Hello all,

Friday was a great off season day at the Disneyland Resort. The crowds were mild, the weather was great, and there was plenty of activity for us disneygeeks to observe... I was not sure what to expect this weekend due to the Monday holiday for many schools coupled with the forecast for bad weather next week and then the annual NAMM convention in town. As you saw in the pictorial update the crowds at both parks were light. Most attractions had wait times under 30 minutes most of the day (even Toy Story had a posted 25 min wait only). Soarin had no visible line. As we roamed the parks we commented on how this was the first good weather, off season crowd we have seen on a Friday in quite a while.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• Parking turned out to be a breeze too for all the cars in our group. No problems this week. I did over hear others talking that arrived later and they were complaining about the traffic and I heard a few stories of close to an hour to park, but when we arrived we were directed into the garage and right into a spot with no delays at all.
  
  
• As anyone who has visited the parks in recent years knows Disney does bag checks before entering. Usually this is a fairly easy experience, but every now and then you run into a CM that makes it a challenge. Friday was such a day. In the line next to me it seemed everyone going through had problems with the CM (including the Lazygeek). He was juggling his son, stroller, and bags. The CM checking the bag just kept pointing to pockets... she did not even speak.. just pointed. Usually if they see you have your hands full they will open the zipper or at least talk to you.. this CM refused to do either. This happened to the person in front of lazygeek as well, that guest actually yelled at the CM at one point. It still surprises me that at WDW they have security CMs working the checks where as at Disneyland it is regular CMs.
  
  
• I was also surprised to see the union protestors inside the esplanade being allowed to hand out flyers. I thought before they were always outside the security tents. The flyers were protesting one of the sub contractors that is being used on the hotel renovation. They were not saying anything they were just passing out brightly colored flyers. Also I think they said good afternoon or thank you, to us as we walked by.
  
  
• We walked into DCA and stopped at Taste Pilots for lunch (since we were hungry and that was the closest spot). To my amazement there were no lines and plenty of seats.. great for the noon hour! I really enjoy the off season. It was kind of sad that I ended up spending almost as much time waiting for the Fun Wheel (nonswinging) as I did Toy Story (it was about 15 minutes for each).
  
  
• Not too much of interest to report from DCA.. it was great to see some testing of World of Color. The water screens are really impressive in their size. Also seeing one of the platform submerge was interesting.
  
  
• Over at Disneyland we stopped by the Golden Horseshoe to check out the Billys. The building was closed for a few weeks as a new stage was installed. Everything looks great and its fun to see the Billys back. The new show is slightly shorter. It ran only 20 minutes. It seems they cut one song or so from the routine. Also there seemed to be less talking and more playing but then again it could just have been the audience. There was a new (or at least new to me) number near the beginning, I missed the name, then some other songs that I have heard over the years.
  
  
• I learned something new on Friday that I had not thought about before. You are not allowed to take strollers into the Disneyland Story and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. The Lazygeeks son fell asleep so we decided it would be a great time to see Great Moments (considering he just slept through the Billy Hill show we figured there is no way Great Moments would wake him up). We walked in the lobby and a CM came right over to us and explained that no strollers were allowed in, not even in the exhibit space. At first this caught us off guard then we thought about it and I understand this from a crowd perspective as it is a small space and if there were a bunch of strollers it would be hard to move around.
  
  
• It seemed the Haunted Mansion was having some problems as it had just re-opened after being reset to the regular show. When I first walked by it was down. Later in the evening I went for a ride and got stuck/stopped in the graveyard (near the exit) for a good 5-10 minutes (I did not think to check my watch but I had time to switch lenses three times and play around with my camera settings quite a bit). Also noticed Madam Leota was not floating yet. No other changes jumped out at me, so guess they just did the quick transformation back and nothing else this time around.
  
  
  
• Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
  In this section of the Geekspeaks column I will include links, notes, and rumors I find/stumble across/or have been informed of.
  
  
  • YouTube Video
    • World of Color testing (the water screens at night)
      
      
  • Disney Press Releases
    • D23 2010 Event Release
      
      
  • We post some announcements on:
    • Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/disneygeekcom
    • Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/disneygeek
      
      

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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