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4/06/18 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.
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4/06/18 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.
The Spring Break Season is wrapping up this week and the Disneyland Resort is transitioning toward the next season. Usually there would be a small off season period until Memorial Day but this year they are launching Pixar Fest which will run from next Friday through the summer season. Friday the parks felt crowded with a lot of guests moving around but the wait times were more "summer busy" than "holiday busy". Actually as the day went on instead of the normal rush of annual passholders the park seemed to moderate a bit after sunset. But on the other hand FastPasses for all but GRR, Buzz Lightyear and Haunted Mansion were gone by 7pm. Weather was perfect spring weather with temps in the 70s to start and dropping to the 60s by the time I left..

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I arrived at the Disneyland Resort to find the overpass just closed so I had to sit through several lights to cross Ball Road. It is not an enjoyable way to start the day. It would be great if they expanded the overpass to allow for it to be open more. Parking was quick once through the light with no wait at the tollbooth nor to get into a spot today. Another interesting note when leaving they were again forcing the 3rd & 4th levels through the Ball Road light which was an unpleasant bookend to the trip.

  • It had been three weeks since my last trip so that meant a lot of possible change around the parks on the construction front. A quick summary, the parking structure clearing is just about done and looks like they will be starting construction in the very near future now that initial site prep is done. On the Star Wars front more steel and rock work are visible but not much else from both outside and inside the park. The Pixar Pier project is racing along with steel in position for the Incredicoaster station work and more of the new color scheme finished for Toy Story and the Fun Wheel. At Disneyland the Fantasyland projects continue. You can see Dumbo is being re-assembled. A planter near Pinocchio has been removed to open the area up more. The Small World Mall area is still behind walls but is looking close to completion.

  • The 2018 Food & Wine Festival runs through Thursday so this is the final weekend. The marketplaces had healthy lines throughout the afternoon and evening. In the evening I did hear cast members walking some of the lines saying they were out of certain items. I caught some of the entertainment. I still find it odd the big musical performances of the day are over by 2pm.

  • Main Street USA is now wall free. Since my last visit the track replacement project was wrapped up and operations have returned to normal. It was great to see the vehicles making the rounds again on Friday.

  • My character timing was good on Friday. It seemed almost everywhere I went thoughout the afternoon I crossed paths or walked along with a character. It was great to see Clarabell out greeting guests at her ice cream store. Also Pluto and Goofy having fun in Toon Town. In Fantasyland I said hi to Merida as we strolled through the area and crossed paths with Gaston who was roaming around. Captain Jack Sparrow was on Tom Sawyer Island. These were in addition to the normal array of characters in Town Square and the meet and greets throughout the parks.

  • The 2018 Environmentality Art Finalists are on display in the Opera House lobby again this year. If you visit the park be sure to stop by and take a look. They are very creative and you can vote for your favorite.

  • This past week the parks blog announced that mobile dining will be coming soon (no definition of what soon is) to select locations. I hope this version is a little more robust than the WDW one to allow some extra customizing, etc.. for example at WDW if you want say just a pizza at Rizzos and no salad you cannot do that on the app and have to wait in line. One plus was announced, it will allow for Annual Pass discounts, the WDW version does not (well now that most discounts are gone it is a moot point there).

  • The Disneyland Resort Monorail Fleet now features overlays for Pixar Fest. Monorail Orange is the Incredibles, Blue Finding Nemo and I hear Red will be Toy Story but it has yet to debut. I thought the Finding Nemo overlay looked very good as it cruised over the sub lagoon. The Incredibles was lacking, one side features the family and the other only Frozone so it was fairly empty.

  • Splash Mountain was testing in the evening. It is so odd to see the logs go silently down the hill with the water off.

  • Closed out my visit with a showing of Remember Dreams Come True. The show has been running for the past couple weeks but will end on Thursday with the new Pixar Show starting next Friday. This is still one of my favorite shows, hard to beat the E-Ticket in the sky section.

Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Geek’s Blog Postings Recap March 14-31, 2018

Disney Related Press Releases

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

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

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