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1/11/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort including the salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue
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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.

1/11/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort including the salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue

Hello all,

I braved the harsh Southern California winter weather to visit the Disneyland Resort Friday. For us it was cold... highs were in the mid 50s and when I left the park it was in the 40s. While driving home dipped down into the 30s. Thanks to it being the off season and the cold weather the crowds were light which was a great change of pace compared to the last few visits.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • As I arrived at the park gates today I noticed cast members outside in the Esplanade. There was one per line and they were asking to see your tickets. This is part of the ongoing effort to battle ticket renting which has become a growing problem for Disney in Anaheim. If you had a multi day ticket (thought I read it was for the 4 and 5 day ones) they were taking your picture. Then when you have your ticket scanned your picture shows up just like Annual Passholders. This way only you can use the ticket. I noticed no impact on the lines at either Disneyland or DCA in my park hopping. One nice side effect of this is it prompted people to get their tickets out before they reached the gate so in the end it may be a net positive, unless you get behind a large group that needs their picture taken, guess that could slow things down.

  • Amazing what a drastic change can occur in a week. Most signs of Christmas are gone and renovation projects have started all over both parks. As you saw in the pictorial update there were projects going on in most areas of Disneyland and a couple at DCA. If you are planning a trip in the coming weeks be sure to check the Disneyland website to learn what will be closed so you will not be surprised on your visit. The one given will be Big Thunder is closed through Fall. Everything else is on shorter time frames but there are a number of projects coming in addition to those that have already started.

  • I always enjoy the off season because there is a lot going on around the parks to check out and the crowds are mild so you can comfortably walk around and take pictures without having to fight through the masses. The energy of the holiday crowds is sometimes fun but the peacefulness of finding a spot in the park with few guests (or no guests) is great too!

  • Was very happy to find there were still seats available for the last two Golden Horseshoe shows when I arrived at the podium (which was about 1:30pm). The Salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue is part of the Limited Time Magic promotion and will be running Thursday through Monday for the next several weeks. The first five shows of the day are first come first entrance by reservation at the walk up podium outside the saloon. There is also a stand by line for each performance. The last show of the evening is reserved for Annual Passholders and includes a meal and some keepsakes and costs $35 a person. You can reserve spots through dining reservations as well as at a cart in Frontierland, if there are openings the day you are there.

  • I attended one show with a reservation then hopped in the standby line for a second showing so I could provide some better pictures/video since the line was short. Also I wanted to be able to enjoy the show a bit which is hard to do on a first go around while trying to take pictures and video. As luck would have it I ended up in the same seat both times which made it much easier to mix/match the pictures for the update!

  • I really enjoyed the Salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue. I did not know what to expect when they announced the show. If they were going to try and run the original again or what and they seemed to find a good balance of paying tribute to the show without trying to replicate or be compared to it. The way they wove in some of the history of the Revue as well as Walts influence worked. The cast put on a lively and entertaining show and the audience seemed to have a great time, myself included. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes it goes by very quickly, as most shows tend to now a days. I would have liked to have seen some Wally Boag style comedy added. I thought Miss Lily was fun but it is a different kind of comedy and a little slap stick comedy to balance it would have been a plus.

  • The original show ended its run back in October of 1986. I was only able to see it once or maybe twice since I had just moved to Los Angeles and my first trip to Disneyland was in December of 1985... I have seen video of the original show over the years. I think this salute holds true to the original and its a nice tribute.

  • The way Disney has set up the salute show I also think is wise and hope it pays off. They have the option open to everyone to attend the show and managed to find a way to have an extra event too without shortchanging either the regular guest or those attending the special event of a great experience! I hope this goes over well and we see other events like this in the future.

  • Here is a video of the Belly Up to the Bar number as a sample of the show:



  • One last interesting note at the 4:00pm show there were a handful of tables reserved and before showtime a good size group of cast members arrived. I have seen many of the faces before but could not really place who they were or what they do plus the angle I was at did not help.

  • There is one little corner of Christmas left in the parks, Small World Holiday will run until they are finished transforming Haunted Mansion Holiday back to the regular show, then it will close down for the holiday removal. I always try to visit and ride during this time because you can usually walk right onto the attraction with little or no wait or crowd to deal with.

  • Over at Disney California Adventure not much to report. As you saw in the pictures the Christmas decorations there are all down too and you would be hard pressed to know that a week ago the holidays were still in full swing. Crowds were still decent and the park actually felt a little more crowded than Disneyland to me.

  • One change that I noted last visit but did not get a video of was DJs Dance N Drive show. It has become a pure dance party now. The skit has been cut back to almost nothing with the cast members just encouraging guests to join them and dance. So looks like some adjustment to the entertainment. The show still seems a bit awkward to me, but kids seem to really enjoy dancing for a couple minutes and at night the lights do add a little to the experience. I posted a couple video clips to our YouTube Channel (and included them in the Update if you are curious).

  • New Park Guidemaps are out. The big change to both park maps is the removal of the Kodak ad and in its place Photopass. Inside the picture spot identifiers are gone too. On the Disneyland Map it does indicate that Big Thunder is closed through Fall 2013. On the time schedule nothing too interesting to point out except the typo of am instead of pm for Disneyland closing on Friday.



Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

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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