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2/08/19 - Thoughts and observations from Friday
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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.

2/08/19 - Thoughts and observations from Friday

Hello everyone!

Friday was a busy day at the Disneyland Resort for me. I visited with a group of family members that included my just over 2 year old nephew and his pregnant (7 months) mother plus some others. So my pace and visitation pattern was different than normal, but fun to experience the park with them. The weather on Friday was cold for us Southern Californians. It warmed to the low 60s but was sunny so it did not feel that bad but then cooled to the low 50s once the sun set. The park crowds were average. There were a good number of guests moving around but wait times were not that bad.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • When I arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking structure the lines were not that bad, a handful of cars each and most were open. Parking up the ramp and on the level itself was slow going but moving unlike previous visits. Having a large group and stroller we opted to use the elevator as well as the larger space on the tram vs folding up the stroller. Both of these led to delays. In total it was just over an hour from exiting the freeway until reaching the park entrance.

  • Disney California Adventure turned 18 on Friday. I did not see any indication or reference to this anniversary anywhere in the park as we walked around. So either it went unobserved or I missed it. It is still hard for me to grasp that the new park that I watched being built for several years has been open for 18 years now. There is now almost a full generation of guests that have grown up with there always being two parks in Anaheim.

  • Speaking of Anniversaries the Anaheim Ducks (originally the Mighty Ducks) are celebrating their 25th season this year. Monday the 11th is Anaheim Ducks Day at California Adventure with merchandise, photo ops, meet & greets as well as a Cavalcade at 1:15pm. The events take place in Hollywood Land (Stage 12, 17, Animation Academy and Sunset Showcase Theater).

  • The new Minnie Mouse popcorn buckets were available at most of the popcorn carts around both parks on Friday. Seems they are no where near as popular as the Annual Passholder Steamboat Willie ones last week (they sold out in a day). I did spot a couple of the Mickey ones with guests, but not many.

  • The Lunar New Year celebration is still going on and will continue through next weekend (the 17th). There seemed to be a good crowd for the Mulan Procession and at the Marketplaces when I walked through. I caught a performance by the Melody of China trio. They play traditional Chinese music.

  • Some wanted to rest for a bit so we ended up on the Pixar Pal-A-Round. I also find that wait painfully slow.. but doing it with a 2 year old was a whole new challenge. Once you get down in the queue below the water level there is not that much to look at besides the wheel and that did not hold his interest that long. He really enjoyed the ride but the 20 minute wait was near his patience threshold with nothing to really look at.

  • All was quiet in Paradise Bay this afternoon. All three World of Color platforms were submerged and no signs of work going on this afternoon. Disney has not announced an official return but they have started taking dining package reservations starting on Feb 22, so that seems to indicate a return in the next 2 weeks.

  • A quick run down of projects from the Pixar Pal-A-Round - The Marvel Project site has had some trees boxed up and more clearing. No signs of new construction yet from the limited vantage point. The Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind is moving forward with the conduit being covered and some concrete poured. Still no official announcement on an opening date. Same for Jessie's Critter Carousel where more details are starting to be added.

  • Was walking through Carthay Circle and noticed a Red Car Trolley News Boy show scheduled to start in less than 2 minutes so stopped and had front row spaces when the trolley rolled up. As the show went on an average crowd a handful or so deep in some spots showed up to watch.

  • First stop at Disneyland was Tomorrowland. Used a nearly instant FastPass for Buzz Lightyear. The attraction appears to be in need of some TLC. The Buzz Lightyear figure/scene in the queue was behind a curtain. The queue seemed to move very slowly stopping several times. When it came time to board there were several attraction vehicles that were out of service. Ours was beat up but working. My blaster was good to go but the second one in the car was having problems. The photo system was having issues. The picture quality looked worse than ever and several were missing (including one from our group). On mine the scores were not ours. It would be nice to see the attraction undergo a refreshing and update.

  • it's a small world has returned to the regular show. The quick turn around means no noticeable changes to the attraction. We did notice the facade could use some TLC with marks from the holiday lights as well as some hanging cables/wires from them still visible. One note is there seemed to be less boats or better spacing because there were no backups on either side leading into the station to unload on Friday.

  • The renovation project for Sleeping Beauty Castle continues. The scaffolding is now fully erected on both sides of the castle and artwork has been added to the scaffolding scrim to make it a little more show ready. On the Main Street side is concept art for the castle by Herb Ryman from 1954. The Fantasyland side has a scene from the film of Prince Philip fighting Maleficent. These both look great and were fun to see.

  • One unfortunate side effect of the renovation is the impact on guests who did not know it was going on. For example we ran into a couple visiting from the east coast for the first time. They were commenting on how when they grew up in the 50s they had watched the original television show every week and were really looking forward to seeing the castle they remember from their child hood. I understood a little of the disappointment from my own trip to Hong Kong back in 2015 where I arrived to find their castle covered for renovation work.

  • A word of warning with the Castle and surrounding walkways closed that means traffic can bottle up in Fantasyland especially around parade and firework times.

  • I had bad timing for the Mark Twain and as I walked past the shooting gallery the bell and whistle rang out. So I missed the boat and by the time it returned it would be getting dark and too close to the parade to fit into my schedule. I did notice the top deck was not in use again. It seems to be open almost randomly for cruises now a days.

  • I used the Play Disney Parks App to visit Fortune Red and Esmeralda and pick up the next two chapters in the stories. I am on chapter 5 & 6, so a long way to go. There are three, ten part stories in each. The app was still a little buggy, but slightly more efficient than last time. Interesting note on Saturday morning I received a survey email from Disney saying they registered I used the App and wanted feedback.

  • Used Mobile Order for both lunch and dinner on Friday. It went fairly smooth and quick at both locations (Smokejumpers and Stage Door Cafe). The system still has some tweaks.. for example Stage Door still requires you to select a sauce to complete an order. I told the cast member I did not need the sauce when my name was called and was informed that since they had placed it on the tray, even though the tray had not been handed to me or left their counter, they could not take it back. This seems wasteful to me. I would also like a way to indicate a cup of ice or water. I am guessing this is a longer shot since Disney does not want to have a no cost option shown on the app but it would be helpful for those of us asking for one and more efficient for the cast members handling the order.

  • Looking at the schedule for the week on nights with no fireworks Mickey's Mix Magic is still running twice nightly and only once on nights with them. I would really like to see them try an earlier showing without fireworks on weekends to see if that helps with the crowd. Seems with it getting dark so early a 7 or 8pm showing would work nicely.

  • As I was leaving cast members were preparing to set up the barriers for the tram queues. So we did not experience them this visit. Last visit when we did they worked fairly smooth. We had to only wait for the next tram to arrive to find a spot to wheel the stroller into, much quicker than when we arrived. I still think it would be nice at park exit time to have the old walkway along the tram route open. Seems a lot of guests would opt for that shorter walk and it would ease some congestion on the trams and in Downtown Disney and would only cost a CM or two at the exit gate to make sure it is exit only for a couple hours a night.

  • When we arrived at the parking structure the elevator lines were out past the escalators. Not sure how many elevator fulls of strollers that would be but way too many for our patience. The new elevators on the new structure I think will be a welcome addition for those with strollers. It appears they are adding two sets.

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

Geek’s Blog Postings Recap January 25 - February 6, 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.

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