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3/15/13 - My 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.

3/15/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

This week was a much more pleasant winter day than last week, weather wise. The temps were in the low 70s and dropped quickly to the 60s as the sun set and fog rolled in. Crowds were substantially higher though this week due to the nicer weather and start of the spring break season. Cheerleaders have started to descend on Anaheim for competitions which means large groups roaming the parks. Wait times were over an hour for most of the e-tickets and usual suspects the few times I looked, I did not really pay attention to the lines through. The walkways were busy, but its only a sign of things to come leading up to Easter.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • First stop of the day was Disneyland. I wanted to see the schedule for the Fantasy Faire Theatre in hopes of catching the Tangled show I have not seen, no such luck since it only is running in the morning and last show was just past noon. Eventually I will catch it. Fantasy Faire officially opened this past Tuesday. I walked through in the early afternoon and the Royal Hall wait was 30 minutes, a full house waiting in the Royal Theatre, and a fair number of guests milling around and moving through, but no real bottleneck or craziness. I stopped by a couple of times later in the day and same thing, everything seemed to be flowing ok.

  • At first glance/walk through I was really surprised to find that the opening of Fantasy Faire seemed to have no effect on the other waits. Then upon reflection the Royal Hall doubled the capacity of the old Royal Walk so maybe I just did not think it through. As you saw in the pictorial update the posted waits for the Royal Hall were in the 30-60 minute range the couple times I walked by, Tangled in Fantasyland was between 60-90 and Brave out by Small World was 45 minutes. So plenty of opportunities for you to stand in line with your little Princess to meet a Disney Princess.

  • I was a little surprised that the Royal Hall did not close down during Soundsational. Does anyone know do they still close down the Character houses in Toontown during the parades?

  • I stopped back by the faire after dark to see the lighting and unfortunately many of the lights on the facades were not on this evening so I will have to try again. I did find it odd that Maurices closes down when they close the Royal Hall. There was plenty of traffic in the area and I would bet if it had a hot beverage in the evening it would draw guests. The Tangle tower in the middle of the courtyard has a brief lighting moment that occurs every five minutes. I stood there for several rounds trying to figure out a way to caput re it and share, and in the end came away with a couple ok pictures and the video clip below that hopefully give a sampling of what it is like.



  • The Fantasy Faire has made the front cover of the Disneyland Park Map, but not a representation of what you will see, instead they went with animated versions of the Princesses and no mention of the Faire. It also made top billing in the entertainment times guide. The operating hours for the Royal Hall are there but nothing for the Theatre, instead it says to visit the location.

  • While cutting through the Emporium I noticed there are now a couple of directory signs/maps out. Was there a large need for guests needing to know where the cash registers are? And could they not find the merchandise as they walked through the store? Given that the merchandise is the same as 90% of the stores on property are the maps really that helpful? I know WDW has had them for a while so I guess that is why Disneyland got theirs now?

  • Sunday (the 17th, yes Buzz opened on St. Patricks Day) marks the 8th anniversary of Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland. I had in mind to go for a flight/ride but somehow got sidetracked and did not make the trip this visit.

  • Over on Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure looks like the powers that be have finally finished toying with the Hyperion Bridge paint job and have settled on a color. Now they have returned to tinkering with the windows of Buena Vista Street. This week noticed Big Top Toys and Atwater Ink and Paint were changed out. Both were disappointing to see and really do not seem to fit in with the street. It is too bad the thoughtfully planned out and propped windows the Imagineers put together are being changed out by merchandising teams. I guess they have a survey that says seeing plush in a window makes you want to buy it.. guess it does for kids and it is at their level so that is probably the goal to get them to drag their parents into the store. So from a pure business sense the numbers probably pan out, but from a sense of place/time they really do not work, especially since the time period of Buena Vista Street is before the characters were created and the street is supposed to hint at inspiration for the characters.

  • Speaking of another disappointment I stopped by Innoventions. I had not been in there in months and its still sad to me. I am somewhat of a tech geek and the promise of Innoventions showcasing upcoming products and concepts always appealed to me, it is too bad the execution never quite panned out. The ground level is no longer rotating and you still enter through the upper floor and work your way around and down to the first floor to exit. The area where the Honda cars were parked has been walled off for some work. Wonder what we will see next?

  • Since I seem to be in a complaining mood.. the Starcade is still having an identity crisis. The walls are gone. They left the sets from the Wreck It Ralph Meet and Greet for the most part and brought back a couple dozen classic video games. It is great to see the return of arcade games to an arcade and classic ones at that (plus Fix It Felix Jr). The merchandise has been spread out a bit more (maybe a couple new racks, hard to tell, but no other real changes. Seems like much of Tomorrowland is just existing right now, in some sort of holding pattern... between Innoventions, the Starcade, the Orbitron, and Captain EO all seem to need some Imagineering attention.
     
  • I had planned to close out my evening watching Remember, Dreams Come True. I have not seen it yet this year, between weather issues, me getting side tracked at DCA (one night it was the soft opening of the Blue Sky Cellar another visiting with some friends and watching World of Color) I had not seen the show. So tonight I arrived on Main Street 10 minutes or so till show time. The fog had started to roll in and there appeared to be a slight breeze. The show did go off as planned but unfortunately thanks to the fog I ended up only seeing the lower 1/3 or so. So I guess I heard/experienced Remember but still have not seen it.



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

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