Walking the red carpet, almost

We walk back down to the Kodak Theatre atrium and find a bench. Soon DisneyMom and DisneySon pass by – hey, didn’t we just say goodbye to you? – and after a quick explanation, we say our goodbyes again.

The time passes quickly. The visuals of the street take on a new, exciting look as the sun goes down and the neon comes on.

At 6:35 we head back to the barricade. Still not open, but they’re close, it appears. We wait there.

After another few minutes, we’re waved into the barricaded area – which is a cool feeling all by itself – along with another ten or twelve people who have been waiting there.

There’s a long table set up for Will Call. The signage isn’t perfectly clear, and I first go to a table meant just for the press. The Will Call table itself has about five different stations divided by portions of the alphabet. Becky & I then go to the station marked M-R. There’s one guy ahead of me in line, and then it’s our turn.

Here’s the moment of truth. I give the person my name and show her a photo i.d. She thumbs through her box, and… yes! She pulls out a white envelope and hands it to me!

I take a look at the envelope before opening it. It has a Warner Brothers logo, and a sticker in the upper right with three lines: my name, “Cracked eCard Winner,” and “SCREENING ONLY.” No after-party for us, I guess.

I open the flap and look inside – there are two large, full-color screening tickets with the movie logo! There’s also, comically enough, instructions on where to park and a voucher for free parking if you follow the instructions. Doesn’t affect us, but a guy standing nearby laughs, “It would have been nice if they’d given us this information, oh, I don’t know, maybe before we were standing in front of the theatre???”

Since the Will Call table is to the right of the courtyard, and we’re already past the barricades… there’s no more waiting to do. We are cleared to walk right on in to the theatre!!!

Not that we do, of course. Hey, the courtyard, with all of its amazing celebrity handprints and footprints, is closed to the public – but we are now no longer the public, we are insiders.

We only have a portion of the courtyard available to us – the red carpet is right down the center, so we’re restricted to the right side of the courtyard – but we might as well look while we’re here.

I take several pictures of the handprints, as well as of our unique perspective of the red carpet.

And then, on we go into to the Theatre. It’s not the main central doors, which are for the celebrities, but still a front entrance to its right. We show our tickets – and we’re in!!!