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1/18/19 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort and first impressions of Get Your Ears On Celebration
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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.

1/18/19 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort and first impressions of Get Your Ears On Celebration

Hello everyone!

Today the Get Your Ears on Celebration started at the Disneyland Resort. So to kick off my three day weekend I headed to the parks for the afternoon/evening. The crowds were moderate for the most part. Wait times for most attractions were under an hour with many substantially shorter most of the day. The weather turned out to be nicer than I had planned for with the high in the mid 60s and low in the mid 50s but no real breeze and a little sunshine even.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • When I arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking structure the toll booth lines were backed up about 3/4th the way so it was slow going and a good ten minutes to make it through, which felt longer as you sat there. I lucked out and choose the correct lane on the ramp up to the level. Mine went smoothly to a row and spot. The other one was backed up several dozen cars and was inching along.

  • First stop, as normal now a days, was to check out the construction. On the Star Wars front more scaffolding is gone as the visible construction is moving toward completion. On the parking structure side they are working on the top level on the nearest sections and the far sections are on the 5th level it appeared. The escalator/elevator area is moving along with all but two escalators installed as of Friday.

  • Christmas has been removed from the parks and Downtown Disney as you would expect. The only two signs of it I saw were the trees backstage at Disneyland from the tram and it's a small world holiday is on its final weekend. It goes down Tuesday for the holiday removal.

  • With the next year comes a price increase. Prices went up on Sunday the 6th for the parks and parking. Parking is now $25 instead of $20 and all tickets went up varying amounts. Friday was a peak day so $149 single day single park ticket.. add $50 for park hopping and you are at $199. For more on the ticket prices here is a post with a grid showing several over the past several years.

  • World of Color is still undergoing renovation/repairs. On Friday the platform closest to the Lamplight Lounge was up and being worked on. There was a barge with new equipment waiting to be installed. Disney has yet to announce any type of return.

  • The Pixar Pal-A-Round on Friday had a substantial line. It was posted at 45 minutes but took closer to 35. For comparison the Incredicoaster was at 15 min and Toy Story at 60. I decided to wait in the line since I wanted to take a look at several projects from the air and it had been a while.

  • The Get Your Ears On Celebration is technically taking place in both parks with food and merchandise but Disneyland is the hub with decorations and the new show. The celebration is for Mickey's 90th birthday (which was back in November). I think celebrating Mickey is a always a good idea for Disney. I am a little disappointed that so much of the celebration is focused on the newest version of Mickey in the shorts. I am more a fan of the classic Mickey. Also the celebration seems late to me, a couple of months after his anniversary. On Friday several aspects of the party launched including most of the food and merchandise selection, the new night time show and many of the decorations around the park. There are a few more elements coming including a few additions to Soundsational when it returns, more merchandise/food, and a dance party.

  • The Disneyland Resort Monorail Fleet has shed its Pixar Fest wraps finally and now feature Mickey Mouse ones for the Get Your Ears On celebration. Both Monorail Red and Blue were on the beam way Friday and have a different set of graphics. I found it interesting these feature the classic Mickey not the new Mickey on them. I thought they were nice additions. I am still not a big fan of the Monorail wraps but these were done well. For a look at several Monorail wraps over the years is a running page I have with pictures and video.

  • The Haunted Mansion returned to operation on Friday with the Classic Show. It was closed for less than two weeks for a very quick transition from the Haunted Mansion Holiday back. I paid a visit and all looked the same as would be expected with that fast of a turn around. There was an audio problem in the stretching room I was in. The finale audio was so quiet you could barely hear it.

  • it's a small world holiday concludes its seasonal run on Monday and will then go down for several weeks to return to the normal show. I had planned to go for a final cruise on Friday and had several FastPasses but I was sidetracked with other things to do and people to visit so I did not make it.

  • Several off season renovation projects are underway around the parks. At Disneyland Main Street has a couple sets of walls in Town Square for some projects. The big project is Sleeping Beauty Castle will be repainted and receive a new roof. Walls are up and scaffolding is rising around the castle. It will be interesting to see what is the wrap this time. The other big project Friday is the Astro Orbitor is also down. I thought maybe some of the rock work would be worked on to ease congestion but so far the walls are just around the attraction. If you have a chance to walk by either set of walls take a look at the pictures/text it is an interesting mini history lesson. Also the Astro Orbitor pays tributes to its sister attractions at parks around the world, even closed versions.

  • Grabbed dinner at Smokejumpers this evening. I used Mobile order and it was much slower than the past couple of times I had used it. For the Get Your Ears on Celebration they are offering a Mickey inspired cheese burger.. a regular hamburger with two sliders for ears. It is selling for $14.99, but does not come with any side, unlike regular meals that come with fries or onion rings. I saw quite a few people ordering them. Several tables had ordered them and I noticed a parent eating the main burger and the sliders going to kids. This made a lot of sense to me. I could not tell if the sliders were the same burgers as the kids meals or not, they seemed about the same size.

  • Downtown Disney felt fairly busy as usual for a Friday night. The new Ballast Point location is open and had a line of guests the couple times I walked by. The restaurant is on the second floor above what used to be Ride Makerz and Build a Bear. You enter from near Wetzel's Pretzels then go upstairs for indoor and outdoor seating options. The other new location, Black Tap Burger, looks to be a ways off still.

  • World of Disney has changed over from Christmas to Get Your Ears On merchandise as the central focus of the store. I took a walk through and there were a good number of guests browsing. The check out lines had guests but did not seem that backed up. Interesting to note the windows facing Downtown Disney have been updated and the magic elements seemed gone from two of the three.

  • Mickey's Magic Mix premiered Friday night. This is a projection, lighting and laser show that will feature fireworks on weekend and holiday nights. I choose to watch the show from Main Street across from the Penny Arcade. The premise for the show is DJ Mickey Mouse is spinning tunes for everyone to celebrate his birthday. The show is part of the Get Your Ears On Celebration for Mickey's 90th. Here is the press release with more information and details

    Overall the show is about what I expected. Dance mixes of Disney music with projection and lighting effects and some fireworks on select nights. It creates a dance party almost rave type atmosphere. The show has a lot of energy and a large portion of the crowd around me really seemed to enjoy it. Personally I am not a big fan of dance mixes and tend more toward traditional. The projections looked ok but are not the most crisp on Main Street, I hear on small world they look much better. The new laser effects and colors were nice and they ran snow during much of the show to give a different look. Spotlights and other lights also play a supporting role in the show. At several points I felt like there was so much competing for your attention it was almost sensory overload. It is definitely something different for the park and I think reactions will be mixed with some really enjoying the show and others against it.

    I thought the effects were ok but nothing too spectacular and the "ball" did not seem to be moved forward in terms of night time entertainment. For example I thought the laser usage for Jingle Bam at Disney's Hollywood Studios was better and the laser/light snow effects for Sunset Season's Greetings were better than Mickey's Mix Magic use of the technology. This show seemed almost more toward a Spring Break or Grad Night celebration than a way to celebrate Mickey's 90th birthday. I am not sure most guests would even get that this is to honor Mickey for turning 90. I am not a fan of the look of the current/new Mickey shorts versions of the characters and they are highlighted in this show. The fireworks are a nice plus but I can see how the focus was to have a show that could stand without them too (as they will not be used on many nights).

    Have you seen the show? What did you think?

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

Geek’s Blog Postings Recap December 17, 2018 - January 8, 2019

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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