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3/15/24 - 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.

3/15/24 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

Spent a relaxing afternoon and evening at the Disneyland Resort. The parks felt busier than the wait times showed. There seemed to be a good number of guests moving around but the waits were more on the moderate side. The weather was odd for Southern California. Temps were in the 60s but we had passing periods of heavy cloud cover followed by clear skies and some light rain blew through..

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Started my visit with some good parking luck. I choose a good lane with no wait at the tollbooth and was directed into a spot a few cars from the escalators/elevators on the Mickey level of the parking structure.
  • The 2024 Eggstravaganza started last week so on my agenda today was to find all 36 eggs. For those of you not familiar there are large character eggs around the resort and you can buy a game board and match up the location with the character. For your $10 you receive a game board, stickers and a keepsake. This year they replaced the eggs with ornament keepsakes. As usual there seemed to be a good number of guests playing spanning all ages. This year overall the eggs seemed easier to find. Usually there are 3 or 4 that give me some trouble but not this year.
  • March is Women's History Month and to mark the occasion Minnie Mouse has returned in floral form at Disneyland.
  • With St.. Patrick's Day around the corner the Little Man of Disneyland has decorated his house in Adventureland. The only other reference to the holiday I saw was a shirt on Buena Vista Street. It would have been nice to see some special entertainment for the weekend.
  • We opted to eat in San Fransokyo Square today. Found it odd the mobile order at Aunt Cas Cafe had Baymax and Mickey bread but no round loaf option today. Last visit they only had Baymax. So if you wanted a loaf of bread you had to stand in line either outside or inside. Why limit the mobile order menu?
  • The Food and Wine Festival has entered its third week. There were a good number of guests enjoying the marketplaces and moving around. The waits to order and pick up were substantially less than my last visit, which is to be expected since that was opening day. The Palisades Stage was not in use again, Tomasina was performing on a makeshift stage in the middle of the park. I did not notice it last visit but both stages have shows at 3:00pm vs staggering the entertainment.
  • I again failed to visit Soarin' Over California. The wait times was between 45 and 85 minutes the few times I checked and when I walked by the LL return was filling its switchbacks. Hopefully before its run ends I will be able to experience it with a more favorable wait time.
  • Walked through Grizzly Recreation area and found the Zootopia gang and Chip on the trail. Since they were off the beaten path neither had a wait when I walked by. Not sure if I had good timing or if this is the norm with this location.
  • The first set of new turnstiles has been installed at Disney California Adventure since my last visit. They were not in use and appear to be in a location for testing on the far side which is usually an overflow exit gate. The new turnstiles feature wider pathways so everyone can go through and are more automated with scan/touch points and screens for the photo comparison. Also instead of metal turnstiles there are Plexiglas gates.
  • Stopped by Town Square for the Flag Retreat and noticed the Space Force Anthem has been added. Its been a while since I caught the armed forces medley so not sure how new this addition is. So if you are in the area and want to hear the newest branches anthem be sure to pause and listen.
  • The Mark Twain was listed to close at 5pm, which seems really early considering there is no Fantasmic! Wonder why they are not running night cruises or at least sunset cruises? I showed up around 4:40pm and was disappointed to find the sign and cast member saying the final cruise left at 4:30pm. The app really should list the final cruise time. I did find it funny they had a posted 10 min wait after the final cruise left.
  • Looks like they are preparing to do some work for the return of Fantasmic in the Rivers of America. Seems a dam is being constructed so they can drain an area to work on something.
  • Since I was unable to board the Mark Twain my views of the Haunted Mansion project were limited. Since my last visit more trees were removed and a large mound of dirt is rising above the walls. Assuming this is from the excavation work for the new elevator. It was different to be able to see clearly the entire side of the Mansion facing Tiana's Bayou Adventure.
  • Speaking of Tiana's Bayou Adventure most of the concrete and sculpting work appears to be finished and they have started to installed the plants on the top of the mountain. It is a very different look but seems to be a more natural transition from New Orleans Square to Critter Country than it will be at the Magic Kingdom in the middle of Frontierland.
  • Decided to go for a round trip on the Disneyland Monorail. Walked up as Monorail Orange was departing and found a queue stretching down the ramp but the platform was empty so I decided to wait. Finally a cast member noticed and opened the platform. Monorail Red arrived with no guests. The doors did not open and the cast members were all talking amongst themselves. After a few minutes they decided to open the doors and let us board.
  • Once back in the park decided to go for a ride on the Disneyland Railroad and had some good luck. As we stood at the Tomorrowland Station it started to drizzle. It was raining pretty good as our train departed the station. By the time we arrived on Main Street it was back to a light drizzle and when we disembarked in Toontown the rain was gone.
  • The park was relatively quiet on the entertainment front as the sun set. Almost everything had wrapped up for the day.
  • We stopped by Galactic Grill for something to eat and noticed the Fish and Chips have steak fries while the chicken strips have shoestring fries. It has been a while since I saw two different fries at the same location. They standardized most across the parks several years ago.
  • We left the park just after 8pm. As usual for a Friday night trams arriving were full at that hour. Security and the parking structure had maybe 1/3 of the lanes open and was backed up to the tent. But the big back up was moving around in the structure. Cars on our level (the third) were inching along from the Pixar garage to the Mickey and Friends and around to the exit. From our easy to walk to spot it meant we had to wait in the line for quite a while. It was nearly 20 minutes from starting the car until we were traveling down the ramp. At one point we stopped for several minutes and did not move. It was an unexpected way to end the day leaving at that hour.

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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.

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