Dapper Day Spring 2013

Dapper Day is an event that takes place at both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. It is inspired by the opening of the park in 1955 when attendees dressed in their best frocks. Although most who choose to participate in this event decide to go with vintage attire or vintage reproduction, it is not required. It is meant to be a "fashionable gathering", which basically means the only requirement is you dress up! Fun, right!? We think so anyway. Most who know us well can tell you we will look for any excuse to dress up. We take pride in putting together our outfits quite a bit of time in advance, with special attention to the details (i.e. the jewelry, the gloves, the hats, the sweater clips, the sunglasses, etc.). Michelle preps for this events a little differently, she packed and lugged around with her a total of 3 different cameras! Obviously documenting these events with photos is of top priority for her. She will tell you a bit more about this:

Yes, yes, three cameras may have been a bit excessive, but I don't regret it!
Each camera had a different purpose. In total I took one digital, one film and lastly a Polaroid camera.
Can't wait to develop the film!
Until then, enjoy these!

- Michelle

We decided to get a room the night before Dapper Day in Anaheim to reduce our travel time the day of the event, since otherwise we would be coming all the way from San Diego, and thus allowing our hair and make-up to stay in place for longer and our garments to be wrinkle free.

Our first stop before entering the park was Disney's Grand Californian Hotel for our complimentary 3rd annual Dapper Day pins! Eeek, so exciting! Oh, and good thing we did that first, as it was later announced they had ran out and sold out of all merchandise.

With our official pins adding the finishing touch, we were now ready to enter the park! Yipee!

Upon entering the park we were greeted by a Disneyland employee, "Happy Dapper Day guys!" This would be recurring through out the entire day amongst other Disneyland employees and fellow Dapper Day attendees. Everyone so very sweet!

Besides the suggested schedule given by the official Dapper Day website, which included a total of 4 meet-up locations, we did not really have a game plan as far as what we wanted to do and see once inside the park. For the sake of vanity and attempting to look as put together as possible for as long as possible, we decided to go on all the mellow, kiddy rides first: Mad Tea Party Teacups (which proved to be a bit more tumultuous than I had anticipated), Storybook Land Canal Boats, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Just so you know, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean are located in what happens to be my favorite area at Disneyland: New Orleans Square. Here's a fun fact about Lesli: I am obsessed with New Orleans, the French Quarter, the Bayou and Cajun culture! Since I currently am not financially in a position to travel there, I will take whatever little bit I can get. While in New Orleans Square, the hubby was such a gentleman and brought Michelle and I two Mint Juleps to quench our thirst while we waited in line for the Haunted Mansion. Mint is so refreshing! Yum, yum, yum!

This gave us just enough time to make it to the first meet up, which was at the Sailing Ship Columbia, which ironically was NOT sailing! It was nice to see so many dapper folk all dressed up in support of the event, however, a bit disappointed that the ship would not be sailing that day we saw no point of standing around and left to continue to explore the park.

Since the line for Indiana Jones is notorious for being one of the longest, we thought it would be a good idea to get a Fast Pass, jump on the Jungle Cruise then kill sometime over at California Adventure. This was Michelle's very first time ever to Disney California Adventure Park, so there were certain attractions that were an absolute MUST for her to experience. First on the list, of course: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! I should add we got Fast Passes for Soarin' Over California before going on Tower of Terror to go on right after and before having to head back to Disneyland for our appointment with Indiana Jones.

Michelle loved Soarin'. Her feelings about Tower of Terror are similar to mine. It's a love/hate relationship. The whole free-fall thing is a bit excessive in my opinion but we adore everything else about the ride!

So we make it back to Indiana Jones, Fast Pass in hand, almost about to board when the ride shuts down! Noooooo! Literally, we were the next 3 people to board! How does this happen?! Everyone gets escorted out through the exit, where employees are handing out complimentary Fast Passes for any other attraction at the park (excluding Matterhorn) for up to 6 people... Next stop? Space Mountain, duh!

After Space Mountain it was time for the last meet up of the night, The Dapper Derby at the King Arthur Carousel! Such a wonderful way to end the night! I don't know what it is about carousels, they just seem to capture the spirit of eras past so perfectly! So whimsical, so majestic!

Oh, and if you are wondering what happened with the second and fourth meet up spots, one happened to be a "singles meet-up" at the Golden Vine Winery, which we decided to pass on, with me being married and all and obviously Michelle wouldn't be going alone. And the other was for after hours drinks at Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar, which also didn't work out, since we were driving back home that night. 

Last on our list was the Ferris wheel at California Adventure, so we raced over, however we were told it had already been closed for the World of Color and that it would not re-open after the show, so we took that as a sign that it was time to say good-bye.

Our Dapper Day finally came to a close around 9 PM. Unfortunately, before the fireworks show. Although we wore comfortable shoes, standing and walking around for as many hours as we did was far too much for us to handle. We were dead beat, need proof? Please reference picture below:

So, we bid farewell to the happiest place on earth! We came, we saw, we conquered Dapper Day! We were just blown away by the turnout for this event. See you again September 2013 for the next Dapper Day event! Stay tuned for that adventure!