* After you read this report you may want to check out the pictorial updates in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

Happy New Year ,

I spent the first Friday of the New Year at the Disneyland Resort. The goal was not to get wind blown and to see how the holidays were wrapping up, this was the last weekend for much of the Merriest Place on Earth events, decorations, etc... Friday was an extremely windy day here in Southern California, they started playing messages that the Holiday version of Believe could get canceled well over an hour before show time. The parks were very crowded but nothing like they were the week before. I arrived just before 2pm and was on the roof of the Mickey and Friends garage (the second floor was partially available but everything else looked fairly full). As you saw in the pictorial update attraction wait times varied but overall were between 30-60 minutes for most e-tickets. With some luck and use of Fastpass you could still get on the attractions you wanted to without major waits though.. except for the Rockin' the park Space Mountain and Screamin' The parks just felt crowded with quite a few guests everywhere you walked.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• The big off-season promotion is the Rockin' the parks where Space Mountain and Screamin both have new sound tracks featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers(Click here to read the press release). There are signs everywhere as well as billboards and TV commercials too. The promotion seemed to be paying off. Space Mountain was out of Fastpasses when I arrived (which was before 2pm) and the Standby line seemed to be between 60-80 minutes most of the afternoon/evening. Screamin' return time was for about 3 hours later and the standby line about 40 minutes, which is fairly long. Due to the fact that I do not ride roller coasters and the long lines we have no first hand reports this trip, but the Lazygeek will ride on a future visit and give us some thoughts (for those who really want to experience the attraction I saw several postings on YouTube).
  
  
• One of the other things I wanted to see was the now filled lagoon and open Monorail queue. I think the changes to tomorrowland and the return of the subs will definitely breath some life into this area of the park once again. As you saw in the pictures the new Monorail queue goes for quite a ways and seems to be a much better use of the space than having all those guests lined up around the lagoon causing traffic problems. After seeing the configuration and the area I have a feeling there will be quite a bit of grid lock once the subs re-open though. There just does not seem to be enough room for the queue (let me rephrase, I am sure the extended queue will accommodate much of the demand, but the traffic flow in the area is going to be extremely tight and busy). It should be interesting to watch. I was a little disappointed at how hard it is to see into the lagoon now.. I wish they would have put in some viewing windows or something (sort of as they did with the DCA construction and other projects over the years. The new blue screen you can just barely see through if the lighting is not right, but from what I saw things look really good, the new show building still seems huge for the lagoon but the rockwork is great and the pier look is a good plus.
  
  
• As I wandered the parks it seemed as if they were limping toward the holiday finish and were ready for the slowdown of the off season for some TLC. No better example of this than Small World Holiday. There were several figures not moving, lights out, etc.. for example only one of the two bubble blowers as you enter the mermaid scene was working, as well as the two examples we had in the pictorial update. Also there seemed to be a problem with the projection system for the effects outside. The center one was flicking a test image and we were there for two different "shows" and neither went off. Haunted Mansion Holiday seemed in a stronger position and was running with no major problems as its extended season comes to an end.
  
  
• Its been quite a while since I have seen Fantasmic under tough weather conditions. The show seemed to go off as normal except for some minor tweaks with Fantasmic fun in the high wind.. only real change was no Maleficent on the tower. It appeared as if those seating in front of the center midst screen were getting quite wet though. At several points it appeared the screen was completely blown away. I was standing over near the Tom Sawyer dock and we got quite wet too (that's why I have no pictures, the camera had to be put away to protect it).
  
  
• It was nice to see the White Christmas Finale even though the fireworks were canceled due to high wind. I also thought it was a great bit of crowd control to be playing the warnings about canceling the show over an hour before show time so guests did not queue up too early to only be disappointed.
  

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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