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3/01/24 - Disneyland Resort - 2024 Food & Wine Festival Opening Day
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3/01/24 - Disneyland Resort - 2024 Food & Wine Festival Opening Day

Hello Everyone!

Friday I decided to take a chance on the weather and head to the Disneyland Resort. The rain forecast kept shifting later and the temps looked reasonable so we headed to the parks. Turned out to be a great move with the sun out a good portion of the day and temps into the mid 60s. We saw no rain in Anaheim and only the last 20 minutes of the drive home had showers. The parks were busy as you would expect for opening day of the Food & Wine Festival plus a Friday.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • We arrived to find a backup at the Mickey and Friends parking structure. The tollbooth lines were backed up to the entrance to the garage so it was slow going to get through. Once we did there were no delays in getting to a spot, security or the tram. We drew a poor spot in in terms of walking, in the 1st aisle when you come up the ramp but a good spot in terms of not having to drive around the garage to enter or exit. We talked to friends who arrived about 20 minutes after us and they opted for the Toy Story lot and said there was no delay there.
  • Today was the opening day for the 2024 Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival so the performance corridor was very crowded every time we tried to walk through. The rest of the park was more spotty with crowds. Attraction wait times were on the high side.
    • Overall the festival is on par with last year. There is one less marketplace and the food offerings seem a little less.
    • The entertainment choices of the Palisades Stage, Bandstand and Hollywood Stage are on par with recent years. I could not find the group listings on the app or website, but there were signs in the park with the full schedule. I was disappointed with the selection Friday. Looking ahead the groups I prefer to see are not on the days I plan to be at the park this year so that was disappointing also.
    • There were no seminars or sessions going on today which seemed like an odd choice for opening day.
    • Marketplace queues were on the longer side with several spilling out of the queues most of the day. We did find it interesting the first location selling the sip and savor passes had a line of 20+ guests. We walked a little further along and were able to walk up to a register and purchase one with no wait. So if you are looking to buy one you may want to look around a bit vs jumping into the first queue. Also remember you can order food from any marketplace, you do not need to order at the one you want to pick up from. So if you plan ahead a bit you can do all your ordering in one queue then you only have the pick up queues to wait in.
    • I found it a bit odd the Avocado Time marketplace is gone this year, but the sign returned for a photo op and it is featured on several merchandise items.
    • The Jammin' Chefs returned and the show is the same as it has been, which is both good and bad. Nice to see it but wish it would be tweaked a little.
    • The kids participation show in Hollywood Land has changed from Alice in Wonderland to Super Kitties this year. I stopped by and made it through the opening number before deciding I had seen enough. I am not the demographic for it and found it more on the annoying than entertaining side.
    • The Palisades Stage was set up in the former water play area and not on the regular stage. Not sure if it was because of the weather, a technical issue with the stage, or just a choice.. it seemed awkward to have that area blocked off all day. This means less viewing space for guests when they do perform but if you want to be close to the group its a great opportunity.
    • Soarin' Over California returned today too. I wanted to go for a flight but it was in the 60-90 minute range every time I checked which was more than my patience.
  • The new churro cart in Grizzly Recreation Area looks great. It fits much better along the trail than the old stand.
  • Mobile ordered lunch from Aunt Cass Cafe and found it interesting that the round loaf of bread was not available, just the Baymax one. So we had to wait in line to get our order vs mobile order.
  • Over at Disneyland renovation projects continue. I would guess the number and length of the storms we have been having have set most time lines back.
  • The Mark Twain Riverboat has returned to operation and looks great. I did not notice any major changes, everything just looks new again.
  • The Haunted Mansion projects have had the walls moved out further since my last visit. Most of the walkway leading up to it and the entire walkway in front of the Mansion itself is now in the construction area. From the Mark Twain you get a much better view of the project and can see most of the queue and park area are rubble. They were still boxing up and moving some trees. You can also see some of the retaining structure for where the new elevator/exit is going. The exit side is now behind walls as work on the new gift shop gets underway.
  • Next door at Tiana's Bayou Adventure concrete work continues. It looks to be slow going, assuming the weather has a lot to do with this.
  • Walked through Downtown Disney just after 7pm and thought the crowd felt a little thinner than usual but still healthy.
  • Escalator issues continue at the parking structures. Today when leaving the 2nd level down from Pixar Pier and the 3rd level up for Mickey and Friends were out of service, which of course were the two I wanted to use.

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

Aulani & Hawaii Posts (February 18-23)

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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