Disneygeek - Geek Speaks - 1/31/20 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

The Geek Speaks:

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.

1/31/20 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

The Disneyland Resort is in a brief off season mode. Several renovation projects are in full swing in both parks and the crowds were on the lighter side too.. Friday was a great weather day topping out near 80 and dropping to the 60s. There were a good number of guests moving around the parks but wait times were under an hour most of the afternoon and evening for most of the longer wait attractions. FastPasses were also available for most attractions until after dark with only the usual gone early.

This past week I wrapped up my picture posts from Disneyland Paris in November. Also all of my Walt Disney World in December pictures are available too.

Thoughts and Observations:

Parking this afternoon was fairly easy. I missed the light at Ball and had to sit through it but had no delays at the tollbooths or up to the level to park. I was directed all the way to the first aisle (2nd spot) in the Pixar Pals Parking Structure which meant quite a long drive to a spot but a short walk to the escalators. It would have really been nice to have rest rooms in the new structure too vs having to hike to the opposite side of the plaza to use them. I am sure parents with tired kids would have appreciated that at the end of the night too.
As I was strolling up Buena Vista Street, I checked the app and it said 10 minutes for the Pixar Pal-A-Round so I headed that direction since it has been a while since I took an aerial look at things. Unfortunately by the time I arrived both Toy Story Midway Mania and the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind were down and guests were finding their way to the wheel. So that meant a 30 minute wait.
The Avengers Campus continues to move toward its summer opening. More of the exterior elements are being installed and other finishing details starting to be added. This past week Disney announced that Spider-Man will be flying over the Avengers Campus. The teaser video shows the stunt robot project being used to achieve this. It will be interesting to see the final implementation and if this is part of a set show, random or what.
In Cars Land a large printed scrim now hides the new backstage building construction. It features a large storefront for Luigis. Wonder if that is concept art for the final facade or just a picture as a placeholder.
The Lunar New Year Celebration continues at Disney California Adventure for two more weekends (through the 9th). Nothing new this week but it was a little less crowded for a second look around the festivities. The merchandise appears to be mostly gone already though with only a few products in limited sizes available at Seaside Souvenirs. The Festival Merchandise kiosk was selling resort 2020 merchandise, no Lunar New Year Merchandise. Also no signage directing you to where the Lunar New Year merchandise is. At first I thought they may have been sold out already so I asked a Cast Member and they told me where it was moved to.
Several renovation projects are underway around the resort this off season. The annual renovation of Grizzly River Run is underway. This year the Rushin River Outfitters is also closed, but you can still purchase some items in front of the store. I find it a little funny that the attraction goes down for renovation and the weather heats up. Seems to happen every year. From what you can see from the walkways it appears to be a standard renovation underway.
Over at Disneyland I was expecting to see new walls up at the Tomorrowland entrance for the next phase of construction there to get underway, but there were none. The hub portion of the project has looked the same for months now. I would have thought there would be a push to get it finished before the new parade arrives the end of February. The only visible work going on was on the north side panel renovations. The scrim was down and you can see the panels are all back so that project should be wrapping up very soon.
In Fantasyland walkways are a bit tight right now with both Snow White's Scary Adventure and King Arthur Carousel closed for renovation. The Snow White project is an extended/extensive renovation of both the interior and exterior of the attraction. On the inside the expectation is for several upgrades similar to what was done for Alice in Wonderland a couple of years ago. The scrim covering the scaffolding surrounding the facade features artwork of the attraction. The walls feature some more artwork as well as forest animals. The walls for the Carousel feature a history lesson on the attraction in a couple spots.
I paid a visit to Batuu hoping to catch R2-D2 out and about, I still have not seen the droid in person. No such luck but I did see Chewbacca interacting with the crowds and other characters. Having him, Vi, the Storm Troopers and others roaming the land do help to bring it alive. It would be nice to see this expanded.
Walking around Black Spire Outpost there were a good number of guests moving around the area but the stores and dining locations did not seem busy and back to levels before the opening of Rise of the Resistance. The Resistance forest area has a lot more guests now with quite a few milling around waiting for their boarding group to be called again. The process to enter the attraction seemed to be flowing smoothly and no backups there. The queue did look longer than previous visits. It was outside the caves today. Also they had an extended queue set up (but not in use when I walked through) .
The Haunted Mansion is also closed for an extended renovation. Scaffolding surrounds the mansion now. The scrim on the scaffolding features concept art. The entrance gate has a mini exhibit with a handful of other pieces of art and information on them as well as a reproduction of the coming soon sign. I think having these exhibits and artwork on the walls and scrims are a nice plus for the projects.
It was a quiet evening in the parks from an entertainment standpoint. Shortly after 6pm your options for live entertainment shrunk to nothing in both parks. Even the dance party in Tomorrowland was not going on this evening. For a Friday evening it was a really disappointing offering. There were two Fantasmic, Mickey's Mix Magic with Fireworks and a single World of Color at least. But the parks used to be alive with entertainment on Friday nights.
As I was walking around I lucked out and was able to grab a FastPass for Radiator Springs Racers that popped up as well as World of Color. Unfortunately when I returned to visit Radiator Springs Racers the FastPass return queue had reached Route 66 and was heading toward the intersection with Cross Street. The queue was full so it was not a scan issue. Just too many guests returning at the same time. The attraction had been down for a number of hours earlier in the day and was still trying to recover it seemed. I opted to keep walking and skip it this visit.
I choose to wrap up my visit with Hurry Home at Disney California Adventure. I really am not a fan of the 9:45pm start time for World of Color. I much prefer the old days of a show in the 8pm hour or at least a 9pm start, but on the positive side 9:45 is better than one show in the 10pm hour. I choose to arrive just before show time and grab a stand by spot vs using my Yellow FastPass because I wanted a straight on view and was planning to leave early.
The trams for the parking structures had a queue set up and were loading slowly. At first it seemed only two load stations were being used. I had to wait three trams to board. It took over 20 minutes to get back to the structure. I really miss the old walkway. I would have rather walked but having to go through Downtown Disney and then over to the structure seemed like more steps than I wanted to take and would have been the same or maybe even longer time wise.