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1/05/25 - Disneyland Resort New Year - End of Holidays
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1/05/25 - Disneyland Resort New Year - End of Holidays

Happy New Year!

Sunday marked my first visit to the Disneyland Resort for the year.  The parks were busy as expected with it being the last weekend of the holidays, the first weekend Magic Key Passholders could return and the first weekend for the 2025 Southern California Deal.   As usual the parks were pleasant the first few hours then became crowded mid day but unlike Fridays as the sun set the crowds started to leave in droves vs building since many people had work/school on Monday.   The weather was on the mild side starting out in the 50s and climbing to the mid 70s before falling again.

Since my last Disneyland update I wrapped up my WDW trip posts. Here is my December 2024 Walt Disney World trip summary page with links to all the pictures, videos, thoughts & observations..

Thoughts and Observations:

  • My parking luck was not great.  I drew an ok line with a moderate wait of a dozen cars at the tollbooth, a slow crawl up the ramp and into a row, but a less than ideal spot in the last 1/4 of an aisle.  Security had short queues but moved slowly as usual.

  • I had no real plan for the morning.  As I walked through Fantasyland Alice in Wonderland was operating and the line was short still so started there. Then noticed Dumbo was short so decided to go for a spin. Dumbo had been on my list for a while as I had noticed I had full ride videos of all the Dumbo attractions around the world except for Anaheim.
    All my Anaheim rides were clips or video of family members.  So this gave me an opportunity to go for a flight to get a video. The sun made the video not the best but at least it completes my collection finally.

  • Noticed there were merchandise carts on the pathway to Galaxy's Edge closest to Fantasyland now.  Not as many as the Frontierland path but they are there now.  Wonder if this is a permanent thing or just something for the busy holiday period.  I find it interesting that they are holding firm on no carts in Galaxy's Edge but no one cares that they are selling star wars merchandise in Frontierland.  I think it looks rather poor.

  • Lightning Lane continues to be annoying.  I visited the Haunted Mansion which had a posted wait of 20 minutes. With the new queue it is hard to see and judge but I took a gamble that since it was early still there were not going to be a lot of returning LL guests. This was true for a while then I could see more and more guests returning and our pace slowed. In the end it took us over the 20 minutes for what should have been a 15 min or less wait.  It did allow me the opportunity to see more of the new queue.

  • Madame Leotas Somewhere Beyond store opened at the exit of the Haunted Mansion during the block out period so today was my first visit to the new location.   The interior felt really small and awkward to me. I cannot quite put my finger on it but it just feels off to me.   I thought the two remodeled stores for Tiana's Adventure were well done
    but this one falls short.   The exterior seems too big and out of place and the interior too small.  The props around the store were not that engaging to me and the merchandise selection was not unique.

  • During my cruise through it's a small world holiday I noticed some mini figures in several scenes. Assuming this is a cast members farewell or prank.  I spotted a half dozen or so on my cruise through.  This brought back the memory from years ago when I spotted cereal boxes throughout the attraction.  Or the Elvis picture that showed up for several years.

  • I stopped by Holiday Fun with Santa & Friends! at the Fantasyland Theatre a couple of times.  I was there for the opening moment which featured some snowfall as the first guests were led down to meet the characters.  Santa Goofy did not make an appearance until 11am.  When I stopped back to see him I caught the end of a storytelling session.  It was not well attended. Pinocchio was there and he was acting out some of the scenes since no one was looking for pictures with him.   Santa Goofy was fun to see and drew a full queue for his set, but as soon as he was done the crowd disappeared again.  I still think it would have been better to list the times for the bands and other entertainment.

  • The Omnibus pulled up and was boarding as I walked through the hub so I went for a ride to Town Square. It is always a pleasant ride to see Main Street from the 2nd floor during the holidays.  Our driver did not talk so it was a quiet ride and we had the bus to ourselves.

  • I had good luck visiting Buzz Lightyear and was able to walk on with no wait.  The attraction is in need of some TLC.  The guns were off and
    many targets were not operating properly.   The new camera for the
    picture seemed slightly better than the old one but still not great.

  • The Disneyland Monorail closes for renovation Tuesday so went for a ride out to Downtown Disney.   Assuming they will be replacing the turnstiles during this down time and not sure what else.

  • The Parkside Market in Downtown Disney opened on Saturday. It features four different locations offering a variety of food and drink choices.  The prices were on the high side, for example 3 chicken strips (no side) was $14 and a sandwich $18.  So if you add a side and drink you are in the $30 neighborhood for a quickservice meal.  I opted not to eat there and instead just took a look around. The upstairs patios offered some unique views of Downtown Disney and the Monorail.  The seating seemed on the small side given the food options.   It will be interesting to see how this location does, especially once Earl of Sandwich opens nearby at a lower price point.

  • I was surprised to see the Disney's Wonderful World of Sweets shop had not opened. I assumed it would have for the holiday season. It seems to be taking quite a long time to renovated and expand the store.

  • For lunch I decided to eat at Flo's which turned out to be less than ideal.   It took over 20 minutes from when I said I was there until our order which was two hamburgers came up.   The fries also seemed especially greasy today.

  • Across Route 66 the Cozy Cone project is still ongoing. This seems to be another of the slow going projects.

  • I spent my afternoon and evening hopping between the Festival of Holidays entertainment offerings which was great. This included two performances of the Viva Navidad Street Party, Mickey's Happy Holidays and Phat Cat Swinger.  Plus performances by the Holiday Toy Drummers, Blessed with Voices, Five and Dime, Daniel Ho and Storytime with Deadpool.

  • I forgot to stop by Viva Navidad to see what was going on for Three Kings. I am assuming the usual photo op and arts/crafts.  There was no show listed or other activities.

  • I wrapped up my day on Main Street USA with the Wintertime Enchantment snowfall. It was a nice way to close out the holiday season.

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

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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