AN EVENT THAT'S EVERY TWO YEARS... can really put the happy heat on fans who want to do it all, but doing it all, where Disney is concerned, is as challenging as not singing along with the "Yo Ho" song at the start of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride (c'mon, everybody sings along). It's just hard to cover all the ground when D23 Expo, the mondo Disney fan convention, tra-la-las our way every other August. And while this is an "on" year for D23 -- it's on from Aug. 14 through 16, 2015 at the Anaheim Convention Center -- the people behind the fan club are filling out a full slate of mouse-ear'd happenings at locations around the country. They're happenings open to D23 members, and there are some different levels involved, so if you want to jump into something, make sure that membership is shiny and up-to-date (attending the D23 Expo is open to both members and non-members, though members have some unique ticket buying opportunities and such).
SO WHAT'S AHEAD... ahead of D23 Expo? There's an early screening of "Cinderella" at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, lunches with Disney animator legends like Marty Sklar and Floyd Norman, member VIP studio tours (keep an eye out for the soundstage where "Mary Poppins" was filmed and Pluto's Corner), a lunch at Silverado Vineyards in Napa (the winery founded by Diane Disney Miller and her husband), and special peeks inside the Walt Disney Archives on the Burbank studio lot. Will that keep your devotion to all things Big D filled up before the August extravaganza?
CHECK OUT... the full complement of fan-focused doings, and what's coming down the pike for D23 Expo. Really, it is a challenge to do everything you want to at any large-scale convention, but most conventions don't have a several-month-long run-up filled with related happenings of the Mouse-iest sort.
