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3/06/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort
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Welcome to the disneygeek.com Geek Speaks section. In this section I will post my comments on trips to the parks or other Disney related events.

3/06/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello everyone,

Friday was a picture perfect day at the Disneyland Resort. The temperatures were in the upper 80s when I arrived at the parks and cooled down into the 60s by the time I headed for home. The crowds were light when I arrived and grew steadily throughout the afternoon and into the evening as is expected on a Friday. Even when I left there were still some nearly full trams arriving at 9:30pm thanks to the great weather and no passes blocked out Friday. Wait times were low throughout the early afternoon then crept up to a moderate level for many attractions as the sun set.


Trip logs and mileage reports are in the Park Miles section.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Since my last trip the annual price increase has gone into effect. The lines at the ticket booths appeared to be constant and normal throughout the day.

  • As you saw in the pictures Sleeping Beauty Castle has emerged from behind the scaffolding and is now slightly less pink and less gold. Overall the castle looked great. They are still working in the area and the 60th anniversary overlay is not installed yet.

  • I made an attempt to pick up a FastPass for Fantasmic! to try it out, but even at 1:30pm on a low crowd day you could not get a FastPass for the 1st show, they were all gone already and I knew I was not going to stay until 10:45pm so I passed. Someday I may get there early enough to get a FastPass. I am not a big fan of this new system. So far it has translated into less viewings of Fantasmic for me and the couple I did go to substantially worse views of the show than in the past.

  • I had some bad luck on Friday when it came to attractions. It started almost right away with the Fantasmic FastPass then I headed to Tomorrowland with the intention of going for a ride on the Monorail but it was down. Over at DCA I went for a spin on the Fun Wheel and it broke down on me and I sat for almost 15 minutes waiting for them to get it moving again and of course I was in a low position and not that interesting of the a view. Back at Disneyland I made an attempt to go on Indiana Jones and the attraction promptly broke down as I was in the projection hall. On Toy Story Midway Mania they were having some problems and we stopped several times and a couple of the games were jumpy/acting really slow with hiccups. I thought with the light crowd I may go for a Race on the Radiator Springs Racers but they were down the couple of times I checked too.

  • I grabbed some dinner from the Pacific Wharf Cafe. The new queue and food distribution procedure have not made a noticeable impact on my experiences there yet. There were only 4 or 5 groups in front of me and probably a dozen cast members behind the counter but only two registers were open and half the queue. The other half was not in use but no chains were up so guests were a little confused by this . I am not sure what was going on but it appeared as if most the cast members were not doing anything. There was one registered that was ringing up a majority of the orders and sending guests to the far end to pick up their orders. The other register was processing orders much slower. Some cast members were filling drink orders and others carrying food to the waiting guests but overall it seemed fairly inefficient and took several minutes for the simple loaf of bread (uncut even) to find its way to me. Maybe they are still working the kinks out of the new system? It has been several weeks though...

  • It is hard for me to believe that the Indiana Jones Adventure turned 20 this past week. I remember that opening summer with the massive lines that took over the park. At one point the queue was extended all the way to the hub because it filled Adventureland. Almost as hard to believe is this was the last major attraction added to Disneyland. All the projects since then have been updates or replacements really. Nothing new in 20 years. Hopefully that changes soon and when Indy turns 30 we will not be saying the same thing.

  • A quick run down of some of the refurbishment statuses:
    • Grizzly Peak Airfield - Trees are being planted, more of the concrete is torn up as they prepare to repave the area. The rest room building and Taste Pilots have been repainted with a brown and green color scheme. Soarin remains behind scaffolding.
    • World of Color - Returns with the regular show Friday the 13th. Paradise Bay has been refilled and the platforms looked to be ready for after hours test and adjustment. The new Celebrate show is not slated to premiere until May 22nd
    • The Redwood Creek area at DCA has reopened. I took a quick look around and no major changes jumped out at me. The usual new railings, paint, etc.. are all that I noticed.
    • Grizzly River Run is still closed for annual work
    • Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Californain has reopened. On a glimpse through the window no major changes stood out
    • At the Disneyland Hotel work continues on the Fantasy Tower and other roof areas. It appears to be fall protection enhancements. The Monorail Slide project has wrapped up and the monorails are now red and yellow (blue has been changed to yellow).
    • Small World remains open but the exterior is behind scaffolding still. There is not much visible damage from the small fire on the West side of the project last week. You can only see a little evidence of some charred facade.
    • Disney confirmed Innoventions will be closing March 31st. No official word on what will be happening. Internet speculation ranges from a 60th Anniversary exhibit on the 1st floor to Marvel updates to a permanent closure to make way for something new.
    • The Magic Eye Theatre & Starcade are still closed in Tomorrowland with no indications of what is coming next. Big Hero 6 signage is still up. Internet speculation is a preview of the upcoming Tomorrowland film will be moving in. Wonder what if anything they will do for the Avengers which opens May 1st (Tomorrowland is May 22nd).
    • I hear the dinos are back along the Disneyland Railroad. I did not make it onboard Friday so hopefully next trip I will see how they look and get some pictures.

  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? If so we would like your feedback. I have created a beta of a more mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:

Be sure to check out the picture update that goes with this Geekspeak column, it can be found in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

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