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2/21/22 - 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.

2/21/22 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

I paid a rare Monday visit to the Disneyland Resort. Friends we have not seen in over a year were visiting for the holiday weekend so decided to grab a reservation and join them for the day. As expected with the holiday weekend the late morning/afternoon crowds were heavy but come sun down the crowd thinned considerably. The weather was on the cool side topping out in the low 60s. It was mostly cloudy with random patches of sun coming through and making it more pleasant.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • On the 17th the mask policy in the parks had changed. For those that are vaccinated masks are no longer required except on transportation and in some medical settings. They are optional everywhere else. For those unvaccinated they are required inside. This is handled on the honor system so your mileage may vary with compliance. They are not checking vaccination cards. Overall the use outside seemed on par with what we have experienced the past couple of visits. Inside I was surprised to find a good number of guests still wearing masks. For example the Tiki room I would say 2/3 to 3/4 of the audience had their masks on the show we went to. On the Jungle Cruise almost the entire boat. For more information on the new policy click here.
  • Disney has announced the return of night time spectaculars in April & May. The Main Street Electrical Parade will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new it's a small world finale starting April 22nd. Also World of Color and Disneyland Forever return that evening. Fantasmic returns May 28th. I think its going to be interesting to see this new finale. The concept art includes several characters like you would see in the attraction. To hear a sample of how the music may work, it's a small world is the finale of the Tokyo Disneyland Dreamlights Parade. Here is the full release with images and details.
  • We arrived in Anaheim before 7am and had plenty of time so stopped by McDonald's on Harbor Blvd. for breakfast. There have always been a number of homeless people that frequent the store, but this morning there was a woman walking around to tables asking for money, that was new to us and not a very good first impression of Anaheim for tourists.
  • Walked through Downtown Disney to start my day. It is still a rather poor first experience for people walking from the structure to Downtown Disney that the north side security screening is exit only or cast member entrance. You have to circle all the way around the former valet area and ESPN to the west side to enter. They have added signage and barriers to try and stop frequent guests from cutting across the parking lot to save all those steps. Seems a more friendly guest experience solution is to open the screening or make a pathway through the parking lot to make it easier for those walking.
  • Arrived at the entrance to Disneyland just before the 8am opening and the lines were still backed up to get in. I choose a good line and had under a 10 minute wait. Due to this delay I was behind/outside the rope drop crowd and the hub was clear as I strolled through. Something to keep in mind when you are planning your rope drop strategy. If you do not want to be in a big crowd just arrive 10-15 minutes later and it is usually a much more pleasant walk. A second item to consider is a bulk of the guests in the crowd rush to a couple of attractions. That means all other attractions are nearly walk ons and those few the wait builds to the same or longer than you will see later in the day nearly instantly. So if you are not in the very front it may be a better use of time to roll through other attractions with no wait then circle back. For example Peter Pan. The wait builds to the 30-45 min range almost instantly. If the queue is in the extended portion it will be that way almost all day long so you can go later and spend the same amount of time usually. Instead you can use that early morning time and visit several other attractions in the area.
  • Spent some time in Toontown checking out the work. The way the hills are being constructed is interested. A steel structure was added to the exterior of the building. Then they are adding sheetrock type panels. Then filling in gaps and adding panels to that then applying cement/plaster/stucco to that to give it texture. We sat and watched a bit, while waiting to see if Car Toon Spin would open, it did not and we moved on.
  • I finally crossed paths with R2-D2 in Black Spire Outpost. He has been roaming around for months but I never seemed to find him. Today I saw him twice. Both times R2 was near the Millennium Falcon cruising around. Once in the morning and then again mid afternoon. He was briefly interacting with guests as he moved around.
  • For lunch we decided to visit the Galactic Grill since some in the group wanted to try the spicy chicken sandwich. They said it was good but had a bit of kick to it. I still find it odd that you cannot order a burger without the lettuce on it (no tomato anymore.. I thought it used to have both). You can say no sauce and no cheese but that is it still on mobile order. It still annoys me that you have to pay for the cheese even if you do not want it. Seems it should subtract off the cost. Or give me the option to have it on the side so I can give it to someone. If you were curious the Disneyland app still requires you to enter your gift card for every purchase. This is rather annoying too. I would like to save my gift card as a payment option and be able to select/use it without having to find a spot and type in that long number for every purchase.
  • We found a spot to eat in the tables by the Tomorrowlanding store. This gave us a nice front row view of the Disneyland Band set and was away from the bigger crowds at Tomorrowland Terrace, so a win win.
  • After lunch we stopped by Town Square for a trio of entertainment offerings. Starting with the 12:50pm Disneyland Band set at the Train Station then the 1:15pm Dapper Dan set at the Firehouse and finally the 1:30pm Mickey and Friends Cavalcade. It was nice to see so much with no waiting or walking. The cavalcade had recently expanded to include a couple sets of dancers. So Monday it had 21 characters and 8 dancers.
  • I had great luck with the Enchanted Tiki Room. As we walked up they were making the final call before closing the door. So we walked in, sat down and the show started. When exiting checked the wait time on the app and it said 40 min for Jungle Cruise. I looked over and it looked much less than that. The sign at the entrance said 40 min too. We were not in a hurry so figured to give it a try, it should be less. Turns out it was a smart move as it was only 7 minutes. Our luck turned though and we had a boat with a skipper in training. The lines were delivered but no ad-libbing and he was more focused on driving the boat than facing us and talking. Also we went really fast.. I do not think we slowed down until the African Veldt.
  • Stopped by Disney California Adventure to pick up the Magic Key Holder Celebration handouts. The second poster, this one featuring transportation was available as well as the sunglasses. I would still prefer postcards, buttons, magnets.. items that can be carried around easily and easy to store.
  • I was in DCA for under an hour, just enough time to take a lap around the park. The park felt busy, especially considering there was nothing going on really. No festival, no entertainment and it was the temperatures were dropping and wind picking up. Wait times were on the longer side too. WEB Slingers was 115 minutes with a full queue.
  • The projector housings are being installed for the World of Color in Paradise Bay. Unfortunately the new ones look identical to the old ones. I was hoping for something different that may blend in better. The housings always looks awkward across the bay to me.
  • The walk back to the car this evening on the tram route seemed really long. Guess it was because my mind kept saying this was the last time I would have to do this since trams return this week.

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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