking in with my friends in the parking lot, I walked back to the Paradise Pier section of California Adventure for the party they were hosting (below). This had to be the largest, most impressive party I have ever experienced. Remind me to tell you about it when I’m not falling asleep at the keyboard. As much as I wanted to stay and enjoy the evening, I needed to pick up the day’s press materials and get back to the room to write this. With great regret, and a tasty tray of hot French fries with aioli sauce, I walked out of the park.

As strange as this sounds, I am not looking forward to the Grand Opening tomorrow. I have been extremely fortunate, thanks to chance timing and the generosity of good friends, to have visited DCA more times than I can count in the last 5 weeks. I’ve come to enjoy the park quite a lot, and I’ve become spoiled by walking down un-crowded paths and through nearly empty attraction lines.

Tomorrow, all that changes. I stopped in front of DCA on Monday, the last day the park was closed to everyone. No events were scheduled that day, no previews, no tours, no media. The streets were filled with work trucks and utility vehicles, crews hustled from place to place putting the finishing touches on this creation that was a parking lot not so many months ago. I stood there and realized that DCA will never again be closed at 2:00 on a weekday afternoon.

All the preview events and media tours are meaningless in the face of tomorrow’s opening. Nothing matters until the first real guests are in the park. Their impressions, and their experiences, will mean more for the future of this park than all of the press conferences and interviews and parties put together. I, for one, am almost holding my breath. Good Luck, DCA!

CONTINUED

Part One

Part Three

The line 1

The line 2

Take a photo tour of the park

Take a photo tour of the Grand Californian hotel