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4/05/13 - 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.

4/05/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.

Hello all,

I spent Friday afternoon/evening at the Disneyland Resort. I was expecting the parks to be very crowded since the weather was mild and many school were still on Spring break. What I found were busy parks, but not insane. Then again I was not trying to visit any attractions and I was just roaming the parks. Attractions geared toward the Spring Break crowds such as Tower of Terror were longer than usual. Even Cars Land was not too bad with the Racers under 2 hours the couple times I paid attention.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started off my afternoon at Disneyland. As I roamed the parks it looked like the park was ready for huge crowds but as I roamed they were not there, maybe I had great timing. For example out in New Orleans Square they had the extended queue for Pirates set up but it was empty. Wonder if it was worse earlier in the day? Critter Country had a lot of people moving around because of Splash Mountain, but Pooh only had a 5 minute wait posted.

  • The big news of the day is the debut of Dumbo popcorn buckets this week. So now you can pay $12 and eat popcorn out of your favorite pachyderm. I thought they looked good, but they appeared not to hold that much popcorn. I like the idea though. Wonder if other ride vehicles will follow? Jungle Cruise Boats, Rockets, Monorails all pop to mind. Also curious if a popcorn cart closer to the attraction would benefit sales? Seems having them within eye sight of the attraction would help.

  • Went for a cruise on the Columbia to check out the Big Thunder work. Too bad the Mark Twain is not in service yet, the view from the upper deck would be a lot better. I believe its slated to return to service in the next few weeks.

  • Walking through the Big Thunder Ranch area was nice this week. They have Spring decorations up and the crowd was very thin. At one point I think there were less than a handful of people around Mickey and Minnie. Sure beat the 20 person line on Main Street or the half hour wait out in Toontown. Keep that in mind if you are looking for character photos the Jamboree area is a worthwhile stop sometimes. Next week it will be more crowded out there though as Long Lost Friends week kicks off and takes over the area.

  • I passed through Fantasy Faire a couple of times and have been surprised by how it has absorbed the crowds. There are guests, but the traffic seems to flow. Noticed they had removed the dedicated stroller parking from the hub. Not sure if this was because of the crowds out there or because it was not needed. Also wanted to note that the show times for the Royal Theatre made the entertainment guide. No mention of the story there, just the times.

  • Over at DCA the Spring Buena Vista Bugle is out and was a fun read as always. Its a great souvenir for those of you like me that look for park specific items that are not going to cost you.. such as guide maps, entertainment guides, etc.. The paper is free and on news stands around Buena Vista Street and Carthay Circle be sure to pick one up.

  • Stopped by Sarges and saw the Limited Time Magic Cozy Cone hats. They are interesting. A little big and bright for my taste, plus at $25 a little pricey too. I saw some as I roamed the park but not that many. They seemed more popular to try on and take a picture than purchase. Also noted there was no signage or indication that they were part of the Limited Time Magic promotion so if you did not follow the Parks Blog or Website you problably just thought it was a regular hat. Wonder if they will become regular offerings?

  • Somehow had the luck (not sure if it is good or bad) to pass through Cars Land during two performances of DJ. The first one they were just playing music and dancing the second they were doing the show. By show I mean the waitresses from Flos were interacting with DJ and leading the crowd more. I did not see Red out on Friday. Not sure if was my timing or what, usually I seem to run into him at least once.

  • Watched World of Color from the back stand by area behind the Blue Section as you enter Paradise Pier. I noted a couple dozen Glow with the Show Ears scattered around. So looks like the Spring Break Crowd embraced them a bit. Guest behavior is so funny to watch. A family showed up right at show time and stood next to me. As the show went on the group in front of me shifted forward a bit and a small space opened in front of me, which was great. Well the guy next to me saw the space and shifted over there, not too bad yet, but then he put his kid on his shoulder right in front of me like I was not there. The person on the other side of me just shook there head and I had to laughed a bit. I was getting ready to leave anyways to head over for Remember so it did interfer with me too much but you do have to just scratch your head sometimes.

  • Was happy to conclude my day by finally catching Remember, Dreams Come True. I have been trying to see the show since it started its 2013 run back in January but between weather issues, other diversions like the soft opening of the Blue Sky Cellar, and fog I have not seen the show till last night. I always enjoy the E-ticket in the sky section. Magical returns for the summer starting the first week of May.


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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