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2/09/24 - Disneyland Resort
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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.

2/09/24 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

I spent a relaxing day at the parks on Friday. My to-see list was short and my plan was to just roam around and see what was going on. The weather was on the cold side for us Southern Californians. The temperature got up to around 60 then fell toward 50 by the time I left with passing clouds and a slight breeze at times. California Adventure felt crowded. The walkways seemed to always be full and there were just a lot of guests moving around. Wait times were on higher side of moderate but not super busy. Disneyland actually felt less congested to me but that could have been timing and luck.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Started my day with an OK parking spot. Relatively close to the escalators with only a few car wait. Then no wait for security or the tram.
  • I saw no real signs of progress on the new turnstiles. It seemed more areas had the center gate removed but not sure if that is renovation prep or just an efficiency change.
  • As I stepped onto Main Street USA the Disneyland Band was rounding the corner into Town Square. Always fun to be greeted by the band and characters.
  • Walking around the park to check on the renovation projects there has been incremental progress but a lot. Assuming this is due to the number of bad weather days. There have been a good number of rain days since my last visit. Today several of the scrims were rolled up so you could see the work which is always interesting to me. It is terrible show for guests and the park but for geeks its great!
  • Only renovation note from inside Disneyland is the Haunted Mansion queue area looks to be mostly cleared. The few trees that we spotted last visit were gone and you had a clear line of sight to the back. No idea if the rest of the clearing has wrapped up since there are no easy views of the project.
  • Out in Downtown Disney the foundation work for the building nearest the main walkway/Monorail station is continuing to take shape. It is interesting to me how far behind the other buildings that one is.
  • As I was disembarking the Monorail in Downtown Disney I received a number of texts from friends asking if I felt the earthquake. There was a magnitude 4.6 earthquake up near Malibu (within 10 miles of where I live but around 70 from Disneyland). I felt nothing but the monorail is not a smooth ride so who knows which bounce was just a regular one or caused by the earthquake. The standard response from Disney is shut everything down, inspect, then reopen. I checked the app and saw most attractions around the parks had closed and they put a sign out and closed the Monorail too. So it was large enough to trigger the response.
  • I stopped by the Bay Area and finally caught Mei and her mother from Turning Red out. The wait was pushing an hour for them so I snapped a quick picture between groups and moved on. They seemed to be spending a good amount of time with each group so those that waited were getting more than a photo on the move. They were getting a little interaction time.
  • While passing through Hollywood Land I noticed the schedule for the Backlot Stage listed a steel drum band starting soon so I hung out in the area and watched them. It was a high school from Arizona and they put on an entertaining show and drew a good size crowd. Always fun to see the guest groups. I wish they would be listed in the app vs only at the venue.
  • There was a SpaceX launch from Vandenberg as the sun was setting. I decided to try and see it from Frontierland, but had no luck. Between the angles and the sun I saw nothing. I knew it was a long how but worth pausing a few moments to see.
  • While in Frontierland stopped by the Golden Horseshoe for a performance by the Piano player. Today the crowd was much more respectful and paying attention to the show vs just making noise so you could hear him.
  • The Magic Happens Parade returned last Friday. I decided to take in the 5:30 performance today from near the end of the route to see the parade under the lights. You do not get a lot of chances for this as the time changes in about a month and the sunsets are getting later each day. The parade has a little extra to it at night and I enjoy experiencing it that way. As the opening dancers passed Alice in Wonder and approached the parade crossing they were held. After a few moments they were backed up so the crossing could be used. While stopped they just kept dancing. This lasted nearly 10 minutes then they were able to continue on. The parade did not have the Frozen float or performers and the finale Sleeping Beauty float was being towed. So seems it was a rough day for the parade.
  • Speaking of rough the water feature at the Adventureland Treehouse was not running again today. The wheel was but not the rest of it. I think it has been off more than on since the attraction opened.
  • Each evening this weekend there is a Snickers event on the Downtown Disney Live! Lawn area for the Super Bowl. It consists of a DJ, some games, candy and a photo op. I thought it was fun to see something going on and a snack size Snickers bar is not bad. I would have preferred to have seen this elsewhere plus a live band though. Downtown Disney has three event celebrations going on. They had signage up for Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day and Celebrate Soulfully.. then added this Super Bowl event. All seemed on the low key side with minimal/no decorations and a few signs.
  • At the Pixar Pals parking structure this evening 2 of the 6 escalators were not working. The down from the 2nd floor and the up to the top floors. These escalators seem to be down a lot, or at least down when I am noticing.

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

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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