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03/03/17 - Thoughts and observations from a Friday trip to the Disneyland Resort including a second trip to the Red Rose Taverne and AP Days Week 4
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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.

03/03/17 - Thoughts and observations from a Friday trip to the Disneyland Resort including a second trip to the Red Rose Taverne and AP Days Week 4

Hello everyone,

Friday was a great weather day at the parks with highs in the 80s and cooling down to the 60s by the time I left. Crowds were moderate to busy.. definitely heavier than I would expect for an early March Friday, especially in the early afternoon.

One interesting note that made me feel a bit old was Friday marked the 22nd anniversary of the opening of Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland. I can remember waiting hours for my first ride with the queue stretching well out to the hub that first season. Also interesting to think about that was the last major attraction added to the park, all the ones since then were updates or replacements. The next major one will be the two in 2019 for the Star Wars themed land, so 24 years between E-Tickets for Disneyland.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • There were no delays in parking this afternoon, but I was directed up to the roof and it looked like all floors except part of the second had cars on them already (and it was only the 1pm hour).

  • Spent some time taking a look at the Star Wars and Rivers of America construction with some friends who had not seen it in a while. The project has a lot of visible progress right now as the River enters the final push with only a few months left until it is expected to be complete. In the Star Wars area the one attraction show building continues to grow and the second should be rising soon. Once they are up I am expecting our views of visible progress to be extremely limited.

  • We stopped by the Oasis in Adventureland first as the others wanted to try the Main Street Electrical Parade dining package. Unfortunately the first parade was sold out, but there was space for the second. They opted to skip it this trip..

  • Disneyland APDays Winter 2017 started the 4th and final week on Friday. The offerings were the same as previous weeks with a new button, parade cutouts, and coloring flag. I was a little disappointed to see the same characters and photo ops again this week and the same film in the Opera House too. We were able to walk right up get a button and head inside with no delays. The characters had a wait of 15 minutes or so (even with a FastPass), unlike last week.

  • The Red Rose Taverne demand seems to be leveling off a bit too. When we stopped by in the early afternoon there was no line to get in or wait at the registers. They were out of the cups and mugs but all food items were still available for the day. A few new items were hung around the dining room. In the evening I walked by again and the line was out the door but still not too long compared to last week. All food lines looked long after dark, it appeared the wait at the Tomorrowland Terrace may have been longer than the Red Rose Taverne when I walked by. I did not eat at the Taverne but some friends I was with did and they enjoyed their meal including the grey stuff.

  • As I passed through Fantasy Faire Belle and Gaston were out interacting with the crowd. Belle was on her way to her photo location and Gaston was roaming around and had held her up to chat. This drew a healthy crowd as the two bantered a bit. Gaston got the crowd involved at one point asking them to greet Belle as Mrs. Gaston. I had several chance encounters with characters on Friday including Merida in Fantasyland, Goofy on Buena Vista Street, and Mr. & Mrs. Incredible on Sunset Blvd. I think it is great to have the characters out and about vs locked into queues and buildings. It adds life to the areas.

  • At Disney California Adventure preparations for the 2017 Food and Wine Festival that opens next week were well underway. Marketplaces have been set up around the park. The signage on each features the name and unique logo. No menus posted yet. Also notices some lights in Paradise Park and assuming those are for the festival. The Festival runs March 10th through April 16th this year. For more details here is the press release.

  • Entertainment offerings as the sun set were fairly limited again in both parks. Outside of the Main Street Electrical Parade, Remember Dreams Come True there was not much going on in the parks after 7pm. Monday the World of Color is scheduled to return. But no bands on the schedule or other live acts. Your only options are out at Downtown Disney.

  • A new parade viewing policy is reported to be going into effect by several websites. You are no longer allowed to claim space along the parade route until they have set up the ropes and designated the viewing areas. Also you are no longer allowed to set up blankets and leave them to save the space. You have to be there to hold your own space. I walked up Main Street around 4:30 and there were a lot of guests around as always but I did not see blankets set up. Most looked to be eating but there did appear to be some sitting and waiting. I did not make it back to Main Street until the 7pm hour and they had the ropes set up and viewing was full. So I cannot share any insight into how that transition happened or if the new policy was implemented yet.

  • Interesting to note that at 8pm they played an announcement on Main Street that all viewing areas were full and to come back for the later parade. This repeated once or twice more before the parade started.

  • Before Remember Dreams Come True fireworks a wind warning was played. The show started on schedule but was halted during the Indiana Jones segment and cancelled due to the wind at that point. This does not happen very often. Typically they just cancel the show.

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

Geek's Blog Postings Recap – February 18-28, 2017

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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