Solo-on-a-Scooter Abd DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/6/2012) About This Page:

[lauriep]

Day 1, Saturday, 7/21/12—PART ONE (I know you want to know about the surprise, which was AWESOME, but that’s in part 2—coming up next. )

Weather in Boston upper 50’s Weather in LA 90’s, muggy, HOT

Unfortunately, I set my alarm for 3:30 but woke up at 2am. Had some coffee, got ready to go and went downstairs to meet the cab at 4:45. They remembered to send a van so that my scooter fit into the back, but they forgot to provide a step-stool. I struggled to get up the high step into the cab and thought for a moment that I’d have to go upstairs for a step-stool! Fortunately, I took a deep breath, grabbed the bars and pulled and I was in! No traffic at that hour, so I was in line for security by just after 5. The line for wheelchairs was really long, but I had plenty of time and they gave me and my scooter a pat-down and sent us on our way.

I had no problem gate-checking the scooter, the flight boarded on time and, other than way too little personal space for a long flight, was fine. It was bright sunshine the whole way across the ountry, which made photo-taking hard, but I love watching the changes from city to country and from flat to mountains.











We even landed about 30 mins early. I made my way to baggage claim and found the nice young woman from ABD with my name on a placard. She grabbed my bag from the carousel and escorted me curbside to meet my driver. I don’t think either the greeter or the driver are actually Disney employees, but they do a very nice job of playing CM. The driver gave me a mini-tour of the city, pointing out landmarks as we went. I gave Jeannie a call and we agreed that I’d call her again once checked into the room and ready to head out again. One very nice thing about ABD is that you do not tip ANYONE but the tour guides. No housekeeping, no drivers. Feels very strange, but I’m a rule-follower!

I checked into the Loews Hollywood Hotel



and on my way to my room on the ninth floor I was hoping for a room with a view of the Hollywood sign like Sharon had on her tour. No such luck, of course, but the room is very nicely furnished and has a partial view of the pool and a partial view of the entrance to the Kodak Theater, which has just had a name-change and is the Dolby Theater.







I called Jeannie again and soon we were hugging in the lobby and I got to meet her wonderful children, Sophia (12) and Evan (8). Just as I expected, it was like meeting an old friend and we were chattering away immediately.
Update following with the SURPRISE!

[lauriep]

Day 1, Saturday, 7/21/12 PART 2

Jeannie didn’t think there would be a lot of walking on the surprise, but left the decision up to me if I wanted to take the scooter in the car or not. I’d been feeling so cooped up on the plane that I decided to go scooter-free and off we went in the car to who-knows-where. Jeannie was so cool and was in tour-guide mode. We drove a short ways from the hotel with her pointing out landmarks along the way. We went down Melrose and she casually said, “And on the left is Paramount Studios”. I was really surprised to see it right in the middle of the city, was enjoying seeing the iconic gates, and then she turned in!! The surprise was a private tour of the studio from a security guard! Turns out Jeannie is friends with a couple of the guys there and called to arrange this tour. I was stunned. My backstage tour of Hollywood and Disney was starting a day early! The lot is really beautiful and we made our way to the security office, were introduced to “Scott”, who would be our own tour guide. He’s been on the security force there for 17 years and obviously enjoys his job. He's a fount of information about old Hollywood. We got into a golf cart and I was looking forward to getting to see, from the outside, the sound stages and hearing some of the history of the studio. Well, we got SO MUCH MORE! Scott asked us some questions to find out which TV shows and movies we were interested in and then tailored the tour to our interests. Since it was Saturday, nothing was in production, but there were a lot of workers about doing maintenance and building sets. Both Sophia and I expressed an interest in Glee, so we went first to the double soundstage that houses the sets for that show. Unfortunately, although we can post photos taken outside the soundstages, both Scott and Brian had asked us to please not post on the internet any photos taken backstage. Sorry you can't see the real backstage photos. We got to see and walk around in ALL the Glee master sets—the high-school hallways, the teachers’ lounge, the music room, the rehearsal hall and the auditorium. SO great.

Next, we were driven around to see some of the sets for shows that are on Nickelodeon (sorry, Jeannie will have to fill you in on the names). Most of the sets had already been struck for the season, but bits and pieces of the shows were around. As we drove around the studio I commented that a lot of the buildings looked like apartment houses and Scott said that’s because during the days of the studio system they were. All the older buildings are named for famous Paramount stars—Mae West, Marlene Dietrich. RKO shot most of its movies on this lot during the 20’s and 30’s, too, so we saw the stages where movies staring my favorite dancing pair, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, were filmed. Then Scott casually mentioned that he’s a cousin of Myrna Loy—another of my favorites. A lot of the outdoor building fronts were recognizable from Seinfeld, CSI LA, Ally McBeal. Now I have to go back and watch a lot of these shows to look for the locations.



















The heat, combined with MUCH more walking than I expected, was getting to us all, especially the kids, who were such good sports, especially Evan, who really didn’t find much of interest, but was very well-behaved. Sophia was more interested in the sets and shows and stories, but it was a long tour and she was wilting in the heat as well. I think the tour awakened an interest in her to be an extra on one of the shows sometime—we’ll see what happens with that! We went back to security headquarters and got a mini-tour of all the high-tech gizmos they use to monitor locations in LA, Vancouver, New York and New Orleans. Luis, the friend of Jeannie’s who arranged for the tour, even showed up as a surprise to us all. A really nice group of men and they made my first day in LA ever a GREAT ONE.

We went back to the hotel, which is connected to a huge shopping mall, the El Capitan Theater, and the Kodak theater. A wonderful complex. The Walt Disney Soda Shop is right across the street, and that’s where we headed next for an icy treat. They’re doing work on the outside of the building and it’s all scaffolding, but the inside looks like a cross between a Disney Store and Beaches and Cream.



Nothing wrong with that! We saw the sidewalk stars for Walt, Tinkerbell, Donald Duck, Annette Funicello. They have some pins that are unique to the soda shop and I got one—Mickey eating an ice-cream cone. After a short wait, we sat at the counter and ordered. I had a grilled cheese, cole slaw and a vanilla shake (the shake was so filling I only ate half the sandwich).



Jeannie just had an orange soda and ate a few bites of Evan’s chicken tenders, and Sophia had a big Mickey waffle. For dessert, Evan and Sophia both had sundaes.



Evan ate only the gummy bears off of his and Jeannie did her best with the rest. Jeannie beat me to the check, saying I was a guest in her town…. I’ll get her back one day!!

THANK YOU, JEANNIE! It was an amazing day. I'm tired and sore, but I don't even mind all the walking--there really wasn't any other way to see it all. Because of all the heavy cables and construction materials around I probably couldn't have gone everywhere with the scooter, and I wouldn't have wanted to miss anything.

Tomorrow I meet my ABD tour guides, and then have a day to just take it easy and explore the area around the hotel. The first agenda item on the tour is dinner here at the hotel tomorrow night.

Goodnight from Hollywood!

[JKnott17]

Glad you arrived safe, your hotel room looks lovely.

What a GREAT surprise from Jeannie! A perfect start to your trip.

Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

[ilovedisney247]

Great update Laurie! I'm so glad you enjoyed your first day and how absolutely amazing to get a tour of Paramount Studios! BTW your meal reminded me of my first dinner in LA--I was sick so the lovely folks at the Renaissance Hollywood brought me room service grilled cheese and tomato soup!

[Disney4us2]

Welcome to California Laurie. It was a hot one today for sure. Wow... what a great suprise Jeannie had lined up for you. Looking forward to hearing more about the ABD tour. See you on Friday

[Kenny]

A Wonderful surprise, Jeanie!! and Laurie!! I'm glad your flight was OK and you arrived safe and sound! Can't even WAIT for more!!!

[Dlandmom2]

Oh boy what a day it was! I know Laurie got a surprise at Paramount, but I got a surprise as well since I was NOT expecting to get such a great tour of the studios! Scott was just wonderful taking us literally through all of the studio lot! I think I can honestly say that the only places our golf cart didn't traverse were the "streets" where there was construction going on!

A little back story on how I met my friends at Paramount. I was friends with the former Captain of Security at Paramount. When I found out where he worked, I conveniently visited him every now and then so I could visit the lot...and maybe see a few stars! As I told Laurie, when people find out you live in Los Angeles, they expect you to have seen stars around town all through your life! I think I've seen maybe 5 or 6 stars in my entire lifetime! We don't bump into them in our everyday lives! I will say, though, that years ago I had lunch with my Captain friend and met Bob Newhart...a really nice man! I also saw Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver) and Gates McFadden (the doctor from Star Trek: The Next Generation) during that lunch. I've seen maybe 4 or 5 sets over those visits to my friend, but that's it. Not complaining, because it was super cool!

Now, my Captain friend was a real practical joker. He found out that I had gone to the same middle school as one of his lieutenants, so we played a practical joke on him! It turns out Louie was in 5th grade when I was in 8th grade...but of course being in 8th grade, I would've had nothing to do with a 5th grader, lol! But that's how I got to meet Louie. Well, when my friend retired a good 10 or so years ago, Louie became the Captain, and I've kept in touch with him on and off during those years.

I love having "friends" at Paramount, but I don't want to take advantage of it at all. Since Louie became Captain, this is only the 2nd time in the 10 or so years that I've asked for a favor. I definitely don't want to get them in trouble, but Louie was so gracious in setting this up for us, and when I saw him at the end of our tour, I was so surprised because he wasn't planning on being there. I literally had not seen Louie since my friend's retirement party so long ago!

Ok, so that's how Laurie ended up with her surprise!

Next post will be pictures I took at Paramount...I'll try not to duplicate too many of Laurie's. I'm going to do my own little TR about the mini vacation I had with my kids yesterday and today, so I'll post more pictures there. It took almost 3 hours to upload 2 days of pictures to Shutterfly! Yikes!

[Dlandmom2]

Random shots around the lot:


Yes, that's the Hollywood sign you can faintly see up in the hills:


The famous entrance gate. The fountain in the foreground was designed so that the way the jets shoot up the water, it looks like the Paramount logo with the snow-capped mountain.


I think Scott said this area was used to shoot scenes from NCIS: Los Angeles.


Some stars' dressing rooms...don't know who, lol!


New York Street...I can't remember which is which, but part of it is New York, another part is called Financial District, Chicago (which we couldn't see due to construction), and I think some other "cities" which I can't remember. I just think of the whole area as "New York Street."


I wish I had taken notes...I think this was known for something, but now I can't remember which show, lol!


This is Financial District where Scott said lots of commercials are shot.




One of these doorways was Ally McBeal's apartment.


I haven't seen the latest Indiana Jones movie, but Scott says this was a diner or something like that in the movie. Something happens to Shia LaBeouf in the scene...that's about all I remember of what Scott was telling us, sorry!


I think this was used in a Seinfeld episode, but it was one I hadn't seen, so now I can't remember which episode, sorry! Or maybe Seinfeld was the doorway picture above that I couldn't remember, lol!


Looking back at the New York Street area...you can see part of New York and part of Financial District.


The Paramount water tower in the back. In the foreground is the water area where many ocean-type scenes are shot. It's usually an overflow parking lot that's set about 3 feet below the ground surrounding it. It can be filled entirely with water to do ocean scenes. You can see the huge mural on the building to the right which can be painted to show whatever background is needed. This was where the scene near the end of Star Trek IV was filmed, when the crew crash lands in San Francisco Bay while a humpback whale "swims" by.


And now, pics from the Disney Soda Fountain. First, Evan's chicken tenders and fries:


Sophia's Mickey Belgian Waffle:


Shots from around the Soda Fountain shop and eating area:




You can see the scaffolding outside the front window...the building was under some kind of retrofit or construction or something:


My strawberry, hot fudge, cookies and cream with gummy bears sundae followed by Sophia's chocolate, rocky road, marshmallow creme with M&Ms sundae.



Looking back from across the street.


And that's it! Oh, I almost forgot. The NICK shows that we were hoping to see sets for were How to Rock and Big Time Rush. We saw the park where Big Time Rush does a lot of their outdoor scenes in Palm Woods Park. How to Rock is going to be filming again soon (both shows were on hiatus) so we just saw some of the early construction of their set, but we did recognize things that resembled parts of the school. Unfortunately, Big Time Rush is on tour so there wasn't anything left of their set which had been struck down already.

[Dlandmom2]

And this one's for Sharon! Yes, it really is a Loews now! Laurie said she's been taking pictures of Loews signage for you, too!

[chezp]

Oh my goodness, what an amazing start to your trip Laurie and what a truly wonderful surprise Jeannie - kudos to you for that! Thank you so much for posting details of this so quickly as well and putting us out of our misery.

[Tabitha34]

What an awesome start to your trip! You guys had an awesome time! Thanks for sharing with us so quickly! Love all the pics!

[shazza]

Wow - such a wonderful first day and great surprise. For some reason, I thought the surprise was next Saturday, so was delighted to see all the details so soon. Am glad Laurie has Internet connection for the first part of the trip - Live updates are the best!

[disneydani]

Wow...what a wonderfully packed day....and one awesome surprise! Kudos to Jeannie for setting it up.

And thanks to you both for posting the great recap and pics....off to a great start.

Laurie, hope you can get a little rest and relaxation before the official dinner/starts the tour.

Danielle

[Kenny]

WOW!! What a grand surprise!! Laurie, you must have felt like "Queen for the Day" to be treated to your own personal tour! Jeannie, great job setting it all up!

[lauriep]

Thanks again, Jeannie-- for the surprise and also for the great photos of the studio and for filling everyone in on the backstory of your connections. My photo of the hollywood sign didn't come out at all and I was so sleepy last night I didn't post lots of the photos I took. I loved hearing the stories about your friends in the security department-- and I loved the stories they all told about the stars' mostly bad behavior, too! The people we met at the studio were all so nice and friendly-- please express my thanks again to Louie. So sweet of him to make a surprise appearance!