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

Hello all,

Friday was a great day at the Disneyland Resort. The off season has arrived and the rehab walls have gone up and the crowds are staying away for the most part. The weather was even nice, close to 70 and sunny and cooling down to the upper 50s. Its hard to judge the effect of the Rockin the parks promotion, over at DCA Screamin was 15-20 minutes each time I checked and over at Disneyland Space Mountain had all its Fasptasses gone by early afternoon and I saw the line anywhere from 45-80 minutes on the sign. But then again before the promotion Space Mountain's line was always long too.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• As I was waiting to get through the toll booth in the garage I noticed the sign now says they take Visa (it used to be cash only). Wonder if this will speed things up or slow them down. I still say they need to figure out a more efficient way to handle the annual passholders to keep the lines shorter. Maybe a set of separate lines or some automated way for APs. That way the day guests can talk to the CMs and get information and the Annual Passholders can park more quickly and everyone wins by spending less time in line.
  
  
  
• More Dream Come True signs are now scattered around the resorts. They are everywhere from along the tramway to inside the parks. I am not a big fan of the random sign placement in the parks(as I noted in my WDW update from December). What ever happened to the concept of good show and theming? Having these large signs that do not blend with the surroundings just randomly scattered makes no sense to me. If your going to have signs why not theme them to the area (like they used to). I don't mind them in the esplanade or along the tramway but inside the parks they just do not seem to belong in their current form.
  
  
  
• I was really disappointed with the look of the new signage on the train tunnels as you enter Disneyland. This looked extremely cheap and out of place to me. The extras on the Floral Mickey display were not bad, but these extensions on the tunnels just seemed overkill and actually took away from the display to me.
  
  
  
• The signs on the Main Street Lamp posts look ok, I was unsure at first but they kind of grew on me and I was happy to see they looked a little better than just some paper cut out or banner. I am still disappointed that they really do not fit in with the theme though of a turn of the century city street at all.
  
  
  
• The floating signs in the castle moat seem terrible to me. They look completely out of place and the average guest is not going to know what they are probably.
  
  
  
• As you saw in the pictorial update Push was having a rough time at DCA. There was a handful of kids kicking and beating on him. He kept asking where their parents were and trying to get out of the way but he took quite a beating. I really do not understand why parents would let this happen.. its not funny to damage property. Yes its a talking trashcan.. no that does not mean you can kick and beat on it. Wonder if this is a common thing, when he was in Tomorrowland I saw someone hit him occasionally but nothing like what these kids were doing.
  
  
  
• Spent a little time in Critter Country and two interesting things to note. First is the line to get your picture with Winnie the Pooh was about three times longer than the line for the attraction. Secondly I thought it was amusing that as you enter Critter Country the rehab wall on Splash Mountain says to visit the other attractions (note plural). The only other attraction open was Pooh, the canoes were closed and there are no others. Just thought that was funny.
  
  
  
• Caught the Flag Retreat, which just featured the Dapper Dans, no Disneyland Band. The show was still pretty good though. One interesting addition was the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the ceremony. I still enjoy the Armed Forces Medley more though.
  
  
  
• Took a ride on the Haunted Mansion and it appears to be back to the same state it was before the Holiday makeover. We noticed nothing new or changed on our trip through.
  
  
  
• As you saw in the Pictorial update even though the castle was being painting the fireworks still went off as planned. The only change was there were no shells on the front of the castle or projections on the castle.
  
  

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com