Disneygeek - Geek Speaks - 12/03/19 - Thoughts and observations from Tuesday

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.

12/03/19 - Thoughts and observations from Tuesday

Hello Everyone!

I paid a rare weekday visit to the park to visit with my nephews and family that were there. For the 8 month old it was his first visit and the 3 year old is now an Annual Passholder.. The weather was cloudy and in the 60s most of the visit. A light drizzle developed during/after the 6pm parade and seemed to pick up after 7pm. Crowds were on the heavy side. Not sure if the Thanksgiving crowds were still around or because of the better weather day compared to the rain over the weekend and forecasted rain this week that just meant more people today.

Thoughts and Observations:

Parking was quicker than it has been lately. Only two cars at the tollbooth and no delay on the ramp up to the level. And no real slowing on the level today. I was directed into a spot on Donald level in the last row but near the walkway (2B). Almost all the fences are down from the tram stop now. One section of tram route fencing is still being worked on and the new elevator shaft but other than that everything was open and looked complete in the tram stop.
Some in the group had not been to Galaxy's Edge yet so we headed out that way once I arrived and gave them a tour. The Smuggler's Run line looked shorter than the posted time so we hopped in line and went for a flight. It was quicker than the 50 minutes posted by a good 15 minutes. During our flight we seemed to hit extended flight sections a couple of times then right before reaching Batuu at the end we had an extended sequence in the astroid field that seemed to just keep going and going. Then everything stopped and the lights came on. They announced there was a problem and to stay seated (we had no choice since the seat belts were still engaged). A few down time videos looped and every couple minutes cast members made announcements. It seemed like they tried to restart it once or maybe twice with no luck and then we heard them starting the evacuation process. They eventually made it to our pod and we were walked off. It was really interesting to see the pods from ground level. We were walked down to a space between the two turn tables to wait. A couple of engineers ran through as we waited to the lower level of the turntable to work on it. We were with the spare parts and a work area for them. While waiting they scanned our park tickets and we received a FastPass good for any attraction in Disneyland (FastPass or not). Also they said if we wanted to re-ride immediately to just stay with them after and they would without scanning as a bonus. Eventually we were walked outside and around the side of the building backstage and then back into Black Spire Outpost. We took the CM up on the offer to re-ride and they walked us to the FastPass queue and sent us that way so I was able to take a look at this queue which is not usually used yet. The evacuation process was really slow and a lot of waiting around. We found it funny that we were sent to the same broken side on the re-ride which was only operating at half capacity since the one turntable was down still so we had to wait quite a while to re-ride too. In the end it took us about 2 hours for the two flights including the initial queue and downtime.
For dinner I ate at the Stage Door Cafe. Two notes.. first they still had buttons if you are an Annual Passholder and mobile order at select locations (check the website for the current ones during your visit). A new set of locations starts soon. Secondly the line to order stretched almost to the Golden Horseshoe entrance while mobile order had almost no one. So keep that in mind that it may save you a lot of time.
Caught the 6:00pm A Christmas Fantasy Parade. This parade is so much longer than the one I saw several times in Paris and the slower music made it seem even longer... plus I was holder my three year old nephew which made it seem even longer!
It started to drizzle so I ended up cutting the trip a little shorter than planned. On the way out I caught a few moments of a Christmas singing group using the stage in front of the former Rain Forest Cafe, where the parrots would be. This was an interesting venue choice. They had a decent crowd even with the rain starting to fall. I plan to catch a full set next visit.
As we walked quickly back to the parking structure something jumped out at me.. there is no real cover from the security tents all the way to the bridge. During the day the trees offer a little shade but when it rains there is nothing.