California / Arizona trip - day 07

The adventure continues ...

Wow, day 7 and we still have so much planned! Can we get it all in? It was decided last night that we should take a break from Disney and see Hollywood. After all, how often do we get to this side of the country? Answer, not too often..... So we met for breakfast at Steakhouse 55. This restaurant is part of Disneyland Hotel. Tom and David took with them brochures and the AAA book to look at and decide which studio tour and other activities for the day. The write ups in the AAA book about the studio tours all sound basically the same. The only difference is cost. Hmmm, not able to decide, we decide to ask a few Disney cast members for their opinion. Some were reluctant to give their views. They mentioned Universal Studios but we didn't really want a theme park, after all we have Disneyland. We were then directed to Guest Relations. There is where we met Kevin. When asked, without any hestitations, he immediately responded, Oh, you have to do Warner Brothers. http://www2.warnerbros.com/vipstudiotour/ When the group got together, we discussed this possibility and decided that's the one we should see. Kevin was very helpful and knowledgeable in not only booking the VIP tour, gave us tips on timing, the appropriate route, information on where to park, costs, etc. He even gave us information on Hollywood and the area for after the tour. As suspected, we received great service from a Disney Cast member.

With maps. brochures and of course cameras, we load into the car and head to Burbank. We continue along and finally make it to Warner Brothers Studios. The VIP tour was booked for 1:00 p.m., we rolled in at 12:30. Plenty of time! :)

We park the car across the street and head over to the studio. After going through security, we enter and pay for our 2 1/2 hour tour.

As we wait for our tour to begin, I start to take pictures. (what a surpise). :)

Here are a few shots of the interior of the visitor section. . .
The appointed time comes ... our guide shows up and takes our little group of ten or so to the golf cart that will be our ride into the magic of movies. But, first we need to lock up nearly all of our belongings in the seat! (can't afford to have too many of their secrets or our extra stuff stolen!). Then, we learn in the first few minutes that nearly all of the production on this lot is now television. At first, that seems a let-down, only because we thought we were touring a movie studio lot, but then she says the shows include Cold Case, Without a Trace, Big Bang Theory (Tom's personal favorite), ER, The Ellen Degeneris Show, The Mentalist, and lots more. In addition, this WAS the home of Friends for all 10 years that it was made.

Off to the "back lot", the outdoor permanent city and town sets. Workmen were changing store front signs to prepare the one street for a "shoot" in a few days. Lysia, our tour guide, drew our attention to the doors on this set. None of them have door knobs (just a lot of holes where they should be) because door knobs are an important part of period setting. So, knobs are attached for each shoot and then removed again. We learn that they hang large green screen tarps over the openings in the set that belie the Warner Bros buildings and water tower nearby. Those green screens then allow the post-production operations to enter city scenes or other logical backgrounds via Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) to complete the picture.

Our guide invites us to walk into one of the oldest buildings to see how beyond the immediate front room, sometimes a "practical" set that can be used for small indoor scenes shot from outside, there's really nothing but 2x4s, rafters, and lights within. (funny, we do the same thing back home for theatre.) Above the rooftops, there are metal railings from which lights are hung depending on the "shoot". The bricks of the buildings are fiberglas sheets, manufactured in their own shops and anything that looks like masonry is just pressed wood with special painting techniques to make a building look older and weathered (Again the same technique is used for theatre work but on a smaller scale). Tom notes many, many lead anchors in the pavements of this area, denoting the many types of street signs, parking meters, and who knows what else that have been mounted on the street since it was built. These are covered during a shoot with perhaps a garbage can, a planter, a car in front of it, whatever to make the scene become believeable. Here is where Lysia also points out the real fire escapes. The story goes that one of the Warner Brothers (there were three) heard that there was a building in New York City that was being demolished. This building had working fire escapes and the Warner Brother bought and them shipped them to CA for their studio.
As the back lot tour continues, we're driven through scenes and our guide points out buildings that were used (and how) for everything from the Spider Man movies to the Dukes of Hazzard TV series ... a very wide array of shows have been produced here over the years. What's weird is the fact that the front may look elegant in a brick facade while the back can look rustic, built with wooden slats. Each side of the house can be used for whatever scene is needed. Nothing goes to waste here.

Yes, we saw the Warner Bros water tower where the Animaniacs were (are?) locked up.

Next on the agenda ... the support shops. We had a brief drive-through of the scenery and set shops where everything from simple signs to fake sculptures to entire rooms and houses are built before moving to a sound stage or back lot. It was also mentioned that this studio works with all of the unions representing various areas of the television / film making industry.

Next came the Sound Stages, 28 in all, and one more on the way. Each has a plaque outside the main door that lists information like when it was build, some statistics, and the major productions that had made use of it over it's lifespan ... interesting stuff. Ellen D takes up 3 of the 28 all by herself: one for the show set, one for her personal use, one for the "green room" and guest hospitality. (wow)

We were escorted into one of the sound stages to find the actual set of The Mentalist, currently in production. Since no one was there, we could walk around on the set, exploring how it really looks and is used to create the two dimensional view we see on television. That was the up side of going to a current show in production. The down side was that because it was a current show, we had to lock up our cameras even before we entered the building. No accidental picture taking from this group. ;)

After we got back to the tram, we were allowed to get our cameras out for two reasons, one, were were allowed to take pictures of the outdoor set from the show of ER What a treat! After you look at these pictures, tell me that you can't imagine of the actors coming out to an ambulance to save a patient.

The second reason were were allowed to have our camera was that after seeing the outdoor porton of the ER set, we went to a musuem of sorts where some of the bigger props, such as cars, were stored from various movies such as Harry Potter, Batman, Scooby Doo and more. We were also able to partake in the magic of CGI. We imagined there was a train (from Harry Potter) and we were on the platform. Of course you didn't see it, it was on the computer. The four of us participated but you couldn't really see Tom or I. We were just about out of view. That's okay because we always said we were the 'behind the scenes' type. You'll have to ask David or Linda to see the picture. They were great!

Here are some pictures from that building...

Afterwards we headed to a Prop Warehouse where we could actually go in and see what's there. We were allowed to take our cameras because in this building, we were taken into a room where they preserved the entire set of Central Perk,the coffee house from Friends. It had been left 'as is' so tours could have a look at an actual set AND take pictures. :0)

One of the last stops made was another musuem filled with costumes from past movies such as Harry Potter, The Last Samurai, the Matrix, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, etc. Sadley, no photography was permitted.

As we came to the end of the tour, we gathering our cameras, purchased some items and then we loaded back into the car and to head for Hollywood.

Click HERE to view the entire photo album of pictures from this tour.

stay tuned for the tales from Hollywood! :)

California / Arizona trip day 6

On to a new adventure ...

Today marked the end of the first part of the trip and the beginning of another.... And because of the new adventure waiting for us, it proved to be a very long day.

The day started very early. We had an 8:30 a.m flight scheduled for today so we aimed to be at the airport at the insane hour of 6:30. Well, knowing this family, that wasn't going to work, and it didn't. We weren't too far off though. Thanks, in part, to Jen knowing the 'lay of the land' as it were at the airport she knew exactly which terminal to take us and where to park the car. It also helped that the airport wasn't too crowded at this early hour. We managed to check-in by 7:00 a.m. We still had some time to share a light breakfast with Jen before saying our good byes and heading through the security check point. We were only heading to Los Angeles, CA and being so close I feared we would be on another turbo prop. Luck continued to be with us during this early morning departure as we found ourselves on a plane a bit bigger than a turbo prop. This was good, because I still didn't have goggles..... :)

The flight itself was rather uneventful but the family of four sitting in front of us, well, let's just say I never ever wanted to put a gag on a small child as much as I did with these two. They screamed and cried the entire hour and half flight. They had just made the flight so perhaps they had a tough morning. And has hard as I told myself this over and over, it didn't help. The headache came on anyway. I guess that's why Excedrin is made, for just such occasions....

We didn't wait long to get our checked bags (that we didn't have to pay for) and go to the rental car area. Our rental car was waiting, we had easy directions to head to Disneyland Hotel and we were on the road. While we were on our way, the phone rang. It was our friends Dave and Linda. They were also on their way.... And another adventure begins!

Luck happened again as we both made it to Disneyland Hotel at the same time!

As we checked in, we learned that our rooms were upgraded to resort view and we had adjoining rooms. Nice. The rooms were small but comfortable. We had a great view of the pool area (which was a tad chilly to use). Much to the disappointment of the guys, we unpacked first before heading to the park.

Disneyland has grown considerably since the last time Tom and I were there. It had been about 25 years since we were there. Jen had just turned three then. ;) At that time it was just one park and there was only one Disneyland hotel. Now there are two parks, a Downtown Disney and three hotels to choose from. Time has certainly been good to Mickey and his friends. :)

Scenes from Downtown Disney ...

We explored Downtown Disney and then took the new monorail to the Magic Kingdom. The monorail takes you to Tomorrowland where rides such as Space Mountain, Star Tours and the Matterhorn reside. This Magic Kingdom has more narrow walkways but the atmosphere and people all say Disney.

As we disembarked from the Monorail, we decided it was time for lunch (not surprising for this group). We walked through Tomorrowland and headed for Main Street.

Scenes from Tomorrowland....

Scenes from Main Street...

There we found the Carnation Cafe. The wait was a little longer than we would have liked but the food was great even if Tom did order the meatloaf (inside family joke).

All tanked up, we were ready to hit the park. Passing the Tiki birds, we headed towards Adventureland. Here we got our fast pass tickets for the 'Indiana Jones Adventure' ride. We then headed to the 'Pirates of the Carribbean' ride. This ride is longer and more detailed than the one in Florida. While on this ride, we noticed people eating at a place where they can watch folks on the 'Priates of the Carribbean' ride. (We later learned that the name of the restaurant Blue Bayou) After the Pirates ride, we still had time so we headed to the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans Square.

Scenes from Adventureland...

New Orleans Square ...

The Haunted Mansion was redone with the characters from the Nightmare Before Christmas movie starring Jack Skeleton. Here is, as the folks at Disney claim, where two holidays collide. It was done really, really well!

The Haunted Mansion Holiday ...

It was time to head back to Adventureland and use our fast pass to ride the 'Indiana Jones Adventure' ride. Because of the fast pass, we were able to 'cut in' the waiting line and go right in. That was weird but worth it. The ride was fun. We hadn't screamed and laughed through a ride in awhile. In fact we screamed so much that some of us lost their voice!

Time to do something a little quieter. So we hopped onto the Disneyland Railroad (Tom called his folks while waiting for the train) and we headed over to Toontown. At Disneyland, Toontown seems to be a lot bigger than the one at Disney World. We got fast passes to ride the Cartoon Spin ride (a ride based on the movie Rodger Rabbit, Linda's favorite.) Tom and Pam were a little chilly so they went back to the hotel to get jackets and Dave and Linda went to Innoventions. When we met up again, we headed back to Toontown and rode the ride.

By this time it was about 5:45 and was time to head back to Main Street for the 6:30 Christmas Parade. As you can imagine, the parade route was jammed packed! We did manage to see some of the parade. Afterwards we decided to go back to New Orleans Square to see if we could get into the Blue Bayou Restaurant. But sadly, the place was booked for the evening. Wanting table service instead of fast food service, we decided to head out of the park and to Downtown Disney. Here is where we found Brennan's Jazz Restaurant. On the menu was 'turducken' I always wanted to try it but the waiter announced that they were out of it. Rats. So at 7:30 p.m. we had dinner at a really nice place, sitting outside on the balcony, under a heater enjoying the view, jazz music, good friends and a great meal.

The night, however, didn't end with the great meal. We decided to head back into the Magic Kingdom via the monorail to see the fireworks spectacular. We didn't make it for the very beginning, but we did manage to see a good portion of it as well as the magical snowfall.

A few years ago when we had been at DisneyWorld, we missed Fantasmic and later learned that this was a show we shouldn't have missed. Although we were very tired, we were determined to stick it out for the 10:30 p.m. showing of Fantasmic! tonight. In order to help stay awake until this show started, we hopped on the Pirates of Carribbean ride, visited the Haunted Mansion and drank coffee.

What can we say, FANTASMIC! was a show worth while seeing! The story line of Mickey in a battle of good vs. evil, enhanced by the special effects was, well, fantastic. :)

On the way out of the park we had to ride It's a Small World as it was decorated for the holidays as well.

Tired, exhausted and almost closing time at the park, we headed to the monorail for our ride back to our hotel for our evening rest.

Other noteworthy scenes from the day include...

and my all time favorite...

.... click here to view the photo album for the day ...

Picasa Web Albums - Steigerwalt - Disneyland_30Nov08_Day01

Arizona / California trip - Day 5

Day of Rest....

Heh, today was the day that reminded us that we're not getting any younger. We all needed some rest after spending the entire day and evening at the Zoo the previous day. We had a great time but it did tire us out. So we decided we needed to take it a little slower today and foregoe the idea of going to the Heard Museum. (Check it out by going to this link http://www.heard.org/Page.aspx?pid=214&srcid=214 )

We went to ASU campus to visit the bookstore and the library. Unfortunately the bookstore was closed for the holidays but Jen was successful in securing the books at the library she needed for her upcoming paper. Afterwards we decided to try a new restaurant, Z'Tejas http://www.ztejas.com/ Believe it or not, we haven't tried a southwestern grille style place before. Not only was the food great but we met up with one of Jen's friends, Heather and her husband Dan and had a great time.

Click HERE to see our photo album of the ASU campus.

Tired and now fed, we wandered back to the apartment for some rest. The girls got a nap in while Tom did some web searching for airline tickets for Jen's trip back east for the holidays.

By early evening we were recharged and headed back into Tempe to see their Christmas parade and then have our 'last supper' with Jen before heading to California to meet Dave and Linda. The parade was fun (loved the decorated tank) and the meal at P.F. Changs. http://www.pfchangs.com/

Let us be the first to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

Click HERE to see photo album of the Christmas Parade in Tempe.