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03/10/12 - My thoughts and observations from Saturday 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.

03/10/12 - My thoughts and observations from Saturday at the Disneyland Resort.

Hello all,

I was down in Orange County to visit some family in the morning which enabled me to spend the afternoon/evening at the Disneyland Resort. I checked in on the construction projects then spent some time just roaming and enjoying the entertainment. The crowds seemed about average. Wait times were pushing an hour for most of the bigger attractions most of the time.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • The big news this past week, in case you missed it, is that Cars Land and Buena Vista Street will officially open on Friday June 15, 2012. The DisneyParks blog made the official announcement on 3/7. Also note that on Thursday the 14th the entire park will be closed for the day in preparation and for a media preview. Click here to read the press release from earlier in the week.

  • I thought I was going to be in for a bad day when I first arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking structure just before noon. There was a line of cars backed up to nearly the entrance. The line crept along and I could see the backup extended up the ramp to the parking floors too. I found it interesting there was a Cast Member about half way into the garage looking for volunteers to park outside in what is usually the cast member lot on the far side of the garage. I had parked there once and did not want to do it again so I passed. This probably could have saved me 5 minute or so of waiting to park. They were parking the last row on Goofy and that had everything backed up. I do not understand why there was not a cast member directing some cars to another level to try and mitigate the wait. It took approx 15 minutes from when I entered the garage till I was in a parking spot. The Lazygeek arrived about an hour after me and reported no delay at all parking, so guess I just had really bad timing!

  • As you saw in the pictures Buena Vista Street is moving along at a rapid pace with more of the facades visible now. I have really enjoyed watching the street take shape. Also surprising is how little grumbling I have heard from other guests. Most seem really interested in the projects and I have overheard very few complaints about the walls/work... maybe I am just lucky/unobservant but I was really expecting to hear some over the months.

  • Thought it was interesting to see Minnie in a new outfit for the Fly Girls show. It makes more sense to have her as a flight attendant than an old time aviator, but as I mentioned in the photo update, I thought the aviator worked better by the plane for pictures afterwards.

  • Spent some time in the Blue Sky Cellar and it still is pulling in healthy crowds and the video seems to attract a large gathering every showing that I have been there. Wonder if the interest in Cars Land is that high or if this is still Annual Passholders cycling through.

  • The Monorail was back in service. But only Monorail Blue was running, I did not see any others on the beamway. It is rather annoying how more times than not it seems they are operating on a reduced train count. These newest Monorails seem to have as many if not more problems than the old ones. This may just be because I wanted to ride and had to wait three monorails but it sure seems that way to me. I keep telling myself they will work the kinks out of the new trains but their up time sure seems less.

  • Stopped by the Tiki Room. I cannot remember the last time I paid attention to the preshow video. I got to see it twice on Saturday thanks to a long and slow line at the Dole Whip stand and the Lazygeeks son wanting one. The screen is much easier to see now. In addition to the Hawaii travelogue type shots there are some animated Tiki Gods statues.. I found it a little odd that they were all holding Dole products up and modeling.

  • A great highlight of this trip to the Tiki Room, we happened to get in a showing with Maynard as the Cast Member and Tiki Maynard was hilarious. I wish I had thought to pull out the video camera to record his spiel. If you ever get a chance try to catch him there some time! I did a quick search on YouTube and came across this one, very similar to what he did Saturday for us.



  • I failed again to see the TronCams in action. Guess they run on a reduced schedule, I have bad timing, or they are not operating. If you are a elecTRONica fan (or hater) only a handful of weeks left until its run ends. The Mad T Party is slated to begin in June.

  • I did something this evening I had not done (or at least cannot remember doing) I managed to see World of Color (8pm), Remember Dreams Come True (8:40), and Fantasmic (9:00). I know you can do this easier if you stay later but with a long drive home I did not want to and managed to have some good luck and squeeze all three in. Also did it without any of the shows being delayed (they all went off about on time).

  • Fantasmic was in much better shape this week. All the boats have returned to service and things looked great! Nothing new or drastically changed jumped out to me, but then again I was goofing around taking pictures so could have easily missed something. Only thing I noticed was Eric was missing from the Little Mermaid boat during the Princess segment, he was on the Mark Twain for the finale.

  • In the park time guide I thought it was odd that the Bayou Bash had been dropped already. Nice to see Fantasmic get top billing though. Nothing else of interest popped out to me.

  • For Saturday I used a new method of posting images as I roamed the park. I am now posting directly to the Geeks Blog So those of you who do not use twitter or follow us, you can see the images too. Any thoughts? Is this better/worse/the same as the way I was posting before? If you were not aware as I roam the parks I post some thoughts/pictures throughout the visit. So follow me @disneygeekcom


Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com

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