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2/26/16 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the 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.

2/26/16 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.

Hello everyone,

Friday the parks felt crowded to me, especially for a non holiday weekend in February. The wait times though seemed moderate the couple of times I took a look at them. The big news this weekend from both Disneyland and Walt Disney World is the annual ticket price increases and a new seasonal pricing structure for one day tickets. Here is my post with more information on these changes.

  • Grizzly River Run- Annual Refurbishment
  • Jungle Cruise - Reopening in Spring
  • Autopia - Reopening in Spring
  • Hyperion Theater - Closed until Summer, reopening with a new Frozen Musical
  • Mark Twain Riverboat - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Sailing Ship Columbia - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Fantasmic! - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Disneyland Railroad - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017

  • Note Soarin is closed Monday through Thursday

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • The Star Wars themed land preparations are really starting to kick into gear with a lot of visible changes this week. From the parking structure you could see more clearing backstage as concrete is being broken up and the construction footprint growing. The berm behind the former Big Thunder ranch area is being cleared of its trees. Inside the park cofferdams are being constructed which means the portion of the Rivers of America in Frontierland and New Orleans Square will remain full during construction and just the back portion will be drained for the work. If you have followed our site you know we enjoy following the construction and the initial phases are usually the most visually interesting with more noticeable changes happening each visit.

  • Disneyland APDays are coming to a conclusion. This week is the fourth and final one and it highlighted the World of Tomorrow. Unfortunately Stage 17 was closed again due to an event. So that meant two of the four Fridays it was unavailable. This really puts a dent in the AP Day offerings. I thought they should have found an alternative location for the character meet and greets on these days. The Blue Sky Cellar had a healthy wait back to the door when I visited in the early evening, the most guests I had seen there any week. I found it interesting they still had so many buttons left from the first weeks, yet they were being very strict still with the current weeks. I would image they ordered the same number for each week, I would think they were done way before the even started. Wonder where the extras from week 4 will go. There was no activity handout this week either. I thought the first two weeks started strong but the last two were lacking in comparison because of lack of a handout/activity.

  • Times Guide notes - The Egg-stravaganza kicks off Wednesday and runs through the 27th. It was listed in both parks. Also interesting there was no Jedi Training scheduled for Friday. Also I noticed FastPass for Indiana Jones was the weekend only. Guessing that means they were working on the area on weekdays?

  • The Disney Gallery in the Main Street Opera House has a new exhibit featuring Disney's Steam Trains. It follows the same format as other recent shows and features pictures, artwork, tickets and more looking at Steam Trains at Disneyland and other Disney Parks. I enjoyed spending some time visiting the exhibit and plan to go back for more detail. Also noteworthy is much of what is in the exhibit is also on display in the Main Street Station. The New Orleans Square Station also continues to add exhibits. This week several signs/banners have been added and more of the original Frontierland Station area will be open to guests in the coming days. If you are a train buff the opportunities to see the trains and learn about them have never been better. It is not the same as seeing them in action but there are definitely some great opportunities right now.

  • The Mark Twain also continues to evolve during its extended closure. As I mentioned on a previous visit they now schedule bands to perform on the mid deck. Friday I caught a set of the Jambalaya Jazz on board. Even if you are not in the immediate area they can be heard throughout the ship. Also noticed a new LCD TV playing clips from the Disneyland opening day TV broadcast on Friday.

  • From the parking lot tram you could see a fair amount of work going on backstage at Disneyland as they shuffle around the support facilities to clear space for the Star Wars project. So I have had the Monorail on my list for a while and Friday I finally went for a round trip voyage. Unfortunately I goofed up and had the wrong lens so the pictures were not interesting. But I did get a quick look around and they are in the process of adding quite a few new buildings and several portable trailers too. Looks like backstage is getting much more crowded now as they work to squeeze everything into the limited space available.

  • Zootopia is starting to show up in the parks. The Sneak Peek has been in the bug's theater for several weeks now. Merchandise is starting to show up, there was one rack in Big Top Toys, and I am guessing more will be out this upcoming week once it opens in theaters. At Award Wieners there are Banana Corn Dogs and Tumblers. Wonder if anyplace will sell pawcicles that seems a better tie in to the film?

  • On my way back to the parks after visiting the Disneyland Hotel and Downtown Disney I was chosen for a secondary screening.. first time which surprised me given the number of times I go through the bag checks. The process was quick and efficient and the big delay was how long it took to empty my pockets and that I was talking to the CSC employee about football (the same company does screenings for USC Football and we were talking about the upcoming season).

  • An opening date of March 7th is set for the new Luigi attraction in Cars Land. Previews will be underway this week including Annual Passholders on Friday March 4th. This seems to set up for a soft opening on the 5th & 6th potentially or maybe just more previews. I posted some thoughts and a brief history of Disney Trackless ride systems to the blog last week if you are interested.

  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? Did you know we have a more friendly mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile

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

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