More Mouse: Lights, Camera, Magic - Disney's Hollywood Adventure

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Lights, Camera, Magic - Disney's Hollywood Adventure by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix

Adventures by Disney takes you on a one-day tour of Hollywood

Read it here!

[stan4d_steph]

Having a tie-in to the new Buena Vista Street area in DCA would be a good way to pull in more locals, I would think. This tour sounds like a great option for those staying at Disneyland who want to spend a day away from the parks but may not be interested in driving themselves around.

[Joysnote]

Lights, Camera, Magic - Disney's Hollywood Adventure by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix

Adventures by Disney takes you on a one-day tour of Hollywood

Read it here!

Thank you for article. We flew to Los Angeles from Orlando with my husband and two children last week and I used your article as a guideline for touring as a Disney Fan. It was wonderful with the photos and descriptions, I told my husband I saved us almost $800 and we saw all of the same sights, minus actually going into the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, but I was able to get some nice shots from outside gates, we went very early on a Sunday so no traffic and could park at hospital, and I would have never known that was the hospital that Walt Disney passed away in without your article.
We were able to see the Hollywood sign from the more private viewing area and so on at Highland center from your tips in article, we went into Beverly Hills as well and got many photos of places we had seen in the movies. Also found the Farmer's market from your photo in article. We actully chose to eat lunch at Disney's soda fountain though.

It was really a wonderful addition to our trip to Disneyland and California and really made me feel more connected to the Disney history in the movies! I kept your article open on my ipad as we traveled around. I could have never paid the price for the actual tour, the cheapskate in me would not allow that, LOL.

We also included going over to Santa Monica Pier, and enjoyed beach and pier and saw some famous sights including that Fortune Teller that has been in many movies like BIG and the pier was in Hannah Montana's movie, so my kids liked that as well and a little Disney connection too. We checked out of our Disneyland hotel and stayed over at the Embassy Suites in LAX the last 2 days before we flew home and it was convenient to Hollywood and Santa Monica and we were able to fly direct going in and out of LAX to MCO. It really added to our trip instead of staying at Disneyland the whole 11 days.

Joy

[Cory Gross]

My girlfriend and I went on this same tour in May. Luckily we were able to visit both the Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Dolby Theatre, as well as stop quickly into the Disney Soda Fountain attached to the El Capitan. The Farmer's Market portion was thankfully only 45 minutes or so (we were fully prepared to hoof a few blocks to see the La Brea Tar Pits if it was the full 90 minutes). The tour of the Disney lot was amazing. I regret not being able to go into the Archives or see Stage 3 (where one of my favourites, 20,000 Leagues was filmed), though we did see the Frank Wells lobby and entered Stage 2. On the way back to the resort they played Now You See Him, Now You Don't, a 1972 Disney film starring Kurt Russell and using the Disney Studios lot as the set for a college.

If I was going to recommend any changes to it, I would have liked it to hew closer to Disney and Hollywood history. Seeing the Chinese Theatre was great, but I wouldn't have minded the El Capitan (and I would definitely have preferred that to the Dolby Theatre). I would much rather have had lunch in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel than the Farmer's Market. There's also the Hollywood Museum and Hollywood Heritage Museum that could have made a nice visit, not to mention the Griffith Observatory (site of both Rebel Without a Cause and The Rocketeer). Thank goodness they skipped the threatened souvenir shopping trip to Rodeo Drive, because that would have been dreadfully dull. As it was, I did harrangue my friends in LA to take us around on another day and we did those other attractions.

That said, just the chance to go on the Disney Studio lot was worth the price of it, and the tour itself was quite pleasantly and professionally done. It has made me actually consider the possibility of going on a proper Adventures by Disney tour at some point in the future.