home > Columns > Geekspeaks >
5/29/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday - a full day at Disneyland with 4 first time visitors to the park
 The Geek Speaks:

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.

5/29/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday - a full day at Disneyland with 4 first time visitors to the park

Hello everyone,

I spent two full days at the Disneyland Resort this week playing host/tour guide to some out of town relatives, 4 of which had never been to a Disney park (they are from Ohio). It is always a different experience with a large group and with first timers. Adding to the fun were three kids ages 6, 5 and almost 3. Our plan was to visit Disneyland Friday then Disney California Adventure on Saturday from park opening until the kids were "done".

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Friday the crowds were slightly higher than average but not sure if that is due to the time of year, almost June, Grad Nite, or the 60th Anniversary which is only a week old. Come night fall the parade route at Disneyland was substantially more busy than usual with curb space gone several hours before the parade. I showed up about 2 hours before and was lucky to find a spot in a second standing row. Then again I needed a spot for 8 people too. Thanks to the morning hours, FastPass, and some good timing they were able to experience all the attractions, several character meet and greets, and shows all in one day. The longest wait was Pirates which was 30 minutes.. we opted to wait because they were tired of walking and thought the idea of standing in line sounded good...

  • The Diamond Days Sweepstakes is going on, but it seems my phone does not like to text to Disney. I entered both days and never received a text back. So I think my phone has a block on it of some sort... others in the group had no problem entering. No one won anything. The Word of the day is posted at the Esplanade Security Tents and the Monorail Station entrance in Downtown Disney. I am also assuming at the Grand CA entrance to DCA too.

  • At park opening we were able to roll through Fantasyland with no real delays. The large crowds ran for the coasters.. with the largest group heading toward the Matterhorn. The merchandise lines were all normal from what I saw unlike last week.

  • It had been a while since I was on the Autopia and I forgot how temperamental the cars here can be. Mine stalled out two or three times during the run. Made me appreciate the electric ones in Hong Kong!

  • I was really surprised by the short wait times for the Royal Hall in Fantasy Faire. I think our total wait time was around 5 minutes.

  • There was only one Soundsational scheduled for the day at 4:30pm. The parade started in Town Square and went toward Small World. There was no Frozen pre-parade. Also they changed the pre-parade announcements to tie in with the 60th and as you saw in my pictures there are some 60th Anniversary logos on the opening float now. I did not catch any other changes. Also interesting in hub they were letting guests sit and watch the parade where the handicap space used to be. So we watched from there which was a change of pace for me.

  • We had an adventure with renting a locker today. I typically am against the lockers and prefer to carry what I need because I do not know when I will need it or where I will be but they did not want to lug around the gear for the kids so opted to rent a locker. I did not go in for the rental process and instead was taking some character pictures with the visitors. After dinner I went to retrieve something for them and the locker number on the receipt did not match the description of where the locker was. So I tried the one listed, which was empty. Then I went to where they said it should be and tried those and they would not open. After trying about 20 lockers I gave up and went to find them. One of the two who rented it returned and it did not open for them either. Found a Cast Member and they basically said there was nothing they could do and check with lost and found after park closing the lockers are cleared. We tried several more lockers then went to find a spot for Paint the Night. Found a spot and I was given the fun task of holding it while waiting for most of the group to return from Big Thunder and while the others returned to the lockers to try and figure that out. Over half an hour later the locker party returned with a large Disney bag. They enlisted the help of several cast members and at one point had three or four helping them out. They asked for a description of the items and one disappeared backstage and returned about 10 minutes later with the bag full of our stuff. It seems the locker they choose was supposed to be out of operation with a lock problem. They opened it to repair it and took our stuff backstage. No note or indication of this was left for us and most of the cast members did not know. Also they were very puzzled how our items got in an out of service locker that was locked. Adding to the mess was one digit, I think it was the last one, did not print on the receipt. After an hour or so delay everything was found and all were happy but it was a long and frustrating experience. Thanks to a helpful group of Cast Members it was resolved though. I was really surprised there was no way to look up a name/locker since you have to use a credit card to rent the locker thought they could cross check it.. also seems the first cast member should have known where to look or whom to contact to make sure nothing was found/taken out during the day instead of the response check lost and found.

  • Even with the hour locker delay we still had to wait about an hour for Paint the Night. The area we were in was mostly Annual Passholders many of whom were there just to see the parade and were waiting 2-3 hours was not a big deal to them. Our out of town guests were amazed by the large crowd and were looking very skeptical at me when I said we needed to wait that long to see it right now. When they arrived on Main Street more than an hour before and saw it nearly full they were more accepting of my push to get there early but still thought it was crazy for a parade. With three young kids who were very tired by this point the wait was a challenge. They did doze off for a few minutes which helped pass the time for them. Plus several restroom breaks.

  • As soon as the first floats appeared and started to roll by the looks on their faces all said it was worth it.. and I confirmed this later with them. They all said it was well worth it.

  • This being my first time seeing the parade and fireworks under regular crowd conditions it was also a learning experience for me.. and the one thing to warn everyone about is it is a bit crazy after the last float as many jockey for position for Disneyland Forever. I wanted them to see the Main Street projections so we needed to move probably about 100 yards or so down the street. Moving a large group through a massive crowd was a bit of challenge and we made it almost to my target.. maybe 10-15 yards short only which I thought was good considering I was dragging kids through the masses and they had never been in a crowd like this. I am not sure if there is a better/easier way to handle the crowd. You have guests wanting to leave, guests entering, some Fantasmic guests arriving, and then those that want a spot for the Fireworks.. some heading toward the hub/castle.. others like me for Main Street. So it is just a very large number of people in a very small space. It did work fairly efficiently if you had a game plan and patience. Should be interesting to see how this evolves.

  • Disneyland Forever on a second showing was just as impressive as the first. The lights, projections, and fireworks all worked really well and watching the looks on our guests faces was great. They had all seen fireworks before but never a Disney show. On the way back they kept asking if that was done every night.

  • 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

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
Back to previous page

 

Quick Note

Check out the geek speaks archive for past updates.

 

Interested in Helping out?

If you are a fellow disneygeek and interested in sharing your insights, pictures, thoughts drop us an email here we are always looking for contributors.